Itekan landed with a thunderous crash. Bones cracked under the pressure, and he collapsed flat against the broken concrete.
"Gravity?!" he gasped, eyes wide, barely able to speak before—
A crushing force slammed into his jaw. The blow was heavier than anything he'd endured in all his thirteen years. His vision spun violently as he was launched backward, tumbling like a discarded frisbee.
Instinct took over. Coating his legs in SE, Itekan managed to land on a crumbling, abandoned structure. He clutched his jaw, slamming it back into place despite the searing pain. His body shook, his vision blurred—but seconds later, his Shadow Spirit surged. Torn tissues regenerated. Shattered bones knit themselves whole.
"Hmph," grunted Zain, his voice low and dangerous. He darted toward Itekan again, a blur of hunger and menace.
Itekan raised his arm, and from his palm a shadow tentacle whipped out, snaking into the shape of a lash. He swung with all his strength.
Zain caught it mid-swing.
A smirk tugged at his lips as he pulled Itekan forward like a fish on a hook.
But Itekan had a plan.
"Mini Chajama!!" he yelled.
Twin spheres of flame ignited in his palms and launched forward. Zain released him just in time to shield himself. The twin fireballs detonated—intense, blinding, hot.
Itekan dropped and looked through the smoke—Zain emerged unscathed.
'How?!' Itekan thought, horrified. 'That blast was over 1000 degrees Celsius! He shouldn't be able to walk through that!'
His hands blurred through seals. "Calogaja!!"
One hundred shadow daggers erupted behind him as he leapt onto one. Tentacles of shadow propelled him into the sky, putting distance between them.
He pointed down.
The daggers rained.
Zain blitzed upward through them. He snatched one mid-air and hurled it back at a speed so extreme, it disappeared from Itekan's senses.
He barely managed to react—switching places with a dagger behind Zain at the last second.
"Maximum Chajama!!!" he screamed.
The massive fireball struck true, engulfing Zain in a pillar of white-hot flame. Zain was launched across the battlefield, smashing through ruins, smoke trailing from his robes.
Itekan gasped for breath, chest heaving, body trembling.
Then—Thud!
Rubble shifted. Zain rose from beneath broken stone. His mask had burned off, robes charred and shredded, but he stood tall—his body unmarred.
"Damn it," Itekan cursed under his breath. 'That's the difference… The gap between a 1st-stage Hero and a Blue-Eyes Form Hero.' His mind churned.
"Nice!" Zain bellowed, his now-exposed eye wild with bloodlust. "More! MORE!!!"
"Kid! Dodge!" a voice called out—
But too late.
Boulders struck him in a thunderous wave, and the world went black.
"Kid!" the voice repeated.
A flash.
A hand tore him from the path of destruction.
Keel Kun stood before him, radiant with celestial SE. His halo blazed like a second sun.
He dropped Itekan beside a fallen Avery, miles away. As he prepared to teleport again, Itekan stirred.
"Stay down," Keel Kun muttered, and with a swift chop, knocked him unconscious.
Then he vanished—reappearing directly in Zain's path.
"No further," he said coldly.
"Battery… MOVE!" Zain roared, charging.
Keel Kun's body flickered—slipping between layers of reality.
***
Below, the Earth's core twisted. Something… stirred.
Noir—the God of Death—had descended.
Carpathia's fists clenched.
'So this was their goal from the start,' he thought grimly.
The Earth's core boiled as if suffering a fever, spitting out the horror it had devoured.
Noir emerged in full, his form a silhouette against molten fire.
Carpathia acted first.
Blades of void energy rained down, striking Noir before he could breathe. He raised his arms on instinct, deflecting the lethal barrage.
Then he paused, blinking.
"Huh? What am I doing here?" Noir muttered.
Carpathia halted. 'He… doesn't know? Then who brought him—?'
Suspicion churned. But his guard remained up. Noir had never been one to let himself be used.
The confusion vanished from Noir's eyes.
He recognized the face before him.
"If it isn't the prodigal son," he hissed, rising skyward, dark wings unfurling.
"NOIR!!!" Carpathia's voice boomed with fury. Storm clouds coalesced above, thunder roaring in response to his rage.
"Oh-ho. Look who grew up angry."
"Why are you here?" Carpathia's voice was sharp enough to cut steel.
