Gravity snapped downward in a focused column, slamming Dwayne into the sand with explosive force. The sand cratered beneath him, shockwaves rippling outward.
For a moment.
Just a moment.
Shiori thought she had him.
Then the crater ignited.
Foxfire surged upward in a violent bloom, blowing gravity apart. Dwayne burst free with his blade blazing, expression unchanged. Shiori's breath hitched. She adjusted her stance, blood trickling from her nose now, cursed veins pulsing beneath her skin. She pulled gravity inward again, but tighter, more controlled wrapping it around herself instead of projecting it outward.
The world slid.
She moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
She appeared above Dwayne, knives raining down as gravity twisted her trajectory unpredictably. Each movement conserved blood but demanded intense concentration. One miscalculation and she'd tear herself apart. Dwayne blocked, deflected, and burned steel moving in seamless tandem. Illusions flickered in and out, forcing Shiori to commit before she could be certain which strike was real.
She gritted her teeth.
She'd assumed he would be the easiest. A family man. A vacationer. Someone whose heart might slow his hand. Instead, she'd found a man whose heart had already learned to endure loss and who fought not with desperation, but certainty. Caesar stepped closer. He could see it now, Dwayne's fatigue. Subtle, but there. The soul's light still blazed, but the patterns grew denser, the overlaps more frequent.
Caesar: "Don't let up, he's feeling the pressure."
Shiori glanced at him: "Then let's keep at it."
Caesar inhaled. He reached deeper letting Soul Sovereignty expand fully. The beach fell silent to him, the fight slowing as he focused on Dwayne's soul alone. Patterns flared. He saw the momentary instability whenever Dwayne thought of his family. Saw how illusions thickened reflexively when that fear surfaced. Dwayne attacked. Fire and wind converged in a devastating cross-slash meant to bisect them both. Caesar moved, not away, but through.
The beach detonated.
A mirrored battlefield unfolded, foxfire, wind, gravity all doubled, overlapping in violent confusion as Dwayne clashed his copied abilities. For a split second, even Dwayne hesitated, eyes narrowing as his senses struggled to parse the copied abilities.
That was Shiori's opening.
She raised both hands.
The sand lifted.
The air compressed.
Gravity collapsed inward with catastrophic force, forming a singularity-like pressure point aimed directly at Dwayne's chest. Blood streamed freely down her face now. This wasn't sustainable. This was a finishing move.
Dwayne felt it.
The pull was absolute, crushing ribs, threatening to fold organs inward. Illusions shattered under the strain. Foxfire flared wild, unstable. Caesar staggered back, curse energy screaming through his veins, barely holding his imitation together.
Shiori screamed, pouring everything she had into the attack: "DIE!"
The gravity closed and Dwayne smiled. He remained calm. Foxfire shifted inward. The nine-tailed structure in his soul aligned perfectly for the first time since the fight began. Elements snapped into harmony, fear sublimated into resolve.
The beach vanished. Not into darkness, but into light. The world warped, reality folding like a page turned too quickly. Shiori's gravity found nothing to grip. Caesar's imitation collapsed instantly.
They stood somewhere else. A forest of pale fire and moonlight, fox-shaped flames drifting between ancient trees that did not exist. The air hummed with power, illusion layered so deeply it felt more real than reality itself. Shiori froze. Caesar's breath caught. They were caught. Dwayne stood at the center, blade lowered, foxfire tails arcing behind him like a crown. The illusion closed in. And for the first time since the fight began, Shiori felt fear. The world Dwayne made did not feel like a trick. It felt like a verdict sentencing them to death. Moonlight filtered through trees that shouldn't exist, tall, pale trunks rising like pillars, their bark shining faintly as if dusted with frost. Between them drifted foxfire in slow arcs, each flame shaped like a wisping tail that never fully settled into one form. The air was warm and cold at the same time, heat from the fire, chill from the certainty that nothing here belonged to them. Shiori's boots sank into ground that looked like ash but had the firmness of packed soil. Every breath tasted faintly of smoke and salt, like the beach had been distilled into memory and then weaponized. Caesar's shoulders tightened. His gaze flicked once, twice, scanning. They were surrounded by a canopy of pale light that pulsed like a living ceiling. Dwayne stood a few steps away, relaxed, blade lowered. Foxfire tails arced behind him in a slow halo, nine shapes, layered and overlapping, never fully still.
