"Even in the shadows, the serpent's path is revealed to those who dare to pursue."
Osaka, Japan
Rain and mist enshrouded the Amakiri Residence. Through the haze, Gregorio Aguilar and Tsubame Hayashi-Hime pressed onward, stepping over the fallen warriors of the Orochi group in their relentless pursuit of Shinken Amakiri.
Their relics blazed with intensity, violet and silver glimmers piercing the darkness. The clash of purple auras, spear edges, and voidsteel resonated like thunder against the crumbling walls.
Orochi Guard 1 (panicked): 「止めろ!奴らを通すな!」 (Stop them! Don't let them through!)
Orochi Guard 2 (gritting his teeth): 「伝説のサンダタか…我らが死んでも進ませぬ!」 (The legendary Sandata… even if we die, they will not advance!)
Orochi Guard Captain: 「我らの命は蛇の糧だ!突撃!」 (Our lives are offerings to the Serpent! Charge!)
Gregorio moved with the speed of purple lightning, Baybayin glyphs swirling around his fists as he darted past runic rounds and blades. Each movement crackled through the air, each strike infused with annihilating force.
Beside him, Tsubame's spear spun in lethal arcs, parrying attacks with grace before dispatching her foes. Their synergy became a tempest—a dance of death amidst obsidian armor and desperate cries.
Yet, the Orochi guard fought valiantly. Each soldier hurled himself into the fray with fatal determination, their bodies falling like leaves in a tempest.
Shattered windows rained glass across the asphalt. Walls fractured, streets crumbled under the violent exchange, collateral damage spreading like widening scars.
The air grew thick with ozone and scorched iron. Amidst the chaos, the path to Shinken Amakiri revealed itself. Ahead lay the Osaka Subway Station.
Gregorio and Tsubame paused at the entrance, exchanging a glance laden with unspoken resolve.
Gregorio: 「準備はいいか?」
(Are you ready?)
Tsubame: 「最後までだ」
(To the end.)
Together, they descended into the darkness.
The Roar from the Darkness
The subway tunnels sprawled before them like a labyrinth of shadow and concrete. Flickering lights trembled overhead, casting restless hues across the corridors. Echoes of distant trains hummed through the void, but no passengers stirred. The station—once alive with the pulse of commuters—now lay silent, a tomb awaiting disturbance.
Gregorio and Tsubame advanced, senses heightened, footsteps echoing like a steady drumbeat. Each corridor drew them closer to Shinken's presence, felt as a looming weight in the suffocating air.
Then, the roar came—a guttural thunder that shook the tunnel walls.
Gregorio and Tsubame exchanged a look—not of surprise, but of grim recognition. Only one kind of entity could summon such a sound.
An Echo.
Their relics ignited instantly. Purple light flared from Gregorio's fists, silver brilliance emanating from Tsubame's spear. Countless eyes blinked open in the shadows.
The echoes emerged—samurai phantoms, denied peace, their forms shrouded in black miasma. Katanas glimmered in spectral light as they advanced in waves.
Gregorio struck first, vanishing in a blur and reappearing with a spinning backfist that shattered an echo's skull into splinters.
Another raised its blade, but the Eyes of Bathala ignited, warping reality—its strike cut only air. Gregorio reappeared in its blind spot, Kamay ni Bathala surging forward. A spiraling burst of violet fire consumed the tunnel, vaporizing rows of echoes in a single sweep.
The purple flares faded. From their glow emerged a different Gregorio—his eyes alight with celestial fire, his coat unraveling into dust. Baybayin runes seared themselves into his skin, one after another.
Gregorio (whispering): "Divinity Mode."
The echoes faltered, trembling as judgment descended upon them.
Tsubame (gasping, aura crushed): 「これが...伝説のサンダタ部隊がスピリットブリーチと戦う姿なのか!」 (So this is how the Legendary Sandata Unit fight Spirit Breaches.)
Gregorio: 「ツバメ,俺の後ろにいろ.俺はエコーと戦う時,一切手加減しない.」 (Stay behind me, Tsubame. I don't hold back when fighting echoes.)
He levitated.
His presence...divine.
Gregorio raised his hand and flicked his finger. At that moment, the fabric of reality in the tunnel shattered like glass. The echoes disintegrated, erased from existence.
As he turned back toward Tsubame, the fractured shards of this realm repaired itself with each step, his divine form collapsing back into mortal flesh.
Tsubame (panting): 「ありがとう,グレゴリオ.」 (Thank you, Gregorio.)
Gregorio: 「進み続けなければならない.真剣雨斬は我々を待ってはくれないだろう.」 (We must keep moving. Shinken Amakiri won't wait for us.)
