Levi made his way toward the mountain peak with the same smug grin that had carried him through the monastery halls. Confidence radiated from every step, his ego inflated by one success after another. He had outplayed the Ancients with his plan, taken the Yakuza from the Second Blade himself, and, after Nitchtron, his name had spread across the galaxy. For the first time in his life, the dream of carving his name into history as the worst Demon to ever exist no longer felt like a distant fantasy. It was beginning to resemble something he could reach. All he had to do was keep moving forward, and the road to glory would eventually become his.
Yet the longer he remained alone with his thoughts, the more that satisfaction began to fade.
The grin slowly disappeared from his face.
Victories were easy to remember, but failures had a way of lingering longer. They surfaced one after another, uninvited, eroding the confidence he had built only moments earlier. Embarrassment settled over him first, followed by frustration that spread through his chest like water reaching its boiling point. No matter how hard he tried to focus on everything he had accomplished, his own conscience refused to let him. It whispered the same cruel truth over and over again.
You could have done more.
If he had been stronger, Rumbler would never have escaped his grasp. Ragnor could have fallen beside him, taking an Archangel out of the war before it had truly begun. Hope should have died the first time their paths crossed.
Instead...
He survived.
Nothing more.
Every victory he claimed had been built upon accepting the limits of his own strength. There was no shame in surviving, and his decisions had been the right ones, but that understanding did little to silence the growing unease within him. Eventually, there would come a battle where strategy alone would no longer bridge the gap between him and his opponent.
The universe did not belong to the clever.
It belonged to those with the power to enforce their will.
Stardust decided everything. It always had. Those who possessed the greatest amount of it stood at the summit, while everyone beneath them was left searching for ways to survive.
A bitter knot formed in his chest.
"Damn it."
The curse escaped his lips, perhaps in the hope that it would ease the frustration weighing on his mind. It didn't. Rather than dwell on it any longer, Levi pushed the thoughts aside and quickened his pace toward the mountain peak, eager to begin his training before his resolve had the chance to waver.
Yet, just before taking the final few steps, his body came to an abrupt halt.
A familiar pressure rested atop the mountain.
It wasn't Kayo's. Nor Nury's, or any of the other Blades. He had felt this presence ever since arriving at the Red Moon headquarters, and only moments ago had stood before it inside the monastery halls. Now, however, it felt different. More pronounced. More complete. It spread quietly through the air without carrying the slightest trace of hostility, making it impossible to discern the intentions behind it.
...What's he doing here?
The thought lingered as Levi resumed his climb. Each step toward the summit tightened the invisible pressure around him until it felt as though a blade had been laid against his throat.
When he finally reached the top, the figure waiting for him was exactly who he expected.
The Shogun.
He stood with both hands resting atop his staff, his gaze fixed upon the endless horizon stretching beyond the mountains. From such a height, the forests below had lost their grandeur, reduced to little more than patches of green woven across the earth like blades of grass. A cool breeze swept across the summit, carrying with it the crisp mountain air as it gently stirred the folds of his navy silk kimono and the long white beard that flowed down his chest.
Without turning around, he spoke.
"Why so tense, Seventh Blade?"
Levi stiffened ever so slightly.
The Shogun's voice still carried the unmistakable authority expected of the man who ruled the Red Moon, firm enough to command obedience without ever demanding it. However, away from the council chamber, stripped of politics and responsibility, that same voice possessed an unexpected calm, almost reminiscent of the wise sages that filled the stories of old.
I've never seen him come here before... why now?
The question refused to leave his mind.
"What do you want?"
"I came to enjoy the view," the Shogun replied. "The beauty of nature. It's been quite some time since I last stood here. I had almost forgotten how remarkable this place truly is."
As he spoke, he slowly lifted one hand toward the horizon, as though trying to grasp a small piece of the landscape before him.
Levi frowned.
To the Shogun, the summit was a place of quiet reflection, somewhere to admire the world spread beneath the heavens. To Levi, it had never been anything of the sort. The altitude weighed heavily on his body, every breath demanded more effort as the air grew thinner, and the mountain's relentless cold spared no one, whether beneath the sun or under the moon.
That was precisely why he had chosen it.
If a place made every movement more difficult, then every hour spent training there would only make him stronger.
"Well... enjoy it all you want, I guess."
