Danteus.
An elder with a serene presence.
Old, yes. Profoundly kind.
Blind to the physical world, but a king of visions.
It was thanks to him that the Emerald Gate did not fall into the demon's trap. It was his silent guidance that enabled the plan to poison the King of Hell. His gift saved the resistance from absolute disaster.
But that morning, his visions showed him something he wished he had never seen.
A flash in his mind revealed the bodies... all of them.
Amina.
Elara.
Kael.
Haruto.
Each one fallen, blood mingled with the earth, eyes empty, as if time itself had bowed before death.
All dead.
By the same enemy.
The same name that echoed in nightmares.
Dante.
The king of hell.
Danteus staggered, leaning on the edge of the ceremonial table. His trembling fingers clutched his chest.
— All of them... are dead — he murmured with a heavy, almost suffocating pain.
The room echoed with the metallic sound of global communications. All the presidents and leaders of the unified fronts were connected in a tense call, their voices overlapping with shouts, orders, and fear.
— We must launch the bombs now! — one declared, his voice laden with desperation.
But Danteus raised a hand with a calm that only the wise possess.
— No... — he said softly. — There are still warriors fighting there. Not all is lost.
— We need confirmation — another leader retorted, impatient. — If there is still hope... we need to see it. Send drones, reporters, whatever is necessary. Someone needs to see with their own eyes. We need to know if it's worth waiting.
Danteus sighed deeply, the heavy sound of a man who has seen the future and could barely bear its weight.
And then...
He fell silent.
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In the heart of the chaos, the battle raged on tirelessly.
Screams and explosions mixed with the smell of blood and the bitter taste of dust in the air.
The ground was stained red, and the sky seemed to be on fire.
But amidst all this chaos, something new was beginning to bloom.
Not a miracle.
A reckoning.
— Stella... — Fenra murmured, her voice hoarse and disbelieving.
How was this possible?
She watched from afar, even wounded, her eyes wide with surprise.
Stella's energy flowed with perfection. No ruptures. No chaos. No hesitation.
That flow... was pure. Concentrated. Powerful.
— She's at the level of a perfect Senju... — she whispered to herself, still trying to understand.
Her eyes then fell upon the blade Stella wielded.
Could it be... the sword is the catalyst?
A brief, but insistent thought.
Jouki, on the other side, smiled. But there was something forced in that smile. A tension in her jaw.
She felt it. Something was different. Something was wrong.
A cutting light appeared before her, like an omen.
Stella stared at her with eyes that were not solely her own.
They were ancient eyes. The eyes of a soul that had lived too long.
The eyes of an ancestral huntress.
— Shall we play then, little star? — Jouki roared with scorn, as her severed arm regenerated with demonic speed.
Stella did not answer.
She merely pointed the blade, cold and firm.
— A high-class demon...
— I'll have to cut directly, then.
And then, as if the world stopped to watch, the two vanished.
In an instant, they collided in the air.
The impact was so brutal the ground trembled.
Waves of energy spread in all directions, lifting rubble and dust.
Fenra was thrown back like a leaf in the wind, rolling on the ground, wounded and gasping.
Stella spun in the air with lethal precision and redirected Jouki away, hurling her in a violent curve, moving the battle away from Fenra.
Protecting her.
This girl...
For a moment, Fenra saw something. Something impossible.
It was like looking at Mei... when she was a teenager.
No.
Perhaps even more.
More contained. More precise. More... dangerous.
Wounded, bleeding, Fenra fell to a sitting position on the ground.
She watched that young woman who, minutes ago, was just a desperate hostage.
Now, she was her savior.
Ironic poetry.
A tired smile appeared on her split lips.
— Thank you... Stella.
The mortal battle began to consume everything around them.
Buildings crumbled under the weight of the blows, and the city transformed into a field of destruction and ruins.
Explosions echoed like thunder, a chaos of light and darkness clashing without respite.
Violent flames fought against a faint, yet resilient, spark of hope.
Jouki raised her hands, summoning a massive sphere of flaming darkness that pulsed with shadowy energy.
She launched the black mass towards Stella, who stood firm, without hesitation.
