The battlefield remained frozen beneath the crimson barrier while floodwater drifted through the ruined streets. Hikari’s body still hung from the blackened blood pillar, suspended above the destruction she had died protecting.

For several long seconds, nobody could accept what they were looking at.

Then the pillar moved.

A low wet sound echoed across the battlefield as the hardened blood began to soften. Crimson veins spread through the structure before it slowly dissolved back into liquid, flowing downward in thick streams.

The moment the support vanished, Hikari’s body started to fall.

Roki moved immediately.

The large beastkin lunged forward and caught her before she could hit the ground.

The impact nearly dropped him to one knee, not because Hikari was heavy, but because she was gone.

Roki carefully lowered her into his arms while blood continued dripping from the massive wound in her chest. The sight made his stomach twist. He had fought beside Hikari for years. They had survived monsters, dungeons, disasters, and battles that should have killed them both dozens of times over.

And now she felt fragile.

Far too fragile.

Roki stared down at her face.

She still looked peaceful.

Like she had simply fallen asleep.

That somehow made it hurt even more.

Behind him, Daichi remained standing exactly where he had been, motionless. His dagger hung loosely at his side while his green eyes remained fixed on Hikari. He hadn’t spoken, blinked, or moved since she died.

Rei slowly approached him from behind. Her own injuries hurt like hell, but compared to what Daichi was feeling, they barely mattered.

“Daichi.”

No response.

“Daichi.”

Nothing.

His gaze remained fixed on Hikari.

Rei knew that look.

Shock.

Pure shock.

The kind that arrived when reality became too painful for the mind to process.

A hand rested on his shoulder.

Slowly.

Gently.

Daichi finally blinked.

The world returned all at once.

His breathing became uneven.

His grip tightened around his dagger.

Then tightened harder.

For a brief moment, Rei thought he might break the handle.

“We need to move.”

The words felt cruel.

Necessary.

But cruel.

Daichi swallowed.

“…Yeah.”

His voice sounded hollow.

Across the battlefield, Aira suddenly pushed past everyone.

“No.”

The healer’s voice cracked.

“No, no, no…”

She sprinted toward Hikari’s body.

Roki looked up just as Aira dropped to her knees beside them.

The young healer immediately pressed both hands against the wound.

Blue healing energy surged from her palms.

Nothing happened. Aira poured more energy into the wound, then more still, but no matter how much healing power she used, nothing changed.

“Aira…” Yuki said quietly.

“No.”

The pink-haired healer shook her head violently.

“No. We can fix this.”

Tears streamed down her face.

“We can fix this.”

Her hands trembled harder.

“We have two healers.”

Her voice broke.

“I-If Itsuki helps me…”

Aira turned.

Hope.

Desperation.

Panic.

All of it disappeared the moment she saw Itsuki.

Itsuki wasn’t moving.

She sat on the flooded street staring at nothing.

Her eyes were unfocused.

Empty.

Shunjiro remained beside her.

He had been talking.

Trying to reach her.

Trying to say something.

Anything.

None of it mattered.

Itsuki hadn’t responded once.

Not a word.

Not a glance.

Nothing.

Aira’s heart shattered.

The second healer she needed wasn’t there.

Not really.

Shunjiro looked up toward her.

The hopelessness in his eyes told her everything.

Itsuki couldn’t help.

Itsuki could barely hold herself together.

Black wisps of corruption drifted around her body. The change was slow and subtle, but it was growing stronger with every passing second.

Shunjiro noticed it too. With every passing moment, the darkness around Itsuki seemed to grow heavier and darker, as though something was slowly pulling her downward while he stood helplessly by.

Aira’s hands fell away from Hikari’s body.

For the first time, she accepted it.

Hikari was gone.

The realization hit her harder than any wound ever could.

Yuki finally stepped forward.

Her expression remained composed, though her eyes carried a sadness she couldn’t hide.

“We need to move.”

Nobody argued. Nobody had the energy left to argue, and everyone understood the battlefield was no longer safe.

Suzu would return.

The question wasn’t if.

It was when.

“We’ll take them.”

Yuki looked toward Ryota first.

The injured martial artist remained unconscious nearby.

