Miyamoto's voice was calm, almost gentle.
"Is Amanda in this hideout?"
The man in the red cape clenched his fists, frustration painted across his face.
"What the hell is wrong with Clark? He's just standing there like a damn statue!"
The blonde girl—Raven—snapped back, her voice sharp.
"You really can't read a situation, can you? That man… he's out of our league. One-on-one, he'd crush us in a heartbeat. Even with the three of us together, we might only stand a chance."
Red cape—Burning Flame—gritted his teeth. "That doesn't explain why Clark is just standing there like an idiot!"
"I already checked," Raven said, eyes locked on Miyamoto. "He isn't frozen by fear. He's being held. That man is using a Renshical field to paralyze him through direct contact."
Miyamoto, without a word, released his grip. Clark stumbled forward, finally free, gasping as though he had just resurfaced from drowning. He wasted no time retreating, switch-moding to stand beside his companions.
"That man…" Clark muttered, his voice low. "Nothing I've ever seen outside the hideouts compares to his power. He's a threat to everything. If we don't kill him here, he'll destroy us all."
Burning Flame barked at him.
"We already know that, you fool! You were the one standing there like a corpse! Enough talk—let's finish this!"
His blade hissed free from its scabbard. Flames erupted instantly, coating the weapon until molten droplets fell, burning through the ground wherever they landed. The heat warped the air around him.
Miyamoto folded his arms, closing his eyes as though he were bored.
"Impressive. Nothing less from the new generation of elemental heirs. Come at me with everything. I don't have time to waste—I need to know if Amanda is here."
Burning Flame roared in fury.
"He's mocking us! DIE!"
His switch mode blurred him forward, flaming sword crashing down from above. But just before the blade could split Miyamoto's skull, the strike froze midair.
Burning Flame's eyes widened in horror. His body refused to move.
"One thing rookies must learn," Miyamoto said softly, his voice like a teacher correcting children. "Always analyze your opponent. Strength, weakness, rhythm. Drop your guard for even a second… and you've already lost your life."
Without turning, he vanished with switch mode, narrowly avoiding Clark's ambush from below as the man erupted from the earth like a blade through water. The earth-born strike, meant for Miyamoto, instead streaked toward Burning Flame.
"Damn it!"
Raven reacted instantly, her switch mode carrying her to intervene. With a gesture, water condensed and froze, locking Clark's blade in ice just before it could cleave into his comrade.
The three regrouped, forming a defensive triangle. Their faces were pale, their breathing heavy.
Raven whispered, eyes trembling. "Even the Top Five aren't ready for this man… If he breaks into the hideout, he'll take the next Emperor for sure."
She steadied herself and shouted, her voice echoing.
"Activate your bloodline techniques! All of them! Even if we die, we'll drag him down with us!"
"Hey, hey, calm down, Raven," Clark muttered with a crooked grin. "I'm not planning to die here. Not before I get married and live a hundred years."
Burning Flame exhaled through his nose, glaring at him with disbelief.
"You can't take anything seriously, can you?!"
"I'm the one talking about survival, moron," Clark replied, not even looking at him.
Raven shook her head, already channeling power. Her aura exploded outward—
"Bloodline Technique: Frozen Owl!"
Two massive wings of crystalline ice erupted from her back. Taloned claws of frozen Renshi formed around her hands and feet. Her eyes turned white, glowing with a piercing blue spark. The temperature of the island plummeted, the sea mist crystallizing in the air.
"...Incredible," Peaches whispered from the distance, shivering though the ice no longer bound their legs.
Burning Flame's turn came next. His body erupted with a furnace-like roar.
"Bloodline Technique: Giant Flame Warrior!"
His figure doubled in size as his clothing incinerated instantly. Flames no longer burned but churned like molten lava, glowing red-hot. His sword shattered, breaking apart into shards that melted and reformed midair—reshaping into a massive storm breaker axe. The weapon glowed like a fragment of a sun, dripping molten rock.
Clark had already activated his own. His body fused with the island's earth, flesh giving way to jagged rock until he stood as a half-human, half-stone colossus.
