Tokyo was already under siege when they arrived.
The weak point had opened early, tearing through the sky above Shibuya Crossing—one of the busiest intersections in the world. Ice creatures poured through by the hundreds, and despite the Japanese Self-Defense Forces' best efforts, the situation was deteriorating fast.
"This is bad," Stevens said, staring out the helicopter window as they approached. The famous neon lights of Tokyo were dark in patches, buildings covered in ice, streets frozen solid. "This is really bad."
"We've handled worse," Josh said, though he wasn't sure that was true. This looked like Alaska times ten.
They landed on a military staging area three blocks from the weak point. Japanese commanders were coordinating with DDI teams, but the language barrier was making things difficult despite translators. Captain Rodriguez was already on the ground, directing flame unit teams into defensive positions.
"Martinez! Reeves!" Rodriguez waved them over. "The weak point is fully open and stable. We're estimating over five hundred creatures in the immediate area, with more coming through every minute. And there's something else."
"Let me guess," Josh said, feeling the cold inside him pulse with recognition. "Azazel."
"How did you—never mind. Yes. Dimensional energy readings are off the charts. Dr. Walsh thinks he's preparing to cross over personally." Rodriguez handed them equipment. "We're evacuating civilians as fast as we can, but there are thousands still trapped in buildings. Your priority is closing that weak point before the King steps through."
Kyla checked her flame unit. "What's the plan?"
"Standard protocol. Fight our way to the weak point, place the resonance device, activate it, and get out. Simple."
"Nothing about this is simple," Stevens muttered, checking his own equipment.
They moved out in teams of six, with Josh and Kyla leading one group. The streets of Shibuya were a war zone. Abandoned cars blocked intersections, storefronts shattered, and ice covered everything. The temperature was easily negative twenty Celsius despite it being summer.
The first creatures attacked within two blocks. Fast ones, smaller than usual, adapted for urban combat. They leaped from building to building, striking from above. Josh's team fought them off, but it was clear these weren't the mindless drones they'd faced before. These were coordinated, tactical.
"They're learning from us!" Delgado shouted, taking down three creatures with her flame unit. "Using our own tactics against us!"
Josh could feel Azazel's presence growing stronger. Not just through the weak point, but inside his own mind. The cold inside him was responding to its source, like iron filings to a magnet. He could hear whispers—not words exactly, but impressions. Invitations to let go, to embrace the cold, to stop fighting what he was becoming.
"Josh, you okay?" Kyla asked, noticing him stumble.
"Yeah, just—he's here. Or almost here. The connection is getting stronger." Josh shook his head, trying to clear it. "We need to move faster."
They pushed forward, fighting through wave after wave of creatures. The closer they got to Shibuya Crossing, the worse it became. Bodies—both civilian and military—lined the streets, frozen solid. Josh tried not to look at their faces, at the terror captured in ice.
Finally, they reached the crossing. The weak point hung in the sky like a wound in reality, easily a hundred feet across. And standing beneath it, surrounded by his most powerful creatures, was a figure Josh recognized from his dreams.
Azazel had crossed over.
But this wasn't the fifty-foot giant from Alaska. This version was closer to human-sized—maybe eight feet tall—but more concentrated, more powerful. His ice body was so clear it was almost invisible, and inside it, Josh could see that young man from the visions, trapped and screaming silently.
"Joshua Reeves," Azazel's voice echoed across the frozen intersection. "I told you we would meet again. Not in dreams, but in flesh and ice."
"Azazel," Josh said, stepping forward despite Kyla grabbing his arm. "You don't have to do this. The Shard is using you. You're still human underneath all that ice. You can still choose to stop."
Azazel laughed, a sound like breaking glaciers. "Still trying to save me? How noble. But I am beyond saving, Joshua. I am beyond human. I am what humanity could never accept—evolution. Perfection. Power."
"You're a slave," Josh countered. "A puppet dancing on the Shard's strings. Is that really better than what you were?"
For a moment, Azazel's form flickered. The young man inside seemed to press against the ice, as if trying to break free. Then the Shard's dark energy pulsed, and Azazel's control reasserted itself.
"Enough talk. I came to offer you one final chance. Join me. Accept the transformation. Become what you were meant to be." Azazel extended a hand of ice. "Or die with your weak, pathetic world."
"I'll take option three," Josh said. "Stop you and save everyone."
"You cannot stop what has already begun. But you can try. Let us see how strong you truly are."
