The rain lashed down over Herocity's abandoned zone, as if the city itself were weeping. Droplets echoed against the carcasses of broken buildings, resonating through shattered windows and rusted iron signs. Each lightning strike lit up the ruins in white flashes, revealing graffiti-scarred walls, charred cars, and cracked streets — scars of past Draft battles.
Here, abandonment wasn't by chance. This was a war sanctuary, a field meant only to endure destruction. No civilian dared set foot in this ghost district.
At the heart of the main street, surrounded by wreckage, three figures faced off.
Arcanis, shrouded in his hollow Aura, looked like a walking abyss. His energy corrupted the rain itself, evaporating drops before they could touch him. The ground splintered beneath his feet, as though rejecting his existence.
Before him, two young warriors stood their ground.Ryu Nox, eyes shadowed and reflecting lightning, gripped his black blade tightly, the weapon pulsing as if alive. Beside him, Kane Hoshigaki panted, already wounded, yet his stance remained unbroken. His crimson eyes burned with pride and defiance.
The silence of the dead city broke under Arcanis's voice, deep and merciless.
— "You think you can stop me?" He raised his hand, a sphere of void energy pulsing in his palm. "Your shadows are nothing before me, insolent child."
With a flick, the sphere launched at Ryu. The explosion was brutal — tearing chunks of asphalt and hurling Ryu against a shattered wall. Blood mixed with rain across his face.
Arcanis strode forward, a cold smile on his lips. — "It's over."
Kane staggered toward him, his body slashed and bleeding, chest heaving with each breath — yet his eyes never wavered.
— "Don't… mock us…" He spat blood, clenching his fist. "We're not like you. We… HAVE NO LIMITS!"
His Aura erupted like thunder. The street quaked, puddles evaporated, and a storm of dark, pulsating energy surged around him. Anti-matter. The essence of pure destruction.
Ryu, struggling to rise, managed a grim smile. Closing his eyes, he sank deeper into his darkness. His Aura twisted into a vortex, and when he reopened them, they gleamed like two black moons.
— "Dark Instinct…" he whispered. "Now… the battle begins."
Both charged.
Arcanis laughed, his voice booming like thunder. His strikes fell like walls of nothingness, swallowing matter and light. But Kane and Ryu now moved in perfect synchronicity. Every strike Arcanis unleashed was countered — Ryu's black blade cutting through dimensions, Kane's fists of anti-matter distorting space itself.
Still, the fight was far from equal.
Arcanis fought like a god among mortals. With a single blow, he slammed Kane into the ground, leaving a crater as blood sprayed from his mouth. Ryu rushed to him, but Arcanis appeared in his path with impossible speed.
— "You still don't understand?" Arcanis sneered, summoning a massive sphere of void energy in his palm. "There is no hope against me."
The blast engulfed Ryu in searing light, hurling him meters back, his chest scorched with black burns. He gasped for breath, barely clinging to life.
Arcanis advanced slowly. — "A Nox… and still so weak."
Suddenly, a crimson barrier rose between them. Kane, drenched in blood and barely conscious, stood tall once more. His eyes burned like embers.
— "I told you… we have no limits!"
His Aura condensed into a supreme technique. Crimson Reflection glowed in his hand. When Arcanis attacked, his own killing intent rebounded — slicing his arm open in a spray of black blood.
For the first time, Arcanis's smirk faltered.
Ryu staggered to his feet, his blade absorbing all light around him. The world dimmed into darkness.
— "This is the end for you, Arcanis." His voice echoed with grim finality. "Now you fall."
He swung.
The black blade carved a perfect arc, tearing a rift into reality. Space itself was devoured. Flames of nothingness consumed even the falling rain.
— "O shadows… devour all. World-Blackening Slash!"
The strike hit Arcanis dead-on, hurling him into the ruins. Buildings cracked, the ground quaked as if an earthquake had struck Herocity.
From the dust, a guttural laugh echoed.
— "Hahahaha… You thought that would kill me?"
But before he could retaliate, Kane stepped forward.
Raising his arm skyward, his Aura unraveled into black ash, drawn into a void within his palm. Silence fell. The rain froze midair. Colors drained, leaving only shades of gray.
Above, a dark nucleus was born — pulsing like an inverted heart. Each beat fractured the air in luminous cracks.
A black sun took form, turning slowly, its edges dissolving into cosmic ash. The weight of infinity pressed upon all who gazed at it.
— "Ruina Nihil…!" Kane roared, his voice thundering.
The black sun imploded, then erupted in absolute silence. Nothing remained — not matter, not energy, not light. For an instant, there was only void.
The blast hurled Arcanis through blocks of city, his body torn and mangled, bleeding heavily. His ragged breaths betrayed the weight of the blow.
Kane collapsed to his knees, blood streaming from his eyes, black markings crawling across his body.
— "Hey, man!" Ryu rushed to him, grabbing his shoulders. "Are you okay?!"
Kane grinned weakly, blood on his lips. — "I'm alive… that's what matters."
Ryu clenched his fists. — "Your power… wasn't it just Crimson Reflection?"
Kane chuckled faintly. — "I can't stay behind Phoenix forever…"
Both stared at the rubble where Arcanis had fallen. The rain resumed, heavy, washing blood and ruin alike.
Wounded but standing, Ryu and Kane walked toward Ron. Behind them, the silence of the dead city hid one chilling truth:
Arcanis was still alive.
[END OF CHAPTER 103]