Reimu now faced Solara and Nozomi together. But the situation remained unbalanced — Solara had lost an arm, and Nozomi, despite a few wounds having closed, was clearly no match for Reimu in his current state. They both knew it. But they were there, standing, their eyes fixed on their adversary.
Solara rose slowly, analyzing the situation with cold and methodical clarity. She thought. "I've pushed him to his limits, but it's not enough. We absolutely have to force him to use that technique."
Reimu, after seeing Nozomi's return, addressed him. "From what I can see, you had the courage to come back." But he stopped, his eye slightly narrowed, surprised by something he couldn't quite identify. He murmured, more to himself than to Nozomi. "But your gaze… it's strangely different from before."
Nozomi answered him, his voice calm but carrying a quiet irony. "Did you get bored without me? And yet it wasn't my power you were after in the first place."
Solara addressed him quickly, wasting no time. "Nozomi, do you feel able to fight? The hardest part is still ahead."
Nozomi said nothing. He simply raised his arm, thumb pointing upward — a brief but unequivocal gesture that was worth all the answers in the world.
Faced with that gesture, Solara found herself before a heart-wrenching dilemma. "Even if Nozomi can fight, we'll need the Core if we want to stand a chance. But can I really leave him alone against Reimu?" Her face tightened slightly under the weight of that question. She was thinking of Nozomi's safety, of everything she knew about Reimu, of everything that could go wrong in the space of a single second.
But she had to resign herself. If she wanted any chance of defeating Reimu, there was no other option. Her voice hesitant, but full of a trust she consciously chose to place in him, she asked. "Nozomi… could you buy me some time? A minute and a half should be enough. Do you feel up to it?"
Without the slightest hesitation, Nozomi placed his full trust in her. "You have a plan. Count on me to keep him busy."
Solara, not entirely reassured but with no other choice, sat on the ground and began to meditate. She closed her eyes and began drawing the Core toward her, slowly absorbing the life energy saturating the air. This process took time — and during this phase of total concentration, she was entirely vulnerable. That was precisely why Nozomi was indispensable.
Reimu saw Solara meditating and immediately understood her intention. Without hesitating, he launched himself to strike her down before she finished. But Nozomi planted himself between the two, forming a wall. And suddenly, a powerful current of air surged between them.
Harris appeared at Nozomi's side, ready to fight. But the moment Nozomi saw him, he shouted. "What are you doing here? This isn't what I asked of you!"
Harris didn't answer right away. He turned around, grabbed Nozomi by the collar and looked him straight in the eyes, without blinking. "You annoy me. You would have realized it long ago if you listened a little more. You can't beat him alone — and I know it. I know you're thinking about our safety. But we're heroes too, Nozomi. So let us help you." His voice was firm, almost irritated — but behind that firmness lay something indisputable, a brotherhood that nothing could erase.
Harris's words resonated within Nozomi. He understood that he had to learn to trust his family more — even if it meant exposing them to danger. He nodded, his gaze lowered for a fraction of a second. Then he took a deep breath and said simply. "Alright." Two syllables, but loaded with everything between them.
Together, they positioned themselves to face Reimu. They had to hold for two minutes — the time Solara needed to be ready.
On the other side of Paris, the ten soldiers followed Aria in silence, confident in their numbers, certain that together they would overcome a girl alone. They moved with discretion, convinced they hadn't been spotted. But suddenly, Aria gained ground on them — the gap between her and the group widened abruptly. The soldiers accelerated to catch her. And the next instant, as they stepped onto the rooftop of a building, dozens of luminous circles appeared beneath their feet. Chains erupted from them and immobilized them on the spot, welding them to the ground.
Panic swept through the group. "What's happening? How is this possible?" They then understood that Aria had spotted them from the beginning — long before they suspected it — and had laid this trap with cold, calculated patience. But before they even had time to react, dozens of circles formed inside the building itself. The next second, without the slightest warning, the entire building exploded in an enormous blast that flattened the surroundings.
Aria heard the sound of the explosion behind her. She stopped for a brief moment, focused, and arrived at the conclusion that her trap had worked. "They've stopped following me. Now I have to reach Kael as fast as possible."
