The battlefield vibrated.
Auras collided like thunder in a closed sky. Tekio advanced with everything he had, his fists being repelled by flawless blocks. Karmore smiled between strikes, as if dancing.
— You're giving it your all, Tekio… — she said, dodging a kick and countering with a blow to his flank that made him spin. — …but you're still far from enough.
Tekio gritted his teeth and kept moving.
— Why are you doing this…? Why have you hidden all this time?
Karmore spun, stomped the ground, and unleashed a wave of dark energy that forced him back.
— You wouldn't understand even if I explained. — Her voice deepened. — People always talk about justice… but they never see what lies behind it.
Their auras exploded around them. The earth tore beneath their feet. Every exchanged punch made the air tremble.
— Then show me. — Tekio shouted, delivering a straight punch. — Make me understand!
But Karmore blocked it with one arm and murmured coldly:
— I am not a teacher. I am judgment.
And in that instant… dozens of Sifs arrived.
A full battalion emerged from the north, cutting through the ruined buildings. Men and women in silver mantles, armed with spirit spears and energy scythes. They recognized Tekio immediately.
— It's him! Protect the boy! — shouted one of the leaders.
For a moment, hope flared in the young man's eyes.
But Karmore smiled.
— Perfect. Now… I'll show you.
She surged like lightning, and before Tekio could react, a direct strike to his stomach sent him flying. His body skidded meters across the ground before colliding with a ruined wall. He tried to rise — but his body wouldn't respond.
Air escaped his lungs. His arms trembled. The mark on his back throbbed — pulsing.
From a distance, he watched.
Karmore moved among the Sifs like a cruel goddess. Every motion reaped a life. The energy she wielded devoured, disintegrated. She dodged light arrows, crushed spellcasters with her bare hands, speaking with absurd calm:
— Do you think this matters…? These lives. These faces. This ridiculous struggle for "hope"…
She drove her fist into a soldier's chest and smiled at the others.
— Humans… are weak. And when they realize it… they despair.
— STOP! — Tekio tried to shout, spitting blood, unable to move.
— You wanted answers, Tekio? Here's one: human lives are worthless.
His body burned. His eyes blurred.
And then…
The mark on Tekio's back throbbed violently, as if something inside him screamed to emerge. He rose slowly, eyes fixed on Karmore among the debris and fallen bodies.
She observed him with disdain, wiping blood from her cheek with the back of her hand.
— You can still stand…? — she sneered. — You're stubborn, Tekio. I thought you would have understood by now. You're not strong enough. You'll watch them all die — — pointing to the fallen Sifs around her — — because you're weak. Because you cling to things that should have died inside you.
Tekio clenched his teeth.
His chest burned. But it wasn't physical pain — it was something deeper. Something he had never felt so clearly before.
Karmore stared, surprised.
But she stopped. His eyes were different. Deep. As if they weren't merely looking at her… but judging her.
— Why are you like this…? — Tekio murmured, voice firm, bitter. — Why did you become corrupted like this?
Karmore hesitated.
— Why do you smile while causing so much pain? Why… do you seem so happy with destruction?
He stared at her as if he could see through her entirely.
And then, for a moment… something broke inside her.
A memory.
An echo.
Yara.
That silhouette, that judgment… that presence she had felt centuries ago.
— What's so fun about killing?
She took half a step back, her face tensing.
— You… don't understand anything now, Tekio. — she said, eyes clouded with doubt. — But you will. You'll discover your destiny.
He advanced.
Without shouting. Without warning. Like a living arrow.
His body moved with lightness and precision, yet every strike carried silent fury. Karmore tried to dodge, but Tekio's elbow grazed her shoulder with force, making her recoil.
She surged forward as well.
They collided amid the rubble. Shards of stone and dust rose with every step, every spin.
Tekio ducked under a punch, sliding sideways with unexpected fluidity, his fist rising in a precise hook. Karmore blocked with her forearm but staggered slightly.
"This movement… this base… this precision…" he thought.
Tekio leapt back, took a deep breath, and spiraled, spinning in the air before delivering a double kick to Karmore's chest, sending her flying meters back.
She steadied herself. For a moment, no reaction.
Her eyes widened.
The way he positioned his feet. The rotation of his shoulders. Reading attacks. It was as if Tekio was being guided… by someone she knew.
— Yara.
The name shot through her like an arrow buried in her chest.
Centuries ago, a similar field. The weight of the atmosphere. The steady presence. Eyes judging. Controlled breathing. Precision of movement. All identical.
She shook her head violently, trying to erase the name burning in her throat.
— No. It can't be.
But Tekio was already upon her.
