The halls of Yami's obsidian castle were war-torn. Burnt banners fell from the ceilings. Blood painted the very walls that were in their range. The floor trembled with every impact.
In one wing, Tsukasa, Koji, Hikari and Arisu were fighting side by side. Blades clashed with dark halberds, and corrupted angels were shrieking from above.
Koji (swinging his blade): "How many are there?!"
Hikari (annoyed): "Doesn't matter! Keep pushing!"
Arisu (wings flared): "Hikari's Right, make sure to keep pushing."
Tsukasa (Gritting his teeth): "I swear I'm gonna punch a god in the damn face by the end of this shit."
Elsewhere, Catalina, Zahira and Sumiko were triple-teaming a hallway full of shape-shifting shadows.
Sumiko: "Left Side—!"
Catalina (slamming one into the wall): "Already got it!"
Zahira (Throwing her chakrams): "We're running out of time!"
From above, Evangeline with her giant scythe, Evelyn and Yusei dropped through the ceiling with explosive force, clearing out the center chamber.
Yusei (cocky, dusting himself off): "This will be a piece of cake.."
Evelyn (scolding): "Yusei, don't be arrogant.."
Evelyn smacked the back of his head, causing him to rub his head in pain, before eyeing over at the enemies in their sights.
Evangeline would take out her last remaining kunai as she tossed it over to Yusei which he caught on time, before facing the remaining scientists that were about to attack them.
Yusei (grinning): "You are in range now.." Yusei would flare his mana for a moment before pivoting forward once they didn't have time to run. "Darkness Severance.." With a single motion, Yusei ended the scientists in an instant as their bodies began to disintegrate from the ever consuming darkness that consumed them.
Evangeline (serious): "That's all of them then.."
Evelyn (nodding in response): "Seems like it."
Yusei (concerned): "Let's hurry to Kairo, i don't want him to hog up the spotlight."
We would shift back to Kairo and the others as they were still standing across from Yami. Behind him, the glowing silhouette of the awakened entity as its body pulsed, wings were half-golden and half-bone.
Its face was blank. Its gaze was all-consuming.
Dakota (tense): "What the hell is that thing?"
Lucia (whispering): "It's mimicking our power... all of it."
Yami (smiling): "It is no longer just a weapon. It is the vessel of my will... and the death of your feeble hope."
He walked toward the creature and placed a hand on a father crowning his child.
Yami (proudly): "I name you... Caeliriel. The Angel of Sovereign Silence."
The entity which was dubbed "Kami v2" was named Caeliriel as it suddenly opened its glowing eyes and extended its hand. With a quiet hum, the throne shattered behind it.
The moment grew darker.
Suddenly, the door behind Kairo burst open.
Tsukasa, Koji, Hikari, Arisu, Catalina, Zahira, Yusei, Evangeline, Miyu, Mai, Sumiko, Evelyn, Akari and the rest of the team flooded in, bruised, but burning with mana.
Arisu (shocked): "I thought Yami was the only one we are dealing with.."
Koji (wide-eyed): "What is that beside Yami?"
Kairo (without turning): "You made it...also that is Caeliriel.."
Yusei (Cocky): "I can handle him by myself."
Evelyn would whack him for being too cocky, causing to rub his head in agony.
Evelyn (scolding): "Stop being an idiot, Yusei.."
Catalina (responding to Kairo): "Of course we did. We're not dying before seeing you win against that monster."
Everyone took position behind him. The energy in the room surged.
Yami (smirking): "How poetic. You arrive just in time... to witness your failure."
Kairo (glancing up): "No. They've arrived to watch me become the main reason for your story ending, here and now!"
The battlefield became still for a moment. The squad stands ready. Kairo held his ground. Caeliriel stands like a statue of impossible symmetry. Yami simply watches... amused.
Dakota (tense): "This feels wrong."
Lucia: "It's not alive. It's not dead either. It's something else."
Caeliriel tilted its head. Then—
In an instant, it mimicked Arisu's wing burst, Zahira's light chakrams, Koji's awareness in battle, Yusei's darkness magic and Tsukasa's flame mana, warping them into corrupted black versions.
