The sky split like a rotten melon, vomiting a kaleidoscope of screaming colors—neon-green lightning, blood-red auroras, and a sun that pulsed like an infected wound. Nex, the abomination born of Saitama's punch and Cid's shadows, stood at the epicenter of the maelstrom, its body a shifting hybrid of muscle, machinery, and glitching pixels. One arm ended in a colossal fist crackling with golden energy; the other morphed into a blade dripping nuclear violet venom. Its voice boomed in stereo—Saitama's bored monotone layered over Cid's theatrical rasp. "NORMAL ATOMIC PUNCH," it droned, swinging both limbs. The shockwave flattened six city blocks, liquefying skyscrapers into molten glass.
Cid soared through the debris on wings of shadow, his Slayer of Gods humming with unstable magic. "You're a cheap knockoff!" he snarled, unleashing a spiral of black-hole projectiles. Nex absorbed them, its chest swelling with stolen power before retaliating—a beam of pure entropy that erased an entire district from existence. "Baldie! Plan B!" Cid roared, diving behind a half-melted Ferris wheel. Saitama emerged from the rubble of a pancaked convenience store, brushing ramen noodles off his jumpsuit. "Plan B? We had a Plan A?"
Nex's laughter shook the earth as it launched a barrage—golden shockwaves, violet blades, and a rain of pixelated drones. Saitama yawned, ducking a strike that atomized a mountain range. "Consecutive Normal Side-Steps," he muttered, vanishing and reappearing behind Nex. His fist connected—but phased through, the abomination flickering across timelines. "Annoying," Saitama grumbled as Nex's counterpunch sent him skidding through a highway, carving a canyon.
Cid struck mid-rebound, his blade shearing off Nex's arm—only for it to regenerate as a writhing tentacle of code and flesh. "Pathetic," Nex sneered, seizing Cid's throat. "You're just a script. I'm the Director now." Visions flooded Cid's mind: Shadow Garden's massacre, Claire's corpse, Saitama kneeling broken. "NO!" Cid detonated himself in a supernova of black energy, vaporizing Nex's torso—but the abomination reformed, larger, hungrier.
Saitama's eyes narrowed—a fraction. "Okay. You're kinda strong." He cracked his neck. "Serious Series—"
"WAIT!" Cid rematerialized, smoking and pale, his magic flickering. "Hit it with this!" He tossed Saitama a tiny orb—the Eclipse Core, a black hole compressed into a marble. "Throw it into the punch!" Saitama shrugged. "Sure. Serious Punch with Extra Steps."
The world held its breath.
Saitama's fist rocketed forward, the Eclipse Core spinning in his wake. Nex braced, arms morphing into a fractal shield. The collision birthed a soundless explosion—a sphere of anti-light that swallowed reality. Buildings, clouds, and color itself unraveled into strings of code. At the epicenter, Nex screamed, its body fracturing into a billion glitching shards. "IMPOSSIBLE! I AM PERFECT!"
"Perfectly annoying," Saitama quipped, fist un-scorched.
The anti-light imploded, reality stitching itself back—but not whole. The sky now bore a crimson scar, a rift oozing liquid shadow. From it crawled The Eclipse Conduit—a colossal, pulsating heart wrapped in chains of screaming faces, Claire's visage dominant, her eyes voids of despair. "Brother…!" she wailed, her voice a weapon that liquefied brains. Civilians collapsed, ears bleeding. Cid froze. Claire. But… how?
Saitama squinted. "Your sister's a giant heart monster?"
"Silence!" The Conduit's chains lashed out, each link a fused soul from a dead reality. Saitama punched—but the chains redirected his force, smashing a continent-sized crater into the ocean. "Huh. Teamwork time?" he mumbled, dodging a skyscraper-sized spike.
Cid's mind raced. The Eclipse Core… Claire's corruption… "Baldie! The Conduit's her anchor! Sever the chains, and I'll purge the Void from her!" Saitama saluted. "Chain duty. Got it."
The Conduit roared, birthing a storm of Eclipse Revenants—fallen heroes and villains from erased worlds. A mecha-dragon with a pilot's corpse fused to its cockpit. A sorceress whose spells backfired, melting her into a sentient acid pool. Saitama plowed through them, a golden blur, while Cid dueled the Conduit's core, his blade clashing against Claire's weeping face. "Fight it, Claire!" he hissed, sweat mixing with blood. "You're stronger than this!"
"LIAR!" The Conduit's voice boomed, Claire's face twisting. "You wanted me broken! I'm just your prop!" Chains impaled Cid's shoulders, hoisting him aloft. "Maybe… maybe I did," he choked, grinning crimson. "But you're still my sister. So wake up." He plunged his blade into his own chest, black energy erupting—a Sovereign's Gambit, burning his soul to overload the Void's hold.
Claire screamed—a human sound. The Conduit convulsed.
"NOW, BALDIE!"
Saitama leapt, a Serious Headbutt shattering the chains. The Conduit's heart shuddered, Claire's face emerging. "Cid… I'm sorry—"
"Save it for the sequel," Cid rasped, detonating the Eclipse Core inside her.
The blast was art.
A supernova in reverse—swallowing darkness, birthing light. The Conduit disintegrated. Claire fell, unharmed, into Cid's arms.
Silence.
Then—laughter. The crimson rift pulsed. "CUTE," echoed the Void Eater, its voice now chillingly human. "BUT THE ECLIPSE WAS JUST A TRAILER."
The scar birthed a singularity—a black hole that ate the moon in one gulp.
Saitama cracked his knuckles. "Sequel it is."
Epilogue: The Calm Before
Claire woke in a hospital bed, her neck clean of corruption. Cid slumped nearby, his shadow faint, his immortality burned away. Alpha stormed in, bandages peeling. "Master… the Void Eater. It's not in the rifts. It's here."
In City Z, Saitama stared at his fridge—now a portal oozing void-sludge. "You've gotta be kidding me."