Renen picked up his massive golden sword and hurled it violently through the door of Sefu's bar.
"Cherecherechere!! Ah never took the so-called saviour o' the warld tae be the sort tae strike doon ane o' his ain. Hae yer een finally opened tae the truth?"
Renen turned to face the Akhekhu and kneeled. "Yes. I see it now. We've clung to life so helplessly, not realizing that life itself is the source of our suffering."
"Cherecherecherechere!! Looks like our clash taught ye a thing or twa. Had I kent it'd be this easy, I'd ha' come for ye lang afore noo!"
"My lord. I want to destroy everything. Watching humans reach for hope fills me with pity. Let me free them from their agony by destroying them, and everything that binds them to this world."
"That's pretty much our creed, that is. Sae, whit is it ye're proposin'?"
"Allow me the honour of extinguishing every life in this cavern. I'll start with the citizens. They're suffering the most."
"Cherecherecherechere. I like yer conviction. Let me bear witness tae their end."
Renen paused briefly. "Very well. Follow me."
He jumped into the air, using bursts of pressure from his feet to propel himself through the air. The Akhekhu followed, gliding on his grotesque bat-like wings. They traveled in eerie silence before reaching the entrance to the evacuation chamber. Renen opened the door slowly.
The citizens inside erupted with relief. "Hey, look! King Renenhotep is back! Did he bring Queen Isira and the others?"
"Are you okay, Your Majesty?"
"Where are the others?"
"Is Daddy okay?"
Voices rang out in waves. Renen drowned them out, his vacant eyes fixed ahead. Behind him, the Akhekhu crept into view, its decapitated head dangling by a stubborn thread of flesh, the grimace on its face stretching unnaturally. It leaned in, too tall for the chamber, looming just enough to peek inside.
Screams erupted. "Aaaah!!"
"K-King Renenhotep! What's the meaning of this?!"
"God help us!"
Panic consumed the chamber. Renen stood unmoved. "I'm sorry. Everyone."
He inhaled deeply, and from the depths of his fractured psyche, he summoned the darkness, the snarling, ancient rot of his humanity, the intrusive thoughts festering like mould in the corners of his mind. Black veins slithered across his flesh, twitching like living things, encircling his eyes as if gouging into his soul. His muscles pulsed and cracked grotesquely, bloating with unnatural strength.
When he opened his eyes again, thick black blood oozed from them, leaking down his cheeks like a parody of weeping. The air around him warped, thick with an oily dread, as if the space itself recoiled from his presence.
"Such fearsome murderous intent, that," the Akhekhu whispered.
Renen drew his dark blade and surged forward like a living calamity. He cleaved through man, woman, and child with the precision of a butcher and the apathy of a god. Each time his blade met flesh, it didn't merely kill, it annihilated. Bodies twisted and imploded, bones cracking inward with wet, collapsing crunches as if the universe itself had yanked their souls into a void. Flesh peeled back in spirals before vanishing into singularities, like obscene mockeries of death.
Some tried to run. Others begged. A few reached for him with shaking hands, whispering his name as if it could save them. He responded with silence and another swing.
Mothers clung to children only to watch them vanish in their arms. Friends disappeared mid-scream, their mouths warping into spatial wounds before ceasing to exist. It was as though reality itself had turned hostile, each strike unmaking the world in pulses of gravitational decay.
The Akhekhu watched with giddy ecstasy, its lolling head flapping grotesquely as it chuckled from behind the doorway, its dangling, blood-soaked grin twitching like a marionette's smile. It revelled not just in death, but in the betrayal, the horror of people witnessing their last shred of hope become their executioner.
And then there was silence. Not the peaceful kind, but a raw, hollow nothingness that rang in the bones. Fifty thousand lives erased in under ten minutes. Not even blood remained, only warped air and echoes of a vanishing scream.
Back in the scrapyard, only 50 human warriors remained against 60 demons. Xedet stood in the middle of a crater, a katana embedded in his throat; Seijuro's. Seijuro clung to the hilt, his body limp, unconscious. His comrades, Lin, Joe, Njomane, Jean-Pierre, and Ola; lay at Xedet's feet.