Yusei (hesitating): "What is it doing with our powers?"
Tsukasa (eyeing Koji): "I might need to use that, soon..."
Koji (responding to Yusei): "That's not a copy of our powers... it's a curse.."
Koji (continuing): "Also, Tsukasa If you use that power... then I might as well join you on that offer."
The squad scattered, dodging attacks that felt way too familiar.
Miyu (panting): "It's using our own styles like we're nothing!"
Mai: "How do you fight something that's learning faster than it bleeds?"
Wei: "I don't know, we kill it?"
Kairo braced his blade, eyes narrowed. He pivoted forward towards Caeliriel as he extended his hand forward, lunging at it–aiming to cut across its torso with ease.
It didn't flinch.
Yami walked calmly past the group. No fear. No rush. The air bent around him.
Yusei (growling): "Where the hell does he think he's going?!"
Yami (softly): "It's done mimicking...now it will serve."
He approached Caeliriel from behind. The creature didn't react.
He raised his hand then dug it into Caeliriel's spine. There was no scream. No resistance. He ripped the light from it causing its wings to collapse. Its body began to crack apart like porcelain.
Koji (stunned): "He just... took its power."
Yami stood at the center of the chaos, holding a writhing orb of divine and shadow energy in his hand.
His voice was no longer calm.
It was cold.
Yami (serious): "I thought reshaping this hellish world would be enough... But all I've done is patch a broken mirror... No, I will reset it... I will tear down the timeline itself–burn every moment, every soul, and build it again. This time... with no rebellion. No flaw. Just my light.
He pressed the orb into his chest. The room exploded in black and white.
When the dust cleared...
Yami was glowing. His body was half-celestial, half-void. One wing made of holy flame, the other of decayed bone. A halo hovered above his head— fractured and spinning.
His new form pulsed. And the energy made everyone fall to a knee.
Tsukasa (kneeling): "...We're in deep now."
Sumiko: "What... even is he?"
Catalina: "A god. Or at least... the lie of one."
Kairo forced himself to stand.
Kairo: "He's still beatable."
He turned to everyone, voice heavy but clear.
Kairo: "We've fought Angels strong like him. We've lost people that were important to us. But we're still standing. And if this is where we die... then we die fighting."
Everyone rose again, one by one.
Dakota (spitting blood): "If he wants to reset the world, fine. He's gotta go through us first."
Evangeline (twirling her sais): "Let's see how immortal he feels with a couple sais in his torso."
Tsukasa (charging his mana): "This world is broken, yeah. But its ours."
Arisu (raising her blade): "No more running."
Yusei (smiling darkly): "Alright, You Fraud. Time to get humbled by all of us."
Far away, in the human realm, Rebecca stood on a rooftop, watching cracks of light ripple across the sky.
Remy: "That looks pretty weird looking... Hahaha"
Taro: "Looks like the realms themselves is splitting apart or colliding."
Yui: "Yeah... it seems that way from up here..."
Paul: "...is this it? Is it happening?"
Remy, Rebecca and Yui side-eyed at Paul for a moment before staying quiet for a moment.
Alan (loading a makeshift cannon): "If that was the end, we'd already be dead... but at least I don't have to read Paul's dumb ass story, "Spirit Queen"... or whatever it was called."
Paul (Shouting): "IT'S CALLED SPIRIT KING AND IT'S NOT DUMB."
Rebecca and Remy would nod before slamming their fists into Alan and Paul's skulls playfully, as they then passed out.
Yui (quietly): "They're still fighting up there I assume.."
A blinding flare erupted in the heavens.
Taro (Smirking): "Which means there's still hope.."
We would shift back into the ruined castle, as we see the group running through the smoke-filled throne hall, wind pressing back hard.
Yami floated above the broken staircase, one wing blazing with white light, the other decaying into pure shadow.
Arisu (low): "That's... not a man anymore."
Koji: "No. That's a storm pretending to be human."
Kairo stepped forward without a word. His fists were clenched. His breathing, shallow but steady. Dakota placed a hand on his shoulder.
Dakota: "You sure about this?"