Levi dismissed the remark with a shrug and continued toward the training grounds, intending to leave the Shogun to his quiet admiration of the mountain. He had no interest in exchanging philosophies over a landscape he had only ever associated with pain and exhaustion.
"Do you know?"
The Shogun's voice stopped him once again.
"Sometimes the greatest growth comes when the mind is at ease. When we free ourselves from the weight of our worries and stop resisting every current around us..."
He allowed the words to settle before quietly finishing.
"...and simply 'let ourselves flow'."
Levi's footsteps came to an abrupt halt again.
Those words.
They pulled him back to Nitchtron in an instant. The battlefield. Rumbler. The desperation that had pushed him beyond his own limits.
He slowly turned around, unable to hide the curiosity creeping across his face.
"What did you just say?"
The Shogun didn't answer immediately. Both hands rested atop his staff as he turned with the same unhurried composure that seemed to accompany every movement he made. His sharp eyes settled on Levi, carrying neither judgment nor kindness, only a quiet desire to understand.
"I believe those were the words you kept repeating during your battle against the Seraphim."
"Let it flow."
"Tell me, Seventh Blade... what exactly were you trying to accomplish?"
The question lingered in Levi's mind far longer than he expected.
It should have been simple.
At least, that was what he thought.
During the battle, all he wanted was to stop suppressing his Stardust and draw out the power Kayo believed he possessed. That much he understood. Yet the more he searched for an answer, the less certain he became. It hadn't only been his Stardust that changed. Somewhere in the middle of that fight, something inside him had quietly awakened. It was as though his body had taken control the moment he stopped trying to control everything himself, moving with an instinct that felt older than thought itself.
The feeling still refused to leave him.
"I... think I was trying to raise my Stardust."
His answer lacked the certainty he normally carried.
"Why are you asking?"
"Anything else?"
The Shogun's eyes never left him.
Levi frowned.
How was he supposed to explain something he didn't understand himself? Saying that his body had simply taken over sounded absurd, like the excuse of a child trying to make sense of something beyond his comprehension. Yet no matter how many times he replayed the battle in his mind, that was the only explanation that came close.
"I don't know."
He let out a quiet breath, frustration gradually finding its way into his voice.
"I don't think so. Why do you even care about something like that? It was just something I kept telling myself to stay alive."
His gaze drifted beyond the mountain for a brief moment before returning to the Shogun.
"The battle's over and Rumbler's gone, putting us at a disadvantage. You all said it yourselves."
His jaw tightened.
"So why are you asking me about something so trivial?"
The words escaped more sharply than he intended.
For the first time since arriving at the mountain, the confidence that had carried him from the monastery had begun to crack beneath the weight of his own frustration.
The Shogun quietly closed the distance between them.
One step.
Then another.
Levi watched him approach, a crooked grin slowly returning despite the unease lingering in his chest.
...Did I strike a nerve?
For a fleeting moment, he almost expected the old man to discipline him for speaking so bluntly. Instead, the Shogun calmly opened his lips.
"Don't shy away from the truth, Seventh Blade. You let your instincts take over."
Levi's eyes widened in surprise. It was as though the old man had been reading his mind ever since they began talking. Before he could even gather a response, the Shogun continued.
"Although 'instinct' is the closest way to describe it, the truth is far deeper than that."
Levi looked at him with visible confusion.
"What are you talking about?"
There was no frustration behind the question this time. Only curiosity.
The Shogun stepped away from him and turned his attention back toward the monastery below.
"Chō Chokkan... or, as you foreigners call it, Super Intuition."
The words sounded as though they were meant to carry tremendous significance, yet instead of leaving Levi speechless, they only confused him further. The Shogun glanced back over his shoulder, his expression as composed as ever.
"I'm not surprised you've never heard of it. Judging from your answer earlier, you were completely unaware of what happened to you during your battle against the Seraphim. Super Intuition is an exceptionally rare innate gift. Roughly one person in every fifty thousand possesses it. Throughout history, those individuals have been regarded as people chosen by God Himself."
Chosen by God...?
The phrase alone sent a chill through Levi. Gifters were already believed to inherit powers from the SkyGod, but this sounded entirely different. If Super Intuition truly belonged only to those chosen by God, then what separated it from Stardust? And if he really possessed it as well...