Chapter 13 — Part 2: The Fall of Warlord Veyros
Kai extended all the blades of his Composite Sword and cut a path through the army — soldiers falling to either side of him as Shadow Step carried him through the mass before they could close around him. He broke through the other side.
Veyros stood waiting, hands behind his back, katana held loosely in one hand. His eyes were fixed on Kai. Nothing else moved in his expression.
Kai tightened his grip on the Composite Sword. The blades that had separated flew back and reassembled into the complete weapon. He held it firmly in both hands.
"Shadow Step!"
He moved at blinding speed, passed Veyros in a single arc, and landed several meters beyond him.
For a moment, nothing happened. Veyros stood completely still, apparently untouched. In his left hand, his smaller katana had appeared — now stained with shadow blood.
Then Kai began to sweat. His Composite Sword split in two and fell from his grip. Fear crossed his face. He dropped to his knees. The next instant, the upper half of his body separated from the lower half and hit the ground.
When Kai had attacked with Shadow Step, Veyros had done only one thing — stepped to the side and extended the smaller katana in front of him. Kai, moving at full speed, had cut himself in two on it.
Kai's bisected body lay in the bloodied earth.
Veyros walked over to him slowly.
"I know you're not dead," he said. "Stop the drama and get up."
Silence from Kai's body.
"It seems you're not as strong as I thought."
He turned to leave.
The air behind him grew heavy. A storm began forming from nothing — shadow energy spreading outward rapidly, the ground darkening around Kai's remains.
"Shadow Reverse!"
Kai's entire body dissolved into shadow energy and then reformed — whole, standing, breathing. Veyros looked back. A faint smile crossed his face.
Kai's body was trembling. Pain was visible in every part of him. He steadied himself by force of will, his heartbeat gradually returning to something he could control.
"Yes," Kai said. "You were right. I didn't die. I didn't come this far to die." He reconstructed his Composite Sword. "And I will prove it."
He attacked. Strike after strike, as fast as he could generate them. Veyros blocked every one on his katana — calm, precise, never moving more than necessary. Kai tried to stay distant to avoid the counter-attack. Sparks flew with each clash, small bursts of light illuminating the dark field around them.
After a time, Veyros leaped forward to press. Kai slid underneath and used Shadow Step to pull back to a safe distance. Veyros landed and turned. He saw Kai standing, shadow energy gathering along the length of the Composite Sword. He understood what was coming. He drew the smaller katana. Purple flames ignited on both blades simultaneously.
Kai's weapon finished charging.
"Shadow Slice!"
He swung the Composite Sword repeatedly through the air — shadow waves rushing forward at Veyros in dense succession. Veyros didn't move. He crossed both katanas and began cutting through them, each one shattering on the blades with a sound like breaking stone.
In moments, every wave was gone.
Kai stared. He understood — he needed something larger.
He raised the Composite Sword high. A shadow storm gathered above it, churning and building.
"Dragon From The Shadow!"
The storm transformed — a massive dragon of pure shadow energy, and it charged at Veyros with the sound of something enormous moving through air.
Veyros closed his eyes. When he opened them, purple aura flowed from both — running down his face and into the blades.
"Shadow Space Cut!"
He swung the smaller katana forward. The space in front of him split apart — a massive rift opening in the air itself, edge to edge. Kai's dragon met it head-on.
The collision shook Veyros' entire domain. Both of them were launched in opposite directions. The field disappeared in thick smoke.
Kai recovered his balance using his weapon as a brace and looked forward. Through the smoke, Veyros was still advancing — both katanas glowing, purple aura radiating from his eyes, filling the air around him with a dread that was almost physical.
Kai realized he needed to create distance and think. He retreated into the smoke and sat down. He placed two fingers of his right hand against his forehead and closed his eyes.
"Shadow Clone."
Countless identical copies of him emerged from the smoke and charged at Veyros from every direction. Veyros read them immediately — he used Shadow Step and destroyed all the clones in a single continuous motion. But the real Kai was gone.
He scanned the field.
Kai stood in the distance — fists at his sides, eyes closed. Above Veyros, a massive purple cloud had formed, shadow energy raging inside it like a trapped storm.
Veyros understood without needing more information. He drove his hand into the ground.
"Shadow Wraith Armor!"
A gigantic shadowy soldier erupted from the earth and enveloped him entirely — a second body of pure shadow wrapped around his own, armor that breathed.
