The air snapped.
Both warriors vanished from where they stood.
A thunderclap marked their collision mid-field — Zephyr's twin blades grinding against the giant's greatsword, sparks spitting like dying stars. The shockwave flattened the grass in a perfect circle around them.
The giant pushed harder, muscles coiling like stone-serpents."You cannot win, thief."
Zephyr's grin widened."Win? I'm here to entertain."
With a sudden twist, Zephyr kicked off the giant's blade, somersaulting backward as the greatsword carved a crater where he had stood. He landed low, one knee bent, blades crossed.
The giant was already charging again.
BOOM.
Zephyr barely rolled aside as the massive sword carved a trench, dirt erupting skyward. The giant's follow-up punch hit the ground like a meteor, forcing Zephyr to retreat.
But Zephyr saw it.
A cut he'd made earlier — a shallow slash across the giant's thigh — closed itself… far too quickly.
Zephyr narrowed his mismatched eyes.
"That's… not normal," he muttered.
The giant smirked."Realm Nine does not bleed as mortals do."
Then he lunged.
Zephyr parried, was thrown back several meters, skidding across the dirt. The giant didn't let up — hurling himself forward with crushing speed unnatural for something his size.
Zephyr wiped blood from his lip and exhaled.
"Alright, big guy. Time to stop holding back."
He sheathed one blade.
Then placed his hand on the other — the one with the dull, cracked scabbard.
Elara's breath caught."Zephyr— that blade… you shouldn't—!"
He whispered a command.
"Wake up… Blade of Ruins."
The world dimmed for a heartbeat.
When Zephyr drew the weapon, the sky itself seemed to shudder. Black fractal cracks crawled along the blade's edge, and shadows bled off it like smoke drifting in reverse.
The giant's steps faltered.
"That weapon… how do you—?"
Zephyr vanished.
All the giant saw was a ripple of darkness — a silhouette flickering where light refused to touch.
Shadow of Ruins.
The secret technique of a forgotten swordsmith lineage.
A cut of absolute negation.
Zephyr reappeared behind the giant, blade extended.
A thin, perfectly straight line split the air.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then a gash opened across the giant's forearm — one he had raised just in time to avoid being bisected
entirely.
He roared and stumbled back.
But this time…the wound did not heal.
Instead, the corrupted edges of the cut crumbled like black ash.
The giant stared at it, eyes widening.
"What… what have you done?!"
Zephyr rolled his shoulder lazily.
"Just trimmed you a little. Don't worry — only the part I cut is erased from existence. Tiny setback."
"You— impossible!" the giant bellowed, panic flooding his voice.
Then suddenly—
He stopped.
His body went rigid.
A strange, bubbling laugh rose from deep within his throat — but it was not the giant's voice.
Zephyr and Elara froze.
The giant's huge frame convulsed… twisted…as a second voice — smooth, amused, chilling — echoed out from inside him.
"Well now… you actually damaged my vessel."
A dark smirk stretched across the giant's mouth — one that didn't belong to him at all.
"Zephyr," the new voice purred, dripping with mockery,"you really do make things entertaining."
The eyes of the giant shifted — turning into glowing, predatory slits.
"I suppose… it's time we finally meet."
And the giant's body began to peel open with black light—
The black light split the giant's body like a cracked eggshell.Not blood — but a swirling void seeped from the fractures, bending the air, warping the ground, pulling shadows toward it like hungry fingers.
Elara stumbled back, eyes wide."Zephyr— this is wrong. This is wrong. That's not dimensional magic. That's… that's something else."
Zephyr's grip tightened on the Blade of Ruins."Yeah," he muttered, "this isn't a vessel. It's a cage."
The giant's jaw distended with a sickening pop.A rasping chuckle, layered with a dozen voices, crawled out:
"Freedom. Finally… freedom."
The giant's spine arched.The void inside him erupted upward, forming a towering humanoid shadow made of writhing black ribbons.The giant's flesh hung from it like a discarded coat.
Then, from the shadow's core, a pale face slowly emerged.Human-shaped.Smiling too wide.
Eyes like cracked amethyst.
Elara choked."That— that's impossible… That's a Rift bound. They're extinct!"
Zephyr didn't look away from the creature."Extinct just means 'hiding really well.'"
The entity stepped fully free of the giant's carcass.
The ground beneath its feet turned gray and brittle, as if dying.
"Zephyr," the entity said, voice elegant and venom-sweet, "you ruined my toy. I was enjoying that body."
Zephyr flicked his blade."You heal giants like they're nothing. Probably stole more than the body. Parasite."
The entity laughed — a spiraling, echoing sound that pressed on the skull like fingers.
"Parasite? Oh, Zephyr… I prefer connoisseur."
It leaned forward, head tilting unnaturally.
"And you… you taste ancient."
Zephyr's expression didn't change, but a vein in his temple pulsed.
Elara whispered, "Zephyr… what does he mean?"
The entity answered first.
"Oh, she doesn't know?"It clasped its hands theatrically."You haven't told her why your eyes don't match? Why your body doesn't age normally? Why the Ruin Blade doesn't devour you?"
Zephyr didn't move."Shut up."
The shadow-being tutted."So sensitive."
A gust of wind blasted outward as it spread its shifting arms.
"I suppose I should introduce myself, since you rudely destroyed my host."
The shadows twisted.Formed a jagged crown.A ribcage of light.A throat of swirling void.
"I am Zareth the Hollow King.Sovereign of the Vanished Court.Breaker of Realms.And—"
It smiled wider than a human jaw should allow.
"—the reason Realm Nine is collapsing."
Elara gasped."That's not possible— the Hollow King was sealed beyond the barriers of—"
Zareth raised a finger.A single hush gesture.The air froze, thick as syrup.
"Elara," he purred, "those old bedtime stories lied to you."
Zephyr stepped between them."You shouldn't be here. This realm isn't strong enough to contain you."
Zareth shivered with delight.
"That's precisely why I am here."
Suddenly—he surged forward, faster than sound.
Zephyr's blade met his hand.
CLANG.
The impact unleashed a storm of ruin-energy and shadow that shredded the ground for thirty meters in every direction.
Zareth's fingers smoked — the Blade of Ruins had burned him.
He stared at the wound, fascinated.
"Oh… oh my. I can't heal this either."
He looked up, ecstatic.
"What a wonderful toy you carry!"
Zephyr snarled, "Come any closer and I'll erase more than your hands."
Zareth leaned in.
"Erase me? No, Zephyr… you misunderstand."
He tapped his own chest.
"I've come for you."
Silence.The whole world seemed to hold its breath.
Elara backed away, shaking."Zephyr… what is he talking about?"
Zareth's voice dropped to a whisper that felt like a cold fingernail behind the ear.
"He is the last shard.The final heir of the Ruin smiths.The key to reopening every sealed world…and the only soul I cannot consume without breaking myself."
Zareth spread his arms.
"So I will not devour him."A grin like a knife."I will wear him."
Zephyr lunged, blade swinging—
But Zareth exploded into a hundred shadow tendrils.
They wrapped around the ruined body of the giant, puppeting it to rise again.
A horrifying, stitched grin tore across its face.
With a deep, earth-shaking voice layered with shadow:
"Round two, little Ruin smith."
Fade to black.Chapter End.