The air outside still smelled of stardust, but now that scent was mixed with the hot iron of destruction. Where Hazau had been thrown, the ground had opened into black craters: open scars on the earth's belly, deep furrows and arched shadows between roots ripped out as if the soil had been flayed alive. They had pushed the monster outside the wall protecting the Tree of Life—a partial victory that felt hollow, because now the arena was exposed, and the Abyss had found a new stage upon which to grow.
Hazau remained standing, still as a statue of bile. His body, half-wood, half-flesh, shimmered with regeneration and rot; veins of black sap pulsed under his skin, pumping abyssal energy with the voracity of a starving heart. The remaining roots contracted and stretched like fingers, licking the air with a liquid yearning, ready to feed the receptacle that stood before them.
— Let it begin, then — said Hazau, and his voice was more than sound: it was prayer, sentence, and announcement of catastrophe. — The final dance.
Before anyone could muster the first breath of reaction, the ground groaned. It wasn't the Tree; the sound came from something older, deeper—a submerged boom that traveled through the earth as if a foreign colossus had shifted its weight. The air vibrated; dust and particles fell like a rain of lead over everything. Tekio felt the reverberation in his teeth, in his bones. A dry chill ran up his spine.
— It's not the Tree — he murmured, almost voiceless, his eyes fixed on the tearing horizon. — Something else is causing this.
In the distance, the war of titans tore the sky in waves of light and shadow, thunder that displaced the clouds. Hazau smiled as one receiving good news.
— The princesses are dancing — he spoke, each syllable sprinkled with scorn. — Seraphyne plays with her prey; the other… surprises me. Ah — he laughed, low and cruel — soon, the Empress will fall.
The laughter was a premonition; the words fell upon the group like stones crushing bone. Dan swallowed dryly; Stella closed her eyes for a second, jaw tense. If Mei yielded now, all the effort, all the sacrifice, could crumble in a breath. The possibility opened an icy hole in each of their ribs.
Hazau took a step forward. The abyssal energy responded, humming in his fingers like death knells. He didn't need to ask for a spectacle—he already knew what the final act would be.
— You love so much, don't you? — he taunted, looking at each face. — Excellent. Let's see how much that is worth.
The roots twisted around something. The soil groaned and from them emerged damp fingers, clutching a bundle of black leaves. When Hazau unrolled the package, the body that appeared was a blade of silence: Aisha. Once a warm presence, now a substance of cut skin and pain.
The world held its breath.
Aisha was an atlas of violence. Irregular perforations, recent cuts that opened maps on her skin; the chest that once held laughter and promises was now torn by a void that words could not contain. Blood dripped from the roots, slow and dark, forming small puddles that shone with a cruel reflection. Her limp body slumped between the dampness and the dust; the impact was a muffled sound—and the silence that followed, immense, wounded more than any blade.
Dan was the first to react, but not with fury: his reaction was physical and primitive. A reflux of nausea tore from his stomach; he bent over, his breath coming in gasps, long fingers beating uncontrollably against his own thigh as if, through pain, he could still anchor himself to life. Rage would come, but in that instant, it was powerlessness that corroded him.
— No… it can't be — he murmured, his voice scraping with disbelief that smelled of despair.
Stella automatically raised her hands, as if trying to hold back time. Her eyes, already red, burned more; healing, which had so often been her answer, was useless here, a broken promise. Her breathing grew shallow; fine tremors shook the fingers that held her bow.
— She… she didn't deserve this… — she said, and the words dissolved into spasms.
Amara gritted her teeth until she heard her jaw crack. Her hands trembled so much her knuckles turned white; her whole body shrank under the pain as if she could contain it in a tight grip. Tears began to overflow, but they were natural and dangerous tears: fuel for oaths.
— How much more blood will you spill? — she whispered, each syllable a knife.
But Tekio… Tekio was like one who feels a sky collapsing inside his own skin. First came the absolute silence, that kind of paralysis that freezes the throat. Something inside him cracked, a shock of metal bent to the point of rupture. The electricity that always surrounded him ceased to be just power; it converted into crystallized grief, into a fury honed by accumulated suffering. His muscles tensed to a wire; veins bulged in his neck; his skin tingled, charged like a storm about to break. When his eyes exploded in a cold red, it wasn't loss of control—it was precision preparing itself.
Hazau watched with sadistic pleasure, and the laugh that rose in his throat transformed into a caustic whisper:
— Look closely — he said, as one pointing out a work to be studied. — Corpses. Essences without a home. Soul to dust. You think this hurts? No. It is matter to be molded. You will get used to it. Mei will be next. Quick… or slow. My choice. Who wants to start? Tekio? Dan? Stella? Amara? Or Mei?