Then she looked toward Hikari.

“We’ll keep them safe.”

Roki lowered his head.

“…Please.”

Yuki nodded once.

“We won’t leave her behind.”

Sora stepped forward without a word.

The silver-haired adventurer knelt beside Hikari’s body.

For once there was no arrogance.

Just silence.

Carefully, he lifted Hikari into his arms.

The dwarfwoman looked impossibly small now.

The sight hurt.

Lars walked over next.

His eyes settled on the massive warhammer resting nearby.

For a moment he simply stared at it.

Then he bent down and picked it up.

The weapon was ridiculously heavy, yet Lars lifted it without complaint.

This belonged with her.

Akima slowly joined them, one hand pressed against her head.

Even now the remnants of Suzu’s thoughts echoed inside her skull.

She couldn’t fight anymore.

Not like this.

Aira reluctantly stood and wiped at her eyes before moving toward Ryota.

Yuki helped lift him.

The group gathered together.

One carrying the wounded.

One carrying the fallen.

And all of them carrying grief.

Before leaving, Sora looked back one final time.

Toward Daichi.

Toward Roki.

Toward Rei.

Then toward Suzu’s empty position.

His jaw tightened.

No words came.

None were needed.

The group departed quickly through the ruined streets.

Taking Ryota.

Taking Hikari.

Taking the warhammer.

Leaving the battlefield behind.

Tetsuo suddenly took a step forward.

Then another.

Yoshinori grabbed him immediately.

“Tetsuo.”

The larger boy tried pulling free.

“Let me go.”

“No.”

Tetsuo struggled harder.

“We can’t just sit here!”

His voice cracked.

“We can’t just keep watching people die!”

Yoshinori tightened his grip.

Tetsuo froze.

Because Yoshinori’s hand was shaking.

The lightning user looked calm.

But he wasn’t.

Not even close.

Tetsuo could feel it.

Fear.

Real fear.

The same fear he felt himself.

Yoshinori slowly lowered his head.

“If they couldn’t beat her…”

His voice came out barely above a whisper.

Tetsuo stopped struggling.

Because he understood exactly what Yoshinori meant.

If Hikari could die…

What chance did they have?

Nearby, Aiko remained silent.

Guilt twisted inside her chest. Once again, someone stronger had stepped forward to protect everyone else, and once again that person had paid the price for it. Aiko hated the feeling of standing behind others while they bled for her sake.

The floodwater continued to move through the ruined streets of the Coastal Kingdom, rippling around broken stone, shattered glass, and streaks of blood that had not yet washed away. Above them, the crimson barrier stretched across the sky like a wound that refused to close, casting everything beneath it in a red glow that made the kingdom feel less like a city and more like something trapped inside a dying heart.

Daichi stood at the front of the remaining Titans without saying a word.

His dagger rested loosely in his hand, but the wind around him had not settled. It moved constantly now, circling his body in faint, restless currents. Every few seconds the air sharpened, then loosened again, as though his spiritual energy itself could not decide whether to remain controlled or lash out at everything around him.

Roki stood beside him, cleaver in hand, flames crawling low along the blade. The beastkin’s face remained calm, but the fire gave away what his expression did not. It burned hotter than before. Denser. Less like a weapon being prepared and more like grief being forced into a shape that could still fight.

Rei stood a few steps behind them, her silver-pink hair shifting lightly in the wind while chunks of stone, broken pillars, and slabs of destroyed buildings slowly lifted from the street around her. She had not spoken since Hikari’s body disappeared into the darkened streets with the others. Her eyes remained locked ahead, calm and focused, but the quiet behind them was different now.

Shunjiro remained beside Itsuki.

He had not left her side once.

Itsuki sat on the flooded stone with her hands resting loosely in her lap, her eyes unfocused as though she were looking through the entire battlefield rather than at it. Dark wisps of energy slowly leaked from around her shoulders and arms, thin black threads rising and fading into the air before gathering again. Shunjiro could feel the wrongness in it. Itsuki’s spiritual energy had always felt warm to him, even when she was exhausted, even when she was scared. Now it felt cold and heavy, like something was being pulled out of her and replaced with something that did not belong.

“Itsuki,” he said quietly.

