The world dissolved into chaos the moment they passed through the dimensional crack. The very air hummed with unstable energy, and the ground beneath their feet shifted like sand. Jagged fragments of rock drifted lazily in the air, defying gravity in this pocket dimension that existed between worlds. The light was strange here—a muted, twilight glow that seemed to emanate from nowhere and everywhere at once.
Yu collapsed to one knee, his breathing labored. A deep gash on his leg seeped blood onto the strange, crystalline soil. "So this is how it ends..." he muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.as the bears run towards him in an instant there cut down.He looked at Shiro with hollow eyes. "It's you."
Shiro stood firm, his body still aching from their violent entry into this place. "Hold on," he said, his voice steady despite the turmoil around them. "We still have to survive this together."
"What use am I like this?" Yu gestured bitterly at his injured leg. "I can barely stand, let alone fight."
For a moment, Shiro saw himself in Yu's position—broken and bleeding after the battle with the Calamity, questioning his own worth as his lifeblood drained away. The phantom memory of his missing arm tingled, a ghostly reminder of his own failures. He pushed the thought aside, focusing on the present danger.
"If we stay here any longer, we'll end up dead," Shiro said, his eyes scanning their surreal surroundings. "Or... you can act as bait for the laser. Draw its fire. Your specialty is long-range shots, right?" He met Yu's desperate gaze. "So what do you say?"
A flicker of defiance sparked in Yu's eyes. He nodded grimly. "Deal! When it's done, we'll meet on that rock bridge there." He pointed toward a natural stone arch that spanned a chasm in the distance.
As Yu limped away to draw the beasts' attention, Shiro turned to face the pack of Stone-Claw Bears emerging from the crystalline mist. Their forms shimmered in the strange light, claws extending like polished obsidian. Shiro didn't wait for them to attack. He sprinted forward, his movements precise and economical.
The training with Rael had changed him. Where once he would have relied on brute force and elemental power, now he moved with calculated efficiency. He ducked under a teleporting swipe, driving the pommel of his scavenged short sword into a beast's temple. He sidestepped another attack, using the creature's momentum to guide it into one of the floating rocks. The impact echoed through the dimension with a sound like shattering glass.
But I still have to build up my strength to maximum and recover my elemental ability soon as possible, he thought, even as he moved through the pack with growing confidence. Each dodge, each strike, each moment of survival was a step toward reclaiming what he had lost.
He fought his way toward the mountain's peak, where the air grew thin and cold despite the dimension's artificial nature. And there, waiting for him as if it had known he would come, was the Alpha.
The beast was a masterpiece of evolutionary terror. Twice the size of the other bears, its fur was streaked with crimson markings that pulsed with a faint inner light like embers in a dying fire. Blades of sharpened bone grew from its forearms, curving wickedly and catching the strange light. But most chilling were its eyes—they held a predatory intelligence that went beyond animal instinct, seeming to measure and calculate as they fixed on Shiro.
The Alpha walked toward him slowly, each step a display of dominance. When it roared, the sound vibrated through Shiro's bones, a primal challenge that shook the very mountain. Then it vanished.
Shiro barely had time to register the movement before the beast speed-blitzed to his side, slamming a bladed arm into his ribs. The impact sent him crashing through a pillar of rock, pain exploding through his body as he tumbled across the ground.
Gritting his teeth, Shiro rose from the rubble, spitting dust and blood. He wouldn't back down. He ran at the Alpha, activating a basic spell of acceleration to enhance his speed. He met the beast's bone blades with his sword, and the clash was brutal—steel against ancient bone, sending sparks flying in the dim light. The Alpha's strength was immense, surpassing any human limit, and it forced Shiro back with each blow.
The beast stomped the ground, creating a shockwave that nearly threw Shiro off his feet. Then it ripped a massive boulder from the earth and hurled it at him. Unused to the sword's balance and knowing he couldn't match the Alpha's raw power directly, Shiro did the only thing he could—he leaped toward the boulder, meeting it mid-air and pushing it aside with a raw shout of effort.
But as he landed, the Alpha was already there. It struck him in the stomach with brute force that drove the air from his lungs and sent him crashing into the ground once more. Before he could recover, the beast grabbed his head and forced it deeper into the soil, then seized him by the neck and hurled him into the sky. Looking down, Shiro saw the Alpha leap after him, fist cocked for a hammer punch that slammed him back down into the ancient ruins below.
He lay broken in the dust, his body screaming in protest. How did I end up like this? When did I become... so weak?
The memories came unbidden—the final battle against the Humanoid of Calamity, the faces of his team leaving him behind, the voices of the traitors echoing in his mind. They twisted into the chorus of the Calamity itself: "You have become weak... You don't deserve to live... You don't deserve power... You were not able to protect your comrades... Your efforts were for nothing..." A vision of his former self, clad in his battlesuit, stared down at him in judgment. "You don't deserve a second life."