With deep concentration, Stella channeled a colossal wave of energy into her blade.
Her eyes closed, and her lips uttered words in an ancient, incomprehensible tongue.
Jouki's sphere fell like a plummeting planet, about to crush everything in its path.
But at the exact moment, Stella delivered a brutal strike.
The blade cut through the air and everything exploded in a devastating wave of light and shadow.
A deafening crash shook the rubble, and Jouki, blinded by the explosion, couldn't see Stella appearing in her blind spot.
A fierce blow struck with precision.
Jouki tried to react, blocking with her dark powers, but the force of the impact threw her meters back, knocking down walls and scattering debris.
The fight resumed its frantic pace, a chaotic dance of destruction amidst the rubble.
Jouki materialized two black blades, sharp as razors, and charged at Stella with ferocity.
The clash was brief, but violent.
Quick, merciless blows, filled with fury and pain.
Their screams cut through the air, mingling with the metallic sound of clashing blades.
Steel cut flesh and flesh responded, with shallow and deep cuts.
Each blow made the world around them explode in sparks and debris.
It was a fight of titans, a battle worthy of gods.
Jouki then invoked a series of black thorns that sprouted from the ground like sharp serpents, threatening to trap Stella in their deadly embrace.
But Stella shone with intensity, her eyes burning with golden flames.
Energetic chains appeared around her, swift and firm, entangling Jouki.
These chains were different—dense, imbued with a concentrated energy that made it impossible for Jouki to tear them as before.
Trapped, Jouki was hurled against several buildings, shattering them on impact.
As she fell, an ethereal spear pierced her chest.
Stella advanced for the final blow, her heart pounding with determination and hope.
But Jouki smiled, slowly and cruelly.
— Congratulations, little blonde — she murmured with disdain. — You really got on my nerves this time.
With a deliberate gesture, she removed her eyepatch, revealing her left eye.
In an instant, everything around them was consumed by a voracious darkness.
Stella recoiled, burning in the black flames that licked her left arm, now exposed to the raw flesh.
But the young woman was regenerating.
She wasn't just Stella.
Something more was there, sharing her strength, her power.
She was not alone.
Jouki roared, destroying everything with a storm of shadows and fire.
Her eye bled, black and empty—demonic.
Wings tore from her back, covered in slow-dripping black blood.
She screamed as her body transformed, her aura growing, devouring everything around her.
A small horn sprouted from the left side of her head, gleaming and threatening.
She stood up, walking through the flames, an entity of pure terror, advancing towards Stella.
Motionless, Stella stared at her with a serene, almost veteran gaze, without a trace of surprise.
Jouki's voice echoed, distorted and dual, as if two souls shared the same body—male and female in a macabre synchrony.
— Shall we play then, little star?
Stella took a step forward.
Then another.
The slow steps turned into a run.
The two collided in the midst of the battle again, and everything around them exploded in a new wave of destruction.
Fenra watched from a distance, her heart tight but with unshakable faith.
She believed—Stella would win.
The fight continued fiercely.
Jouki, now more powerful and wild, advanced mercilessly, surrounding Stella from the skies with her demonic wings.
Stella retreated, being thrown against walls, which shattered into debris upon impact.
Despite everything, Stella attacked with all her might, manipulating light with mastery.
Jouki dodged, flying, but Stella's blades still struck her with cruel precision.
— Is that all, little star? — Jouki taunted, her voice laden with scorn and challenge.
Stella conjured a chain again, trying to drag Jouki to the ground, but this time, the villainess grabbed it with her bare hands—like seizing the neck of prey—and smiled with sick pleasure.
— Enough, little star...
In a sharp, merciless pull, she violently dragged Stella upward. The chain dissolved in the air, and Stella was completely vulnerable, floating in a sky now dominated by Jouki's shadowy territory. There was no wind, no sound—only the vacuum of fear.
And then, the beast moved.
Jouki tore through the air like a misshapen thunderclap. In the blink of an eye, she appeared in front of Stella, who tried to raise her sword... but it was too late. With a devastating blow, Jouki struck her stomach, sending her weapon flying away. The impact was dry, the sound of cracking bone echoed in the void.