"Why do you humans fight so hard? Don't you see how liberating death truly is?" Xedet sneered.
He pulled the katana from his throat, blood spurting with each inch. As he discarded it, Seijuro collapsed with it.
Xedet turned toward Sefu's bar. Through the entrance, he saw Kiki in his base form, grimy and scraped. Curiosity sparked, and Xedet approached slowly.
"Kyaaaah!!" Kiki screamed, bolting down the stairs to the bar's basement.
Meanwhile, Sefu scanned the monitors. "Rass! Wah Renen up to now?! An' dat beast still a charge dis way! Di time machine our only chance. Wait… dat blade… him couldn't possibly be - -"
"Hey, Sefu! W-Where's my mom?! Why did Daddy hurt her?! What happened to Mommy?!" Rem cried.
"Likkle one, listen mi now. Wah yuh see, it nuh what yuh think. Yuh fada never hurt yuh mada. Him send her someplace safe. Where? Not even him know. But mi tell yuh dis, anywhere betta than dis hellhole."
"R-Really? She's safe?" Rem sobbed. "I'm so glad."
Sefu moved to the table and powered on the time machine. The portal lit up, humming with energy.
"Now it our time fi step up; mek him job easier, ya hear!" He aimed his arm-cannons at the basement entrance.
"Yuh make one big mistake comin' here, demon," he growled.
Xedet emerged from the stairwell shadows, pushing aside the beaded curtain. In his grip was Kiki, held by the head.
"Care to explain that device on the table?" Xedet asked.
"None of yuh business. Now piss off!" Sefu fired his cannons and charged. "Rem! Protect di machine! Please!"
Sefu tackled Xedet, launching into the air with rocket boosters from his feet. Near the cavern roof, he flipped and drove Xedet downward in a brutal pile-driver, shattering the floor and forming a crater.
He jumped back as Xedet lay embedded head-first like an ostrich. A giant cannon emerged from Sefu's spine, two smaller ones from his forearms. Lights gathered at their muzzles.
"MAXIMUM OVERDRIVER CANNON!!" he roared, unleashing a searing laser that tore across the scrapyard, triggering a massive rockslide.
From the smoke, Xedet emerged, wounded, bloodied, wings torn.
"You'll pay for that, human!"
"Rassclaat… still nuh enough," Sefu muttered.
Meanwhile, in the basement, Kiki stirred. "So this is the time machine? Wow~! Maybe we really have a chance! We've gotta tell Renen -kiki!"
"Can… can it really work?" Rem asked.
"Hm?"
"Do you think this machine will work?"
"Even if it doesn't, we're out of options. We have to try anything. We've got to hang onto hope, no matter how small."
"Yeah… I guess you're right."
BOOM!!
A tremor rocked the cavern. The monitors shook. The time machine nearly slid off the table.
"Oh no! Rem, hold the machine steady!"
Rem dashed forward and steadied the device with both arms, his eyes wide with fear, and hope.
At the heart of the scrapyard, Xedet stood drenched in soot and blood, his eyes burning with sadistic glee. Sefu's body twitched weakly at the end of the demon's massive obsidian spear, the weapon driven straight through his chest. His limbs hung limp, his blood cascading in thick spurts down the shaft like spilled oil from a ruptured machine. Xedet held him aloft as though presenting a macabre trophy, the way one might display meat skewered crudely on a spit. The crackle of burning wreckage and the low groan of twisting metal filled the air, framing the moment in a tableau of unrelenting horror.
Sefu wasn't finished. Gritting his teeth through the agony, he raised his trembling arms, the cannons embedded in them humming with flickering energy. With a guttural roar, he unleashed a furious barrage of lasers, dozens of searing crimson bolts lancing out in chaotic succession, scorching the air as they collided against Xedet's towering frame.
Xedet stood in place, the beams tearing through his flesh in sizzling bursts. His skin peeled in molten strips, charred muscle beneath twitching with irritation rather than pain. Each impact lit his body like a grotesque lantern, but he didn't flinch. As the barrage faded, he remained, smoking and steaming, towering and terrible.