They pressed onward, shadows bending away from their passage.
The Breach and the Staging of War
At the Osaka Subway Blue Line platform, covert pursuit escalated into catastrophic myth-tech warfare. Gregorio's Eyes of Bathala forecast Shinken's retreat path with surgical precision, while Tsubame's Tombo Giri sealed his escape at the junction.
Shinken, encircled, opted for escalation.
He plunged the Masamune into the platform floor. Glyphs ignited. Echoes surged from the breach in a tide of wrathful spirits.
Energy coursed through the station, halting trains and trapping civilians inside. Their cries reverberated against glass windows as they witnessed the mythic battle unfold.
Civilian (inside train, panicked): 「何が起きてるんだ!?電車が止まった!」 (What's happening!? The train just stopped!)
Mother clutching child: 「お願い…誰か助けて!」 (Please… someone help us!)
Suddenly, a dense purple aura enveloped the train, imbuing it with a sense of divine protection.
Speed, Precision, and Disruption
The horde pressed in like an ocean of shadows, their katanas shrieking through the air. Against overwhelming numbers, Gregorio and Tsubame moved as one.
Gregorio blurred forward, his Eyes of Bathala activating. Phantom afterimages spread across the platform, confusing the primal echoes. They slashed at illusions, leaving themselves vulnerable.
Tsubame seized the moment. With a cry, she spun the Tombo Giri in a perfect arc.
Tsubame: 「蜻蛉斬り旋風!」 (Tombo Giri Cyclone!)
A whirlwind of steel tore the echoes apart, carving spirals of glowing dust.
Gregorio followed instantly, fists igniting with Kamay Unmaking bursts. Every strike cracked reality, dissolving echoes into silent ash. The horde faltered.
But then Shinken Amakiri advanced, his Masamune gleaming with terrible resonance. He slashed, the blade carrying a mountain's weight.
Tsubame (gritting teeth, intercepting the blow): "Masamune's weight is unbearable… but I won't yield!"
The Tombo Giri refracted the force. Gregorio immediately responded, aura spiraling.
Gregorio: Aetheric Resonance!
The kinetic force of the Masamune rebounded upon its wielder. Shinken's eyes narrowed as his own aura crashed against him.
Shinken (cold fury): 「帝国の刃は永遠だ.お前達ごときが折れるはずもない!」 (The blade of the empire is eternal. You insects cannot break it!)
Gregorio (to himself, battered by the shock): "Every strike shakes my bones. But if I fall, the civilians fall too."
Tsubame (panting, to herself): 「ここで死ねば…忠勝の後継者も一緒に死ぬ.いや,まだだ.」
("If I die here… Tadakatsu's heir dies with me. No. Not yet.")
Gregorio (shouting defiantly): 「お前の刃が何百年耐えてきたとしても,俺たちの意志はそれ以上に鋭い!」 (Even if your blade has endured for centuries, our will is sharper still!)
Shinken: 「その意志,俺が粉々に砕いてやる!」 (That will… I will shatter it into dust!)
Descent into the Void
Shinken's aura swelled with sudden, violent intensity. The Masamune whistled through the air, delivering a proto-ultimate slash. The force cracked Gregorio's defenses and hurled Tsubame into the platform wall, her spear momentarily silenced.
Gregorio staggered under the weight. Sparks erupted across his aura. Shinken's voice cut through the chaos.
Shinken (dark smile): 「見せてみろ…サンダタの限界を.」 (Show me… the Sandata's limit.)
He plunged the Masamune's tip into the floor. Blood-red glyphs erupted outward, detonating in a blinding flash. The station floor tore apart, revealing a gaping, purple-black maw.
A Spirit Breach.
Gregorio murmured in awe, "A Sandata that can summon a Spirit breach..."
The howls of a thousand echoes erupted, flooding into the subway in a torrent of rage. The breach's energy warped the station itself, tearing steel from concrete.
Tsubame (struggling to rise, horrified): 「もしその突破口が広がったら…大阪は陥落する.」
("If that breach expands… Osaka falls.")
Gregorio clenched his fists, aura convulsing violently. Only one answer remained.
Gregorio (to himself, bitter resolve): "Divinity Mode… even if it kills me."
The Divine Surge and the Limit
The Kamay ni Bathala ignited, violet light bursting like a sun underground. Gregorio levitated, runes tearing across his body in streams of light. His voice reverberated against the collapsed station.
Gregorio: Divinity Mode!
The echoes dissolved instantly under the surge. The breach shrieked as reality itself bent inward and collapsed into silence.
