The Nether was never truly silent.
Even when nothing moved, it waited. Heat trapped in stone, echoes of old fire still clinging to the bones of the underground world.
Tonight, it felt different.
Heavier.
Like something had finally arrived to break it open.
Down in the depths of the Nether battlefield, Shō Kusakabe stood alone.
His posture was straight, almost elegant, hands resting near his blade. His expression, as always, was unreadable. Calm in a way that didn't feel human so much as absolute.
Across from him stood Shinra Kusakabe.
The atmosphere between them was already tense, though neither had moved yet.
Not properly.
Just the subtle shifts.
The way Shinra's flames flickered slightly stronger than before.
The way Shō's gaze didn't acknowledge hesitation as something that existed.
Shinra exhaled.
'So this is him… my brother.'
Shō spoke first.
"Shinra Kusakabe."
Shinra tensed slightly.
Shō continued, voice flat and precise.
"I will take you in. You are essential in the plan of the Evangelist."
A pause.
Then Shinra forced a breath and answered.
"I'm not going down that easily."
For a brief moment—
Silence.
Then the world snapped.
Shō moved first.
Time fractured under his authority as Severed Universe activated, the world around Shinra becoming distorted, slowed, almost disjointed. The strike came in clean, brutal, inescapable.
Shinra barely managed to react—
Flames burst from his feet—
He dodged by instinct alone.
The impact still tore the ground apart behind him.
Shinra slid back, eyes widening.
'What the—?!'
Shō didn't change expression.
He advanced again.
Effortless.
Certain.
Above them.
At the edge of a collapsed metal railing overlooking the battlefield, a figure stepped forward.
Yona.
He tilted his head slightly, watching the clash below like it was something mildly entertaining.
"Ah… it's already started?"
His voice was light.
Almost amused.
Behind him, two figures stood in the shadows.
Haumea and Charon.
Haumea didn't even look at him.
"Don't ask me."
Yona blinked.
"How cold."
Charon stood with his usual heavy silence, arms folded, gaze fixed on the battlefield below. Calm, but unmistakably aware of everything happening at once.
Below, Shō and Shinra's battle began to escalate.
Flame and frozen time-pressure clashed in bursts.
Shinra pushed forward.
Shō erased distance.
Neither gave ground.
A new presence landed lightly on the upper platform.
Boots touched metal.
A familiar voice followed immediately.
"Am I late?"
Haumea finally turned her head slightly.
Standing there was Kidan.
Hands tucked into his sleeves.
Expression casual.
Behind him, as always, was Ritsu. Quiet, composed, watching everything carefully but saying nothing unless needed.
Haumea's eyes narrowed instantly.
"I'm not your watch dog."
Kidan looked at her.
Then shrugged.
"Didn't say you was."
Haumea clicked her tongue.
Ritsu stepped forward slightly, sensing escalation.
"Kidan-sama," she said gently, "there is no need to provoke her."
Kidan exhaled through his nose.
"I wasn't provoking her."
Haumea's eye twitched.
"That tone says otherwise."
Kidan tilted his head.
"What tone?"
A beat.
Yona leaned slightly to the side, clearly enjoying the tension.
Charon remained unmoved, still observing the fight below with quiet focus.
Ritsu moved closer to Kidan and lowered her voice.
"Kidan-sama… please."
That alone was enough.
Kidan paused.
Then let the argument die before it could grow.
"Fine."
Haumea scoffed softly, turning her attention back to the battlefield below.
"Just stay out of the way."
Kidan smiled faintly.
"No promises."
Ritsu sighed under her breath.
"Of course…"
Below.
The fight between Shō and Shinra reached its first true peak.
Shinra pushed forward, determination burning through fear.
Shō met him without hesitation.
Time bent.
Flames burst.
Steel rang.
---
The battlefield below had fully collapsed into chaos.
Shinra Kusakabe moved through it like a streak of burning instinct. Dodging, weaving, pushing forward against an opponent who didn't simply fight in space and time, but edited it.
