In the center of Kong, the air vibrated under the pressure of a divine birth. Yabal was no longer the laughing boy his friends knew.
The Fox Genesis transformation had transfigured him. His hair, now long and liquid silver, rippled like spiritual flames crossed with crimson reflections. His skin had taken on the pallor of the moon, almost translucent, and his canines had elongated. His bare torso revealed a lean, dense musculature. But it was his eyes two abyssal red voids that froze the blood of the Spart General.
Rousse stepped back, stunned.
"Ohhh... a Sacred Beast? Interesting."
Yabal did not answer. He lunged.
Rousse was waiting, his fists transformed into rock hammers. He struck, but hit nothing but wind. Yabal had already leaped onto a high branch, his hands frantically clawing at the air in a strange dance, as if he were afraid of falling into the void.
He landed softly on the ground, cracking the sacred tiles.
Rousse charged.
A spectral tail erupted from Yabal's back, wrapped around the General's torso, and yanked him violently. Yabal caught him with a brutal headbutt, then, with a fluid motion, clawed the empty air exactly where Rousse had just been, as if opening an invisible door.
Thrown backward, Rousse recovered and retaliated with a volley of stone spikes.
Yabal didn't dodge. His multiple tails elongated, snatching the spikes in mid-air and using them as anchor points.
Suddenly, a stone pillar surged from the ground, striking Yabal full force and smashing him against a wall. The impact created a crater.
But Yabal was not defeated. He used the spikes stolen by his tails to anchor himself around the hole, stretching his body like the band of a giant slingshot.
"Here, take this!"
He propelled himself forward. A silver human bullet speeding toward its target.
Rousse changed trajectory to avoid it. Yabal smiled.
One of his tails formed a spiral in the air, creating an impossible slide path that instantly redirected him toward the General's exposed flank.
Rousse attempted a desperate strike, but Yabal dove under his guard.
A new pillar shot out of the ground, slamming into Yabal's chin and sending him spinning into the air, his face bloody.
Yabal landed, a carnivorous smile on his lips. He whispered:
"Void Nail."
[Skill: VOID NAIL]
Yabal materializes claws of pure red energy. These projectiles, hungry for power, absorb the target's vital energy upon impact, causing necrotic wounds that are difficult to heal.
His eyes glowed. He threw an energy claw. Rousse didn't even see it coming; it grazed his cheek, leaving a black burn. Yabal followed up, a rain of red claws saturating the space.
Rousse dodged, danced, until he managed to grab one of the claws in mid-air, coating it in stone to neutralize it. He leaped in turn, his rock hammer crashing into Yabal's ribs.
CRACK.
Yabal was pinned to the wall. Rousse gave him no respite, chaining punches to the body, turning Yabal's internal organs to mush. The dull thud of impacts echoed throughout Kong.
Suddenly, Yabal blocked a punch. His eyes illuminated.
SPLAT.
A jet of blood burst from Rousse's back. The Void Nails, planted all over the arena, had just exploded or returned to their master, piercing the General through and through.
Rousse coughed up blood, staggering. Yabal took the opportunity to extricate himself and rejoin Angel and Rhea, panting.
"Do you think... this is over?" Rousse growled.
The Spart General fused with the rock. His body turned gray, hard, floating above the ground. He was now one with the mineral matter of Kong.
He crossed his arms.
Pillars surged from everywhere: from the ground, the ceiling, the walls. They chased Yabal with insane speed. Yabal dodged, but the space was shrinking. His skin tore, his breath grew short.
It was the end.
And then... Rousse collapsed.
The General fell to his knees, breathless.
"What... what is happening to me? These claws in my back... they're draining my strength..."
He searched for his opponent. He looked for him on the ground, in the dust.
But Yabal wasn't there.
Rousse's gaze rose to the top of a broken wall.
Yabal was sitting there, legs crossed, in a posture of perfect meditation. His wounds had vanished. He was no longer wearing his combat rags, but a magnificent traditional Japanese kimono, woven from shadow and light.
He held a delicate red flower in his hand.
He was smiling. An arrogant, divine, terrifying smile.
Rousse understood. He remembered the strange movements from the start of the fight... when Yabal was clawing at the empty air for no apparent reason.