The sentence hung, sharpening the air around them. Hazau took another step forward; every movement of his was a slow accusation.
Inside Tekio, Yara screamed without sound—a raw command, a heated steel that pierced bone.
— Bastard...
He did not think. Thought was a luxury; there was only reaction, ready and cutting. The electricity surrounding him rose like an army of silver wires, licking his fingers, crackling in small sparks. His shoulders drained the world's pain, transforming it into focus.
— You will regret this — murmured Tekio, and his voice broke the silence like contained thunder. — I will not… allow it.
His speech was not just a promise; it was an oath—a line drawn in the air between pain and justice. His chest rose and fell in a breath that seemed to pull down the very sky. Every second until the first step of the attack gained weight: a crescendo of pain, rage, memories, and blood.
Dan raised his fists, the flames trembling around him as if they wanted to devour his very will.
— Leave him to me — he snarled, his voice warm and rough, anger turning to fuel.
Stella nocked an arrow with hands that barely stopped trembling; the bow felt heavy, as if made of grief itself.
— I can't change what happened… but I will fight to my last breath — she murmured, determination cutting through the anguish.
Amara took a step forward, every movement trembling with pain, but her gaze was iron.
— Aisha will not have died in vain — she said, her voice shattered by tears already streaming down her face.
Tekio clenched his electrified fists. His skin formed small points where the charge burned, and his breathing was a drum. When he spoke, his voice was low, through clenched teeth, each word dragged by a river of hatred and loss.
— I swear… you will all pay… and no one else will suffer like she did.
Tekio's words were an end and a beginning at the same time—a blade that divided the before and the after. This was where everything would change: not just a fight between forces, but the response of a heart breaking in half and transforming into ammunition.
Hazau smiled, a satisfied predator before the fermenting fear.
— So much courage. So much naivety. — His voice was a sentence. — Today, I will choose the spectacle.
And in that instant, before any attack could cut the air, the entire world seemed to suspend itself—as if breath were a thread stretched between the present and a fall. Each of them had time to feel: the metallic taste of fear, the weight of grief, the hot certainty of the promise. Later, the fury would explode. But for a couple of heartbeats, there was only Aisha's fallen body and the broken voices that swore her justice.
Hazau smiled, opening his arms as one receiving an unwanted gift.
— Then… show me. Show me how long you can resist before being swallowed.
The battlefield pulsed once more, and the Abyss answered its regent's call.
Roots sprouted and Tekio vanished in the blink of an eye.
He leaped, leaving only debris and dust behind, aiming a two-footed kick at Hazau's chest.
Hazau was surprised, but in a matter of seconds a huge beam placed itself in front of him and the impact was brutal, a bright roar with lightning and black liquid dripping from the wood.
Hazau then tried to grab Tekio with beams from the side, but Tekio vanished and Dan and Stella took the front as twin tempests once again.
The fight grew in intensity, and the battlefield already seemed too small to contain the clash of wills.
Amara, in the center of the chaos, searched within herself for any answer. She forced her breath, clenched her fists, tried to dive deep into her own essence. But all she found was silence. Emptiness. An absence that hurt like hot iron. Her body trembled, not from fear of the enemy, but from herself—from not being able to be what she needed to be.
Dan and Stella advanced without hesitation. Fire roared in Dan's hands, bursting into explosions that lit up the air. Stella, beside him, fired arrows of pulsating light, each shot stitching the space between Dan's charges. They tried to go beyond, to force their limits, but the weight of Hazau's darkness made every effort seem lesser than it was.
Hazau dodged attacks as if they were crumbs thrown to the wind. His cold smile never broke.
— Your essence is good… — he said, raising his hand and dissolving a flaming blast with a touch. — But you still lack evolution.
Then his eyes fixed on Dan, laden with contempt.
— You. Always limited yourself. Never felt real despair. Never were forced to change in the heat of battle. The others burned all they had to evolve… and you? You remain the same.
Dan snarled, inflaming, his fists burning like stars about to collapse. He ran forward, each step an explosion cracking the ground. Tekio seized the opening, sliding in circles around Hazau. He moved lightly, quickly, as if dancing on invisible lines, seeking to close the distance for a decisive blow.
— Amara! — Stella shouted, dodging a wave of black energy. — Look at me! You're not alone! Hold on, we'll find a way!
Hazau guffawed, his voice resonating like distorted thunder.
— I'm tired of playing defense… — his eyes shone with abyssal light. — With boys so full of vigor, just blocking is tedious.
