"In this world, strength is not a gift… it's the price you pay to stay alive."
"Kara is the vital energy that flows through all things. Some shape it to create, others to destroy… but all depend on it to survive."
"When the breath of Kara fades, the heart stops beating, and the soul vanishes into eternal shadow."
The hot steam from the destroyed baths filled the air, making it hard to breathe. Broken planks cracked underfoot. The heat, the wet wood, the smell of blood and sweat—all signs that things were about to go terribly wrong.
Ashley, her luminous chains floating around her, stepped forward with determination. Her hair clung to her sweaty forehead, and her eyes burned with cold fury.
Ashley:
— Raizen, Diana, Danky… stay back.
She snapped her chains like whips, making the air tremble. Johan, motionless in the mist, slightly raised his head. His mask seemed to mock her.
Ashley (thinking):
— I must not drag this fight out…
Kara Celestial: Chain of the Silver Serpent!
The first chain tore through the steam. Johan didn't move.
Ashley's attack seemed to hit an invisible wall just inches from her target. Then, the unthinkable happened. The energy of the chain folded back on itself and exploded outward—pure Kara Celestial, Ashley's own energy but doubled in power.
The basin shattered, boiling water flooding everywhere, and the heat became unbearable. Pieces of wood flew through the air and embedded themselves in the walls. One scraped Raizen's skin, making him grit his teeth in pain.
Blasted backward by the force of her own attack, Ashley crashed heavily, the air knocked from her lungs. Chaos reigned. Outside, screams of panic began to rise.
Ashley (weakly):
— That's… that's impossible… he countered me…
Johan's deep laughter echoed—a dark, menacing sound through the fog.
Johan:
— Your Celestial Kara holds no power over me… pathetic Zenith Stellaire.
Danky roared and charged. His fist, uncoated in Kara from sheer instinctive rage, smashed the ground where Johan had been a moment ago. Johan sidestepped effortlessly. His knee slammed into Danky's stomach, forcing blood from his mouth, before grabbing him by the throat.
With brutal force, Johan lifted him and slammed him into the stone floor, cracking it. A cold blade pressed against his neck.
Johan (coldly):
— It's getting crowded here… if you don't want more corpses, I suggest you come with me.
Ashley's heart tightened. Her chains trembled helplessly. Raizen and Diana froze, breath caught in their throats.
Johan forced them out of the ruined baths. They ran through the dark alleys of Kazemori, their feet slapping wet stone, the hot air burning their lungs. Each step brought them closer to a deadly trap.
The abandoned warehouse appeared ahead. Inside, there was only silence, dust, and the smell of rusted metal. The floor was littered with broken crates, the damp air clinging to their skin.
Johan threw Danky to the ground like a discarded toy.
Johan:
— Very well… before I kill you all, I'll repeat my question. Where is your base?
Ashley clenched her fists. Her gaze hardened. She chose another approach—attack physically.
Without a word, she lunged forward, using her chains only to propel herself and shift direction. She actually hit him! Her foot smashed into Johan's masked jaw.
Raizen felt a flicker of hope.
Raizen (breathless):
— She hit him!
Taking advantage of the opening, Raizen and Danky stood and charged, without Kara, relying only on strength and agility. Raizen threw a direct punch while Danky aimed for the legs.
Johan sighed, irritated. He blocked Raizen's punch with his forearm and delivered a spinning kick that shattered Danky's ribs.
CRACK!
Danky screamed and collapsed. Johan then grabbed Raizen's arm, twisted it, and hurled him against a wall. The impact was so violent that Raizen coughed blood, his shoulder dislocated.
Johan (mocking):
— Pathetic. You're not even worth the trouble of insects.
Ashley, seeing the boys down, screamed in rage.
Ashley:
— Kara Celestial: Rain of Judgment!
Her chains crashed down like a storm. Johan, instead of letting the power rebound, made a simple motion.
Johan:
— Kara Noir: Folding.
Ashley's chains twisted in midair and slammed into the ground beside him, creating craters. He controlled the direction of the backlash. Grabbing one chain before it vanished, he yanked it—Ashley was pulled toward him. His fist drove into her stomach, making her double over. He seized her by the hair and smashed her into a pillar—again and again. He lifted her effortlessly with one hand, fingers tightening around her throat, then hurled her against a stone column, shattering it.
BAM! BAM!
Her blood splattered across the ground. She staggered, her vision blurring. Johan turned now toward Diana.
Raizen (screaming, trying to stand):
— NO!
The world seemed to slow. Johan leapt. His blade gleamed faintly in the dim light, aimed straight for Diana's heart.
Ashley screamed, her throat burning. She gathered everything she had left—all her Kara, all her being.
Ashley (staggering, body drenched in blood, chains trembling around her, inner thought):
— I am a Zenith Stellaire… I can't falter… not now… if I die for nothing, then… what was the point?
Her knees shook, her breathing shallow, but her eyes stayed locked on Johan.