He saw the Humanoid of Calamity delivering a final, world-ending hammer punch. He blinked, and the vision cleared, replaced by the Alpha Bear descending upon him with the same killing blow.
"I want strength..." Shiro whispered, then screamed it to the uncaring dimension: "I want the power to prevent the same mistake from happening again! Even without my elemental ability, I will become stronger! I will use this second chance to correct my mistakes!"
With a raw, guttural scream—"Hyaaaaaaaa!"—he forced his broken body to stand. He grabbed his sword and lunged, slashing a deep gash across the Alpha's body and up into its eye. Blood poured forth in a hot cascade. Enraged and in pain, the bear swatted him, sending him flying back into the ruins.
The dust settled. Shiro rose once more, coughing blood, his body a canvas of pain. But now, a faint, steady aura glowed around him—the first true ember of his rekindled power. He remembered his old comrades—Lloyd's final sacrifice, Misuzu's determined charge, Hiro's unwavering support—their memories giving him a final push forward.
His eyes fell on a heavy iron rod nearby, connected to a chunk of rubble by a thick chain. He grabbed it just as the Alpha Bear's crimson markings began to glow fiercely, boosting its strength as the dimension's artificial rain intensified into a torrential downpour.
The beast charged. Shiro ran to meet it, spinning the iron rod and the attached rubble over his head. He launched the massive projectile, crashing it into the Alpha and staggering the creature. As the beast roared, creating a repulsive force wave, Shiro used the momentum to sprint in a wide circle, wrapping the chain around its legs and torso, binding its movements.
He leaped onto the beast's back, pulling the chain tight around its neck. The Alpha thrashed wildly, smashing him into walls and pillars, but Shiro held on, pulling with all his might.
"HYAAAAAAAA!"
With a final, sickening tear, the Alpha's head was ripped from its body.
A bolt of lightning split the sky as if to mark the end of the battle—though whether the dimension had a real sky was anyone's guess. Silence fell, broken only by the pouring rain. Shiro stood panting over the fallen titan, his body screaming, but his spirit alight.
"I did it..." he breathed, then shouted it to the empty dimension: "I DID IT!"
His eyes were drawn to the beast's chest, where a core pulsed with a soft, rainbow-colored light. As he touched it, the core broke into two pieces. One fell to the ground, while the other sank directly into the flesh of his arm. A wave of warmth and energy flooded through him, knitting his bones, sealing his wounds, and washing away his exhaustion in an instant. It was a feeling he hadn't experienced since his elemental powers had been at their peak.
He looked at the bone blades on the Alpha's arms. Looks like I'll be getting something out of this.
The scene shifted to Yu, standing on the high stone bridge, his back against a pillar. He nocked his final arrow, his hand trembling from exhaustion and blood loss. "This is my last arrow..." he whispered to the uncaring dimension. "So this is how I spend my last night."
A bear crept from the shadows, snarling as it approached. Yu took aim, ready to fire his final shot. In the instant before he loosed the arrow, the bear was suddenly smashed aside by a blur of motion. As the dust cleared, Shiro stood there, whole and unmarked.
"You survived??" Yu's voice was barely a whisper, his eyes wide with disbelief at Shiro's completely healed state. "How?"
"Let's get you fixed up," Shiro said simply, tossing him the second piece of the Alpha's core.
"What is this?" Yu asked, examining the glowing shard.
"Just put pressure on it. You'll see."
Yu pressed the glowing shard to his chest. It sank into his skin, and a wave of relief washed over him as his wounds closed, his bruises faded, and the color returned to his face. The deep gash on his leg sealed shut, leaving only a faint pink line where the injury had been.
"I... I can stand," Yu said, wonder in his voice. "A little. But I'm drained."
"Looks like it takes time to build up strength in you," Shiro observed. "Well, let's get out of here."
Outside the sealed dimensional crack, the adventurers who had betrayed them were arguing vehemently.
"They're dead for sure," one said, crossing his arms. "No one survives that."
"But what about the emeralds?" another whined. "We lost everything!"
One of them pointed, his face pale with shock. "Look!"
Two figures emerged from the fading energy of the rift. Shiro walked forward, carrying a barely-conscious Yu over his shoulder. In his other hand, he held the severed, massive head of the Alpha Bear. As the crowd watched in stunned silence, the healing energy from the core still faintly shimmered around Yu's body, visible proof of their incredible recovery.
Before anyone could speak or approach them, Shiro had vanished into the treeline, leaving only the grisly trophy as a testament to his victory and a warning to those who would betray him.
"Whoever that person is..." Yu whispered to the empty space where Shiro had stood, "thank you."
Alone now, Shiro walked through the forest, a piece of his tattered shirt wrapped around one of the Alpha's bone blades. The weapon felt right in his hand—a tangible symbol of his growing strength, forged in the heart of the dimensional storm. The core's energy still hummed within him, a promise of power returning, of mistakes yet to be corrected, and of a destiny he was only beginning to reclaim.