Souichiro’s dark blade hissed through the air with the shadows around it trailing like smoke in its wake. Kouhei raised his sword just in time with the sound of clang echoing around, the impact jolting up his arm and rattling his bones. He bit down hard, tasting the blood on his mouth, as he was shoved back with his boots scraping against broken stone.
"Heh... is that all you’ve got, Child of Anti-Prophecy?" Souichiro taunted, voice dripping with scorn. "You disappoint me. Truly."
Without waiting, Souichiro advanced, cloak of black energy swirling menacingly around him. His katana slashed down in a brutal arc and Kouhei twisted his blade to parry, but the sheer force rattled his wrists and sent him stumbling two steps back. Pebbles crunched and rolled underfoot.
"Tch...!" Kouhei growled under his breath with a sweat running down his cheek, stinging the cut above his eyebrows.
Souichiro’s next swing hammered into his guard, sparks bursting and dancing between them like fiery insects. Kouhei’s arm throbbed, the angelic mana around his blade wavering under the relentless darkness.
"Look at you. Struggling like a worm," Souichiro mocked, his lips curling into a sneer. "And to think you dared to touch my sister... pathetic."
Kouhei ducked under a horizontal slash that carved a deep scar into the cr
acked ground behind him, stone shattering from the blow.
Before he could counter, Souichiro twisted his blade, bringing it up in a backhand slash and forcing Kouhei’s sword high and opening his guard.
Kouhei leapt back, boots pounding against the dirt, but Souichiro was already on him with the dark blade cutting through the air so fast it whistled like a violent wind. Kouhei barely deflected with each of the parry sending vibrations through his arms that left his hands numb.
Souichiro stomped forward, the ground cracking beneath his heel as he swung in a savage overhead slash.
Kouhei blocked with both hands but the impact blasted air outward, rustling his already torn clothes and sending dust swirling around them. Kouhei’s knees buckled under the weight with his boots carving shallow trenches in the earth as he was forced back, inch by painful inch.
"You’re nothing, Child of Anti-Prophecy!" Souichiro’s voice boomed over the clash of steel. "A worthless mortal playing hero!"
Souichiro slammed Kouhei’s blade aside with a savage sweep, the force twisting Kouhei’s wrist painfully and almost wrenching the sword from his grip.
Haa... haa... Kouhei’s breathing turned ragged. His vision swam with his sweat dripping from his jaw, mingling with blood.
Souichiro’s attacks came faster and heavier, with each blow pushing Kouhei back, step by desperate step. Shadows curled and slithered from Souichiro’s katana, hungry to devour the flickering angelic glow Kouhei fought to maintain.
"Don’t look away!" Souichiro roared.
His blade struck again with the sheer shockwave blasting dust and shattered rock outward in every direction.
Kouhei skidded across the dirt, boots scraping and his lungs burning with every breath. He dug his heels in, forcing himself to stand, raising his trembling sword once more.
"You’re still standing? How persistent," Souichiro sneered, voice thick with mockery. "But that won’t save you."
Their blades clashed with the rhythm being broken and violent. Souichiro’s strikes crashed down like hammer blows, unrelenting and merciless. But Kouhei’s guard wavered, and a stray cut grazed his side, blood spraying in a bright arc.
"Ngh—!" Kouhei grit his teeth, pain flaring hot along his ribs.
Souichiro chuckled darkly. "Feel that? That’s reality reminding you of your place.
Then another powerful swing smashed against Kouhei’s sword, knocking him back so hard he nearly lost his footing. Stones rolled and tumbled beneath him.
"Your resistance is pointless! Give up!"
Souichiro’s katana blurred, black energy streaking through the air as Kouhei staggered back with his arms getting numb, each block more desperate than the last.
Dust swirled between them, sweat dripped, and steel rang out again and again until it seemed the world itself trembled under Souichiro’s ruthless advance.
Slowly, step by brutal step, Souichiro forced Kouhei into retreat, arrogance gleaming in his eyes.
And though Kouhei’s heart pounded in his ears, muscles burning and hope slipping like sand through his fingers, he refused to drop his sword. Even as Souichiro’s shadow loomed larger, cold and merciless.
Souichiro’s sneer widened into something almost gleeful as he advanced, every step crunching over cracked stone and scorched earth. His katana pulsed with that writhing darkness, shadows spilling and crawling like living serpents around his feet.
"Look at you!" he spat, voice dripping with venomous amusement. "Still clutching that pathetic blade like it means something... Do you really think some borrowed angelic power can change what you are?"
His sword crashed into Kouhei’s with bone-jarring force, the clang of steel echoing through the battlefield like thunder. Kouhei’s arms trembled, his boots scraping backward against the ground, leaving ragged furrows behind.