Shiori tried to use her curse.
Nothing happened.
Not because her curse failed, she felt the power surge, felt the blood answer, but because the space resisted her. The air didn't bend the way it should. The "ground" didn't react. The trees didn't sway. This was a true illusion.
It was like pulling on a rope tied to a wall.
Caesar's breath came out thin. His Soul Sovereignty flared. And he saw it. This place wasn't empty. Threads, countless threads ran through everything. They weren't visible to the eye, but to Caesar they shone like hair-thin lines of intention, all anchored to a single core.
Dwayne.
This place was an extension of his soul. A vast illusion, painted over reality. Different from the illusion he put Dwayne in. The foxfire tails drifting through the air weren't decorative. They were sensors. Each wisp turned as Caesar moved, tracking him.
Shiori moved. Gravity folded inward around her, not affecting the illusion's structure but affecting her, lightening her frame, compressing her trajectory, accelerating her steps. She shot forward like a dart, boots barely grazing the ground. Caesar followed, lightning and wind crackling faintly in his hands. Dwayne didn't retreat. He lifted his blade. The first exchange happened too fast for normal eyes. Shiori lunged for Dwayne's blind side, an instinctive angle designed to slip beneath a swordsman's guard. Dwayne's blade was already there, not blocking her, but cutting the path itself. She twisted, gravity yanking her midair into a new line. Caesar darted in, aiming to claw through Dwayne again. A foxfire tail surged between them like a whip. Caesar recoiled as heat lashed across his forearm. Dwayne stepped forward and slashed once at the space in front of him. Ash-ground erupted upward in a crescent wall, forcing separation. Shiori vaulted it. Caesar skidded around it. Dwayne's blade came again, two short cuts that didn't seek to wound but to herd. They were being positioned. Shiori snarled, frustration boiling. Her curse surged, blood burning hotter. Gravity snapped toward Dwayne, trying to pull him into her range. And for the first time, it worked. Dwayne's coat tugged sharply. His stance shifted a fraction. Not much, but enough that Shiori saw the opening and took it, claws flashing toward his throat. Dwayne's foxfire tail intercepted, coiling around her wrist like a living restraint. He held her. The pale trees behind her leaned inward slightly, casting shadows that formed into fox shapes, thin, spectral silhouettes that didn't exist a moment ago. Their eyes glowed. They rushed her from both sides. Shiori ripped her wrist free, gravity blasting outward to fling two silhouettes back. They dissolved into sparks and reformed behind her instantly. Caesar's Soul Sovereignty flared wider as he realized what those were. They were Dwayne's illusions acting as autonomous extensions, micro-threads of his soul given enough shape to strike.
And Caesar could see the fatal problem. No matter how many they cut, burned, or dispersed… They weren't being destroyed. Caesar stepped back and focused. The domain's light dimmed for him again as he stared not at the scenery but at Dwayne's soul directly. Dwayne's soul was vast, but it wasn't infinite. It had structure. And Caesar could see the strain now, more clearly than before. Maintaining a domain-level illusion while simultaneously fighting two high-level opponents required constant, precise output. The patterns within Dwayne's soul were beautiful and dense. Too dense. He had made this place tight. Which meant it could be broken. If Caesar could find the seam.
Caesar: "Shiori."
Shiori: "What is it?"
Caesar: "I see it. There's a crack."
Shiori: "Then get us the hell out of here."
Shiori snapped a hand outward. Gravity surged at the foxfire tails drifting above. She pulled them down, compressing them toward the ground. The flames resisted, writhing, but their movement slowed.
