FLASHBACK: ONE MONTH BEFORE THE SORCERER SHUTDOWN
The air in the hospital room was stagnant, smelling of harsh chemicals and the metallic tang of dried blood. In the centre of the room, three hospital beds were occupied, but they weren't for the living. White sheets covered the bodies, stiff and still.
Akos lay on a gurney nearby, his body battered, his head turned toward the ceiling, his eyes hollow.
Jin slammed his fist against the wall, the sound echoing through the sterile room. "The way Mikaro is killing them... it's the worst thing I've ever seen! He's using his powers savagely on civilians, Akos! How can you be so quiet? Answer me!"
Akos didn't blink. He didn't move. "Quiet?" he whispered, his voice like gravel. "What is there to do?"
"We have to stop him!" Jin roared.
Akos finally looked at him, his gaze dead. "How? There is no way. He chose his path. I chose mine. That's all there is."
Jin's face twisted in disbelief. "What the hell is wrong with you? Are you 100% awake? Do you even hear yourself?"
Akos slowly sat up, swinging his legs off the gurney. He began to walk toward the door. Jin lunged, grabbing his arm. "Where the hell do you think you're going? What are you going to do?"
Akos kept walking, his steps heavy.
"Stop!" Jin shouted. He raised his palm, veins bulging in his hand as his energy flared. "Stop right now! I don't want to use my ability on you, Akos, but I will!"
Akos didn't stop. He didn't even flinch. "I am trying not to fail again," he muttered, his voice trembling for the first time. "I am trying to keep more innocents from dying because of me."
"Damn you!" Jin screamed.
Akos stopped. He turned his head slowly. "We are not sorcerers. We are not truly human. We are just creatures clawing for survival in a world that hates us. I can't take the weight of another death on my conscience."
He walked out, leaving the room. Jin stood alone amidst the covered corpses, his shoulders shaking. Tears leaked from his eyes, dripping onto the cold linoleum floor. Suddenly, he whipped his head up, his expression hardening into a terrifying resolve.
"If we aren't human, and we aren't sorcerers... if we are just here to die, then fine," Jin whispered, his voice cold as ice. "Then I will protect you. We will survive the bad and the good together. I promise you, I won't let you fall alone. We live together, or we die together."
PRESENT DAY:
Akos was pinned, his legs crushed under the weight of the collapsed building. He couldn't move. The world had gone silent. He watched as the dark, hulking shadow of Naker loomed over him, a mountain of meat and hate.
Naker raised his fist. It was a hammer of absolute destruction. Akos watched the strike descend, bracing for the inevitable end.
Suddenly, a razor-thin crescent of wind sliced through the air with a deafening SHING.
[JET CUT]
The air itself seemed to bleed. Before the fist could crush Akos, Naker's arm was severed at the shoulder. Black ichor sprayed across the concrete, and the limb tumbled to the ground, twitching.
Naker staggered back, a grotesque, silent roar vibrating through his chest.
Akos gasped, his eyes widening in total shock. Standing there, amidst the dust and the chaos, was Jin. His energy was crackling, his eyes burning with the same fire from a month ago.
Jin's voice cut through the destruction, raw and desperate. "I swore an oath that I wouldn't let you die!"
Akos stared at him, his heart hammering against his ribs. "Jin... you..."
Naker retreated, while his severed arm began to regenerate with a chilling, squelching sound, as if flesh were sprouting from the mud. Jin immediately rushed to Akos's side.
"Are you okay, Akos? Tell me!" he shouted, staring at his friend's bloodied body.
Akos, his face dripping with blood, placed a hand on Jin's shoulder, trying to steady himself. "Leave me be... I must... I have to continue this fight..."
"What are you talking about? Look at your condition! You aren't even healthy enough to stand!" Jin replied, his voice filled with despair.
"Jin... you can't beat this creature!" Akos whispered, gasping for air. "It can cancel all abilities... it has a way..."
Before they could finish, Naker attacked again. In a flash of motion, Jin grabbed Akos and threw him to safety behind a wall, far from the epicentre of the destruction. "Don't worry about me! You stay here!" Jin shouted before turning back to face the beast.
Naker slammed into the ground, causing a massive explosion in the building, but Jin had already leapt into the air. The monster unleashed [SLASH SNAKE], a gigantic energy projection, but Jin slid through the gap, landing on the ground.
"Since you cancel abilities, let's see how you cancel nature itself!" Jin roared. He struck the air with both hands. A massive current of wind rushed toward Naker.
The monster tried to absorb it but failed. Jin seized the opening and drove a fist into its stomach, coated in [LIGHTER FLASH]. Blinding white electrical energy erupted everywhere, sending Naker reeling backward.
