The battlefield shuddered as molten veins split the earth, smoke rising like ghosts through shattered stone.

Kaen's breath came ragged blood dripping down his lip, sizzling as it hit the burning ground.

He wiped it away with the back of his hand, smirking despite the pain.

"Heh… still stronger, huh?" His voice rasped, cracked from the heat.

He looked up at Khael, the one standing calm amid chaos, crimson Shinrei pulsing faintly behind him.

"Then let's do this, Khael. You and me."

Khael's eyes, cold but steady, met his. For a moment, there was silence then, a slow exhale.

He nodded once.

"Looks like I have no choice…"

His boots ground into the molten stone, the air thickening as his Shinrei shifted from azure calm to something deeper, older, alive.

"The form I forged… the one I honed for three long years beneath the breath of the storm."

Wind spiraled around him, carving sigils into the ground.

Each mark pulsed an echo of dragon veins awakening beneath the battlefield.

Khael raised his hand, palm open toward the sky. The air roared, reacting to him.

"Dragonic Form—"

Lightning forked downward, piercing the soil, fusing with his Shinrei. His veins flared an eerie blue-gray, light racing through his body like living fire.

Khael's voice deepened, resonant a fusion of human and something far older.

"Draconic Dominion."

The world paused.

Then exploded.

A column of blue-gray light erupted around him, expanding outward in a circular wave. The wind turned violent, lifting debris, smoke, and embers in a spiraling dance.

When the light dimmed he stood transformed.

A muscular, humanoid figure but no longer purely human.

His skin shimmered faintly under the light, runic markings pulsing along his chest and forearms.

Dark veins not of blood, but of Shinrei traced his body like calligraphy of ancient dragons.

Long black hair whipped in the storm, and behind him wings unfurled.

Not feathered. Not holy.

But scaled, grayish and rough like tempered steel.

His eyes opened cool, sharp, glowing teal.

Calm. Unshaken.

The eyes of a man who had accepted the weight of his path.

Kaen shielded his face, heat and wind pushing him back.

He grinned, wide and feral.

"hoh… so this is the real you, huh, Khael?"

Khael's aura pressed outward heavy, regal, suffocating.

"No. This is the price I paid."

He stepped forward, the air trembling with each motion.

"Three years of breaking, bleeding, and becoming something else — so when the world fell again, I wouldn't."

Bakuza's grin faltered for the first time.

The Shadefire around him flickered, his instincts recognizing something older — primal.

He exhaled, amused but tense.

"Heh…I felt strong shinrei coming from you. Thought I felt something ancient crawling in your soul."

Khael's eyes glowed brighter.

"Then feel it."

He vanished.

A shockwave shattered the sound barrier as he appeared in front of Bakuza, driving a knee into the Shadefire butcher's ribs.

The impact boomed stone erupted like shrapnel, Bakuza flung backward, smashing through a mountain of debris.

Kaen's fire ignited again beside him.

"Let's tag him together. You take high, I'll take low!"

"Alright"

Kaen leapt, fire wings flaring wide as he swung an upper arc of crimson blaze "Echo Art: Blazing Fang!"

Khael followed from above "Echo Art: Gale Rend!"

Fire and wind fused midair, forming a spiraling dragon's maw that crashed into Bakuza with a deafening roar.

Shadefire collided with it head-on, the explosion lighting the ruins in a kaleidoscope of flame and shadow.

For the second time, Bakuza staggered backward — coughing blood, grin twisting into something like exhilaration.

"Ahahahaha! YES! That's it! This is the kind of pain I missed!"

His aura surged again, black and red intertwining, shadows flickering with molten edges.

"Let's see if your little dragon heart can take this!"

He slammed both fists into the ground and from the cracks, Shadefire geysers erupted like volcanoes, each one screaming with void energy.

Kaen dove aside, flames shielding him, shouting,

"He's pulling from the void again! Khael—!"

But Khael didn't move.

He stood tall, teal Shinrei swirling around him, wings spread wide.

"You think I'll flinch from fire, Bakuza? Dragons are born in it."

He raised his arm the markings on his chest flaring to life, glowing through his armor.

"Draconic Dominion; Second Pulse!"

The ground shattered.

Wind and flame twisted into an ancient symbol above him the sigil of the Dragon Vein.

Energy spiraled around his form, amplifying Kaen's fire.

