From within the sea of fire and choking smoke, a towering figure emerged.
His skin burned with a crimson glow, muscles coiling like forged steel, and eyes blazing like twin infernos from the depths of hell.
He was no man.
He was death itself, walking out of the explosion.
Rogan.
The clatter of falling metal echoed around him. The ground beneath his feet cracked with every step, as though the earth itself could not withstand the weight of this demon.
"Cindra, get back!" Kaien roared, his body moving before his mind could think. In a blur too fast for the eye to follow, he shoved Cindra away with all his strength.
A single heartbeat later—
BOOM!
Rogan's fist crashed down where Cindra had just been. The earth split apart, rock and steel shattering like glass beneath a hammer of the gods.
Kaien barely had time to exhale when Rogan vanished from sight. Like a beast unleashed, he pounced, speed and strength far beyond anything Kaien had ever faced.
"Damn it—!"
Kaien thrust forward with a desperate punch, aiming straight at Rogan's chest.
But before impact, a massive hand clamped around his arm, squeezing tight enough to crush bone.
Kaien twisted, refusing to be trapped, and swung his leg upward in a vicious arc, heel driving into Rogan's neck.
CLANG!
The sound was cold, metallic. Not the crack of bone. Not a cry of pain.
It was the sound of steel colliding with steel.
The strike had failed. Kaien's body trembled from the recoil.
Before he could retreat, Rogan shoved him back and unleashed a brutal strike.
CRACK!!
The sickening snap of bone echoed—the sound of Kaien's skull fracturing. His body shot backward, slamming through dozens of stacked containers, crushing steel to rubble and filling the air with a storm of rust and dust.
---
"KAAIENNNNN!!"
Cindra's scream tore through the chaos, raw with anguish. Her heart clenched as if ripped apart.
Her body moved before thought could stop her. In her eyes, Rogan was no longer just a man—he was the monster killing Kaien, destroying the only light she had left in her life.
Her twin blades gleamed in her trembling hands.
With a cry of fury, Cindra charged. Again and again, she attacked—slashing, striking, stabbing. Each time she fell, she forced herself up. Each time she was hurled aside, she came back.
Like a soulless machine, driven only by will—
To fight.
To fight until nothing remained.
But the gap between them was too vast.
THUD!!
Rogan's fist slammed into her stomach. Her body bent in half, a spray of crimson bursting from her lips, raining down onto the broken ground.
His hand clamped around her throat, lifting her effortlessly as though she were a ragdoll.
Her body convulsed weakly. She had passed her limit. Strength, will, life itself—all slipping away.
Death's breath touched her neck.
Rogan sneered, lips curling in savage delight.
"It's over."
His grip tightened.
---
BOOOOM!!
Out of nowhere, a massive shipping container hurtled through the air like a steel bullet, smashing directly into Rogan's chest. The impact thundered across the battlefield, blasting him backward hundreds of meters and collapsing an entire row of containers.
Cindra dropped like dead weight, slamming into the ground. Blood streamed from her mouth, her vision fading into a blur. But before her consciousness slipped away, she saw it—
A shadow stepping out of the ruins.
---
The smoke parted.
Kaien.
His body was soaked in blood, his head dripping red, breath ragged. But his eyes—his eyes glowed with a strange, cold light.
That feeling… Cindra knew it well.
The first night he saved her from the thugs.
The trial of Aigris, when Kaien crushed a brute with inhuman force.
That eerie, terrifying power… had returned.
Each step Kaien took sank the ground beneath his feet, cracking the earth as if gravity itself bent around him. The air screamed with invisible pressure, waves of force rippling outward like a storm.
Cindra trembled. Not from fear—
But because the aura surrounding him no longer belonged to a human being.
---
Far ahead, Rogan rose from the wreckage, wiping blood from his lips. For the first time since the battle began, crimson streaked down his face.
His eyes widened, then narrowed with manic delight.
A laugh tore from his throat, deep and savage, echoing across the field of broken steel:
"Well well well.... That really hurts."
His gaze locked onto Kaien—not as prey.
But as an equal predator.