"In this world, strength is not a gift… it is the price one pays to stay alive."
"The Kara is the vital energy that flows through all things. Some shape it to create, others to destroy… but all depend on it to survive."
"When the breath of Kara fades, the heart stops beating, and the soul disappears into the eternal shadow."
Flashback –
A voice echoes in his memory, cold and metallic. The voice of his master.
Shiro Takahashi (memory): "That mask contains your rage. If you take it off, you are nothing. Just an uncontrollable monster. Never forget that, Number 5."
Johan's shadow seems to swallow the light. He is no longer Johan Traken. He is the monster his master described.
Then everything fades to black.
Johan:
"YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT ME!
— BLACK KARA: TOTAL ABSORPTION!"
The air freezes.
The ground cracks.
All around him, matter is sucked in, distorted, as if the world itself were being swallowed.
Space trembles. Sound disappears.
A sphere of nothingness rises, swallowing the light.
Facing it, Duck sighs.
Calm. Unchanging.
Duck Bum Darly:
"What a waste… To die for a simple temper tantrum."
He raises his hand.
Time seems to slow down—or perhaps stop.
His Celestial Kara concentrates in his palm, pure, pale blue, almost silent.
Duck Bum Darly: Celestial Kara – Fracture.
A brief sound.
Like the cracking of a bone… or a universe shattering.
Then, nothing more.
Duck is back where he started.
His swords are sheathed.
His hands are in his pockets.
Absolute silence.
Danky (trembling):
"What… what happened?"
Johan remains frozen, standing, a look of horror in his eyes.
A mark is drawn on his forehead. Then…
CRACK.
A first fissure.
Then another.
His body cracks like glass.
Streams of light escape from it, widen, and explode.
BOOOOOOM.
A storm of dust and shards of light engulfs the ruins.
Then...
When the calm returns, nothing is left.
Nothing but a gentle wind, and ashes floating slowly to the ground.
Duck (cold gaze, almost disappointed):
"…That attack wasn't even at its peak.
And yet, it turned you to dust.
Goes to show… the fifth elite Blood Burn was far from my final level."
Danky (thought, eyes shining):
"There it is… the true summit.
The Stellar Zenith."
Transition to the city of Congo...
The port was a chaos of neon and rain.
Atop a loading crane, a slender figure stood motionless, silhouetted against the stormy sky.
Suddenly, the threads of shadow dancing between her fingers froze.
Her Black Kara had just detected an absence. A clean break in the web.
She opened her eyes. A cold smile stretched her lips.
Feminine Voice:
— He has been defeated.
One of her shadow threads fell into the void, wrapped around a container, and lifted it effortlessly. She moved it a few meters, like a piece on a chessboard.
Feminine Voice:
— One less pawn. One step closer to the top.
She turned and disappeared into the shadow of the crane.
In a Mountain of Namon...
Thousands of kilometers away, the air was dry and cold.
On the edge of a cliff, a figure sat, his unstable aura crackling around him.
Suddenly, the energy exploded in a wave of contained fury.
He had felt the break. The shockwave.
A hoarse, almost hysterical laugh broke the silence.
Masculine Voice:
— So, you were defeated? Your mask couldn't contain the monster you were.
He stood up, his body silhouetted against the desert landscape. The unstable energy emanating from him returned, stronger, denser.
Masculine Voice:
— But your death... it's instructive. It proves that the Duck is a problem.
He walked away from the cliff, his heavy footsteps echoing on the stone.
Masculine Voice:
— A problem I will be delighted to solve.
"Transition..."
Night weighed on Kazemori. A dog barked in the distance, then fell silent abruptly, with a plaintive whimper. The damp cobblestones seemed to absorb all sound.
Shiro Takahashi walked forward. His black suit was an ink stain in the gloom. His steps made no noise, a spectral gait.
Around a corner, four figures. Two local thugs, with the crude arrogance of those who have never known true fear. Two young women, trapped. One of them, struggling, bumped into Shiro.
Young Woman: (stammering)
— S… sorry…
A coarse laugh.
Thug 1:
— Hey, old man, you lost? This is a private alley here.
Thug 2: (pulling out a small knife whose blade catches a pale gleam)
— Look at his watch. Hand it over, and everything you've got, and maybe we'll let you go.
Shiro looked up.
And that's when everything changed.
His gaze fell upon them. They weren't eyes. They were two red embers, void of all humanity, burning with a cold, ancient hunger. The gaze of an absolute predator that has just spotted wounded prey. In those eyes, the two thugs didn't see anger or threat. They saw their own death, not as a possibility, but as a certainty already decided. They saw the promise of unimaginable pain.
Thug 1's laughter died in his throat, replaced by a strangled sound. Thug 2's knife slipped from his fingers and fell to the pavement with a metallic click that echoed in the sudden silence.
Thug 1: (his voice now just a whisper)
— Dude… we… we're outta here.
He tried to turn. Shiro's hand landed on his shoulder. Cold. Heavy as a tombstone.
The mental camera turns away, focusing on the face of Thug 2, which is now a blank canvas of pure terror.
Only one sound is heard.
A dull, wet noise. A tearing.
Then the sound of a heavy, soft object hitting the ground. Thug 2 saw what had rolled into the shadows. His friend's head, eyes open, staring into the void.
He didn't scream. His jaw trembled, his eyes fixed on a point in the shadow behind Shiro. He had just understood that the laws of physics, the rules of the world he knew, no longer applied in this alley.
A streetlight above them flickered violently, then went out, plunging the scene into almost total darkness.
The two young women didn't even scream. A primal whimper, the sound of a trapped animal, escaped their throats.
Shiro removed his hand. Nothing could be seen in the dark, but the smell was there. A metallic, coppery smell that rose and caught in the throat.
Then, the two red dots lit up again.
Shiro Takahashi: (a hoarse whisper, almost a purr)
— You've come at the perfect time. I have a very strong urge… to kill.
Thug 2 fell to his knees, trembling, hands on his head. His mind was cracking under the pressure of the Black Kara.
An icy breath filled the alley, and a thin layer of frost formed on the walls. Shiro took a step forward, a simple sound of a sole, but it resonated like a death sentence.
He tilted his head, gave a carnivorous smile… then turned on his heel.
Behind him, silence fell again. Then came the muffled sobs and, under the flickering streetlight, a dark pool slowly widened.
END OF CHAPTER 27