"Hahaha! What's wrong? Those don't work on me, do they?" Jin laughed.
Naker, however, was already behind him. Jin froze. The monster unleashed a snake that engulfed Jin and launched him high into the air. Naker leapt upward, preparing the final blow.
Then, Jin inflated the snake from within with air, causing it to explode. With a powerful punch, he sent Naker flying even higher. "I am the wrong guy, kitty!" he shouted, and a new flash of [LIGHTER FLASH] turned the night into day.
The explosion rocked the entire area. Naker, enraged, rose from the ruins. He spotted a young girl running in a panic and lunged to kill her.
Jin appeared before him like a shadow and sliced off his arm. "Seems you've got a big reach, but you don't know your limits!" Jin began to clap his hands rhythmically. [WIND CUT].
The air became so sharp it began to shred Naker's body. The monster tried to cancel it but couldn't. Jin smiled, having just unlocked the secret.
"I get it now! Your ability only works on what originates from an enemy's body or their weapon. But you can't stop the wind, because it doesn't belong to me! I just control it."
With [wind levitation], Jin controlled the pressure around the monster. The wind buffeted Naker from all sides, slicing into its body and serpentine tentacles.
The creature couldn't steady itself, couldn't attack. Jin had trapped it in a prison of invisible, deadly blades of wind.
Naker refused to be contained. As the wind cage tightened, the humanoid shell shattered like brittle porcelain.
From the wreckage of his own body, the true beast emerged. It was a gargantuan serpent, its scales a blinding, ghostly white, its eyes burning like twin suns of blood-red intensity.
The transformation was instantaneous—a primal, raw form that pulsed with a durability that made Jin's previous attacks feel like mere pinpricks.
Jin's eyes widened. The beast didn't just feel stronger; it felt impenetrable.
Naker lunged, his massive jaws snapping at the air, ready to crush Jin into dust. But Jin didn't retreat. He stood his ground, his hands crackling with the ambient pressure of the city. He didn't just punch the air; he wrenched it.
[SLAP AIR]
A colossal wave of compressed atmosphere exploded outward. It struck the serpent's midsection with the force of a falling moon.
The impact was deafening. Naker was sent flying backward, his massive, shifting body ploughing through three skyscrapers in a row, reducing them to rubble and twisted steel. The city roared in terror.
The ground shook so violently that civilians fell where they stood, screaming as the sky darkened with debris.
The snake tumbled through the skyline until it finally slammed into the Tokyo Tower.
The iconic structure groaned under the impossible weight. The white serpent coiled around the metal lattice, its red eyes glowing like searchlights in the gathering dusk. It clung to the tower, constricting its massive muscles, causing the landmark to sway precariously.
Jin landed on a rooftop, silent and still. He watched the tableau of terror unfold before him. The red-and-white metal of the tower was now entwined with the white-and-red flesh of
the beast. Thousands of people watched from the streets below, their faces masks of pure, unadulterated fear. The city was paralysed.
Jin tightened his fists, his breathing heavy. He looked down at his hands, then back at the monster dominating the skyline.
He realised the stakes had just shifted. This wasn't just a battle for survival anymore; it was a battle for the heart of the city.
The giant serpent unleashed a deafening, piercing screech that rattled the glass of every building within a mile. It wasn't just a sound; it was a frequency of pure, unadulterated rage, vibrating with the chaotic intent to destroy everything in its path.
Inside a black car, idling in the gridlock of the terrified city, Nata watched the nightmare unfold against the skyline. Beside her, Ruka sat shackled, her chains clinking against the leather seat with every tremor of the earth.
Ruka tilted her head, staring up at the white behemoth coiled around the Tokyo Tower. She let out a dry, humorless chuckle. "This is a first," she mused, her voice dripping with biting sarcasm. "Watching a Devil-User actually terrified of the devil she unleashed."
Nata exploded. She screamed, tears streaming down her face, her knuckles white as she gripped the steering wheel so hard the leather creaked. "You don't know anything!" she yelled, her voice breaking with a mix of fury and hysteria. "I can't control him! I set him free, and now... now he is free! He does whatever he wants! He was supposed to come back to me, he was supposed to obey me, but he won't... he won't come back!"
She stared down at her trembling hands, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "I don't even know how I'm still alive. The agreement... it destroyed everything. What do I do now? God, what do I do?" She buried her face in her hands, staring hopelessly at the floorboards, paralyzed by the realization of what she had awakened.
Ruka didn't offer comfort. She looked at Nata, her eyes narrowing, and started to laugh—a harsh, cold sound that echoed in the cramped space of the car. "You are just... ha... you are just so pathetic, Nata. Truly pathetic."