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ASTRA: GAZERS OF THE FALLEN SKY
Chapter 17 — Pressure Fracture
Australia was no longer a battlefield.
It was a warning.
Half the coastline had collapsed inward. The sea churned violently, pulled and released by shockwaves that no weather system could explain. Clouds spiraled unnaturally above what used to be a city.
And in the center of it —
Kazuo floated silently.
Across from him, Kang's vessel trembled.
Alan's body was beginning to reject divinity.
Thin fractures ran beneath the skin like glowing veins. Golden light leaked from his eyes in unstable pulses. The black wings behind him twitched — not majestically, but erratically.
Kang smiled anyway.
"You're changing."
Kazuo tilted his head slightly.
"Am I?"
His tone was casual.
Too casual.
But something had shifted.
Not externally.
Internally.
There was weight behind his eyes now.
Kang studied him.
"That surge earlier," Kang continued. "That wasn't instinct. That was memory."
Kazuo didn't respond.
Instead, he glanced down at his own hands.
The fingers flexed slowly.
A faint hum lingered in the air around him — subtle, but heavy. Like gravity reconsidering its loyalty.
"I don't remember you," Kazuo said calmly.
Kang laughed.
"You remember the feeling."
Silence.
And that silence meant yes.
---
The Vessel Cracks
Without warning, Kang's aura spiked again.
The air shattered.
Not metaphorically — physically.
The sky fractured in thin lines like cracked glass stretching outward for kilometers.
The output climbed.
8.3%.
8.7%.
Alan's body convulsed midair.
Blood poured from his nose.
"Stop," Kazuo said flatly.
Kang's grin widened.
"You're concerned?"
"I'm bored of repeating myself."
The output hit 9%.
The halo behind Kang fractured violently — reforming as a warped crown of broken light.
His voice deepened, layered.
"You sealed yourself away because you feared what we would become."
Kazuo vanished.
Reappeared.
Drove his knee into Kang's ribs hard enough to split the atmosphere.
The ocean below separated for three full seconds.
Kang didn't move.
He grabbed Kazuo's collar mid-impact.
"You feared yourself."
And slammed him downward.
Kazuo hit bedrock.
The continent trembled.
Miles away, satellites malfunctioned.
Kang descended slowly, wings folding behind him.
"You tore out your own core," he continued calmly, landing in the crater. "Not because I defeated you. But because you saw the end."
Kazuo lay in the dust.
Still.
Breathing.
"…What end?"
Kang crouched slightly.
"The Rulers do not protect worlds."
His golden eyes sharpened.
"We harvest them."
That sentence landed heavier than the punch.
Kazuo didn't react outwardly.
But inside—
A flicker.
Fragments.
A throne suspended in void.
Stars collapsing like embers.
Voices arguing.
A blade raised.
His own hand driving it into—
Black.
The memory cut off violently.
Kazuo stood.
Slowly.
"You talk too much," he repeated.
But his tone had changed.
There was irritation now.
Not boredom.
Irritation.
---
Russia — Aftermath
Seraphiel sat in the snow.
Still breathing.
That alone annoyed her.
Her arm had already begun regenerating, though slowly. The ribs would take longer. Arthur's current capacity didn't allow immediate restoration.
She stared at the sky where Amornachi vanished.
"Ten seconds," she muttered.
Her pride hated it.
Her loyalty accepted it.
Her heart… complicated it.
Arthur's voice echoed faintly in her mind.
You pushed too hard.
She sighed.
"You're one to speak."
Pause.
You smiled.
She looked away.
"Don't analyze me."
Another pause.
He surged.
Her eyes shifted east.
"…I felt it."
Arthur's presence grew quiet.
Then:
He's remembering.
Her jaw tightened.
"Or breaking."
---
Back to Australia
Kang launched forward.
The speed increase was immediate.
This wasn't escalation.
This was desperation.
Each strike now carried layered force — divine compression folded over physical impact.
Kazuo blocked three hits.
The fourth broke through.
His head snapped sideways.
Blood sprayed.
He blinked slowly.
Touched his cheek.
Red.
He stared at it with mild confusion.
"Oh."
Kang's grin widened.
"There it is."
Another punch.
Kazuo skidded backward through air itself.
Not falling.
Just displaced.
"You feel it," Kang pressed.
Kazuo wiped his face.
"…Annoying."
"Pain is proof."
Kazuo vanished.
Reappeared behind him.
Slashed.
