Suzu lifted her hand and a blade of blood erupted from her arm, extending outward in a flash of crimson before she launched herself toward Itsuki with blinding speed. The flooded street shattered beneath her feet as she crossed the battlefield in an instant, her red eyes locked entirely on her younger sister.
Itsuki froze.
The emotions crashing through her mind made it impossible to react. She had only just learned the truth about Suzu. The sister she thought was lost forever stood before her alive, responsible for the deaths of their parents, and now charging toward her with enough killing intent to make the air itself feel heavy.
Before Suzu could reach her, another figure intercepted the attack.
“I won’t let you!”
Hikari Balrik exploded forward from across the battlefield, warhammer in hand. The dwarfwoman moved with surprising speed for someone carrying such a massive weapon, her spiritual energy surging around her body as she threw herself directly between Suzu and Itsuki. The moment she entered range, Hikari swung her hammer with all her strength.
Suzu reacted immediately.
Her blood blade rose to meet the strike, and the instant the two weapons collided, blood erupted from the blade’s surface. Crimson tendrils shot outward and wrapped around the head of the hammer from multiple angles, almost as if the weapon had a will of its own and was desperately trying to stop the incoming blow.
For a brief moment the blood held.
Then Hikari’s strength overwhelmed it.
Cracks raced across the blood blade as the warhammer continued pushing forward. The crimson weapon fractured under the pressure before shattering apart completely, and the hammer slammed into Suzu’s side with enough force to send her skidding backward through the flooded street. Water exploded into the air around her while broken stone tore apart beneath her feet as she was pushed dozens of meters away.
Hikari planted her warhammer firmly into the ground and stepped protectively in front of Itsuki.
“I’ve got this, kid,” she said without taking her eyes off Suzu. “You don’t need to worry about her.”
Her voice sounded confident, exactly what everyone needed to hear in that moment, but the truth was very different. Hikari was scared.
That attack should have done more damage.
A lot more.
She had landed cleanly.
The blood blade had shattered.
The hammer had connected directly.
Yet as the water settled around the battlefield, Suzu calmly straightened herself and wiped a small trail of blood from the corner of her mouth. The crimson liquid never reached the ground. Instead, it reversed direction and flowed back into her body as though the injury had never happened.
Hikari tightened her grip around the handle of her warhammer.
Across from her, Suzu remained completely calm.
The shattered remains of the blood blade dissolved into liquid and floated back toward her arm. New streams of blood emerged from beneath her sleeve and wrapped around her hand, rebuilding the weapon piece by piece until it looked completely untouched.
Neither woman spoke.
Suzu simply stared at Hikari.
Those bright crimson eyes slowly moved over the dwarfwoman, studying her strength, her stance, and the way she carried herself. It wasn’t the look of someone preparing to fight an opponent. It felt more like a predator examining something interesting.
Hikari tightened her grip on the hammer.
“So that’s how it is,” she muttered.
Suzu tilted her head slightly, crimson eyes studying the dwarfwoman with unsettling calm. She didn’t look angry about being struck. She didn’t look wounded enough to care. Her gaze moved over Hikari’s stance, her weapon, the way her spiritual energy gathered in her shoulders and arms, and the faintest hint of curiosity crossed her face.
“You’re strong,” Suzu said softly.
Hikari forced a grin. “Yeah? You’re creepy.”
Before Suzu could move again, wind tore through the street.
Daichi landed beside Hikari in a sharp burst of air, his silver hair whipping around his face as he clicked his tongue in irritation. “Don’t take all the attention, hammerhead.”
Hikari didn’t look at him. “Took you long enough.”
Roki stepped in on Hikari’s other side, his massive cleaver resting low in one hand as flames slowly crawled across the blade. His calm expression didn’t match the pressure rising from his body. The fire surrounding his weapon burned hotter with every second, steam hissing from the floodwater around his feet.
“You okay?” he asked Hikari.
“No,” she answered honestly, still staring at Suzu. “But I’m standing.”
Roki nodded once. “Good enough.”
Daichi’s eyes narrowed toward Suzu. “Rei, stay back and watch her movements. If we can’t pin her down, this gets ugly fast.”
From farther behind them, Rei stood with her crimson eyes fixed on Suzu, calm but grim. “I’m watching.”
Akima stood near Aira, clutching the side of her head. She tried to focus on Suzu again, tried to reach even a fragment of thought, but the moment her power brushed against Suzu’s mind, pain stabbed behind her eyes hard enough to make her stagger.
Aira caught her arm. “Akima?”
Akima breathed sharply through her teeth. “I can’t read her. It hurts. Her thoughts are… broken.”
