The Chosen

Supreme Showdown

Time resumed the moment Sohye snapped her fingers. The X-Con techniques immediately continued their trajectory toward the targets.

"Brace yourselves for impact, guys. This won't be pretty." Yoojung alerted everyone.

"I already took care of that." Woojin made his move.

The X-Con techniques hit the shield significantly weaker. However, it still caused a huge explosion and smoke covered their entire area.

As time was stopped for them, the Five Pillars did not know what transpired in between.

"There. That should eliminate IOI for good." Jeongyeon confidently said.

"Like to guess again?" A female voice came out of the smoke.

When the smoke cleared out, the Five Pillars could not believe the spectacle in front of them. Standing proud and mighty opposing them was the two generations of Chosen and the Seer Successsor, unharmed and back to full health.

"What happened? Why are the second Chosen back to normal?" Yeri stuttered.

"Temporal Stasis." Seongwu responded.

"But you were supposed to be unconscious." Yeri insisted.

"How about me? Did you already forget about my ability?" Sohye grabbed the Five Pillars' attention.

A jolt of realization hit the Five Pillars, "Right... She can also stop time."

"But no one in IOI can heal." Sana mentioned.

"But I can." Daehwi proudly claimed, "All I need is to be conscious."

"Curse you, IOI. It was supposed to be our victory already." Rose gritted.

"In case you forgot, we did have the habit of crashing into your party before." Somi reminded them with a sly smile, "Today is no different."

"I wouldn't be so sure." J-Hope refuted.

"By the way, I won't be restricting your magic just for today. We have decided to have a little fun just for today." Woojin announced.

The Five Pillars started to attack the moment Yeri augmented their powers. RM, Xiumin, Suho, Baekhyun, Chen, Chanyeol, Sehun, Jihyo, Irene and Jisoo went into offensive with their elemental powers. Somi, Sejeong, Chungha, Nayoung, Doyeon, and Yeonjung countered their own elemental powers, but as the Five Pillar's attacks were augmented, their powers were easily subdued. Yoojung was forced to raise her shield to defend from the incoming attacks.

"What's wrong, IOI? Did we become a lot stronger since the last time you faced us?" Chen looked down on IOI.

"Nah, just a bit. Though we are currently not in our best condition since we just got back from the place only we know where." Doyeon responded with unshakable confidence.

"IOI-seonbaenim, please stay back, we will face them ourselves." Jisung claimed.

"Ok then, show us what you've got." Yeonjung challenged.

IOI took a step back to allow the Chosen Squad to step forward. They were surprised, however, when only three of the ten came forward.

"Only the three of them? How about you guys?" Sejeong questioned out of shock.

"Trust me. They're enough." Daniel simply answered, crossing his arms confidently.

And true enough, Jinyoung, Sungwoon and Jaehwan were on equal footing with the Five Pillars combined. Jinyoung and Sungwoon were attacking and Jaehwan was in charge of defense and support. Every attack was countered and their every move was calculated. The Five Pillars, and even the trio themselves, could not exactly believe how they were doing it.

"Wow. My power feels stronger and easier to wield." Jinyoung noticed.

"Maybe because IOI is here? Anyway, this is fun!" Jaehwan's maniacal laughter echoed through the air.

"Only the three of them are enough. Amazing." Chungha muttered, "What the prophecy said was true."

Chungha's thoughts were broken by a sound from the back. She turned around and saw members of Plackbink and Velvety Red attacking them from behind.

"Sneak attack!" Chungha exclaimed as Jisoo, Irene, Wendy and Seulgi released their respective powers.

"We'll handle this." Jihoon was quick to respond.

Jisung deviated the Fireballs and Bursting Balls back to where they came from and Jihoon deflected the Aerokinesis and Cryokinesis back to their owners. IOI was immensely impressed by their successor's performance.

After a couple more minutes of cross fire, the Five Pillars, with minor injuries here and there, were now surrounded by the two generations of virtually unscathed Chosen.

"X:Con: Fire!" Bulletproof Scouts attacked out of desperation.

Yoojung raised her shield to protect her side of the circle while Jinyoung, Sungwoon and Jaehwan easily countered the attack.

"X-Con: Chrysalis!" IOI finally made a move after a while.

Then, the Five Pillars were trapped inside a cocoon that was gradually shrinking. Putting their force fields together, D.O. and Jin created a dome to shield everyone from the attack. Once the cocoon exploded and smoke cleared out, the Chosen Squad and IOI were already out of sight.