Renji, Sloane, Tessa Sol, and Lady Ness were moving with tight, disciplined efficiency, their boots clicking softly against the ground as they finalized their breach protocols. They were already getting ready to enter the ship.
TWIP—CLANG!
A razor-sharp, dark steel kunai whistled through the heavy air, cutting a trajectory straight for the back of Renji's neck. Without turning his head, Renji subtly shifted his weight, his eyes tracking the displacement.
The weapon missed his temple by a fraction of an inch, embedding itself deeply into the reinforced titanium hull of the transport ship behind him.
"What now," Tessa Sol said, her eyes scanning the dark catwalks above.
"I have no idea," Sloane said,
"We have to go we're running out of time," Lady Ness said, her voice laced with an urgent, commanding edge.
When they looked up, the light seemed to warp, suffocated by an intentional, dense aura. Standing flawlessly above were ten figures standing, completely motionless.
They were wearing a cloak which had the star eyes family symbol on it—a jagged, celestial iris etched in brilliant silver thread that seemed to gleam even in the dark.
The five primary executioners stepped into the light, their postures carrying the unmistakable, lethal discipline of elite high-tier assassins from the core family lines: Kenjiro, Hayate, Ryuu, Shiro, and Kazuma.
The leader of the squad, Kenjiro, stepped forward onto the edge of the iron rafter, his cloak billowing slightly in the heavy thermal exhaust of the docking bay. His eyes were cold, calculating, and fixed entirely on Renji's posture.
"Hello Renji, let's talk," Kenjiro said, his voice smooth and deceptively polite.
Renji didn't move an inch. He stood completely relaxed, his hands resting loosely at his sides, his gaze flat and utterly unbothered by kenjiro.
"What do you want, and I don't have time to talk," Renji said, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous register that made the air grow noticeably colder.
Kenjiro let out a soft, mocking chuckle, his fingers lightly tapping the hilt of his concealed katana. "Looks like you've changed, let me tell you something we were ordered to assanite you," Kenjiro said, his tone casual.
"Why, and by who," Renji said, his stance remaining rock-solid, though his inner focus began to narrow down to a razor-sharp point.
Kenjiro sneered, his eyes flashing with a sudden, competitive malice. "You really think I would just give you the name and I'm sure you know the reason, you are next in line to inherit the star eyes family and become it's leader."
The words had barely left Kenjiro's lips when the nine assassins dropped from the rafters simultaneously, their movements entirely synchronized as they unleashed a relentless, 9v1 assault.
Renji didn't draw a blade; instead, his iris violently shifted, expanding as he activated his 3rd Edge. The world around him slowed into a predictable sequencea, while all nine of his attackers immediately ignited their own 2nd Edge, their speed multiplying as they closed the distance from every conceivable blind spot.
Hayate was the first to strike, executing a sweeping low-kick designed to shatter Renji's left knee while Shiro dropped from above, his palm strike enveloped in an iron-breaking shockwave. Renji didn't retreat. Moving with microscopic precision, he ducked underneath Shiro's descending palm, using the momentum to drive his elbow straight into Hayate's descending shin bone.
CRACK.
Before Hayate could recoil, Ryuu and Kazuma converged from his left flank, throwing a flawless combination of rapid, interlocking hand-to-hand strikes.
A barrage of open-palm strikes, heavy throat-jabs, and spinning heel-kicks flew at Renji in a blur of motion. Renji parried every single impact with a single hand, his forearm moving like an unyielding iron shield. Thud-thud-bang-thud! He deflected Ryuu's left jab into Kazuma's ribs, completely disrupting their synchronization.
The remaining four unnamed star-eyes assassins tried to capitalize on the gap, launching a combined, synchronized heavy kick directly at Renji's chest. Renji merely shifted his shoulder forward, letting the sheer pressure of his 3rd Edge create a localized repelling field that shattered their footing and sent them skidding backward across the metal floor plates.
Throughout the entire chaotic brawl, Kenjiro, the leader, wasn't fighting. He remained standing a few paces back, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes closely analyzing Renji's defensive patterns, waiting for a single moment of physical exhaustion.
But Renji wasn't exhausting. He blurred forward, moving faster than the 2nd Edge users could track. He bypassed the defensive guards of the squad entirely, appearing directly inside the personal space of one of the elite assassins.
Before the man could react, Renji's left hand shot out like a strike of lightning. Then renji held one of them neck, lifting the grown, assassin entirely off the metal floor with a single, unyielding arm. The man thrashed violently, his fingers clawing at Renji's iron grip as his oxygen supply cut off.
Renji tilted his head up slightly, his face completely shadowed, saving for the terrifying, multi-layered geometric rings spinning violently inside his pupils.
"Look into my eyes and tell me what you see," Renji whispered.
