The air in the Purasian square had turned into a toxic soup.
Sword Crimson, his face twisted with the agony of his broken ribs and the grief of his brother's death, spat a mouthful of red bile onto the sand. "Do you smell that, Shadow Fang?
" he hissed, his voice a ragged wheeze. "The air is already poisoned. Our guild's lethal mist...
you're breathing in your own execution. You'll be dead before the sun sets."
Kaito remained on one knee, his shoulder still weeping blood, surrounded by a ring of death: Lord Ethan on his high horse,
Yanto and Yurata, with their blades bared, Sword Crimson, and the remaining nine members of the King's Royal Guard, led by the silver-haired captain, Hajimo.
Despite the odds, Kaito didn't look like a man at the end of his rope. A slow, creepy smirk spread across his face, his eyes gleaming with a predatory light that made the nearest guards flinch.
"You think you can erase the shadow?" Kaito asked softly.
Lord Ethan looked down from his saddle, his golden armor reflecting the harsh desert sun. He pointed a gauntleted finger toward the sky.
"It doesn't matter how deep the darkness is, Shadow Fang. The sun arrives every day and vanishes the dark.
It is the law of nature. You are an anomaly that the light will now purge."
Kaito's smirk widened into a silent, haunting laugh. He stood up slowly, his movements unnervingly smooth despite his injuries.
"Do you know, Ethan..." Kaito began, his voice vibrating with a sudden, terrifying resonance,
"...that no matter how bright the light is, it cannot reach the pit of the ocean? At the bottom of the sea, the sun is a myth. Darkness isn't just a lack of light there. It is the world itself."
Kaito slammed his foot onto the cobblestones.
"SHADOW WORLD: VOID."
The earth didn't just shake; it groaned as if the tectonic plates were being rearranged by a giant hand. A massive, obsidian pulse erupted from Kaito's footprint.
In an instant, a colossal black dome, opaque and shimmering with Nihil energy, surged upward, swallowing the square, the streets, and eventually the entire Kingdom of Purasia.
Inside the dome, the sun vanished. The air turned cold—not the cold of winter, but the cold of deep space.
Jafar, standing on the edge of the square, gasped as he looked at the shimmering black sky. "He... he forced the Shadow World to manifest in reality," he whispered, his eyes wide with awe.
"This isn't just an illusion anymore. Wherever the Shadow World forms, Kaito is the law. He is immortal here because the environment is an extension of his own Will. He is a King wielding the power of a different dimension."
Suddenly, a silver flash cut through the dark. Hajimo had moved.
The Captain of the King's Guard was fast—faster than any warrior Jafar had ever faced.
Jafar pivoted, but he was a fraction of a second too slow. Hajimo's katana grazed Jafar's arm, drawing a thin line of red.
"The past is the past, Jafar," Hajimo sneered, spinning his blade with professional ease. "You were a War Lord. Now, you're just a traitor in a dark room. I'll enjoy taking your head to the King."
Hajimo's eyes locked onto the small, worn merchant card Jafar held. "And after you're dead, that artifact is mine. It clearly has a high Will-resonance."
Jafar looked at the card—the legacy of Hal Sherlock. "You aren't worthy of his name," Jafar growled.
The card suddenly erupted with a brilliant, dark violet light. It elongated, the paper-thin edges hardening into cold, black steel. In a heartbeat, the card transformed into a massive, jagged Scythe, its blade humming with a "Shadow Will" that resonated perfectly with Jafar's own energy.
As Jafar gripped the hilt, his aura changed. His old "Commander's Will" fused with the shadow energy of the weapon, evolving into the Shadow Commander's Will.
He felt an ancient authority wash over him—the power to convert the card into any weapon his heart required.
The Scythe shifted, its form flowing like liquid metal until it became a heavy, two-handed broadsword.
"Let's see whose head falls first," Jafar roared.
The two collided. The sound of their clashing steel was like thunder in the enclosed dome. They moved in a blur of silver and violet, exchanging a dozen blows in a single heartbeat.
Hajimo backed off for a second, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.
"It looks like we're even now," Hajimo muttered, his smirk finally wavering. "Interesting."
