The world was blurry.
Tekio breathed with difficulty, each attempt felt like saws tearing through his chest. His eyes, still open, no longer saw the present. They saw the end. They saw Aisha.
The memory was no longer just an image. It was sound. The crack of bone. The silence immediately after.
And Dante—with Akira's face—smiling.
A grotesque knot formed in his throat.
And with it, a cyclical thought.
A torturous whisper:
"I failed."
"Again."
"If I hesitate one more time... someone dies."
But now... his body did not respond.
Everything in him screamed for vengeance, but his muscles were shattered, his nerves burned.
The crimson presence that had filled him before—intense, violent—was beginning to recede, as if respecting the pain. As if observing it.
That was when he heard the voice.
Low. Firm. Familiar.
— Tekio... you need to listen to me now.
In the void between consciousness and collapse, he saw Yara.
Not as before—a silhouette in the darkness. But clear. Present.
Her white hair floated like lightning smoke. Her expression was that of a sister watching her brother drown in mud.
— You will lose yourself in this hatred. I know this path. I... have been this path.
But Tekio only murmured the same thing. A stifled mantra.
"I hesitated… out of fear."
"I can't hesitate anymore."
"Even if I need... to kill."
Yara approached, kneeling before him. The mental world surrounding them was dark and cracked.
Like the battlefield. Like his soul.
— You want to protect… I know. But are you willing to destroy everything that made you human for it?
Tekio did not answer. But his gaze... was no longer the same.
He accepted it. Not with pride. But with necessity.
He had understood something he had been trying to deny:
What blocked him was the love he felt for everyone.
What held him back was the desire not to disappoint.
And now, with all of that wounded…
Only instinct remained.
Yara felt the chill.
She felt what was being born inside him. Something older than her.
A kind of spiritual fury… without limit.
Even so, she did not abandon him.
She raised her hands and began to channel energy.
Healing. Relief. A thread of connection.
— If you are going to fall... take me with you. But don't go alone. I am still here, Tekio.
And somewhere… further ahead, the main confrontation continued.
A few meters away...
Mei and Dante.
The two definitive forces of that shattered field.
She was still covered in dried blood and scars. He, in Akira's body, sipping energy as if the world were his personal chalice.
— Seriously, Dante… even for a cheat, I think this was too much — said Mei, adjusting her breathing.
Dante laughed, with scorn masked as charm.
— Are you going to pity fighting because of my new face?
Mei narrowed her eyes.
— Our strength has already been decided.
You know it. I know it.
And I also noticed something: you can't use the Veil all the time.
Besides...
— She took a step. — I've noticed your weaknesses.
Dante turned his head, curious.
— Weaknesses?
— You were born of darkness, but you don't live in it. You need structure. You need a body. You need time. And all of that is running out.
— Hm… — he raised an eyebrow. — If you know I don't stand a chance, why do you think I would be reborn in a body that isn't mine… to try again?
— That is the question.
— What are you plotting?
Why all this if you don't even have a chance to win?
For a second, Dante did not answer.
He only smiled. And whispered:
— I don't stand a chance?
Mei crossed her arms and replied like a child mocking:
— Don't even try to act all tough.
You lost to me.
Your ability was nullified by a boy.
How are you gonna refute that??
Dante closed his eyes for a moment. His smile persisted, but there was something behind it. A contained rage.
Meanwhile, Mei wasn't just talking.
She was thinking.
She was feeling.
Observing the flows.
Energy. Frequency. Space. The Veil was an inverted prison—not just a domain, but an inversion of essence.
She had already survived it once. But luck... doesn't work twice.
She needed to create.
She needed to imagine.
And this was where Mei was unmatched.
She remembered the flow of the Veil.
Remembered how it absorbed energy, but also… how it depended on it.
A closed system. Circular.
"If it's a closed system… I can create a rupture point."
She thought and molded in silence.
While Dante thought he was buying time, she was sculpting his destruction.
Back to Tekio…
His eyes trembled.
Yara forced the healing with all she had.
But the boy... wasn't getting up because of healing.
He was rising because he saw no other way out.
Yara felt it.
The limit had been crossed.
And not by her.
— Tekio... don't lose what you are.