Kairo (quiet): "I have to try."
He launched forward.
Kairo swung his executioner, unleashing blinding waves of mana. Yami dodged without blinking. His counter was a silent palm to Kairo's chest – not flashy, not loud.
Just clean.
Kairo flew backward, crashing into the wall. Blood burst from his mouth.
He stood again. Charged once more. He activated his Aetherion form fully, wings snapping with pure rage-light.
Kairo (shouting): "I'm not fighting for glory—I'm fighting because I believe we still deserve to exist!"
He got one clean hit. One slice across Yami's cheek.
Yami touched the blood. Stared at it.
Yami (disappointed): "You're not even the strong one."
He vanished.
And reappeared behind Kairo, whispering—
Yami: "But you were brave."
He drove a blade of white void straight through Kairo's back.
Kairo gasped — his form fractured. Aetherion wings shattered mid-air.
Wei (screaming): "KAIRO!"
Dakota (rushing): "Move! We've got to protect him!"
Miyu and Sumiko rushed to Kairo, shielding his body as Madison used what little healing magic she had left to stabilize him.
Tsukasa would charge his mana to it's fullest as he activated his red mana state, throwing off Yami's reading ability for just long enough to send a quick palm strike to break a bit of his outer armor.
Arisu reflected a holy reversal beam using a shard of Kairo's broken executioner, making Yami blink for the first time in the entire fight.
Evelyn and Yusei fought like a chaotic duo — randomness + reckless combative styles that Yami couldn't fully predict. They made space for others.
Catalina took a full wing blast for Zahira and smiled through cracked ribs.
Catalina (hurt): "I'm still prettier than him, so it's fine."
Lucia and Akihiro fought back to back, she finally realized what it meant to trust someone by her side again.
Koji kept whispering strategies through bloodied teeth.
Koji (whispering): "He may be a god... but even gods bleed when you hit 'em right."
Yami (monologuing): "I've lived longer than time knows how to count. I've seen empires rise, and children scream as stars die. So I thought — why not remove the screaming..? Why not rewrite this world with a pen no one else can hold..? To reset the timeline means purging every moment from existence. The pain. The joy. The resistance. Even your memories... It'll be perfect. Silent.. Beautiful..."
The squad holds their ground. Yami hovers above — cracked, but not shaken. Everyone is hurt. Worn. But they're still standing.
Hana (to Kairo): "You're not done yet."
Kairo, bloody and fading, opens his eyes slowly. Just enough for a whisper—
Kairo: "...I'm not dead... yet."
Everything was quiet. Too quiet. The wind was gone. Light was slow.
Kairo's body floats, trailing cracked mana from his back where Yami struck him. His Aetherion form is fractured but still hanging on – barely.
Yami (hovering above): "You're not worth finishing yet. Your death deserves an audience."
Kairo vanished. Sound explodes.
Flash-step. High-speed swordplay. Blades clash across the skyline. Every swing cuts through clouds, each block cracks stone below. The room warps around their movements.
Kairo's executioner blade glows white-hot, but Yami's dark halo parries each strike like it's nothing.
Kairo (gritting his teeth): "You only believe in control. You've never trusted people to stand."
Yami (calm): "I don't need them to stand. I need them to obey."
Kairo charges with a feint—fake right, slash from left—but Yami's halo predicts him, intercepting every move like it's pre-written.
Yami: "You're still linear, still emotional. I already erased your decisions."
He extends his hand. Phase Echo triggers—time freezes for 0.6 seconds.
Kairo is mid-strike.
Yami moves behind him. Whispering in his ear–
Yami: "Rewrite."
Kairo's aura begins to unravel—his Aetherion form buckling. He drops.
Below, the squad moves fast.
Akihiro and Lucia began drawing a symbol into the broken floor beneath the throne. A forgotten sigil from a lost angelic dialect — one of the few things Yami can't rewrite.
Lucia: "If this hits, we cut off his Divine Rewrite for five seconds."
Akihiro: "I just need five."
Hana, Akari, Hikari, Crystal, Tsukasa, Koji, Catalina and Zahira would buy them time, slicing or striking down corrupted echoes Yami summoned to distract them.