Shinken reacted with desperation, lifting the Masamune high.
Shinken: 「帝国奥義:大天斬り!」 (Imperial Ultimate: Almighty Slash!)
The Masamune descended like a judgment. Gregorio did not evade. His aura flared outward, intercepting the blade with pure divine will.
The ground shattered, subway supports crumbled, and steel beams fell in avalanches. The backlash hurled Shinken through a wall, temporarily silencing the Oyabun.
But the cost was immediate. The violet aura flickered, the Kamay collapsing into dormancy. Gregorio's body shook violently before he fell to his knees, breath gone, power drained.
Gregorio (hoarse whisper): "Too much… I can't hold it…"
Shinken stirred amidst the rubble, eyes blazing.
The Heir's Vow
Before the Oyabun could strike, Tsubame forced herself to her feet. Blood streaked her face, but her eyes shone with fury. She raised the Tombo Giri, glyphs igniting along its shaft.
Tsubame: 「神々の天罰: 忠勝の継承者!」 (Punishment of the Gods: Tadakatsu's Heir!)
The helmet of Honda Tadakatsu glyph surged into being, its colossal antlers shimmering above her head.
She launched forward in a Dragonfly Charge, a blur of light and steel aimed at Shinken's heart.
The impact drove the Oyabun to his knees. Sparks exploded as his aura fractured. Yet, with desperate mastery, Shinken traced a Void-Seal glyph into the air. The killing blow deflected, the platform screaming under the impact.
Tsubame landed in front of Gregorio, panting, her stance unbroken.
The Clash of Punishments
Shinken rose with a snarl.
Shinken: 「神々の罰:次元分断者!」 (Punishment of the Gods: Dimension Divider!)
The Dimensional Blade glyph erupted beneath him. He raised the Masamune again, slashing downward—not at them, but at reality itself.
The air split apart. A rift carved through existence, a dimensional blade that threatened to sever the world in half.
Gregorio, barely conscious, forced his aura to reignite. The Kamay surged violently, system warnings screaming within his soul.
He ignored them.
He activated Soul Thread. His violet aura enveloped Tsubame, expanding the antlered helmet into full spirit armor.
Gregorio (strained shout): "Take it, Tsubame… I'll anchor you!"
Together, their energies fused—Tsubame's Dragonfly Charge became unstoppable, divine, harmonized with Gregorio's essence.
They charged. Both growled with the power of a thousand beasts as they clashed with the full extent of their powers.
The collision with the Dimension Divider unleashed annihilation.
The subway erupted into a maelstrom of spiraling violet erasure and fracturing dimensional shards. The junction floor disintegrated into a pit of ruin, steel collapsing, flames bursting, water flooding in from ruptured pipelines. A God-Tier Event detonated in the heart of Osaka.
The Serpent's Tactical Retreat
As the battlefield collapsed, Shinken faltered. His defense cracked, his stance broken, his life moments from ending.
But then—an emerald and obsidian glyph spiraled into existence.
Raja, the Serpent Emperor, stepped forth, cloaked in serpent-scale armor. The devastation bent around him, flames dimming, steel warping, even water pausing mid-flood. He radiated oppressive dominion.
In his grip gleamed the Haring Sawa and the Pamana ni Lakan. Without hesitation, he seized Shinken's battered form.
Raja (calm, resonant): "Here, it is not the Serpent that perishes. We endure… and strike again."
The Extraction Glyph pulled them both away, dragging debris into its spiral as the two vanished.
The residual blast of the Punishment struck only rubble, deepening the crater and igniting floods into steam pillars. Entire train cars groaned and sagged as twisted rails bent beneath them. Water rushed from broken pipes, hissing against fires that still licked across shattered glyph engines. The chamber became a storm of boiling vapor, choking the air in ghostly curtains of white.
When silence finally fell, the destruction was absolute. Gregorio collapsed into Tsubame's arms, his breath ragged and fading. She stood defiantly amidst the ruin, her armor cracked but unbroken.
Inside the shattered train, civilians trembled. Shards of glass fell around them like rain, their faces reflecting the violet glow that still pulsed faintly from Gregorio's dormant relic.
Civilian (voice trembling): 「まだ…生きている…彼が…守ってくれたんだ…」 (We're still alive… he protected us…)
Another passenger whispered: 「あの二人がいなければ,全員死んでいた…」 (If not for those two, we would all be dead…)
The subway junction, now a vast, smoldering crater, stood as a testament—victory achieved, yet the Serpent remained free.
Each column of smoke rising through the broken ceiling seemed to mourn the devastation while bearing silent witness to the price of survival.