Darkness shifted inside Akira's apartment like a living fog, and Rina froze where she stood.
Something was watching her.
She felt breath behind her ear. Cold fingers brushed her ankle.
Then a whisper—soft, hollow, hungry.
"Found you."
Her knees trembled. She couldn't scream. The room pulsed with a shadow heartbeat, and from the corner, a pair of pale, vertical eyes opened.
Shade stepped out of the darkness.
Not running.
Not rushing.
Simply… appearing.
His form was tall and thin, almost featureless except for jagged shadow armor that clung to him like living molten glass. A cleaver-shaped weapon of bone extended from his hand, dripping black venom that burned through Akira's wooden floor.
Rina backed into the wall, breath breaking into small gasps. "A… Akira…"
Shade tilted his head, smiling too widely, showing a mouth full of serrated void-teeth.
"Her fear… delicious."
---
Far away, Akira's eyes widened mid-fight.
Something cracked inside his senses—
a scream he didn't hear
but felt.
His sword reacted first.
Yamitsurugi pulsed violently at his chest, the pendant glowing so fiercely it burned through his shirt.
Akira's heart dropped.
"Rina—"
Ren lunged at him with a roar, but Akira didn't hesitate.
He swung Yamitsurugi with such force that the ground beneath them split. The slash struck Ren across the chest and sent him crashing backward, blood and shadow bursting into the air like ink.
Akira didn't wait for him to fall.
He moved.
One step.
A tear opened in space.
He ripped the portal apart with his bare hands, shredding the veil like cloth and diving through.
---
Shade raised his cleaver, the black blade vibrating with hunger as he stepped toward Rina.
"Don't worry… this won't take long."
Rina shut her eyes.
The cleaver came down—
But it never touched her.
A shockwave exploded the room. Shade was thrown sideways as Akira smashed into him like a meteor, fist glowing black-red.
The punch sent Shade skidding across the walls, cracking them like brittle ice.
Akira didn't speak.
His eyes—black and crimson—were burning.
Shade tried to rise, but Akira was already on him, Yamitsurugi drawn in a single flash of obsidian light.
He whispered, voice lower than shadow.
"Astral Break."
The slash detonated across Shade's torso, slicing through shadow flesh and armor. Shade staggered, screaming, dissolving at the edges.
Before he collapsed completely, Akira grabbed Rina's arm gently and pulled her close, shielding her with his own body.
"Are you hurt?"
She shook her head, tears forming. "I… Akira… I thought—"
"Not while I'm alive," he whispered.
Shade reformed into a broken mass of shadow, but Akira didn't let him regain shape. He lifted his foot, twisted—
and stomped down.
The shadow shattered like a ripple of oil.
But Akira didn't kill him.
He forced Shade into a compact sphere of void-light, grabbed him like a broken object—
and hurled him back through a portal.
---
On the battlefield, Shade's body crashed into the ground beside Ren.
Ren rose with a roar, eyes feral, teeth bared. "AKIRA!"
He tried to leap toward the rift—but two forces slammed him down simultaneously.
Ryozen's golden gravitational aura.
Ashurael's divine shadow chains.
Ren snarled, thrashing. "LET ME GO!"
Ryozen smirked. "Not your turn, kid."
Ashurael's voice was calm. "Stay here and rot."
---
Meanwhile, Akira carried Rina outside, far from the collapsing shadows. He placed her near a shrine wall, somewhere quiet and safe.
She clutched his sleeve. "Akira… please… come back alive. And bring Ren back too."
Her voice cracked, the hope trembling.
Akira stopped.
A small smile touched his lips, tired but real.
"I promise. I'll bring him back."
He pulled the pendant from his neck—
a small charm of faint red light—
and placed it gently into her palm.
"If anything happens, hold this. It'll guide me back."
"Akira…" Rina whispered, eyes filling.
He stepped away, turning toward the portal.
---
Back on the battlefield, Shade was coughing shadow smoke, trying to get up. Akira arrived behind him in a single Viel Step, grabbed Shade by the throat—
and threw him straight toward Ren.
Shade hit the ground in front of the enraged Shadow Lord.
Shade grinned weakly. "Brother… fun night."
Ren snarled. "Useless trash."
Ryozen cracked his neck. "Both of you are done."
Ashurael let his shadows flare, wings of midnight expanding behind him. "Your end is long overdue."
Ren and Shade didn't look threatened.
They looked amused.
Shade chuckled, voice glitching.
Ren's smile twisted unnaturally.
"You think you've won?"
"You defeated us…"
"…but not the one who matters."
Then both of them turned their heads upward, eyes glowing with devotion.
"Master."
A black storm erupted.
A force so ancient it distorted the battlefield tore open the sky. Light bent, space twisted, and a vortex of absolute darkness descended, swallowing Ren and Shade whole.
Akira reached forward—but too late.
Ryozen's hand stopped him.
Ashurael's face darkened. "He's awake…"
When the vortex faded, Ren and Shade were gone—
transported to a colossal hall of bone and starlight.
At its center, seated on a throne made of dying suns—
Azrion opened his eyes.