The Blackstone Highlands had vanished beneath clouds of dust.
Mountains that had stood for centuries now lay broken across the landscape, their peaks scattered like shattered monuments. Deep canyons stretched from one horizon to another, while distant valleys continued collapsing under the aftershocks of every collision. The earth itself groaned beneath the weight of six extraordinary warriors pressing a single opponent without pause.
Lady Chõko landed lightly atop a fractured cliff, but the stone beneath her feet immediately crumbled.
She didn't have a moment to recover.
Raizen burst through the dust with another swing of the Dimensional Sword, the blade cutting a brilliant arc across the sky. Lady Chõko leaned backward as the edge swept past her face, yet before she could regain her footing, Hiroshi's chained relic curled around the broken cliff like a living serpent.
She sprang upward.
The chain narrowly missed her ankle.
"So persistent," she laughed.
"We've barely started," Raizen replied, already closing the distance again.
Their fists and blades collided in midair.
BOOOM!
The impact sent a circular shockwave racing across the surrounding mountains. Far beyond the battlefield, another rocky ridge split apart, and an entire hillside collapsed into the forests below.
Lady Chõko twisted in the air, avoiding Raizen's next strike by mere centimeters.
Before she could land—
Ayame appeared from the reflection on a polished fragment of Hiroshi's spear.
Her palm thrust forward with graceful precision.
Lady Chõko crossed one arm in front of her chest.
Thud!
The strike pushed her sideways through a wall of stone.
The cliff exploded into thousands of fragments as she emerged from the other side, sliding across a steep mountainside before planting both feet against the rock.
She smiled.
"That almost surprised me."
Ayame's expression remained calm.
"Next time..."
"...it will."
Lady Chõko chuckled.
"I'll look forward to it."
She pushed off the mountainside.
The cliff shattered beneath the force of her leap.
Before she reached the battlefield again—
The air around her rippled.
Yurota had finally moved.
He raised one hand.
"...Spatial Fold."
The space before Lady Chõko bent ever so slightly.
Her leap, which should have carried her forward, suddenly veered several meters to the left as though the world itself had shifted.
"Hm?"
She blinked in surprise.
"That's a clever trick."
Raizen needed nothing more.
He appeared exactly where her altered path would end.
His shoulder slammed into her guard.
BOOOOM!
Lady Chõko was launched across the valley, crashing through one towering rock formation after another before finally skidding to a stop across the fractured ground.
Dust rose like a storm.
Haruto quietly stepped forward.
A faint silver light spread beneath his feet.
"...Soul Resonance."
The energy linked itself to Raizen, Hiroshi, Ayame, Yurota, and Kaizen.
It wasn't a power boost.
It was synchronization.
Each heartbeat.
Each breath.
Each movement.
Began flowing together with remarkable harmony.
Raizen smiled.
"...Now this feels familiar."
Hiroshi nodded.
"Our timing is nearly perfect."
Kaizen's countless blue calculation lines expanded across the battlefield.
The six no longer acted as separate warriors.
Every attack created an opening for another.
Every dodge guided Lady Chõko toward someone else.
It was less like fighting six people...
And more like battling one enormous machine.
Lady Chõko brushed dust from her sleeve before taking another breath.
"...Well..."
"I'll admit..."
"This is becoming troublesome."
She dashed forward instead of retreating.
Her palm slipped past Raizen's guard, forcing him to twist away. She immediately ducked beneath Hiroshi's returning spear, pivoted around Ayame's kick, and narrowly escaped Yurota's folded space before Haruto's synchronized strike closed the final opening.
She barely blocked it.
The force drove her backward.
Another step.
Then another.
The ground beneath her feet fractured with every retreat.
For the first time since the battle began...
She couldn't create her own rhythm.
The six had stolen it.
Kaizen watched without blinking.
"...We're succeeding."
"Don't give her space."
"Don't let her dictate the pace."
The assault continued.
Relentless.
Precise.
Unbroken.
The battle surged from one shattered mountain to the next, each exchange tearing apart more of the highlands. Entire cliffs collapsed into newly formed ravines, while distant rivers burst from their banks as the terrain shifted beneath them. Even hundreds of kilometers away, flocks of birds abandoned the skies, sensing the violence shaking the land.
Lady Chõko inhaled slowly as another coordinated assault closed in from every direction.
Raizen from the front.
Hiroshi above.
Ayame at her flank.
Yurota distorting her escape.
Haruto maintaining the team's perfect rhythm.
Kaizen silently calculating every possible response.
For the first time...
Lady Chõko's smile became smaller.
Not because she was afraid.
But because she finally understood.
"They're not fighting as six anymore..."
She looked at each of them in turn.
"...They're fighting as one."
The six advanced together.
Without hesitation.
Without fear.
Without leaving a single opening.
And for the first time in the battle...
Lady Chõko was forced to take three consecutive steps backward.