Kira stood amidst the ruined battlefield, the echoes of Ard's fall still ringing in his ears. His chest heaved, but his eyes, dark and focused, flickered with a memory… a fragment of a power long buried.
A memory of a world where he had reigned as the King of the Phantoms, a realm where shadows obeyed his command and the very fabric of battle bent to his will. The faintest whisper of that strength hummed within him now, awakened by Ard's sacrifice and the chaos surrounding them.
"The sword… Sage… she wielded it as if she knew my past…"
Kira's fingers tightened around the hilt of the blade Sage had carried. The weapon pulsed under his grasp, resonating with the fragment of power that had once made him untouchable. A cold, phantom energy seeped from it, shadows coiling like living serpents around him.
The Sovereignty boys—Yuujin, Jayze, and Korran—tensed, sensing a shift. The mana in the air warped; the arena's boundaries shivered as though the world itself braced for something unnatural.
Kira whispered, almost to himself, "This… this is mine. This is what I was… what I am."
With a sudden, sharp motion, he swung the blade. The air split, sending a wave of phantom energy across the arena. Shadows detached from the ground and coalesced into dozens of spectral forms, each moving independently, striking with impossible precision.
Yuujin's Eclipse Null reacted, trying to intercept, but the shadows slipped through his defenses, phasing around his attacks. Jayze's blood tendrils twisted, but the phantoms struck before he could form them, slicing and shredding the air around him.
Korran's eyes widened as he recognized the technique—an echo of a force he had only heard of in legends. "The… Phantom King's art… impossible!"
Kira's voice rang out, commanding and calm, yet edged with a dangerous serenity. "I am not the same boy you faced. I am the King of Phantoms. I am the one who decides what exists… and what ceases."
The shadows intensified, wrapping around each Sovereignty boy, pressuring them in every direction. The battlefield seemed to vanish beneath the tide of his power. Every movement they made was anticipated; every attack was countered before it could fully form.
Even Sage's technique paled in comparison—the difference wasn't just skill, it was absolute authority over phantom matter itself, a relic of a king who had once ruled not with brute force alone, but with inevitability.
Kira's eyes narrowed on Yuujin and Jayze. "I do not want to kill you… yet. But Ard gave his life so I could show you the consequences of underestimating what you cannot comprehend."
And then, without warning, the shadows surged forward—a perfect storm of controlled chaos, all flowing from the sword he had entrusted to Sage. Every phantom strike, every shadow fragment, carried the precision of a mind that had ruled both life and death in countless battles.
The Sovereignty boys were forced onto the defensive, pushed back further than they had been in the entire test. For the first time, Kira wasn't reacting—he was commanding, an unstoppable presence that reminded everyone why he had once been a king.
The Phantom Pulse… the king's authority… the blade Sage held… it all converged.
The arena trembled. Dust and debris swirled, but none dared move closer. Not because they feared death alone—it was the certainty that Kira, in this state, would erase them without hesitation if they faltered.
And yet… in the back of his mind, a fraction of him worried. The memories of the Phantom King were vast, consuming, and he could feel the edge of his humanity slipping as he let it flow through him.
But Ard's sacrifice, the blade, and the fractured memory gave him control. Just enough.
"This… is my turn," Kira murmured, as the shadows converged into a single, coherent strike, aimed at overwhelming every Sovereignty boy at once.
And the battlefield held its breath.