"When the spiral meets itself, it either closes—or consumes."
—Ancient Glyph Scribe, Lost Records
Spiral Vault – Chamber of Glyphs, 8:03 PM
Honestly, the air felt like you could slice it with a knife. The Spiral Monk? Dude wasn't just cursed, he was basically a walking fossil of bad blood and ancient grudges. The energy between him and Akashi? Strangled, heavy, like a storm waiting to break.
Akashi's dragon shape glitched in and out, his body twitching under the glyphs etched all over the Vault. That script? Yeah, it was cursed to hell and back—Akashi couldn't read half of it, not that it stopped the thing from trying to worm into his skull.
"This is your inheritance," the Monk said, stepping up from this gross pool of black mercury. "But you wanna kill me. 'Cause I killed your mom."
Akashi didn't bother with words. He just lunged, claws bared. No hesitation. All that rage, finally unleashed.
The Monk—smug bastard—caught the blow with two fingers.
CLANG.
"Too slow. Not your body. Your truth."
Next thing, Akashi's airborne, spun and slammed into a pillar so hard the glyphs rattled. Should've wrecked him, but nah. It just set something off.
He let out a roar—raw Spiral energy, not some neat little curse trick. The glyphs on the walls? They lit up like warning lights. The Dragon Tongue was awake now.
"You used our technique to shackle the Vault," Akashi spat. "You fed off glyph heirs."
The Monk just shrugged, calm as you like. "Nah. I just didn't wanna disappear."
He lifted a hand. Glyphs swirled in the air, thick as blood.
"Spiral Art: Dismembering Chant."
Cursed script turned into blades, spinning through the air. Akashi's claws lit up with burning runes—Dragon Tongue: Spiral Rend.
Steel on fire. Glyphs colliding. The whole room exploded with power, glyph-dust spinning everywhere.
Surface Team – Pinned
Yuji was bleeding all over the damn place. Nobara's ribs? Probably cracked. Megumi's Shikigami? Basically toast.
"They're not trying to kill us," Yuji spat, ducking another cursed swipe.
"They're buying time," Megumi realized.
"For him."
They pushed back harder. Even Nobara, stubborn as ever, muttered Akashi's name, teeth gritted.
"Don't you dare die before I get to yell at you…"
Vault – Second Phase
Akashi twisted mid-air, dodging another glyph-blade by a hair. His dragon form was holding together, but he hadn't leveled up yet. He was still just lashing out, fighting on autopilot.
The Monk? Didn't even blink. "You think revenge will finish the spiral. But it just spins faster."
"Fine. Let it feed on you!" Akashi roared.
He slammed his hands together. Glyphs spiraled out from his back.
"Domain Expansion… Abyssal Severance: Palace of Endless Sin!"
Reality folded in. Black lotus petals unfurled, each one carved with burning glyphs and dragon-scale edges. For a split second, the Monk's eyes went wide—but he walked in anyway.
"I accept your spiral."
Battle got wild. Akashi's blows landed every time—but so did the Monk's. They weren't just fighting with fists anymore. Every strike was a memory, a piece of pain, a freaking rewrite of who they were.
"Your anger makes sense," the Monk coughed, blood trickling down his chin. "But you're not whole."
He lifted his hand once more.
"Spiral Art: Mirror of the First Glyph."
A seal tore open in his chest—inside, a spiral eye stared straight into Akashi's soul.
"See me. Remember who you were before you broke."
Akashi froze. Just for a heartbeat, his dragon form glitched out—claws shrinking, horns fading.
And he remembered.
Flashback – The Day of the Curse
A kid crying.
A mom, bleeding out.
A shadow—not the Monk. Something nastier, older.
The Monk hadn't killed her. He'd tried to save her.
"No…" Akashi croaked. "No…"
His domain shattered. So did he, right to his knees.
The Monk slumped down next to him.
"Now we start."
"Start what?"
"Fixing what the Spiral stole from both of us."
End Scene – From Above
The curses above the Vault just… poof. Gone. Yuji felt it first.
"He won… or something worse," he muttered.
Megumi just nodded, eyes sharp. "Either way, this isn't finished."
Nobara stared into the dark. "Come back, dragon-boy."