Noir's smirk faltered.
"This wasn't my plan. Damn that brat…" he muttered.
"It doesn't matter." Carpathia's tone turned lethal. "Willing or not, I promised the next time I saw you on Earth… I'd kill you myself."
The very air trembled.
Noir's amused expression broke.
"You WRETCH! Don't think I've forgotten what you did! How dare you raise your voice at me!"
Lightning struck. Pressure mounted.
The earth—everything beneath their feet—died.
The other Apostles collapsed. Val'tora, having stabilized his SE was back to a Legend form yet even he crumbled to the floor.
'Damn… This pressure ! Even other legends would not be able to escape easily' he thought.
Carpathia launched skyward.
Noir followed, a trail of death behind him.
---
Far beyond Earth—on the edge of the Milky Way—
"I thought you'd dwindle," Noir said.
"Guess you still care for that blue ball of dust"
Noir laughed. "Not that it matters. Now I get to go all out!"
"So can I," Carpathia replied.
Both moved.
"Shadow Domain: Shadowfall Lance!" Carpathia cried.
"Tale of the Darkest Death!!" Noir countered.
The two cosmic forces collided
The clash birthed chaos across the stars.
Carpathia's Shadowfall Lance tore through space like a god-forged spear—sharp, jagged, endless. A weapon of both soul and matter, it bent the very laws around it. Where it passed, constellations distorted. Stars flickered out like candles caught in a black tide.
Noir's Tale of the Darkest Death was a different nightmare—a storm of spiritual decay. It wasn't merely a beam or a flame. It was a story—one that rewrote the soul of whatever it touched. Nebulae aged and died in an instant. Comets fell apart mid-flight. Moons cracked under the pressure of sorrow and entropy.
When the two collided—
Reality groaned.
A ripple surged across space, a cosmic quake that reached even Heaven's gates. Dimensional threads snapped. Colors not meant for mortal eyes burst in kaleidoscopic pulses.
A million phantom screams echoed across the void.
Carpathia felt it first—his soul burning. The Tale was consuming pieces of him, eroding his essence.
Just a few more hits like that, and he would unravel.
He grit his teeth. He couldn't falter.
Carpathia spun mid-air and rammed into Noir. Fists met fists. Their punches could shatter moons, yet here they exchanged hundreds in seconds.
Each blow rang like a war drum struck by gods.
***
Lightyears from Earth, amidst a shattered cosmos, the two titans hovered in blood-stained silence.
Carpathia's armor was shredded. One eye swollen shut. Void energy hissed from the gashes in his arms.
Noir panted, half of his wing gone, ichor dripping into the dying starlight. "Stubborn bastard," he sneered. "You always knew how to take a hit."
"And you always knew how to run your mouth," Carpathia rasped.
Noir grinned. "But you're too late."
He lifted a finger.
A rip in reality opened near Carpathia. A cursed vision surged forward—Ascalon, ablaze. Screams echoed. Buildings crumbled. Shadows consumed everything.
And standing over a broken Itekan… was a figure cloaked in black, his mask bore the same distinct tattoo below the left eye as Zain's, his intent unmistakable.
Carpathia's breath caught. "Itekan…"
"I told you," Noir whispered, stepping closer, his voice like oil on flame. "This was never about fighting you. It was about breaking you."
Carpathia closed his eyes—just for a second.
When he opened them, the Void responded. "You're right."
He raised both hands skyward.
Ancient runes ignited across his arms, inscribed in the forbidden tongue of the First Void.
Noir's expression shifted. "What are you doing?"
Carpathia's voice thundered, his will absolute:
"Seal of Oblivion: One Million Years in the Pit."
A gate tore open behind Noir, vast and demonic—a swirling black spiral of time, gravity, and judgment.
Noir lunged—but the chains of the Void snapped around his limbs, dragging him back.
"No!! CARPATHIA!! THIS ISN'T OVER!!!"
Carpathia stepped forward, blood trailing behind him. "Yes… it is."
With a final motion, the seal closed.
Noir vanished—screaming into the abyss.
Silence returned.
But it wasn't over. There was still a lot to do. Without a second glance he shot towards earth.
Spiritual Energy -- SE
Spritual Sea -- SS
Spiritual Signatures -- SST