Stella writhed, but didn't even have time to fall. The sequence came—swift, insane.
Punches. Cuts. Impacts that made her body arch like a puppet without control. Blood flew in small jets. Her saliva, mixed with red, fell in heavy drops, staining the sky.
A deep cut on her face. Another on her shoulder. A sequence of kicks that tore the fabric of her suit and lacerated her flesh. Jouki screamed with pleasure with each blow. She wasn't fighting—she was torturing.
And then, with a savage roar, Jouki drove her hand into Stella's stomach.
Again.
The flesh opened like wet paper. The energy dissolved into pure pain.
Jouki's voice came low, icy, near the girl's ear, her fingers still buried in her body:
— Sorry… I couldn't pierce the boy in front of you like I said. So, I decided to repeat the act. I do love this part. You die once more. A ritual… familiar.
She smiled. Slowly withdrew her hand, savoring the suffering, and hurled Stella against the rubble with a crash that cracked the ground. The impact raised dust, breaking chunks of concrete around.
Jouki floated in the sky like a goddess of carnage, her eyes devoid of empathy.
— Tired of this little game... — she murmured, feeling Karmore's energy exploding in the distance. — I think I'll go see what she's up to.
I'll check on Azaroth later... His battle seems interesting.
But then... something on the ground caught her attention.
Stella was getting up.
Slowly. Staggering. Her clothes torn, bloodied. One eye almost swollen shut. Her stomach still open, but... something strange was happening. The wound was beginning to close.
Her body was broken, but her soul—was not.
Stella kept her head low. Her breathing heavy. The dust settled around her. The ground seemed to respond to her presence. An energy began to form... warm. Alive. Stubborn.
Jouki laughed.
— You're still standing? Okay. Enough.
I'm tired of pretending I killed you. Now I will erase you from existence.
With her hand raised, she conjured a colossal sphere of red and black energy. Much denser, pulsating, chaotic. A living mass of destruction. It roared like an abyss, about to be unleashed.
But then Stella raised her hand.
And her sword flew back to her—like a faithful servant returning to its master's command. She gripped it firmly. And when she raised her eyes... they were on fire. Golden. Luminous. Sacred.
The aura around her exploded. A golden storm was born around her. The dust rose. The air grew heavy as if about to collapse.
Ancient words escaped her lips. Phrases the world had forgotten. Syllables from ancestral eras. The sky trembled.
Both knew: the end would be now.
A single blow. A single chance. One would live. The other... would disappear forever.
Jouki launched the sphere, which condensed into a deadly ray of shadows. Stella screamed and charged with her blade held high. The collision was brutal.
In the air, light and darkness met in a silent scream that tore through the atmosphere. The resulting explosion was like the birth of a star.
Fenra, watching from afar. Even at a distance, she clenched her fists and teeth and screamed.
— GO! YOU CAN DO IT! — she shouted, with all her soul.
Down below, amidst the debris, Dan staggered to his feet. His eyes wide, his heart beating erratically.
— STELLA!! — he shouted with all that remained of his voice.
— WE BELIEVE IN YOU!!
Their voices crossed the battlefield and reached Stella's heart. Deep in her soul, she heard... The original bearer of the sword.
An unparalleled warrior now speaking in her soul.
— Have faith. Have... determination.
And then...
The memory of Tenklyn. Her brother. The sacrifice. The promise.
Something broke inside Stella. Or perhaps... awakened.
She screamed.
And all hearts screamed with her.
The light began to win. First, a crack in the darkness. Then, a golden wave. One by one, Jouki's shadows were destroyed, like shadows under the midday sun.
In the physical plane. In the mental plane. In the girl's heart.
The light was conquering not just the physical darkness, but that of her heart and soul.
Stella exploded like a golden comet, tearing through the darkness with divine fury. The sword in her hand shone with the intensity of a hundred suns.
And then…
A single cut.
Simple. Clean. Fatal.
Pure light pierced through Jouki, cutting her in two—body, soul, and curse.
Demons are fragile to light. And that blow... had no cure. No return.
In the next instant, only silence remained. Just golden dust in the air.
The champion of the bloody battle...
Was Stella Zenon.
To be continued...
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