Miyamoto chuckled lightly, hands still folded.
"That took you five seconds. Long enough for me to kill each of you twice." He tilted his head, amusement flashing in his eyes. "But I suppose… you'll do. Show me what your bloodlines are worth."
Clark struck first, screaming as the ground beneath surged.
A fist of earth, five hundred times his size, surged upward from the island itself. The colossal hand shadowed Miyamoto, blotting out the sun.
Miyamoto sighed, drawing his blade at last. The golden katana shimmered—the fusion of his sword and Alaska's legendary blade. With a flick of the tip, the massive stone fist shattered into countless shards, suspended in the air like broken glass.
Clark snarled. The shards twisted, reforming into thousands of smaller fists, each striking with blinding speed.
Switch mode carried Miyamoto through them, weaving like wind, each strike grazing nothing but air.
Raven had been waiting. She appeared behind him in a flash with switch mode, her talons lashing. Miyamoto pivoted smoothly, blade raised blocking the attack—he halted, fist cocked toward her face. For a heartbeat, she froze, thinking he would crush her skull. Instead, he extended only a finger—tapping her shoulder.
The force of that single touch detonated her body backward, hurling her through stone, tearing the island apart as she crashed into the horizon.
Burning Flame descended, Storm Breaker raised in both hands, screaming with rage.
Miyamoto's blade left his hand, thrown with impossible speed. It streaked toward the giant axe, Renshi colliding in a thunderous shockwave. Burning Flame gritted his teeth, veins bulging as he barely held the weapon against the strike.
Switch mode—burning flames appeared before him seizing the opportunity to attack while his sword is still in mid air. Miyamoto bare hand seized the blazing axe. Steam erupted instantly, skin meeting molten steel as ice against lava.
"Pathetic," Miyamoto muttered.
A single punch sent Burning Flame flying, his body hurtling across the sky until he crashed near Lucy and Peaches, flames sputtering from his broken form.
Miyamoto turned back toward Clark, eyes sharp.
"Now then… just you and me."
Clark's eyes burned. Blood dripped from his mouth as he raised his arms over the giant circle drawn in his own blood.
"Hear my cry… O Buddha of the Soil!"
The island shook violently. An ancient seal flared beneath him, red with his lifeblood. From the ground rose a colossal Buddha, carved from stone and earth, its twelve arms towering above all. Clark fused into its head, his life force bound as the summoner's anchor.
The Buddha's third eye opened.
Raven's voice trembled as she staggered back, clutching her chest.
"That fool… He's sacrificing himself he was the one yapping about survival,why?. This is no ordinary summon—it's a fragment of the First Generation's spirit!"
The Buddha pressed two hands together—
And time stopped.
The island fell silent. Waves froze mid-crash. Even the wind itself stilled.
Everyone—Miyamoto, Raven, Burning Flame, Lucy, Peaches—all paralyzed in place. Not even a blink escaped.
Then the second pair of hands clapped—gravity shattered. The island became weightless, bodies and stone alike drifting into the void of zero gravity.
Miyamoto's eyes closed.
"…Tch. This spirit doesn't distinguish between friend and foe. You've doomed us all, boy."
Raven's mind screamed, though her body would not move.
"This… this isn't strength. It's suicide!"
Lucy's heart pounded in terror.
"Master… please… you have to be okay."
The third clap came. The island split in half, the sea roaring into the chasm below.
Miyamoto opened his eyes, voice steady.
"…Then I'll end this."
"Bloodline Phase Four—Chronicles of Elemental Manipulation."
Flames and frost collided inside the Buddha's body—an implosion from within. Two of its hands shattered instantly, breaking the time-stop field.
Renshi flared across Miyamoto as he drifted weightlessly, switch mode carrying him through the zero gravity as though nothing had changed.
The Buddha roared, regenerating its arms. Its remaining hands reached, preparing another devastating clap.
Miyamoto pressed his palms together, his mind igniting with power.
"Art of Mojito—Sun, Moon, and Star Script!"
From the heavens, a rock the size of half the island tore free from the clouds, plummeting downward with cataclysmic force toward the Buddha below.