The sky fractured into lines of descending light.
One Executioner became five.
Then ten.
They fell like silent meteors, landing around the Broken Lands in perfect formation.
No battle cry.
No warning.
Just movement.
Akari's voice cut through the panic.
"All units, fall back to the inner ridge!
This is not a fight we win today!"
Some soldiers hesitated.
Hiroto saw it in their eyes.
Fear.
Faith.
Both.
The first Executioner attacked.
It struck the ground and a wave of white force raced outward, flattening barricades and sending men flying.
Goro grabbed a wounded soldier and threw him over his shoulder.
"Move or die!"
Hiroto stayed.
His shadow surged outward like a tide.
He slashed through the nearest Executioner.
Its armor cracked but did not break.
It countered instantly.
Light tore through Hiroto's side.
He stumbled back, blood spilling onto black stone.
Yui ran to him.
"You can't fight ten of them!"
"I'm not fighting them," he said, breathing hard.
"I'm holding them."
The scar beneath them flared brighter.
The ground itself responded.
Stone rose into jagged walls of shadowed earth.
The Executioners smashed through them one by one.
The Watcher shouted,
"They adapt! Every strike teaches them!"
Akari pulled Hiroto backward.
"Enough! You die here, the war ends!"
Hiroto looked at the sky.
"…So I need to change."
His shadow twisted.
Not outward.
Inward.
It wrapped around his arms, his chest, his legs like living armor.
His eyes darkened.
"Yui… stay behind me."
The Executioners attacked together.
Hiroto met them head-on.
Shadow armor shattered against beams of light.
The shockwaves tore the battlefield apart.
He was driven to his knees.
His shadow cracked.
Blood dripped from his mouth.
"…Still not enough."
The Watcher's voice trembled.
"He's forcing a new state…"
Akari felt it.
The pressure.
The land beneath Hiroto began to glow faintly.
Not white.
Not black.
Something between.
Hiroto slammed his hand into the ground.
"Answer me."
The scar pulsed like a heart.
The Executioners froze for a fraction of a second.
Just long enough.
Akari raised her spear.
"All units—now!"
They charged as one.
Spears, blades, and powers struck together.
The formation of Executioners broke.
One was shattered.
Another lost an arm.
But the rest regrouped instantly.
Hiroto collapsed forward.
Yui caught him.
"You can't keep doing this…"
"They'll keep coming," he whispered.
"So I have to keep standing."
High above, more light gathered.
A voice echoed faintly through the clouds:
"Resistance confirmed.
"Escalation authorized."
Akari stared upward.
"…They're upgrading."
The Executioners raised their arms.
Their armor began to reshape.
Hiroto forced himself to his feet again.
"…Then so will I."
The scar flared brighter than ever before.
And the ground beneath him cracked open.
To be continued…