The corridor beyond the ruined artillery was suffocating with smoke and heat.
Steel panels had warped from the explosion, and broken conduits spat weak sparks along the walls. Henry pushed through the haze first, the others close behind him.
Then the passage opened.
At the center of the chamber stood a towering machine built into the structure of the Arcology itself.
Rings of metallic frameworks rotated slowly around a glowing core, humming with deep, mechanical resonance. Suspended at the heart of it was the cube.
Pandora's Box.
Thin streams of energy flowed from the cube into the surrounding apparatus, spreading outward like veins through the machinery.
Roland stood before it. His back was turned to them, white hair illuminated by the crimson glow of the device.
Henry stepped forward. "Stop this."
Roland did not turn around. "Shut up, autistic." he said flatly.
His voice carried no anger. Only exhaustion.
"I am not in the mood to argue philosophy again."
The words hung in the vibrating air. Henry watched him quietly.
For a brief moment, something stirred in his mind. A memory he had not allowed himself to revisit for years. The image of a younger Roland—quiet, reserved, a boy who used to hesitate before speaking.
A boy who smiled awkwardly when praised. A boy who once believed the world could be fixed without breaking it first.
That boy was gone.
The man standing before Pandora's Box felt like someone entirely different. Henry exhaled slowly.
"So this is where it ends," he murmured.
He glanced back. Arcee, Blyke and Cagaro understood immediately.
"Take your stance." Henry said calmly.
Metal shifted softly as the three of them spread out across the chamber floor. Arcee moved to the left flank, Blyke to the right, Cagaro slightly behind Henry. Their eyes never left Roland.
The machine's rings continued rotating, humming deeper with every passing second.
Roland finally moved.
He stepped slightly to the side, looking up at the suspended cube. His gaze lingered on it as if measuring something unseen.
Reflections of the crimson light danced across his eyes while his fingers tapped once against the hilt at his waist.
For a moment he thought something. Then he sighed softly.
"Well," he muttered, almost to himself.
His hand reached to his side. Steel slid free with a slow, deliberate sound.
"Let me introduce you... to my Kanto."
The crimson katana emerged like a blade drawn from fire itself, its edge blazed with deep red light that rippled along the metal as though alive. Roland lowered it loosely at his side, the glow illuminating the chamber floor beneath him.
Roland made the first move.
Kanto flashed crimson as the blade cut through the air in a single smooth motion. The strike did not aim for flesh—it split the space in front of him.
A blazing wave of fire erupted from the katana's arc, racing across the chamber floor like a tidal surge of molten heat.
"Watch the flames!" Henry shouted.
The wave slammed into the steel plating and detonated outward. Arcee rolled sideways while Blyke vaulted over the burning shockwave.
Cagaro planted his feet and redirected the blast with a sharp counterstrike that split the heat in two. Roland stepped through the fire as if it belonged to him.
Henry's voice cut through the chaos. "Stay clear of those strikes! Grim Tsar!"
Another slash came instantly. Two crimson arcs crossed midair. The blades of heat collided against the floor and disappeared beneath the metal surface for half a second.
Then the ground exploded.
Flames burst upward from below the plating, heat igniting inside the material itself. The metal glowed white as the chamber floor cracked apart from internal combustion.
"It is condensed heat injection." Henry muttered. "It burns from the inside out."
Blyke dashed forward through the smoke. His strike came fast, aimed directly at Roland's flank. Roland rotated his wrist.
Kanto met the blow with effortless precision, the impact ringing like a bell. In the same motion Roland twisted his blade downward and launched a backhand slash.
A compressed heat wave burst outward.
The air warped violently as matter itself seemed to reverse its flow, forcing Blyke backward as the pressure scattered debris across the room.
Arcee seized the opening.
She lunged from Roland's blind spot while Cagaro attacked from the opposite side, both strikes timed perfectly to corner him.
Roland stepped forward instead of retreating.
Kanto spun once in an arc.
A spiral of flame erupted around him like a rotating wall. Arcee's strike glanced off the fiery arc while Cagaro's blade clashed against Roland's katana directly.
Sparks exploded between them. Henry arrived in that instant.
Their blades collided three times in rapid succession. Each strike echoed through the chamber. Roland's expressions got serious.
Yet his movements flowed seamlessly, Kanto shifed between defense and offense without pause. Every counterstrike launched new waves of heat, every step repositioning him away from the encirclement.
The four fighters takes their formation, pressing him from all sides.
Arcee skidded backward after blocking another flaming arc, breathing harder now. She wiped soot from her cheek and muttered, half amused and half irritated,
"Alright… this guy is ridiculously tough."
Roland did not answer. Kanto rotated once in his hand, its crimson edge burning brighter as the machine behind him pulsed.
Arcee planted her feet.
A translucent barrier erupted around her body as she activated her Astra.
"AllGuard."
A second later Roland slashed.
The detonation hit like a collapsing star. Fire and compressed heat smashed against the shield, shaking the entire chamber. The blast would have vaporized steel, yet the barrier held. Eventually managing to save her allies behind her.
Then Arcee slammed her palm forward. The shield inverted outward.
A violent sonic pulse exploded outward, tearing through the burning air and striking Roland directly.
The shockwave rippled across his body like a hammer of pressure. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth and then ear.b
For the first time, Roland staggered one step.
The room went quiet for half a heartbeat.
Roland wiped the blood away slowly. Then he stepped forward again.
"You have all prepared very well." he said calmly. "More than I expected." His gaze moved across them with clinical observation. "Unfortunately, expectation are the flaw you can't redeem."
A shadow dropped from above. Roland noticed it. Cagaro descended like a falling blade, weapon aimed directly at Roland's spine. Roland moved instantly.
Kanto flashed twice.
Two intersecting crimson arcs carved upward through the air.
Cagaro twisted mid-air to avoid a lethal hit, but the double slash still caught him across the torso. Cloth tore apart as the strike threw him backward across the floor, bruised and scorched.
He rolled once and forced himself back to his feet, breathing harder. Henry stepped forward next.
He closed the distance without a weapon.
Their fists collided. Henry drove a straight punch toward Roland's jaw.
Roland deflected and answered with a brutal elbow aimed at Henry's ribs. Henry slipped inside the strike and countered with a sharp blow to Roland's chest.
The exchange was fast and brutal. Then Henry suddenly stepped aside. A blur hit came forward from behind him.
It was Blyke.
His speed cut through the smoke like a projectile, his strike aimed directly at Roland's head.
Roland lifted Kanto to block but something distracted him. For a fraction of a second his conscious, focus was drawn somewhere else.
Toward the broken window behind them.
Toward the endless void outside. That single fracture of focus was enough.
Blyke's strike landed perfectly on Roland's jaw.
The blow detonated across Roland's guard, sending him skidding violently across the floor before he regained his balance several meters away.
Blyke lowered his weapon with a sharp grin.
"Yeah." he said mockingly. "Turns out trying to hurt my friends isn't a great strategy."
Roland slowly stood upright again. His eyes had become colder.