Gladious's serious expression didn't change, but he stared intently at the Crystal of Life. "It's a losing war," he said. "You can't fight the entire universe! Even if you defeat us here, more and more will come until this planet is under control. You still don't understand the magnitude of the predicament you're in! Even with millions of robots and the Crystal of Life, it won't change anything. It might delay your fall a little and perhaps cost us some losses, but the end is inevitable. There is no escape. The new world is coming, and it's attacking with all its might. The likes of you cannot stop it and drag us back to the ages of darkness and ignorance. The universe is in our grasp."

"Then you have forgotten the power of the Lunix and how they ruled the universe for thousands of years!" Gaia retorted. "The Lunix have faced this situation before and were on the brink of falling, but they returned stronger. The same thing will happen again. Even if you manage to kill me and take what I hold most dear, someone will rise up to resist you across the galaxy and rebuild the glory of the Lunix. You will never rest, for you are fighting an idea, and ideas do not die."

"Don't worry, we have learned from our mistakes. This time, we will make sure you never rise again... Don't you see yet? You are just a single soldier surrounded by thousands of armies. No matter how brave, valiant, or strong that soldier is, strength in numbers overcomes courage."

Gaia was enraged, his features tightening. He struck the ground with his scepter, and hundreds of thorns shot out toward Gladious, who retreated back into the Stargate. The portal, and he with it, then vanished.

Gaia stood looking around when suddenly, a small portal opened behind him. Gladious's hand emerged and punched him in the face before the portal disappeared. Gaia leaned on his scepter to keep from falling, but another punch came from behind, nearly knocking him down. He held his ground and saw a Stargate open beneath him, pulling him in. He suddenly found himself falling from the sky. Gladious appeared in mid-air from within another portal and kicked him in the stomach. Gaia cried out in pain as he plummeted toward the earth. He used the wind to carry him and land softly. He realized that Gladious's ability to move between dimensions was extremely troublesome; he could not only move between dimensions and strike from any direction he wished, but he could also transport Gaia anywhere he wanted. He had to be cautious.

Gladious emerged from behind him to grab him, but Gaia leaped forward and sent a volley of fire toward him. Gladious opened a small portal that swallowed the flames. Another portal then opened behind Gaia, and the fire shot out, burning him. Gaia cried out in intense pain, but the Crystal of Life quickly healed his burns, restoring him. Annoyed and furious, Gaia knew that conventional methods would not work against this dangerous foe, whose level was far higher than that of the Enix soldiers.

Gaia stood still and closed his eyes, concentrating to predict Gladious's next move. The forest fell completely silent as Gaia prepared his traps and planned his approach. Suddenly, Gladious's right hand emerged from the right, and another from the left, confusing Gaia. He ducked his head, avoiding the punches, but he couldn't understand how he had made his hands come from opposite directions at the same time. After a moment's thought, he began to understand what was happening. He formed a preliminary picture of Gladious's ability: he was opening two portals in front of him, passing one hand through one and the other hand through the second. The exit of each portal led one of his hands to a different location that he determined. Gaia saw that Gladious's ability was strange and complex. He didn't know where Gladious himself was or where these portals led. Was there a specific place where Gladious was sitting, watching him and attacking as he pleased?

The questions bewildered him, and he realized that if he didn't act quickly, he would lose this battle.

A portal opened behind him, and Gladious's hand emerged. Gaia surprised him by making plants shoot out from under the ground, grabbing the hand and starting to pull it out. Another hand appeared, cut the plants, freed the first hand, and they both disappeared again.

Gaia surrounded his feet with air to make his movements faster. He enveloped his right fist in fire and his left in water. As soon as he saw Gladious's hand emerge from his right to attack, he stepped back and decided to send a blast of pressurized water at it, which would shatter his hand on impact. Gladious's hand vanished—it had been a feint for his other hand, which shot out and grabbed Gaia's scepter, trying to pull it away with force. But Gaia held on tightly. He turned to strike Gladious's hand with his palm, but another portal opened, and Gladious's foot shot out, kicking him in the shin and knocking him to the ground to make him drop the scepter. Gaia brought a sharp column of rock up from the ground to sever Gladious's hand. Forced to let go of the scepter, his hand vanished again. Gladious was furious; he had been on the verge of snatching the Crystal of Life from Gaia's grasp.

