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ARC: Back Attack Land
The night air over the SINISH district did not just carry the scent of smoke—it carried the weight of a dying world. High above the asphalt, the skyscraper groaned, a wounded titan of steel and glass swaying precariously against the blackened sky.
Flames erupted from the mid-section like a crown of thorns, casting a hellish, flickering orange glow that fought against the neon haze of the city below.
Jin felt the gravity betray him. The rush of wind roared in his ears, a deafening vacuum that swallowed his breath as he plummeted toward the concrete graveyard. His vision blurred, the streetlights below appearing like distant, mocking stars.
Then, the sky split.
Through the veil of thick, black smoke, a streak of blinding radiance cut the darkness. It wasn't the jagged flare of an explosion, but something organic—pure and terrifying.
Large, ethereal wings unfurled with a sharp, rhythmic snap, casting a golden shadow against the clouds. They were a brilliant, burning yellow at the tips, fading into a pristine, snowy white at the base.
Before Jin's body could meet the unforgiving earth, a pair of slender arms locked around him. The momentum shifted instantly. The violent descent turned into a sharp, soaring arc, the force of the save pulling a ragged gasp from his lungs.
He looked up through heavy eyelids. A girl. Her silhouette was framed by the halo of her own wings, her expression unreadable,
carved from the same stoic grace as a marble statue. She didn't speak. She didn't offer comfort. She simply held him, her grip like iron as she veered away from the collapsing tower.
Jin's consciousness flickered like a dying lightbulb. The adrenaline that had kept him tethered to reality finally evaporated, and the world dissolved into a silent, peaceful void. He slipped into unconsciousness as they glided over the rooftops, leaving the chaos behind.
Below them, the streets had turned into a hive of desperation. Dozens of police cruisers formed a frantic perimeter, their red and blue sirens painting the surrounding buildings in a rhythmic, frantic pulse.
Fire engines roared, their hoses snaking across the pavement like black serpents, but their efforts felt futile. The skyscraper was a pillar of fire, swaying with a sickening, rhythmic creak that echoed through the canyons of the city.
Massive shards of reinforced glass rained down like diamond guillotine blades, shattering against the riot shields of the officers. Boulders of concrete crumbled from the facade, crushing vehicles and sending plumes of dust into the air.
At the center of it all, the SINISH sign glowed with a haunting, unnatural intensity. It stood as a lighthouse for the nightmare, illuminating the evening with a brilliance that felt less like electricity and more like an omen. The fake world was screaming, and the cracks were starting to show.
Higher in the sky, the nightmare was far from over.
Ronika, Yuzana, and Riko were trapped in a lethal freefall, the wind whipping past them with a deafening roar as the ground raced up to meet them.
"Grab my leg, now!" Ronika screamed, her voice barely cutting through the gale as she struggled to stabilize her trajectory.
Yuzana's eyes were wide with pure terror, his hands trembling violently as he latched onto her. "We're going to die! We're going to be killed, I'm telling you! Look at the building, we're falling!"
His voice was thin, swallowed by the rushing air as he shrieked like a madman.
Thinking fast, Ronika unsheathed her katana mid-air. With a grunt of exertion, she slammed the blade deep into the skyscraper's outer wall.
Sparks flew and the metal screeched as the blade acted as a makeshift brake, dragging against the structure to bleed off their terminal velocity.
They were still descending rapidly, but the lethal acceleration began to steady.
"We're gonna hit! We're gonna hit! Look down, the ground is coming right at us!" Yuzana howled, losing all grip on reality. He squeezed Ronika's leg with crushing force, his fingers digging in like pincers.
"Listen to me, you useless brat!" Ronika yelled back, fighting to keep her balance. "Stop pulling my leg so hard! You're going to take us both down!"
Yuzana didn't hear her. His gaze was locked on the gaping void beneath them. "We're gonna be rugs on the sidewalk! Let me go—no, don't let me go!"
"If you don't relax right now, I'll beat you senseless before we even hit the ground!" she cursed, feeling her descent become dangerously unstable. "Shut up and hold steady, or we're falling like chickens!"
Ronika's teeth were gritted so hard her jaw ached. "Shut up already, idiot!" she roared with fury. "I came all the way into this chaos to save you and all you do is scream? Shut up and hold on where I told you if you want to live!"
Her right hand white-knuckled the hilt of her sword, anchoring them to the crumbling wall.
Suddenly, a shadow streaked across the sky.
