CHAPTER 23: LIMITS BREAKING

Seth stepped into Gray’s domain as a storm of hammer-shaped drive auras came crashing down on him with tremendous force.

But unlike earlier when they were too fast to dodge, now, he saw everything slowing down.

He weaved between the strikes with precision, moving like a phantom as he closed the distance with every step.

Gray’s expression was painted with shock and disbelief. This wasn’t the same boy he was overwhelming minutes ago. He looked like a serpent now, silent, deadly, and ready to strike.

Every step Seth took choked the space around Gray, suffocating him in invisible pressure.

What should I do? He’s going to annihilate me! Gray thought.

He roared in frustration and slammed his hammer into the ground, sending a rippling shockwave of Drive energy surging toward Seth.

But Seth flipped through it with effortless grace mid-air as he fired his pistol.

The bullet wheezed covered in green aura as it slithered like a serpent through the air with a wild unpredictable path.

Gray’s eyes widened. He couldn’t track it. It was too unpredictable.

But his instincts took over. He backed into a corner, narrowing the bullet’s possible angles. And he grinned. He managed to block it just in time........

But that’s when he realized. Seth was no longer in front of him.

He looked up.

"Too late." Seth muttered

From above, Seth rained down a barrage of bullets. Each powerful enough to pierce through Gray’s limbs.

Gray summoned every remaining hammer-shaped drive aura to shield himself.

The hammers clustered together, forming a dense barrier.

But Seth’s bullets were heavier. Faster and sharper.

Each one pushed Gray lower and lower, slamming against his shield with heavy force.

Gray barely survived the storm as he gasped for air, sweat dripping from his temples, and for the first time, fear was painted across his face. His confident expression had vanished, it was replaced with a look that screamed one thing.

"I don’t want to be here anymore."

Ever since Seth activated his Drive Core Release, Gray felt like he had been dropped into a pit of venomous serpents, striking from all directions. No pattern. No rhythm. Not even a moment to breathe.

"The bullets, him, I can’t sense anything," Gray muttered. "There’s no way to strike back, not even a time to react. My only chance is to wait it out. No one can hold that much power forever. I’ll make this a battle of endurance."

He called all of his hammer-shaped drive energy toward himself, surrounding his body in a tight defensive shell. This time, he gave up on offense and focused on just survival.

Tch. So he figured it out, Seth thought as his eyes narrowed. He’s going full defense. Then I have no choice.

He stepped forward slowly.

The air around him was filled with a green serpent-like aura, and his grip on the pistols tightened.

I’ll have to end this now.

Silent Crescent wasn’t just about slowing the world down. It gave him something else even more terrifying. A moment of invisibility. 2–3 seconds of vanishing out of sight, then another 2–3 seconds before he could use it again.

It was perfect for slipping past defenses and striking from impossible angles. But it came with a cruel price. A two-minute time limit and a full strain on his body and drive core.

If I can’t finish Gray before time’s up, I lose everything.

Seth wasted no time.

The moment he vanished into thin air, he sprinted to the edge of the battlefield and picked up his sniper rifle, lying at the top of the piled up debris.

Where is he?! Gray spun around, trying to locate his enemy.

Then.....

BOOM!

A thunderous crack echoed as a powerful sniper bullet slammed into Gray’s hammer barrier, shaking and cracking it with violent force. The raw power behind Seth’s shot was on a different level now. His moments of invisibility allowed him to take time to aim and charge each bullet with devastating energy.

"Recoil Zero" Seth muttered.

With the sniper in hand and the distance between them growing, Seth now held the advantage. Gray couldn’t close the gap without risking another lethal shot. He was pinned.

If I go on the offensive and close the distance, he’ll dance around me. If I stay on defense, he’ll strike me down from long range. What should I do?!

Gray had no good answers.

Meanwhile, Seth checked the clock in his head.

1 minute and 17 seconds left.

He moved silently with each step calculated. With every charged shot, another crack formed in Gray’s defense. The hammer barrier that once felt invincible was starting to crumble.