The air vibrated. It was as if the Abyss had opened cracks in space itself. The shadows wavered, and then ancient essences emerged around him—shades of forgotten warriors, their experiences and powers being devoured by Hazau.
— The Regent of the Abyss does not ask for permission… — his voice reverberated like a sentence. — He takes. And if there is no perfect receptacle, I become the receptacle.
Tekio advanced first. Cutting the air with precision. Hazau spun his body, fluid, absorbing the stance of an ancient warrior. His arms moved in disconcerting patterns, far too fast. Tekio attacked low— but Hazau matched him, blocking with his forearm and returning a sharp counterblow to the chest.
The impact sent him two steps back. Tekio regained his balance and leaped, trying to chain together rapid strikes. But Hazau was no longer just himself: he had incorporated the mastery of an expert Japanese warrior, a spiritual hacker. His fingers traced invisible symbols in the air, and in a sequence of blows he interfered with Tekio's flow. The boy felt his energy lock up, as if Yara had been ripped out from inside him.
The sparks that gave him more explosiveness vanished and he felt his body grow heavier.
— N-no… — Tekio gasped, staggering.
Dan exploded in his defense, multiple clones appearing in flames. They ran simultaneously, charging in unison against Hazau. But the villain changed again. His skin darkened, the air turned gelid. A new essence dominated him.
A roar sounded—deep, wild, ancestral. The Siberian Dragon manifested in his aura, and with a single movement, Hazau released a wave of bile that swept through the clones, shattering them like smoke.
Tekio barely managed to dodge. He spun in the air, executing a backflip, escaping by a hair's breadth. Still, the impact of the wave sent him to his knees against the ground, his lungs burning.
He raised his gaze, teeth clenched.
— Wh-what power is this?! — he shouted, his voice laden with indignation and disbelief.
Hazau merely smiled, calmly.
— What's wrong? — he mocked, spreading his arms. — Not going to attack me? I'm right here. On flat ground. No roots to defend me…
His voice sounded like poison and invitation at once.
— Come.
Dan advanced first. His fists burned with white flames, each blow struck with the brutality of one trying to break the impossible. The ground shook, sparks cut the air, the heat of the explosions illuminated the night. But Hazau received him with laziness, dodging as if brushing dust from his shoulders.
— Pathetic. — his voice dripped disdain. — You strike like a rabid dog… but there is nothing beyond empty instinct.
Before Dan could react, Hazau's eyes darkened, perfectly incorporating Haruto's coldness. His movements became precise, sharp, calculated. With a single gesture, he raised the abyssal essence, a blackened red that seemed to corrode the very air, and struck. The wave of energy hit Dan with violence, hurling him away like a broken doll.
Tekio lunged to cushion the impact. His feet slid on the ground, digging into the soil to resist the force coming through Dan's body. The shock reverberated to his bones.
— Dan! — Tekio shouted, holding his friend firmly. — You can't fall for his game! Don't fight with hatred… focus! You are not that!
Tekio's voice was hard, but there was a fraternal weight in it. Dan raised his eyes, took a deep breath, and for the first time did not respond with anger. He just nodded. Focus. He needed to focus.
Then, golden arrows cut the air, fast as thunder. Hazau raised his hand and cold took over, a wall of ice appearing before him. The impact echoed, shards flew, and he smiled with scorn.
— Interesting… so the archer dares to distract me.
Another arrow shone, but this time Hazau deflected it with an ice stake, launched like an inverted lightning bolt. Stella dodged by instinct, but the ice grazed her side, staining her suit red.
— Stella! — Amara screamed, desperate, stretching out her hands, trying to conjure something… anything. But nothing came. Only silence and emptiness.
Hazau tilted his head, his voice venomous. — You can't even shine… what a waste.
Amara remained silent, biting her lips until they bled.
It was then that Tekio felt it. In the air, small golden sparks, like glittering dust falling from the sky. A memory. Something familiar. His eyes narrowed.
Stella rose slowly. Her gaze shone. Hazau walked towards her and Amara, steps slow, provocative, like a predator approaching its prey. But Stella did not retreat.
In a flash, she shot forward. The speed was absurd, and for an instant Hazau did not react. Only the muscle memory of Haruto—stolen and incarnated in him—made his body dodge at the last moment. The clash began.
Blows of light against abyssal assaults. Stella forced close-quarters combat, conjuring a blade made of pure light, its gleam reflecting in Hazau's cold gaze. The duel was fierce, fast, almost invisible to the common eye.
Dan tried to intervene, but Tekio held him firmly. — No. Trust her.
Dan looked at him with anger, but Tekio's firm gaze made the flame in his heart recede.
