The cavern was quiet, except for the sound of their breathing.
Oni crouched low, sweat dripping off his jaw and sizzling on the warm stone, chest rising and falling in sharp, controlled gulps. His golden eyes cut through the dim light, feral and alert, but every muscle trembled with exhaustion.
Beside him, Rain leaned against the wall, sheathing his dual swords with hands that wouldn't stop shaking. They'd done it—they'd killed the Minotaur. Fourteen months of hell in Pangea, and this trial was finally behind them.
Rain spat a glob of blood and grit. "…I want a nap. A stupid, long, nothing-can-kill-me nap. Before the next homicidal freak shows up."
Oni's laugh was dry, humorless. "If the next one doesn't kill us, exhaustion will."
Rain slid down to sit against the wall. "Fine. I'll just… close my eyes for ten sec—"
The ground shook.
The sound was deep, rumbling—not like footsteps. Like the planet itself was warning them.
Cracks spiderwebbed through the stone beneath them, red light bleeding up from the seams like the earth was about to split open. Rain's tired grin faltered. "…That didn't sound like a nap."
The cracks widened into a perfect circle, ancient runes carving themselves into the stone, glowing with hungry, blood-red light.
Kazin's voice hissed in the back of their minds, distant and cold: "Some doors… do not wait to be knocked on."
Rain stood, swords half-raised. "Nope. No, thank you. Not today. Close the door. Slam it. Board it up. Whatever this is, tell it we're—"
WHIP!
Spectral chains shot out of the glowing circle, snapping around his chest and legs like iron snakes.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Rain swung both swords, cutting two, but four more wrapped him, yanking him off his feet.
Oni's claws slashed out, shattering chains that lashed for him, but more kept coming, coiling around his throat and arms like steel pythons.
Rain flailed midair. "This is kidnapping! I didn't RSVP to Hell!"
The circle exploded downward, and the ground swallowed them whole.
Stone became liquid shadow, and they were dragged into the void, tumbling through a screaming vortex of magma rivers, writhing spectral faces, and the sound of grinding bone. The air burned in their lungs. It felt like being devoured alive by the earth.
Then—impact.
They hit jagged black stone hard enough to rattle their bones. Rain rolled, groaning, every inch of his body protesting. He blinked through the haze and froze.
The cavern was colossal, lit by rivers of slow, bubbling magma and the eerie glow of runes carved into bone piles the size of houses. The stench of sulfur and rotting flesh was so thick it coated the tongue.
And somewhere in the darkness… something breathed.
We then heard chains scraping the ground, as a beast emerged.
To their surprise, his body was mostly that of a celestials but he had the gigantic flaming wings of a Phoenix. But his right arm was that of a dragon. This was the Chimera, this is a challenge like no other!
He stood and looked at us with red piercing eyes gazing into our souls, judging if we are worthy opponents. He then says,
"At last...
I have...
TRULY AWAKENED!"
The moment after he said those final words he slammed the chains on the ground and everything exploded with flames and debris.
The dust hadn't even settled before the Chimera stepped through the wall of fire. He didn't move like a beast; he moved like a man who owned the room and was pissed off about the decor. The double gravity that made Oni and Rain's bones ache seemed to treat him like a guest of honor—he was light, fluid, and terrifyingly fast.
He flexed his dragon-arm, the scales grinding like tectonic plates, and looked at the two of them with a gaze that made the magma feel cold.
"Is this it?" the Chimera asked. His voice wasn't a roar; it was a smooth, cultured baritone that carried the weight of a dying sun. "My creator spoke of obstacles. Of rivals. But I wake up to find two sweating, half-dead runts shivering in the dark."
Rain spat a mouthful of copper-tasting grit and struggled to find his feet, his knees popping under the weight of the room. "Oh, I'm sorry, princess. We've been a little busy killing your coworkers for the last year. Give us a minute to put on some makeup and we'll be right with you."
The Chimera's eyes narrowed. "Witty. I shall enjoy tearing that tongue out after I've used it to paint the floor."
In a blur that defied the heavy air, he was gone.
"Left!" Oni screamed, but it was too late.
The Chimera appeared inches from Rain's face, the heat from his Phoenix wings searing Rain's eyebrows off. Before Rain could even think about his swords, the dragon-arm lashed out. It wasn't a punch; it was a localized collapse of physics. The beast grabbed the air itself, and the gravity around Rain spiked so hard the stone beneath him turned to powder.
"Fucking—hell!" Rain wheezed, his spine groaning as he was slammed into the dirt.
"Gravity is a suggestion to those who deserve to fly," the Chimera whispered, looking down at him. With a casual flick of his wings, a dozen feathers detached, glowing with a predatory white light. They didn't just fall; they hissed through the air, curving and tracking Rain's every desperate twitch like heat-seeking missiles.
Oni roared, lunging forward with his claws extended, aiming for the beast's throat. "Leave him alone, you overgrown pigeon!"