She did not answer.

Shunjiro swallowed hard and reached for her hand, but the moment his fingers touched hers, the black energy around her pulsed faintly. He froze, not because it hurt him, but because it scared him. He was losing her right in front of him, and unlike anything else they had faced tonight, there was nothing to punch, nothing to push back against, nothing he could throw himself at to make it stop.

Farther ahead, Daichi finally moved.

He took one step forward.

The wind shifted with him.

Roki glanced at him briefly. “Daichi.”

Daichi did not look back. “Don’t.”

Roki’s expression remained steady. “You need to breathe.”

“I am breathing.”

“No,” Roki said quietly. “You’re waiting to explode.”

Daichi’s fingers tightened around the dagger until his knuckles paled. For a moment, it seemed like he might snap at him, but no words came. His eyes stayed fixed on the street ahead where Suzu had been launched through the buildings by Hurricane Edge.

The ruined structure in the distance groaned.

Everyone heard it.

Daichi raised his dagger slightly.

Roki’s flames rose.

Rei lifted one hand.

A section of collapsed wall shifted in the darkness, then another. Rubble slid down into the flooded street, sending slow ripples across the water. For a moment, nothing emerged from the broken building. Only smoke drifted from the hole where Daichi’s attack had torn through the structure.

Then Suzu stepped out.

Her black cloak was torn in several places now, one sleeve half burned away from Roki’s flames and the lower edge shredded from the hurricane that had carried her through the building. Blood ran from a cut along her cheek and another across her forehead, while one side of her hair clung damply to her face. Her ribs on one side were visibly bruised beneath torn cloth, and several cuts along her arm were still closing as thin streams of blood crawled back into her skin.

She looked damaged.

But not weakened enough.

That was what made the sight horrifying.

Hurricane Edge had thrown her through an entire building. Roki’s flames had burned through her blood shields. Hikari had landed blows that should have crushed bone. The three Titans had pushed her harder than anyone else on the battlefield.

And Suzu was still walking.

She stepped into the open street slowly, crimson eyes drifting across the battlefield until they settled on the three remaining Titans. She did not look toward Hikari’s absence. She did not acknowledge the body that had been carried away. She did not seem to care that she had just taken a life.

Daichi saw that.

Something in his face changed.

Something cold.

“You don’t even care,” he said.

Suzu’s gaze shifted to him.

Daichi’s voice lowered. “You killed her, and you don’t even care.”

Suzu stared at him for a moment, her expression unreadable. “She attacked me.”

The answer was quiet.

Simple.

As if that explained everything.

The wind around Daichi screamed.

Roki moved his arm slightly in front of him, not enough to stop him completely, but enough to remind him that he was not standing alone. “Daichi.”

Daichi’s eyes did not leave Suzu. “Move your arm.”

“No.”

“I said move.”

“And I said no.”

Suzu tilted her head faintly, watching the exchange as if she found it mildly interesting. The blood around her wrist began to gather again, forming a thin curved blade that extended from her forearm. It wasn’t as large as before, but it looked sharper, compressed into a narrow edge that shimmered like wet glass.

Rei’s voice cut through the tension from behind them. “Daichi, if you rush in alone, you die.”

Daichi did not answer.

“Then we all die faster,” Rei continued, her tone calm but firm. “If you want to kill her, do it with us.”

The wind around him tightened, but it no longer exploded outward.

Roki lifted his cleaver with both hands, flames brightening along the edge. “Together.”

Daichi drew in one slow breath through his nose. It shook slightly on the way in, but he forced it down, forced the rage into the dagger, into the wind, into something that could still be used.

“Fine,” he said.

Rei’s eyes narrowed. “Then move on my signal.”

Suzu dashed before the signal came.

She crossed the street in a blur of crimson and black, the floodwater barely splashing beneath her feet as she went straight for Daichi. This time, Rei reacted first. The slabs of broken stone hovering around her shot forward from multiple directions, not aiming to crush Suzu outright but to cut off her approach. Suzu twisted between the first two, sliced through the third with her blood blade, and ducked beneath a fourth, but the moment her path narrowed, Roki was already there.

His cleaver came down in a burning arc.