Gaia contemplated the situation. He saw that Gladious was using deception and carefully studying his every move. He realized that standing still made him vulnerable to his schemes, so he decided to move, to run through the forest to think of a way to defeat Gladious. Gaia ran into the forest at great speed. Gladious's foot appeared in front of him to trip him, but he jumped over it, only to find a fist in his face. He twisted his body in the air and narrowly avoided it. Another fist followed, trying to grab his right foot, but he made the wind strike him from behind, pushing him forward with speed. Gladious's hand appeared again in front of him to surprise him, but Gaia had already made a plant wrap around his waist, stopping him just before he collided with Gladious's fist and returning him to the ground.

The jewel in the scepter glowed, and suddenly, a thick fog spread through the forest, making visibility impossible. Gaia decided this would be his plan to avoid Gladious's attacks and force him to come out. He then used the fog to create many illusory copies of himself to confuse Gladious, who wouldn't know which one was real. He stood on a branch, observing the situation and planning his next attack. Gladious noticed the trick and knew that Gaia would not be an easy prey.

Gladious's strikes came out quickly from every direction, attacking all the copies to quickly determine which one was real. But Gaia had set traps on some of the copies to catch Gladious. Indeed, when Gladious tried to strike one of the copies, he found it was a mud clone, and his hand quickly sank into it. When he tried to pull it out, plant roots immediately shot out from under the ground and grabbed him. He brought his other hand through the fabric of space to free himself, but he found something grabbing it. He saw it was Gaia, who then brought his foot up to kick him, but Gaia jumped, dodged it, and pulled his hand so hard he felt it would break. The portal widened, and Gladious emerged from it after pulling his other hand from among the plants with great difficulty. Gaia grabbed him, threw him to the ground, surrounded his fist with rock, and rained down a series of punches on Gladious's face. A Stargate opened beneath Gladious, and both of them fell into it. Another one opened in the sky, and they fell out of it. Gladious managed to slip away from Gaia as they fell, opened another portal, and disappeared into it again, his face somewhat damaged and his helmet cracked from Gaia's punches.

Gaia landed on the ground and smiled. "I see you'll need to change your face after what happened to you."

Gladious's voice echoed through the forest, laced with a threat. "Fine. I've realized I can't defeat you alone. After all, you have the Crystal of Life. So forgive me for what I'm about to do, but such is life. There is no fairness in it."

A portal opened above Gaia, and Dragoth descended, landing on his feet. Gaia jumped back in surprise as the ground shattered under Dragoth's feet. Then, one of Margoth's swords came from behind him. Gaia ducked his head and saw a portal open beneath him. It pulled him in and spat him out in front of Milkon, who charged with his thermal sword to stab Gaia. Gaia split the ground beneath Milkon, who fell into it but quickly reappeared above Gaia from one of Gladious's portals. Gaia aimed fire at the sky toward him, and Milkon flew away. Gaia saw a giant rock heading toward him from behind. He compressed water in his hand and shattered it. From among the debris, three of Margoth's swords emerged. Gaia tried to avoid them, but Gladious's hand shot out, grabbed his feet, and held him in place. The swords stabbed him in the chest, but Gaia managed to make them pass away from his heart. Then, Dragoth descended on him from above, punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground, jumped on him, and rained down blows until Gaia's face was bleeding and his forehead was gashed. His face was nearly shattered. He placed his hand on Dragoth's chest and released a blast of air from his palm. Dragoth was thrown backward and fell. If not for his solid body, his heart would have been pierced by the blow.

The Crystal of Life healed Gaia's face, and the plants pulled Margoth's swords from his chest. But he saw the swords surrounding him from every direction, entering and exiting portals to attack him from all sides, while Milkon's bullets and projectiles rained down on him. He ran, explosions roaring behind him and swords attacking him from every direction, until Gaia felt like a mouse trapped among dozens of cats toying with it. He felt it was the end, but he decided to try one last trick.

Gaia shouted, striking his scepter on the ground with force. The earth shook violently, lava and fire flowed from every direction, huge trees charged from the ground, attacking everything in sight, springs burst forth, and lightning struck the ground repeatedly. It was as if it were the end of the world. A torrent of energy in all the colors of the spectrum flowed around Gaia, his eyes shone, and a powerful aura, the likes of which the Enix had never seen before, surrounded his body.

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