The battlefield was silent. A silence not of peace, but of something just after death.
Souta stood there—unmoving, calm, in his obsidian-trimmed uniform that barely fluttered in the burning wind. The remains of Goro and Livea crackled in slow flames behind him, disintegrating into ash like they were never human at all.
> "Tell me your last words, you two,"
Souta's voice was soft, almost bored—like the outcome had already been written before the first move.
Lira knelt on the fractured earth, coughing black blood. Her strongest technique—"Chrono Serpent Fang"—had crushed most of her internal organs. She was a Zai. A Shikiban Elite. Born with power, sculpted by fear, praised by death itself.
And yet, she was losing.
> "I… I never thought…"
Her voice cracked.
"I could lose… not to a Kageshiki. Not to you."
Lira—the girl before she became Livea—was born under the telescope's eye. Her parents, both astronomers, filled her world with galaxies and hope.
> "Mama, Papa, when I grow up, I'll become an astronaut!"
She'd say that, pointing at the sky, and they'd laugh, pulling her close.
But that dream died the night she found their bodies—cold and lifeless on the tatami floor.
Her eyes widened in frozen horror.
And in the doorway, crimson eyes glowed in the dark.
A man in a black-and-red kimono stood there—Kaede, the King of Shikiban.
> "Bow."
Lira trembled. The air was ice. Her knees buckled and she knelt—beside her parents' corpses.
> "Look at them," Kaede whispered.
"They were weak. That's why they died. And you—you will never be weak again."
A black syringe slid into her veins. Pain ripped through her like stardust collapsing.
That was the night Lira died.
And Lira was born.
---
Goro, Zai Rank 9, snarled with arrogance.
> "It doesn't matter how strong you are. We're Zai. We're immortal."
Then he blinked.
Souta was no longer in front of him.
He didn't feel wind.
Didn't feel motion.
Just—silence.
Then...
> "My technique is called Voidspeed: Zero Perception."
Souta's voice came from behind.
"At 1,000 km per second, I pass 3.6 million kilometers per hour. That's why—"
He whispered—
"You didn't feel yourself die."
A moment later—snap.
Goro's hand hit the ground.
Then his foot.
Then his head.
His entire body fell apart before he had time to process it. Like his very existence had been reversed, unstitched from reality.
Livea gasped, eyes wide, whispering in disbelief.
> "That can't be… we're Zai..."
Souta raised his blade—still sheathed.
> "Infinix Void," he called calmly.
A heat ignited in Livea's bloodstream. It wasn't fire—it was something deeper, like her soul itself was overheating.
She screamed. Blood burst from her skin in vaporous arcs. Her limbs twisted.
> "All Kageshiki will fall," she howled.
"Even if you kill us… you'll never touch our King. You can't even cast a shadow near him. He's not human."
And then—she melted.
Not with fire, but despair.
Lira and Goro—once proud elites—were reduced to nothing. Their remains were absorbed into Souta's katana like fuel. Like they had only ever been ingredients in a darker recipe.
> "They were desperate," Souta muttered, almost disappointed.
"Not even worth drawing the blade."
And then, he walked.
Reika staggered down a ruined corridor inside Tenshiko's underground bunker. Her steps were heavy. She could barely breathe.
> I'm tired…
The hallucinations had started. Her blood still hadn't settled from the last fight.
> "Kagetsu-san!"
She turned weakly. A familiar voice.
Souta.
She tried to reply, but her body finally gave out. Darkness closed around her vision like a black curtain.
He caught her—gently, without a sound.
> "You're pushing too hard," he said, almost like he cared.
As she collapsed into unconsciousness, he hoisted her into his arms. No panic. No rush. Just quiet, surgical control.
He walked through the moonlit halls of Tenshiko as the night wind fluttered past, cold and still.
But in the shadows of the dormitory window—
Someone watched.
A cloaked figure.
Their cloak shimmered with black and blue aura. And their eyes—glowing like dying stars—watched Reika sleep with something between obsession and prophecy.