Instantly, the three rings of his 3rd Edge began to violently warp and fragment, multiplying into a dark, interlocking pattern of pitch-black irises that seemed to drink the very light out of the room. The air around Renji's silhouette began to glitch and distort, heavy waves of psychological terror bleeding into the environment.
He unlocked the 4th edge called the night mare eyes, and placed the person inside an endless nightmare.
The moment the assassin looked into those dark, shifting geometric pupils, his eyes went completely white. His body stopped thrashing, going entirely limp as his mind was violently violently dragged out of reality, cast into a subterranean realm of absolute, infinite psychological torture that would last for eternity inside his own consciousness. Renji casually opened his hand, letting the catatonic, unresponsive body of the elite assassin drop to the floor like a sack of dead weight.
Renji looked up at the remaining nine attackers, his dark, nightmare eyes spinning slowly.
"don't make me ask again who sent you ," Renji said.
Everyone where stunned and shock. The remaining eight assassins froze in place, their weapons lowering slightly as they stared at their catatonic comrade on the ground. They had never seen a human body completely turn off without a physical blow to a vital organ.
Then the leader, Kenjiro, became annoyed, his composed, aristocratic face twisting into a mask of sudden, frantic disbelief and deep frustration.
"How did he... he's the first to ever unlock the 4th edge he's nearly unlocked everything and each edge comes with a certain tasks in order to unlock it and I wonder what he's done to himself," Kenjiro muttered to himself, his voice shaking slightly as he backed away a step. He knew the ancient lore of the star eyes family—1st and 2nd are easy but the 3rd ,4th and the complete star eyes required a specific tasks, trauma and something darker."
Kenjiro violently drew his dark steel katana, his aura flaring into a brilliant, desperate silver energy as he prepared to engage in a battle with Renji
"It doesn't matter what eyes you have!" Kenjiro roared, launching himself forward in a magnificent, high-speed dash. He swung his sword through the air in a perfect, horizontal severing line aimed straight at Renji's throat, the blade whistling with supersonic wind pressure.
Renji didn't move. He didn't raise his hands, he didn't parry, and he didn't duck.
SLASH.
The katana cut perfectly clean through Renji's neck, severing his head from his shoulders. Kenjiro let out a triumphant laugh as the body began to fall—but suddenly, the environment around him shattered like brittle glass.
The severed body vanished into thin air.
Kenjiro blinked, finding himself standing in a vast, empty void of absolute darkness. He looked down and realized his sword was gone; his limbs were pinned by heavy, rusted iron chains that grew out of the infinite black floor.
Standing directly in front of him, entirely unharmed and completely stoic, was Renji.
But renji would he trapped the leader in an endless nightmare from the beginning.
The entire conversation, the 10v1 fight, and the ambush hadn't even happened in reality. The exact millisecond Kenjiro had jumped down from the rafter to say "Hello Renji," his eyes had crossed Renji's path, and the 4th Edge had already seized his central nervous system, locking his mind into an instantaneous, looping illusion while his real, physical body stood frozen like a stone statue back on the iron catwalk.
Inside the nightmare, Kenjiro began to scream as dark, faceless silhouettes rose from the black floor, their fingers tearing at his armor. "No! Get away from me! Break out! RELEASE!"
"There is no release," Renji's voice echoed from every direction of the void simultaneously, cold and devoid of any human emotion. "Your mind will loop here for ten thousand years. In reality, only three seconds will pass. Goodbye, Kenjiro."
Back in the real world, the remaining eight assassins watched in absolute horror as Kenjiro—who had been standing confidently on the catwalk—suddenly let out a silent, choked gasp. His sword slipped from his fingers, clattering loudly against the iron grate, and he collapsed onto his knees, his eyes wide, vacant, and completely hollowed out by the nightmare eyes. He was alive, but his consciousness was permanently gone.
The remaining eight star-eyes executioners didn't dare to take another step. They backed away into the shadows of the rafters, completely terrified of the young man standing below them.
Renji's pupils shifted back to their standard, calm coloration. He didn't glance back at the fallen statues of his former family lines. He simply adjusted the collar of his uniform and turned back toward the transport ship's primary boarding ramp.
"Let's move," Renji said, his voice steady.
Sloane sheathed his energy sidearms, shaking his head in awe. "Remind me never to look you directly in the face when you're angry."
"Incredible," Tessa Sol muttered, her solar aura fading as she fell into step behind him. "We didn't have to do anything."
"Shouldn't we help them" lady Ness asked
"They have a way out,..." Renji said
"Don't ask how I know,I don't have time to explain everything"
Then renji began to think about what kenjiro said
"It's probably my uncle he's the only suspect,if he planned this for me, he's probably going to do the same for my father,I have no time to waste " renji thought to himself as he took a deep breath.