Inside the dim room, enclosed by thick walls hiding traces of antiquity and modern technology, Dr. Naoko Tsuji stood before Takeru and Ryuichi like a shadow emerging from a project that should have been buried forever. Dr. Naoko Tsuji stood before Takeru and Ryuichi like a shadow emerging from the shadows of a project that should have been buried forever.
Takeru's eyes meticulously scrutinized his features, every part of his body capturing the details of his opponent, Ryuichi was trying to stand against the wall, breathing heavily, while Aura's voice sounded faint inside his head, as if she was suffering from network interference.
Naoko Tsuji said in a calm voice as if coming from the mind of a machine:
- "Before we begin... I'd like to know, do you really believe that humans are capable of taking responsibility for their own power? Or do you, like most rebels, think that freedom doesn't need censorship?"
Takeru replied, crossing his arms:
- "You speak as if you're a different species from us... but you're human, like him and me. The only difference is that you chose to become a tool. What's left of your humanity, Naoko?"
Naoko gave a short laugh, with no real emotion showing on his face:
- "Humanity? A loose term. When I worked on the Black Race project, I believed that knowledge without limits was salvation. But humans... the more they see, the crazier they get. So... I chose to be the eye of truth. Their eyes, even if their hearts are blinded."
Takeru takes a step forward, the tone of his voice intensifying:
- "You are not an eye, you are a limitation. You're an arrogant, selfish intelligence that thinks it understands everything... but you're just an experiment on the run from its failure."
The atmosphere changed. Naoko's eyes lit up for a moment, and a sharp voice rang through the place as if written in iron:
- "The time for dialog is over. The evaluation period has now begun."
And suddenly...
A mana explosion occurs behind them, a wall of energy explodes upwards, spectral blades appear from Naoko's wrists, spiraling out and spinning around him at high speed. He then begins his first attack with an invisible step... appearing right behind Takeru.
But Takeru, with the sense of a trained warrior, ducked to the side to avoid the blow, and delivered a kick to Naoko's chest, which he blocked with one hand, without moving.
Ryuichi, who was barely regaining his balance, cried out internally:
- "Ura... we need something! Anything!" She replied in a choppy voice:
- "There's a glitch in my network... This attack is scrambling the mana in your surroundings... Be careful, he's using mana mixed with electromagnetic signals... This isn't magic... It's a scientific weapon."
Naoko stepped back and raised his right hand, revealing a transparent holographic screen suspended in mid-air, filled with equations and symbols. Then he said:
- "Experiment 14 begins now... let's see how long you can hold out before your minds separate from your bodies."
Takeru opened his fist, the air around him suddenly cooling as he said to Ryuichi:
- "Listen carefully... If you think your fragile mana is useless, you haven't yet understood how the weak use their hearts."
On the other side, in the center of the arena shrouded in shadows of darkness and stillness, Ryoko stood in front of the enemy who slowly emerged from the smoke, like a ghost from a past that must not return.
- "My name is Kurosaki Dai... Trial number: 09. Your presence here... is an offense that requires elimination."
Jihan, who had never known the feeling of combat terror before, lightly grabbed Ryoko's arm, but the latter gently removed her hand and looked at her with an indisputable tone:
- "Jihan... step back. This is not an opponent to be met with kindness, but with complete ferocity."
She hesitated, but saw the deadly seriousness in his eyes... and stepped back.
In an instant, without any preamble, Kurosaki disappeared!
Boom!
A horizontal blow split the ground, and Ryoko dodged it by sliding under it, flapping his coat like a black bird dancing over death.
Ryoko said sarcastically as he jumped backwards:
- "Hmm... you have a strong entrance technique... but I like the theatrics."
But the enemy didn't answer... he just started firing bursts of dark mana, like spears stabbing through the air itself.
Ryoko opens his palm... and his mana eye begins to glow a strange celestial color, like an entire sea.
He concentrated his energy into his palm, then shouted:
- "Arc Wind Explosion!"
He unleashed arcing mana sparks that split the dark attacks in half and exploded above the ground, creating a giant dust wave. Jihan took cover behind a pillar, watching the fight in amazement.
But behind the dust, Kurosaki emerged again, unaffected, dragging a huge sword from his back, the blade gleaming like it was made from the bones of a dragon drowned in shadows.
With a single step, he approached.
Ryoko didn't wait.
He lunges at him, and they exchange three lightning-fast blows... mana crosses, shocks spread, and the arena's ceiling shakes.
Then, in a rare moment, Ryoko stopped, looked at his opponent and said:
- "You... you're not just a human, are you?"