Shō Kusakabe stood at the center of it all like a fixed point.
Every strike he made arrived before it should have.
Every movement felt like it ignored the idea of "reaction time" altogether.
Shinra skidded backward across broken metal, boots igniting with heat as he stabilized himself.
'He's not normal speed… this is something else.'
Shō stepped forward again.
The air cracked.
Shinra barely moved in time.
And still—
A slash carved through the ground where he had been standing a fraction of a second earlier.
Above the battlefield, perched on a ruined ledge of scaffolding and twisted iron, Viktor Licht was visibly vibrating with excitement.
His glasses caught the glow of the fire below, eyes wide behind them.
"Oh ho… no way… no way, no way. This is incredible."
He leaned forward, almost hanging over the edge.
"That's not acceleration… that's temporal distortion. No, no, that's closer to—"
His words came faster as his mind tried to keep up with what he was seeing.
"Severed perception? No, that's not enough. It's like the causal sequence is being partially overridden—"
A burst of flame erupted below.
Shinra vanished from Shō's strike zone.
Licht froze.
Then broke into a grin.
"LIGHT SPEED?!"
He adjusted his glasses rapidly.
"Wait, wait, did he just actually break into relativistic perception shift?! No, no, that's not possible under normal combustion propulsion—unless—"
His gaze snapped back down.
"Unless his Adolla Burst is directly interfering with inertia perception!"
His mind was spiraling now.
"That means his subjective frame is detached from external time flow, no, that would require a full synchronization with Adolla space-time constants. This is insane, this is—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
Because something else caught his attention.
Above the battlefield.
Not far from where he stood, two figures observed the fight without visible strain.
Haumea.
And beside her—
Kidan.
Neither of them looked confused.
Neither of them looked lost.
They were simply watching.
Following every exchange as if it were normal movement.
Licht blinked hard.
"...Wait."
He pushed his glasses up.
"They can see that?"
---
Yona asked, "Can you two follow the fight."
Haumea's smile was faint.
"Of course I can."
Yona, floating nearby and leaning slightly forward, frowned.
"I can't see anything."
He squinted down at the battlefield.
"It's just flashes and explosions to me."
He turned his head toward Haumea and Kidan.
"Can you two actually follow that?"
Haumea didn't even look at him.
"Yes."
Simple.
Kidan, hands tucked into his sleeves, added casually, "Pretty easily. The two of them are pretty slow."
Yona stared at them both.
Then back at the fight.
Another burst of flame.
Another displacement.
Still nothing readable.
"That's not fair," Yona muttered.
Ritsu stood slightly behind Kidan, eyes focused on the battlefield. She followed it quietly, then spoke in a calm voice.
"Kidan-sama… your perception is extraordinary."
That made Kidan pause.
Just slightly.
Then, very subtly—
His ears tinted red.
"It's not that impressive," he said quickly.
But he didn't look at her when he said it.
Ritsu blinked once.
Then smiled faintly.
"It is."
Kidan clicked his tongue softly, looking away.
Yona watched this interaction for a second.
Then slowly turned back toward the battlefield.
"...Adolla Burst kids are scary."
He exhaled.
"I don't get paid enough for this."
Below.
Shinra surged forward again.
Flames erupted from his feet.
Something changed.
His movement sharpened.
Focused.
The world around him blurred differently now.
He wasn't just reacting anymore.
He was breaking into the same layer Shō was using.
Licht immediately noticed.
His eyes widened again.
"No way… he adapted…!"
He leaned forward again, nearly shouting now.
"He's compressing perception lag! He's actually forcing his neural response cycle into a higher frame!"
Below, Shinra vanished again—
But this time—
Shō's eyes shifted.
Just slightly.
He had noticed.
And for the first time—
He prepared to respond not to Shinra's position…
But to his speed itself.
The battlefield changed again.
And above them all—
Kidan watched with mild interest.
Haumea smiled.
And the fight between the two brothers stepped fully into something far beyond human scale.