BOOM!
The last thing Darant City heard was the explosion that followed Rumbler's descent. The giant burst out of the crater like a divine spire cast down from the heavens, dirt and rubble sliding from his body as he landed outside. His chest rose and fell violently. Every breath sounded heavier than the last. His muscles twitched uncontrollably as he fought against the force trying to turn him into a monster.
He refused to let it happen.
Inside the crater, Levi and Kayo struggled to rise.
Their bodies were already falling apart.
Levi's arms hung uselessly at his sides, blood streaming down his face and blurring his vision. Nearby, Kayo tried to push himself upright, only for his legs to buckle beneath him every time.
"Levi..." Kayo coughed, spitting blood onto the broken concrete. "We need to leave."
Levi didn't answer.
His eyes remained fixed on Rumbler.
"There's no point..."
Kayo continued, forcing himself onto one knee.
"You can feel it too, can't you?
"Seventy-eight percent. We can't beat this monster."
Still nothing.
Levi simply stared.
Then his eyes narrowed.
"He's comi..."
The words barely escaped his mouth.
Rumbler was already there.
The giant crossed the distance in an instant, his massive arm swinging forward with enough force to split the air itself. Levi saw it coming. He understood exactly what was about to happen.
His body simply couldn't move.
THUMP!!
The impact folded Levi's body and launched him across the city.
"LEVI!"
Kayo's scream echoed through the battlefield, but Rumbler wasn't finished. Purple gravity surged around Levi's flying body, suddenly ripping him back through the air as though an invisible chain had wrapped around his waist.
At the same time, Rumbler grabbed Kayo by the arm.
The giant spun once.
Twice.
Then hurled him directly into Levi's path.
CRASH!!
The two Demons collided midair with enough force to shatter bone. Before either of them could recover, Rumbler flashed forward again. His arms wrapped around Kayo's torso and squeezed.
Crack.
Several ribs gave way instantly.
Gravity erupted around them as Rumbler bridged backward, driving Kayo headfirst into the street with a monstrous German supplex. The ground exploded beneath the impact, concrete and debris blasting into the air.
Levi had barely managed to regain his bearings when gravity suddenly seized him.
His body stopped falling.
Then it started rising.
Higher and higher.
Levi's eyes widened.
The sky was pulling him upward.
"A tombstone piledriver..."
The realization came immediately.
Rumbler shot into the air after him, grabbed him upside down, and locked him in place. Then the giant twisted his body and began descending fast.
The city blurred beneath them as they fell like a meteor.
As the ground rushed closer, Levi's thoughts drifted somewhere unexpected.
These moves...
His vision blurred.
They're familiar...
One name surfaced from the back of his mind.
Triumphant.
For some reason, Rumbler's style reminded him of the Fighter.
The ground rushed up to meet him.
Then everything exploded.
BOOOOM!!
A pillar of dust erupted into the evening sky.
When Levi finally opened his eyes again, he found himself staring upward. His respiratory mask was shattered. Several bones were fractured. One of his ribs had pierced a lung, making every breath feel like broken glass scraping through his chest.
The atmosphere of Nitchtron burned inside his lungs as his body struggled to adapt.
Yet despite the pain...
Despite the battlefield...
His thoughts drifted somewhere far away.
Back to another memory.
—
A week ago.
Planet Earth — Country of Hinode.
High atop the mountain training grounds, Levi and Kayo endured a relentless routine. Every morning before sunrise, they ran ten miles carrying eight-hundred-pound boulders across their backs, finishing just as the first rays of sunlight broke over the horizon. The rest of the day was no easier. They practiced kata and martial arts, lifted until their muscles gave out, meditated beneath waterfalls, climbed cliffs, hunted, fished, and ate disciplined meals. Everything they did was meant to sharpen the body and temper the mind.
By nightfall, the two remained at the mountain campsite.
A small fire crackled in the darkness, casting warm light across the surrounding forest. Kayo sat cross-legged beside the flames, writing carefully on a scroll with a brush and ink. Across from him, Levi sat on a large rock with a turkey leg in one hand and a book in the other.
For once, neither of them was training.
Kayo glanced up from his writing and smirked.
"You've been reading a lot lately."
Levi peered over the edge of his book.
"So?"
"I just never took you for a scholar."
Levi rolled his eyes and tore another bite from the turkey leg in his hand.
"I don't want to be a complete idiot out there. If I'm going to become the worst Demon in existence, I should at least have some brains."
Kayo laughed under his breath before returning to the scroll resting across his lap. Levi watched the brush move for a moment, then noticed the familiar care in his writing.
"Still sending letters home?"
"Yeah." A small smile touched Kayo's face. "I want them to know I'm doing all right."
Levi lowered his book slightly.
"Do they know what you do?"
Kayo's brush stopped. He stared at the unfinished line before slowly shaking his head.
"No. And they can never know."
His smile faded as his gaze settled on the fire. "As long as I'm alive, I'll provide for them. That's enough. I'll make sure the people I care about are taken care of, even if I have to take from others to do it."
The flames reflected in his eyes, but there was no hesitation in them. Only conviction.
Levi chuckled.
"You're an odd one."
Kayo looked over.
"You sound like a Fighter," Levi continued, taking another bite. "But you're definitely a Demon."
That earned a quiet laugh. Kayo set the brush beside his scroll, though his expression soon became thoughtful.
"What about you?"
Levi looked up. "What about me?"
"How did you end up like this?"
The question seemed to catch him off guard, though only for a moment. "Why do you care?"
"I'm curious." Kayo leaned back against the tree behind him. "When you arrived, you were already doing things most people spend years learning. Your speed, endurance, instincts—even your ability to stay alive. Everything about you is abnormal."
