It wasn't an ordinary eye… It was terrifyingly large, its red pupil slowly rotating in the darkness, as if looking through them, into them, not just at them. The moment it opened, the air inside the Core froze, and even the explosive energy that had been pounding against the walls paused for a brief moment, as if the entire place had entered a state of submission.
Lloyd remained standing before it, his hand still over the heart, but his body began to tremble slightly. The luminous marks on his arm extended further, reaching his neck, then slowly creeping toward his face.
The voice returned. But this time… it wasn't just a voice. It was a presence.
"HOST… ACCEPTED."
Suddenly, a black wave from the Core exploded directly inside Lloyd's body. His eyes widened violently.
Pain struck him like fire coursing through his bones, and at the same moment, images flashed through his mind: ruined cities, gigantic monsters, humans bearing marks like his… then falling one by one.
He sank to his knees, pressing his head hard. "Lloyd!" Riorno screamed as he charged toward him.
But before he could reach him, a tremendous pressure surged through the air. Something erupted from Lloyd's body.
A massive black aura exploded around him, violently pushing Riorno and Mizuno backward, while the ground beneath his feet cracked more and more.
Lloyd slowly raised his head. His right eye was completely red. But his left eye… remained normal.
A struggle. Clear.
The black entity watched the scene silently, then bent down slightly, as if it had finally found what it was looking for. "The core responded to you…" it said in its deep voice, "…you are the portal."
Lloyd breathed heavily, then slowly stood up.
The energy around him was no longer chaotic as before, but terrifyingly stable, swirling around his body like mixed black and red vortices, even the air around him began to distort.
But despite all this… he smiled. A tired smile, but a genuine one. "You're mistaken…" He raised his head toward the entity. "…I am not your portal."
At that moment, the flames around Riorno reignited, but they were different now—more intense, a deeper color, as if burning from within. Mizuno stood, forcefully removing the black threads wrapped around his arm, his green eyes gleaming sharply.
The three of them stood side by side for the first time since the battle began… their energies began to harmonize.
Fire. Darkness. And brutality.
The Core shook violently, as if the very space itself sensed the danger. The black entity retreated half a step. Then it vanished. But Lloyd was faster this time. He vanished too.
A terrifying crash echoed through the hall. A massive pressure wave shattered the remaining metal rings, and then the two reappeared in mid-air, their fists clasped, energy exploding around them like a storm.
The entity tried to push him back, but Lloyd stood his ground. The floor beneath them crumbled completely, and huge pieces tumbled into the void. And at that moment, Riorno arrived.
He surged into the fiery storm, flames swirling around his arm like a blazing dragon, then he delivered a direct blow to the entity's chest. The impact forced it to retreat for the first time. But Mizuno gave him no time.
He appeared right behind him, his gleaming black claws severing several energy threads at once, then he dug his claws into the cleft in the entity's chest. A distorted scream escaped the entity.
For the first time… he truly felt pain. Lloyd seized the moment immediately… the marks on his arm blazed with intense heat, and all the energy around him began to concentrate in his right hand, a mixture of heat and cold, darkness and light mingling unnaturally.
He slowly raised his hand. The air before him split. "We finish it…" The entity reared its head quickly, finally sensing the danger. Black threads exploded from all sides, trying to stop him, but Ryorno scorched them with fire, and Mizuno tore through the rest with his claws without hesitation. They were clearing a path for him.
The final battle… had become a collective one.
Lloyd surged forward, the energy in his hand reaching a breaking point. The light emanating from it was so intense that the walls within him vanished. The entity screamed, gathering its remaining energy into a final strike. Then the two forces collided. And the instant the light exploded… the Core began to crumble completely.
The moment the two forces collided… the whole world shook.
It wasn't an ordinary explosion, but something akin to an entire space collapsing in on itself. Black and red light erupted at the core like a sun born and dying simultaneously. Waves of energy swirled out, crushing everything in their path. Giant metal walls buckled like paper, pipes ruptured and exploded, and sparks blanketed the dark space like a rain of fire.
Lloyd was right at the center of the impact.
His white hair stood on end under the force of the energy, and his long coat slid as if about to rip, while the luminous markings on his body glowed with all their might, the light reflecting sharply onto his face, making his eyes appear to be ablaze from within.
On the opposite side, the black entity was pushing with all its might. Its body was losing its stability, its glossy black surface constantly cracking, and beneath those cracks, layers of dark red light emerged, as if something inside was trying to escape.
But even so… it didn't back down.
The black threads surrounding him surged in every direction like frenzied snakes, tearing through the ground and piercing the air with deadly speed. "Lloyd!" Riorno screamed.
He plunged straight into the storm, the fire around him transforming into a massive vortex, its flames so intense they began to turn white at the edges. The heat rose terrifyingly; even the metal beneath his feet glowed red with molten intensity.
He raised his arm, then struck the black threads with a fiery fist that exploded like an internal bomb. The flames engulfed it completely.
At the same moment, Mizuno appeared from the side, his speed so brutal that his body vanished momentarily among the sparks and smoke. Then, his gleaming black claws emerged, slicing through the air directly at the entity.
His strikes were not random. Each blow targeted a specific point: the joints, the cleft in the chest, the centers of black energy concentration.
The sound of slicing echoed through the hall, and the black threads began to fall like severed limbs of a living creature. The entity spun violently toward him, its hand transforming into a massive blade of dark energy that hurtled down toward Mizuno's head. But before it could reach him, Lloyd moved. He vanished for a moment, then reappeared directly between them, catching the blow in his hand. The impact unleashed a massive pressure wave.
Black and red energy exploded around his arm, the ground beneath his feet shattering, but Lloyd remained unmoved, his red eyes fixed on the entity without a flicker of emotion. For a few seconds… they stood face to face. Then the entity began to be slowly pushed back.
His eyes widened. For the first time since his appearance… he looked stunned. "Impossible…" his voice came out muffled, "…you've exceeded expectations."
Lloyd tightened his grip, and the heat around his arm rose violently until the black energy surrounding the entity began to evaporate. "You…" he said in a low but sharp voice, "…you continue to treat us as mere experiments."
Behind him, Ryorno stood amidst the flames, his breath heavy, but his gaze unwavering. Mizuno stood beside him, blood trickling from his arm, but he smiled despite the pain.
Lloyd continued, "But we… chose who we are." At that moment, the energy in his hand exploded.
A massive light filled the entire Core. The entity was violently propelled backward, its body piercing through several metal walls, and the black threads surrounding it began to unravel visibly, as if control over them was crumbling.
But the problem was… the Core itself was dying.
The giant eye inside the Core moved violently, its red pupil contracting and then expanding wildly, the pulses emanating from it becoming faster, stronger, and more dangerous. A terrifying metallic sound echoed throughout the space:
"CORE FAILURE DETECTED." Then "SELF-DESTRUCTION INITIATED."
A brief silence followed… Immediately afterward, all the systems began to collapse simultaneously.
The platform they stood on had completely cracked open. Huge chunks of metal tumbled into the black void below them, and fire spread through the surrounding corridors as the giant rings above the heart exploded one by one, unleashing massive columns of light and energy.
Ryorno snapped his head up. "This place is going to collapse!" Mizuno chuckled softly despite the chaos. "I honestly expected a quieter ending."
But Lloyd… didn't move. He was staring at the black entity falling amid the wreckage. Something was wrong. The energy around him… hadn't vanished completely. It was gathering.
Slowly.
From the smoke and flames, a cracked black hand rose. Then a quiet voice, more ominous than any scream they had heard, said, "…It's not over yet."