Stella then raised her hand. Signs formed, and golden chains sprouted, grabbing Hazau and lifting him into the sky. She spun, the light whirling like a celestial prison.
— No more running! — Stella shouted.
Hazau, with a gesture, raised black beams that shattered the chains and launched another at Stella. She leaped at the last instant, escaping by a thread. But, as she fell, an illusion of herself appeared behind Amara and the two swung and Stella's replica launched Amara towards Hazau.
Hazau slid across the ground and, seeing Amara coming like a projectile, he raised countless stakes, driving them into Amara mid-air. She dodged but was hit and fell to the ground covered in dust and beams. Blood flew. He smiled, celebrating his triumph, watching her body plummet like a useless burden.
But Stella disappeared. And when Hazau turned, there she was, emerging in silence beside him, a golden blade ready to slit his throat.
He reacted at the last instant, raising ice as a barrier. Stella retreated, leaping back.
Hazau turned to Tekio and Dan, who watched from afar. Tekio was motionless, eyes wide. Hazau smiled.
— Are you scared, boy? It's hard to see a life drain away. But don't worry, your friend won't—
He didn't finish. Behind him, among golden sparks, Amara emerged from absolute nothingness, without blood, without wounds, as if she had never been seen or touched. Silent. A small blade of light in her hand.
Hazau felt it too late. His eyes widened in despair as the blade penetrated his head, piercing his skull and burning his brain with pure light.
His scream cut across the battlefield, cursing, swearing, but Amara had already retreated. He fired attacks blindly, roaring with hatred.
— Go to hell, you bastard! — Stella shouted, firing an arrow at such an absurd speed it seemed to pierce the air itself. The golden projectile pierced Hazau's navel and dragged him to the Tree of Life, where it pinned his body of flesh and wood.
In that instant, Stella remembered what Mei had told her in training.
"Techniques are not loose weapons. You must combine them, unite them, let them become parts of a single body. Light is science, Stella. Use it. Apply the laws that govern its essence."
And Stella applied. Using the physics of light, she manipulated reflections and refractions, creating real illusions absorbed by everyone's eyes—including Hazau's. They weren't just copies of her, but of others. Like the projection of Amara.
She learned by observing Dan, and by seeking evolution within herself, using science and her now refined control thanks to Jade, she created a small area with absolute refraction control.
In this area she was capable of creating illusions of herself and others.
It wasn't yet refined to the maximum, but it could already help.
Tekio had perceived Stella's essence in the air, the particles Hazau hadn't noticed because he was distracted.
That's why Tekio trusted and made Dan believe too.
Now, with the arrows united inside the villain's body, Stella concentrated her energy. The blades of light linked, crossing Hazau's chest like golden roots.
— Light divides… but it also sums. — murmured Stella, raising her bow. — And today, you will be torn apart by it.
With a gesture, the energy exploded. Hazau was lifted to the skies, his body shattering into hundreds of fragments of flesh and wood that burned in golden flashes. His roar echoed through the night until it disappeared.
The battlefield plunged into silence.
The silence after the momentary victory seemed almost unreal.
Dan and Tekio looked at each other, panting, and turned to Stella and Amara.
— You two... — Tekio smiled, sweat still streaming down his face — ...were amazing.
— That plan was incredible, Stella! — Dan added, laughing nervously while pressing his chest. — I almost had a heart attack there, but it worked... and that's what matters!
Amara smiled timidly, still breathless, but the gleam in her eyes showed pride. Stella, meanwhile, averted her gaze to her hands, where light particles still shimmered like golden dust, as if she couldn't believe what she had just accomplished.
But the peace died in seconds.
The low, guttural laugh echoed off the frozen walls, reverberating like a whisper coming from all sides at once.
— Beautiful... truly beautiful... — Hazau's voice resonated, laden with sarcasm. — But did you really believe you could finish me off so easily?
Each of their hearts tightened. They knew. None of them believed Hazau had truly died. The Regent of the Abyss could not be destroyed by common methods. He was pure essence, immortal, nourished by the very Abyssal portal that bled infinite energy.
As long as that portal existed, Hazau would always return.
Tekio clenched his fists. He still couldn't feel Yara inside him. The silence in his soul was deafening, and it corroded him from within. Hazau hadn't just blocked his electricity—he had torn from him the presence of the only voice that had always guided him.
What if he could do the same to the others?
Hazau was more than strong. He was meticulous. Dangerous. Patient.
Amara, meanwhile, fought another enemy: herself. She tried, desperately, to find within herself that answer, that hidden spark she so sought amidst the battles. But the more she forced it, the more she felt the emptiness expand. The fear of being a burden to her new friends consumed her.