With slow deliberation, Xedet twisted the obsidian spear still embedded through Sefu's chest. It ground against ribs and organs with a sickening squelch, forcing a wet, agonized gasp from the human's throat. Sefu convulsed, coughing up a thick splatter of blood that dripped down his chin.
"Why do you persist?" Xedet asked, his voice a low, mocking rumble. "You can barely stand. Your resistance is meaningless. Even your so-called saviour has turned his back on you."
Sefu wheezed… then chuckled.
Xedet's expression darkened. "What's so funny?"
Sefu lifted his blood-soaked face, eyes sharp despite the pain. "Yuh really nuh get it, do yuh, demon?"
Xedet narrowed his eyes. "Explain yourself. Now."
Suddenly, the Akhekhu and Renen plummeted from the sky like falling stars, their descent ending in an explosion of dust and shattered rock. The earth trembled under the weight of their arrival. Xedet turned his gaze toward them, his eyes narrowing into burning slits.
"Cherecherecherechere!!" cackled the Akhekhu, his voice a shrill, fractured screech that echoed with madness. "Ye've done grand, Renenhotep! The screamin', the greetin', their last wee gasps o' hope! It's downright laughable how they still think this warld was ever theirs tae begin wi'! We're liberatin' them, an' they cannae even see it!! Cherecherecherechere!!"
Renen's expression was hollow, unreadable. Then his eyes glinted. In a blur of motion, he vanished. All across the battlefield, survivors turned their heads, only to have them severed in a flash of crimson steel. Each strike was surgical, clean, and monstrous. Their wounds didn't bleed. Instead, they warped, spiralling open like torn fabric in the universe itself. Limbs, torsos, heads, each piece twisted inward, sucked into the void within their own flesh as if the soul had detonated, leaving only collapsing hollows.
There was no time to scream. No time to understand. Just the silent, terrifying erasure of existence, like reality itself was rejecting them.
In seconds, there was nothing left but the broken earth and a few trembling hearts still beating: Seijuro, Joe, Ola, Jean-Pierre, and Njomane. The last flickering lights.
Renen paused, his blade dripping with something darker than blood, and turned his gaze to Xedet, who now held Sefu aloft like a grotesque banner, impaled on a spear of black stone. Sefu's body trembled faintly, twitching like a puppet at the end of its strings.
Renen approached each of his comrades, his blade trembling slightly in his grip as he delivered the fatal slashes. One by one, their bodies convulsed, each wound blossoming into a devouring void that consumed them whole. It was not death, it was erasure, the very concept of their existence being unravelled. With every cut, their voices echoed in his mind, bright and full of life, haunting him like memories too vivid to be real.
He struck Joe. 'Hey! Renny boy! Come to the splits with me! Hiyah!!' Joe's voice rang with vibrant energy, so full of joy, so achingly alive, as his body contorted inward, limbs snapping, mouth still curled in laughter as it collapsed into the void like a marionette torn from its strings.
He struck Ola. 'Heehaw! Hey Renny! Which one is stronger? My guns or your sword? Let's test it out!'
Her teasing grin froze mid-sentence as her body imploded; bones buckling, flesh folding in on itself like a crushed can. Her swagger was gone, devoured by a silence deeper than death.
He struck Jean-Pierre. 'HEY RENEN! LET'S GO GET SOME RAMEN!! YOU'RE PAYING FOR IT THOUGH! HAHAHAHA!!' The hearty laughter was cut off in a gurgle. His limbs twisted in impossible directions before vanishing in a spiralling bloom of nothingness, like a star winking out mid-burst.
He struck Njomane. 'Ren! Let me teach you how to roar! Every King must at least know how to do that, right? Rarararara!!' The cheer in his voice clashed with the grotesque way his spine bent backwards, ribs snapping inward like jagged teeth before the void pulled him under. His roar was the last to echo, brave and broken.
He struck Lin. 'Lord Renenhotep... I truly wished I could have shown you the kingdom of Longxia. When the world becomes peaceful again... we should all go there.' His soft voice lingered, even as his body folded in on itself like petals pulled into a whirlpool. His words fluttered in the air like a final prayer, long after he had vanished.
