Boom… boom…
The shoreline trembled.
Wind rolled low across the sand, dragging grit into the air. The sky felt heavy, like it was pressing down.
Something was about to break.
"Kairos."
Dorry stepped forward, planting his massive blade into the ground for a moment as he looked at him.
"You've changed."
Brogy grinned, but there was no laughter in it this time.
"Feels different now."
Kairos didn't reply.
His hand rested lightly on Sandai Kitetsu's hilt.
For a year, he had fought them again and again. No shortcuts. No cards. Just steel, Haki, and instinct.
Now—
he was done learning.
"If you don't move," Kairos said quietly, "you won't keep up."
Dorry's eyes narrowed.
Then—
his aura erupted.
It didn't spread wildly. It sank, heavy and dense, like a mountain settling into the earth.
Brogy's followed a heartbeat later.
Rough. Violent. Like a storm breaking loose.
The beach groaned under their weight.
Kairos' presence rose to meet them.
Sharp.
Focused.
Not explosive—condensed.
For a moment, the three forces pressed against each other.
Then something strange happened.
They aligned.
Same origin.
Same path.
Different hands.
Dorry let out a low laugh.
"So you really got it."
Brogy rolled his shoulders, lifting his weapon.
"Then we don't hold back."
No more words.
Dorry raised his sword.
Brogy mirrored him.
Kairos drew.
Steel whispered as Sandai Kitetsu came free.
"The Spear of Elbaf—"
Their voices overlapped, deep and steady.
Kairos stepped forward.
"Conquest of the Nation."
Three strikes met.
There was no flash.
No visible slash.
Just—
impact.
The air collapsed inward for a split second—
then detonated.
A sound like the sea breaking apart roared across the island.
The beach vanished.
Trees ripped free from the earth. The ground folded and split, rolling outward like a shockwave made solid.
Creatures across Little Garden dropped flat, crushed by the pressure alone.
The ocean surged.
Then everything blurred.
—
When it settled—
there was a hole where the shore used to be.
Not a crater.
A breach.
Water poured into it from the sea, filling it slowly, swallowing broken rock and sand.
The forest beyond had been shaved down—trees snapped, ground stripped bare.
Silence followed.
Then—
Thud.
Dorry slid back, one foot digging deep into the earth.
Thud.
Brogy stopped even farther away, dragging a trench behind him.
Kairos stood where he had been.
Still.
Sand drifted around him.
Dorry looked down at his weapon.
A crack ran through it.
Brogy exhaled, long and heavy.
Then both giants looked up.
No laughter now.
"This one's yours."
Simple.
Certain.
Their weapons gave out first—
shattering from the strain.
Kairos' blade held.
But the black coating over it split and faded, breaking apart like burnt ash.
He let out a slow breath.
The tension left his shoulders.
Sandai Kitetsu slid back into its sheath.
No victory shout.
No celebration.
Just quiet.
A year of fighting—
ended in a single exchange.
The wind picked up again, softer this time.
Behind him, the sea kept pouring into the broken shore.
Ahead of him, the giants stood tall.
And just like that—
his training on Little Garden was over.
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