Panic made its way in. Cold sweat rolled down Gray’s face as the pressure got even more heavier. Then Seth switched tactics.

The sniper took too long between shots. 2–3 seconds per round wasn’t fast enough. After all, time was running out for him.

He swung the rifle across his back and grabbed both pistols.

The air ignited as a barrage of bullets covered in green aura made its way towards Gray. He moved like a ghost, firing from all angles and twisting around Gray’s defenses like a snake closing in for the kill.

And then an opening came into sight. A hole in the barrier. The moment he was waiting for.

Only four seconds left.

He was too close for the sniper but he needed power. Desperately, Seth grabbed the sniper rifle back over his shoulder, charging one final shot.

Time slowed.

Across the battlefield, Gray felt it too with his monstrous battle instincts.

That’s his last shot, Gray realized. It’s now or never.

With a scream, Gray lifted his hammer and lunged forward in an all out, do or die swing.

Seth fired as Gray’s hammer collided with him, sending him crashing into a wall, the sound echoing like an explosion.

Seth’s Drive Core Release ended.

His body was dead weight. He couldn’t lift a finger. He felt pain in every limb. His eyes flickered and his vision blurred. Through the haze, he saw Gray standing.

Still alive. Hammer in his hand.

Tch! That’s it. I’m done. He’s going to finish us off.

But Gray didn’t move. Instead, he swayed.

Then he smiled.

"I’m free," he whispered.

And with that, he collapsed forward, face first into the cracked concrete.

Seth blinked. Did the shot connect?

Then he saw it. A hole clean through Gray’s hammer and chest. The final bullet had pierced mid-swing and delivered the decisive blow.

"W-w-we did it!" Said Seth with his weakened voice.

He turned his head and saw Kaela, lying several meters away. Still breathing.

Good. She’s alive. Now I need to get to Ren.

He began crawling toward her as he dragged his limp body forward. His legs refused to move. They were numb. Useless. The recoil of Silent Crescent had caught up with him as it paralyzed him.

Still, he pushed forward.

"Kaela." he whispered, trying to wake her up.

But midway, his body gave out.

His vision faded as he collapsed into unconsciousness.

—-------------------------

"How boring. I really thought you’d be the one," Zeishuro muttered coldly, raising his machete above Ren’s unconscious body, ready to behead him.

But then....

CRACK!

A surge of lightning erupted. Violent and chaotic.

It wasn’t just lightning, it was thunder, bursting from Ren’s body like a force of nature.

Zeishuro faltered as his eyes widened. What in the world is this?!

He knew. If he didn’t do it now, he’d never get another chance to behead Ren. So he acted. But....

BOOM!

A loud thunderclap exploded from Ren, throwing Zeishuro back into a wall with a loud bang. The air distorted from the shockwave as dust and debris scattered violently.

Ren hadn’t woken yet, but his body moved.

Slowly and steadily, he rose to his feet with his eyes still closed. A rough mask of thunder formed across half his face, like the storms had claimed his body as electricity travelled across his skin with pure white arcs of power radiating outward.

His hand reached for his katana. And the moment he gripped it, the blade was instantly engulfed in crackling white lightning as the sheer energy bent the air around it.

Zeishuro’s instincts took over. His body moved on its own, flaring with Drive Core energy. He activated his core release as howling tornado pillars emerged.

He threw wind scythes in every direction as his machete slashed in a wild arc.

But the thunder around Ren deflected everything.

With a sudden step, Ren vanished.

He reappeared in front of Zeishuro like a meteor crashing to earth. His katana struck down with terrifying force. Zeishuro barely raised his weapon in time to block, as the attack sent him flying backwards.

What is this pressure?! He’s... he’s faster than Father! Stronger, even!

Still in midair, Zeishuro couldn’t react in time, Ren was already above him, crashing down.

BOOM!

Zeishuro was smashed through the ground, forcing him down through multiple levels of the earth like a missile. But it didn’t end there. Thunderous lightning spheres rained down on him, crashing again and again, relentless and wild.