When he reached Seijuro, Renen paused. The man was barely clinging to consciousness, his breaths shallow, his eyes dull.
"D...Don't send me off just yet... Renenhotep, you bastard... cough... I... I can still... fight."
Renen stared down at him, his expression unreadable. Then, with a slow exhale, he struck. Seijuro's body buckled, his wound collapsing into a black hole that drew him in.
"So... that's your decision, huh? V...Very well... at least take my blade... the Zatoichi... to aid you. G...Good luck..."
His voice faded into the silence as his body was consumed by the void.
Only the wind remained, carrying the memories of their voices into the desolate hush of the battlefield. Renen picked up the Zatoichi from the battle ground. And murdered every single demon on the battlefield with it while dashing around the battlefield like a bolt of thunder. The Akhekhu Kyphbabi,
Xedet and Wenex-su looked on in utter confusion as to why Renen was using a different weapon to slay the remaining demons. Renen glared at Xedet and Sefu once more. In an instant, Renen dashed and stood in a squatting position on Xedet's spear, almost weightless. Before Xedet could even comprehend the situation he was in, Renen slashed his face with the sword, breaking his sense of composure for a few seconds. During those few seconds, Renen freed Sefu from his impalement at an incredible speed. Even Xedet himself couldn't comprehend the speed at which Renen moved. 'Impossibe! Where did this speed come from? I couldn't even feel him taking his friend off my spear!' Xedet thought to himself.
Renen carried the barely standing Sefu to the entrance of the war-torn bar, rubble crunching like bones under their feet.
"Give thanks, Renen… mi owe yuh big time, mi bredda," Sefu groaned, forcing himself upright. Every movement was a scream beneath his skin. He extended both arms forward; steam hissed violently from his gauntlets as the twin cannons locked into place with a jarring clang.
Renen stepped beside him. His hands clenched the hilt of his Zatoichi blade, trembling as raw Bawu and Nyama energies spiralled around him, wrapping his body in searing light. Ethereal wings unfurled, pulsing with agony and purpose. His gaze locked onto the three demonic silhouettes advancing through the haze.
"Sefu…where's Rem?!" Renen's voice cracked. "I haven't seen her since I got here."
"She's safe!" Sefu said through gritted teeth. Blood ran down his lip, hot and constant. "Basement… she deh down deh with Kiki. Mi mek sure, mi swear pon mi name."
A breath of shaky relief escaped Renen's chest. "Thank the gods..." His shoulders slumped for a heartbeat.
Then a voice; crackling, distant, urgent; pierced the comm-link in Sefu's ear.
"Renen! Di time machine online now! Dis it; our one shot, yuh hear!"
Renen's eyes widened, alight with fragile hope. "Finally! A ray of light in this damn tomb." He turned to Sefu. "Let's finish this!"
"MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE--!!" roared Sefu as his gauntlets flared, red-hot from overloaded energy.
"SEKHEM SHU NESRET--!!" bellowed Renen, the blade in his grip glowing with ancient fury.
"--CANNON!!" their voices merged like thunderclaps.
A colossal beam of blinding energy tore through the air, Renen's slicing whirlwind entwining with Sefu's barrage. The impact ruptured the ground in a storm of sound and light, magma spewing from shattered earth, thunder chasing the shockwave through the ruins. Half the underground city disintegrated in a heartbeat.
But they didn't look back. They ran. Through flame, smoke, and debris, they sprinted toward the basement.
Below, in the bowels of the ruined world…
"Rem! Kiki!" Renen's voice cracked with disbelief and joy. "You're both okay!"
He caught Rem mid-leap, hugging her like she might dissolve in his arms. She clung to him, her sobs shaking them both.
"Dad!"
"Renen!!" Kiki flitted in, her small wings trembling as she threw herself into his embrace.
For one fleeting second, the war disappeared. No fire. No blood. Just a breath. Just love.
Then--
"Mi link up di time machine to di monitors!" Sefu barked. His voice was hoarse, his hands flying over broken consoles. "Mi set it fi send yuh back seven days 'fore di Akhekhu mash up Aglonia. Dat deh di best mi could manage wid dis pile a scrap. Any later, an' it a straight suicide."