Suzu raised a blood shield.

The flames struck it with a violent hiss, boiling the surface almost instantly, and Roki pushed harder, using his full weight to drive the burning blade toward her. Suzu’s feet slid back a fraction, but before she could reinforce the shield, Daichi appeared at her side with a gust of wind carrying him forward.

His dagger slashed toward her ribs.

Suzu bent away, the blade missing by inches, but Daichi’s attack was never meant to land cleanly. The wind trailing behind the dagger curved sharply and struck her from the opposite side, forcing her back into Roki’s flames. The blood shield cracked under the combined pressure.

Rei lifted both hands.

The street beneath Suzu’s feet tore upward.

Chunks of stone rose like jaws trying to trap her legs, and Suzu finally had to abandon the block. She leapt backward, blood bursting from her arms into whip-like tendrils that latched onto nearby walls and pulled her clear before the ground closed around her.

Daichi followed instantly.

Too quickly.

Roki noticed and moved after him.

Daichi slashed again and again, each swing sending compressed blades of wind through the street. Suzu avoided the first three, cut through the fourth, then raised her hand as blood gathered into a spinning disk that deflected the fifth. The impact scattered wind across the street hard enough to rip tiles from nearby rooftops.

“You’re slower,” Daichi said through clenched teeth.

Suzu looked at him.

He vanished into a burst of wind and reappeared behind her. “Good.”

His dagger cut across her back.

It was shallow, but it landed.

Suzu turned, crimson eyes narrowing slightly, and blood immediately rose from the wound to form needles. Before they could fire, Roki’s flames swept across her back and burned them away. Suzu stepped aside from the fire, and Rei used that half-step to slam a floating pillar into her side.

The blow sent Suzu crashing through the wall of a ruined shop.

For one brief moment, the Titans seized control of the battle again.

Roki surged forward, flames roaring higher as he entered the broken shop after her. Suzu emerged through the opposite wall almost immediately, but Daichi’s wind struck from above, driving her downward into the street. Rei pulled shattered stone from the buildings around them and sent it in layers, forcing Suzu to cut, dodge, and redirect constantly while Roki pressed her from the front.

This was grief sharpened into violence.

Daichi attacked from every angle with wind-assisted movement, never staying in one place longer than a heartbeat. Roki kept the pressure direct, forcing Suzu to meet fire with blood over and over again. Rei controlled the environment from behind them, lifting debris, collapsing walls, shifting the battlefield itself so Suzu could never move freely.

And for several moments, it worked.

Suzu’s cloak tore further. A cut opened across her shoulder. Roki’s flame burned along her side before she smothered it in blood. Daichi’s wind blade carved a line across her cheek. Rei slammed a stone slab into her back hard enough to drive her to one knee.

Daichi drove forward again, wind spiraling around his dagger as he aimed for her throat. Suzu blocked with a short blood blade, and the collision sent a sharp shockwave through the street. Daichi twisted his wrist, letting the wind bend around her guard and strike her shoulder from behind. Suzu’s arm jerked slightly, and Roki used the opening to slam the flat of his cleaver into her chest with explosive force.

Flames detonated.

Suzu flew backward across the street and crashed into a half-collapsed fountain. Stone shattered beneath her body, water spraying upward before turning pink from the blood spilling into it.

Daichi landed beside Roki, breathing hard.

Roki’s left arm twitched.

Daichi noticed immediately. “Your arm.”

“It’s fine.”

Roki didn’t look away from Suzu. “Later.”

Suzu stood from the fountain slowly.

The front of her cloak had burned away in places, revealing scorched skin beneath. The wounds were already healing, but the burns lingered longer than the cuts. Her eyes shifted toward Roki, and for the first time, something like annoyance flickered across her face.

“Your flames are delaying her recovery,” Rei said.

“Then I’ll keep burning her,” Roki replied.

Daichi wiped blood from his jaw with the back of his hand. “Good. I’ll keep cutting her.”

Rei raised more debris around them. “And I’ll keep her boxed in.”

Suzu stepped forward.

The blood in the street responded.

Not just her blood this time.

