"You never wondered, did you?"
Lucy's voice was low and cold. Her enormous black wings slowly folded behind her, while the six spectral arms extending from her back twisted restlessly.
"Why did I arrive at the exact moment you were about to kill Sasaki?"
Romero's claws tightened. Sasaki's blood dripped from his fingertips as he glared at Lucy, his chest rising and falling with barely restrained fury.
His mind raced.
She as been watching us?
He turned his head slightly and sent a telepathic command to Voldigo.
Voldigo, take Fushira and get out of here. Now.
The kid is our top priority.
Voldigo immediately shifted his attention toward the unconscious Fushira.
Before he could move, Lucy tilted her head and smiled.
"I believe I told you something earlier, didn't I?"
Her black eyes settled on Romero.
"You need my permission before anyone leaves."
Romero froze.
What the hell? She can hear our telepathy?
His expression darkened as the realization struck him.
She's truly our Lady's sister. I should have expected something like this.
Lucy's smile disappeared.
"Let's not waste any more time. Give me Alfie, and I'll let you walk away."
She extended her right hand.
The black blade that had cleaved through Romero's twin wolves shot back across the battlefield, landing perfectly in her palm. Dark Renshi surged along its edge, distorting the air around it.
Her gaze swept across the remaining enemies.
"Refuse, and I'll erase every last one of you. I won't hesitate. I taught you the way of a Shinra, but now you're all using what I taught you for the wrong purpose."
"Screw you Lucy," Pascal growled, stepping forward. His wolf-like eyes burned with defiance. "We don't take orders from you anymore."
"Is that so?"
Lucy's expression remained calm.
Behind them, Voldigo crouched beside Fushira and hurriedly began forming a small teleportation circle. His hands trembled as he worked, trying to complete the formation without attracting attention.
He was almost finished.
Then Lucy's eyes shifted toward him.
"Did I say you could leave?"
Her black wings vanished.
In the same instant, the Renshi around her back erupted outward, revealing six elongated spectral arms. One shot toward Voldigo like a whip, tearing through the air with a deafening crack.
Voldigo's eyes widened.
He activated Switch Mode.
The spectral arm missed him by inches and slammed into the ground.
BOOOOM!
The impact pulverized the earth, sending rocks and shattered roots flying in every direction. The teleportation circle collapsed beneath the shock wave.
Voldigo reappeared several meters away, still clutching Fushira. His breathing had become ragged.
Lucy slowly turned back toward the others.
Romero's patience finally snapped.
"Now or never. Pascal, Onamuchi!"
The three surged forward.
Purple Renshi erupted around Romero as he activated his Ultimate Bloodline Technique. The power of his twin wolves manifested throughout his body, sharpening his claws and lengthening his fangs. His muscles tightened beneath his skin as his speed and strength surged.
Onamuchi roared, metallic Renshi spreading across his body until his skin hardened like steel. His arms expanded into enormous iron limbs, each movement producing a heavy metallic rumble.
Pascal's transformation was even more dramatic.
His body grew into a towering wolf-man, his legs bending into powerful predatory limbs while razor-sharp claws extended from his hands. His wolf-like features intensified, but his human face remained recognizable, his expression twisted with fury.
The three attacked simultaneously.
Romero vanished with Switch Mode and appeared behind Lucy, his claws sweeping toward her neck.
Pascal appeared to her left, slashing toward her ribs.
Onamuchi attacked from the front, his enormous metallic fist descending like a falling boulder.
Lucy smiled.
Her black sword split into two blades.
CLANG! CLANG! BOOOOM!
She intercepted Romero's claws with two spectral arms, crossed her swords to deflect Pascal's attack, and redirected Onamuchi's punch with another arm.
The impact drove her backward several meters, her feet carving twin trenches into the ground.
But before the three could press their advantage, Lucy planted her foot and twisted.
One spectral hand struck Romero across the chest, interrupting his next attack. Another caught Pascal's wrist and pulled him off balance, allowing Lucy to drive a knee into his abdomen.
Onamuchi swung again.
Lucy ducked beneath his enormous fist and struck his jaw with the pommel of one sword.
