The storm had passed.
Only mist remained, curling around the ruins like mourning veils.
Kuro moved slowly, his body pulsing in pain, his soul shaken to the core.
He dug with bare hands.
No ceremony or rites.
Just earth, stone, and silence.
One by one, he laid them to rest.
Kaishin, his eyes closed in peace now, wrapped in Kutara banner with his rapier firmly grasped in his hand.
Ouchi, no longer standing, his shattered Bo-staff placed beside him and wrapped in Bokkai banner.
The 3000 knights of Wiabu Kishidan, their armors polished with rain, lined in rows like sleeping sentinels.
And Yeon and her bow, her body cradled in Kuro's cloak, placed beneath a cherry blossom tree that had somehow survived the carnage.
Kuro knelt before her grave.
He stabbed Kuroi Kiba beside her, as a mark of devotion.
His fingers trembled as he pressed the final tombstone into the soil.
"I failed you all," he whispered.
"But your names will not fade. Not while I breathe."
Kuro silent wept as he collected himself. He still had to check if the rest of the knights escaped successfully.
However, it seemed like fate had different path set for him.
The wind stirred.
The sky darkened.
A low hum vibrated through the earth.
The air thickened, heavy with otherworldly presence.
KuroiOkami rose slowly, his eyes narrowing.
From the mist, three colossal ethereal figures emerged.
Poseidon, sea-green robes flowing like waves, trident gleaming with oceanic fury. His eyes were deep, ancient whirlpools of judgement.
Zeus, cloaked in storm clouds, lightning dancing across his fingertips. His gazes was regal, but cold.
Hades, draped in shadows, his face half-hidden beneath a hood. His voice echoed like a tomb.
They stood before Kuro, towering him. They were wounded and just a projection, but still they were gods.
"You have done what no mortal has," Zeus said, voice rumbling like thunder.
"You have slain our chosen," Poseidon added, his tone both reverent and resentful.
"You have proven your worth," Hades whispered, "and now we offer you eternity."
Kuro didn't speak.
He stared at them, eyes hollow but burning.
"We offer you a place among us," Zeus continued.
"Become our blade. Our enforcer. Our eternal knight."
Poseidon stepped forward.
"Serve us, and we shall restore what you've lost. Yeon. Kaishin. All of them."
Kuro's breath caught.
The god's offer was very enticing.
Hades raised a hand.
"In death, they are ours. But with your servitude, we can return them."
Kuro looked at the graves.
At Yeon's resting place.
At the blood-soaked soil.
"Will they also have to serve under you?"
Zeus smirked and replied with confidence.
"How can our Knight not have a subordinate or his own Knight Order?"
Kuro raised his head, staring at the gods.
"You want me to serve the very beings who caused this?" he said in a low voice. "You want me to kneel to the architects of this slaughter?"
Zeus's eyes narrowed
"You speak boldly for a mortal."
"I speak the truth," Kuro replied.
"I bled for my people. I buried my heart in this ground. And you– "
He pointed at them, trembling with fury.
" – you dare offer me chains wrapped in gold."
Poseidon's trident flared.
"Careful, mortal. We offer salvation."
Kuro stepped forward still facing Zeus.
"NO! You offer control. You offer servitude dressed as honor." He then directed his gaze at Poseidon. "Do you think I am unaware of what has become of Davy Jones and his crew?"
Poseidon widened his eyes in surprise. Davy Jones was his greatest trophy and also his greatest failure.
Hades snickered at Poseidon's embarrassment, but did not show pity or empathy for Kuro's case.
Kuro turned his back to them and faced the graves.
"I will not trade their memory for power. I will not desecrate their sacrifice."
Hades's voice slithered through the mist.
"Then you choose death."
Kuro turned, eyes blazing.
"I Choose Freedom."
Lightning cracked.
The gods stood silent.
Then Zeus raised his hand.
"Very well. Mortal. If you think that defeating our champions gave you the courage to defy us.
Then… so be it."
Poseidon's voice echoed.
"I thought you would cherish bonds. But I guess you prefer solitude."
Kuro picked up Kuroi Kiba with his righthand. And then clenched on to the pendant that stuck with him since his birth with his left.
"I came to this world alone."