A few minutes later, Aria found Kael. From the very first second she saw him, her face fell apart. Her blood ran cold at once. Her body froze, paralyzed by what stood before her eyes. Kael was in a horrifying state — almost unrecognizable. She didn't move for a long moment, unable to tear her eyes away from him. Then she collected herself, forcing herself to act. There was no time to waste.
During their training in the world of Drakaryon, Aria had learned healing techniques drawing on the surrounding pure aetherium. She concentrated intensely, summoning all her mastery, and began converging the pure aetherium around her before redirecting it toward Kael. But as she applied the treatment, her face deteriorated. Kael's condition wasn't improving — it was worsening. Something in his wounds was resisting the technique, as if his body were refusing to be saved.
On his side, Shinrei had accepted Harris's request. While Harris left to lend Nozomi a hand, Shinrei was tasked with getting the parents to safety. But around forty soldiers suddenly blocked their path. The situation complicated itself at once — Shinrei had to both fight and protect the parents against such an overwhelming number.
Shinrei's father, seeing the danger and understanding that they represented a burden to his son, made the decision without hesitation. "We'll hide. Don't worry about us — focus." His voice was calm, resolute, without a trace of fear. The voice of a man who knows what he is doing.
Shinrei was moved by that silent trust. He owed it to them to protect them with every ounce of his strength. Despite the crushing number of soldiers facing him, Shinrei was not afraid. His gaze was focused, calm, and perfectly rational — evaluating each decision with the precision of a strategist.
On the battlefield, Reimu remained impassive upon seeing Harris join Nozomi. To him, these two posed no real threat. He intended to finish things quickly.
Nozomi said in a determined voice, never taking his eyes off Reimu. "Harris, back me up!" And charged at full speed toward him to engage in close combat. He exchanged several swift, precise blows with Reimu, then leapt over him.
In the air, Harris had propelled himself to maximum height and created a powerful air current that prevented Reimu from rising. From behind, Nozomi charged back in, fists blazing. He used Harris's gust to amplify his flames, making them wider and more devastating. His blows were more powerful and more precise than at the start — he was conserving energy, eliminating every unnecessary movement, seeking pure efficiency.
But Reimu was reading his movements. He anticipated and prepared to end things in a single blow. He hadn't counted on Harris, who sent a burst of high-pressure compressed air — projectiles so dense and fast they resembled missiles, forcing him to shift his footing. Harris controlled each projectile with surgical precision, bringing Reimu exactly where he wanted him — and allowing Nozomi to slip in from behind.
But Nozomi's blows slid off Reimu without leaving the slightest visible mark. Reimu prepared to counter with a punch, but Nozomi saw the attack coming and dodged with a back flip, landing slightly below before immediately leaping upward. Harris set foot against foot with him and propelled him toward Reimu with a concentrated burst of air beneath his feet. Nozomi was ejected at full speed and delivered a kick toward his right.
Reimu blocked the attack with his left arm. But Nozomi followed up by striking both his own hands together. A point-blank explosion went off with a deafening crack. When the smoke dissipated, Reimu had been pushed back — and without giving him time to regain his bearings, Harris re-engaged with his air projectiles in rapid succession. Reimu, overwhelmed, released a bolt of lightning that struck Harris head-on, paralyzing him and sending him crashing to the ground.
Only Nozomi remained. From the smoke, water vines erupted and latched onto Reimu's torso. Nozomi channeled electricity through them to electrocute his opponent. But Reimu's natural resistance allowed him to absorb the shock. He advanced, seized Nozomi's head with a single hand and slammed him to the ground with such force that the paving cracked in a star pattern beneath the impact. Nozomi lost consciousness. Reimu tossed his body aside into the debris without sparing him a second glance.
He turned toward Solara, motionless in her meditation. His gaze hardened. Fists clenched, he created a lance of fire aimed straight at her.
The fire was about to incinerate her. But a silhouette stepped in the way. Harris. Standing despite everything, legs trembling, his body still coursing with arcs of electricity from the bolt that had struck him. With what remained of his mastery of air, he created a barrier to protect Solara. The heat was burning his hands. The pressure of the air he had to maintain could at any moment blow both his arms apart. The electricity continued flowing through his veins, making every effort even more painful.
Despite all of that, he held. Standing. Not giving up. He was ready to do anything to protect Solara, because he knew she was the key to victory — and that without her, all their efforts would have amounted to nothing.