Daichi heard that and his expression darkened. “Great. Corruption on top of blood manipulation. Exactly what I wanted tonight.”
Suzu’s eyes drifted briefly toward Akima, and the elf girl immediately flinched as if something had pressed directly against her skull. Then Suzu looked back at the three fighters standing before her.
Hikari rolled her shoulders. “We doing this?”
Daichi lifted one hand as wind began curling around his fingers. “We do it clean. Hikari holds center. Roki burns whatever she makes. I control her movement. Don’t give her time to think.”
Roki nodded. “Understood.”
Hikari grinned despite the fear in her chest. “So our usual.”
Daichi sighed. “Unfortunately.”
They moved together.
Hikari charged first, her heavy steps shaking the flooded street as she rushed Suzu head-on. Suzu met her calmly, blood blade raised, but Daichi’s wind surged from the side before their weapons could collide. The gust didn’t strike Suzu directly. Instead, it shifted the air pressure around her feet, disrupting her balance just enough for Hikari’s swing to change from predictable to dangerous.
Suzu adjusted instantly, sliding backward with elegant precision, but Roki was already there.
Flames exploded around his cleaver as he stepped into her retreat path and swung. Suzu raised her free hand, and a wall of blood erupted from the ground to intercept the blade. Roki’s cleaver crashed into it, fire roaring violently as crimson liquid boiled and hissed beneath the heat. The blood shield held for only a moment before the flames burned through it, forcing Suzu to twist away as the edge of the cleaver sliced a thin line across her sleeve.
The wound beneath healed almost immediately, but Suzu’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Roki noticed.
“So fire bothers you,” he said.
Suzu didn’t answer.
Hikari came in again, hammer sweeping low this time. Suzu jumped, but Daichi was already waiting for that reaction. A spiral of wind slammed downward from above, forcing her back toward the ground sooner than she intended. Hikari changed the path of her swing mid-motion and drove the hammer upward into Suzu’s guard.
The blood blade formed again, thicker this time, reinforced by three additional arcs of crimson wrapping around Suzu’s arm. The collision sent a shockwave through the street, but instead of letting the clash hold, Daichi snapped his fingers and blasted wind behind Hikari’s back. The added force drove the hammer harder into Suzu’s defense.
The blood blade cracked again.
Roki lunged forward from the side, cleaver burning brighter as he aimed directly for Suzu’s exposed ribs. Suzu’s eyes flicked toward him at the last second, and blood burst from beneath her cloak, forming a second blade from her opposite arm. She blocked Roki’s slash, but the flames burned through the edge of the blood weapon, scattering red steam into the air.
For the first time, Suzu was forced back.
Only one step.
But everyone saw it.
Tetsuo’s eyes widened from where he stood farther behind the front line. “They’re actually pushing her.”
Yoshinori’s expression remained tense. “No. They’re coordinating perfectly just to move her one step.”
That difference mattered.
Shunjiro understood it immediately. The Titans weren’t struggling because they were weak. They were fighting at a level he could barely follow, reading each other’s movements without needing commands, turning each opening into another, covering every blind spot before it became fatal. Hikari was the wall, Roki was the blade, and Daichi was the force keeping the entire formation alive.
And Suzu was still calm.
Hikari swung again, and Suzu ducked beneath it, her blood blade flashing toward Hikari’s shoulder. Daichi’s wind snapped across the battlefield, knocking the angle of the strike just off course. The blade still grazed Hikari’s armor, carving a clean red line through the metal as if it were cloth, but Roki stepped in immediately and forced Suzu back with a burst of flame.
Hikari glanced at the cut across her armor and swallowed.
If that had landed properly, she would have lost the arm.
Daichi saw it too. “Don’t get hit.”
Hikari barked out a laugh. “That your expert advice?”
“It’s good advice.”
Suzu moved next.
Her speed changed.
It wasn’t a dramatic burst or an obvious power-up. She simply became faster. One moment she stood in front of them, and the next she slipped between Hikari and Roki with terrifying grace, blood blade aimed for the gap in Hikari’s armor.
Daichi reacted instantly, sending a compressed gust of wind between them that knocked Hikari backward and shifted Suzu’s strike just enough for it to miss a fatal point. Even then, the blood blade sliced across Hikari’s side, opening a shallow wound through her armor.
Hikari grunted and swung back, but Suzu leaned away from the blow, her movements disturbingly smooth.
Roki’s cleaver came down from above, flames roaring, and Suzu raised a blood shield to block it. This time the fire burned through faster than before, and Roki pressed harder, pushing the shield down toward her shoulder.
