The air split before anyone could scream.
It wasn't a tear — it was a wound. A long vertical gash carved through the sky above the city, exposing a swirling darkness behind the clouds. Streetlights flickered violently, bending inward as if gravity itself had been reversed. The wind died, the world stilled.
Then came the sound.
A low, ancient rumble like a thousand mountains grinding together.
Akira felt Yamitsurugi pulse violently against his chest, burning cold.
Masahiro's voice erupted sharply in his mind.
> "Kid—RUN!"
A shockwave burst downward. Glass exploded across entire blocks. Car alarms wailed. Civilians dropped to their knees, clutching their ears. The sky bled black tendrils of fog.
Then the shadows began to fall through.
One by one.
Twelve had once existed.
But only nine remained… and each arrival caused the city to shake violently.
A dark winged mass crashed onto the road—Hex, beating its enormous skeletal wings, flames curling through its ribcage.
A humanoid giant of stone and dripping tar slammed down—Ruin—carrying a club forged from collapsed planets.
A towering insectoid horror with tendrils of venom dripping from a scythe arm—Venom—hissed purple steam.
A pale serpentine silhouette curled in midair—Shade, eyes hollow and teeth razor thin.
Four more tore through next—Inferno, Dread, Malice, and Avarice—each released in violent pulses of cosmic dark.
The city screamed.
Akira stood frozen, hand gripping the pendant form of Yamitsurugi, heart pounding so violently he felt it in his throat. Every instinct told him to move. To run. To fight. To breathe.
He did none of those things.
Because the shadows weren't attacking.
They were looking.
Searching—for him.
A vortex of wind blasted downward as Ashurael appeared above the destruction. His wings of broken light spread wide, scattering divine particles that burned through the darkness like falling stars. His white hair whipped behind him, his face calm but fierce.
Landing beside him in an instant, Ryozen emerged in a burst of gold and black currents, his coat flashing with Samsara symbols. His presence cut through the suffocating air like a blade.
"Michael—" Akira whispered, but Ashurael raised a hand.
His voice was steady.
"Stay behind us."
Ryozen's eyes narrowed, taking in the nine shadows. "They came too early."
The ground trembled again—heavier, deeper.
Malice roared, slamming its claw into the pavement. Venom hissed with hunger. Inferno's flames exploded upward, melting street signs.
Ashurael stepped forward.
"Ryozen."
Ryozen nodded.
They moved simultaneously.
Ashurael sliced the air with two fingers. A ring of divine light expanded outward, racing across the street, forming a circle beneath the shadows' feet.
Ryozen stabbed his hand into the ground, pouring Samsara energy directly into the earth. A black-gold mandala exploded outward, interlocking with Ashurael's circle overhead.
Akira felt gravity twist.
The shadows screamed. Their bodies distorted as the rings tightened around them, binding and lifting.
Ruin swung his titanic club, but it passed straight through the dimensional light.
Shade dissolved into mist, only to rematerialize inside the trap once more.
Venom stabbed the sigil walls, but the venom slid harmlessly across them.
Avarice clawed at its chest. Inferno roared flames hot enough to melt buildings.
But none of them could break free.
Ashurael closed his eyes. "Containment alignment complete."
Ryozen lifted his palm.
"Dimensional shift—activate."
The ground cracked open. A spiraling black hole formed beneath the shadows, tearing apart the street and buildings around it. Air whipped inward violently, dragging debris and shards of concrete like leaves in a storm.
Akira's feet slid backward. He would have been pulled into the tear if Ashurael hadn't flicked two fingers, creating a small shield around him.
The vortex grew—exploding in size.
And then everything vanished.
The street.
The buildings.
The sky.
The world blinked.
Akira fell onto sand-like debris, coughing. His surroundings had changed instantly—there was no sound of traffic, no city lights. Only a dead expanse stretching endlessly.
The sky above was jagged like shattered glass, leaking cosmic storms. Moons hung in pieces overhead. Charred planets drifted in the distance. Gravity shifted in unstable pulses—lightweight one second, crushing the next.
He was standing in a destruction void—a graveyard of lost worlds.
He looked up.
Ryozen hovered above the ground, spinning his glaive in a slow circle.
Ashurael descended with golden light streaming from his wings.
And the nine shadows had already landed—spread across the wasteland, circling.
Ruin roared so loudly fractured moons cracked further.
Inferno ignited volcanic flames.
Venom's scythe dripped poison that melted stone.
Dread dragged chains forged from screams.
Shade slithered behind the others, almost invisible.
Ashurael raised his hand. "Akira. Stay near Ryozen."
Akira nodded, but Yamitsurugi pulsed hard—a warning.
Something was coming.
Ruin charged first, swinging its planetary club. The ground split in half under the impact shockwave. Ryozen met the club with a single upward slash of Kensei no Yoru. The clash erupted in a blinding burst of black-gold light.
Ashurael disappeared from sight, reappearing above Inferno with a spear of divine radiance. He impaled the flaming titan through the shoulder, sending shockwaves that shattered floating debris.
Akira staggered. Their strength was unreal—beyond anything he had imagined.
Hex spread its skeletal wings and spat hellfire. Ashurael deflected it with a sweep of his arm.
Avarice lunged, releasing a cloud of crimson plague-mist.
Ryozen spun his glaive, peeling the mist apart with light.
Venom leaped, scythe raised—
And suddenly Akira felt a presence behind him.
Cold.
Violent.
Familiar.
His breath stopped.
A voice whispered behind his ear.
"Found you."
Akira whirled around—
Ren stood there.
Tall. Barefoot. Covered in black fractures of power. His hair longer, darker. His pupils crimson slits. A jagged horn protruded from his forehead, steaming with corrupt energy. Veins of voidlight glowed along his arms.
Ren smiled through cracked lips.
"You killed her."
Akira felt ice lodge in his chest.
Ren's aura surged, the void around them bending.
Akira lifted Yamitsurugi instinctively, the blade snapping to full form in a burst of shadow-silver.
But before they could clash—
A faint scrape echoed behind the shadows.
Shade had vanished.
Only a whisper remained, drifting through the broken air.
"I found the girl…"
Akira froze.
Rina.
He barely had time to react. Yamitsurugi pulsed wildly against his chest, sensing danger.
Ryozen turned sharply, eyes widening.
"Ashurael—Shade escaped!"
Ashurael's wings flared open, energy ripping through the void.
"We'll find it. Focus on the front line!"
The shadows roared again, gathering for a synchronized assault.
Ruin raised its club.
Inferno ignited the sky.
Venom hissed poison storms.
Avarice released plague mist.
Ryozen's aura exploded in golden fire.
Ashurael's halo fractured into rotating blades.
Their divine forms began awakening—light twisting violently around them, cracking the void beneath their feet.
Akira took a single step back as Ren's horned silhouette approached him through the storm of shadows.
All worlds seemed to hold their breath.
Shade hunted Rina.
Ren was ready to kill him.
Ashurael and Ryozen were unlocking their god-tier forms.
The shadows charged for full war.
The destruction void began to collapse under the sheer gathering power.
And the chapter ended with one impossible moment—
Ren whispered:
"Let's finish what you started."
Ashurael's divine eyes opened fully.
Ryozen's Samsara ignited.
Shade's whisper echoed through worlds.
Akira raised Yamitsurugi—
And the universe shattered.