Rimazu felt himself falling.
The ritual circle dropped away beneath him and for a moment there was nothing but open air. Then something clicked. He spread his arms, his green Raiki steadying him, and he lifted — hovering above the ground, heart still hammering.
He flew straight to Ryo.
"I'm safe."
Ryo looked at him for a half second, then back at Riak. "Good. Stay close."
Benjamin let out a short breath. "You know — it's funny how fast this went from a tournament to a life threatening ritual."
Riak looked down at all of them. "You'd better focus."
He swung a kick that tore through the air like a blade. Everyone scattered — diving, flying, rolling — the shockwave alone enough to crack the ground beneath them.
Benjamin landed and looked up. His eyes sharpened.
This beast forgot I was here.
He activated Stage 1 of his air Damik — pulling the atmosphere around Riak inward, compressing it, controlling it — then lifted. Riak rose off the ground involuntarily, the air beneath him yanked away, and Benjamin hurled him sideways directly into Jean.
The collision was enormous.
On the other side of the battlefield Aisha was already moving. She came in spinning — a 360 degree kick, fire igniting from her leg as it connected with Jean, blue Raiki running through the flames. She landed in front of him. "Focus," she told him flatly.
Scarlet called out from across the field. "Nice one."
Benjamin came back down and landed beside Rimazu, Ryo and Zain. He looked at Riak, who had already started pushing himself back up.
"He looks knocked out," Benjamin said.
Ryo's eyes went wide. "Benjamin — BEHIND YOU—"
Riak's fist came out of nowhere.
It caught Benjamin clean and sent him flying across Eve's Gates, his body skipping across the ground before coming to a stop somewhere far behind them.
Ryo spun. "You bastard."
Riak straightened up and smiled. "Yes, kid. Don't hold back anything. That's what I want to see."
Ryo and Zain moved at the same time — both of them running up Riak's arms from opposite sides, red Raiki pouring off both of them in waves, the air around them crackling with it.
Riak's hand closed around Zain mid stride.
Zain didn't hesitate. His red Raiki detonated outward — outburst — and in the same motion he drove one of his blades toward Riak's eye.
Riak's expression shifted. His eyes went calm.
Flow.
He tilted his head and the blade passed inches from his face. Then his Raiki surged — Stage 3 — the red energy around him doubling in density, pressing outward like a second body.
Ryo reached his neck.
He pulled his leg back and screamed — "Stage 3 — enhance!" — and drove his kick directly into Riak's face.
Blood came from Riak's nose. He dropped.
The ground shook when he hit it.
"Get back!" Zain shouted.
Ryo landed beside him, breathing hard. Then Nurami's voice surfaced quietly in the back of his mind.
Hey, kid. This guy isn't an ordinary opponent.
"What do you mean?"
Let's just say — Raiki alone isn't going to be enough to win this.
A pause.
Stage 5.
Riak rose from the ground and drove his fist down where Ryo was standing. The impact detonated outward — Zain stepped in front of it, both blades crossed, absorbing the force, his feet grinding back across the stone.
"Ryo." Zain's voice was tight. "What are you doing? Focus."
"Sorry." Ryo stepped back. "Can you hold him off? Just for a bit."
Rimazu and Benjamin moved up alongside Zain without being asked.
"You've got it," Rimazu said.
Benjamin — battered, still standing — nodded. "Go."
Zain looked at Ryo for one moment. "This better be worth it."
Ryo turned inward.
How do I reach Stage 5 if I haven't even reached Stage 4?
Nurami's voice was calm. If your Raiki is strong enough you can skip a stage entirely. And if you can skip it now — you can reach it properly any time you want later. So listen carefully.
Face your palms downward. Cross your wrists — one over the other. Close both hands into fists at the same time. And say — Switched Hollow.
Ryo moved his hands exactly as described. Palms down. Wrists crossed. Fists closing simultaneously.
"Switched Hollow."
Something shifted.
The air around Ryo changed — not violently, not dramatically — but everyone felt it. A depth settling into him that hadn't been there before. His posture changed. His breathing changed.
A voice came out of Ryo's body that wasn't Ryo's.
Deep. Unhurried. Old.
"Alright." Nurami — inside Ryo's body — rolled his neck slowly and looked up at Riak. "Leave him to me."
Zain stared. Something moved across his face — recognition, then calculation. He whispered to himself — I had a feeling.
Riak looked down at the figure standing where Ryo had been and something flickered behind his eyes. Oh. He smiled slowly. It's been a while.
"Okay," Riak said. "Here I come."
He speed blitzed — closing the distance in an instant, fist already moving, the force behind it enough to level the ground around them.
It stopped an inch from Nurami's face.
Nurami was smiling.
He vanished — reappearing behind Riak in the same breath — and a fireball materialized in his outstretched hand, the size of Riak's head, burning with concentrated heat.
Riak glanced at it over his shoulder. His Raiki erupted — outburst — and the fireball dissolved under the pressure. He spun and attacked.
Nurami stepped aside and stretched one arm forward and punched him.
The punch landed.
Rimazu blinked. "Are we... seeing the same thing?"
Benjamin stared. "Yeah. How is that even possible?"
Zain said nothing for a moment. Then, barely above a whisper — "Dark matter."
Rimazu turned. "What did you say?"
"Nothing." Zain kept his eyes forward. "Let's wait. If Ryo needs help we move."
Nurami looked around at the battlefield — reading it, calculating — then smiled to himself.
Okay. What does the kid call it? He flexed his fingers. Let me make this interesting.
He opened his hand and reached outward — pulling. The Damik energy present in the surrounding area responded. Air. Water. Light. Fire. Lightning. Destruction. Each fragment drawn in and gathered, compressed into his closed fist until it hummed with everything combined.
Kid. Nurami's voice moved inward. It's up to you now. I'm switching back.
Switched.
Ryo came back into himself and felt it immediately — everything Nurami had gathered, concentrated into his fist, waiting. He was already moving — dodging Riak's punches, weaving between each one, red Raiki flooding through him, infusing everything he had into what was already there.
He turned his fist over.
The gathered powers compressed into a sphere — rotating, dense, every element folded into one point.
Ryo looked at Riak.
"Uvola—"
He drove forward.
"—Red Dawn."
The impact erased everything.
The ground. The air. The space between them. Eve's Gates shook from one end to the other, the force of it rolling outward in every direction like the land itself had been struck at its foundation.
When the dust settled Riak was on the ground.
He wasn't getting up.
But he was smiling.
He lay there looking up at the sky, breathing slowly, and something in his expression was peaceful — the kind of peace that comes from finally finding what you were looking for.
The first time — it wasn't the same Raiki. His mind drifted back. Fourteen hundred years. A smile he remembered. It was never about the power. He closed his eyes. It was the will behind it.
He accepted his defeat.