The staircase wound higher than their eyes could follow. The stone steps were chipped, cracked, and slick with something black and oily. Plamen's hand brushed the wall as he climbed, his body still aching from the Hydra. Kamen followed close behind, silent except for his ragged breath. The air was heavier here, dense with a pressure that pressed into their chests. Each step felt less like climbing a staircase and more like wading into a battlefield.
The door at the top was different from the others. Instead of rusted iron, it was carved from a pale, bone-like material. Runes burned faintly across its surface, shifting and writhing as though alive. Plamen pushed the door open, and both he and Kamen froze at the sight beyond.
It wasn't a room. It was a graveyard forged into an arena.
Bones rose in jagged spires, forming walls that curved around them. Chains as thick as tree trunks dangled from the ceiling, each one tipped with a rusted hook. The ground was littered with cracked skulls and shattered ribs, crunching under their boots. The silence was suffocating, broken only by the faint rattle of chains swaying in the stagnant air.
Plamen muttered, "This place… it feels worse than the Hydra's lair."
Kamen gave a grim nod. "Something's here. Something watching."
The answer came in the form of a thunderous groan.
From the far side of the chamber, bones began to stir. At first, it was a trickle — a rib shifting, a femur rolling across the ground. Then the pile began to grow, pulling itself upward, higher and higher. Chains rattled violently as they wrapped around the structure, binding its rising frame until a monstrous silhouette took shape.
A giant hand slammed down into the arena, sending cracks racing across the floor. Then another.
The Bone Colossus rose to its full height — a grotesque titan of fused skeletons, at least fifteen meters tall. Its skull was a mass of smaller skulls clumped together, dozens of hollow sockets glowing with sickly red light. Chains wound through its body, holding it upright, but the way it moved made it clear it was no prisoner — it was the executioner.
The Colossus roared, a sound like thousands of bones grinding together, and charged.
"MOVE!" Plamen shouted.
The titan's chained fist came down like a meteor. Plamen and Kamen dove aside, the impact blasting bone shards into the air. The shockwave alone sent them tumbling across the arena.
Plamen rolled to his feet, fists raised, pressure surging in his arms. "Kamen! Go for the legs! I'll distract it!"
Kamen slammed his palm into the floor. "Hone no Shokuzai!" Skeletal arms erupted from the ground, grasping for the Colossus's ankles. For a moment, it staggered, its massive frame lurching.
Plamen dashed forward, his fists glowing with pressure. He leapt, twisting his body into a crushing overhead strike. "Pressure Fist!" His punch slammed into the Colossus's chest, sending a shockwave through the bone mass. Cracks spidered outward—
But then, with a grinding laugh, the cracks sealed. Bones slid back into place as if nothing had happened.
Plamen's eyes widened. "It's regenerating—"
The Colossus's massive hand backhanded him across the arena.
"Plamen!" Kamen shouted, but the Colossus turned to him next, swinging its chain-wrapped arm. The skeletal arms grasping its legs shattered under the force, scattering useless fragments across the floor.
Kamen dodged desperately, but one of the chains snapped forward like a whip, slamming him against the wall. He crumpled, groaning, unable to move.
Plamen staggered to his feet, blood dripping from his lip. His fists clenched tighter. "No way… Not like this…"
The Colossus's massive shadow fell over him. It raised its enormous hand, chains rattling, and brought it down toward him like the weight of a collapsing world.
For a split second, Plamen's vision blurred. He wasn't in Kronoshpan anymore. He was back in the training yard, fists raised, sweat dripping. A boy stood across from him, smirking despite the bruises on his face.
"Come on, Plamen! You never quit until the last punch lands."
Alex.
The memory stabbed through him. His chest tightened, not from fear but from grief. Alex, his closest friend, the one who had disappeared years ago. No word, no explanation — gone. Plamen had carried that absence like a wound.
And now, staring up at the Colossus's descending hand, he thought: If only you were here.
The hand crashed down.
But it didn't hit.
