Yagami walked calmly through the twisting corridors of the labyrinth.
The sound of his heavy footsteps blended with the cold echo of the space.
With a sharp glance around, he murmured:
— "This labyrinth is different… The walls have magic restriction. Only high-level magic can work here… and even then, barely. Physical power too?"
He threw a powerful punch at the wall.
The sound of bone meeting stone echoed, but the wall didn't even get a scratch.
— "Interesting… It absorbs physical power too…"
At that moment, a loud and provocative voice shattered the silence:
— "Hey, you!"
Yagami turned his head.
A small boy was standing there.
The boy grinned and said:
"Wanna fight?! Hehehe!!"
A sword in his hand, its hilt wrapped in white bandages.
His eyes sparkled with battle lust.
Yagami immediately spoke in his mind to Satan:
— "This one's yours…"
Satan slowly emerged from Yagami's body, knelt down respectfully and said:
"As you wish, my lord."
The boy in front raised his sword and spoke with sudden seriousness:
"My name is Kaito. The Crimson Oath. What's your name?"
Satan drew his forbidden blade.
As the edge came free, the air grew heavy.
His aura was so thick and deadly that the walls themselves trembled.
With a dark, commanding voice he answered:
— "I am Satan… son of the fifth Demon King."
Kaito smirked and said:
"Yeah well… I'm my mom's kid too."
In an instant Satan raised his sword and charged.
The clash of blades released a shockwave that made the labyrinth walls shudder.
Yagami, silent and composed, without even looking back, simply turned left into another corridor and muttered under his breath:
"Good luck, Satan… I want to see how much you've grown since that battle…"
And he quietly vanished into the darkness of the passage.
Satan and Kaito stood in the middle of the corridor, eyes locked, murder dancing in both gazes.
Kaito's eyes slowly turned crimson.
Satan instinctively took one step back.
Kaito kept smiling — but now it was a feral, dangerous grin.
He gripped his sword so hard the sound of the wrapped hilt cracking under his fingers could be heard.
He stepped forward, one foot advanced, the other back, gripped the sword two-handed, and suddenly — with unbelievable speed — lunged at Satan.
Satan reacted, raised his blade, and parried.
But the sheer force of the attack pushed him sliding backward.
Kaito shouted with manic laughter:
"What's wrong, Prince of Darkness? Is this all you've got? You're disappointing me!"
Satan gritted his teeth and whispered:
"Demonic Blade!"
With a swift spin he slipped out from under the pressure, raised his sword high with both hands, and poured dark energy into the blade.
A black, lethal wave erupted from his sword and surged toward Kaito.
But Kaito didn't flinch — his grin only widened.
His white eyes flashed.
He raised his own sword and shouted with chilling calmness:
"Demonic Blade!"
A similar wave — but dark crimson — exploded from his blade.
The crimson blade Kaito unleashed was, shockingly, almost identical to Satan's black one.
He spun his sword with masterful control and released the blood-red slash that roared toward Satan.
Satan, completely unprepared for this, muttered in disbelief:
"Copy magic?!"
The two blades — black and red — passed each other with insane force, shaking the entire corridor.
Satan's slash flew toward Kaito, Kaito's toward Satan.
Both reacted at the last possible instant and dodged.
The blades struck the walls — an explosion of flame and shadow erupted around them.
Satan gripped his sword tighter, visibly irritated, and growled:
"This magic is really starting to piss me off… damn it!"
**
Meanwhile, in another part of the labyrinth, Masaru walked with arrogant strides.
The echo of his footsteps rang through the stone corridors.
He grumbled under his breath:
"Everything looks the same… curse this stupid design!"
A few steps later he stopped, bored out of his mind.
He rested his hand on his sword hilt and muttered:
"Ugh… this place is supposed to have a guardian or something, right? …I'm getting tired of this."
Then, slowly, a scraping sound began to emerge.
A faint glow appeared near his feet.
Masaru didn't frown — he smiled.
In a lightning-fast motion, without even turning around, he swung his sword backward —
cleaving a massive fireball that had been rushing at him from behind cleanly in two.
With an excited whisper he said:
"Finally… things are about to get fun… hehehehe…"
When Masaru turned around, his eyes widened in shock…
Standing right in front of him was no one other than Shinkuro!
Masaru said calmly:
"It's you, four-eyes… You that mad about coming in second that you wanna kill me now?"
But Shinkuro said nothing.
He simply extended his hand toward Masaru.
His eyes glowed with a strange, unnatural light — as if he wasn't himself at all.
Masaru, still calm but with rising tension, said:
"I'm not in the mood for games. If this is a joke, end it now."
He shoved his hand in his pocket and started walking again —
until suddenly another massive fireball was hurled at him from Shinkuro!
Masaru deflected it with lightning reflexes and this time roared:
"If you wanna fight, then come at me properly! I'll show you, you damn four-eyed bastard!"
Shinkuro suddenly slammed his fist into the wall with full force…
With a deafening sound, the surrounding walls opened!
From within the walls, dozens of deadly traps sprang out — arrows, axes, spinning blades.
Masaru dodged with inhuman speed; behind him the blades crashed into the ground, sending sparks flying.
Panting, he said:
"Damn it… this place is full of traps! Lucky I didn't touch the wall…"
At that moment, Shinkuro floated into the air.
His arms spread wide, a dark purple aura coiled around him, the space trembling with dark energy.
His gaze was completely emotionless.
Masaru took a step back, reached behind him and said in a rough voice:
"Summon: Excalibur!"
His legendary sword appeared, its shining, engraved blade gleaming under the torchlight.
Masaru frowned deeply and muttered:
"What the hell happened to this guy…? Why did he suddenly go insane?!"
With full power, Masaru charged at Shinkuro, sword blazing, eyes burning with battle excitement.
But just as he got close — Shinkuro suddenly seemed to snap out of a deep trance.
His eyes turned blood-red, and he crossed his arms in front of himself in an odd stance.
Masaru muttered under his breath:
"I've never seen him hold his hands like that before…"
In an instant Shinkuro's nails grew explosively — long, razor-sharp, and glowing deep purple, like demonic claws!
Masaru froze, frowning:
"Wha… what the—?!"
Shinkuro spread his arms —
and purple, deadly blades shot from his nails toward Masaru at terrifying speed!
Masaru instantly gripped his sword with both hands, slammed it into the ground and shouted:
"Activate: Holy Shield!"
A semi-transparent golden barrier appeared in front of him.
The purple blades struck the shield — a massive explosion of black smoke engulfed everything.
Shinkuro's eyes remained empty.
But from within the smoke, Masaru suddenly burst out with unbelievable speed!
Shinkuro reacted, slashing with his claws toward Masaru's head —
but Masaru bent his body, dodged, and delivered a brutal horizontal slash with the flat of his blade straight into Shinkuro's side!
A thunderous BOOM! echoed through the corridor.
Shinkuro's body was smashed into the wall, collapsing to the ground like a broken doll, unconscious.
Masaru walked forward, threw his sword over his shoulder and said with a smug grin:
"What happened, four-eyes? Getting weak already?"
But…
Suddenly Shinkuro's body dissolved into black smoke and vanished into thin air!
Masaru stumbled backward, eyes wide, breath caught in his throat, and whispered in disbelief:
"What… what the hell just happened?! Don't tell me… I actually killed him?!"
Then…
A faint, chilling laugh echoed softly from somewhere behind him…
(To be continued...)