The Chimera didn't even turn his head. He snapped his left hand, and the spectral chains that had been dragging behind him rose like cobras. They didn't just strike; they braided themselves into a shimmering, electrified wall that caught Oni mid-air.
"Impatience," the Chimera sighed, the sound echoing through the cavern as the chains wrapped around Oni's throat, hoisting him upward. "It's a common trait in the destined-to-die."
Oni kicked at the chains, his face turning a dark shade of bruised purple. "Go... fuck... yourself."
The Chimera actually chuckled, a dry, metallic sound. "At least you have spirit. It will make the next hour significantly more entertaining for me. Tell me, do you want to be buried together, or should I scatter your ashes across different dimensions just to be an asshole?"
He tightened the grip of the gravity field on Rain and the chains on Oni, his Phoenix wings flared wide, illuminating the entire cavern in a mocking, golden light.
The Chimera's grip tightened, his dragon-claw pulsing with that suffocating, localized gravity. "I've decided," he mused, the heat from his wings making the air ripple. "I'll kill the loud one first. He has more... flavor."
Oni's face was turning a dangerous shade of violet as the chains bit into his throat, but through the haze of oxygen deprivation, he managed a jagged, blood-toothed grin. "Hey... bird-brain..."
The Chimera—Athos—tilted his head. "Bird-brain? Truly? Your final words are a playground insult?"
"No," Oni wheezed, his Mark of the Beast beginning to glow on his skin like a brand. "My final words... are a goddamn headache."
Oni opened his mouth and let out a sound that didn't belong to a Celestial. It was the discordant, reality-warping shriek of the Sirens he'd slaughtered months ago, laced with the predatory pheromones of the Shadow-Stalkers. The sound hit Athos like a physical hammer to the brain, shattering his focus.
The gravity field around Rain flickered for a fraction of a second. That was all the opening he needed.
"My turn, you arrogant prick!" Rain yelled. He didn't just swing his sword; he let go of the hilt. "Uzuka! Heavy Metal!"
The blade, which had been a standard length, suddenly shifted to a deep, bruised purple. It expanded in mid-air, growing ten times its size and weighing as much as a small moon. Because of the double gravity already on the planet, the sword dropped like a falling star, slamming into Athos's dragon-arm with enough force to make the entire cavern floor heave.
Athos hissed, forced to release Oni to catch the massive blade. "Clever. But weight is—"
"I'm not done!" Rain snapped. He snapped his fingers, and the purple blade splintered into six smaller daggers, each turning a burning crimson as he enveloped them in his own raw magic. "Eat shit!"
The daggers blurred, intercepting the Phoenix feathers that were homing in on him, exploding them in mid-air.
Meanwhile, Oni hit the ground and didn't stay there. Using the speed of the Black Pegasi, he became a golden streak of lightning. Even in the double gravity, he moved so fast he left after-images. He circled Athos, his hands shifting into jagged, obsidian-colored claws infused with Earth magic.
"You talk a lot for a guy named Athos," Oni shouted, his voice echoing from every corner of the room at once, a trick of his manipulated perception. "Does the name stand for 'Absolutely Trash At His Only Status'?"
Athos roared, his calm facade finally cracking. His Phoenix wings flared to their full thirty-foot span, sending a wave of white-hot fire in every direction. "You dare mock a creation of the Twin?! I am the pinnacle! I am the end of your journey!"
"Nah," Rain said, summoning his daggers back into a single, glowing emerald spear. "You're just the warm-up act we forgot to skip."
Athos stood in the center of the crater, his Phoenix wings no longer glowing with a majestic gold, but a jagged, necro-violet. The insult had pierced his ego deeper than the blades. He didn't scream this time; the air simply died. The magma in the trenches turned to black glass, and the heat was replaced by a cold so absolute it felt like needles in the lungs.
"You think this is a game of toys and tricks?" Athos's voice dropped an octave, vibrating with a frequency that made Oni's ears bleed. "You want to see what lies in the shadow of my creator's mind?"
He slammed his dragon-claw into his own chest.
Instead of blood, a torrent of liquid darkness spilled out, coiling around his limbs like a living suit of armor. The spectral chains didn't just rattle—they screamed. They fused with the darkness, growing jagged barbs that dripped with a corrosive, black ichor.
"Nihil's Embrace," Athos whispered.
He moved. It wasn't speed anymore—it was a skip in reality. He appeared behind Oni, and before the Pegasi-speed could kick in, Athos grabbed Oni's shadow.
Literally.
He stepped on the shadow's neck, and Oni pinned to the floor as if a mountain had dropped on him, coughing up black bile.
"Oni!" Rain yelled, his Uzuka shifting to a frantic, electric blue as he flooded it with Darkness magic to match the beast. "Get off him, you winged freak!"
Rain launched the Uzuka, the blade multiplying into a hundred needles designed to pierce the beast's aura. But Athos didn't even look. He flicked a wing, and the feathers—now black and dripping with rot—met the needles. Where they touched, the Uzuka's magic was simply eaten. The needles turned to rusted scrap and fell to the floor.