While Jafar held the line, Kaito began his hunt.
He didn't wait for his enemies to recover from the shock of the Void Dome. He infused his legs and his blade with the full weight of his Will.
In the Shadow World, Kaito's speed was no longer bound by friction or air resistance.
He moved with the speed of light.
To the onlookers, Kaito simply vanished. A split second later, he appeared behind one of the elite King's Guards.
There was no sound of a sword being drawn—only the wet thud of a head hitting the sand as the guard was decapitated before he could even blink.
"The... the strongest strategist," Ethan whispered, his voice trembling as he realized the trap he had actually walked into. "Azerion's Shadow Fang... he isn't fighting us.
He's harvesting us."
Yanto screamed, his "Devil's Will" erupting in a sickly green flame. "Suppress him! Break his focus!
" He lunged forward, his Will designed to dampen and crush the energy of others.
Simultaneously, a Royal Guard appeared at Kaito's back, his spear driving straight toward Kaito's spine.
The spear passed through Kaito's torso as if he were made of smoke.
Kaito didn't even turn around. He simply reached back and grabbed the guard's head.
"A shadow cannot be touched," Kaito whispered coldly.
With a sickening crack, Kaito tore the guard's head from his shoulders with a single hand.
He tossed the helmeted head toward Ethan's feet.
"Two down," Kaito murmured, his eyes glowing like embers in the dark. "Eleven to go."
In the next three seconds, Kaito became a ghost of slaughter.
Three more guards fell, their bodies carved apart by strikes they never saw coming.
No one could react. No one could breathe.
Kaito stopped moving.
He stood directly in front of Ethan's horse, his sword resting casually on his shoulder, his clothes soaked in the blood of the King's elite.
"How much longer are you going to sit on that horse, Ethan?" Kaito asked.
Ethan was paralyzed. The "War God" of Purasia was experiencing something he hadn't felt in forty years: pure, unadulterated trauma.
He looked into Kaito's eyes and saw his own death staring back.
While the capital was being consumed by the Void, the King of Purasia stood on the highest balcony of the castle, staring at the massive black dome that now covered his city.
"Only he can stop the Shadow Fang now," the King muttered, his face pale.
He turned and descended deep into the bowels of the castle, past the dungeons, past the treasury, into a basement that had been sealed for centuries. A terrified soldier followed him, carrying a flickering torch.
They reached a massive stone door inscribed with runes from a forgotten age.
"Lord Barusa," the King whispered, his voice echoing in the damp chamber. "The Great King. The First King.
The strongest warrior of Purasia... please wake up. Your country needs you."
The soldier trembled. "Lord... is the First King still alive? How is that possible? He lived hundreds of years ago!"
"Lord Barusa sealed himself in Will-Stasis," the King replied, placing his hand on the cold stone.
"He did it so he could return to save Purasia in its darkest hour.
He was the strongest of his era—the Tansu Era. The era of the strongest warriors to ever walk the earth."
The runes began to glow with a violent, ancient gold light. The earth beneath the castle began to hum with a frequency that made the soldier's ears bleed.
At the kingdom's gates, the rest of the Shadow Crew pulled their horses to a halt. They stared at the Void Dome, the manifestation of Kaito's absolute power.
"He's forced the manifestation," Kanjo said, his face grimmer than usual. "He's going all out. That means he's either cornered or he's finished playing games."
Kanjo immediately took command, his voice sharp and decisive.
"Zereth, Yuri, Mukata—take Hana and Asha to the hidden sanctuary in the foothills. If that dome collapses, the shockwave will level the outskirts. Go! Now!"
Yuri looked like she wanted to argue, her eyes fixed on the black dome where Kaito was fighting, but she nodded, grabbing Hana's reins.
"Kai, Blake," Kanjo said, turning to the legendary leader and the young disciple. "We're going in. It's time to see what the Shadow Fang has left."
Blake adjusted his cloak, his "Ancient King's Will" beginning to radiate from his body like a warm sun, pushing back the encroaching darkness of the dome's perimeter.
"Let's go," Blake said. "Kaito is starting a war he might not be able to finish alone."