The north side of the city had gone silent.
Not the silence of peace.
The silence of fear.
Dust drifted through broken streets while shattered homes leaned against each other like exhausted corpses. The poor district had already suffered enough before the battle began, and now the sound of destruction from the other sections of the City of Dawn echoed through the skies like distant thunder.
In the middle of the ruined road, Darius stood over the defeated bodies of Number 7 and Number 5—Drake.
Both were kneeling from exhaustion and pressure alone.
Darkness stretched around Darius like living smoke.
The shadows beneath the buildings, beneath the debris, beneath the civilians hiding indoors—
all of it answered him.
Darius looked down at them and said calmly,
"Symbolic magic is strong… yes, but it's not your own power."
His purple eyes glowed softly beneath the darkness covering his body.
He crouched slowly.
"In other words… though you have the power of demonic gods doesn't mean you can beat a mortal who has owned his power and became a deity."
The pressure in the street became heavier.
The chains around Darius slowly dragged across the ground.
Clink.
Clink.
Clink.
Darius stood back up.
Number 7 suddenly smiled.
"You know nothing," he said, blood running down his chin. "We are the Round Table. We serve our lord Prince Luther."
Then Number 7 suddenly dashed toward the street where the civilians were hiding.
Darius' eyes narrowed instantly.
Number 7 raised his staff high into the air.
"Meteor—"
But before he could finish—
Darius calmly said,
"Shadow Blade."
He waved his hand upward.
Instantly—
the shadow beneath Number 7 twisted violently.
SHINK!
Multiple black shadow spikes erupted upward and pierced directly through Number 7's body.
The man froze mid-step.
Blood sprayed onto the street.
The civilians hiding behind windows covered their mouths in horror.
Number 7 looked downward slowly at the spikes piercing through his stomach and chest.
His eyes trembled.
Darius looked at him coldly.
"You were stupid enough to threaten civilians in front of me."
CRACK.
The spikes expanded further.
Number 7 coughed blood violently.
At that exact moment—
Drake moved.
His body of luminous destruction flashed forward like a beam of light.
He appeared directly behind Darius and formed a blade of concentrated light in his hand.
SHING!
The blade stabbed straight through Darius' back.
Drake smiled instantly.
"Got—"
But his expression froze.
Darius' body suddenly dissolved into shadow.
Drake's eyes widened.
"What—"
A hand suddenly landed on his head from behind.
A calm voice spoke beside his ear.
"In the name of the Black Sun…"
Drake's eyes widened completely.
"I sentence you to the Shadow Realm."
BOOOOM.
Darkness exploded outward instantly.
The world vanished.
Both Drake and Number 7 suddenly found themselves standing in absolute darkness.
No sky.
No ground.
No sound.
Nothing.
Even Drake's luminous body barely illuminated the area around him.
Then—
chains.
Countless chains echoed through the darkness.
Clink.
Clink.
Clink.
The two men slowly looked upward.
And froze.
A gigantic Black Sun hung in the sky above them.
It was massive.
Unreachable.
Ancient.
Its pressure alone crushed against their souls.
Their knees instinctively bent.
Both Drake and Number 7 trembled.
Even Drake's light was being swallowed by the darkness around him.
Drake looked around in panic.
"My light… why isn't it working?!"
Darius' voice echoed from every direction.
"Because your light has no meaning here."
The chains around the realm rattled violently.
Darius appeared before them while floating in the darkness.
Purple eyes glowing.
Chains drifting around his body.
The pressure became unbearable.
Darius slowly raised his hand.
"Shadow Hands."
Suddenly—
thousands of black hands crawled out from the darkness beneath Drake and Number 7.
The hands grabbed their legs.
Their arms.
Their necks.
Their faces.
"No—!"
"GET OFF ME!"
The hands dragged them downward slowly.
Deeper.
Further.
Into the darkness of the Shadow Realm.
Drake screamed as even his light disappeared completely.
Number 7 tried to fight back, but more hands grabbed him.
Then both men vanished entirely into the darkness.
Silence returned.
Darius exhaled softly.
The Shadow Embodiment faded.
The chains disappeared.
The darkness around the city slowly withdrew.
