Chapter 4: Desperate Defense

Received the first sincere review, here the bonus chapter

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Gumball and Darwin stood frozen, eyes locked onto Sage Blank as he hovered before them, his quill still raised, poised to strike.

Their attempts to unleash any semblance of control over their newly acquired powers had failed miserably. The panic that coursed through their bodies continued to manifest through their Toon Force, pushing them to mimic stances and techniques they barely understood.

But the danger was real. And now, with Sage Blank waiting to erase their existence, they had no choice but to continue fighting.

Gumball wiped the sweat from his brow, his heart racing. His new Six Eyes ability allowed him to perceive every shift in the space around him with an intensity that was overwhelming. He could see the distortions in reality caused by Sage Blank's mere presence, the way the air bent, how every tiny vibration felt like it was etched into the very fabric of the world.

"I can see everything, Darwin," Gumball muttered, his voice shaky. "But I have no idea what to do with it."

Darwin, still standing in a pose that resembled Sukuna's cursed form, looked equally lost. The black marks that crisscrossed his face and body pulsed faintly with energy, but despite their intimidating appearance, he felt no stronger. 

"Let's just keep trying!" Darwin shouted, half in fear, half in blind determination. "Maybe the next thing we do will work!"

Without warning, Sage Blank flicked his quill, and the air around them exploded with raw energy. Gumball, his reflexes now sharpened by his Six Eyes, saw the attack coming in slow motion. His feet moved before his mind could process it, and he narrowly dodged the blast, pulling Darwin down with him as the ground where they had stood moments before disintegrated into nothingness.

"Whoa!" Darwin yelled, stumbling to his feet. "That was too close!"

Gumball's eyes flickered, his brain still processing the countless layers of reality his new ability forced him to see. "Okay, we need to focus. What did that Gojo guy do again?"

Darwin scrambled to think. "He had some kind of barrier, right? Like… Limitless!"

"Limitless!" Gumball repeated, standing up straight and throwing his arms out in front of him. "I can see the energy, so maybe I can… I dunno, stop it!"

Sage, watching silently, raised his quill again. The space around Gumball and Darwin warped, bending unnaturally as waves of reality-distorting energy rushed toward them. Gumball, eyes wide with concentration, focused on the incoming attack. For the first time, he could actually see the lines of force Sage was manipulating, the distortions in space itself.

"Come on, come on, come on," Gumball muttered through gritted teeth, his hands trembling as he forced his mind to control the energy around him.

A shimmer of light appeared between them and Sage. Gumball's heart raced. He could feel the space around them bending, but this time, it wasn't just collapsing, it was pushing back.

A translucent barrier flickered into existence, a warped field of energy that stretched out before Gumball and Darwin. The incoming wave of power from Sage crashed into the barrier and halted, as though it had hit an immovable wall.

"I did it! I actually did it!" Gumball yelled, his hands still outstretched as he maintained the Limitless barrier.

Darwin, his confidence boosted by Gumball's success, clenched his fists and grinned. "Alright, now it's my turn! If I've got these marks, that means I can do something, right?"

The cursed markings on Darwin's body flared to life as he struck another pose, mimicking the powerful technique he'd seen from Sukuna. With a roar, Darwin raised his arm, and an eerie energy gathered in his hand. The power felt raw, almost violent, as if the markings themselves were feeding off Darwin's subconscious emotions.

"Take this!" Darwin shouted, his voice wavering as he unleashed Cleave, a cursed technique meant to slice through anything in its path. The black energy shot forward, spiraling toward Sage Blank in a jagged line.

The attack seemed promising, cutting through the air with deadly precision. But as it neared Sage, the energy dissipated like smoke, harmlessly evaporating in his presence. Sage remained unaffected, unmoved by the effort.

Gumball's excitement faltered. "That… didn't do anything, did it?"

Darwin's confident grin turned to a nervous chuckle. "Nope. I don't think so."

Before they could react, Sage Blank made his next move. With a deliberate flick of his quill, reality itself fractured. The ground beneath them splintered, shards of their world breaking apart as Sage twisted the very nature of existence around them. 

"Uh-oh," Gumball muttered, his hands still shaking as he strained to maintain the Limitless barrier. The cracks in reality were spreading, growing closer, threatening to swallow them whole.

"We've gotta do something else!" Darwin yelled, stepping back as the ground beneath him shifted dangerously. "What's that thing he does? The, uh.. Domain Expansion?!"

Gumball's eyes widened. "Oh man, we're not ready for that!"

"We don't have a choice!" Darwin shot back, his voice frantic. "We've gotta try something, or we're toast!"

Gumball, still struggling to hold the barrier, nodded. "Alright! Let's do it!"

Both brothers took deep breaths, their bodies tensing as they focused their collective energy. The air around them began to change, vibrating with a strange, almost otherworldly frequency. Gumball, using his heightened perception from the Six Eyes, could see the threads of reality fraying around them, just barely holding together.

They slammed their hands to the ground, mimicking the moves they'd seen Gojo and Sukuna perform. The air around them darkened, swirling with chaotic energy as they attempted to expand their own domain.

"Domain Expansion: Toon Void!" Gumball shouted, the words leaving his mouth before he even realized what he was saying.

For a moment, everything stopped. The chaotic energy swirling around them condensed into a single point, and then, with a thunderous explosion, it expanded outward. The world around them bent and twisted, warping into an exaggerated, cartoonish version of reality.

The buildings of Elmore stretched and twisted like rubber, the ground beneath them turned into swirling spirals of bright colors, and the sky overhead flickered like a glitching screen.

But even within their Toon Void, Sage Blank stood unaffected, his form unfazed by the chaos unfolding around him. The Toon Force was strong, but it was nothing compared to Sage's power. He moved through their domain as if it were just another step in his path.

Gumball, breathing heavily, stared at the warped reality they had created. "It… didn't stop him…"

Darwin, equally exhausted, glanced around the twisted landscape. "But it looks kinda cool, right?"

The brothers, now desperate and drained, realized that despite their efforts, despite mimicking techniques far beyond their understanding, they were still no match for the overwhelming power of Sage Blank. Their world bent and shifted around them, but the fight was far from over.

They had used every technique they could think of. But Sage had yet to truly strike.

And they knew that when he did, their borrowed strength might not be enough to stop him.

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