The Realm Trembled.
Above the broken sky, between the worlds of Angels, Demons and Humans — the barrier shattered. Cracks of light bled through the clouds, and Kairo hovered at the center of it all, his form glowing faintly with the aura of something new.
Kairo (thinking, eyes narrowed): "Yami… this ends here. I'm not scared of false gods. I've already outlived this hell multiple times in the past.."
His wings unfurled – longer, bladed, radiant yet wrathful. His eyes blazed with fury and grace. Aetherion was gone. This was beyond that.
This form was called "Vespera."
No name had ever been given to it.
Because it shouldn't exist.
Yami blinked–just once.
And he was already on the ground.
Kairo moved so fast the sound didn't arrive until three seconds later.
The cut across Yami's chest gleamed, carved clean through his armor. A silent, beautiful flash.
Yami (reeling): "...You've evolved… No matter.. Power means nothing without permanence."
He laughed.
Then—consumed the shadows of the entire world.
Every corrupted memory. Every broken soul. Every ounce of grief.
Yami's body mutated. Veins blackened. Wings curled into jagged halos. His skin peeled into obsidian stone. His face warped into something half-angel, half-nightmare.
Lucia (watching from below): "He's… eating the realms' pain."
Evangeline (in horror): "He's becoming the world's curse."
"Deiform"
Massive. Unnatural.
Each breath cracked the atmosphere.
One swipe of his hand—collapsed the fabric of the realm.
The Angelic Realm split open. The Human Realm began to warp. The Demon Realm bled fire from the seams of reality.
Yami (voice layered with screams): "This world will end. I will erase every 'version' of it. Every mistake. And in the silence–I will be born again."
He raised his hand—
SLASH.
The sky split yet again. A gaping portal tore itself between dimensions. The three realms began to fold inward.
Kairo (panting, seeing it happen): "No—no no—if that portal connects—he'll destroy everything."
He flew up, ramming straight into Yami.
Kairo and Yami tumbled into the vortex – caught in the singularity of the Realm Nexus.
There was no gravity here. No time. No death. Just the memories of creation and the echo of all things.
Kairo stood, blood dripping from his mouth.
And then—
Two lights stepped forward from the void.
Akara, regal and calm.
Nova, chaotic and electric.
They were waiting for him.
Akara: "You made it, Kairo."
Nova (smirking): "Missed us or something, DAHAHAHA!"
Akara would smack Nova in the head playfully before facing back to Kairo.
Akara: "The world is ending out there, and they need you to be that savior."
Nova: "I agree with my angelic halfling."
Akara: "And I agree with my demonic halfling."
Kairo: "I understand what I must do."
Kairo fell to one knee. But not from weakness.
From the weight of memory.
Kairo's eyes flicker.
He sees himself across each moment in time:
The alleyway, where Madison first saved him
Nyx, the angel who ended up killing him with a javelin which triggered his powers for the first time
Nathan, the one who became a Shadow from his own emotions and ended up dying to that very shadow in a classroom
His vow to his friends upon forming the Shadow Hunters
Makoto & Koharu, his parents, saying: "Stand when no one else can. That's when you're the light."
Kairo trembled.
Kairo (choked voice): "Why do I keep losing people…?"
Akara and Nova eyed each other, before placing a hand on Kairo's shoulders as he cried for a moment.
Akara (softly): "Because you're the one who was meant to carry the memory of everyone."
Nova (confidently): "And now it's time to become something unwritten."
Nova and Akara (respectively): "As we both believe in your abilities to do so, Kairo."
Kairo (serious): "Then how do I even put an end to him?"
Nova eyed Akara so they could start with telling him first.
Akara cleared her throat as she started to speak again, as this was serious.
Akara (quietly, serious): "You've come far, Kairo. But this is where destiny either ends…or bends."
Nova (grinning): "You wanna end this? You'll have to surpass your own limits. And when you do, you might break. Or worse…"
Akara: "...you may lose all your power. Live on as nothing more than a normal boy."
Kairo blinked.
Paused.
Then grinned nervously.
Kairo: "Honestly… a nap and some chips wouldn't be that bad."
He looked at both of them. And nodded.
Akara and Nova began to sob for a bit, before hugging Kairo in union as he was special to them before they both let go of him.
Kairo (calmly): "But first—let's finish what we started."
Kairo's body started to glow.
As His body glowed, he was lifted up into the sky as his transformations would activate all at once–starting from his first form, Divinity to his current angelic form, Vespera.
