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Tekio's skin was torn in several places.
His breathing was a roar.
His veins trembled, pulsing with electricity.
Each step left deep marks on the ground, which was no longer ground—it was a ravaged field, covered in debris, blood, and smoke.
And the worst part… was the smell.
The air reeked of burning, of torn flesh, of living storm.
Dante, with half his face destroyed, adjusted the Kusarigama in his hand. His black eyes, now calmer, were no longer underestimating.
— This hatred… — he whispered, watching the figure advancing with pure slaughter. — I can feel it. The weight of the energy has changed. It's... boiling with rage.
He spun the chain.
And Tekio arrived.
The first punch was not blocked. It was received.
Dante moved with the blow and, spinning his body, returned a spinning kick, creating an arc of shadow in the air.
Tekio blocked with his forearms—and even so, his bones shook.
— I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! — he bellowed, his fist already glowing.
A lightning bolt exploded forward, pushing Dante back with brutality.
The villain dug his feet into the ground, skidding for meters as he slid through the ruined earth.
Electric flames licked the air.
The stones around them levitated from the spiritual pressure.
The trees... were gone.
The entire terrain sloped downward as if the world itself was trying to escape the combat.
Dante flexed his fingers.
— It's not just strength. It's the soul. This is... Yara, isn't it?
Tekio answered with a direct leap, his right fist wrapped in a compact sphere of lightning, spinning like a drill.
The blow tore through space.
Dante retreated a step, activating his newly assimilated technique.
— Projection Number 11:
Reversed Chain.
The Kusarigama changed direction mid-spin—propelled by shadows stitched between him and the surrounding space. The blade spun under Tekio's strike, hitting the side of his waist.
The cut was deep.
Blood sprayed in a jet.
But Tekio did not stop.
He screamed with the wound still open—and punched Dante's face with his other hand. Thunder echoed around them.
The entire city, in the distance, shuddered.
Far away, Mei, Dan, and Stella felt the tremor.
The ground... was stirring.
Roots emerged from the earth. Gravity faltered. The city—was rising on the horizon.
But for Tekio, none of that existed.
He no longer saw the world.
Only Dante.
— I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR POWER!
— I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR HISTORY!
Tekio advanced. Each step made the ground collapse.
Each punch was accompanied by a phrase spat through clenched teeth.
— AAAARRGHH!!!
His right fist burned.
The lightning aura was about to explode—as if Yara had channeled all her remaining energy into a single point.
Dante, panting, moved with precision.
Now Akira's body responded better.
He used the Aether with refinement.
He blocked a punch. Dodged a kick. Spun the chain.
The blade hit Tekio's knee, tearing it.
But even so...
Tekio remained standing.
Blood gushed. Muscles vibrated.
He took two steps.
And screamed.
— I SAID I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!
Dante smiled. His lips split, his eyes shining with distorted pleasure.
— That… reminds me of her.
— When she faced me alone.
— When she didn't retreat… even bleeding to the bone.
He raised his hand.
— Technique 13:
Inverted Web.
Hooks emerged from the ground, connecting to Tekio's shadow, trying to pin him in multiple points.
But before the seal completed, Tekio exploded in lightning.
The ground was torn in a twenty-meter circle.
The field shook.
The city rose higher.
Dante was thrown.
Tekio appeared above him in the air—with both fists clenched, screaming like a beast.
— YOU.
— WILL NOT.
— ESCAPE.
Impact.
Dante fell like a meteor.
The earth broke. A crater formed.
Silence.
Dust.
Tekio, sweating blood, fell to his knees.
But when he looked... Dante was still getting up.
Heavy breathing.
The shadow stitched his body back together.
But his eyes...
No longer laughed.
Dante now knew.
"If this continues…
If that brat lands another blow like that…
I really could die here."
The ground around them was no longer ground.
It was shards, ashes, and open veins of an earth that had given up sustaining so much energy. Every blow left a trail, every movement resonated like a funeral.
Dante wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.
He tasted the metallic flavor mixing with the growing heat inside the body—Akira's body.
It was a sharp, fast receptacle, dense with Aether, but... rebellious.
With each attack, Dante felt Akira's reflexes trying to react on their own. Like a beast tamed only by force of will. Like an instinct that refused to be guided by another soul.
He clenched his fists, letting the black Aether circulate in spirals around his fingers.
— The body still fights me... — he murmured to himself, analyzing every muscular response. — As if the soul is still locked in the joints.
One step.
The Aether responded better.
Two steps.
The synchronization increased.
"It's like taming a blade that thinks... but still wants to cut on its own."
Before him, Tekio panted. His chest open with cuts, his left arm hanging, his leg trembling.
But his eyes…
His eyes burned like torches fed by rage.
There was no reason there. Only a pure, primal instinct. A force born of the most intimate hatred.
Dante tilted his head and smiled slightly. An analytical smile, almost fascinated.
— I get it now... you won't stop.
— Every one of your blows isn't just physical.
— It's a scream. A call.
— From the depths of your core.
He spun the Kusarigama with precision. The chains cut the air, whistling like metallic serpents wreathed in liquid shadows.
— The soul of the damned guardian is in you.
Dante took a deep breath.
He felt the Aether's pulse run through his arms. The energy now responded better—like a system assimilating a new password.
— Then let's test this...
— I think this is how he did it…
He raised two fingers.
The energy of the environment began to descend. As if the air were being pulled by an invisible hole.
— If I manipulate the pulse of the Veil…
— Channel the shadows within the soul field…
His voice vanished with a snap.
Reality folded.
Like paper torn in half.
The ground disappeared.
The air imploded in absolute silence.
And Tekio was swallowed.