"You’re just a desperate insect clinging to hope!" Souichiro barked, his tone halfway between laughter and contempt. His katana swept around, a savage horizontal arc that Kouhei barely intercepted, sparks bursting where their blades met.
"Even now... look at you," Souichiro taunted, circling like a predator as Kouhei panted, sweat pouring from his brow. "Your breathing’s ragged, your grip is weak... you’re running on sheer stubbornness! How pitifully human..."
Kouhei gritted his teeth, muscles screaming, breath coming in ragged bursts. He shifted his stance, trying to steady himself, but Souichiro was already lunging in again—THOOM!—a stomp that cracked the stone underfoot, launching him forward like a black comet.
The next blow knocked Kouhei backward, the shockwave rattling his bones. His vision blurred around the edges, but he raised his sword again, stubborn to the end.
"Heh... is that resolve? Or just stupidity?" Souichiro mocked, voice dripping with cold amusement. "Do you really think you can stand against me? Against a king?"
Souichiro’s katana moving so fast it blurred, every strike ringing out loud as cannonfire. Each impact forced Kouhei back, grinding his heels into the shattered ground with his every step heavier than the last.
"Your little tricks mean nothing!" Souichiro barked, his voice booming over the battlefield. "You’re not even worth my full strength! You think that pathetic angel’s mana makes you my equal?!"
Kouhei parried desperately with the mana glow around his blade flickering under the relentless assault. His breath caught in his throat with his lungs burning, shoulders shaking from the effort.
"You look so small from here..." Souichiro taunted, lowering his blade slightly, toying with him. "Did you think love could make you strong? That sentiment and friendship could overcome raw power? Foolishness!"
Souichiro’s katana blurred again, darkness spiraling from its edge as it came down like a guillotine. Kouhei raised his sword, blocking, but the impact slammed through him, knees buckling as the ground beneath him fractured with a spiderweb of cracks.
Haa... haa... Kouhei’s chest heaved, the angelic mana around his blade dimming further.
"Struggling just to breathe now?" Souichiro’s smirk deepened, voice a poisonous whisper. "Do you see it yet? Your weakness. Your insignificance. You’re nothing. Nothing!"
Souichiro’s next blow hammered down with monstrous force, rattling Kouhei to his core, the clang echoing painfully in his skull. His arms burned, numb and heavy, but he forced them up again.
The dark katana danced, striking from every angle—left, right, overhead—with each time Kouhei blocked and sparks would explod, the steel whining under the strain.
"You can’t even counterattack anymore!" Souichiro shouted, eyes gleaming like a cat toying with a dying mouse. "Your body’s too slow, your spirit too weak! All you can do is hide behind that pathetic blade!"
Kouhei gasped as Souichiro’s katana smashed against his guard again, forcing him back another step, his boots grinding over scorched earth.
"You should have stayed down," Souichiro hissed, raising his blade high, darkness boiling off it like black fire. "Now watch... as your last hope breaks before your eyes!"
The final blow came crashing down, shadows swirling, Souichiro’s strength pouring into it like a tidal wave. Kouhei braced, sweat and blood dripping from his jaw, raising his blade in a last desperate block.
Time seemed to freeze for a breathless heartbeat.
A high, shrill crack split the air. Kouhei’s sword split clean in two, the upper half tumbling away in slow motion, glittering with dying sparks before it clattered to the ruined ground.
Kouhei stood frozen, breath caught in his throat, staring at the broken hilt in his shaking hand.
Souichiro’s cruel grin widened, eyes gleaming with triumph.
"And so ends your resistance," he whispered, voice echoing like a death knell.
Then, with a cold, almost bored flick of his wrist, Souichiro brought his blade crashing down once more—SHHHRRKK!—the sound of steel slicing through flesh cut through the air like tearing silk.
Kouhei’s breath caught in his throat, his mind going blank for a split second. There wasn’t even pain at first and it was just the hollow ringing in his ears, drowning out everything else. His vision lurched as if the world itself had tilted and he found himself staring up, dazed, at the endless darkened sky of hell, swirling with black smoke and crimson sparks drifting like dying fireflies.
Warm blood poured freely down his chest, soaking his clothes and dripping onto the broken ground below. It felt oddly distant, as if it were happening to someone else. His fingers twitched around the broken hilt of his sword, but the blade refused to reform, the wound across his chest stubbornly refusing to close. Souichiro’s katana wasn’t just steel but it was something that carried something else and it was something vile and deep that clung to the flesh like rot.
His heartbeat echoed in his skull—thud... thud... thud...—with each beat heavier than the last. His vision blurred at the edges, a haze of crimson and black.
"You really are hopeless, senpai..."
A gentle, almost teasing voice cut through the haze.