His head snapped sideways.
She followed with a kick to his chest, sending the massive Shinra crashing through several trees.
Romero immediately used Switch Mode to appear behind her.
Lucy sensed him and turned, crossing both swords just in time to block his claws.
Their collision sent a burst of purple and black Renshi across the battlefield.
Romero gritted his teeth.
She's blocking all three of us without even using Switch Mode consistently.
Then he noticed something.
One of Lucy's six spectral arms never stopped reaching toward Voldigo.
Even while fighting them, she continued targeting the Shinra carrying Fushira, forcing him to use Switch Mode repeatedly to avoid being caught.
Every time Voldigo attempted to move toward an escape route, the spectral arm intercepted him.
Pascal barely managed to block another strike, his arms trembling from the impact.
"This pressure..."
He skidded backward, his claws digging into the earth.
"She's stronger than before!"
Lucy's eyes narrowed.
"Let me remind you who you're fighting."
The dark Renshi around her body suddenly surged.
"Phase Two of the Chronicles..."
She lowered both swords.
"Darkness Domain."
The ground split open.
Darkness poured from the cracks like liquid tar, spreading across the battlefield and swallowing everything it touched. Trees disappeared into the blackened earth, while the surrounding soil dissolved beneath the unnatural shadow.
Then skeletal arms erupted from the darkness.
They seized Romero's ankles, grabbed Pascal's legs, and clawed at Onamuchi's metallic body, attempting to drag them beneath the surface.
Romero immediately used Switch Mode to escape before the hands could tighten their grip.
Pascal tore free through brute force, his claws ripping the skeletal arms apart.
Onamuchi's hardened body resisted the grasp, but several hands caught his legs and dragged him halfway into the darkness before he smashed them with his enormous fists.
Voldigo wasn't so fortunate.
"W-What is this?"
Skeletal fingers wrapped around his ankles, dragging him downward as he struggled to keep hold of Fushira.
He activated Switch Mode, reappearing several meters away, but the darkness followed, spreading beneath his feet.
Lucy raised her twin blades.
Her eyes glowed like burning coals.
"Now, let me show you something else."
She drew one blade back.
"Nukitsuke Iaidō."
For a fraction of a second, everything went still.
SHING!
A flash of dark Renshi swept across the battlefield.
Thousands of blades materialized above the domain, their black edges gleaming against the crimson sky. They hung in the air for a heartbeat before plunging downward.
The forest disappeared beneath the storm.
Blades pierced the ground, split tree trunks, and hammered into the earth with relentless force. The Darkness Domain swallowed the impact, spreading the damage throughout the battlefield as the assault continued.
Romero switched repeatedly, dodging the descending swords while his twin-wolf power shielded him from those he couldn't avoid.
But the blades were too numerous.
One pierced his shoulder.
Another cut across his thigh.
A third struck his side, forcing him to stagger as blood spilled from his wounds.
Pascal crossed his arms to protect his head, allowing his transformed body to endure the worst of the assault. Even so, blades tore into his shoulders and legs, and every impact drove him deeper into the broken earth.
Onamuchi braced himself, covering his head with his enormous metallic arms. The swords shattered against his hardened body, but the sheer force of their impacts drove him to one knee.
Voldigo attempted to escape with Fushira.
He activated Switch Mode again.
A sword struck the ground where he reappeared.
Another pierced his side.
Before he could move a second time, several blades tore through his body, and he collapsed beside Fushira.
His arms loosened.
Fushira rolled onto the ground, still unconscious.
Voldigo tried to rise, but his body refused to cooperate. Blood spread beneath him as he struggled to draw breath.
The storm finally subsided.
Silence returned to the devastated forest, broken only by the crackling of residual Renshi.
Lucy lowered her sword.
Fushira and Voldigo lay motionless on the ground. Romero stood hunched over, blood dripping from his arms and shoulders. Pascal's breathing was heavy, while Onamuchi slowly rose from his knee, his metallic body covered in cracks and embedded blades.
Lucy glanced at them.
"Fushira and Voldigo are out cold."
Her eyes hardened.
"You've already lost."