Renen nodded, every part of him taut with resolve. "Seven days... it's enough. It has to be."
"Then let's go--!" Sefu yanked the lever.
The chamber trembled. A blinding spiral of ancient light spun into existence. The portal howled like a beast awoken from centuries of slumber.
But above- -
Two shadows rose from the smog. Barely alive, burned beyond recognition, the demons floated like ghosts over a grave.
Wenex-su was gone. Nothing left but ash.
"Looks like Wenex-su didn't make it..." Xedet's voice was hollow, almost reverent. "He finally found peace."
Kyphbabi chuckled, a fractured, deranged sound. "Cherecherechere... Maybe it's time the rest o' them joined him in the dirt."
Back in the basement…
Renen crouched beside Rem, shielding her with his frame as the portal hummed behind them. "Hey... listen to me. I'm not leaving you behind, alright? I'm sending you somewhere safe. You wait for me there, okay? We'll meet again. You'll see."
"R-Right..." Her voice trembled, small and tight, her little fingers curled into his coat like she could anchor herself to him.
"Kiki. Ready?"
"Y-Yeah! Of course, -kiki!" she chirped, but his wings betrayed him. They fluttered in panic, shivering under the pressure. He wasn't ready. None of them were.
The ceiling detonated. The chamber screamed as stone ruptured. Fire poured in like judgment. From the smoke descended Kyphbabi and Xedet, two horrors from beyond comprehension. Xedet was a blur of motion and teeth, already charging for the machine.
But Kyphbabi, he descended like a corrupt god of the pit. Vast. Towering. His body was a cathedral of molten muscle and bone forged in torment. His skin glowed like volcanic glass, cracked obsidian veined with rivers of fire. Eyes like miniature suns burned beneath his horned brow, and every movement sent heat rippling through the air. He didn't speak. He didn't need to. His presence crushed the room. Reality bent around him in agony.
"Lord Kyphbabi! The device…they're escaping!" Xedet snarled, foam flying from his jaws.
Renen didn't hesitate. He turned and kicked Kiki directly into the portal.
"WAIT, RENEN!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING -KIKI?!" he screamed, spiralling through the rift.
"I'm sorry... Kiki," Renen murmured. "You'll have to go without me."
Xedet lunged toward them. "No one's going anywhere!"
"SEFU! SHUT IT DOWN!!" Renen bellowed.
"Holy SHIT--" Sefu's hands blurred over the console, yanking the emergency lever.
The portal crackled violently, light warping and convulsing. But it was too late. Xedet hurled his ragged form into the breach and vanished.
"SHIT SHIT SHIT!!" Sefu cursed, hammering at the controls.
Kyphbabi moved at last. Each step was an earthquake. Every breath drew in shadows. The metal warped under his feet, screaming.
With a sound like a thunderclap wrapped in flame, Kyphbabi raised his arm to strike. The limb crackled with raw heat, its flesh barely holding together under the fury boiling within. It was less a blow than an execution, an obliteration made manifest.
Sefu twisted mid-turn and caught the molten limb with both hands, teeth bared, arms shaking under the sheer infernal weight. The heat scorched his skin, hissed against his wards, but he held fast,and with a roar, he dragged the demon's arm into the unstable portal. The magic howled.
The limb sizzled and twisted, caught halfway between dimensions. The portal convulsed in protest, light shattering outward as its boundaries collapsed inwards. Then--
SNAP.
A rupture of bone, sinew, and rage.
The portal sealed with a thunderous shriek. The severed limb, cut clean at the shoulder, fell somewhere into the void; gone to whatever pocket of time Kiki had been hurled through.
Kyphbabi let out a howl that silenced the world. It was not the cry of pain. The severed arm hit the floor in a smoking heap, and in retaliation, he tore the time machine in two. Steel twisted like paper. Enchanted stone burst like eggshells. The structure died in a cascade of sparks and screaming circuits.
Sefu didn't flinch. "EAT THIS!" he roared, blasting the demon backward with arcane fire.