The blood left from the Shore Reaver, from injuries, from the battlefield itself, stirred beneath the floodwater in thin crimson threads. Roki’s eyes narrowed as the strands moved toward them from multiple directions.

“Above,” Rei warned.

Daichi looked up just as blood needles formed in the air overhead.

He sliced his dagger upward, sending a cyclone burst into the sky that scattered half of them. Rei caught several with telekinetically lifted stone, and Roki burned through the ones aimed directly at him, but Suzu moved inside the distraction with terrifying speed.

She appeared at Roki’s left side.

Roki turned, but he was a fraction too slow.

A blood blade pierced through his left shoulder, punching between armor plates and tearing through muscle before he could fully reinforce the area. His jaw tightened, but he did not cry out. Flames erupted from the wound immediately as he burned the blood blade apart from inside his own shoulder.

Suzu’s eyes widened faintly.

Roki swung his cleaver with his right arm and forced her back before she could drive the blade deeper.

Daichi came in a heartbeat later, wind slamming Suzu sideways, and Rei dropped a chunk of rooftop between them to cut off the follow-up. Roki stepped back once, breathing heavily as blood ran down his left arm.

His hand opened and closed.

Then failed to close properly.

Daichi’s face hardened. “Can you move it?”

Roki tried.

His fingers barely twitched.

“No.”

Daichi cursed under his breath.

Roki shifted his cleaver fully into his right hand. “I still have one arm.”

“That’s not funny.”

“I wasn’t joking.”

Suzu watched them silently, her damaged cloak moving slightly in the wind. Her own wounds remained visible now, burns across her side, cuts along her arms, bruising at her ribs from Roki’s impact and Rei’s stones. 

But she was still standing too easily.

Rei noticed the change in Roki’s stance immediately. Losing one arm meant losing balance, reach, and defensive options. Daichi was already more reckless than she wanted, and without Hikari to hold the center, the formation had become fragile. They were still dangerous, but they no longer had the wall that kept everything from collapsing.

Suzu moved again.

This time Rei met her halfway.

Not physically.

The buildings did.

The moment Suzu dashed toward Roki’s injured side, Rei ripped an entire balcony from a nearby structure and slammed it into Suzu’s path. Suzu cut through it, but Rei had already pulled a streetlamp, two stone pillars, and half a collapsed roof into motion. The objects came from different angles, forcing Suzu to slice through one, duck another, and leap over the third.

Daichi appeared above her.

Wind roared beneath his feet as he descended with his dagger pointed downward. Suzu twisted midair and raised a blood shield, but Roki appeared below with fire gathering around his cleaver.

For a moment, Suzu was trapped between Daichi above, Roki below, and Rei controlling every avenue of escape. 

Daichi swung first, wind compressing around his dagger. Roki followed a split second later, flames wrapping tightly around his cleaver until the edge burned white-orange. Suzu’s blood surged around her body in a sphere, hardening just before both attacks struck.

The impact cracked the street beneath them.

Daichi’s wind drilled into the top of the blood sphere while Roki’s flames burned upward from below. Rei clenched both hands and compressed the surrounding debris inward, adding pressure from every side.

The blood sphere began to buckle.

Her lips parted as if she had realized the pressure was stronger than expected.

Daichi saw it and pushed harder. “Burn her!”

Roki’s spiritual energy flared.

The flames around his cleaver surged through the bottom of the sphere and touched Suzu’s leg. For the first time, Suzu flinched visibly. Blood erupted outward in response, not as a shield, but as a blast, scattering all three forces at once.

Daichi was thrown backward into a wall.

Roki skidded across the flooded street, his injured arm hanging uselessly.

Rei staggered in place but kept her footing, sweat forming along her brow.

Suzu landed in the center of the cracked street, one leg scorched, her breathing slightly heavier than before. The wound did not heal immediately. Blackened burns remained across her calf, and for several seconds, she stared down at them with something close to confusion.

Roki steadied himself and lifted his cleaver again.

Daichi pulled himself away from the wall, blood running down from a cut above his eye.

Rei exhaled slowly and raised more debris.

Suzu looked up at them as the blood around her thinned and spread.

Instead of blades and shields, crimson threads flowed outward across the floodwater, so thin they almost vanished in the red glow of the barrier. Rei saw them and immediately understood the danger.

