When we clashed, our energies ignited and mangled us. The collision was deafening, like a hundred storms compressing into one point. The impact blew us in opposite directions. Jominara was hurled into the side of the mountain, smashing through rock until her body vanished inside its surface. I was flung across the flat ground, tumoring end over end until the earth disappeared beneath me. I fell off a cliff and crashed into a pond far below.
The water swallowed me whole, cold and sharp against my skin. I surfaced, coughing, my body burning from the backlash of our powers. My nebula-form had drained me dry, leaving only a faint pulse of purple flame flickering around my wrist. I dragged myself to the shore and lay there, staring up at the towering cliffs. The mountain loomed above me, broken clouds circling its peak like a crown of ash. Jominara was still somewhere up there, but there was no way I could climb back in this condition.
By the time I got to my feet, I realized the truth: I was in the forest surrounding Ki Proce.
Alone.
I tried to summon a portal, tried to bend the Nekomata's flames into a gateway — but nothing happened. The ability that once came easily with the Yang spirit was gone. I no longer had the luxury of teleportation. It was a major setback, but not the end. If I could find Eqihr, there was still a chance. He could teleport, and maybe, just maybe, he knew a way to reach Nova1c.
But then the guilt gnawed at me. I had left him, left everyone, without a word. For all I knew, he was already dead, or worse, captured. And if the scaled sword members had gotten to him… my chances would be as good as gone.
The forest pressed against me like a living thing. The air was thick with damp soil and the faint sweetness of flowers hidden beneath the canopy. Sunlight barely pierced the treetops, and when it did, it painted the ground in fractured beams. I wandered, weaving between roots that jutted from the earth like bones. Every step felt heavy, not just from exhaustion, but from the weight of everything riding on me.
I thought about Manny, shackled under Nazo's control. His eyes when he swung at me — vacant, yet burning with something unnatural. Was he even still in there? Or was I just clinging to the idea of my brother, the way I clung to the memory of Nagi?
The silence of the forest didn't last.
A rustle. Soft at first, almost harmless, but my aura flared instinctively. I froze, scanning the trees. My senses picked up movement, too steady to be an animal, too heavy to be the wind. I crouched low, hiding behind a fallen log, my heart hammering. For a moment I thought it could be Eqihr — but no. His presence had a rhythm, a flow, one that calmed the air around him. This… this was something else.
The rustling grew louder, closer. I clenched my fists, purple fire wrapping around them faintly. If it were a scaled sword, I wasn't ready. Not without Jominara, not without control. My legs tensed, ready to spring.
Then silence again.
I peeked over the log. Nothing. Just trees swaying, branches shifting in the breeze. My nerves eased, and I exhaled slowly. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe the forest was playing with me.
But the ground beneath me shifted.
A crack split the dirt, jagged and sudden, and a tendril of dark aura slithered out like smoke. My stomach dropped. I knew that feeling. I had felt it before in Haru, when that tentacle-wrapped monster revealed his true form.
Kurayami.
The crack widened, spilling shadows across the forest floor. The tendrils whipped violently, curling around trunks, strangling the life from them until they shriveled. The trees groaned, breaking under the pressure. My instincts screamed at me to run, but I stood my ground, fists blazing.
A figure began to rise from the pit of darkness.
He wasn't the same as before. Bigger, more grotesque, his form half-man, half-void. Hundreds of eyes blinked open across his chest and arms, each one dripping black fluid that sizzled against the earth. His voice rattled like broken glass as he spoke:
"You thought you could spare me, boy. You thought mercy was strength." His grin widened, showing rows of teeth that didn't fit his mouth. "Now look at you… lost. Weak. Alone."
I swallowed hard, forcing my legs to stop shaking. "If you want me, you'll have to earn it."
His laugh shook the canopy, birds scattering in flocks. The forest darkened as his aura spread, swallowing light itself. My pulse raced. I had no choice. If I wanted to survive, if I wanted to find Manny and face Nazo, I had to fight.
I closed my eyes, reaching for the Nekomata within. The flames roared to life, purple and white, spiraling around my body. My claws extended, sharper this time, my fangs aching in my jaw. My reflection in a puddle nearby showed a monster's face — mine, but not mine.
The Kurayami beast's tentacles struck, smashing through the log I hid behind. Splinters erupted into the air. I rolled away, heat surging in my chest. With a roar, I thrust my palm forward, releasing a gravitational ripple that tore through the ground. The forest floor buckled, dragging him off balance.
He caught himself with his tendrils and hissed. "Better. But still not enough."
I wasn't sure he was wrong. But I couldn't back down. Not now.
I tightened my stance, flames licking higher, my aura swirling into a vortex around me. The forest groaned, bending beneath the weight of our powers.
This was no longer about training. This was survival.
And survival was all I had left.