Akira's body slammed into the fractured ground, the impact sending cracks spiraling outward through the black dust beneath him. His breathing came slow, steady — each inhale filled with the scent of nothingness. Around him stretched an endless wasteland of gray mist and floating shards of shadow.
He slowly stood, gripping Yamitsurugi, the dark steel vibrating faintly in his hand.
"This… again," he muttered, his eyes scanning the horizon. "Where am I this time?"
Then a calm, distant voice drifted through the void — Masahiro's.
"This place will break you before it tests you, Akira. Stand tall."
The ground suddenly convulsed. Cracks split open beneath his feet, releasing black smoke and the sound of shattering chains. One by one, shadow creatures clawed their way out — twisted bodies with too many limbs, their eyes burning like coals in the dark.
Akira smirked faintly, sliding his left foot back.
"So it begins."
The first creature lunged — a blur of fangs and tendrils. Akira vanished in an instant — Veil Step — and reappeared behind it, blade already mid-swing.
The sound of steel slicing through void flesh echoed. The creature dissolved into smoke before it even realized it was dead.
But more came. Dozens. Then hundreds.
Akira moved like a storm.
Every strike of Eternal Sever left a shockwave that tore through the ground. Every movement blurred between light and shadow. The void burned around him with each clash, but the creatures kept coming — an endless sea of darkness.
Then, the world trembled.
The ground split open, and from the abyss rose a colossal worm-like beast, scales gleaming like obsidian glass, mouth wide enough to swallow a mountain. The roar it unleashed shattered the stillness of the void.
"Oh… so you're the boss," Akira whispered, twirling his sword once.
The beast inhaled — and the very air warped. Then came Shadow Breath — a massive beam of compressed darkness, tearing across the void.
Akira crossed his blade to block, but the sheer force sent him flying back hundreds of meters. The ground behind him melted from the heat and pressure of the attack.
He skidded to a halt, panting, smoke rising from his arms.
"That's… new."
The creature prepared for another strike, but Akira was already moving. His mark flared crimson, his body glowing with raw energy.
Veil Step.
He vanished and reappeared right above the monster's head, his blade aimed downward.
"Let's see how you like this!"
He plunged Yamitsurugi deep into the creature's skull. The sword pulsed with blinding white light — Eternal Sever unleashed in full. The explosion of energy shredded through its head, ripping the entire body apart from the inside.
Black ash rained down like snow.
Akira landed hard, breathing heavy, wiping the blood from his cheek.
"One down."
The air grew still again. But then — a deeper rumble.
Something far larger moved beneath the ground.
The surface shattered like glass. From below rose an even larger beast, this one armored in cracked bone and dripping molten shadow. Its roar shook the void itself. It raised its head — and the space around it bent, the gravity distorting violently.
The mark on Akira's neck flared like fire.
"Not again…"
The creature opened its mouth — a black hole forming in its throat.
The void screamed.
Then came Void Blast — a colossal eruption of energy that vaporized everything in its path. The impact shook the realm itself. Akira barely used Veil Step in time, dodging by a hair as the explosion tore through where he stood, leaving a crater miles wide.
He landed hard again, sliding across burning ground, his body scorched, arm bleeding.
"You're not the only one who can end things in one blow…"
His blade hummed. White sparks rippled along the edge. The air thickened — even the void itself trembled. He raised Yamitsurugi, his voice low and cold.
"Astral Obliteration."
The strike that followed was silent — terrifyingly so.
A wave of blinding white light split the world, erasing the creature in an instant. Its scream cut off midway as its body dissolved into fragments of nothingness.
When the light faded, Akira stood alone.
His chest rose and fell slowly, the silence heavy once more.
"...It's finally over," he whispered.
He turned, scanning the endless horizon. For the first time, the void was quiet — no monsters, no movement, only the faint hum of his blade. He tightened his grip, staring into the distance.
Something flickered far ahead — faint, almost like a shimmer of light.
He squinted. The longer he stared, the more he realized it wasn't light… it was moving. Slowly, rhythmically. Like a heartbeat pulsing through the fog.
"What is that…?"
He took a step forward. The ground trembled slightly under his boot.
Then, his blade began to hum — softly at first, then stronger, glowing with a deep crimson light. His mark reacted too, burning on his neck.
A cold wind howled through the void. The shimmer in the distance stopped moving.
And then, a sound — distant at first, but growing —
A scream.
Not human. Not beast. Something beyond either. A deep, guttural, ancient roar that made the entire realm quake.
Akira froze. His blade's glow intensified, the light flickering violently.
> "That sound… no way…"
The scream grew louder, shaking the air, ripping through the silence like the voice of the abyss itself. The void cracked beneath his feet. Shadows began to crawl from the fractures, twisting and writhing as the light around him flickered out.
He raised his sword, every nerve on fire, his instincts screaming danger — real, unearthly danger.
"Whatever you are…" he whispered, his voice steady, "I'm not backing down."
The glow of Yamitsurugi burned bright one last time before everything went dark.