Kai raised his clenched fist.
A massive wave of shadow energy surged down from the cloud toward Veyros. It crashed onto the Shadow Soldier. Half the wave was absorbed by the armor — Veyros inside it using everything he had to hold the soldier's form together, the pressure so immense his internal organs felt like they were being crushed. Blood ran from his eyes and mouth.
The remaining half bypassed the Shadow Soldier entirely and spread across the battlefield — covering several kilometers in seconds, reducing half of Veyros' soldier army to ash where it passed. An invisible barrier protected Kai at the center of it.
Shinsei, Aya, and Rai — still fighting the soldiers on the other side of the field — felt the wave hit. Shinsei drove his fist into the ground and raised a wall of earth in front of himself. Aya teleported straight into the sky. Rai grabbed two soldiers and crouched behind them as cover.
When it was over, Aya teleported to Shinsei.
"I think Kai needs help," she said. "The soldiers are almost finished here. Can I go?"
"I was thinking the same." A pause. "Go."
"Thanks!"
She teleported rapidly toward the battle between Kai and Veyros.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Soldier around Veyros dissolved. He lifted his hand from the ground. Blood ran from his mouth. He wiped it.
"Good try, kid."
Shadow Step. He appeared in front of Kai instantly. He swung his katana. Kai blocked with the Composite Sword and counterattacked — Veyros dodged and hit Kai in the face with the grip of his katana. Kai flew several meters and fell, but was on his feet again before the landing fully registered. The facial wound healed in seconds.
"Psychic Shards!"
All the blades of the Composite Sword separated and launched toward Veyros simultaneously. Veyros remained calm. He gripped his katana and began blocking each one — the clashes creating small explosions that lit the dark field. Controlling that many blades at once began to strain Kai. He lost the thread and fell to the ground.
Veyros moved through the remaining blades and charged. He leaped — the massive shadowy soldier formed behind him again — and was almost on Kai when Aya teleported in, grabbed Kai, and moved him clear. Veyros' attack came down on empty ground. The impact split it apart in a wide crack.
Aya had set Kai down a short distance away. He was breathing hard.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes." He looked at the crack where he'd been standing. "Even Stage 1 feels insufficient against him. We have to be extremely careful and precise with every move."
"Understood."
"Teleport Veyros to me. I'll handle the rest."
"Okay."
Aya teleported away. Veyros was searching the field for Kai when she appeared behind him, touched his shoulder, and teleported him directly to Kai's position.
Kai was ready. The moment Veyros materialized, he used Shadow Step and drove a barrage of powerful strikes into him before Veyros could find his footing. Veyros was sent flying. When he stood, Kai was already gone.
He understood the pattern.
The next time Aya appeared behind him, Veyros moved first — he drove his katana into her stomach before she could complete the teleport. He gripped the weapon. The purple aura on the blade turned into real flames. Aya's scream cut across the entire field.
He kicked her free of the blade. Then he shattered the armor on her shoulder with a follow-up strike and raised the katana to finish it.
"Shadow Cutting Flash!"
Kai moved at the speed of light, struck Veyros from the side, and pulled Aya clear simultaneously. Veyros was launched — one of his arms severed by the impact.
When Veyros stood again, he saw Kai and Aya positioned together ahead of him. A sharp smile appeared on his face — but different from before. Not vicious. Something closer to genuine satisfaction.
"You two are truly strong," he said. "In the last few centuries, no one has been able to stop me like this." His tone didn't change. "But unfortunately, I must end your journey here."
He raised his good hand toward the sky.
"Asteroid Rain!!!"
The sky fell apart.
Hundreds of asteroids came screaming down from the black above — each one trailing fire, each one large enough to end the fight on impact. The sound of them displaced the air long before they arrived.
Aya and Kai looked up.
"Is he crazy?" Aya said.
"Don't lose focus," Kai said. "Keep Veyros occupied. I'll handle the asteroids."
He stepped forward. The sky seemed to move toward him.
"Shadow Splinter Nova!"
The blades of the Composite Sword separated again. Shadow energy gathered on each one, forming eight massive orbs — dense, spinning, radiating outward. Kai hurled all eight simultaneously toward the asteroids. They detonated against them in the sky — one after another, then in chains, smaller burning fragments raining down across the entire field in a storm of fire and smoke.