Suzu looked up at him.
Then smiled faintly.
Roki’s instincts screamed.
“Back!”
Daichi’s wind caught him immediately and ripped him away just as the blood shield erupted outward into dozens of needle-like spikes. Several still grazed Roki’s arm and shoulder, drawing thin lines of blood before he landed several feet away.
The blood from those small wounds lifted immediately toward Suzu.
Roki’s eyes narrowed. He burned his own blood away with a controlled flare of spiritual flame before she could take it.
Suzu watched that with interest.
“You’re careful,” she said.
Roki lifted his cleaver again. “I’d prefer to be alive.”
Daichi clicked his tongue. “She’s learning our rhythm.”
Rei’s voice came from behind them, calm but sharper than before. “She’s not just learning. She’s letting you show her the formation.”
Hikari’s grin faded slightly.
Suzu rolled her wrist, and the blood around her blade shifted shape. The weapon shortened into something closer to a curved dagger, then extended again into a whip-thin edge before hardening into a blade once more.
Daichi’s eyes sharpened. “She’s adjusting range.”
Suzu dashed.
This time she didn’t attack Hikari first.
She went for Daichi.
The shift was so sudden that even Hikari barely reacted in time. Suzu crossed the distance in a flash, blood blade aimed directly at Daichi’s throat. Daichi leaned back with a burst of wind under his feet, narrowly avoiding the slash as a thin cut opened along his jaw. He raised one hand and blasted a concentrated gust into Suzu’s chest, but she folded around the impact, blood forming behind her like wings to redirect the force.
Hikari slammed into her from the side before she could follow up.
The warhammer struck Suzu’s guard and sent her skidding again, but Suzu twisted during the slide and flicked her wrist. A thin strand of blood shot from her blade and wrapped around Hikari’s hammer handle. Daichi cut it apart with a blade of wind before it could tighten.
“Don’t let her blood touch your weapons,” he snapped.
Hikari pulled the hammer back. “Yeah, I noticed.”
Roki appeared behind Suzu in the same moment, cleaver burning at full force. He swung horizontally, and this time his blade caught Suzu across the back. Fire erupted across her cloak, tearing through cloth and burning the blood that tried to rise defensively from beneath it.
Suzu stumbled forward.
It was slight, but real.
Roki’s attack had hurt her more than the others.
Hikari saw the opening and charged, hammer raised high. Daichi’s wind surged behind her again, accelerating her forward until she became a blur of steel and spiritual pressure. Roki stepped to the side, flames curling around Suzu to limit her escape route.
For a moment, the three of them had her boxed in.
Hikari brought the hammer down.
Suzu raised both blood blades above her head, and a massive crimson barrier erupted around her. The hammer collided with it, Roki’s flames crashed into the side, and Daichi compressed the air from above to prevent her from leaping away. The combined pressure crushed down on Suzu from all directions, cracking the street beneath her feet and forcing the blood barrier to tremble violently.
The entire battlefield shook.
Illumina watched in stunned silence.
Even Mars, battered and injured, could only stare.
This was the peak of S-rank teamwork. Three elite fighters, perfectly synchronized, pouring everything into one coordinated assault.
The blood barrier cracked.
Hikari’s eyes widened with fierce determination. “Break!”
Roki’s flames surged brighter.
Daichi clenched his fist, wind tightening into a crushing spiral.
The barrier shattered.
The explosion of blood scattered across the street, and for the first time Suzu was fully exposed beneath their combined attack. Hikari’s hammer descended toward her skull while Roki’s cleaver burned toward her side and Daichi’s wind blades formed around her escape routes.
Suzu looked up.
Her crimson eyes moved from Hikari to Roki to Daichi.
Then her expression changed.
Not fear.
Not panic.
Understanding.
The blood scattered across the street suddenly stopped falling. Every droplet froze in the air around them before sharpening into thin red needles. Daichi realized what was happening first.
“Move!”
The blood needles shot outward in every direction.
Daichi threw both hands out and released a violent sphere of wind around the trio, deflecting most of the projectiles before they could hit, but some slipped through. Several pierced Hikari’s shoulder and thigh. Two cut across Roki’s side. One buried itself shallowly into Daichi’s forearm before he ripped it out with a grimace.
The moment their formation loosened, Suzu slipped through it.
She moved between them like water through cracked stone, blood blade reforming in her hand as she passed Daichi first. He twisted away just enough to avoid a deep cut, but the blade still sliced across his ribs. Roki swung to intercept, flames roaring, yet Suzu ducked beneath the cleaver and kicked him hard enough in the chest to send him sliding backward through the flooded street. Hikari swung last, refusing to give her space, and Suzu met the hammer directly with a newly formed blood blade reinforced by the blood now spilling from all three Titans.