Kaen felt the pull their Shinrei synchronizing, burning hotter, stronger, steadier.

For the first time in years, they were aligned.

Khael's calm voice cut through the storm:

"Kaen. Burn with me. Let's remind him what it means to face a Veinwalker."

Kaen smirked through the blood on his lips.

"Heh. You read my mind."

Their combined aura roare wind and flame merging into one devastating spiral.

The Draconic Inferno descended upon Bakuza.

And the heavens burned blue.

The battlefield was a grave of heat and shadow craters burning blue, the sky above cracked with streaks of distorted light.

Bakuza stood in the center of it all, laughter echoing through the molten haze.

His body shook not from exhaustion, but ecstasy.

"HAHAHAHA!" His voice tore through the ruin like a storm. "You really made me feel it this time! My blood—my flame—my void—they're all screaming!"

He wiped the blood from his lip, then looked up, grin splitting wider.

"Then it's only fair… I give you my all."

The ground split beneath him.

A deep rumble followed not of earth, but of reality fracturing.

Void energy poured from the cracks, pure black fire laced with red veins.

Bakuza raised both arms, letting the flames engulf him completely.

His grin became a snarl of joy.

"VOIDFLAME TITAN — ONE HUNDRED PERCENT."

The explosion was absolute

.

A wave of dark flame expanded outward, warping the air into rippling distortions. The molten terrain melted further, as if the world itself couldn't stand his heat.

Out of the inferno rose a giant silhouette Bakuza's frame growing, veins blazing with abyssal red.

His once-scorched armor reformed into jagged obsidian plates, each marked by glowing cracks that pulsed like hearts.

His eyes twin black stars burning crimson in their cores fixed on the trio before him.

"Now… let's see if you can still stand, Veinwalkers."

Through the blinding fire, a voice cut through trembling but fierce.

"Who said we're done."

Rael staggered forward, one knee hitting the ground. His Judicator aura flickered, radiant gold split by streaks of white lightning. Blood poured from his mouth, but he still stood.

Khael turned, eyes widening. "Rael… you shouldn't—"

"Shut it!" Rael barked, wiping blood from his chin. "You think I'd let some overgrown demon be the last one standing? I'm still here, Rael Eluron doesn't die until justice is done!"

Light flared from his back, forming six spectral wings cracked, trembling, but bright enough to cut through Bakuza's shadow.

Kaen exhaled hard, his own flames flickering in exhaustion. "He's becoming even more of a monster now..."

Rael scoffed, his glare locked on the Titan ahead. "Tsk. Monster? Then let's slay one."

Khael looked at them both Kaen's burning resolve, Rael's light trembling under blood, and the Voidflame giant's power distorting the very air.

For a heartbeat, his draconic aura pulsed brighter, his teal eyes narrowing with focus.

He lifted his blade.

"Then let's go!"

Lira, who had been kneeling beside Saya and Shigeo moments before, stood abruptly — her hands still glowing from the healing light.

Her voice rang out across the battlefield, fierce and clear:

"You idiots think I'd just sit here?!"

She pressed a hand to her heart the Eclipse insignia on her glove igniting.

The moonlight shimmered across her form, her silver hair lifting as shadows wrapped around her.

"ECLIPSE FORM — LUNAR CATALYST!"

Her body became enveloped in a swirling veil of white and violet light her aura expanding outward like a blooming moon.

Behind her, a spectral ring glowed half shadow, half light, spinning endlessly.

Khael felt the surge of her energy and smiled slightly.

"Good… now it's even."

Kaen grinned, flame crackling between his fists.

Rael lifted his glowing spear, light coiling around his arm like molten sun.

Lira floated slightly above ground, her hands forming a sigil that pulsed in rhythm with the moon's reflection in her eyes.

And ahead the Voidflame Titan reared back, letting out a roar that shattered mountains.

Khael's wings flared, Kaen's fire ignited anew, Rael's light burned through his pain, and Lira's eclipse ring expanded enveloping them all in its glow.

Four warriors.

One monster.

And a world on the brink of collapse.

"BLUE VEINWALKERS—" Khael roared.

"ADVANCE!"

Their auras surged in unison blue, gold, crimson, and violet intertwining into a pillar that pierced the heavens.

The war for Tildaroot resumed and the world itself screamed.

To be continue