The world blurred — shadows wrapped around Plamen, pulling him sideways in a blink. The Colossus's palm smashed into the ground where he had been, shattering stone and bone alike.
Plamen stumbled, blinking in disbelief. A figure stood beside him, wreathed in drifting shadows, his back to Plamen. His voice was calm, almost casual.
"You still let yourself get cornered too easily, huh?"
Plamen's heart stopped. That voice — deeper, older, but unmistakable. "…Alex?"
The figure turned, and for the first time in years, Plamen saw him. Alex looked different — taller, leaner, his face sharper with age and scars. His eyes burned with experience, the kind of gaze only someone who had stared death in the face could hold. But beneath it all, that same smirk tugged at his lips.
Plamen's throat tightened. His fists shook. "You're alive…"
Alex gave a short laugh, though his eyes softened. "What, did you think Kronoshpan would finish me before you got here?" He turned toward the Colossus, shadows curling around his legs. "Not a chance."
The Colossus roared again, chains rattling, and swung for them both.
Alex blurred — gone in an instant. The Colossus's fist struck nothing but air. Then Alex reappeared above its arm, his fist crashing into the titan's skull cluster. Bone shards exploded outward.
"Kage no Shunpō!"
He vanished again, shadows swallowing him, before the Colossus could retaliate.
Plamen could only stare for a moment. Alex — his friend, his brother in all but blood — was alive, fighting beside him again. His chest ached with relief, the kind that nearly brought tears, but the titan's roar reminded him: this wasn't the time to break down.
Kamen stumbled to his feet, eyes wide. "Who—?!"
Plamen clenched his fists, a grin spreading across his face despite the blood dripping from his chin. "He's my friend. My brother. And together—" He launched forward, fists glowing with surging pressure. "—we're gonna break this thing apart!"
The fight reignited.
Plamen struck from the front, fists pounding into the Colossus's chest with shockwave after shockwave. Kamen slammed skeletal arms up from the ground again, locking the titan's legs and dragging it down. Alex darted in and out of shadows, appearing behind the monster's attacks and slashing with pinpoint strikes that shattered key joints.
For the first time, the Colossus staggered. Its regeneration slowed, overwhelmed by the combined assault.
Plamen roared, pressure surging through his entire body. "Bone Breaker Aura!" His fists erupted with vibrating force, each strike now shattering through the Colossus's regenerating ribs faster than they could reform. Bones cracked, shattered, and collapsed into dust under the impact.
Alex blurred into the titan's own shadow, reappearing behind its skull cluster. "Heads up!" he shouted, driving his fist into the back of its neck. The skull mass split, hollow eyes flickering wildly.
"NOW!" Kamen yelled, slamming both palms into the ground. "Hone no Shokuzai!" Dozens of skeletal arms erupted, grasping the Colossus's legs, waist, and arms, dragging it to its knees.
Plamen leapt high, his fists glowing like meteors. "This is for all of us who won't die here!"
His punch connected with the Colossus's head. The Bone Breaker Aura detonated, shattering the skull cluster into a storm of fragments. The titan convulsed, then collapsed into dust, chains clattering as they dissolved into nothingness.
The arena fell silent.
Plamen landed hard, stumbling to his knees. He was bleeding, exhausted, but alive. Kamen leaned against the wall, panting, his hands trembling.
And Alex stood before them, shadows drifting off his body, his expression unreadable.
For a moment, none of them spoke. The silence was heavier than the Colossus's fall.
Finally, Plamen's voice cracked. "…Why? Why did you disappear? Where have you been?"
Alex looked away, shadows curling tighter around him. "That… is a long story. And this place doesn't care much for stories." His eyes met Plamen's, sharp but with warmth hidden beneath. "What matters is I'm here now. And I'm not letting you fight alone anymore."
At the center of the arena, where the Colossus had fallen, a glowing relic materialized. It was a jagged shard of bone, pulsing faintly with crimson light. Plamen approached it slowly, lifting it from the ground. The shard burned cold in his hand, as though whispering of trials yet to come.