Caesar felt it. A subtle vibration in the threads, like a harp string plucked too hard. He lunged toward that vibration, not physically, but with his curse. Soul Sovereignty sharpened, focusing his perception into a blade of intuition. He reached out and touched the seam with his awareness. And the domain responded like a living thing being stabbed. The pale forest flickered. For a heartbeat, the beach appeared behind it, waves, moonlight, and sand. Then it snapped back.
Dwayne's foxfire tails whipped violently, as if the domain itself had flinched. Shiori felt the flicker too. Her eyes widened. She didn't waste time asking questions. She doubled down. Gravity inverted around her body again, accelerating her to the point where she seemed to vanish and reappear in different places. She attacked Dwayne directly, claws, knees, elbows, using gravity to change angles midstrike. Dwayne blocked with his blade, foxfire tails snapping into place to intercept her limbs, forcing her back. Caesar moved again, he aimed for the illusion's seam. Every time Dwayne shifted to block Shiori, the pattern in his soul reoriented, reallocating threads. And every reallocation caused the seam to flare. Caesar struck at it with Soul Sovereignty again.
The forest flickered.
Again.
Again.
Dwayne's eyes narrowed now.
His stance didn't break, but his blade became sharper, less forgiving. Foxfire lashed toward Caesar in a sudden arc, forcing him to dodge. Caesar rolled, came up, and laughed under his breath. He knew what he was doing was working. Shiori took advantage of Dwayne's shift, slamming gravity downward in a focused column. Dwayne's knees bent slightly under the pressure. She's been adjusting to this place so her gravity is working on Dwayne more. Shiori's claws came again. And this time, Dwayne didn't stop them with foxfire. He vanished. Shiori's claws sliced through empty air. She spun, Dwayne was behind her. Foxfire tails gathered like a storm. His slash came down. Shiori barely moved in time, gravity snapping sideways to fling her out of the cut's path. The blade hit the ground and the domain responded with a shockwave of heat, ash blasting outward. Caesar staggered. The seam flared wide. The beach bled through the illusion again, clearer this time. Dwayne's jaw tightened. He was trying to end it before the domain broke. Caesar understood the timing instantly. If Dwayne finished them here, the domain could collapse afterward without consequence. But if the domain collapsed first, the fight returned to the beach. Where Shiori's gravity had full effect. Shiori seemed to realize it too. Her breathing turned heavier, but her eyes sharpened.
She lifted both hands. Gravity didn't slam downward. It didn't pull. It twisted. A rotational field formed around Dwayne, like the world itself was trying to wring him out. The domain shuddered violently as the force attempted to torque his body, to snap balance and bone alike. Foxfire tails flared, trying to stabilize him. The seam widened. Caesar felt it open like a wound. Soul Sovereignty surged. He drove his perception into that seam like a spear. The illusion screamed. The pale forest shattered. Moonlight snapped back. Salt air hit their lungs. Sand returned underfoot. And the real beach roared back into existence. Shiori's twisting gravity remained. Now unrestricted. It hit Dwayne fully. His body jerked hard, boots digging into sand as the torque tried to wrench him sideways. He gritted his teeth, foxfire flaring in response, elements surging outward instinctively to counterbalance. Caesar stumbled, lungs burning. But he was smiling. Now he could see everything clearly.
Shiori's eyes snapped to Caesar: "You broke it."
Caesar: "You can thank me later."
Dwayne exhaled slowly, steadying himself under the twisting gravity. His foxfire dimmed slightly, not weaker, but tighter, more focused. His gaze rose to meet them: "You forced me out." No anger or panic. Just acknowledgement.
Shiori's mouth curled faintly, blood still streaking from her nose. She raised her hands again.
Gravity condensed. The sand beneath Dwayne began to sink, compressing into a dense, dark crater as if the earth was being told to swallow him. Caesar stepped beside Shiori, eyes blazing with Soul Sovereignty. He didn't need to guess which Dwayne was real anymore. He didn't need to fear illusion. He could see Dwayne's soul directly, its strength, its strain, its fire.