Baka plummeted from above like a projectile, his face twisted in a manic grin, ready to launch a desperate attack. But before he could reach them, Riko intercepted him mid-air.
With a silent, predatory grace, Riko tackled Baka, wrapping him in a crushing hold and slamming him through a shattered window into one of the skyscraper's upper floors.
Baka spat to the side, his face contorting with pure malice as he glared at Riko.
— "Look at you, you pathetic piece of trash, standing there like a brain-dead mannequin while everything burns—do us all a favor and just drop dead already so I don't have to keep looking at your ugly, useless face!"
Riko stood trembling, blood streaming from dozens of wounds and soaking into his clothes. Every breath felt like inhaling liquid fire;
the pain was so agonizing that a part of him pleaded for the darkness to take him. Yet, a faint, stubborn instinct buried deep in his soul whispered a single command: Survive.
With a sadistic laugh, Baka began to throw his explosive spheres.
The floor erupted. A rhythmic succession of deafening blasts—clap, clap, clap—echoed through the hallway. Thick, acrid smoke swallowed the room, turning the floor into a gray tomb. Riko sprinted through the haze, his lungs burning as the shockwaves rattled his bones.
— "I know you're still alive! Come out, coward!" Baka's voice boomed through the smog.
The dust was everywhere, blinding and heavy. Suddenly, Riko lunged through the veil of smoke like a ghost. He didn't use a weapon; he used the weight of his entire body, slamming into Baka's side with desperate strength.
The force of the tackle carried them both across the shattered floor and straight through the jagged remains of the glass wall.
They plummeted into the open sky.
Baka's eyes bulged in shock as he felt the empty air beneath him. In a final, straining effort, Riko released his grip and latched onto a protruding metal beam at the building's edge.
Baka was left with nothing but gravity.
— "You worm!" he screamed, his voice tearing through the wind as he fell. "How dare you! How dare a nobody like you drop me!"
As Baka tumbled through the air, he looked up and saw a shadow descending like an avenging spirit. It was Ronika. She had drawn her second katana, diving through the air with the momentum of a falling star.
With a primal cry, she drove the blade downward. The steel pierced through Baka's chest with sickening precision, burying itself deep into his heart and erupting out of his back.
The impact slammed his body into the pavement below. Baka hit the ground dead, the katana still pinned through his heart like a grave marker in the concrete.
High above, Riko hung by his fingertips, his strength finally failing. His fingers began to slip from the cold metal of the ledge.
Suddenly, a hand clamped firmly around his wrist.
Ronika, having swung back into the floor after her lethal strike, leaned over the edge. Her face was covered in soot and sweat, but her grip was like iron.
With a sharp grunt of effort, she hauled him up, pulling him back from the brink and onto the solid floor of the skyscraper.
"We have to get out of here right now!" Ronika screamed, her voice cracking as she looked up at the skyscraper's skeleton.
The sound of groaning metal was deafening; the very foundation beneath their boots shuddered. "The building is going down! It's going to bury us all!"
Yuzana collapsed into a state of pure hysteria, the tears streaking through the soot on his face. "Please, let's go! Let's just leave! I don't want to die here, not like this!"
But Riko didn't move. Despite the blood loss, despite the exhaustion, his eyes burned with a sudden, fierce defiance.
— "No! We aren't going anywhere!" he roared, his voice echoing louder than the snapping concrete. "Akos and Jin are still inside. We don't leave without them!"
Ronika's face contorted with fury, her patience snapping like a frayed wire. "Are you insane? We came here for Yuzana—and only him! I don't give a damn about the others! We're going to die for nothing!"
Riko stepped toward her, his shadow looming large against the flickering fires of the floor. He got right into her face, the intensity of his gaze forcing her to stay still.
— "Then why did you even come with us, huh?" he spat, the words fueled by raw anger. "Who asked you to get involved? If you're so scared, leave!"
They stood chest-to-chest, two warriors caught in a storm of pride and rage, completely oblivious to the fact that the world was collapsing around them.
the floor tilted another few degrees, glass raining down from the ceilings, yet neither backed down. The air between them was as electric as the lightning in the sky.
On the highest floor, where the walls had been completely erased by the fury of the battle, the night wind howled through the open ruins.
Akos lay broken on the floor. His face was a mask of crimson, blood seeping from deep gashes and mixing with the jagged shards of glass embedded in his skin. Every breath was a struggle against the weight of his own collapsing body.
Through the haze of pain and the flickering glitches of his failing vision, a shadow loomed over him.
He looked up, his remaining strength fading. Hitomi was walking toward him,