The explosion tore the heavens apart.
Starlight clashed with abyssal shadow, forming a storm that swallowed mountains, shattered temples, and split the sky into rivers of molten color. Kanji's sword carved through the Demon King with cosmic force—an attack meant to end the war.
For a moment…
Silence.
The world held its breath.
The Demon King's massive form staggered, split from shoulder to hip by Kanji's molten strike. Dark blood spilled across the battlefield, sizzling like acid as it burned through stone.
Kanji landed hard, panting, aura flickering.
Every nerve screamed.
His muscles trembled.
The Celestial Forge energy inside him burned like a star tearing itself apart.
He pointed the sword forward.
"It's over," he rasped.
"I've cut you down."
The Demon King looked at him… and smiled.
A slow, terrifying smile.
"You misunderstand, child," he said, voice echoing like thunder across worlds.
"Now that you have struck me… now the seal is broken."
Kanji froze.
"What seal—?"
The Demon King's body erupted in flames of pure shadow. His blood spilled in rivers, forming ancient runes across the battlefield. The ground shook. Space warped. A black sun appeared overhead, eclipsing reality itself.
Rin screamed from the temple ruins, "KANJI, GET BACK! THAT'S NOT A WOUND—IT'S A RITUAL!"
Seiji grabbed her arm.
"He's using Kanji's power as the catalyst!"
Kanji's eyes widened.
"No… no—!"
But it was too late.
The Demon King rose into the air, wings spreading wider, towering until he eclipsed the glowing sky. His cracked flesh hardened into obsidian armor. Flames of pure void spiraled around him. His voice deepened, layered with thousands of demonic echoes.
"You have given me exactly what I needed, Starborn…
A blow strong enough to release what was sealed within me."
Kanji's sword pulsed violently—almost frightened.
The Demon King spread his arms, shadow flames rising like an inferno.
"Watch, Kanji…
and witness the TRUE Demon King."
The black sun overhead burst open like a cocoon.
Tendrils of shadow stabbed into the Demon King's form, feeding him, reshaping him. His aura expanded—far beyond before—warping the horizon, bending the sky, twisting the stars themselves.
Ryou, barely standing, whispered in horror:
"That… That isn't a transformation…
That is an ascension."
The Demon King's new form stepped forward—each step cracking continents.
His wings had become universe-sized shadows.
His eyes were twin black holes.
His heartbeat could be heard through the fabric of reality.
He raised a hand, and the world dimmed.
"Your Starborn light awakened me, boy.
But it is still incomplete…
still weak."
Kanji gripped his sword, trying to steady his breathing.
Fear squeezed his chest—but beneath that fear was fury.
"You're lying," Kanji spat, aura sparking violently.
"I hit you with everything I had—how are you still—"
"Alive?" the Demon King finished with a grin.
"I used your Celestial energy to unseal my original form—
the form your father feared.
The form your mother tried to destroy."
Kanji trembled with rage.
The Demon King extended a single finger toward him.
"You fought the Demon King…
But now, child—
you face the Prime Monarch of the Abyss."
A pulse of black energy blasted outward.
Kanji raised his sword—too slow.
The shockwave hit him like a collapsing star.
He was hurled through forests, mountains, ruins—his body smashing through stone, metal, and earth until he finally skidded to a broken stop miles away. Blood splattered from his mouth. His aura flickered like a dying flame.
He couldn't breathe.
He couldn't stand.
He could barely keep his eyes open.
The Demon King's voice echoed across the entire world:
"There is no throne for you to claim.
No destiny to fulfill.
No light strong enough to challenge me."
Kanji looked up at the sky—at the black sun devouring the heavens.
His vision blurred.
His sword slipped from his fingers.
He whispered, voice barely audible:
"…I—I wasn't strong enough."
The words tasted like ash.
Blood pooled beneath him, steam rising as his Starborn aura flickered pathetically—like a candle drowning in a storm. His fingers twitched toward his fallen sword, but even touching its hilt felt impossibly far, like reaching across worlds.
The sky rumbled.
The Prime Monarch's shadow wings stretched across the horizon, blotting out the last fragments of light. His laughter vibrated through the atmosphere, cracking clouds, shaking continents, and sending every creature into primal terror.
"KANJI!" Rin's distant voice broke through the chaos—raw, desperate, disbelieving.
But Kanji couldn't lift his head.
Couldn't rise.
Couldn't fight.
The Demon King's voice slithered into his mind like poison:
"Fall, Starborn.
Your era ends here."
A spear of abyssal flame ignited in the Monarch's hand, aimed directly at Kanji's broken body.
The world watched.
The heavens trembled.
And Kanji, shattered and kneeling in the ruins of his own defeat, could only whisper one final, broken truth—
"…I'm not ready to die…"
The spear flew.