Kyphbabi staggered and planted one foot in the rubble and stood taller than before. The stump of his missing arm seethed, bone and sinew writhing like worms beneath blistered skin. He looked down at Sefu, not as an adversary, but as a speck.
"RENEN!! GO!! NOW!!" Sefu shouted, his voice shaking but defiant.
Renen dropped beside Rem, brushing the hair from her face. Her skin was ash-pale. Her eyes were lost.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he whispered. "That picnic you dreamed of... beneath the real sun... we'll go. I promise. Just wait for me."
"D-Daddy? What are you saying?" Her voice was cracking glass.
"I love you."
He raised the Cosmic Blade.
A single slash split the air. Her wound became a vortex of nothingness. It snarled like a living thing, hungry and blind. It pulled her in.
Her limbs stretched in impossible directions. Her voice screamed as she vanished into the rift.
"NO!! DADDY!! DADDYYYYY!!"
Renen stood in silence, drenched in tears. The blade in his hand was coated in glowing blood…his own.
He could still hear her laugh in his memory, the soft thump of her hugging his leg, the murmurs she made while she slept. He carried them all like knives in his chest.
He turned and struck the machine again. It collapsed into ruins.
He moved to the backup systems. The screens. The records. All the knowledge they had gathered. He carved through them one by one, sending the data into oblivion.
He didn't stop until there was nothing left but shards.
Blood streaked his coat.
"RENEN!!" Sefu screamed. "Why yuh doin' dis?! Di Cosmic Blade, every swing a kill yuh, man! Yuh not just burnin' yuh candle, yuh napalmin' yuh damn soul!"
Renen swayed, breath shallow. "Forgive me, Sefu... but I have to protect everything. Even if it means becoming nothing."
"Then let me do it! Let me hold him off…RUN!"
But Renen simply shook his head. "The blade still has one more thing to do."
He looked at Sefu with that same expression… quiet, warm, resolute. A goodbye that needed no words.
He lifted the blade once more and swung.
Reality imploded in his wake. Where he had stood, there was only seared air and a lingering scent of ozone.
Sefu staggered forward, stunned. "RENEN--!!"
But there was no one left to hear him.
In the silence that followed, the ruins shifted.
The ground buckled under something immense.
From the crater, Kyphbabi rose. Steam coiled from his body. Fire glistened through the cracks in his flesh. Where his arm had once been, raw power churned like a growing storm.
His eyes scanned the chamber, glowing brighter than ever. Not with pain. Not with hatred.
With divine fury.
He had lost his prey. Again.
But Kyphbabi was not a creature of mercy. He was not built to mourn or retreat.
He stood tall in the wreckage, wings unfurling like nightfall. The chamber dimmed around him. The air grew heavy. The shadows bent toward him as if compelled by gravity itself.
"Oh? So ye're the last o' the humans standin', Renenhotep? I cannae believe ye tricked me sae. With the last o' my breath, I'll make sure ye ken pain, before I send ye tae yer grave!"
"Fair enough. I'm on my last legs too, so let's make this count." Renen shifted into a familiar fighting stance, the same one Lin Zexu had taught him.
"Aren't ye gonna use yer swords, then?"
"No need. I feel like settling this the old-fashioned way. Hahaha!"
"Ye cocky human. Aye, very well. I accept yer challenge. Let's spill each other's blood 'til we've had our fill o' slaughter!"
The two warriors charged at each other. When they clashed, a massive explosion rocked the cavern. The earth groaned as magma burst from the ground like a volcanic fountain. The force of their exchange echoed through the planet's core.
In that moment, Kiki was hurled fifteen years into the past. Seven days before the Luceal family's banquet. Meanwhile, the rest of humanity still clung to life. Though not in the world they once knew. The Cosmic Blade had transported them to a vast, featureless void, a realm of absolute darkness and silence. There, they remained suspended in time, trapped within an eternal slumber. Their bodies did not age, their hearts did not beat with urgency, yet their souls lingered in dreamless sleep, waiting for a future that might never come.
The seeds of a new adventure had been sown, and the race to save the future was about to begin.