The dimensional energy illuminating the battlefield finally exploded.
BOOOOOOOOM!
Raizen's attack tore through the sky itself.
The Endless Feast shook violently.
Millions of floating plates shattered.
Golden chandeliers collapsed from the heavens.
Entire sections of the banquet world split apart under the pressure of the dimensional slash.
For a brief moment...
The attack reached Lady Chõko.
CRAAAAACK!
The blade collided with her stone armor.
The impact echoed across the world.
The ground beneath her feet collapsed.
Mountains of silver plates exploded into fragments.
The feast screamed.
Not metaphorically.
Actually screamed.
A strange sound echoed from every direction simultaneously.
As though the world itself felt pain.
Raizen landed several meters away, breathing heavily.
The smile on his face had vanished.
Even he understood.
That attack should have done more.
Far more.
Smoke covered the battlefield.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Everyone stared.
Waiting.
Then...
A laugh echoed from within the dust.
Soft.
Weak.
But unmistakable.
"YAYAYAYAYA..."
The smoke slowly parted.
Lady Chõko was still standing.
Blood dripped from her mouth.
Blood flowed down her arm.
The stone armor covering her body had shattered in dozens of places.
Large cracks spread across her chest.
Across her shoulders.
Across her neck.
For the first time since activating Mugen Banquet...
She looked seriously injured.
Yet something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
Kaizen noticed it first.
His eyes widened.
"Wait."
Haruto immediately looked toward him.
"You noticed it too."
The energy surrounding Chõko wasn't decreasing.
It was increasing.
Rapidly.
Dangerously.
Unnaturally.
The banquet world began trembling again.
The endless tables started collapsing into one another.
The sky darkened.
The silver plates melted into golden light.
The entire feast seemed unstable.
As though it could no longer contain itself.
As though something inside it was trying to escape.
Chõko slowly lowered her head.
Her body trembled.
Not from weakness.
Not from pain.
From restraint.
As if she were holding something back.
Something enormous.
Something terrifying.
Then she laughed again.
But the laugh sounded different.
"YAYA..."
A crack appeared beneath her feet.
"...YAYAYA..."
Another crack.
Golden light began leaking from the wounds across her body.
Not energy.
Not aura.
Something else.
Something older.
Something sealed.
Kaizen's instincts exploded with alarm.
"Everyone move back!"
The shout echoed across the battlefield.
Ayame immediately retreated.
Hiroshi's chains pulled him away.
Haruto distorted space and vanished backward.
Even Raizen moved.
Because they all felt it.
The danger.
The overwhelming danger.
Then Chõko raised her head.
Her eyes glowed gold.
Not the gold from before.
A deeper color.
A more ancient color.
The feast responded instantly.
Every table shook.
Every plate shattered.
Every chandelier exploded.
The entire world entered chaos.
"What..."
Ayame's voice trembled.
"...is happening?"
Nobody answered.
Because nobody knew.
Not even Chõko.
The energy pouring from her body was becoming harder and harder to control.
The seal was weakening.
And for the first time in centuries...
Something trapped beneath Mugen Banquet was beginning to awaken.
Far away from the battlefield.
Beyond the feast.
Beyond the shattered mountains.
Beyond the ruined landscape.
A crack appeared in space.
Then another.
Then another.
The effects of the awakening were spreading.
The world itself was reacting.
Reality was reacting.
As though the existence hidden inside Mugen Banquet was too great to remain contained.
Back on the battlefield, Haruto's expression had become grim.
"She's losing control."
Kaizen nodded.
"And if she completely loses it..."
He didn't finish the sentence.
He didn't need to.
Everyone understood.
This was no longer a battle between Chõko and the Dimensional Clan.
This was becoming a battle against the Forbidden Energy itself.
Meanwhile, inside the center of the feast...
Something invisible began breaking.
One chain.
Then another.
Then another.
No one could see it.
No one could hear it.
But it was happening.
The seal.
The ancient seal placed upon Mugen Banquet.
The thing preventing its true form from awakening.
Tiny fractures spread across it.
Growing larger.
Growing faster.
With every second.
With every heartbeat.
With every laugh.
"YAYAYAYAYAYAYA!"
Chõko threw her head back and laughed.
The loudest laugh of the entire battle.
Yet tears suddenly appeared in her eyes.
A detail nobody expected.
Not fear.
Not sadness.
Something else.
Almost regret.
As though part of her finally understood what was happening.
As though part of her knew what would happen if the seal broke completely.
The feast expanded again.
Larger.
Darker.
Hungrier.
The pressure became unbearable.
Even Raizen stopped smiling.
Even Haruto stopped analyzing.
Even Kaizen looked shaken.
Because they all realized the same thing.
The Lady Chõko they had been fighting until now...
Was not the complete Mugen Banquet.
Not even close.
And if the seal shattered completely...
The battle would become something far worse than any of them had imagined.