Kurosaki answered in a low, but clear voice:
- "I was human... before my heart was ripped out in the Black Strain lab and replaced with an immortalized algorithm."
Ryoko smiles a sad smile:
- "I hate those scientists even more now... because they even stole the anger of humans."
Then suddenly... Ryoko released all of his energy.
A mana storm swirls around him, the air is turbulent, and his white hair is a mess.
- "This attack is for all those whose souls are as warped as yours!"
"Speed Breakthrough - White Lightning Style!"
In less than a split second, he disappeared from his place, appearing behind the enemy, delivering a direct hit to a point deep in his back.
But... Kurosaki momentarily spun around, his sword slamming into Ryoko, and a loud metallic sound cut through the silence!
At another end of the arena, under a gray sky devoid of light, Ryuichi and Takeru were facing an opponent who showed no signs of fatigue, no intention of talking... just silence, and danger.
The enemy moved with a lightness that belied its solid structure, as if its body was designed with superhuman intelligence to analyze every detail of reactions.
Ryuichi was breathing heavily. His eyes follow the opponent's movement, but something inside him whispers, "His movements are... unnatural."
Takeru, on the other hand, didn't speak... he watched. Analyzing. Reading.
Suddenly, he spoke in a quiet voice as he put his right hand behind his back, as if preparing for something:
- "Ryuichi... don't attack. This enemy is reading the mana pulse. Any movement based on instinct will be turned against us."
Ryuichi looked at him skeptically, arching his eyebrows: - "So? We're just going to stand still?"
But Takeru didn't answer, just said:
- "Watch me... I'll break through his reading pattern."
Sudden attack!
The enemy rushed in like the wind, leaving a pale trail in the air... but Takeru predicted the trajectory.
With a precise sidestep, he dodged the first attack. Then he jumped, turning in the air, and fired from his hand needle-like mana spears, carrying unstable mana vibrations, targeting the scattering points of the enemy's energy armor.
Ryuichi watched the strike and smiled. - "Nice... now it's my turn!"
He launched himself at the enemy, but...
"No!"
Takeru shouted angrily, his eyes flashing partially crimson.
The air around him trembled. A subtle pulse of mana pressed even the stones beneath them.
At the same moment, Aura inside Ryuichi's goggles sensed this change.
The mana pulse exceeded the normal limit.
"Warning... unbalanced mana pressure coming from Takeru."
But it was too late.
Ryuichi had already taken off, but he suddenly felt his body partially freeze. It wasn't an offensive technique... Takeru's mana had partially penetrated his nerves. A technique to temporarily freeze him.
Takeru yelled at him, in a decisive tone: - "Your mana center is unstable, don't force me to bury you from the inside! Back off!!!"
Ryuichi, stunned, felt a sense of danger in his voice... Takeru was serious. For the first time he was seeing this pent-up anger come out.
Ryuichi backed away, hesitating, biting his lip and whispering: - "But I..."
Aura interrupted him: - "In accordance with Takeru's order... stop any stimulation directed towards the enemy. A response is necessary now."
At that moment...
The enemy took advantage of the opening. It shot towards Takeru at supersonic speed.
But... Takeru had calculated this.
With a precise angle, he turned on his heel, ducked down, using a short dagger he had drawn from a hidden belt, and dodged the fatal blow by a hair's breadth, leaving behind a fading image of a mana illusion.
Then he said with a cold smile, his crimson eyes gradually extinguishing: - "I just wanted to make sure you're still fighting to the rhythm of yourself... not to the rhythm of your emotions, Ryuichi."
Ryoko, with his hair flying and his eyes reflecting the fiery lights from the horizon, raises his hand toward Jihan without looking at her.
- "Jihan... don't interfere."
His voice is calm, but carries enough authority to make anyone back away.
Jihan responds, in a hushed voice: - "But..."
- "I said don't interfere."
There is a deep silence, and a choppy breeze of mana sweeps across the square.
Kurosaki Dai chuckles softly, then whispers: - "Haha... I thought you were just a clown, but there's something serious about you this time. Are you finally going to show me what you're hiding?"
Then suddenly... Kurosaki Dai lunged.
No preamble, no signal, just a faint red flash and a line of smoke behind his body as he approached Ryoko with uncanny speed.
But Ryoko didn't move.
He only whispered to himself: - "You see, Dai... there is a simple rule in my world: Whoever attacks first... loses."
In the next moment, Kurosaki collided head-on with a transparent armor that opened up around Ryoko's body.
The armor was invisible, but when Dai touched its surface... the laws of space were broken for a moment. Time within the point of impact stopped for a second, and the effect of the Force was reversed.
