Previously on Hakuna, the Prince was pushed to his absolute limit as the 40 Days of Corruption reached a catastrophic boiling point. Steven, now the vessel of a terrifying dark entity, summoned a meteor-sized ball of destructive energy intending to wipe Milner High off the map. As the flames of the sports field spread and the air itself began to burn, Hakuna stood alone under the weight of an apocalypse. But the Prince has one last card to play... a forced mastery that comes with a price he doesn't yet understand.
Fade in...
The Weight of The World
"Khakunem!"
The word hung in the air like a death sentence. Above Steven's raised hand, the atmosphere curdled. A massive, meteor-sized ball of swirling, violet-black destructive energy roared into existence, crackling with a corruptive Daemonium that made the very ground beneath it groan in protest. It wasn't just energy; it was a physical manifestation of chaos, a dense sphere of spiritual decay ready to turn everything it touched into ash.
Hakuna looked up, his face illuminated by the sickly glow of the descending sphere. He muttered, the words barely escaping his parched throat, "What the?!"
Steven, floating high above the scorched earth, looked down with the detached gaze of a scientist observing an ant. He then said, his voice amplified by the dark power coursing through him, "Say goodbye, Hakuna... say goodbye to your precious Milner, and everything you've fought to protect."
With a casual flick of his wrist, Steven sent the massive ball screaming toward Hakuna on the ground.
Hakuna's eyes widened as the shadow of the meteor grew, swallowing the field in darkness. He let out a desperate, guttural shout that echoed across the screams of the demons. "DAAMNIIIT!"
Meanwhile...
Mihlali was seen sprinting toward the field, her boots thudding rhythmically against the cracked pavement. Beside her, Joy moved with practiced, elite speed, her aura already flared in a defensive posture. They had just come from the hostel, leaving the casualties in the hands of the medical team.
Joy yelled over the sound of distant explosions, "Princess Nokukhanya has things covered at the hostel! She's stabilizing the wounded, so we should join the others and help in the fight! If we don't stop the Philosopher now, there won't be a school left to defend!"
"Right... Eeehh—?" Mihlali stammered, her voice dying in her throat as they rounded the corner of the Tuck Shop ruins.
The two girls skidded to a halt at the Hostel's back gate. From their vantage point, the horizon was no longer blue. It was dominated by a colossal, falling sphere of violet light that seemed to occupy the entire sky. The heat radiating from it was palpable even from hundreds of yards away.
Joy's eyes narrowed in pure, unadulterated horror. She then asked, her voice trembling slightly for the first time, "What the hell is that?"
...At the Field...
The impact was imminent. Hakuna stood in the center of the sports field, the epicenter of the coming destruction. He watched the falling ball, his mind racing through a thousand tactical possibilities and finding none that led to survival.
He thought to himself, a flash of frantic, dark humor crossing his mind, "What am I supposed to do with this? Do I catch it or something? Is that even physically possible?"
But as the pressure of the falling sphere began to crack the concrete around the field, he didn't run. He couldn't. Behind him were the unconscious students, the wounded EXCOs, and the legacy of his clan.
He then did it anyway.
Hakuna lunged forward, his hands reaching up to meet the bottom of the violet sun. As his palms made contact, the sound was not a thud, but a screeching, metallic grind. His boots instantly sank six inches into the soil.
He was struggling, every muscle in his body corded like steel cables, trying to keep the mass from touching the ground. The sphere was rotating with enough torque to strip the skin from his hands, yet he held on, his Nzilo flaring in a desperate, orange-brown shield between him and the corruption.
He strained, his voice a roar of pure agony and effort, "GRRRRAAAAAAAA!"
Steven was seen floating in the sky, his arms crossed, watching the Prince's struggle with a scoff of genuine amusement. "Heh. Try all you can, Prince. In your current, depleted state—without the anchor of your demon—you won't be able to stop the inevitable. You are trying to hold back the tide with a spoon."
Hakuna replied, his teeth grinding so hard they threatened to shatter, the sweat evaporating off his skin before it could even bead. "I'll... just... go... HARDEEEERRRRRR!!"
