In the midst of a storm that offered no respite, the winds roared with savage violence, swirling around the mountains as if trying to tear them out by the roots. The atmosphere was so heavy that every breath was an ordeal, but Noah did not stop.
— How much longer, you psychopath? — Noah roared, bringing his giant halberd down against Neura.
The impact was a thunderclap that seemed to slice through the air. The halberd struck the very foundations of the tectonic plates, kicking up clouds of earth and stone. However, with a movement so fluid it felt like an inevitable natural phenomenon, Neura evaded the blow. With perfect posture, he returned the attack with a pure punch directed at Noah.
Noah took the hit with his free arm, the one not holding the halberd. Upon contact, a condensation of energy exploded, dispersing into a searing heat that could be felt from meters away. The damage spread through his entire body—an agonizing, insufferable pain that raced through his nerves—but he did not back down.
— Psychopath? — Neura countered with glacial coldness —. Don't tell me you were one of the scions of the Double-Color Alliance.
— Don't tell me you're surprised to see me here — Noah responded, bleeding from every pore but wearing a fierce grin —. Did you actually think you'd walk away unscathed?
Noah launched a second attack. Neura, in a dangerous position, prepared to cover himself with arrogance. It was then that Noah executed a master feint: he stopped his strike dead in its tracks, switching the halberd to his wounded arm. Ignoring the stinging pain, he lunged at Neura's most vulnerable defense. The blow landed flush.
Neura let the impact hit, confident in his resilience, but his expression shifted as he noticed what lay directly behind him: the String Machine Rune. Ancient symbols combined in a mechanical spiral, mimicking the process of a dimensional portal.
— Son of a bitch... time — Neura muttered, feeling the suction begin to take hold. He tried to grab onto the physical plane to prevent the recoil —. This is simply beneath contempt.
At that instant, two perfect cuts sliced through the air at lightning speed. It was Arthur and Hiroshi, whose blades wounded Neura's body with surgical precision. Noah, in a state of trance and using his final breaths, lunged once more.
A portion of Neura's soul was already outside the earth, while his physical body attempted to regenerate slowly with a gaze of pure hatred and disbelief. Noah gave him no time to react; with the tip of the halberd's hilt, he sought to split Neura in half.
Neura, casting aside any overconfidence, spun on his own axis and delivered a powered kick toward Noah's head. He stopped him cold, but Noah, before being repelled, shifted his weapon's grip and managed to stab Neura through the shoulders and arms.
Fed up, Neura kicked him away with a final strike, but rest did not come. Three flashes — golden, celestial, and silver — lunged toward him. Arthur, Hiroshi, and Charlotte converged from three different directions with their weapons raised.
Neura's gaze transformed. His eyes, previously with black pupils and white sclera, shifted to blood-red pupils over an abyssal sclera, black as the void.
— So you are coming here — Neura declared with a rage that made the mountain tremble —. I am fed up too. Come... you shall know no future to come. This ends now.
The battle reached a point of no return. The air, saturated with static and ash, compressed as Neura attempted to unleash his massive shockwave once again. But this time, the will of the three warriors was superior. Arthur, Hiroshi, and Charlotte charged with a force that nullified the explosion, turning the impact into a gust of pure speed.
The three converged on Neura as a single entity, forming a tornado of unimaginable magnitudes. The vortex, tinged a deep red by friction and energy, colored the environment with sparks and fire, while the earth beneath their feet crumbled and the skies split in two under the colossal pressure.
In a lightning-fast move, Hiroshi took his distance. His limbs showed veins bulging from superhuman effort. In a fraction of a second, he leaped toward the highest point to execute a strike with all his might. The blade of his katana traced a line of eternal length, visible from kilometers away, which split the tornado in half and tore the wasteland wide open. The blow connected squarely with Neura, rending his body and scattering blood into the air.
However, Neura was not finished. His arm, still standing, began to condense a devastating energy. The air around his limb vibrated violently, as if it were about to collapse under the weight of an abyssal red energy. Neura raised his arm toward the firmament.
— Dammit! Charlie, Arthur, Noah, get back! — Hiroshi shouted in desperation.
It was too late. The attack was immediate. It only took Neura lowering his arm for the landscape to transform into an absolute apocalypse. Billions of red lightning bolts, gigantic and destructive, lashed out at existence in a radius impossible to calculate. It was a storm where every bolt was as common as a drop of water in a torrential rain. The manifestation lasted the longest, most agonizing 23 seconds of their lives.
When the hell ceased, the silence that remained was that of death. Among the rubble and scorched earth, Hiroshi tried to stand. His armor was in pieces, his side pierced, and his legs showed exposed and burned muscle. With only one functional eye, he observed Neura.
— Only... nine minutes — he whispered weakly.
He charged with his last strength toward the enemy, but midway through the journey, his heart failed. His pulse stopped. Hiroshi began to fall toward the ground as an overwhelming tranquility—the peace of death—invaded him completely.
— So this is as far as I go... well, I don't regr— he stopped in his mind —. Wait a moment. What is this resignation? What is this tranquility? Am I really going to die? I don't give up. I don't surrender like this. This isn't me. This is just a consolation from death itself.
Hiroshi felt the touch of invisible hands trying to take him away, but in an act of pure will, he rejected them.
— I... I reject it! Right now, the last thing I'm going to do is die. No matter what happens. With my own being, I will anchor myself to this mortalThe Anchor of Conviction plane. I will not die now!
He avoided the grip of the darkness. With a defiant smile in mid-air, his body recomposed itself with a new determination. The dead and burned parts of his being began to glow with an intense golden color. A new Hiroshi, reborn by his own conviction, landed on his feet, wielding his katana against Neura once more.
Arthur, Charlie... my dear students, Hiroshi thought as his golden aura illuminated the wasteland. I will open the way, and you will trace the future. As long as you watch, you will be able to surpass everything.