Harris screamed with all his strength to keep from buckling, his voice breaking halfway through. His wind was losing ground, centimeter by centimeter. Reimu's flames, drawing their strength from the air itself, grew larger as he fought them. It was a battle he could not win — but he refused to yield.
Then a hand settled gently on his shoulder. The next second, a tide of water surged and swept away all of Reimu's flames in a single breath. A soft, warm voice spoke to him. "Thank you, Harris. You can rest now. Move as far away as possible, and warn those nearby to do the same."
Nozomi and Harris had bought Solara enough time. The golden markings were once again present across her entire body, brilliant and pulsing. Her long hair floated gently, lit from within. Harris, mouth slightly open before the presence she radiated, smiled despite his burned hands and his body coursing with electricity. "I'll leave the rest to you!"
Harris moved away. And Solara, the next second, launched herself at Reimu to face him in close combat, despite her missing arm. She exchanged blow for blow with him, and despite that obvious disadvantage, she managed to hold her own. Reimu was exhausted, weighed down by hours of intense combat since the start of the war. His speed and strength had subtly diminished — but sufficiently for her to notice.
They exchanged increasingly swift and powerful blows. Solara patiently sought the right opening to deliver the decisive strike. The moment she felt Reimu's attention drop by a fraction, she formed a stone spike that immobilized his left hand and blocked his other hand with her sole remaining hand. He found himself restrained on two sides at once. Reimu thought. "What is she after?"
He didn't have time to finish his thought. Solara's left arm — the one she had amputated herself — regenerated entirely before his eyes. Thanks to the Core, she was able to rebuild what she had sacrificed. And that new arm, charged with all the power of the Core, prepared to strike.
Reimu reacted with lightning speed, freeing his left hand from the stone and preparing an Eternity Strike to rival the power of the Core. The two fists collided. The two forces rivaled each other, each seeking to gain the upper hand. The power released by this confrontation split the ground in two with a deep rumble that propagated far. But Reimu's strength finally gained the advantage in that exchange — and Solara was sent crashing to the ground.
Solara on the ground seemed spent. The markings on her body went out. Reimu advanced toward her and said. "You used the majority of the Core you had absorbed to regenerate your arm. Now it is all over — you gave me a real fight until the very end, Solara."
He activated his Shugan. A dark and dense energy radiated from him, condensing in his palm in the form of a shuriken of absolute blackness. This was the Cosmic Fusion — an energy born from the fusion of its user's spiritual and physical force. A shuriken that consumes all life in its path and leaves nothing behind.
Reimu drew close until he was within range. But just as he was about to strike, a strange smile spread slowly across Solara's face. Beneath Reimu's feet, the ground cracked — and Khorum surged from the depths, coiling around him in a flash, imprisoning him completely.
Solara moved away as fast as she could. Khorum began to crack, a blinding light radiating from her entire body. A few seconds later, she exploded in a gigantic blast with a radius of over five hundred meters. Dust flooded everything, reducing visibility to near zero at less than a meter.
Despite this explosion, Reimu was untouched. He had withstood that power. Breathless, he murmured. "She forced me to use it." But immediately after, his senses awoke sharply. He pivoted and blocked a stone blade with his hand. Then he was doused with water from all sides. He understood, his voice muffled. "Another move from her. I have five seconds left. I have to act fast."
He seized the chain attached to Solara and pulled violently to draw her toward him, then delivered a kick of extreme violence that sent her rolling along the ground for several dozen meters. He thought, reassured. "That should be enough to push her away for the necessary time."
But Solara, sliding along the ground, pressed her hand firmly onto the pavement. Beneath Reimu's feet, the earth opened silently. And Nozomi surged from it just within reach, fist already raised.
Reimu was surprised. "He could still move? I'm in trouble. I have one second left, but given his state, that should be enough." He wanted to deal him a punch to push him aside, but he didn't have time. His entire body froze beneath a layer of ice. He looked up at Solara with a dark and furious stare — but it was too late.
Even frozen for only a single second by Solara's ice, it was precisely the fateful second. To survive Khorum's attack, Reimu had resorted to the final ability of his Shugan — the Ethereal Form, which allows its user to become intangible and dodge any physical or mental attack. But this ability had one major flaw: after its use, the user was immobilized for ten seconds after five. And that delay had just elapsed.