His energy flared, a final, flickering burst of his inherent power, but it was like a candle against a hurricane. The field around him began to burn. The heat from the sphere was so intense that the dry grass of the sports field ignited, the fire spreading outward in a perfect circle, creating a ring of hellfire around the struggling Prince.
Deep within the recesses of his mind, a voice spoke—soft, melodic, and heartbreakingly familiar.
"Hakuna."
Hakuna responded within his mind, his thoughts frantic and weighed down by the physical toll. "Sorry, my love, but I'm a bit preoccupied here—if I let go for even a second, everyone dies—"
Nolitha interjected, her spiritual presence feeling warmer than the fire outside. "Listen to me. You're not strong enough to stop him right now. Not like this. You're fighting with a broken sword."
Hakuna then thought sarcastically, his mind reeling from the strain. "Yep, that's true... geearrgh!" He strained as the meteor pushed him another inch into the earth.
Nolitha then said, her voice turning serious, filled with a gravity that transcended life and death. "But there is a way... a way to bridge the gap."
Hakuna then thought, "What is it? I'll take anything at this point."
Nolitha responded, "Forced Mastery."
Hakuna then asked internally, "What is that? Sounds like some high-level royal technique I wasn't taught."
Nolitha explained, her spiritual form appearing before his mind's eye. "I can forcefully coax your body into mastering my powers—my unique spiritual affinity—in an instant. Instead of you slowly learning to use the residual energy I left you, I can unlock the full extent of my Talent within your soul. You would no longer be using 'my' power. It would become yours."
Hakuna, his intuition clicking even through the pain, thought, "There's a catch, isn't there? There's always a price for that kind of power."
Nolitha then said, her eyes softening with a sad, ethereal glow. "Yeah. The human body isn't meant to undergo a decade of spiritual evolution in ten seconds. You might die from the intensity. Your heart might simply stop under the weight of the divinity."
Hakuna then thought, a grim, determined smile forming on his physical face. "Well, if I don't do this, I'm dead anyway. Along with everyone else. At least I'd be dead trying to save them."
Nolitha chuckled, a sound of pure, bittersweet affection. "Hehe... just as I thought. You never were one for self-preservation, were you?"
Hakuna then demanded internally, his resolve absolute. "If I do die, well, I'll be expecting to see you in eternity. You better be waiting for me."
Nolitha then replied, her voice fading as she prepared the ritual. "Calm down, Lover Boy. We have a world to save first. Are you ready?"
Hakuna then thought, "Ready."
Inside the spiritual plane of Hakuna's soul, Nolitha's form began to glow with a brilliant, blinding white light. It didn't just shine; it began to slowly crumble, turning into a form of sparkling, celestial dust. This dust didn't vanish; it began flowing directly into Hakuna's spiritual core, weaving itself into his very DNA.
Nolitha then thought within herself, a secret she refused to share with him in his final moments of struggle. "I'm sorry, Hakuna. I knew you would disagree, you would fight me, you would refuse the power if I told you the truth. Little do you know, this isn't just a mastery... it's a transfer. This is our final "Goodbye". Once I merge with you, my consciousness will truly fade. I won't be there to talk to you anymore."
Outside, in the physical world, Hakuna's eyes began to flicker. They switched between his natural brown and a sharp, piercing silver glow.
Nolitha's form was almost completely gone now, the last of her essence flowing into him like a river of starlight. As she vanished, she whispered one last time, a sound that resonated in every cell of his body.
"Farewell, my love. Become the King you were meant to be."
As the glow faded away within him, Hakuna's physical eyes closed. For a heartbeat, the field went silent. The crackling fire, the snarling demons, even the roar of the meteor seemed to mute.
He took a deep, steady breath—a breath that tasted of ozone and ancient, celestial power.
He then opened his eyes. They were no longer brown, nor were they flickering. They glowed with a constant, brilliant, and terrifying shining silver.
The Divine Intervention
A subtle, yet immensely heavy shockwave could be felt rippling out from the field, traveling through the entire school. It wasn't an explosion; it was a shift in the local reality.
Mihlali, still at the gate, was seen punching a demon that had lunged at her, but she stopped mid-swing. The air felt different. "Eh... his energy changed," she murmured, her eyes wide. "It's not just stronger... it feels... holy."