Levi said nothing.
"I can't imagine what kind of life produces someone like that," Kayo continued. "Honestly, the strangest part isn't even your skill."
Levi raised an eyebrow. "Then what is it?"
"Your Stardust level."
Levi frowned. "What about it?"
"It should be higher."
That immediately caught his attention.
"Higher? I'm at fifty-six percent." He pointed at himself with the turkey leg. "That's already above average."
Kayo stared at him for a moment before laughing.
Levi's face soured. "What?"
"You really don't understand how Stardust works, do you?"
"It tells you how strong someone is."
"Not exactly." Kayo picked up a thin branch and used it to stir the fire. "A person doesn't become stronger because their Stardust rises. Their Stardust rises because they've become stronger."
Levi lowered his book completely.
"Physical and mental ability determine how far a person can develop their Stardust," Kayo explained. "That's why someone with a high percentage will naturally possess exceptional physical and mental capabilities. Stardust didn't give them those qualities. They needed those qualities to reach that percentage in the first place."
"So the percentage is a reflection of what someone has already become," Levi said.
"More or less."
Kayo tossed the branch into the flames. "Most Gifters never make it beyond twenty-five to forty percent. That's enough to consciously wield Stardust, but not enough to awaken an ability. Reaching forty is where abilities begin to manifest. By fifty, a Gifter has already become a serious threat. Anyone who reaches sixty stands above almost everyone else."
Levi glanced toward the sky. "Sixty still sounds low, tho. There's another forty percent after that."
Kayo laughed again. "You really are clueless."
Levi threw the turkey bone at him. Kayo tilted his head aside, letting it pass before continuing with an amused grin.
"The numbers don't rise evenly. Every percentage becomes harder to reach than the last. Very few people in history have reached eighty percent, and eighty-five has only been achieved once. Anything beyond that is considered impossible."
The amusement left his face as he looked directly at Levi.
"And a fifteen-percent difference is enough to make a fight hopeless."
Levi's brow tightened. "Just fifteen?"
"It isn't just 'fifteen'. A gap that large means one person has reached a level the other's physical ability, mind, and Stardust cannot contend with. No amount of skill or cleverness is supposed to overcome that."
The crackling fire filled the brief silence between them.
"That's why you confuse me," Kayo added. "At fifty-six percent, your physical abilities make sense. What doesn't make sense is what you accomplish with them."
Levi remained quiet.
"You react too quickly. You notice things you shouldn't, adapt before most people understand what's happening, and survive situations that should've killed you." Kayo's eyes narrowed slightly. "You perform like someone who has already crossed sixty percent, even though your actual power hasn't."
Levi stared into the flames, absorbing everything Kayo had said. After a while, he closed the book, rose from his place beside the fire, and walked toward the edge of the mountain. There, beneath the moonlight, he sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.
Kayo watched him settle into meditation.
"You never answered my question."
Levi gave no response. The wind moved gently through the trees, carrying the smoke above the camp as Kayo continued studying him from beside the fire.
Perhaps Levi hadn't answered because Stardust alone could not explain it.
There was something else behind those instincts—something that allowed him to recognize danger before it arrived and find possibilities where none should have existed.
Kayo looked toward the moon as a name surfaced in his thoughts.
Chō Chokkan.
Super Intuition.
—
Present.
Rumbler stood in the middle of the ruined district and looked down at Levi and Kayo. Neither of them moved.
Their bodies were broken beyond recognition. Blood stained the shattered streets around them, and every breath they took looked like a struggle. The gap between their powers was no longer just a number on a screen or a theory discussed around a campfire. It was reality. It was the difference between standing and crawling. Between fighting and surviving.
Satisfied that the two Demons could no longer continue, Rumbler turned away.
His body still twitched every few steps as he fought against the control forced upon him. The battle inside his mind had not ended. If anything, it had only just begun.
Above the city, helicopters continued circling the battlefield while broadcasting the catastrophe across the planet.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we still don't fully understand what's happening," the reporter said, struggling to keep her composure. "It appears the giant creature has turned against the two attackers. Both individuals are no longer moving, and the giant is now walking away from their bodies."
Across Nitchtron, millions watched in horror. Entire neighborhoods had been reduced to rubble. Fires burned throughout the district. Smoke covered the skyline.
Then something happened.
WHOOSH!!
A jagged pressure suddenly tore through the air and slammed into Rumbler's back.
The giant stopped.
The attack wasn't powerful enough to injure him, but it was enough to get his attention.
Slowly, he turned around.
What he saw made the entire battlefield fall silent.
Levi was standing.
Barely.
His back was hunched forward. His arms hung limply at his sides. Blood poured down his face and dripped from his fingertips. His body looked ready to collapse at any second.
Yet he was standing.
A crimson aura poured from him like wildfire, twisting and surging around his body with violent intensity. It no longer flowed calmly. It raged.
The pressure coming from him felt less like power and more like hatred given form.
Levi lifted his head.
His eyes glowed red.
Not from blood.
Not from injury.
But from sheer determination.
"To hell with your power..."
His voice was low enough that it almost sounded like a whisper.
Rumbler stared at him.
Levi's fists trembled.
"To hell with all of you."
His thoughts burned hotter than the aura surrounding him.
"I don't care how strong you are."
His eyes locked onto the giant.
"You're not stopping me from doing what I want."
The Wrath Boy stood once again.
Broken.
Bleeding.
Outmatched.
Yet unwilling to kneel.
Across from him stood a giant capable of crushing cities with his bare hands.
And still Levi stepped forward.
Ready to continue the fight.
Ready to challenge the impossible one more time.