“Don’t step in the water!”

Daichi launched himself upward with wind at the same time Roki leapt onto a broken slab Rei lifted beneath his feet. The threads snapped upward a moment later, slicing through the street where their legs had been. The cut lines were so clean that sections of stone slid apart silently before collapsing into the water.

Roki’s expression darkened.

That would have taken their legs.

Suzu raised her hand, and the threads followed.

Rei reacted, throwing stones between the threads and her allies. Daichi cut through several with wind, but each severed thread reformed from the blood beneath the water. Roki burned what he could, but with one arm and rising exhaustion, his defense was slower now.

Suzu dashed through her own web of blood as if it did not exist.

She went for Daichi again.

Daichi was ready this time, or thought he was. He launched himself sideways with a burst of wind, curved around a ruined wall, and came at Suzu from the flank. She turned to meet him, blade forming in her hand, but Rei pulled the wall itself apart behind Daichi and hurled the pieces into Suzu’s side.

Suzu deflected most of them with blood.

Not all.

One struck her shoulder. Another clipped her head. A third slammed into her ribs.

Daichi used the opening and drove a wind-coated kick into her stomach.

Suzu folded slightly from the impact, and Roki appeared from above, cleaver burning bright in his right hand. He brought it down across Suzu’s back, flames exploding on contact. Suzu hit the ground hard, floodwater blasting outward from the impact.

For a second, she stayed down.

Daichi landed, breathing hard while Roki stumbled beside him. Rei’s hands trembled from the strain, but she refused to lower them. 

Then Suzu’s hand pressed against the ground.

Daichi’s eyes narrowed.

Suzu rose again.

The burn across her back was real. Her cloak had been torn open, her skin charred along one shoulder blade, and several cuts from Rei’s debris still marked her face and arms. She looked more injured than before, but her aura had not diminished. If anything, the darkness around her felt deeper now, heavier, like the corruption inside her was responding to every wound by feeding her more.

Itsuki sat beside Shunjiro. He immediately looked toward her, panic tightening in his chest.

“Itsuki,” he whispered again. “Please.”

Itsuki still did not answer.

At the front, Suzu lifted both hands.

Blood rose from the water behind Daichi.

Rei saw it.

“Daichi, behind you!”

Daichi turned and cut through the first spike with wind, then the second, then ducked beneath a third as it shot toward his head. Suzu used the opening to close the distance from the front, blade aiming for his chest.

Roki moved.

Even with one arm dead and blood soaking his shoulder, he stepped between Daichi and Suzu with enough speed to intercept the strike. His cleaver caught the blood blade at an awkward angle, sparks and steam bursting between them as fire met hardened crimson.

Daichi’s eyes widened. “Roki, don’t-”

Suzu’s other hand lifted.

A second weapon formed.

Not a blade.

A heavy spear of condensed blood.

Roki saw it coming and shifted his body, placing himself fully in front of Daichi. The spear slammed into his side with brutal force, not piercing cleanly because his spiritual energy hardened at the last second, but the impact drove deep enough to crush armor and bone beneath it.

The sound was sickening.

Roki’s ribs broke under the blow.

His breath left him in a harsh, broken gasp as his body lifted from the ground and slammed backward into Daichi, sending both of them crashing through the flooded street. They hit a collapsed stone wall hard enough to crack what remained of it before falling into the water.

“Roki!” Rei shouted.

Daichi coughed violently beneath him, stunned but alive.

Roki tried to push himself up with his right arm.

His body refused.

Pain tore through his chest so intensely that his vision blurred white. Every breath felt like knives splitting through his ribs, and his left arm still hung uselessly at his side. He managed to lift his head enough to look at Daichi.

“…You alive?” Roki asked, voice rough.

Daichi stared at him in horror. “You idiot.”

Roki’s mouth twitched faintly, not quite a smile. “Good.”

Then his eyes rolled back.

His body went limp.