The collision held longer this time.
Too long.
Hikari realized immediately that the blade had become stronger.
Suzu was using their blood.
The thought chilled her.
Daichi saw the realization cross Hikari’s face and blasted Suzu from the side with a cutting gale. The attack struck cleanly, tearing part of Suzu’s cloak and opening a shallow wound across her arm, but the blood that emerged only joined the weapon in her hand.
Suzu looked at the cut curiously, as though it belonged to someone else.
Then she pressed forward.
Hikari’s boots scraped backward against the stone.
That should not have been possible.
Hikari was built to hold the line. That was her role. That was who she was in the Titans. She stood where others couldn’t, took hits others couldn’t survive, and hit back harder than anything that tried to move her.
But Suzu was pushing her back with one arm.
Hikari gritted her teeth. “Roki!”
Roki was already moving. He came in low, flames concentrated along the cleaver’s edge instead of bursting wildly around it. Suzu shifted to block him, but Daichi used that moment to pull the air from beneath her feet, disrupting her stance. Hikari surged forward again, and the three regained their rhythm.
For several more exchanges, they fought like that.
Daichi never stopped moving, every gust of wind either saving an ally, breaking Suzu’s angle, or forcing her into a worse position. Roki’s flames burned away blood constructs before they could fully form, keeping Suzu from overwhelming them with sheer volume. Hikari stayed in front of her no matter how many cuts opened across her armor, hammer crashing down again and again with enough force to make the street quake.
They were incredible.
They were experienced.
They were S-rank adventurers at their absolute best.
And slowly, painfully, everyone watching began to understand that it still might not be enough.
Suzu was getting faster.
Her blood was becoming harder.
Her reactions were growing sharper with every exchange.
Rei’s expression darkened as she watched from the rear. She had trusted the three of them because they had earned that trust through years of battle. Hikari, Roki, and Daichi had faced disasters together and survived things that would have wiped out lesser guilds. But as Suzu adapted to them, Rei felt the shape of the fight beginning to change.
The Titans were not losing because they lacked skill.
They were losing because Suzu’s level of power was simply higher.
Akima tried once more to reach Suzu’s thoughts and immediately collapsed to one knee, clutching her head as pain tore through her skull.
Aira rushed to her side. “Stop trying!”
Akima’s voice came out strained and breathless. “It’s not thoughts anymore. It’s just noise. Blood. Crying. Laughing. Screaming. It keeps changing.”
Itsuki heard that and stared at Suzu through tear-filled eyes.
Her sister was still in there somewhere.
But whatever stood in front of them now was also something else.
Suzu suddenly caught Roki’s flaming cleaver with her blood blade.
For the first time, the fire didn’t burn through immediately.
Roki’s eyes narrowed.
The blood had thickened.
Adapted.
Daichi noticed it too. “She’s reinforcing against the flames.”
Hikari swung at Suzu’s head, but Suzu ducked beneath the hammer and let the weapon smash into the street. Blood surged up from the water around Hikari’s boots, trying to bind her legs. Daichi cut it apart with wind, but the distraction was enough for Suzu to step inside Hikari’s guard.
Then Suzu smiled.
Not warmly.
Not cruelly.
Just… smiled.
And Daichi’s instincts exploded.
“HIKARI MOVE!”
The warning came too late.
The flooded street beneath Hikari suddenly turned red.
Not from blood already there.
From blood appearing.
Manifesting.
Growing.
The entire battlefield froze.
A jagged crimson spike erupted from beneath Hikari’s feet.
The explosion of force was horrifying.
The blood pillar punched clean through her breastplate before anyone could react. Metal folded inward like paper as the spike tore through flesh, muscle, and bone. Blood sprayed across the flooded street while the force lifted Hikari completely off the ground.
A scream ripped from her throat.
Then stopped.
The spike continued rising.
Higher.
Higher.
Higher.
Until it stood above the battlefield like a twisted monument.
The blood hardened.
Darkening.
Solidifying into something resembling black glass.
Hikari hung there.
Impaled through the chest.
Her body suspended several meters above the ruined street.
The warhammer slipped from her fingers.
It struck debris below with a deafening clang before rolling into the floodwater.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Nobody understood what had just happened.
Daichi stared.
His mind refused to process it.
Hikari.
The strongest wall in the Titans.
The person who never stopped moving.
The person who always got back up.
The person who laughed at danger.
She was hanging in the air.
Not moving.
Daichi blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Then he finally spoke.
