Chapter 210 : Symphony of Fire and Shadow

"Follow me. And stay out of my way."

Endeavor's command was not an invitation, but a statement of their new reality. Without waiting for a reply, he became a firestorm. With a roar that shook the tower's foundations, he shot forward down the corridor, no longer seeking a path, but creating one. Concrete walls melted like wax before his incredible heat. Reinforced steel doors twisted and disintegrated into molten metal. He was a force of nature unleashed within a man-made structure, and the result was total and absolute destruction.

For Tatsumi, Akame, and Leone, running behind him was a surreal and terrifying experience. The air around them felt like it was boiling, and they had to keep their distance to avoid being burned by the Number One Hero's heat aura. They were no longer running through a corridor, but through a newly formed tunnel of fire and molten rock.

"I LIKE THIS OLD MAN'S STYLE!" Leone roared with a wild laugh, adrenaline flooding her system as she leaped over a puddle of molten metal. This chaos was her natural habitat.

Ahead of them, a squad of panicked PLF soldiers appeared from an intersection, trying to form a defensive line. They didn't stand a chance. Endeavor didn't even slow down. He unleashed a Flashfire Fist: Hell Spider, creating super-thin webs of fire that sliced through the entire corridor, incapacitating the entire squad in the blink of an eye before they could even fire a single shot.

Akame moved with a different speed. She didn't run directly behind Endeavor. She was the ghost at the side of the firestorm. As Endeavor destroyed the main obstacles, Akame used the walls and ceiling as her path, moving along the sides of the corridor. Her sharp eyes scanned ahead, looking for more subtle threats. She saw a PLF sniper hiding in a high alcove, preparing to shoot Endeavor from behind. Before the sniper could pull the trigger, a steel wire shot out from the darkness, wrapped around his neck, and pulled him into the shadows. Quick, silent, and efficient. She was the cleaner, ensuring the path for the battering ram remained safe from small, deadly threats.

Tatsumi, without his armor, felt the most vulnerable. He didn't have Endeavor's destructive power, Akame's supernatural speed, or Leone's animalistic durability. He only had his body trained to its limits and his sharp mind. He ran in the middle of the formation, his eyes constantly moving, analyzing the structural damage caused by Endeavor. "Don't destroy that main support pillar!" he shouted, more out of instinct than any hope of being heard. He was the strategist trapped in the storm, trying to make sure the storm didn't destroy them all along with it.

At the Command Post

"He's insane! Completely insane!" Hawks said, staring at his monitor with a mixture of horror and admiration. His screen was now filled with structural warnings and overflowing heat signatures. "He's going to collapse the entire sublevel if he keeps this up!"

He tried to contact Endeavor. "Endeavor, you have to dial it back! You're going to bury them alive!"

Endeavor's reply was a static-filled growl. "I will create the path! Their job is to follow it! How much time is left?!"

Hawks switched to the satellite imagery. "The submarine dock doors are open! I can see activity inside! They're loading the cryogenic container now! You have... maybe less than six minutes!"

Six minutes to cross several kilometers of ruined, enemy-filled corridors. It was an impossibility.

The Ruined Suspension Bridge

They arrived at an obstacle that not even Endeavor could simply blast through. A chasm gaped before them, where a suspension bridge connecting two sectors had collapsed, leaving only a few thick steel cables dangling over a bottomless darkness. The gap was too wide to jump.

"I'll fly across and clear the way. You find your own way to follow," Endeavor growled, ready to launch.

"No! We'll lose too much time if we split up!" Tatsumi shouted, his mind racing for a solution. He looked up, at the electrical cables and thick pipes running along the ceiling of the chasm. A crazy idea formed.

"Akame, your wire! Can you wrap it around those main pipes up there and make some kind of rope bridge?"

Akame looked at the distance and height, calculating in an instant. "I can. But it won't be strong enough to hold all of us."

"Leone!" Tatsumi continued. "You're our anchor! Dig your claws into this floor and hold the end of the wire!"

"Endeavor-san!" he finally turned to the Number One Hero. "We need you to destroy the cable supports on the other side! Let the thick electrical cables fall so we can crawl across!"

Endeavor looked at the boy, then at the chasm. The plan was primitive, dangerous, but fast. He gave a short nod. "Do it."

Everything moved in perfect harmony. Endeavor unleashed a concentrated blast of fire, melting the metal supports on the other side. The thick, heavy electrical cables fell, swinging dangerously over the chasm. Akame threw her grappling hook, its wire wrapping around a sturdy pipe above, and she tied it to the fallen cable to stabilize it. Leone, in her Lionel form, dug her claws deep into the concrete floor, her muscles straining as she held the end of Akame's wire, becoming a living pillar for their makeshift bridge.

"Hurry!" Leone roared, her arms trembling from the strain.

One by one, they crossed the chasm, crawling over the slick cable, with darkness gaping below them. It was an incredible display of teamwork, born from desperation and battlefield genius.

The Final Corridor

After crossing the chasm, they knew they were close. The air tasted saltier, and the rumble of the battle on the surface was now mixed with the deep hum of a submarine's engine.

But the PLF had made the final corridor to the dock their last line of defense. The corridor was flooded with elite troops, led by Slither himself, who was wearing a combat exoskeleton.

"Hold them with your lives!" Slither shouted. "Buy time for the submarine to depart!"

What happened next wasn't a fight; it was a slaughter. Endeavor, his rage now at its peak, unleashed his ultimate attack.

"PROMINENCE BURN!"

The entire corridor turned into a white hell. A concentrated blast of fire so hot it could vaporize steel shot forward. Slither and his elite troops could only stare in horror before they were consumed by the firestorm.

The alliance team ran through the now blackened and molten corridor, the heat still searing. They finally broke through the last door and arrived at a sight that made their hearts stop.

They were in a massive underground cavern, large enough to house a military submarine. And there, in the middle of the seawater-flooded dock, a sleek black submarine with the Yozakura crest on its side was preparing to depart. Its main cargo door was in the process of closing. They could see the giant cryogenic container holding Esdeath was already safely inside. On top of the submarine's conning tower, they caught a glimpse of Slither, who had somehow survived Endeavor's fire, shouting commands.

They were too late. By mere seconds.

But for the Number One Hero, a few seconds was more than enough.

"I WON'T LET YOU!" Endeavor roared, his body glowing so brightly it was blinding. He gathered every last ounce of his strength, not for a wide attack, but for a single, focused, ultimate blast.

He was going to destroy the submarine, even if it meant bringing the entire cavern down on top of their heads.