Daichi caught him before his head hit the water, the wind around him dying for half a second as he realized Roki had passed out from the pain. Across the battlefield, Suzu stood amidst the destruction with blood slowly dripping from the edge of her fingertips. The Blood Witch looked far worse than she had at the start of the battle. Burns blackened sections of her skin where Roki’s flames had reached her. Cuts from Daichi’s wind attacks crossed her arms and face. Bruises marked her ribs and shoulders from repeated impacts. Torn sections of her cloak hung loosely from her body.

Rei took a slow step forward.

Then another.

The exhaustion was beginning to show now. Her breathing had become heavier, and blood trickled from one nostril before running down her lips. Every major telekinetic maneuver she had performed throughout the battle had drained more energy than she could afford to spend.

Yet she continued moving.

Daichi immediately understood what she was about to do.

His eyes widened.

“Rei.”

She didn’t look at him.

“Take Roki and leave.”

“No.”

The answer came immediately.

Firm.

Certain.

Rei finally glanced back at him.

For a brief moment, Daichi saw the same expression she always wore whenever she made a difficult decision for the guild. It wasn’t fear. It wasn’t uncertainty.

It was acceptance.

“We don’t have enough strength left to win a prolonged fight,” she said quietly. “If we keep going like this, she’ll kill us one by one.”

Daichi gritted his teeth.

“You think I don’t know that?”

“Then stop arguing.”

The air around Rei began to tremble.

Suzu noticed it immediately.

The Blood Witch’s eyes narrowed.

Every remaining piece of debris throughout the ruined district began to shake.

Broken walls.

Collapsed rooftops.

Shattered towers.

Sections of roads.

Everything.

At first the movement was subtle enough that most people didn’t notice. Then the vibrations intensified until loose stones started lifting off the ground.

Farther back, Yoshinori felt his stomach drop.

“What is she doing?”

Aiko stared at the battlefield.

“I don’t know.”

Shunjiro looked up from beside Itsuki.

Even through his concern for her, he could feel the pressure gathering around Rei.

The amount of spiritual energy being released was staggering.

Pieces of the city began rising.

Not dozens.

Hundreds.

Then thousands.

Entire sections of destroyed buildings tore themselves free from the streets. Massive slabs of stone drifted into the sky alongside twisted support beams and broken walls. Windows shattered as surrounding structures groaned under the strain.

The battlefield darkened.

Not because of clouds.

Because the sky itself was filling with debris.

Daichi had seen Rei fight countless times.

He had seen her use telekinesis to move buildings before.

He had seen her stop monsters several times larger than herself.

He had never seen this.

Neither had Roki.

Neither had Hikari.

Because Rei had never pushed herself this far before.

The realization made his chest tighten.

She was spending everything.

Every remaining drop of energy.

Every reserve she had left.

Suzu finally moved.

Blood erupted from the floodwater and formed a dozen blades around her body.

Before she could launch them, a building hit her.

An entire building.

The structure slammed into her from the side like a giant hammer, exploding into debris upon impact.

The attack didn’t stop there.

Another followed.

Then another.

Then another.

Rei’s hand remained raised as she directed the destruction of an entire district toward a single target.

Suzu burst through the first collapse and cut apart a section of falling stone with her blood blade. A second building crashed into her before she could fully recover. A third struck moments later.

The impacts became impossible to count.

Every direction became a weapon.

Every ruined structure became ammunition.

The battlefield vanished beneath a storm of destruction.

Even Suzu was eventually forced onto the defensive.

Blood erupted around her in massive waves as she carved apart incoming debris, but there was simply too much.

The city itself was attacking her.

Daichi watched in stunned silence.

Rei clenched her hand.

Everything changed.

The floating debris that had been bombarding Suzu suddenly shifted direction. Thousands of pieces of stone, steel, wood, and concrete converged toward a single point.

Toward Suzu.

The collisions shook the kingdom.

Buildings smashed together.

Roads folded inward.

Entire rooftops collapsed into one another.

The sound echoed endlessly beneath the crimson barrier.

Then the debris continued compressing.

More.

And more.

And more.

Until a colossal sphere formed in the center of the battlefield.

It towered over everything around it.

A mountain of destruction held together through nothing but Rei’s telekinetic force.

Suzu was trapped somewhere inside.

Buried beneath enough weight to crush most monsters into paste.

The battlefield went silent.

Nobody spoke.

Nobody moved.