She didn't attack again.
Instead, she vanished.
Romero's eyes widened.
"She's going for Fushira!"
Lucy reappeared beside the unconscious Shinra, one spectral arm already reaching down to grab him.
Pascal reacted instantly.
He used Switch Mode to intercept her, swinging his claws toward her face.
Onamuchi appeared beside him, his enormous metallic fist slamming into one of Lucy's spectral arms.
BOOM!
Lucy was forced backward before she could reach Fushira.
Pascal landed between her and the unconscious pair, his claws raised defensively. Onamuchi stood beside him, his damaged metallic arms trembling under their own weight.
Romero joined them moments later.
Lucy studied the three of them.
Then she sighed.
"Fine. If you insist on making this difficult, I'll accommodate you."
She dismissed both swords.
The black blades dissolved into particles of dark Renshi, leaving her hands empty.
Pascal frowned.
Lucy flexed her fingers.
"No weapons. No swords."
Her six spectral arms curled into fists behind her.
"Let's settle this with our bare hands."
Romero's expression tightened.
"Don't let her control the pace!"
Pascal lunged first.
Lucy met him head-on.
Her fist struck his forearm, knocking his claws off course, while her second hand slammed into his ribs. Before he could retaliate, she pivoted and drove a kick into his abdomen, sending him skidding backward.
Onamuchi attacked from the side.
His metallic fist crashed toward her head.
Lucy blocked it with two spectral arms, but the impact forced her to slide across the ground. Romero seized the opening and appeared behind her, his claws sweeping toward her back.
Lucy twisted.
One spectral hand caught Romero's wrist.
Another struck his face.
Her remaining arms hammered into Onamuchi's chest, forcing him backward before she turned and landed a heavy punch against Pascal's jaw as he rushed in again.
Fists collided with claws and steel. Every impact sent shock waves through the forest, uprooting trees and shattering the stone beneath their feet.
Despite their numbers, the three struggled to gain the upper hand. Lucy controlled their movements, redirected their attacks, and used her six spectral arms to strike from angles they couldn't cover simultaneously.
Whenever Romero tried to exploit an opening, one of her arms intercepted him.
Whenever Pascal rushed in, another caught his wrist or struck his legs.
And whenever Onamuchi brought down his enormous fists, Lucy shifted her weight and used his momentum against him.
Still, their combined attacks began pushing her toward the edge of the Darkness Domain.
Pascal suddenly disengaged.
He landed several meters away, lowered his body, and slammed both fists into the ground.
"Enough of this!"
His Renshi surged into the earth.
"Bloodline Technique... Wolf Howl: Earthbreaker!"
KRRRRRAAAAAACK!
The ground convulsed.
A massive fissure tore through the battlefield, racing beneath the forest toward the distant mountains. Trees toppled into the widening chasm as the earth split apart, sending enormous chunks of rock tumbling into the depths.
Sand erupted from beneath the surface.
It surged upward in towering columns, swallowing the broken terrain and filling the air with a choking storm of grit and pulverized stone.
Pascal spread his arms.
The sand responded to his movements, rising and twisting around him like an enormous living beast.
"Let's see you handle this!"
He clenched his fists.
The sand compressed.
Giant fists, enormous hammers, and sharpened blades formed throughout the battlefield before surging toward Lucy from every direction.
Lucy immediately leaped into the air.
Her black wings unfurled, carrying her above the first wave of attacks.
A colossal sand hammer swept past her head.
She twisted aside as several blades shot toward her back, then activated Switch Mode to escape a giant fist closing around her.
But Pascal continued attacking.
The sand never stopped moving.
Every time Lucy avoided one weapon, another rose to replace it. The storm surrounded her, forcing her to expend Renshi just to remain out of reach.
Below, Onamuchi climbed onto a sandstone platform Pascal had raised from the ground.
The platform lifted him through the storm.
His metallic arms extended, lengthening into enormous steel whips that coiled through the air.
He fixed his gaze on Lucy.
"Let's see how you handle this too!"
Both whips snapped forward, targeting her midsection.
Lucy dodged the first, but the second grazed her side, sending her spinning through the air.
