The battlefield was eerily silent. The angels in the sky were frozen in their places, as if time itself had stopped out of respect—or sheer terror—for the brilliant golden light radiating from the screen floating above Kaito's head.
Akira took a step back, clutching his head. The pain wasn't physical; it felt as if thousands of needles were piercing his consciousness. His system—the "Hollow Heart System"—was struggling to breathe, its voice glitching in his mind like a broken radio transmission.
[Warning... external interference... attempt to... impose... Fate...]
[Firewall collapsing...]
Then, the blue screen vanished entirely, leaving Akira in system-blindness for the first time in 35 days.
"Who... who the hell are you?" Akira spat the words out. His left eye (the Void Perception Eye) flared with an intense blue light, attempting to analyze the entity before him. But it saw no mana pathways, no spiritual core like the angels had. Kaito was surrounded by a solid wall of "probabilities," as if he were protected by the power of the narrative itself.
Kaito smiled coldly, pulling his hand out of his school uniform pocket, completely ignoring the evaporating corpse of the Seraph Zariel beneath him.
"Didn't you listen to me, Akira? I'm here to clean up the mess. This world, Tempest, Rimuru... everything here follows a strict script. But then you showed up. A 'virus' that doesn't belong in the story, wielding Void energy that corrupts the main plot."
Kaito pointed a finger toward the crimson sky.
"The Administration granted me the 'Absolute Fate System'. My power isn't in muscles or magic. My power is 'Truth'."
Akira didn't give him another second to speak.
Anger, exhaustion, and the realization that he was just a pawn in someone else's game ignited his energy.
[Activation: Void Raiment (Ultimate Grade)]
Akira vanished completely. Hakurou's technique of lethal fluidity, combined with zero air resistance, made him faster than sound. The ground didn't shatter beneath him, and the air didn't ripple. In a fraction of a millisecond, the black dagger was a single millimeter away from Kaito's throat.
A perfect strike. Lethal. Unavoidable.
But Kaito didn't move. He didn't even blink.
Above his head, the golden screen flashed:
[Fate Command: Trajectory Deviation 100%.]
Suddenly, without any physical force or magical barrier, the black dagger slid off its course. It was as if space itself twisted around Kaito's neck. Akira's thrust sliced through empty air right beside the Japanese youth's ear, even though he was absolutely certain the trajectory was perfectly aligned!
Akira's eyes widened. "Impossible..."
"Slow, and predictable," Kaito sighed in boredom, then raised his foot to kick Akira in the stomach.
It was a remarkably ordinary kick, devoid of any martial technique or mana. But the golden screen flashed again:
[Fate Command: Unblockable Critical Strike. Impact Force: Maximum.]
It wasn't just a kick; it was a death sentence.
BOOOOM!
Akira felt as if a maglev train had slammed into his gut. His body was launched backward at breakneck speed, smashing through the rocks of the valley before crashing into the ground with terrifying force, carving out a deep crater.
Akira coughed up a massive amount of blood. If not for the durability he had gained (1200% beyond human limits) from the Room of Spirit and Time, his body would have been split in half by that ridiculous kick.
In the sky, Diablo watched in silence. Primordial Demons were not easily surprised, but Diablo's eyes narrowed with extreme danger.
"Kufufufu... This is not magic," Diablo muttered to himself, his smile vanishing. "It is the manipulation of the laws of causality. The golden boy writes the result before the action even occurs."
Kaito walked slowly toward the crater, his school shoes treading the ground lazily.
"Do you understand now the difference between us?" Kaito said with a condescending tone. "You fight using physics, magic, and stealth skills. But I possess 'Fate'. If I say your attack will miss, it will miss. And if I say my kick will crush you, it will crush you. You are just a bug fighting a god holding the end-game script."
Akira wiped the blood from his chin and slowly raised his head. His left eye was bleeding from the strain, but its light hadn't extinguished.
His blue system was down, but deep within his soul, where the darkness resided, a heavy pulse echoed.
[99.9%... minor leak detected.]
The seal didn't break (the Throne of the Void was still dormant), but a single drop of that darkness leaked into Akira's veins. It refused to bow to the laws of this world, and it refused to bow to the laws of other systems.
Akira forced himself to his feet. A terrifying, bloody smile began to form on his face. The black aura leaking from him wasn't massive, but it was so pure and dark that it began to swallow the golden light around him.
"If your system writes fate..." Akira whispered, his voice carrying the echo of a cold void that made Kaito's skin suddenly crawl. "...then I am the void that erases the words."
Kaito stopped walking. For the first time, his cold smile faded.
Above his head, his perfect golden screen flickered, displaying a red warning he had never seen before:
[Unknown Error: Target is temporarily stepping out of Fate's scope.]
[Probabilities: Unreadable.]
Akira tightened his grip on his black dagger. The real battle had just begun!