Even the floodwater seemed still.

Rei’s arm shook violently.

Blood dripped steadily from her nose now.

Yet she continued compressing the sphere.

The massive structure groaned beneath the pressure.

Cracks spread across its surface.

Daichi stared.

Please.

For the first time since Hikari’s death, Daichi found himself hoping.

Just this once. Let it be enough.

The sphere compressed further.

The groaning intensified.

Then something changed.

A faint crimson glow appeared within one of the cracks.

Daichi’s expression immediately darkened.

Another glow appeared.

Then another.

Then another.

Within seconds the entire sphere looked like it had been filled with veins of red light.

Rei saw it too.

Her face paled.

“No…”

The red glow intensified.

The cracks widened.

Something inside was moving.

Not struggling.

Not pushing.

Cutting.

The realization arrived a heartbeat too late.

The entire sphere exploded.

A shockwave of destruction tore across the battlefield as countless crescent-shaped blades of blood erupted outward from the center.

“Blood Sickles.”

Suzu’s voice echoed through the destruction.

The attack expanded in every direction.

Hundreds of razor-sharp crescents burst from her body like a blooming crimson flower. The blood sickles carved through everything they touched. Stone was sliced apart. Steel support beams were severed instantly. Entire sections of debris were reduced to fragments before they could even begin falling.

The giant prison that Rei had sacrificed everything to create disappeared within seconds.

Not shattered.

Cut apart.

The distinction was horrifying.

Daichi immediately raised a wall of compressed wind around himself and Rei. Several blood sickles slammed into it and exploded into red mist, but others pierced through the defense. One carved a deep line across his shoulder. Another sliced through his thigh. A third tore through a nearby building before finally losing momentum.

The attack continued for several seconds before finally ending.

The battlefield looked unrecognizable. Where an entire district had once stood now remained little more than rubble. The district was gone. What had once been streets, buildings, and homes had been reduced to a wasteland of shattered stone and twisted steel.

The Blood Witch had not escaped unscathed. Burns blackened portions of her skin, cuts crossed her arms and face, and bruises marked nearly every visible part of her body. Blood ran down one side of her cheek before disappearing into the collar of her torn cloak.

The Titans had hurt her.

They had pushed her farther than anyone thought possible.

But she was still standing.

And that single fact extinguished that hope. 

Rei stared at her for a long moment before her raised arm finally dropped.

The telekinetic pressure holding the battlefield together vanished instantly. Chunks of debris crashed back to the ground throughout the district, sending up clouds of dust and water. The effort of maintaining such overwhelming force had drained everything she had left.

Her knees buckled.

Daichi caught her before she could collapse into the flooded street.

The moment he steadied her, he felt how little strength remained in her body.

“Rei.”

She looked up at him, exhausted beyond words. Blood still trickled from her nose, and her normally sharp eyes seemed distant.

“I couldn’t…” she whispered.

Daichi shook his head immediately.

“No.”

The response came out rougher than he intended.

“You don’t get to say that.”

Rei blinked.

“You did everything.”

His grip tightened slightly on her shoulder.

“You did more than anyone could have.”

A faint smile touched her lips before her eyes drifted closed. She remained conscious, but only barely. The battle had taken everything from her.

The leader of the Titans could no longer fight.

Daichi looked from Rei to Roki’s unconscious form, then to the empty space where Hikari should have been.

The reality was impossible to ignore now. Everything the Titans had thrown at Suzu had failed. 

Across the ruined battlefield, Suzu began walking toward them.

Slowly.

Deliberately.

Daichi rose to meet her.

Pain flared through his wounded leg, and blood continued to run down his arm. His spiritual energy reserves were nearly empty, his body battered from head to toe, but none of it mattered anymore.

He picked up his dagger.

Wind gathered around him once again, swirling through the ruins in uneven currents. It lacked the precision it once had. It lacked control.

But it was still there.

There were no plans, no formations, and no one left to support him.

Only one final battle.

Far across the rubble-strewn district, Suzu watched him approach. She looked wounded, battered, and stained with blood.

Daichi looked much the same.

Yet neither of them stopped moving.

The Blood Witch advanced.

And Daichi Takeda stood alone.