The Desolation Void churned like an ocean made of broken planets. Lightning spiraled between drifting asteroids, and the cold wind carried the screams of forgotten civilizations lost ages ago. Here, gravity was a suggestion, time was a cracked mirror, and the air felt like it hated everything living.
Ryozen and Ashurael stood on a shattered world's surface, facing the distorted silhouettes gathering around them. Eleven Shadows had entered the human world, but only nine stood here now—Shade and Ren had vanished, slipping away before the transfer completed. The remaining nine circled the two divine warriors, each bearing monstrous forms molded from sin.
The first to step forward was Hex Inferno, a towering beast of bone and flame. Lava dripped from his ribs, forming rivers across the cracked ground. Six burning eyes opened along his skull, all locked on Ryozen. His weapon—a molten halberd—sizzled as reality warped around it.
"You sealed us once, old man," Hex growled. "Try it now."
Ryozen's expression remained blank, but the golden-black aura around him sharpened like a blade. "Last time, you were weaker."
Before Hex could respond, a shriek tore open the dark. Diread, a bat-like monstrosity with wings made of teeth, swooped down toward Ashurael. His voice was a choir of screams. "We feast tonight!"
Ashurael lifted a single hand. His presence alone bent the void's air into spirals around him. His hair glowed like silver fire, and his eyes—one gold, one crystalline white—held no fear.
"You two first?" he said softly. "Fine."
The void erupted.
Hex charged Ryozen, halberd blazing. Ryozen blocked with the shaft of Kensei no Yoru, sparks of molten fire raining around them. The ground cracked with each collision. Ashurael vanished in a streak of white light, appearing behind Diread and cleaving one of his wings clean off with a blade of divine essence.
But Diread only screamed and multiplied—hundreds of miniatures peeling from his flesh and swarming Ashurael like insects.
Simultaneously, the other Shadows moved.
Malice—a distorting humanoid with twelve arms—flung chains of corrupted light toward Ryozen.
Avarice, whose body was a shifting mass of gold teeth and hands, lunged at Ashurael.
Venom Vortex spun into a tornado of knives and poison.
Ruin pounded the ground with massive fists, sending shockwaves across the entire void.
Each one moved with a hatred that had fermented for centuries.
Ryozen's eyes gleamed coldly. "Ashurael—left sector."
"Already there," Ashurael replied, appearing behind Avarice and impaling him through the spine with a luminous spear formed from pure divinity.
Ryozen leapt upward as Venom Vortex spun beneath him, spraying venom so potent it dissolved solid rock. Ryozen spun Kensei no Yoru once. The blade extended—splitting into two crescent edges—and carved through the tornado, ripping it open into scattered chunks.
Akira was nowhere near this battlefield, but the void echoed with Ren's laughter deeper within the collapsing space. Yamitsurugi pulsed against Akira's chest even from far away.
The two divine warriors continued their battle. Ryozen unleashed a rapid rotation strike—Samsara Spiral Break—cutting through chains Malice summoned. Ashurael raised both hands, channeling a long-range technique—Astral Lament—which detonated in a beam so bright it carved holes through the void.
But the Shadows refused to fall easily.
Hex Inferno slammed both fists into the ground, turning the battlefield into a volcanic maelstrom. Diread reformed his wings from screams and lunged again. Avarice resurrected himself from gold dust. Ruin knocked Ashurael through several floating continents.
The battle stretched across miles of the void.
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Meanwhile, far away, Akira and Ren clashed—sword and scythe carving storms through the broken world. Ren's grin twisted unnaturally as his Abyssal Scythe hummed with void-poison. Akira pushed harder, sparks exploding from Yamitsurugi. Their duel was emotional, raw, savage.
But neither realized the cost of the void itself cracking around them.
When the chapter ended, the last thing seen was Ashurael and Ryozen standing back-to-back as the nine Shadows roared and prepared a combined assault strong enough to split a star.