Crystal (panting): "Why does this always come down to us stalling a god?!"
Akari: "Stop complaining and stay focused.."
Kairo's body is falling again.
He flashes back to the past as he saw his Father. To the alleyway rescue with Madison saving him that day. To his meeting with Arisu who used to be named Ariel. To everyone else in his life that he's met.
His broken wings twitch.
Then, suddenly—he lets go of his executioner.
Kairo (to himself): "He's predicting me because I'm always fighting with the same heart...So, I'll just stop fighting like me."
He flashes again.
This time, he doesn't attack with divine precision.
He swings wrong. Out of rhythm. Unstable, uneven, like Yusei's chaotic fighting style. Like Dakota's reckless dashes.
Yami (Confused): "What—"
Kairo lands a cut. A clean one. Across Yami's chest.
Lucia (yelling): "NOW!!"
The sigil explodes in blue flame. Yami's halo cracks slightly. His Rewrite ability shorts out.
The squad charges as one.
But Kairo... is done.
His Aetherion wings dissolve midair. He slams into the floor, coughing hard.
Madison, Mai and Wei rushed over.
Madison (angrily): "Damn it, you weren't supposed to keep going!"
Wei and Mai (respectively): "That was a really dumb idea, Kairo.."
Kairo (smiling weakly): "Had to... get one hit in."
As the sigil burns, a hidden platform beneath the throne shakes. A stone casket beneath Yami's feet glows faintly.
An ancient name pulses in divine text.
Evangeline (reading it): "...Is that a coffin?"
Hana: "Or a vault."
Yusei (from behind): "That's not a seal. That's a Prison. And he wasn't the first god in it."
Everyone freezes.
Yami twitches.
Yami (low, cracking): "You weren't supposed to see that."
Yami screams.
The tower trembles.
Reality itself ripples from the sheer power of Yami's screaming.
He begins undoing the battlefield itself — buildings reversing collapse, shadows playing in reverse, fire freezing midair.
The tower was cracking. Not from explosions — but from reality itself.
Time reversed. Flames froze. Wind moved backwards. The squad was split across flashes of seconds from moments ago.
Yami floated above it all, one wing still burning, the other now decayed to smoke.
His eyes were dead-white. No emotion. No hesitation.
Dakota, standing in front, gritted his teeth as pieces of the floor looped in a never-ending crumble.
Dakota (growling): "He's not just controlling time—he's breaking it."
Lucia stood beside him, mana wrapping around her arm in a thin, tight coil. Controlled rage.
Lucia: "Then we hit him before everything rewinds."
Akihiro (Behind them, cracking his neck): "Good. I was getting bored of this false god anyways."
Dakota vanished in a streak of green-gold, using his speed to its limit as each dash was laced with wind burst pressure—creating temporary "reality shockwaves" that slowed Yami's time skip for 0.3 seconds.
Lucia jumped through that window, slicing with her light-form spear — burning a wound across Yami's upper ribs.
Akihiro followed up with an empowered punch using divine energy — destabilizing the halo for a moment.
Yami was stunned. But not hurt enough.
Yami (low, whispering): "You struggle because you still believe in now.. But I was born before time."
Below the throne, the vault fully opens.
Tsukasa, Hikari, Yusei and Akari circle it cautiously.
The light coming from inside isn't divine.
It's cold. Mournful. Blue and hollow.
A massive stone carving in the center reads:
"Here lies Karuro, the eternal flame."
"Sealed to save the heavens... by the hands of one of our own."
Yusei (reading slowly): "Karuro...? That's not Yami..."
Tsukasa (realizing): "...Yami wasn't the first ruler, he wasn't even the first god... He was simply just a betrayer..!"
Akari (eyes wide): "He sealed their first ruler to take their place.."
The vault pulses and forces everyone into a psychic projection—an involuntary shared memory.
They see a slightly younger version of Yami.
Not yet evil but still the same as usual.
He kneels before Karuro for a moment who was in fact a god of balance but he was the ruler of the angel realm who built this world up simply by no dominance.
Karuro: "There must always be choice. Even in the light."