“…Hikari?”
No response.
The wind around him died.
“Hikari?”
His voice cracked.
Then reality finally caught up.
“HIKARI!”
Daichi exploded forward.
The instant Hikari was impaled, something inside him snapped.
Every calculation vanished.
Every strategy.
Every sarcastic comment.
Gone.
Only one thought remained.
Get to her.
Wind erupted from his body in violent waves as spiritual energy flooded into the dagger at his side. The blade began to tremble beneath the pressure. Floodwater spiraled upward around him while loose debris tore free from the streets and buildings.
Suzu noticed immediately.
Her crimson eyes shifted toward him.
For the first time in the battle, Daichi wasn’t trying to control the battlefield.
He was trying to destroy it.
“HURRICANE EDGE!”
Daichi ripped the dagger through the air.
The world answered.
A massive cyclone erupted from the slash, roaring across the battlefield with enough force to tear stone from the streets. Buildings groaned beneath the pressure as the hurricane condensed into a concentrated wall of spinning destruction and crashed directly into Suzu.
For the first time since the battle began Suzu was caught off guard.
The attack slammed into her and carried her backward through the flooded district. Blood shields formed instantly around her body only to shatter one after another beneath the storm’s pressure. The hurricane dragged her across rooftops, ripped through walls, and finally launched her through an entire building before exploding into the night sky.
The battlefield shook.
Wind continued howling through the ruined streets for several seconds afterward.
Daichi didn’t wait to see what happened.
The moment Suzu disappeared from view, he was already moving.
Roki moved with him.
Neither said a word.
They reached the blood pillar almost simultaneously.
Hikari coughed.
Blood spilled from her mouth.
The sound froze everyone.
She was still alive.
Barely.
Daichi reached her first.
His hands trembled.
He didn’t know what to do.
There was nothing to do.
The wound was catastrophic.
The jagged pillar had punched completely through her breastplate, torn through her chest, and carried her several feet into the air before hardening. Blood dripped steadily from the wound while her body hung limply against the blackened crimson spike.
Itsuki knew immediately.
Aira knew too.
Neither healer moved.
Because both of them understood the same thing.
Healing couldn’t fix this.
Roki stood beside the pillar in silence.
His cleaver hung loosely at his side.
The flames surrounding him burned hotter than ever before.
Yet he wasn’t moving.
He was staring.
Hikari slowly lifted her head.
Her vision was fading.
The world felt distant.
Cold.
Yet somehow she smiled.
A small smile.
Weak.
Painful.
But real.
“…You guys…”
Blood dripped from her lips.
Daichi immediately shook his head.
“No.”
His voice cracked.
“No. No. No. Don’t.”
Hikari let out a weak laugh.
The sound hurt more than the wound itself.
“You’re making…”
She coughed again.
Blood splattered down the pillar.
“…that face again.”
Daichi froze.
Roki lowered his head.
Neither could stop the tears.
Not anymore.
“You idiots…”
Hikari whispered.
“Don’t cry…”
More blood spilled from her mouth.
Her breathing had become shallow.
Itsuki stared from across the battlefield.
Her entire body shook.
Her sister had done this.
Not a monster.
Not a corrupted beast.
Not some distant villain from a story.
Her sister.
“No…”
Her voice barely existed.
“No…”
Her eyes locked onto the spot where Daichi’s attack had launched Suzu.
For the first time since seeing her again Itsuki was afraid of her.
Truly afraid.
Hikari’s eyes slowly drifted upward.
The crimson barrier stretched endlessly across the sky.
The kingdom had gone silent.
No laughter.
No voices.
No conversations.
Only floodwater.
Only crying.
Then Hikari smiled one final time.
“…Take care…”
Her voice faded.
Her body went still.
The smile remained.
Daichi’s eyes widened.
“No.”
Silence answered him.
“No.”
Nothing.
“Hikari.”
The name barely left his mouth.
And then the truth finally settled across the battlefield.
Hikari Balrik was dead.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Even the wind seemed to die.
And somewhere far away-
Far beyond blood.
Far beyond battle.
Far beyond pain.
Hikari walked through a forest.
Grass brushed softly against her legs while sunlight filtered through emerald leaves overhead. A warm breeze drifted through the trees carrying the scent of pine and fresh earth.
There was no armor.
No blood.
No wounds.
No warhammer.
For the first time in years, her shoulders felt light.
The forest stretched endlessly before her beneath a brilliant blue sky while birds sang somewhere in the distance. Golden rays of sunlight danced across the path ahead.
Hikari smiled.
A genuine smile.
Then she continued walking forward.
Free.