An elbow strike. Karmore responded with a side kick. Tekio blocked, twisted his hips, landing a rapid sequence to her abdomen. She bent, and he used the momentum for an uppercut that lifted her slightly off the ground.
Karmore landed roughly. The world spun for a moment around her.
He approached slowly.
Silent. Like a spirit judging the Earth.
Karmore felt the ground vanish. Like a child being reprimanded.
She clenched her fists.
— You don't understand anything now, Tekio… — she growled, trying to regain control. — But you will. You'll understand everything. You'll know your role. Your destiny. Just as she did.
Tekio didn't reply.
He just attacked. His eyes seemed unblinking, his focus absolute.
The ground cracked beneath his feet. Fists hummed through the air. He advanced without hesitation, each step closing the distance with terrifying precision. His strikes were sharp, heavy, clean. He spun, feinted, changed rhythm like a veteran.
Karmore defended with her body but was pushed, pressured.
Tekio dove, passed under a cross punch, and spun with his heel high, striking her face hard. Skin split. She staggered.
He didn't stop.
He followed with a knee to the abdomen, making her gasp. Then a spin with his forearm pressed between her ribs, throwing her into a pile of debris.
The rubble gave way under the weight.
Silence.
Karmore lay there for a few seconds, staring at the overcast sky. Chest rising and falling. Mouth bloody. Eyes… dilated.
— Yara… — she murmured again, weakly.
Tekio approached, ready to finish.
But when he raised his arm — his eyes trembled.
And then… a voice.
Soft.
Feminine.
Familiar.
As if coming from deep within his soul:
— Breathe.
— Breathe — it murmured…
His breath failed. Muscles locked. The pressure in the air lifted. His eyes returned to normal.
He coughed.
He knelt.
Vision blurred.
— What… was that?
The world spun. But he was awake.
The war was not over.
But something new — and old — had awakened within him.
Tekio knelt, gasping. The whites of his eyes faded, giving way to natural, confused brown. His chest rose and fell with difficulty, as if emerging from a deep trance. He could still hear the echo of the voice that had called him back: sweet, familiar, almost like a sister lost in the mists of his soul.
Karmore coughed blood, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Her hair was disheveled, her quickened breathing betrayed the impact of the blows. But what unsettled her most… was what she had felt during the fight.
She rose slowly, eyes fixed on Tekio, now kneeling before her.
— …Breathe. — she repeated quietly, as if savoring the word bitterly. — So… you even hear her voice?
She began walking slowly around Tekio, like a wild animal intrigued by something it cannot define.
— I would recognize that soul even if centuries separated us. The way you looked at me, how you judged me… — She clenched her fists. — Yara.
Tekio lifted his face. The mark on his back throbbed like glowing embers under his skin.
— Who… was Yara?
Karmore stopped in front of him, staring down, hesitating between respect and anger.
— A curse. A hero. A traitor. A sister of someone who lost everything. — She sighed, and for a brief moment, her expression softened. — She defied the world. Paid the price. And yet… it seems she was never gone.
The two stared at each other in silence for long moments, as if time itself had frozen around them.
— You don't understand yet. But you're walking the same razor's edge. And sooner or later, you'll have to choose what kind of soul you'll let blossom.
Karmore turned her back, as if to end the matter. But she suddenly stopped.
Her body shuddered.
Her eyes widened.
— No… — she murmured.
She slowly turned her head toward the sky, as if something invisible had pierced her mind.
— He's awake…
Tekio rose with difficulty, frowning.
— What are you talking about…?
Karmore pressed a hand to her chest, as if suffocating under an unseen weight.
— Dante.
The name fell like a muffled thunder in the air.
— His presence… is back in the world.
She stepped back, staring at her own fingers as if sensing something running beneath her skin. A tremor of anxiety… or excitement.
— Then the time has come, finally. Chaos will begin to spin again. And the masks will fall.
Her gaze lost on the horizon.
— But perhaps… perhaps that's how it should be. — She stepped away slightly, hands in pockets, a cynical smile on her lips. — Perhaps the laws of the universe are trying to stabilize. Perhaps… you are the balance. Or perhaps it's the end of everything.
She paused, glancing over her shoulder.
— Then let's make a bet.
She hesitated, her gaze now carrying not only conviction but a strange glint of uncertainty.
— Perhaps the laws of the universe are trying to stabilize… and you are the scales. Or perhaps… you are the final blade.
She gave a small, awkward smile.
— Go. Run. Try to stop this war. Save whoever can still be saved.
And then her eyes hardened, cold as iron.
— But remember… next time we meet, I will show no mercy.
With a subtle movement, Karmore vanished among the rubble, letting the wind carry her last words as a harbinger of an uncertain future.
Leaving Tekio with the cruel weight of everything.
To Be Continued