Azazel attacked with terrifying speed. One moment he was standing still, the next he was in front of Josh, ice claws swiping. Josh barely got his hands up in time, creating a barrier of his own ice. The impact sent him flying backward into a frozen car.
"Josh!" Kyla opened fire with her flame unit, but Azazel created shields that absorbed the flames effortlessly.
"Your weapons are toys," Azazel said, advancing on Kyla. "Pitiful human attempts to fight forces beyond your comprehension."
Rodriguez's team hit Azazel from three sides with concentrated fire. For a moment, it looked like they were making progress—the ice on his body cracking, melting. Then Azazel raised both arms, and a wave of ice spikes erupted from the ground in all directions.
Three soldiers went down, impaled. Rodriguez took a spike through the shoulder and collapsed. Stevens barely dodged one that would have taken his head off.
"Fall back!" Kyla ordered. "Get the wounded to safety!"
But Azazel wasn't letting them retreat. He moved like water, flowing across the frozen ground impossibly fast. He grabbed Delgado and froze her arm solid before Josh could intervene. She screamed in pain as the ice spread.
Josh hit Azazel with everything he had—ice spikes, barriers, even trying to freeze Azazel with his own power. But it was like fighting a mirror. Every attack was countered, every defense broken. Azazel was stronger, faster, and had centuries more experience.
"You fight well," Azazel said, batting Josh aside effortlessly. "Better than I expected. The Shard has taken root in you deeply. But you resist it. You cling to your humanity. That is your weakness."
Josh struggled to his feet, blood running from his nose. His powers were draining him fast, and Azazel was barely scratched. "My humanity is my strength. It's what you lost. What made you this monster."
"Monster?" Azazel's eyes blazed brighter. "I am a savior! I offer eternal life! Freedom from death and decay! And you call me monster?"
He grabbed Josh by the throat, lifting him off the ground. "You could be like me. Could be strong. But you choose weakness. Choose to die mortal and forgotten. Very well. I will grant your wish."
The ice spread from Azazel's hand up Josh's neck, toward his face. Josh felt his powers flickering, failing. The cold inside him was being drawn out, absorbed by Azazel. He was going to die here, frozen like all the others.
Then Kyla did something incredibly brave and stupid.
She ran directly at Azazel and stabbed him in the back with a fragment of metal she'd picked up—probably from a broken street sign. It didn't hurt him, barely scratched his ice body. But it distracted him long enough for him to drop Josh.
"You dare?" Azazel spun toward Kyla, his voice filled with rage.
"Yeah, I dare!" Kyla fired her flame unit directly into his face. "That's my partner you're trying to kill!"
Azazel swatted her aside like an insect. Kyla flew through the air, hitting the ground hard five meters away. She didn't get up.
"KYLA!" Josh screamed, terror overwhelming everything else.
He tried to crawl toward her, but his body wouldn't respond. He was too drained, too cold, too weak. Azazel stood over Kyla's motionless form, raising an ice-covered foot to crush her.
"No," Josh whispered. Then louder: "NO!"
Something inside him broke. Not broke—shattered. The cold that Azazel had been trying to draw out suddenly reversed, pulling inward instead. But it wasn't just cold anymore. It was something else. Something hot and bright and burning.
Josh felt himself rising off the ground, levitating without conscious thought. His body was surrounded by an aura—blue ice mixing with red-orange fire, swirling together impossibly. His eyes blazed with both colors, cold and hot, ice and flame.
The dimensional energy inside him wasn't just the Shard's power. It was something more. Something the Shard had hidden. The memory of the young man who'd touched it, who'd carried warmth and hope before the ice consumed him. That warmth was still there, buried deep. And Josh had found it.
Azazel stopped, his foot inches from Kyla's body, and turned to stare at Josh. "Impossible. You cannot wield both. The Shard does not allow—"
"The Shard doesn't control me!" Josh's voice echoed with power. His hands moved without conscious thought, one glowing ice-blue, the other burning red-orange. "I'm not you, Azazel! I'm not alone! I'm not broken! And I'm not giving up!"
Energy particles began swirling toward Josh's hands, drawn from the air itself. Dimensional energy, thermal energy, kinetic energy—everything around him being pulled into one point. His right hand blazed brighter and brighter as the energy concentrated into a sphere.
"FIRE MAGIC: FIRST FORM!" The words came from somewhere deep inside, instinctive knowledge he didn't know he had.
The sphere grew larger, hotter, brighter. Soon it was the size of a basketball, then a person, then a car. A massive ball of fire that burned so hot the ice around Josh was melting, steam rising in great clouds.