On the other side, Shinsei felt the shift in the battle from where he was still clearing soldiers. He turned. He saw what was happening — Kai and Aya against Veyros, the sky still raining fire. The red aura on his fist changed. He broke from the soldiers and moved toward the main battle.
Aya stood, raised her Plasma Tonfas, and opened with lasers. Veyros kept advancing. He spun his katana between his fingers and sliced through the beams one by one — his precision so complete the blade was barely visible. Aya kept the fire going but it only slowed him. Eventually he closed the distance. Aya retreated. Her foot caught a rock and she went down hard. Veyros prepared to strike.
He sensed something behind him.
He drew the smaller katana and turned in the same motion. Someone was descending from above, surrounded by dense red aura.
Veyros set himself. Shinsei came down with Penumo Fist. Veyros crossed both katanas to catch it.
The shockwave that followed launched even Aya — standing some distance away — into the air and threw her sliding across the ice.
A desperate, deadly battle ignited between Shinsei and Veyros.
At that moment, Kai finished with the last asteroid. He combined all eight orbs into one — a mountain-sized sphere of compressed shadow energy, dark enough to block light around it.
He hurled it at Veyros.
Aya teleported Shinsei and Kai together. Shinsei threw up a Shadow Reverse Sphere around all three of them instantly. Kai's sphere crashed onto Veyros.
The explosion that followed was not a sound so much as a change in the world. Veyros' entire domain was consumed — every structure, every surface, every trace of what had been there a moment before. The Shadow Reverse Sphere shielded Kai's team from the blast. Joy appeared on their faces for the first time since they had entered Veyros' Wartier.
The smoke cleared.
Veyros was still standing.
He leaned on his katana, using it as a brace, his whole body covered in severe and bloody wounds. The sight of him standing through that made Kai's hair rise. He could barely process what he was looking at. His hands trembled.
Shinsei's sphere vanished. The air was completely still.
Then a smile appeared on Veyros' face.
Not the sharp smile from before. Not vicious or mocking. This one was genuine — something that had been earned. He reached toward his waist with his injured hand, pulled out a key, and threw it toward Kai.
"Here is your reward. Move forward." He looked at Kai directly. "I see an unparalleled will within you. I hope you have the strength to reach your goal."
With that, he sheathed his katana, drove it into the ground, and sat down against it. His eyes closed. The slow, steady work of healing began.
Kai's fear became something else. He held the key, looked at Veyros sitting in the ruins of his own domain, and felt something he hadn't expected to feel.
Respect.
He turned and began walking. Aya and Shinsei fell in beside him.
"For some reason," Kai said after a moment, "I feel like I'm forgetting something."
Aya realized it at the same moment. She looked around — behind them, beside them, everywhere.
"Where is Rai?!"
They all stopped.
"Is he hurt?"
"Let's go quickly."
They rushed back to the part of the field where Rai had been fighting and began searching. After a while, Kai sat down.
"Where could he have gone? We can't fi—"
A hand burst straight up from the ground directly in front of him.
"Aaaah!"
Kai recoiled — then realized whose hand it was. He grabbed it and pulled. Rai came out of the earth with the slow, dazed motion of someone whose mind had temporarily stopped working. He stood, looked around at everything, blinked.
Kai brushed the dirt from his shoulders.
After a moment, Rai's eyes focused.
"Are you okay?" Aya asked.
Rai smiled slowly. Then stopped the smile. "Okay…! What do you think?"
"Alright, sorry. Let's go."
"I'm not going."
"What kind of drama is this?!" Shinsei said.
"Why should I go with you?! You pushed me into the middle of thousands of soldiers. While I was destroying them, a massive sandstorm hit me. I was trapped underground for twenty straight minutes. And now—"
He looked up. Kai, Aya, and Shinsei were already walking away.
"Are you even listening?!"
No one looked back.
"Fine. Fine, I'll come. Wait for me!"
Rai ran and caught up.
Together, all four of them moved toward the next gate and the next day and whatever came after. Evening began to settle slowly over Veyros' Wartier as they walked.
Behind them, in the ruins of his domain, Veyros sat healing with his eyes closed. After a long, quiet moment, he opened them and looked in the direction Kai's team had gone.
"We will meet again."
A pause.
"Soon."
Another pause — even quieter.
"Very soon."