She recovered immediately.
Then she sensed something below.
A faint Renshi signature.
Sasaki.
Her expression changed.
His Renshi is fading.
Lucy's attention shifted away from her enemies.
Damn it. I left him in a terrible position.
She looked down toward the abyss, where the shattered ground had swallowed the area around Sasaki.
She needed to reach him before the collapsing terrain buried him completely.
Lucy folded her wings and dove.
Pascal noticed immediately.
"She's going for that Sasaki guy!"
He slammed both hands against the ground.
The fissure widened.
An enormous pit opened beneath Lucy's path, its edges crumbling as entire sections of the forest collapsed into the darkness below.
"Now, Onamuchi!"
Onamuchi's eyes flashed.
He retracted his steel whips and concentrated his Renshi into one enormous fist.
The sandstone platform surged forward, carrying him into position.
Then he struck.
His colossal metal fist shot toward Lucy like a cannonball, aimed directly at her as she descended toward the pit.
Lucy twisted at the last possible moment.
The fist missed her body but struck the chasm wall.
KABOOOOOM!
The entire section of the cliff exploded.
Boulders the size of houses broke free and plunged into the abyss. The impact sent a tremor through the surrounding mountains, and the pit deepened as its walls continued to crumble.
Romero watched from the edge of the battlefield, blood running down his face.
"Pascal! Close the pit before she reaches him!"
Pascal gritted his teeth.
He slammed his palms together, then drove them into the ground.
The sand reversed direction.
It surged into the chasm, filling the gaps and forcing the broken walls inward. Massive slabs of sandstone ground against one another as the pit began collapsing shut.
Lucy accelerated.
She activated Switch Mode repeatedly, flashing between the falling rocks while keeping her attention fixed on Sasaki's fading Renshi.
A boulder crashed down ahead of her.
She twisted around it.
Another slammed into the wall beside her, showering her with fragments.
The gap narrowed.
Lucy finally spotted Sasaki lying beneath a mass of broken earth, barely conscious and covered in blood.
She extended all six spectral arms.
One caught his body.
The others pushed aside the rubble surrounding him.
The ground closed in.
Lucy wrapped her arms around Sasaki and activated Switch Mode at the very last instant.
FWOOOOSH!
She vanished as the chasm sealed shut behind her.
A heartbeat later, she reappeared in the open air beyond the collapsing earth, her black wings bursting outward to stabilize her descent.
She landed hard, one knee striking the ground as she shielded Sasaki with her body.
Dust rolled across the battlefield.
Lucy slowly stood, keeping Sasaki cradled in her arms.
Her expression had turned grim.
Pascal emerged through the swirling sand, his wolf-like body towering above the broken ground.
He looked at Lucy, then at the unconscious Sasaki in her arms.
His lips curled into a savage grin.
"You're worried about him."
Lucy said nothing.
Pascal's grin widened.
"That's your weakness."
He turned toward the distant mountains and raised both hands.
The sandstone cliffs shuddered.
A massive mountain formation split apart under his control, its enormous slabs tearing free and rising into the air. The pieces hung above the battlefield for a brief moment before Pascal thrust his arms downward.
The stone came crashing down.
Lucy looked up.
Titanic slabs rained toward her from above while sharpened pillars of sandstone erupted from beneath her feet.
She had no choice but to move.
Keeping Sasaki secured against her, Lucy activated Switch Mode and darted between the falling slabs. Her six spectral arms punched through smaller chunks of stone, shattering them before they could strike her.
A massive pillar erupted directly ahead.
She twisted sideways, narrowly avoiding it as the stone grazed her wing.
Another slab crashed behind her.
The shock wave threw her off balance, forcing her to land on a tilted section of rock before leaping away again.
Then a shadow appeared above her.
Onamuchi.
Pascal's sandstone platform had carried him high into the air, positioning him directly in Lucy's path.
His enormous metallic fist drew back, every plate of steel along his arm glowing with concentrated Renshi.
Lucy raised her eyes.
Onamuchi roared.
"DIE HERE, LUCY!"
His colossal fist came crashing down.