The impact drowned the world.

Light.

Wind.

Silence.

The battlefield stood in ruin trees uprooted, soil carved into deep spirals of shattered energy. The sky itself flickered with afterimages of the clash: gold streaks cutting through violet flame, the taste of ozone and ash burning in every breath.

Kenji's body was trembling, the Eclipse Form fading slightly — his wings of compressed wind pulsing with unstable rhythm. Rael stood beside him, blade still raised, golden Shinrei leaking like sunlight through a cracked mirror.

Their Echo Fusion Judicator Tempest had finally landed.

The storm they created had hurled Bakuza into the crater's edge, smashing through layers of obsidian rock and melting half the slope. For the first time since the battle began… the mad Shade had bled.

From across the ruin, Kero stepped forward, pale skin stained with ash. His long black bangs fluttered, revealing one cold, half-lidded eye behind the cracks of his mask.

He exhaled slowly voice flat, methodical.

"Time to get serious, Bakuza."

Bakuza's grin widened, wild and jagged. He spat blood onto the ground, the red quickly burning to black smoke.

"Heh. You're going crazy again, Kero…"

Kero tilted his head, the faintest twitch of amusement flickering across his face.

"Perhaps. But efficiency requires instability sometimes."

Bakuza chuckled darkly, rolling his shoulders as flames and shadows began to coil tighter around him.

"Tch. I wonder if they can handle that psychoshit you do once you go eighty percent."

The air screamed as his aura burst outward an infernal mixture of Shade and Fire so dense the ground around him started to bubble like molten tar.

"Well—" he said, eyes gleaming crimson beneath his hair, "not that it matters… I'll use my eighty percent too."

From the opposite side of the ruins, Khael felt it — two distinct signatures twisting reality itself.

He clenched his jaw.

"Everyone—brace yourselves!"

Ceyla's lightning danced around her arms as she took stance beside him.

Juno's blade gleamed with mirrored flame, eyes burning with focus.

Shigeo, at the rear, was already moving hands flicking rapidly through invisible signs as his Thousand Way: Predictive Web expanded. A lattice of blue lines formed in his vision

every trajectory, every heartbeat, every possible countermeasure.

"Their energy output… doubled." Shigeo's thoughts ran fast and cold. "If they both go eighty percent, the terrain collapses in under three minutes. We need containment."

Saya glanced at him, her voice tight with concern.

"Shigeo, what are you planning?"

"Calculating." His eyes sharpened, "And praying my math's faster than their destruction."

Kaen cracked his neck, flames rippling behind him like wings of fury.

"Then we don't hold back either."

The wind howled.

The sky dimmed.

Four cores began to burn Light, Fire, Shade, and Wind intertwining in a storm that threatened to erase the horizon.

And as Kero lifted his blade, half his face now revealed beneath the shattered mask, his tone was soft almost reverent:

"Let us see… which side breaks the world first."

The next instant, the world did.

The air ruptured.

Kero vanished his body dissolving into ribbons of wind and shade that tore through space itself. When he reappeared, his blade was already pressed against Ceyla's lightning guard.

Clang—!

Sparks of violet and black split the air, each shockwave folding the ground like paper. Ceyla gritted her teeth, lightning veins crawling up her arm.

"You move like a ghost—!"

Kero smiled faintly, that eerie serenity returning.

"A ghost remembers more than the living, Ceyla Nox."

Then his form blurred again three, four, seven copies of him appearing in the air. His Psycho Mode was unleashed. Wind and Shade distorted his presence, fracturing his sanity along with reality. Each "Kero" moved independently, cutting from impossible angles.

Juno blocked two slashes but the third buried into his shoulder. Blood scattered through the storm.

"Tch—damn it, I can't read his rhythm!"

Khael leapt forward, intercepting the final strike with his scaled forearm, dragon energy roaring as crimson wind exploded outward.

"Ceyla! Juno! Fall back, he's syncing his rhythm to your heartbeat!"

But before they could retreat, Bakuza landed like a meteor between them, his laughter shaking the ground.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!?"

His Shadefire exploded, swallowing the battlefield in molten black and crimson. Kenji's wind barrier shattered instantly, sending him sprawling across the field. Lira's healing light flickered, barely holding the protective ward.

Kaen, his body scorched and aura shaking, rose from the flames.

He was bleeding but smiling.

"Heh… guess you really are a monster, Bakuza…"

Bakuza grinned back, teeth glowing through soot.

"You talk too much, brat!"

Their fists collided, the explosion ripping apart a dozen meters of terrain.

Across the field, Shigeo was kneeling his eyes burning with lines of blue webwork, his Thousand Way spinning faster than ever before.

Every probability, every pattern, every breath of his allies and enemies was mapped inside his mind.

(If this continues… three casualties in under a minute. Ceyla's lightning output decreasing. Lira's reserves at 28%. Kenji's stabilizer shattered. Khael—barely at half.)

Saya crouched beside him, blade ready but gaze anxious.

"Are you okay, Shigeo?"

He didn't look at her.

"I'm fine. But is it really the time to use our Eclipse Vanguard…? We still don't know their trump card."

Inside his head, a colder thought followed:

(I still won't use mine… not until I confirm our sure win.)

Another blast rocked the earth.

Rael appeared amid the smoke, panting his blade cracked but still burning with light. His pride refused to bow.

He shouted, voice echoing like thunder through the storm:

"I WILL USE MY 100 PERCENT! REMEMBER ME— I AM RAEL ELURON!"

The sky split open.

His light became divine, overwhelming, a miniature sun devouring darkness.

Even Kero shielded his eyes.

"So… the Holy Scion awakens."

Kaen turned, grinning through blood and ash.

"Khael… I'll use eighty percent this time."

Khael's expression darkened.

"Are you sure you can handle it?"

Kaen's fire blazed, crimson wings forming behind him.

"If I don't, I—"

Khael cut him off, stepping forward, dragon energy swirling.

"We won't die today, Kaen. I'll use my transformation—"

"Idiot!" Ceyla shouted, lightning flashing violently.

"Who said we're dying!?" She stepped in front of him, eyes blazing.

"You stay back, Dragon Knight preserve your power. We'll handle this."

She smirked, despite her trembling body.

"Eclipse Gate!"

A massive sigil spun beneath her feet, threads of shadowed lightning wrapping around her frame, reshaping her into an armored storm.

Juno Arkai cracked his neck beside her, eyes burning crimson.

"Then I'll use my Taishin Sixth Gate!"

The earth cracked open beneath his stance as his aura surged muscle, flame, and will merging into raw power.

Lira's voice rose in the chaos, her light blooming over fallen allies, restoring them just enough to stand again.

"Don't give up! Not yet—!"

And somewhere beyond the smoke, Bakuza and Kero grinned in unison.

The Hollow Two unleashed their 80 percent and the heavens screamed.

To be continue