"Your magic is food," Athos said, his face now a mask of shifting shadows with two burning red slits for eyes. "Your hope is an appetizer."
He turned his gaze toward Rain, and the floor between them dissolved into a void. "I was made to be the predator of Celestials. Do you know what happens to a soul when it's digested by a nightmare?"
Athos's dragon-arm elongated, the bones cracking and reforming into a jagged obsidian blade that pulsed with a heartbeat. He lunged, not for a strike, but for a kill.
Oni, still pinned by his own shadow, gritted his teeth. "Rain! The blood! He's using his own goddamn essence to keep the armor up!"
"I see it!" Rain shouted, dodging a swipe that took a chunk out of the stone wall like it was wet paper. "But he's eating everything I throw at him! I can't get a solid hit!"
"Then stop throwing magic," Oni growled, his eyes turning a deep, predatory crimson as he tapped into the Blood Magic he'd harvested from the Pangean gore-beasts. "Start throwing him."
Oni slammed his palms into the stone. "Blood Rite: Vein of the Earth!"
The iron in the very stones and the blood spilled on the floor rose up, forming jagged red spikes that didn't target Athos's body, but the chains attached to him, trying to anchor the monster down.
Athos let out a distorted laugh that sounded like glass breaking. "You try to bind the wind with rusted nails? Pathetic."
Oni's roar wasn't human. It wasn't even Celestial. It was a guttural, layered sound—the collective scream of every apex predator he had butchered in the wilds of Pangea.
"Rain, get back!" Oni growled, his voice vibrating with a frequency that cracked the obsidian floor. "I'm tired of this bird-bitch talking down to us."
The Mark of the Beast on Oni's torso didn't just glow; it tore open. Dark, ethereal steam poured from his pores as he tapped into the Primordial Chimera attribute—a beast that had nearly ended him in his sixth month. His muscles swelled, his skin taking on a metallic, iridescent sheen that reflected the magma's glow.
Athos sneered, his shadow-mask rippling. "More parlor tricks? You can't outrun the void, little—"
Oni didn't let him finish.
Using the Black Pegasi speed, Oni didn't just move; he vanished. But this wasn't just a dash. He left a trail of Fire and Darkness magic in his wake that formed a localized cyclone. He reappeared directly in Athos's face, but as Athos swung his dragon-blade to cleave him, Oni's body went translucent.
Phase-Shift. The attribute of the Ghost-Wraiths.
The dragon-blade passed harmlessly through Oni's chest. In the same heartbeat, Oni solidified and grabbed Athos by the throat with a hand that had transformed into a massive, three-toed Great-Ape claw.
"My turn to talk," Oni hissed.
He slammed Athos into the ground with enough force to create a shockwave that blew the magma out of the trenches. Before Athos could phase away, Oni's eyes turned a milky, terrifying white—the Gaze of the Medusa-Basilisk. Athos's shadow-armor began to calcify, turning into heavy, brittle stone.
"What... is this?!" Athos struggled, his voice cracking. "My creator... he said I was the pinnacle!"
"Your creator was a prick who liked dolls," Oni spat. He raised his other hand, which began to glow with a sickening, pulsing green light—Acid-Blood Magic. "I'm the guy who had to eat his dolls to survive."
Rain, seeing the opening, didn't waste it. "Uzuka! Total Compression!"
The sword turned a blinding, holy gold and shrunk to the size of a toothpick, but its weight tripled that of a mountain. Rain flicked it like a pebble at Athos's pinned chest.
"Oni, now!" Rain yelled.
Oni let out a final, devastating shout, channeling the Siren's Wail directly into Athos's ears to shatter his internal equilibrium. As the tiny, ultra-dense Uzuka pierced through the stone-shadow armor, Oni shoved his acid-soaked claw into the wound.
"Go back to the dream, Athos," Oni snarled, his voice dripping with malice.
The internal explosion was silent at first. Then, a pillar of black and red energy erupted from Athos's chest, tearing through the ceiling of the cavern. The Chimera's Phoenix wings scorched to ash, and his dragon-arm disintegrated into dust.
Athos looked up at Oni, the shadow-mask fading to reveal a face that looked hauntingly like a twisted version of a Celestial. "He... he is coming for you... and I was... just the gatekeeper..."
With a final, jagged breath, the sentient masterpiece of Takitsu's doll collapsed, his body dissolving into the very chains that had once served him.
Rain slumped over, his golden sword returning to normal size as he leaned on it for support. "Tell me... tell me there isn't a second health bar. Please."
Oni stood over the remains, the Mark of the Beast slowly receding, though his hands were still stained with black ichor. He looked up at the hole in the ceiling, his golden eyes cold.
"There's no second health bar," Oni said, wiping blood from his lip. "But the 'Twin' just watched us kill his favorite toy. The real fight hasn't even started."