This had been Solara's plan from the very beginning. She had orchestrated everything, forced Reimu to use the Ethereal Form, calculated the five seconds with precision, and explained it all to Nozomi beneath the rubble through an earth clone, so they could act perfectly at the right moment.
Reimu immobilized, unable to dodge. Nozomi before him. He spoke quickly. "Reimu, I've been watching you since the start of this confrontation. I noticed that your Imperial Armor doesn't regenerate entirely in combat — it needs time. And the most weakened point is where Kael struck you. I'm going to finish the work he started."
Drawing on his last reserves, Nozomi struck Reimu with a fist charged with all the power he had left. But despite his force, the Imperial Armor held — the ten seconds elapsed just in time. Reimu regained his mobility and prepared, without hesitation, to finish Nozomi.
But Nozomi refused to give up. He refused to let the efforts of all the heroes be reduced to nothing. With a simple gaze, a gust of wind deflected the blow Reimu wanted to inflict on him. Then, with his entire being, Nozomi tried to shatter the armor. And suddenly, from all five elements at once, his arm erupted — fire, water, earth, air, lightning — all converging toward one single fist, fusing into a fascinating and absolute power. In a single blow, in an instant, that unique force shattered Reimu's Imperial Armor at the point where Kael had already scored it, reached his flesh, and hurled him backward in a definitive crash.
After that blow, Nozomi's right arm was entirely destroyed. Every bone, fractured into a multitude of pieces. He could barely stand, using his last strength to stay on his feet, refusing to fall.
In the distance, Reimu lay on the ground, his Imperial Armor half-shattered, a mortal wound torn open by Nozomi's punch. He refused to yield and tried to rise. Unfortunately for him, high in the sky, a rift opened — the same one that had freed him, leading directly to the dimension in which he had been imprisoned. He began to levitate against his will — and with him, all his soldiers, all those who had come from that dimension were drawn toward that rift.
This was Solara's doing. Drawing on her last reserves of aetherium, she was using the sealing incantation that Luna and Nova had taught her — to close that dimension permanently. Before dying, Nova had passed on to his disciples the key capable of opening and closing that lock, precisely for this eventuality. In case Reimu ever escaped.
As the sealing unfolded, her thoughts drifted in spite of herself toward her master — toward all the moments shared with Nova and Luna, toward their laughter, their lessons, their silences. It was their knowledge and their legacy that she was enacting and protecting at this precise instant, through each of her gestures. She couldn't help but let a tear fall — solitary and silent — sliding down her cheek without her trying to hold it back.
In an instant, Solara sent everyone back to the other side. Reimu's soldiers disappeared one by one into the gigantic rift gaping in the sky — their bodies dematerializing slowly, as if absorbed by something invisible, before fading completely into the darkness of the dimension. Reimu was last. His eyes rested one final time on Solara — a dark, furious stare, unable to accept — before the rift closed on him forever. Solara sealed it shut, preventing any new escape. Reimu was sealed again. The war was over. Victory belonged to the heroes.
Nozomi, exhausted to a degree he had never known, was struggling to see and hear. Everything around him was blurred. Then, from the distance, laughter and cheering reached him, growing louder and louder. Solara turned toward him, a smile on her lips. "Go to them. They're waiting for you."
Nozomi walked slowly but surely, climbing a small mound of debris. Once at the top, he saw all the heroes who had helped them — eyes shining, smiles radiant, applause rising without end. The night had now passed, and the rising sun bathed the battlefield in a warm golden light, so different from the sinister orange of the fires. That light warmed. It soothed. As if the world itself was announcing that the longest night was finally over.
Nozomi, faced with all of this, raised his head toward the sky and closed his eyes. He was so exhausted he could no longer even feel the pain of his destroyed arm. He let himself be bathed in the first rays of the sun, his face peaceful and relieved — for the first time in a long while. He thought of his father. He hoped he could see this from wherever he was.
Solara watched him from behind at the foot of the mound. She was proud — proud of them, proud of everything they had accomplished together. She thought, a melancholic gentleness in the voice of her innermost self. "You can be proud of yourselves. Kael, Aria, Harris, Shinrei, Nozomi. You accomplished something very few could have. But now… how are you going to pick yourselves up and move forward after all this?"