— Even if you decide to fight to the end... keep the essence in pieces, but the soul intact...
But he was no longer listening.
Because now, the voice guiding him was no longer hers.
It was something deeper.
Older.
More brutal.
His steps were slow.
Heavy.
But constant.
Tekio was getting up.
The dust fell from his skin gradually, revealing the open cuts, the vivid bruises, the veins pulsing with something beyond blood.
His body could barely support itself, but his mind… was now clear.
Or nearly so.
There were no more tears.
No screams.
The pain was a dull note in the back of his consciousness—ignored.
In place of everything, only a will remained.
Dante and Mei noticed him at the same time.
Mei's golden eyes narrowed.
Her previously amused, mocking expression gave way to intense seriousness.
She felt the weight in Tekio's steps.
A weight that didn't match his current strength.
— Tekio… — she murmured.
Dante slowly turned his head.
— Ah... no. — he whispered, an involuntary wrinkle of tension appearing at the corner of his eye.
He did not smile.
He analyzed.
That boy...
Injured. Incomplete. Without a stable aura.
And yet...
Dangerous.
— What does this brat have...? — he murmured, more to himself than to Mei.
— He has instinct, Dante. — said Mei, in a lower tone, almost regretful.
But her eyes were focused on Tekio.
The Empress felt: he was at his limit.
And yet, he was choosing to continue.
— Fall back, Tekio — she said, firmly.
— You've done enough. If you can, find Stella and Dan. They need you.
But he did not respond.
Nor did he slow down.
Mei's expression tightened further.
She took a step forward, her voice cutting:
— I said fall back. That's an order!
The field trembled slightly with the tone.
Tekio stopped.
For a moment, his eyes met Mei's.
Not with disobedience.
But with conviction.
His body still wasn't ready. His muscles screamed. His bones cracked. But his soul…
Burned.
And inside him, Yara felt it.
That growing will…
It wasn't just Tekio.
Perhaps it never had been just him.
The separation of Dan and Dante…
Had never been explained.
Attributed to chance. A miracle of chaos.
But now...
Now, Yara understood.
Perhaps it wasn't a miracle.
Perhaps it was a primitive instinct.
A hidden part of Tekio that knew how to separate souls. That desired it.
That now... sought to repeat the feat.
Yara touched his consciousness.
Not with words, but with presence.
"You don't want to kill Akira."
"But you will if you have to…"
And the truth was this:
Tekio wasn't advancing because his body wouldn't allow it.
Not yet.
But the intention…
Was murderous.
Was absolute.
Dante understood it too.
He looked at Tekio as if looking at a broken code—an enigma that refused to obey logic.
And he came to the only acceptable conclusion.
Tekio needed to die.
Even if it cost everything.
Even if Mei was there.
Even if he himself was struck down immediately after.
If he was fast enough, he could pierce the boy's heart before Mei could stop him.
The distance was short. The time, even shorter.
Dante began to move his body.
His aura changed.
Became cutting.
Cruel.
Lethal.
But then... he felt it.
A heat.
A heat that touched his skin as the sun would touch wax.
Devastating.
Dante turned his head by pure instinct.
And he saw.
Her.
Mei Nuhay.
Her amber eyes shone with living fury.
Her hair shimmered as if a burning breeze blew from within her being.
She already knew.
And before he could react—before he could even conjure any seal, any veil, any protection...
She disappeared.
And appeared in front of him.
The sound of the impact was not sharp.
It was deep.
Like a rock colliding with a world.
Dante's body was hurled like a comet toward the rubble.
It cut through the air like an incandescent blade, crashing through debris and pillars until it collided with the ground, cracking everything around it.
Silence.
Mei stood still, her arm still raised from the force of the blow.
— Were you really going to touch him...? In front of me?— she said, without taking her eyes off Dante's direction.
— He is my soldier.
— If anyone is going to decide his fate... it's me.
The air around her trembled.
Tekio said nothing.
But for the first time...
A nearly imperceptible trace appeared on his face.
It wasn't a smile.
But a silent acceptance.
Yara felt it too.
The time had not yet come.
But it would.
And when it did…
The world would need to be ready for what Tekio was becoming.
To be continued...