Azazel's eyes widened—the first time Josh had seen genuine fear on the King's face. "That power—it cannot be—"
Josh didn't let him finish. With a roar of effort, he threw the fireball directly at Azazel.
The King tried to dodge, but the fireball tracked him, drawn by Josh's will. It hit Azazel's shoulder with devastating force, and for the first time since he'd crossed over, Azazel screamed in pain.
Real pain. Real damage.
The ice on his shoulder shattered, revealing the dark energy of the Shard beneath. The fireball's heat was doing what flame units couldn't—actually harming the King.
Azazel fell from the sky, crashing into the frozen ground hard enough to create a crater. Ice creatures all around the battlefield stopped fighting, turning toward their fallen king.
But Josh was falling too. The effort of creating that attack had drained everything he had. His aura flickered out, his eyes returned to normal, and he dropped from the sky like a stone.
Stevens caught him before he hit the ground. "I got you! Josh! Stay with me!"
But Josh was already passing out, the last of his energy spent. The world faded to black.
When Azazel struggled to his feet, the wound on his shoulder was visible—a burning crater in his otherwise perfect ice body. Dark energy leaked from it like blood. He looked around at the battlefield, at his creatures, at the unconscious Josh, and made a decision.
"Retreat," he commanded, his voice weak and pained. "All forces, retreat now."
The ice creatures immediately responded, running toward their king. Azazel raised one hand, and a portal began to form in the air—not a weak point, but a deliberate gateway back to the Frozen Realm.
"Sir!" Rodriguez shouted, struggling to stand despite her injured shoulder. "All units, stop them! Don't let them escape!"
But the DDI forces were too battered, too exhausted. They could barely stand, let alone fight. They could only watch as the creatures gathered around their king and began stepping through the portal.
Azazel looked back one last time, his eyes finding Josh's unconscious form. When he spoke, his voice carried across the battlefield despite his obvious pain.
"This is not over, Joshua Reeves." He sounded hurt, sick, but also... impressed? "You have surprised me. Wounded me. Forced me to retreat. That has not happened in centuries." He coughed, dark energy splattering from his mouth. "But I will return. Stronger. And when I do, you will make your choice. Join me willingly... or die permanently."
Then Azazel stepped through the portal. His creatures followed, and the gateway sealed shut behind them.
Silence fell over Shibuya Crossing.
For a moment, nobody moved. Then Kyla groaned, sitting up slowly with a hand to her head. "Did we... did we win?"
"I think so?" Stevens said, still holding the unconscious Josh. "Josh did something impossible and scared Azazel off. So... yeah. We won."
"Josh!" Kyla scrambled over to them, cradling Josh's head. "Is he okay?"
"Unconscious but alive," Dr. Walsh said, rushing over with medical equipment. "His dimensional energy readings are all over the place. Ice and fire, somehow existing in the same space. This shouldn't be possible."
"Josh makes a habit of doing impossible things," Kyla said, stroking his hair. "He's going to be okay, right?"
"I don't know. This is completely unprecedented. The energy inside him has fundamentally changed. He's not just a carrier of the Shard's power anymore. He's something new. Something that's never existed before." Walsh looked at Josh with a mixture of excitement and fear. "He's evolved. Or mutated. I'm not sure which."
Rodriguez limped over, her injured shoulder roughly bandaged. "We need to debrief. Figure out what the hell just happened. And someone needs to explain what 'Fire Magic: First Form' means, because that sounded like something from an anime."
"Later," Kyla said firmly. "First, we get Josh somewhere safe. Then we figure out the rest."
They loaded Josh onto a medical transport, along with the other wounded. The battle of Tokyo was over. The weak point had sealed itself when Azazel retreated, and the remaining ice in the city was already melting in the summer heat.
They'd won. Barely.
But as Kyla sat beside Josh's unconscious form, holding his hand, she couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't really a victory. Azazel had been testing them. Testing Josh specifically. And now he knew that Josh could hurt him.
That knowledge would make the King more cautious. More dangerous. And more determined than ever to either recruit or destroy Josh before he became a real threat.
The war wasn't over. It was just entering a new phase.
And Josh—Josh was changing into something even Dr. Walsh couldn't understand. Something powerful enough to hurt a dimensional king. But at what cost?
As the transport lifted off, carrying them away from the frozen battlefield, Kyla looked down at Tokyo. The city was damaged but standing. Thousands of lives had been saved. They'd protected people.
That had to count for something.
Even if everything else was falling apart, that had to count for something.
End of Chapter 29