This time Kang didn't fully block.
The blade carved through shoulder and chest.
Light exploded outward.
Alan screamed.
The vessel's bones cracked audibly.
Output spiked to 9.4%.
Then —
Something tore.
Not flesh.
Not bone.
Energy.
The divine imprint anchoring Kang to the vessel split partially.
For half a second—
Alan's human consciousness surfaced.
His eyes changed.
Fear.
Pure human fear.
"Kazuo—?"
It was weak.
Barely audible.
Kazuo froze.
Just for a fraction.
Kang forced control back violently.
"You hesitate."
Kazuo's grip tightened on the blade.
"…Shut up."
But that hesitation cost him.
Kang drove a spear of condensed light straight through Kazuo's abdomen.
Clean.
Precise.
The spear anchored him midair.
Kazuo looked down.
Impassive.
Then looked up.
"Is that supposed to matter?"
He grabbed the spear.
Pulled himself forward along it.
Kang's eyes widened slightly.
Kazuo headbutted him.
The impact collapsed the spear and shattered the halo completely.
Alan's body began tearing apart.
Skin splitting under divine overflow.
"You can't maintain this," Kazuo said calmly.
Kang's breathing grew heavier.
"I don't need to."
He extended one hand toward the sky.
And the clouds parted.
Not naturally.
Deliberately.
Above them, space distorted.
Something massive stirred beyond visible atmosphere.
Kazuo looked up.
"…You called them."
Kang smiled through blood.
"They were always coming."
---
Orbit — Watching
Far beyond Earth's atmosphere, something ancient shifted.
A structure.
Not a ship.
Not a creature.
A construct.
Fragments of celestial architecture forming from folded space.
The Rulers' Gate.
Incomplete.
But awakening.
On Earth, dozens of sensitive beings felt it instantly.
Arthur.
Amornachi.
Even Rank 1 Angels paused mid-assault in distant countries.
Pressure descended.
Not physical.
Existential.
Back in Australia, Kazuo stared upward.
And for the first time since his return —
He frowned.
Not irritation.
Recognition.
"…So that's it."
Kang coughed blood.
"You sealed yourself because you refused the Harvest."
Kazuo's eyes sharpened.
"Harvest what."
Kang's smile was broken.
"Civilizations."
Silence.
The ocean stilled.
The wind died.
"You were the only one who questioned it," Kang continued. "And when they refused to listen — you tore your core out so they couldn't use you as a conduit."
Memory slammed back.
Fragments aligning.
Voices in council.
"Balance must be maintained."
"Worlds are resources."
"Growth demands sacrifice."
His own voice responding:
"Then I withdraw."
A blade.
Self-inflicted.
Darkness.
Kazuo exhaled slowly.
"…That's stupid."
Kang blinked.
"What?"
Kazuo looked genuinely annoyed now.
"That's your grand purpose?"
He gestured vaguely upward.
"Farming planets?"
Kang's expression hardened.
"It sustains order."
"It's lazy," Kazuo replied flatly.
For a moment—
Even Kang looked offended.
Kazuo rolled his neck once.
"So you came to drag me back into it."
"Yes."
"And if I say no?"
Kang's aura flared weakly.
"You don't get to."
Kazuo disappeared.
Reappeared in front of him.
Close.
Too close.
He placed a hand over Alan's chest.
Right where the heart was.
Human heart.
Beating frantically.
"Then I'll break the system."
Kang's eyes widened—
Kazuo didn't rip it out.
He pushed energy inward.
Not destructive.
Disruptive.
The divine imprint anchoring Kang shattered completely.
Golden light exploded outward violently.
The sky screamed.
Alan's body fell.
Lifeless.
Kang's consciousness was expelled upward like a comet of fractured divinity.
Kazuo stood in the silent aftermath.
Breathing evenly.
The Gate above flickered.
Not complete.
Not yet.
But active.
Kazuo looked up at it.
"…You're all really annoying."
Behind him, Alan's body hit the water below.
Unconscious.
Alive.
For now.
Kazuo hovered there quietly.
Blood still on his cheek.
Wind returning slowly.
In Russia, Seraphiel felt the shift.
"…He won."
Arthur corrected gently.
For now.
Above Earth, the fractured Gate pulsed again.
Stronger.
Something beyond it began to move.
---
Kazuo finally turned away from the sky.
"…Guess I need a heart after all."
He sounded mildly inconvenienced.
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End of Chapter 17.
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