A burning pain pierced her chest, but stronger still was the voice inside her head.
Ashley (whispering, blood on her lips):
— Sorry… Chief Adams… I wasn't worthy of your expectations…
Ashley:
— Kara Celestial: Ultimate Bastion!
Her chains rose one final time, driven by a broken yet proud will. A silver barrier flared before Diana—her Ultimate Bastion.
But the verdict came.
The chains began to vibrate. Johan, a cruel smile on his lips, moved deliberately.
Johan:
— Kara Noir: Retribution of the Shattered Mirror.
The energy of the barrier was ripped apart and turned back on its creator. The chains transformed into dozens of lances of light.
Johan (cruelly):
— This is how you'll vanish… Astroforge.
The lances shot forward and pierced Ashley. Her skin tore, bones cracked. Blood sprayed in thick arcs, splattering across the ground and Raizen's horrified face.
She was nailed against a pillar, her body impaled from all sides, arms spread, head falling to one side. Her lips moved one last time, forming a silent word: "Raizen."
Then her body slid down the pillar, collapsing heavily into a pool of blood.
"Everything stopped. Even the breath of the wind seemed to hang suspended."
Silence fell—heavy as death. Danky wept with rage and helplessness. Raizen stood frozen, fists clenched, eyes filled with tears.
Johan approached slowly, his blade still stained with blood.
Johan (mocking):
— Dying for weaklings who can't even fight… what a waste.
He raised his weapon, ready to kill the survivors.
And suddenly—
The world froze.
An absolute cold filled the warehouse. Fresh blood began to freeze on the floor.
But the cold didn't come from the air.
It came from…
Diana.
She trembled — not from fear, but from a deep, seething rage.
Her eyes, once gentle, had turned into two empty, icy abysses.
The blood from Ashley, splattered across her face, began to evaporate into a thin black mist.
A low voice — not her usual one — echoed in the silence.
Diana:
— You...
Johan turned, surprised by the overwhelming aura radiating from the young girl.
Then, Diana raised her head.
Her frozen eyes locked onto Johan.
Her hair began to float softly, as if drawn upward by an invisible wind.
Diana (in a glacial voice):
— ...you never should have.
The silence in the warehouse was so heavy it was deafening.
Ashley's body lay in a pool of blood that had started to freeze around the edges.
Johan, savoring his triumph, raised his blade to finish off the survivors.
And then... the world froze.
A low voice, not Diana's, echoed.
Diana was still there, trembling, but her face was transfigured.
Her eyes, usually filled with warmth, were now two orbs of polar blue, devoid of emotion.
Ashley's blood on her cheek seemed to freeze and crack.
A visible frost-like mist seeped from her body.
Without a scream, without another word, she reached her hand toward Johan.
The air itself tore apart.
Massive spikes of blinding white ice burst from the ground beneath Johan's feet.
They were raw, savage — like fangs erupting from the earth.
Johan, caught off guard by the speed and violence of the attack, was forced to leap backward.
Johan (a smirk forming on his lips):
— Oh? The little mouse has claws?
But he didn't have time to finish his sentence.
Diana made another motion.
The warehouse floor instantly became covered with a thick layer of ice, turning it into a deadly rink.
For the first time, Johan lost his balance — just for a fraction of a second.
That was all Diana needed.
Waves of intense cold pulsed from her body, so powerful that the walls of the warehouse began to frost over.
Johan felt the chill seep into his bones — not just freezing, but threatening to halt the flow of his own Kara.
Johan (thinking, annoyed for the first time):
— This isn't ordinary ice… it's pure Celestial Kara, ice type. Raw. Unrefined. Dangerous.
He tried to approach her, but with every step, walls of ice erupted in front of him, forcing him to change direction.
The warehouse had become her domain — a frozen labyrinth she controlled instinctively.
Then, she raised both hands.
The moisture in the air condensed and froze, forming dozens of floating ice daggers around her, each vibrating with unstable energy.
She didn't shout a technique name.
She just moved her hand.
The daggers shot toward Johan like a storm of arrows.
Realizing he couldn't block them physically, Johan did the only thing possible: he let the Celestial Kara daggers strike him.
His retribution ability activated.
The daggers turned back toward Diana.
But she didn't move.
Just as her own daggers were about to pierce her, a warm blue light radiated from her chest.
Her Internal Kara — her healing force — activated instinctively, not to heal, but to form a shield of pure life energy.
The ice daggers shattered against the bluish barrier in a burst of light and steam.
Johan froze in place. His smile had vanished.
Johan (murmuring, both fascinated and furious):
— Elemental and Internal Kara… awakened simultaneously? And they oppose each other? What the hell is this monster?
Diana, her face still expressionless, stepped forward.
The ground froze beneath her feet.
The temperature in the entire warehouse dropped again, and Johan's breath turned into thick mist.
The battle wasn't over.
It had just truly begun.