Kurosaki stepped back quickly, smiling, watching his partially burned arm: - "Nice... frequency bounce technique. I haven't seen this in ages."
Ryoko lowers his hand, taking only one step forward.
- "Boring... I thought you were more dangerous."
Kurosaki Dai smiled again, and pulled something that looked like a mask out of his coat. The moment he put it on, his features completely changed. His eyes became like those of a tiger, and waves of dark mana began to wrap around his body like a storm.
- "What do you say... we turn the game up a notch?"
Ryoko squeezed the knuckle of his neck, then twisted his wrists as if they had been tied all along.
- "By all means... I wasn't playing at all."
[Battle Actually Begins]
Kurosaki Dai goes first with a series of mana-directed attacks, creating blades of aerial energy that cut through even stones.
Ryoko dodges them with almost inhuman precision. He doesn't move much... just bends at an angle, steps sideways, or tilts his body.
Each dodge he makes creates a small shadow of mana that disintegrates behind him, as if his body is giving up one of its spatial dimensions with each movement.
Kurosaki Dai attacks from above, and Ryoko blocks the attack with the back of his palm.
In an iconic shot, a wave of lunar light explodes behind Ryoko as he counters the attack, his white hair flying, his bright eyes reflecting the stars above them.
Then, with just one kick, Kurosaki pushes Dai back dozens of meters, leaving a charred line of energy on the ground.
- "This is only a fraction of what I can do if I'm half as serious."
Jihan, from afar, whispers to herself, her eyes trembling:
- "Ryoko... has he been hiding all this all along?"
Ryuichi and Takeru stand in front of Naoko, an entity that does not belong to the normal world, but to the shadow of a race known in the forbidden books as the Black Race.
The place is crumbling around them, shards of stone flying through the air without gravity, and the smell of burning iron filling the air.
Ryuichi, panting slightly, his glasses saturated with layers of data tracking the enemy's movements.
Takeru is standing still, but his forehead is dripping with sweat.
- Ryuichi: "Mana pressure... is rapidly doubling. Something is changing in it."
Aura in the glasses, yelling:
> "Warning! An ancient dark mana signature is now being detected - not part of the normal spectrum. Selection: [Black Dynasty: First Activation Phase - Eye of the Etched Technique]."
---
[A pivotal moment...]
Naoko slowly opens his eyes, the whites turning to pure black, with an iris formed by spiraling circles of ink and blood.
- "I was authorized to use some of my father's blood... Just a little."
Suddenly...
Behind Naoko, black, overlapping mana arms form, mimicking the shape of forgotten beings. They wriggle, pulse, and move as if they were alive.
- Takeru (angrily clenching his fist): "Damn... he started using the Eye of the Etcher...!"
Ryuichi rushes to attack, but Takeru yells: - "Stop! Don't come closer! Manak's center is fragile! Don't risk it!"
Ryuichi hesitates, but says in an angry voice: - "I will not stand by!"
In an instant, Takeru's eyes partially pulse crimson again, and he releases a blinding mana pressure, almost forcing the wind to stop.
- Takeru (in a snarling voice): "I told you... back off, Ryo!"
The pressure Takeru released was no ordinary pressure, but a mana command wave - a mental technique that exploits temporary gaps in an opponent's mental mana to force them to obey.
Aura screamed into Ryuichi's goggles:
> "Super pressure! Forced neurological surrender! Too late - Ryuichi is slowing down to react!"
Takeru took advantage of the slowdown, reaching out to a sensitive point in Ryuichi's mana frequencies, and shutting it down with a touch.
Ryuichi retreated... involuntarily.
---
Now, the battle between Takeru and Naoko really begins.
Naoko launches a surprise attack using "Thread of Doom," black magical threads that emerge from the ground, attempting to cut off the opponent's mana frequencies instead of his body.
Takeru dodges the first, spins his body in the air, and launches a counterattack using "Fangs of Separation," a technique in which he creates wolf-shaped mana blades that break and reform with each strike.
The black threads pounce on him from every direction.
But Takeru, in a stunning moment, activates a temporary shield that looks like a transparent wax layer, which interferes with his biofrequencies and disorients the threads, as if his body doesn't exist at that moment.
Naoko laughs: - "This isn't even the second technique from my eyes... but I'm going to use it now."
Then in a cold voice: - "Black Dynasty Technique: False Echo Seal."
In an instant, the strands copy Takeru's own form, and begin to mimic his movements, as if Naoko had created a distorted version of Takeru with which to fight Takeru himself.