The darkness engulfed him like an ocean with no surface.
Nothing there obeyed logic.
There was no sky. No ground. No sound.
No life.
Only the Veil.
Dark.
Abyssal.
Infinite.
Tekio fell... or floated... or simply ceased to have direction.
He tried to breathe.
Nothing.
He tried to scream.
Silence.
He tried to feel his body.
Pain. Cold. Dry. Useless.
And then, he appeared.
Dante, floating ahead, arms crossed. The black aura flickered around Akira's body like a crown of specters.
The Kusarigama was strapped to his back, like an executioner's scythe ready to be used.
— I did it. — he whispered, satisfied. — This is the Veil of the Abyss.
— Akira's true power...
— A dimension where senses die, and only the Abyss's vessel remains.
He raised a hand, as if controlling the laws of that plane with a gesture.
— Here, fools crawl. The weak beg.
— Here, only I exist.
Tekio trembled. The lightning had vanished from his body as if drained.
His skin paled. His blood seemed to coagulate within his veins.
He was a candle trying to burn in a world made of water.
Dante approached slowly, like a jailer admiring a valuable prisoner.
— You did well to get here...
— Even being weak.
— You showed me something unexpected.
His voice grew quieter, almost admiring:
— A glimpse of what you truly are.
— A beast.
— A creature built from loss, molded by screams, fed by hatred.
He stopped a few meters away.
— And I admire that.
The Kusarigama was raised.
— But even monsters die.
— And you were just a lucky monster hiding your nature, now die!.
He advanced.
But… he stopped.
Froze.
Something, a vision, dark, for a second he felt as if he were being swallowed by something and...
Tekio moved.
Not slowly.
Not staggering.
Freely.
With purpose. With mastery.
With fury.
Dante frowned. A chill ran down his spine—not from cold, but from the unknown.
— What…?
Tekio took a deep breath.
The sound of his sigh reverberated like ancient thunder, rumbling through the Veil like drums at a cosmic funeral.
Dante took a step back.
— This makes no sense… Here… movement is impossible. — This space is made of the Abyss! It kills senses, neutralizes wills, swallows souls!.
But then he saw it.
The aura.
And it was not white.
Nor blue.
It was red.
Deep crimson.
Twisted. Savage. Alive. Rotten.
Negative.
— This is… impossible… — Dante whispered, almost choking on the words. — This energy... it's not from the physical plane. It's not from Yara. It's not from you. — It's anti-life. It's the forbidden code of the void. — Only demons and a few beings can control it...and it seems you...
How... Not even I can move here without Akira as a vessel.
But Tekio was not a vessel.
He was the origin.
Yara spoke inside him. But her voice was not in control.
This was just him, it had always been him.
She watched.
Surprised.
— This energy… is not mine.
— And it never was.
— It's something that was always within you, Tekio. Asleep. Hidden. But now… it has awakened.
The Veil of the Abyss vibrated, pulsed like a living creature—and it bent to him.
Not to Dante.
Tekio raised his eyes.
They were red like coals soaked in blood.
And Dante faltered.
For the first time… he retreated.
— Who… are you?
His voice came out trembling, confused. He studied Tekio with the eyes of a monster… and still did not understand.
— You… are not just a boy. — You are not just Yara's reincarnation. — You are something older. — Something even the Abyss recognizes…
— Something the Abyss... obeys.
The energy around them contorted, spiraling into unknown patterns. Symbols that not even Dante—who had lived for centuries—understood.
Tekio raised his fist.
And the crimson energy condensed.
Like a red comet.
Like an eclipse of hatred.
The Rising Lightning had changed.
Now, it was the Crimson Eclipse.
Tekio spoke.
But it was not a speech.
It was a death sentence.
— YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!!
And he ran.
Dante tried to react.
Shadow claws. Inverted chains. Clones. Projections.
He was God there, or at least he was supposed to be...
Nothing responded.
The Veil refused.
Because it was no longer his.
And Tekio ran toward him like an animal hunting prey that had invaded its territory.
— I SAID...
Dante was aghast at what he saw.
Surprised, broken.
He had been dethroned in his own kingdom.
In his own game.
By a mere boy.
Who seemed to be the very reincarnation of the Abyss.
Not a vessel, but the being itself.
— THAT I WILL KILL YOU.
And then…
The punch came.
Directly.
Tekio's fist collided with the soul of the plane.
The collision was brutal against Dante's face.
The impact tore the entire Veil, shattering the dimension like spiritual glass, breaking the planes as if they were fragile leaves in flames.
Dante was hurled away.
He crashed through inverted pillars. Structures of non-time. His flesh burning. His soul screaming.
Until he vanished into a tear in reality.
Shattering the entire domain like inverse sparks.
The Shadow Kingdom that Dante believed he controlled… ruptured with an ancestral roar.
And even outside the domain, the king continued to collide with objects, the punch was brutal.
And Tekio fell back into the real world.
Panting.
On his knees.
Covered in blood.
Open wounds.
Fractured bones.
But not fallen.
The crimson aura still vibrated around him.
Yara tried to hold back the flow. But she too was… in shock.
— He... is not just Tekio...
I knew...
That presence inside him...
What was asleep now walked with him.
Tekio screamed.
From pain.
From fury.
From pure hatred.
The scream rose to the sky like a sonic spear, crossing fields, surpassing distances.
Dan suddenly looked up.
Stella fell to her knees, clutching her chest.
Mei… stopped.
Her entire body froze.
Her voice came out in a trembling whisper.
— Tekio…
Hazau, beside her, even with his body fragmented, smiled with a slight shiver.
— So… the Abyss has finally reacted.
And deep within the world, something even greater… was awakening.
To be continued...
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