During that brief pause, Danky, lying in a pool of his own blood with broken ribs, opened his eyes.
The pain was unbearable, but what he saw took his breath away.
Diana.
The sweet, timid Diana now stood amidst a storm of ice and light.
Walls of ice rose at her command, and deadly shards floated around her.
She wasn't fighting — she was a natural disaster.
A goddess of vengeance with an angel's face.
His gaze shifted from this divine vision to Raizen, unconscious and broken a few meters away, then to Ashley's lifeless body, pinned to the pillar.
Shame and rage overwhelmed the pain.
She's fighting, he thought.
She's fighting… and I'm here, crawling like a worm.
He clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms until blood welled up.
Danky (panting, voice cracked):
— I have to... stand up...
He pressed his hands against the frozen floor, his muscles screaming in agony.
Every movement was torture.
Danky (to himself, tears of rage streaming down his face):
— STAND UP!
With a scream of pure willpower, he managed to get on one knee, then both feet, trembling uncontrollably.
He was standing.
Ready to fight again — even if it meant dying.
But he didn't feel Diana's cold anymore.
He felt something else.
A suffocating presence — a shadow that had silently appeared behind him.
He didn't even have time to turn.
Johan:
— You're persistent. I admire that.
Johan's voice was a freezing whisper in his ear.
Then, with brutal precision, he struck.
Not once — but several times.
A punch to the back that cracked his spine.
An elbow to the neck that made him see stars.
And finally, a devastating kick to the abdomen, charged with murderous intent.
Johan:
— The finishing blow.
Just as his foot came down to end Danky's life, a barrage of ice spikes, launched by Diana, shot toward him.
Without even looking, Johan pivoted and blocked the assault with his forearm, his Black Kara canceling the impact in a burst of dark sparks.
But the force of his kick had already been released.
Danky was hurled across the warehouse like a rag doll, crashing violently into a pile of old metal beams.
The fragile structure collapsed on him in a deafening crash of twisted steel and dust.
Silence followed.
Beneath the heap of debris, nothing moved.
Only a hand, visible for a moment — then it fell limp.
Diana froze, her icy storm pausing for a heartbeat, her empty gaze fixed on the pile of scrap.
Johan simply brushed off his arm, as if removing invisible dust.
Johan:
— One less. Who's next?
Raizen, dazed, his vision blurry, had seen everything.
Danky's courage.
His brutal defeat.
His body disappearing beneath the wreckage.
A single image flashed through his mind — Danky's smile hours earlier, back in the streets of Kazemori.
His silent promise to grow stronger, to never be powerless again.
And now... this.
Rage and despair threatened to consume him.
He clenched his teeth until he tasted blood and shut his eyes, unable to watch anymore, a tear sliding down his cheek.
Meanwhile, the fight raged on.
Though unleashed, Diana lacked experience.
Her attacks were powerful but predictable.
Now that Johan understood her power, he danced between the ice spikes, countering with surgical precision.
He couldn't use his offensive Kara without triggering retribution, but he was still a far superior fighter physically.
He saw an opening, dodged a wall of ice, and struck.
His unenhanced fist hit Diana square in the chest.
The impact shattered her instinctive healing barrier, and she was thrown violently backward, crashing against a wall, her breath knocked out.
Her storm of ice wavered.
Johan stopped, breathing steadily, his cold, calculating gaze turning toward the pile of debris where Danky had fallen.
He was going to make sure the job was finished.
But then...
The entire warehouse began to tremble.
Not from Diana's ice — but from a deep vibration rising from beneath the earth.
The ground cracked.
The metal beams above Danky started to levitate, as if repelled by an invisible force.
(Flashback)
The image is blurry, trembling.
A young Danky, crying, stands before his bedridden older brother, his legs crushed.
Despair and hatred already consuming the elder.
Danky:
— Big... big brother...
The brother doesn't respond. His eyes are empty.
But he slowly raises his trembling hands and places them on Danky's chest.
A faint glow — the last remnant of his own Celestial Kara — flickers between his palms.
Big Brother (voice barely a whisper):
— Don't... become like me. Be... stronger...
The light sinks into Danky's body — a sleeping seed of power.
A final gift born from despair.
(Back to reality)
A thunderous explosion shattered the silence.
The tons of metal covering Danky were blown outward, pulverized into dust by an immense shockwave.
At the center of the smoking crater, a figure stood — floating.
It was no longer the wounded, broken Danky.
His body was surrounded by a Celestial Kara aura so dense and powerful that it distorted the air.
His red hair floated, and his eyes blazed with an intense crimson light.
The mark of the Zénith on his hand glowed incandescent.
He wasn't healed.
Blood still ran from his lips, and his arm was likely broken.
But he stood tall — as if pain no longer existed.
He slowly raised his head, his red gaze locking onto Johan with frozen determination.
"Cold and heat collided in the air…
the massacre had found its echo."
END OF CHAPTER 8