Yami: "Choice causes chaos.."
Yami killed them.
Yami lunged forward as he plunged a blade of void through the divine heart.
Karuro vomited out blood, before collapsing on the ground.
Tears fall from his face—not because he regrets it.
But because it didn't feel like enough.
He took their crown, erased their name from history, and forged the halo he wears now.
Hikari (breathless): "He was the one who murdered the first ruler god... and made himself one."
Tsukasa: "And now he wants to erase all timelines just to stop anyone from ever resisting again."
Akari (calm, clear): "Then we don't just stop him... We replace him."
Above, Yami flinches.
Yami (snarling): "You saw what wasn't meant to be remembered."
His body glows violently, like a star collapsing in on itself. He begins absorbing time from around him – pulling seconds out of their moments, making weapons disappear mid-swing, voices vanish mid-swing.
Lucia (realizing): "He's stealing the future."
The air is heavy. Time fractures flash like lightning in the sky. Yami's wings stretch wide, distorting space like black suns. Every breath burns.
Dakota charges in, leaf magic synced with his sprint — too fast for the eye, even Yami flinches. Lucia appears above, dropping light spears while Akihiro goes full shadow-blade frenzy mode underneath.
Yami's halo cracks.
But not enough.
Yami (grimly): "I see now... you're not humans anymore. You're ghosts of rebellion...And I will erase even your feeble echoes."
He slams the ground. A temporal quake erupts — everyone is frozen mid-step for 1.2 seconds. Just enough for him to knock all three back like dolls.
Bleeding. Wounded. Kairo stands again, dragging his executioner weapon behind him.
His voice is dry, barely above a whisper.
Kairo (breathing heavy): "I'm not strong because I win... I'm strong because I don't stop... even when I know I'll lose."
Yami appears in front of him mid-sentence. A flash of light. A hole explodes in Kairo's chest—again.
The same place.
Yami (cold): "You're repeating history... Just like your father"
Kairo falls.
Silence.
Kairo's body floats in a void of shattered reflections. Each shard around him shows a memory.
➤ His father and mother, Makoto and Koharu, smiling before vanishing in flames.
➤ His first death by Nyx, holy spear ripping through him.
➤ The crowd turning on him after Nathan's death.
➤ Madison leaving.
➤ Rebecca screaming.
➤ Himself, bloody and broken, blaming his own reflection
Then—
The reflection shift.
Two figures walk out of the blackness, side by side causing Kairo to remember who they were.
Nova: "Yo. Took you long enough to pass out."
Akara (softly): "You've forgotten something. Not a power. Not a form. You forgot why you started fighting."
The vision fragments again.
Kairo sees flashes of:
➤ Wei and Mai dragging him from the shadows after the Nyx battle
➤ His sister Miyu's smile the morning after he almost died.
➤ His first real laugh with his friends.
➤Dakota's goofy smirk after returning from beating Kenshiro and Yoshimaru that day at the school.
➤Makoto, hugging him as a child, saying, "Be the light in the dark, even if they hate you for it."
Kairo (quietly): "I just... didn't want to be the villain."
Akara touches his chest – over the wound.
Akara: "You're not the villain, Kairo. You're the anchor."
Nova: "And anchors don't break. They sink. They drag gods down with them."
Suddenly — a crack of thunder. Everything starts shaking.
Kairo's eyes glow faintly as the memory of Project Kami resurfaces — the lies, the betrayals, the manipulation of emotion into weapon.
Akara: "You were made to end this. Even if you're not ready."
Nova (grinning): "See you at the finish line, dumbass.."
Akara: "Oh unimportant but one more thing, Gray wants to say his greeting."
Kairo's body lies limp on the battlefield. Blood in his mouth. Chest wound seared with angelic corruption. But–
His fingers twitch.
Eyes flutter open. Just barely.
The squad turns towards him.
Kairo sees the sky crack like glass above him.
Three burning suns.
A silhouette far in the back of the world.
Not Yami. Not human. Not an angel.
Something older. Watching. Waiting.
Kairo mutters one final word–barely audible.
Kairo: "He's... still watching..."
TO BE CONTINUED...