Each one rose behind him like phantoms — and then merged into his executioner weapon, which began to shine with unbearable light.
His hair darkened, falling longer over his eyes.
A cloak of darkness and light wrapped across his back, shaped like wings.
The markings across his chest pulsed like a scripture.
His blade dissolved into his arm — every strike now his soul
He had no name for this form.
Because this wasn't something you survive.
This was something you use once.
As the transformation was over with, Kairo was seen smirking coldly–standing still as he allowed Yami to try and attack him.
Yami (angrily): "ARE YOU TAUNTING ME?"
Yami charged first, his monstrous hand dragging time behind it.
Kairo met him in a blur.
The clash sounded like planets colliding.
Each hit created shockwaves that cracked the Nexus — time burst like glass, and memories from other lives spilled into the sky.
Arisu, wings torn, whispering Kairo's name
Dakota smiling, blood on his hands, teeth chipped
A glimpse of the shadow hunters smiling together at the beach
A flash of Makoto and Koharu watching proudly
Yami (roaring): "YOU THINK YOU CAN ERASE A GOD?!"
Kairo (gritting his teeth): "I'm not erasing you… I'm simply replacing you with peace"
They clashed again.
Fists. Light. Wings. Death. Time.
Until—
Kairo's body began to shine brighter than the realm itself.
The executioner weapon fully fused with his soul – now extending from his forearm like a ribbon of light and darkness.
Yami, floating high, gathered every corrupted particle of the realms into his chest.
It formed into a massive, jagged sphere of death.
Yami (yelling): "THIS IS EVERYTHING YOU FAILED TO PROTECT!"
He descended.
Kairo, barely breathing, reached toward the sky – the energy around him forming into a swirling blade made of memory, light, and loss.
Akara (echoing): "That blade is you."
Nova (smirking): "So cut through everything."
Kairo flew forward.
Yami screamed downward.
As they struck—
Time slowed.
Then stopped.
Then shattered.
Kairo's blade met Yami's hand.
The explosion rippled across the realms.
Angel statues cracked in the Angelic Realm.
Volcanoes burst in the Demon Realm.
Cities flickered in and out of existence in the Human Realm.
No Sound.
Just one last flash of light.
The sky no longer burned.
The war was over.
Yami was gone—nothing left but ashes that didn't fall, frozen mid-air as the realms slowly began to drift back into stillness.
And in the center of the wreckage—floating above what was once the Realm Nexus—was Kairo.
He wasn't glowing anymore.
He wasn't in a form anymore.
Just a boy.
He landed roughly on a platform of fractured stone, half-conscious, too exhausted to move.
But breathing.
That was enough.
Somewhere above, the portal still hovered.
Wide. Empty. Not hostile. Not bright.
Just… waiting.
Out of it stepped three figures:
Akara.
Nova.
And a third–an older man.
It was someone whom Kairo hadn't met before. He wore deep-blue robes laced with golden runes, and a crown of cracked stone hovered faintly above his head. His facial expression was calm which went along with his already unreadable face which made him realize that he might be ancient almost like Akihiro, Lucia and Hikari.
He said nothing. Just watched in silence.
Nova knelt beside Kairo, smirking softly.
Nova: "Took out a false god. Not bad for a burnout with trauma issues."
Kairo (croaking): "...Still prettier than you."
Nova would start to laugh until Kairo said that, making her get all serious.
Nova (angry): "Huh, I didn't hear that."
Kairo (nervous): "I said you are pretty."
Nova would pat Kairo's back as she laughed.
Akara sat on Kairo's other side. Her voice was soft.
Akara: "You did what no one else could, Kairo.. You ended it."
Kairo (weakly); "It was thanks to you guys' help."
Kairo's expression darkened for a moment once he said this.
Akara & Nova glanced at each other, before placing their hands simultaneously on Kairo's shoulders.
Kairo (weakly): "Then why doesn't it feel like it..?"
They sat with him for a while.
No speeches. No joking. Just a boy, and two people who helped and believed him enough like his friends outside of this realm to hold the silence with him even for a little bit.
The mysterious man remained still, watching the broken realms above them.
Kairo turned to him.
Kairo (barely whispering): "...Who are you?"
The man looked down.
Smiled faintly.
???: "The one who remembers… before the first light."
Then he turned and walked toward the gate.
The portal pulsed.
He stepped through.
And vanished.
TO BE CONTINUED…