Then Darius stepped out of the Shadow Realm of the Black Sun Domain and returned to reality.
The ruined street reappeared around him.
He rubbed the back of his neck.
"Tch… annoying opponents."
Then—
BOOOOOOM!!
A distant explosion echoed from the east side of the city.
Darius looked toward it.
"…Rein."
East side of the city —
Near the ocean.
The shoreline trembled from the force of battle.
The sea crashed violently against the rocks while broken trees littered the edge of the forest nearby.
In the middle of the sandy battlefield—
Rein cracked his neck.
CRACK.
A man and a woman stood in front of him.
The woman stared silently at Rein without emotion.
The man beside her smiled calmly.
Rein rolled his shoulders.
"Look lady," he said, "I don't hit women but if you insist on fighting me I'll put my hands on you."
The woman said nothing.
She simply stared at him.
The man chuckled.
"Don't worry about her," he said. "She can hold her own."
Rein started walking toward them.
Sand shifted beneath his feet.
"Is that so?"
The woman vanished instantly.
BOOM!
Rein's eyes widened slightly.
"She's fast."
The woman appeared directly in front of him and threw three punches in one motion.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Rein leaned backward.
Dodged the first.
Tilted left from the second.
Shifted right from the third.
But—
SHHK.
A small scratch appeared on his cheek.
Rein touched the blood.
Then smiled.
"Oh?"
The man suddenly rushed him from the side and swung a kick directly toward Rein's temple.
WHOOOSH!
Rein reacted instantly.
He used the rhythm of the kick itself to spin midair.
Then twisted his body and kicked the man directly in the back of the neck.
BOOOOM!
The man smashed through the sand and rolled several meters away.
The woman instantly jumped back in.
She spun low and aimed a sweeping kick toward Rein's legs.
Rein jumped over it.
The woman immediately followed with a rising elbow toward his jaw.
Rein blocked it with his forearm.
BANG!
The force cracked the air.
"She's got power too," Rein muttered.
The woman suddenly grabbed his wrist and tried pulling him forward.
But Rein didn't move an inch.
Instead—
he grinned.
"My turn."
Rein pulled HER instead.
The woman's eyes widened.
He yanked her straight toward him and drove a knee toward her stomach.
BOOM!
The woman crossed both arms barely in time.
The impact still launched her backward through the sand.
The man suddenly reappeared behind Rein.
Fast.
Very fast.
He threw a punch toward Rein's spine.
Rein twisted sideways.
The punch missed by inches.
Rein immediately countered with a hook toward the man's ribs.
The man blocked.
But Rein's raw physical strength still forced him sliding backward across the beach.
The man's arms trembled.
"…Monster."
Rein smirked.
"You noticed?"
The woman rushed Rein again.
This time her movements became sharper.
More aggressive.
She attacked relentlessly.
Punch.
Kick.
Elbow.
Palm strike.
Knee.
Every movement flowed perfectly into the next.
Rein dodged while laughing.
"This is fun!"
The woman suddenly spun and drove a heel kick downward.
Rein blocked with both arms.
BOOOOM!
The sand beneath him exploded outward.
The man joined the assault immediately.
The two attacked Rein together from both sides.
The woman aimed high.
The man attacked low.
Their teamwork was nearly flawless.
But Rein's expression only became more excited.
He ducked beneath the woman's punch.
Blocked the man's kick.
Grabbed the man's ankle.
And swung him directly into the woman.
BOOOOM!!
Both crashed through a nearby rock formation.
Rein stretched his neck again.
CRACK.
Then he started walking toward the rubble.
"C'mon," he said. "Don't tell me that's all the Round Table has."
The rubble exploded outward.
The man emerged first.
Blood running from his forehead.
The woman stepped out behind him completely unharmed.
Rein raised an eyebrow.
"Huh."
The man wiped blood from his mouth.
Then smiled.
"You really are a monster."
The woman finally spoke for the first time.
"We'll kill you."
Rein grinned widely.
"Now THAT'S what I wanted to hear."
The ocean waves crashed violently behind them.
The air itself trembled from their pressure.
And then—
all three vanished simultaneously.
BOOOOOM!!!