Joy then asked, her brow furrowed, "What's that mean? What did he do?"
Suddenly, the falling ball of energy stopped its motion entirely. It didn't explode. it didn't bounce. It simply hung in the air, held in place by a single hand.
Steven, floating above, mutters, his arrogance replaced by a sudden, cold spike of alarm. "Huh? How is it stationary? The mass alone should have crushed him!"
Hakuna, standing tall, his voice vibrating with a dual-toned resonance that shook the heavens, voiced a single command:
"CELESTIAL PULSE!"
A new, overwhelming wave of energy was sent shooting out from Hakuna in all directions. It wasn't fire, and it wasn't the dark corruption of the Philosopher. It was a wave of pure, shimmering divinity.
The energy touched everyone on the campus. As it washed over the "demons"—the students who had been forcibly transformed—the corruption was literally burned away by the light. One by one, their twisted forms contorted and settled. The scales fell away, the claws retracted, and the madness left their eyes. All those who were turned into demons were human again, collapsing to the ground in confusion but alive.
The large ball of energy above Hakuna began to spider-web with white cracks.
Steven stammers, his eyes darting frantically as his masterpiece began to fail. "No... Impossible."
The spread-out energy of the pulse then began to behave unnaturally. Instead of dissipating, it concaved around the ball, forming a massive, vertical pillar of white light that reached from the ground to the clouds.
Then suddenly, with a sound like a vacuum being sealed, the energy—along with the massive ball of destruction—simply vanished. There was no debris, no explosion. The threat had been erased from existence.
Hakuna was seen standing tall in the center of the scorched circle. His eyes were closed, his posture perfectly calm. He had only one arm raised—the arm that had stopped the threat. The sleeve of his jacket was incinerated, but his skin was unmarred.
Steven thought to himself, his heart hammering against his ribs. "Something's fundamentally different about him. The energy signature is alien... it's pure. Why don't I—?"
In a panic, Steven took Lilith's Rib, pointing the ancient bone toward Hakuna. He attempted to use its power to put the Prince's energy back into stasis, to strip away the silver glow.
The relic pulsed, but the energy simply washed over Hakuna like water over a diamond. It had no effect.
"What?!" Steven muttered from within his thoughts, his mind reeling. "The stasis command... it's being ignored! He's immune?!"
Hakuna slowly raised his head to face Steven. As he opened his silver eyes, he didn't shout. He didn't roar. He simply looked.
DEATH STARE!
The spiritual pressure emitted by that single look was so immense that it acted as a physical weight. Everyone around the entire school—the returning students, the DDF, the EXCOs, even the recovering demons—were compelled to stand completely still. It wasn't just fear; it was a total lockdown of their nervous systems.
Everyone on the campus was currently thinking exactly one thing: "I... can't... move!"
Steven, even with his vessel-boosted power, found himself paralyzed in mid-air. He questioned, his voice a panicked screech, "What is this power?! This isn't your fire! I shut down your demon! You should not be this strong! You should be a hollow shell!"
Hakuna didn't answer. He lowered his arm to shoulder height, pulling the remaining charred sleeve from his jacket, exposing his arm. On his hand, clear, colourless flames began to spawn. They didn't flicker like normal fire; they flowed like liquid diamond, radiating a heat that felt both freezing and incinerating.
He took another deep, rhythmic breath.
As he did, an intense, visible shockwave was sent throughout the entire school from his position, shattering every remaining window in the hostel and hostel courtyard.
He disappeared.
Steven didn't even see him move. One second the Prince was on the ground, the next, he was appearing directly in front of Steven's face, floating mid-air through sheer spiritual levitation. Hakuna was slowly clenching his fist, the colorless flames intensifying.
Steven mutters, his pupils dilating in the face of his own mortality. "Ah!"
As Hakuna then says, his voice a calm, terrifying whisper that promised an end to all things:
"FIST OF INFERNO; CELESTI!"
The flames on his fist didn't just burn; they ignited the very air. The fire burst with incredible, focused power, looking and sounding exactly like the roaring, blue-white afterburner of a Jet Fighter. The sky behind Hakuna turned silver as the strike was unleashed.
Fade out...
End of Episode 61