Rai and Mizu limped away from the battlefield, their bodies battered but their smirks intact.
"Tch… so close," Rai muttered, clutching his steel-hardened arm. "Another minute and we'd have crushed those two kids."
Mizu flicked water from her fingertips, reshaping it into thin daggers as she glanced back. "We can still finish this. Supira and Doraibu can't hold out forever."
But before they could retreat into the shadows of the ridge—
A crackling distortion tore through the air. The ground warped, the sky shimmered unnaturally, and from the hillside emerged Kaosu. His crimson hair caught the glow of the setting sun, his eyes swirling with chaotic energy—but controlled, steady.
"You're not going anywhere."
Supira staggered, exhausted from spirals he had maintained. "Kaosu…?"
Doraibu's eyes widened in fear. "No! Don't! If you fight, you'll—"
But Kaosu stepped forward, raising a trembling hand. Instead of losing control, he breathed deeply, his aura flickering between stability and chaos. "I won't run from it anymore. I'll fight—with it."
Sogen, watching silently from the ridge, nodded to himself. "So, the storm begins to bend to his will."
Rai roared, slamming his steel fist into the ground, sending a shockwave toward Kaosu. Kaosu twisted his palm, and the wave of debris shattered into floating shards, reassembling into a chaotic spiral of stone that he flung back.
Mizu surged forward, her water forming a whip that lashed toward Kaosu's throat. At the last second—
"Spiral Guard!" Supira's vortex erupted, twisting her water attack into a harmless spray.
Kaosu smirked at his brother. "Guess I'm not fighting alone after all."
"Of course not," Supira answered, his spirals glowing brighter, tighter, more refined. The pattern began to double upon itself—an evolution in real time.
Meanwhile, Doraibu clenched his fists. His heart raced as he saw Kaosu standing in the thick of battle. "Damn it, if you're going all in—then so am I!"
He blurred into motion, his Overdrive Nexus igniting. Sparks of lightning trailed his body as he unleashed a blinding Velocity Breaker, colliding with Rai in a thunderous crash.
The battlefield cracked and roared with every strike. Kaosu clashed first, his crimson aura flaring as he twisted Rai's steel fist aside. The impact should have crushed him, but instead the momentum shattered against Kaosu's palm, rebounding in a jagged arc of chaos that forced Rai to stagger back.
From the side, Mizu's water blades split into a dozen shimmering daggers that streaked toward Kaosu's chest. Before they could pierce him, Supira's voice rang out.
"Spiral Wall!"
A vortex of spiraling energy burst to life, catching the blades in midair. The water hissed and bent, sucked into the spiral's current until it dissolved into harmless droplets.
Supira's spirals began to tighten and multiply. The energy didn't just rotate—it grew sharper, faster, evolving before their eyes. His movements were fluid, each step pulling more force into the growing storm of spirals surrounding him.
Doraibu, meanwhile, was already in motion. His body blurred, lightning sparks trailing in his wake as he struck Rai again and again. Each blow cracked against steel, the rhythm of his fists so fast they became afterimages. Rai grunted, trying to counter, but Doraibu's Velocity Breaker roared through his guard, slamming him into the dirt.
Mizu retaliated with a sweep of her arm, her water forming a whip that lashed across the battlefield. It split into a hundred droplets, each one sharp enough to cut stone. Supira expanded his spirals wider, but the strain showed in his shaking arms.
Kaosu surged forward, his chaos Nexus flaring. He seized the whip in midair—where it should have sliced him apart, the strands of water unraveled into fragments, warping into writhing serpents of chaotic energy that snapped back toward Mizu herself.
Rai roared in fury, his steel skin thickening into jagged armor, and he swung with both fists, his arms now bladed hammers. Doraibu met him head-on despite the danger, his strikes colliding with steel again and again, sparks flying in every direction.
Supira tightened his spirals until they nested within one another, creating an infinite pattern that ground Rai's and Mizu's attacks into dust. Kaosu's chaos surged in time with it, wild energy bending into shape instead of scattering out of control. And through it all, Doraibu moved faster and faster, each punch timed perfectly with the spiral's rhythm, his strikes growing heavier under Kaosu's influence.
The clash became a storm—chaos, spiral, and drive intertwining with violent brilliance.
Doraibu's Overdrive pushed him further—too far. His body screamed, veins glowing faintly as his Nexus began to destabilize.
"Not yet… not yet! I can still go faster!!"
Sogen's voice echoed in his mind: If you push beyond your limit, your Nexus will consume you. A Nexus Overload will burn you from the inside out.
But Doraibu ignored it, unleashing one final Velocity Breaker, his fist shattering Rai's steel armor for the first time. The blow left his arm trembling violently, sparks crackling along his skin.
"Doraibu!!" Supira shouted, struggling to hold back Mizu's vortex.
Kaosu roared, slamming his palm into the ground. Reality fractured for a moment—cracks of pure chaos energy spiraled out, distorting space. The chaos didn't lash out wildly this time. Instead, it surged forward under Kaosu's command, swallowing Mizu's attacks and forcing her back.
Breathing heavily, the three brothers stood side by side, their powers flickering in unison. For the first time, their Nexuses didn't clash—they harmonized.
Supira's spirals amplified Kaosu's chaos, shaping it. Doraibu's velocity strikes synchronized with the spirals' rhythm, doubling their force. Together, they unleashed a combined strike—
"Chaodrive!!!"
The battlefield exploded in light. Rai and Mizu were hurled back, their bodies slamming into the ridge wall, defeated and unconscious.
Silence fell. Doraibu collapsed to one knee, his body smoking from the edge of overload. Supira supported him, gasping.
Kaosu stood over them, his chest heaving. For once, the chaotic glow in his eyes dimmed without fading into madness. He had controlled it.
"Guess… we're stronger together than apart," Kaosu muttered with a weak grin.
Doraibu smirked, despite the pain. "Yeah… but next time, I land the finishing blow."
Supira laughed softly. "As long as we're still standing, that's what matters."
From the distance, Sogen Shihan crossed his arms, pride glinting in his eyes. "They are not yet gods… but the prophecy stirs. When Chaos, Spiral, and Drive converge—something greater awakens."