Oliver's breath tore from his lungs in ragged bursts, yet his grin never faltered. The Oni's flesh burned, veins swelling as black yokai miasma tangled with raging yang fire. His body was no longer stable—the skin across his arms cracked, glowing with molten light, while horns splintered into jagged, pulsing ridges. Each step left gouges of charred earth as if the world itself rejected his existence.
The macaque, lost to madness, roared with a throat full of fire. Its fur burned golden, its muscles swollen from false Foundation strength. With every strike, its claws left rifts of wind that split stone. Its eyes no longer held thought—only fury.
Clash!
Oliver's polearm caught the beast's strike, but the force sent tremors up his arm. Blood sprayed from the torn muscle, yet he only laughed. He twisted, driving a knee into the beast's chest, sending it sprawling back.
"Wake up, damn you!" Oliver's voice was thunder, both command and challenge. He wasn't aiming for the kill. Each strike angled not to sever but to batter, to force the creature to fight through its madness.
The macaque responded with another roar, leaping at him with a burning kick. Oliver braced, planting his polearm into the ground and letting the impact hurl him backward. His Oni form skidded across stone, claws digging trenches, before launching forward again.
The girls could barely follow their movements—the battlefield looked more like a storm of fire and shadow than a fight.
The giant skeleton—retuning back to normal—stirred above them. Its vast ribcage lowered like a cage of bone, shielding the girls from stray shockwaves. Each time debris hurtled toward them, its massive palm swatted it aside like dust. The pavilion lanterns that burned along its frame cast protective light, and keeping the battlefield's fury contained.
Takara pressed a hand against the ribcage, her breath shaky. "He's… he's not killing it…"
Kaede clenched her weapons, watching Oliver's wild form crash into the beast again. "He's forcing it to fight him—to claw its way back from that frenzy."
Sana narrowed her eyes, her instincts piecing it together. "He's breaking its will… by refusing to end it."
On the field, the war raged on between two monsters.
Oliver's polearm swept wide, carving glowing arcs in the air, each strike hammering the macaque down. The beast responded with claws that nearly took his head, forcing him to twist, horns sparking against burning fur. Blood spilled freely from his warped body—every clash shredded him further, yokai and yang tearing from within.
But he endured. He pushed forward, blow after blow, eyes burning like twin suns.
"Fight me, not your madness!" he bellowed, slamming the beast's head into the dirt before hurling it skyward with an eruption of ghostly chains. "Show me you're more than a rabid dog!"
The macaque crashed back down in a blaze of gold, its roar shaking the heavens. It staggered, its aura flickering—fury and clarity warring in its gaze. For the first time, hesitation gleamed in its wild eyes.
Oliver's form only grew more monstrous. Shadow and flame braided around him, his Oni frame splitting wider as if something larger tried to force its way out. Yet his grip on his polearm stayed steady, his crimson eyes locked on the beast before him.
"Come back," he growled, voice both command and plea. "Or I'll drag you back myself."
Oliver's roars shook the ruined plain as he pressed harder, every strike heavier, every movement more desperate. His polearm slammed into the macaque's shoulder, dislocating the joint with a sickening crack. The beast howled, thrashing wildly, but Oliver refused to relent. He drove his knee into its ribs, sending bone splinters tearing through golden flesh, then dragged the creature back down with a chain of ghostly fire that wrapped around its neck.
The earth itself cratered beneath them.
Each blow of his polearm was a demand. Each clash a command. He wasn't killing—it was a war of will, a merciless struggle to force the beast to wake up. Blood flew from both of them, staining the ground.
Finally, the macaque staggered, its claws trembling mid-swing. Its once-blazing eyes flickered, the madness burning away in fits and starts. Its breathing turned ragged, confused, almost human in its desperation.
Oliver slammed it down one last time, his Oni claws digging into the creature's throat. His molten eyes met its broken, clouded ones.
"Enough."
The word carried weight—an authority more crushing than the blows had been.
The macaque's struggling ceased. Its eyes cleared, recognition trembling in their depths. Then, exhausted, it slumped into unconsciousness, its golden light dimming to a faint glow.
Oliver exhaled sharply, his monstrous form trembling as cracks ran through it. He raised his arm, and the pavilion's lantern flared.
Chains of spectral light burst from the doorway, wrapping around the beast. With a single pull, its massive body dissolved into spirit-light, drawn screaming into the depths of the pavilion.
The response was immediate.
Every ghost on the battlefield let out a shriek before being dragged back. The calm onryō, the whispering shades, the swarms of broken spirits—all were yanked into the pavilion, their doors opened wide.
Even the colossal skeleton groaned, its giant frame bowing before Oliver like a servant obeying its master. Its ribcage opened, releasing the girls safely onto the scorched earth, before its towering body unraveled into disjointed bones that poured back into the pavilion.
Silence descended.
The battlefield, moments ago alive with chaos and violence, now lay barren except for Oliver, still crouched in the dirt, his body cracked and steaming. The Oni features receded little by little, horns breaking off in fragments of ash, molten skin sealing over into scarred flesh.
He stood slowly, shoulders rising and falling as though the weight of a mountain pressed against them. His eyes flicked to the girls—alive, shielded, staring at him in awe and unease.
The fight was over.