He coughed blood. His body was shredded.

But he didn’t break.

With every ounce of resolve, Zeishuro stood, battered and still shaking. He leapt from the crater and unleashed a flurry of wind scythes, each one sharp enough to rip steel.

They hit.

Slash after slash carved into Ren’s body as deep wounds opened across his arms and torso.

But Ren didn’t slow down.

He charged again, faster than Zeishuro could track as each clash of their blades sent shockwaves through the air.

But to his disadvantage, each block chipped away at Zeishuro’s machete.

To make it even worse, each blow from Ren’s blade sent Zeishuro flying and then Ren was already there again, striking before he even landed.

It was a storm. A rampage of lightning.

And yet, Zeishuro endured. Because somewhere deep inside him, survival instinct and pride took hold.

No. Not yet. Not like this.

But even he knew that he was barely holding on.

The battlefield, once filled with roaring thunder and screaming wind, somehow fell into eerie silence as Ren stopped for a moment.

Zeishuro stood barely and gasped for breath. Blood dripped from his mouth, and yet his resolve remained unshaken. His Drive aura still surged violently around him like a wounded storm refusing to die.

As for Ren, he stood motionless, his whole body just as bruised as Zeishuro.

The electricity around him hummed with a will of its own, flickering and sparking as if unsure whether to attack or wait.

—------------------------ Inside Ren’s Mind

Darkness. Endless and pure black.

Ren floated in a void where the concept of time and space barely existed. Yet above and around him, countless spheres of crackling lightning glowed like distant stars scattered across a celestial dome.

"What... is this place? Did I lose?"

His voice echoed within the abyss of his thoughts.

"Is Zeishuro already done with me? Then why do I still feel like I haven’t lost?"

The spheres pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat, calm, then erratic, then calm again.

He reached out. But it was too far.

He swam through the void, pulling at nothing, struggling to close the distance. But every stretch of his hand brought no progress. The spheres remained untouched, taunting him with their light.

"I can’t reach them, but wait."

He remembered. Lightning wasn’t something he desperately needed to grab. It was something he commanded.

He closed his eyes.

"If this is my realm and these are lightning..." He breathed deeply. "Then I should be able to control them."

He raised his hand, and instead of reaching, he called.

One sphere responded. Then another. And another.

Crack!

Bolts of white-blue lightning shot out like veins across the sky, linking the spheres one by one in a growing constellation. As they connected, something began to stir inside him, a weightless surge of power unlike anything he’d felt before. Not just energy but comprehension. Instinct.

A new form.

A new drive. Something was unfolding.

—--------------------- Back in Reality

Ren’s eyes suddenly opened as he regained consciousness.

Where am I?

Ren slowly looked around. The place was a mess. The ground was cracked and broken. Most of the walls were barely standing, and right between him and Zeishuro, a massive crater split the sewers in two.

Did I do this?

His body was still full of bruises and cuts as pain throbbed with every breath. But even so, something felt different. He knew that something inside him had changed.

It hurts, but at the same time, I feel light. Like something is flowing inside me.

"Yo," Zeishuro’s voice called out casually.

Zeishuro was standing a few meters away on the other side of the crater as he breathed heavily with blood on his lips, but smiling.

"You finally snapped out of it, huh?" he said, resting his cracked blade on his shoulder. "Now we can have a proper fight."

Ren stayed silent, but his eyes narrowed. After all, he could feel it. Despite the deep wounds and bruises on his body, Zeishuro’s still raring to go.

"Heh, don’t get me wrong," Zeishuro said, wiping the blood from his mouth. "You were way stronger earlier. I couldn’t even touch you. But now that your power’s stable, now that you’re actually controlling it..." Zeishuro smirked. "You’re way more terrifying."

Ren tightened his grip on his katana as Zeishuro raised his machete in return.

They both smiled.

Even though they were enemies, in that moment, something clicked. Like a quiet understanding between two warriors.