It was at that moment that Stella raised her hand, eyes determined, and particles of light began to fall from the sky like golden flakes.
Hazau took a step forward, teeth clenched in fury.
— That trick again?! — he snarled, and stretched out his hand.
An ice stake tore through the air towards Stella.
Amara screamed and pulled her friend aside, dodging by a hair's breadth.
— I won't let you repeat that ploy — said Hazau, his black eyes burning with contempt.
Next, he mixed the essence of nature with that of ice.
From the ground, a hurricane rose, spinning with sharp beams of ice and cutting gusts, covering the entire arena.
The group launched into desperate leaps to escape the mortal wave. But the slippery ground turned every movement into a risk.
Stella lost her balance, her feet sliding until her body was swallowed by the treacherous ice.
— Stella! — Amara stretched out her hand, but before she could reach her, Hazau appeared behind her, disfigured and monstrous, ready to impale her with an ice spear.
Time seemed to stop.
Even in her fall, Stella invoked chains of light that materialized in the air. The chains wrapped around Amara's torso, pulling her sharply downward, away from Hazau's lethal reach.
The two plummeted together, but at least they were alive.
Tekio and Dan had no time to think. They charged against Hazau.
He smiled. A simple movement of his hands and the arena, already unstable and suspended meters above the ground, shook even more. Blocks of ice broke loose, plummeting like white meteors.
Dan roared, exploding energy around his body. He advanced through the fissures, forcing his way, until Tekio joined him.
Side by side, like brothers in war, they faced Hazau.
The clash was brutal. Fists, knees, kicks. The metallic sound of impacts resonated amid the icy wind. Tekio and Dan, even without firm footing, balanced as if adrenaline itself sustained them.
Hazau, even with Haruto's essence, retreated step by step, pressured by their rhythm.
But his fury was infinite.
He retreated a few meters, opened his arms, and in an instant, multiple beams shot at them like arrows.
The spears pierced the skin of both, not deep enough to kill, but enough to wound and slow them.
Hazau seized the opportunity. He created a gelid gale that swept the arena. Dan burned the beam stuck in his body and tried to resist with explosions, but the wind carried him out of the combat area, dragging him like a leaf in a storm.
— DAN! — Tekio shouted, his chest tightening.
Dan tried to return, exploding the air around him, but Hazau sealed the field with a thick cocoon of ice and beams, isolating Tekio who still had the beam stuck in his body.
The ice cocoon closed around Tekio with a dry crash, sealing him inside with the Abyss monster. The sound of the ice locking echoed like the closing of a tomb.
Everyone's heart sank.
— TEKIO! — Dan's scream cut through the air, desperate, tearing his throat.
He ran to the ice wall and began unleashing consecutive explosions against the prison. Fire, heat, sparks, flames—nothing. Each time a fissure opened, the cocoon regenerated immediately, as if the Abyss itself breathed through those walls.
Dan howled, punching with flaming fists, trying to pierce through with all his strength, but it was like fighting eternity.
— Damn it, open! Open, curse you! — his fists bled, but he didn't stop. — Tekio won't die here! HE WON'T!
Terror was stamped on his eyes.
Because he knew: if Tekio was swallowed by the Abyss in there, the battle was lost. It wouldn't just be the death of a friend, it would be the collapse of their spirit.
Stella, panting, saw the cocoon pulsing high above and shuddered.
— He's alone... alone with that thing... — her voice trembled, barely audible.
Amara gritted her teeth, pulling Stella by the arm.
— No! We're not leaving him there!
Suddenly, Stella raised her hands and made platforms of light sprout in the air, bright fragments like improvised steps that fluttered under the weight of despair.
The two began to run upward, scaling the unstable arena towards the cocoon.
But fear consumed them with every step.
Amara couldn't take her eyes off the height. The vision of Tekio isolated burned in her mind. That heavy silence, the absence of any sign of Yara in him, made him seem already condemned.
The terror of losing her new friend corroed her soul.
Stella, still trembling, forced more light, more platforms, even as her spiritual energy wavered. Each step was a desperate cry against time, against the death that loomed up there.
Dan, still trapped in his useless fight against the wall, continued to explode, to beat, to wail like a wounded animal.
— Hold on, Tekio! HOLD ON! — he shouted, but his voice echoed without answer.
The terror was in all of them.
They knew that if Tekio wasn't rescued in time, only God knew what would happen inside.
The course of the battle had changed.
And the shadow of death loomed, threatening to swallow not only Tekio, but the hope of all.
To be continued…