Yabal brought the flower to his lips and whispered a single word:
"SHINIGAMI."
[Skill: SHINIGAMI (God of Death)]
Yabal marks space-time with his claws. These tears remain invisible and latent in the void. Anyone who passes through these marked zones instantly suffers the damage of the strikes dealt in the past.
Rousse's body convulsed.
Hundreds of cuts appeared simultaneously on his skin, as if an army of ghosts were slashing him from all sides. He had walked through every trapped zone without knowing it.
The Spart General collapsed into a pool of blood, defeated by a strike delivered ten minutes earlier.
Yabal descended from his perch, his outfit fading to reveal his normal clothes. Angeles appeared at his side, and his friends welcomed him with relief.
Meanwhile, in the Saturnine City.
In the highest office of the Saturn Enterprises tower, the atmosphere was glacial.
"How is it possible they haven't been found yet?!" Belz Akabané screamed, slamming his fist on the table.
"Oh, don't worry," Tiger replied, sprawled in his chair, his face displaying Olympian calm. "What good will it do them to have seen the writing on the Dolphin Tree? They probably can't even read it."
"NO! You don't understand! She might be with them!"
Belz paced the room, sweat beading on his forehead.
"That brat, Rhea... I don't know how she managed to leave Earth, but if she is with them, it's a catastrophe. She is our most dangerous enemy. She's going to cause us problems, I knew it!"
"Mr. Akabané," Tiger said in a soft but cutting voice, "it is you who were incapable of capturing her. All of this is your fault. But rest assured... this was all part of my plan since the attack on her house."
He let out a dry little laugh.
"Just verify that your son is still on Earth. Let her discover her clan. When the time is right, I will know what to do."
"Understood," Belz grunted. "I know my son is with her... he's her childhood friend. But maybe he will ally with us."
"Yeah. We'll see."
Tiger stood up, stretching.
"I need to go to bed. Send five girls to my room."
Tiger descended. Jaden, his loyal right-hand man, was waiting. They flew off at such speed that they seemed to teleport, crossing the sky to the Grand White Castle, a fortress floating in the clouds.
In front of the royal bedroom door, five young women waited, trembling. Tiger ushered them inside. Jaden stayed to stand guard.
A few minutes later, a woman dressed in a nun's habit walked down the corridor. Screams of terror and pain began to filter through the heavy door.
"Wow... what is he doing in there?" the Nun asked, a sick smile on her lips.
"Can't you tell?" Jaden replied, amused. "He's having the time of his life."
"Coming from you, who takes pleasure in slitting throats and torturing during the act, I imagine it must be high art."
"Want to see?" Jaden proposed.
"Why not?"
They entered.
The smell of blood was suffocating. In the center of the room stood an immense pool filled with a steaming, crimson liquid. The first four girls had disappeared.
The fifth was suspended from the ceiling by chains. Tiger, a dagger in hand, worked with the precision of a mad surgeon. The woman's body was mutilated beyond recognition, her breasts lying on the floor, her lower abdomen cut open. She was screaming, but her cries were turning into wet gargles.
"See? That's what excites him," Jaden commented as if critiquing a painting. "He's kinda cute, isn't he?"
"You two are sick, psychopaths," the Nun snickered.
"Lol. You're just as bad as us, my dear."
Jaden pointed a finger at her.
"Those people you give regeneration potions to, just to boil them alive in your giant cauldrons, over and over again... just to hear the music of their suffering? That makes you an artist, not a saint."
"Huh... but that's better than what you six do here!" she defended herself, laughing. "I thought the Master, with his calm nature, was different."
"Oops, she's dead," Jaden interrupted, looking at the suspended woman.
Tiger made a hand gesture. Through telekinesis, the chains released. The mutilated body fell into the pool of blood.
The moment she touched the liquid, the woman opened her eyes and screamed.
The acid in the blood burned her flesh, consuming it, turning it into liquid... then regenerating it to burn it again.
It was an infinite loop of suffering. She was alive, dissolved, reformed, dissolved again.
"She will remain alive in this pool for eternity," Tiger explained, wiping his dagger. "As long as I don't drain the tub, her agony will feed my pleasure."
He watched the water bubble.
"And I haven't drained anything in fifty years."