Ryuichi, from afar, shouts: - "Takeru! Behind you!"
But Takeru smiles, whispering: - "I was just waiting for this..."
A crimson flash explodes from his right eye, and a new frequency begins to rise...
Takeru stares at his "fake copy" that Naoko has created with False Echo strings, mimicking him with terrifying accuracy... every movement, every breath. But it's unconscious.
Takeru's crimson eyes light up like two embers of a still flame, and waves of mental frequency begin to rise... not from physical mana, but from what is known as the "the interconnected mind."
---
Counter-technique: "Deconstructing the Pseudo-Paradigm - Reverse Collapse Pattern"
Takeru, confidently: - "You copied me, but you only copied the surface... the depth, it's swallowing you now."
In a moment where the movements are not visible to the naked eye, Takeru opens his palm and palm strikes the air in front of him.
The result?
An invisible vibration, as if reality itself had broken in that place. It sends out a mental disintegration wave, forcing the strands to disintegrate from within, starting at their source...
- Ryuichi (amazed): "He's attacking the memory pattern in the technique... not the form!"
The false copy begins to convulse... screaming in a voice that sounds like Takeru, but distorted, while its eyes emit black sparks, disintegrating like ink under water.
---
Transitioning from Defense to Attack - "Slippery Line Technique"
Takeru pounces, focuses his mana into his right foot, and launches a faint jump that makes no sound, just a gray line in the air.
This is the "Shifting Line" - a technique that moves his body through vibrations of static rather than physical movement.
Takeru appeared behind Naoko in an instant, and shouted:
- "Finish the first stage: Cutting Consciousness Blade!"
Takeru's arm turns into a transparent mana blade that looks like glass, but vibrates like live music, and he strikes the center of Naoko's back with it.
Not a stab... but an auditory 'scratch', as if something in Naoko's mind had been torn apart!
- Naoko (backs away, blood dripping from his nose): "What... did you do to me?"
- Takeru, with a decisive look: "I severed the link of your consciousness with the bloodline. What you will fight with now... is a rootless body."
---
At that moment, Aura shouts from Ryuichi's goggles:
> "Naoko's signature has gone haywire... the genetic link with the black mana is partially collapsing. The opportunity is favorable!!!"
- Ryuichi, standing back up: "Now it's my turn... Takeru, keep him busy for just one second!"
- Takeru, with a weary smile: "One? I'll make it three."
Kurosaki Dai stands meters away from Ryoko, the sly smile on his face fading, moving his hands in a strange pattern and beginning to summon his mana...
Kurosaki (in a hollow voice):
- "You see, Ryoko... I don't fight to win, I fight to be annihilated."
And here, the unexpected happens...
---
đź’€ Kurosaki Technique: "Cages of Absence - Ghostly Infinity Style"
Just as he finishes drawing a seal with his hand, the arena suddenly goes dark, and all sounds disappear... Then cages of shadow begin to form around Ryoko, each one rotating at the speed of light, trying to trap him inside a boundless labyrinth.
- Jihan (from afar, terrified): "Ryoko! They're trapping space and time around you!"
---
Ryoko's reaction: Explosive speed and his "Breaking Through the Shackle" technique
But... Kurosaki forgot who he was dealing with.
Ryoko, with a wry smile:
- "Cute... but you're slow."
In an instant, Ryoko disappeared like a flash, appearing outside the first cage before it even closed. The movement was repeated over and over again, as each cage formed, he broke through it before it closed, leaving behind an indecipherable mana ghost...
---
Counterattack: "Crazy Wind Blade - First Class"
Ryoko turns around, opening his arms in the air as if to play something invisible...
In a flash, dozens of blades of pure air gather around him, but they are almost invisible, as their speed pierces the light.
Ryoko (quietly):
- "Sometimes... the simplest movements are the most deadly."
Then, in one swift motion, he fired the blades in every direction, but not directly at Kurosaki... but at the weak points of the ghost cage.
In less than a second, the shadow cages began to disintegrate like a cloth burned in the center, and the entire structure of Kurosaki's technique was shattered.
---
Kurosaki takes two steps back, surprise on his face:
- "He... disconnected the power reference points within the technology? Who is this madman?"
Ryoko walks up to him, his eyes flashing an electric blue color, and says coldly:
- "I told you before... I don't like restrictions."
After Ryoko destroys the shadow cages with his air blades, Kurosaki Dai remains standing without moving. His head is lowered, his hands shaking, but not from fear... but from the euphoria that precedes the transformation.
Kurosaki (in a distorted voice, as if speaking two languages at once):
- "Well... I didn't expect to try this form in front of you... you who walk at the limits of light."
