The roar of the lineages resurfaces
The world was once again filled with names many thought extinct.
Names that not only represented power… but an era. An era where clans dominated politics, fear, and survival through unique skills inherited, protected, and honed in secret.
From the white mountains of the north to the sunken jungles of the south, families of true blood emerged.
And with them, their age-old struggles, their outstanding debts, and above all, their absolute contempt for the idea of a humanity equalized by shared emotions.
"We don't want equality," said one of their spokesmen.
"We want the strong to rule. We want the weak to disappear. We want the art of superiority to return."
The Vayen Clan and the Mastery of Living Time
One of the first open clashes occurred on the floating city of Paryss.
There, Clan Vayen , masters of Living Time , began a targeted purge.
Their leader, Yukari Vayen , was a young woman with a serene face and circular movements.
Her ability:
"Temporal Thorn" – he could slow down or speed up vital bodily functions at will, allowing him to fight with a blend of dance and surgical precision.
His most feared technique: "Internal Phase Shift ," where he caused his heart to beat out of rhythm to deceive his enemies' senses.
A squadron from the Edenfall was sent to stop her.
The result was disastrous.
Only Thalor , an elemental specialist, survived, returning half-burned, with a single sentence: "I wasn't fighting in a hurry.
I just knew you'd already lost… before you even started."
III. Akihiko launches the mobile defense: the Autonomous Circles
Faced with the emergence of multiple simultaneous attacks from different clans, Akihiko decided to activate the strategy of Autonomous Resistance Circles :
Small mobile squads, with decentralized structures, where each member had a skill that was not overridden by another member of the team.
Juno headed the Ether Circle. Riva led the Node Circle, which specializes in neural support. Marek and two veterans founded the Umbral Circle, designed for tactical sabotage.
The goal wasn't to eliminate entire clans.
It was to learn from them. To survive. To understand how to destroy their legacy from within.
First Total Combat: Aether vs. the Three of Braech
The Aether Circle faced three members of Clan Braech , whose collective ability was Inverted Fusion :
they could merge their bodies and minds into one for 33 seconds, exchanging abilities between them without losing physical coherence.
The battle took place in an abandoned mine, under acid rain.
Juno activated her new fractal intonation protocol: a form of rhythmic attack that couldn't be synchronized because it changed every beat.
The Braech clan, in trying to copy their rhythms, became internally unbalanced.
"Each of you is a broken version of the other," Juno told them.
"And I am just a song that doesn't seek to repeat itself."
In the end, only one of the three survived. Juno let him go with a warning: "Tell them we're not equal.
But we haven't forgotten how to defend what's ours either."
Sael and Lirea confront the genetic legacy
Meanwhile, on Elytrum, Sael began to show signs of inherited activation. His skin reacted with dark lines, as if ancient symbolic patterns were trying to emerge from his biological code.
Riva determined that there were segments of extinct bloodlines in his genetic makeup. "Someone… designed Sael as a bridge between clans."
Lirea, upon discovering this, vowed to never be manipulated. So when members of the Osur Clan , manipulators of sensory shadows, attempted to kidnap him, she activated her latent ability:
"Memory Shield" – a technique that converts the most intense memories into defensive energy.
The enemy's blows were absorbed and returned…in the form of visions that caused them to collapse in confusion.
Sael, for the first time, saw his mother not just as a guide…
but as a warrior.
Akihiko vs. Seirou – The Second Match
At the Zherenn Mountain Pass, Akihiko intercepted the Kurein clan. Seirou was waiting for him.
—"I knew you'd come.
Last time, you sent a melody. This time… send fire."
Early Break technique , combined with a new sequence:
"Way of Broken Echo" – a stance that causes errors in the perception of copied reflections, causing Seirou's Reflective Mastery to be delayed by microseconds.
The fight was brutal. Both men fell at times. But Akihiko didn't want to win. He wanted to make it clear that the new generation could resist.
By the time the battle was over, both were bleeding. And Seirou, for the first time, didn't replicate his final technique. "Your blow had no form. It had intent.
And that... I can't copy."
VII. The map is split in two
The clans advanced.
The Circles held. And between them… lay Shikkoku no Eden, still divided between past and future.
But one thing was certain:
"The fire is already lit. And it's not one that can be extinguished with ideologies.
Only with the truth in every fist."
END OF CHAPTER 155