Kuro looked at the pendant, which he always failed to open. Then glanced at the tombstones standing before him.
"But I created families of my own and bonds that cannot be severed or manipulated by others."
Kuro raised his head and locked eyes with Poseidon. Then Hades. and Zeus.
"It is only fitting that I join them, if I cannot save them."
The gods snorted and vanished into mist.
The sky cleared.
Only the graves remained.
Kuro stood among them, the knights of the Outer Circle.
Not a servant of God, but as a man who defied the gods.
---
The gods had vanished.
But their wrath lingered.
The sky darkened once more.
Thunder rolled across the sky.
The graves trembled.
KuroiOkami stood still, blade in hand, eyes locked on the horizon.
He knew.
They would not let him walk away.
A crack split the sky.
Lightning struck the earth before him, and from it emerged three divine avatars, lesser forms of Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades, but still brimming with celestial power.
They did not speak nor offer any terms.
This was divine punishment. An example of consequence of defiance.
Kuro gripped Kuroi Kiba tightly.
His body was broken.
His ki nearly depleted.
But his spirit burned brighter than ever.
"I will not kneel," he whispered. "To you. TO fate. OR TO ANYTHING THAT DARES STEAL MY WILL OR MY FAMILY'S!"
Poseidon's avatar surged forward, waves crashing around him. Kuro met him head-on, blade slicing through water and divine force. He was pushed back as his knees buckled. But he did not fall.
Zeus's avatar descended in a storm of lightning.
Kuro summersaulted, barely dodging the strike while flashing his sword upward. He carved through the storm, flaring his Ki in defiance.
Hades's avatar emerged from the shadows, chains of death slithering toward Kuro. Kuro roared, slashing through them, his blade glowing black-purple once more.
KuroiOkami no Ikari 黑狼の怒 Black Wolf's Rage
He unleashed it again.
A dome of Ki erupted, shaking the earth.
The avatars staggered, but did not fall.
Kuro dropped to one knee, panting.
Blood poured from his wounds.
His vision blurred.
But he stood up again.
"I… am kuroiOKAMI," he said, voice rising. "I am the Black Wolf. I am the Grandmaster of Outer Circle Knight Orders. I Am The Howl In The Dark. I AM THE LAST BREATH OF THE FALLEN!"
The gods responded.
Poseidon's trident pierced his side.
Zeus's lightning struck his chest.
Hades's chains wrapped around his limbs, dragging him to the ground.
"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH–!"
Kuro screamed; not in pain, but in fury.
Draining his life force into Ki as his obsidian hair turned white, he burst his Ki outward, forcing the gods to retreat.
He broke one chain. Then another.
He staggered to his feet while raising his blade.
"IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT??!!!"
The divine avatars frowned. Kuro's will was more enduring than they predicted.
They unleashed their final strike. A combined blast of divine water, thunder, and infernal fire.
Kuro raised Kuroi Kiba. His Ki and flared one last time.
The blade howled.
He met the blast head-on.
The explosion shattered the earth.
The graves were untouched, protected by his final surge.
But Kuro was gone.
Only his blade and pendant remained, embedded in the ground, pulsing faintly.
The gods stood over the crater.
Zeus spoke coldly.
"Let him be forgotten."
But Hades lingered.
He looked at the blade. At the graves. And at the pendant, which now lay open as black calligraphic patterns began to dissipate.
"He will return," Hades murmured ominously.
Poseidon replied with indifference as he stared down on his avatar, which was barely maintaining its from. "By the time he returns, we will be no more anyways."
Hades frowned. They too were suffering from mortal wound.
Normally, their projection alone should have been enough to take care of Kuro. But they had to descend their avatar and also spend quite a lot of energy to end him.
It was embarrassing.
Zeus's avatar placed his hands on Poseidon and Hades and spoke meaningfully.
"WE may be no more, but our powers Must and can be passed on to our subordinates and offspring."
Poseidon and Hades exchanged glances with Zeus and nodded.
Then they vanished.
The wind stirred.
The waves surged.
The mist returned, engulfing the fortress. Shrouding the grave, and the sword.
And the pendant which laid bare open, revealed an old and worn family portrait on one side, and a white and red fan shaped symbol on the other.