Then, from his pocket, he pulls out a mask covered in carvings that resemble lost symbols from black mana civilizations. The mask pulsates with a faint purple light, as if it were a living being.
Ryoko narrows his eyes:
- "That thing... doesn't look familiar..."
Kurosaki places the mask over his face - and in an instant, a wave of grayish-black energy rushes through the space, bending trees, blowing up stones, and nearly knocking over the body of Jihan, who is standing in the distance.
---
[Kurosaki Dai Transformation: "Dark Parasite - Kurama's Mask" Mode]
The mask merges with Kurosaki's face, his features change, his veins swell, and his eyes turn into glowing red pupils in a sea of shadows.
His voice shifts, becoming more like the roar of a creature from another dimension:
- "Now... I won't have to play human with you."
---
The new attack: "Cosmic Soot Rain"
Kurosaki, in his new form, raises his right arm, and suddenly, the atmosphere above him begins to transform - thick clouds form in an instant, then begin to fall... but not rain, but dark particles resembling black ash, each containing deadly pressurized mana.
Jihan shouts from afar:
- "Ryoko! Don't touch those particles! They're fragmenting the mana paths!"
Ryoko, with a sideways smile, prepares himself to respond:
- "If it touches the ground, it will turn it into ash... Then I have no choice but to stop it before it touches anything."
---
Ryoko steps forward, drawing his hidden weapon - the Lunar Shadow Knife, a dagger that contains at its core the light of a falling star and the darkness of the void.
Then he speaks with deadly calm:
- "The game is over... now the real dance begins."
In an instant, he uses a new technique:
"Double Crescent Blade: Quadruple Offset Pattern"
Ryoko leaps into the sky, spinning four times at the speed of light, firing arcs of energy that explode above the clouds before the particles reach the ground, blasting them into the air and turning them into safe ash.
Kurosaki looks up, his face is a little burned... but he laughs:
- "You're faster than I expected... and that makes me want to kill you even more."
The sky has darkened, and the arena floor is starting to crack from the immense tension in the mana.
Naoko, a fighter with a dark aura, strides forward, his black robes flying around him like a living thing, pulsing with evil waves.
Naoko reaches a hand to his chest, touches a symbol engraved in an intricate circular pattern, and whispers:
- "Black Dynasty... unveil... my cursed technique:"
"The Pact of a Thousand is torn: The Seal of Lower Karma has been opened."
In an instant, dark energy explodes from Naoko's body, like a scream of spirits, pulling mana from the earth and air, so much so that the plants around them decompose and wither in a second.
Takeru hits the ground with his foot and quickly walks away:
- "Ryuichi! Back off now! This isn't our kind!"
Despite the pressure, Ryuichi insists on advancing:
- "If I retreat now, I'll lose more than this battle!"
But in an instant, strange circles forming in the air appear in front of Ryuichi, and the place freezes.
Aura (through the glasses - in a voice that trembles for the first time):
- "Ryuichi... move now!!!"
Ryuichi tries... but it's too late.
---
Naoko suddenly appears behind Ryuichi, grabs him by the face, tightens his grip, and shouts:
- "People like you don't even deserve to die..."
He slams him face-first into the stone wall, plunging him into it, cracking the wall and sending a violent shockwave that rips dust in all directions.
Ryuichi falls to the ground, helpless, glasses slamming into the ground and lenses scattering.
On the other side of the arena, Takeru groans on his knee, blood staining his face; he tries to stand up but falls again.
---
In another corner of the map, in the midst of his clash with Kurosaki, Ryoko narrows his eyes and suddenly senses a faint pulse coming from afar.
Ryoko (in a worried whisper):
- "Ryuichi...?"
He looks toward the horizon, Ryuichi's mana is dangerously low, something inside him is vibrating.
---
Amidst the rubble of the battle, Naoko walks between two half-dead bodies: Takeru and Ryuichi. Raising his head to the sky, he laughs coldly:
- "That's the difference between a race born of light and one distorted by darkness..."
- "You... are just failed clones in the play... and I will erase you from the script."
---
The sound of faint footsteps...
From the dust... a hand slowly rises... and then Ryuichi's tired body rises, blood dripping from his forehead, but in his eyes is something else.
He bends down, picks up his shattered glasses, dusts them off, and puts them on.
His face is expressionless... but the aura around him has changed.
Aura speaks again, in a cautious tone:
- "Ryuichi... your reading has changed... are you okay?"
Ryuichi whispers, looking directly at Naoko:
- "...Analysis."