First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Jack.
"Prepárense."
The word echoed through the thick, smoky air. Immediately after, the boy's hand extended, his index finger pointing straight at the center of the rock giant's chest.
"Bom."
From the tip of his finger, a crimson sphere of energy—compact and pulsing like a dark heart—shot forward. The impact wasn't just a blow; it was a focused explosion. The rock-skinned man, despite his stony hide, felt the brutal force and screamed, releasing the boy's shoulder in pure shock.
Kenshin, sharpness gleaming in his eyes, didn't hesitate. Both his swords swung in a lethal arc toward the boy's neck. But instead of dodging sideways or upward, the boy simply let himself fall backward, arms open, sinking into his own shadow as though the ground were black water.
The boss, reacting in blind fury, smashed his rocky fist against the spot where the boy had vanished. The earth and stones splintered, forming a small smoking crater—but the boy was gone.
Amid the blazing forest, a clear, mocking laugh—Jack's—began to echo, bouncing from the trunk of one tree to another, moving at impossible speed through the shadows cast by the flames. Kenshin activated an ancient technique: the Twin-Blade Visual Chi. His eyes glowed bright emerald, his vision heightening as he tracked subtle energy flows. He leapt—a dark arrow through the air—toward one of the trees, predicting where the next shadow would fall. With a single, devastating slash, he cut through the trunk. The wood collapsed, but the boy wasn't there. Only a faint wisp of darkness dissolved into nothing.
The rock giant felt a chilling presence, and a cold hand touched his back.
A voice, now right behind his ear, asked casually, "You didn't answer my question. What year is it?"
The stone man growled, veins bulging on his forehead. Suddenly, a dozen jagged spikes of rock erupted from the ground, aiming to impale the boy. Jack reacted instantly, leaping over them with feline grace, landing atop one of the spikes.
"So aggressive, big man! It was just a simple question!"
While Jack taunted, Kenshin darted behind him, one of his black swords aimed straight for the boy's spine. At the same time, the rock giant threw a crushing punch. Trapped between the blade and the stone, Jack smiled and spoke a single word in Spanish—this time, with deadly intent:
"Penetra."
Suddenly, spikes of pure shadow—sharp and dark as obsidian—burst from Jack's body, impaling both men. Kenshin gasped, stumbling back from the pain. The rock giant, though he managed to withstand part of the blow, seized the shadow spikes with his massive hand, grabbed the boy by the neck, and slammed him into the ground with bone-shattering force.
But to his shock, Jack was calmly standing to his side. What he had smashed was nothing more than a decoy made of pure darkness, now fading away.
"Shadow clones, little rocks! You should use your head a bit more—and be more creative with your ability!" Jack mocked.
Kenshin, relentless, quickly healed himself using white chi threads that stitched his wound together. He lunged again with an upward slash, but Jack dodged with a sidestep, repeating the same effortless movement.
"Don't you know any other moves? You've got the three chi variants—vision, healing, and strength—but you only fight with close-range strikes. You're very weak," Jack taunted.
Gathering his focus, Kenshin managed to close the distance and swung directly at the boy's head. But Jack blocked it with ease using a simple knife forged from shadows. A grin spread across his crimson-lit face. With one smooth motion, the shadow blade sliced through Kenshin's sword. Then, with a swift and precise slash, Jack carved a deep wound into the swordsman's chest. Pointing his darkened knife at the rock giant, he said:
"Kneel before the King."
The giant roared, his face twisted in contempt. "King? Don't make me laugh! You're no king of anything!"
As he shouted, his body mutated completely. His skin hardened further, his frame grew larger, and jagged, rocky spikes sprouted from his back and shoulders.
He bellowed in a cavernous voice, "Kenshin was just a weakling! I am Garland, the Rock Concept User, and I am the most powerf—"
Before he could finish, he collapsed unconscious. A single cut—thin as a strand of hair—had been delivered from afar, dropping him instantly.
Jack sighed. "You talk too much for how little you make of your power. Besides, I didn't understand a single word. I told you, I'm not very good with Spanish."
He paused for a moment. "Well, now… where am I?"
Suddenly, cold rain began to fall from the smoky sky.
Jack smiled. "Ah, rain. How timely. This will put out the fire." He looked inward, as if addressing someone inside himself. "Hey kid, whoever you are—the owner of this body—try not to lose against trash like this again, because now, you're my heir."
He fell silent for a moment, confusion crossing his face. "Oh, right. You can't hear me. And I doubt you speak English. Well… we'll need a good spot. I won't let this body catch a cold in the rain. There must be a cave nearby."
As he passed Garland's motionless body, Jack noticed a strange triangular tattoo with an eye at its center, flanked by two wings. It resembled a twisted version of the Illuminati symbol.
He simply said, "Ah."
---
Mental Plane
Inside the Boy's Mind (Michael)
Huh? Where am I? I don't remember this place. How did I get here? Hello?
The voice that had been using his body—Jack—manifested. He had no physical form, only a silhouette made of pure shadow and darkness, floating in the mental void. He gave a deep, elegant bow, his voice resonating in English, deep and smooth like velvet:
"Hello, my little, dear new heir. A pleasure to meet you. I'm sure there are a couple of things you'd like me to explain, aren't there?"
The boy inside the mind blinked at him, confusion written all over his face.
What did you say?
The shadow tilted his head thoughtfully, pausing for a moment.
"Ah… right. Different languages. We'll have to fix that."