Shiori's finishing move gathered. The air thickened. The tide recoiled. And the beach held its breath as gravity prepared to fall like a guillotine. Sand compressed under impossible pressure, grains grinding against one another as if the earth itself were being forced to kneel. The tide recoiled from the shore, water trembling in place, refusing to advance. Even the wind seemed to hesitate, as though unsure whether it was allowed to move anymore. Caesar's breath came out ragged. He reached out and placed his hand against Shiori's palm. The pattern of Shiori's soul flooded into him. He didn't understand gravity the way she did. He couldn't wield it with her elegance or control. But he didn't need to. He just needed one thing, to hold Dwayne down. Caesar slammed his copied gravity downward with everything he had left. Dwayne's body jerked as if the world had suddenly decided he weighed a thousand tons. His boots sank deeper into the sand. Foxfire flared violently around him, tails lashing out with wind and lightning screaming in desperation.
Caesar screamed in sheer exertion. Blood trickled from his nose as the curse threatened to tear him apart from the inside: "Don't move—" he snarled through clenched teeth.
Dwayne was firmly held in place.
Shiori stepped forward. She was shaking. The last of her curse blood was was being burned through. Her breath came shallow, each inhale scraping her lungs raw. She raised one finger. The air around it distorted. At first, it looked like nothing. Just a shimmer, a wrongness in the light. Then sand began to lift, vanishing grain by grain as if reality itself was being folded inward. Shiori gathered matter. The space at her fingertip collapsed into itself, darkness condensing into a point no bigger than a marble. Light bent around it. Sound warped. Everything went silent.
A miniature singularity.
A black hole.
Dwayne's eyes widened. Foxfire surged violently, his blade screaming as he poured everything he had left into breaking free. Illusions shattered around him like glass. Wind howled. Lightning erupted. The beach tore itself apart under the strain.
Shiori flicked her finger forward.
The black hole surged ahead.
It advanced, a silent, merciless absence that could swallow everything it touched. Foxfire vanished on contact. Illusions collapsed instantly, not dispelled but erased, their substance pulled into nothingness. Wind died. Flames and lightning were consumed without resistance. There was nowhere to go. The singularity reached him. Caesar saw it clearly through Soul Sovereignty, Dwayne's soul blazing, flaring brighter than ever as it resisted annihilation with everything it had.
Then the black hole swallowed him whole.
Shiori lifted her hand sharply, redirecting the singularity upward with the last scrap of her strength. The miniature black hole shot into the sky like a dying star. It vanished among the clouds. The pressure released all at once, wind rushing back in as if the world itself gasped for air. Shiori staggered, knees buckling as the curse burned out. Caesar lurched forward, catching himself on his hands before he face-planted into the sand. For a long moment, neither of them moved. The fight was over.
Caesar pulled the mask from his face, letting it fall into the sand beside him. His breath came uneven, chest heaving: "…Why," he rasped, staring at the empty shoreline, "was it just the two of us?"
Shiori didn't answer right away. She sat down heavily, elbows resting on her knees, staring at the dark horizon where the ocean met the sky: "Talaryuna said," she replied finally, voice flat with exhaustion, "that if I wanted to kill him, I had to do it alone."
Caesar: "Well, that would've ended horribly for you."
Shiori glanced at him sidelong. A faint, tired smirk tugged at her lips: "Good thing I turned you into a vampire."
Caesar: "Heh. I think I've had enough fun for a while after this."
Then—
He frowned.
Something felt… wrong.
Even though Soul Sovereignty had calmed, even though Dwayne's presence was gone, Caesar felt it.
A faint warmth.
An ember.
Caesar shook his head once, dismissing the sensation. Probably residue, he told himself. Curse feedback. Nothing more. He straightened, brushing sand off himself: "On second thought, I could have one more meal for the night."
Shiori stood, rolling her neck to ease the tension: "Same."
They turned away from the beach together, disappearing into the shadows of the town, two monsters walking calmly back into a world that had no idea of the battle that had just happened.
However, an ember refused to go out.