The Ranians entered the palace like a storm breaking through stone.
Raiki ignited across the marble halls — blue, green, yellow, red — clashing like fractured lightning beneath painted ceilings that had never known war.
And fight they did.
Steel met Raiki. Wood shattered. Marble cracked.
They fought their own people.
The civil war had begun.
Team Z stood at the throne room entrance as soldiers rushed them. Scarlet moved first — her blade flashing. Abraham blocked a spear of wood and countered. Benjamin and Sulaiman moved as one unit. Leona held the defensive line.
The King stood in the center of it all.
Ludiga turned to his son, eyes burning with betrayal.
"You," he said, voice shaking with fury, "are going to pay with blood."
He gently lifted the Queen's lifeless body into his arms.
For a moment, even war paused.
He carried her to his chamber himself.
Not as a king.
But as a husband.
Then he returned.
His face was no longer grieving.
It was hardened.
"Let us take this fight outside," he said coldly.
The Prince tilted his head.
"As you wish… Father."
He stepped forward.
Eight of his strongest soldiers followed.
They descended from the palace balcony into the open grounds below.
Team Z followed.
The King followed.
And the battlefield expanded beneath the open sky.
Each soldier found their opponent.
Raiki flared like burning constellations across the earth.
And in the center—
Ryo stood before the Prince.
The Prince released his Raiki.
It burst outward in a controlled wave.
Blue.
Deep, cold blue.
Ryo's eyes narrowed.
"Blue Raiki…" he muttered. "That's interesting."
Nurami's voice whispered inside him.
"Well, Ryo… let's begin with Stage 2."
"Flow."
An energy the prince couldn't detect surrounded Ryo, controlled but alive. His breathing slowed. His movements sharpened.
The Prince raised his hand.
The trees surrounding the battlefield trembled.
Roots tore from the earth.
Branches twisted violently.
Wood answered his command like loyal soldiers.
It shot toward Ryo in sharp, lethal arcs.
Ryo moved.
Not wildly.
Not desperately.
He flowed.
Each step placed perfectly between deadly branches. Each twist avoided impalement by inches. The wood slammed into earth behind him, splintering stone.
The Prince watched carefully.
Ryo vanished.
In an instant he reappeared before the Prince, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him forward.
The punch connected.
The Prince's head snapped sideways.
But his eyes did not panic.
He studied.
"Is it gravity?" the Prince thought. "No… not gravity. Something else. Something… darker."
The Prince responded immediately.
Wood surged beneath his feet and merged with his blue Raiki. The aura wrapped around the timber like veins of light.
He drove his fist forward.
The impact struck Ryo square in the chest.
The force exploded outward.
Ryo was launched backward, crashing across the ground.
Dust rose.
Silence held for half a second.
Then Ryo stood up.
The Prince's eyes narrowed.
"You endure well."
Ryo rolled his shoulders.
The Prince attacked again—
But Ryo dodged.
And then—
His Raiki burst outward violently.
The red deepened.
The Prince's expression sharpened.
"Ah," he said quietly. "So your color is red."
Ryo spoke calmly.
"Focus your energy into one point."
The Prince responded by gathering every piece of wood in his reach. Broken trees. Splintered fragments. Even shattered palace debris.
They reshaped midair into blades, spears, and spinning projectiles.
He released them all.
The sky darkened under the swarm.
Ryo inhaled.
Then jumped.
The Prince smirked, believing he understood.
"He's coming down," he thought, preparing a final upward strike.
But Ryo didn't fall.
He stopped.
Standing in midair.
The Prince's eyes widened.
Before he could react—
He was pulled upward violently.
Ryo stood on nothing but sky.
The Prince struggled for air.
"Funny," Ryo said quietly, gripping his collar, "I'm standing on the very air… and you're struggling to breathe."
Stage 3 ignited.
The red Raiki compressed violently around Ryo's arm.
Everything nearby responded.
The leftover wood the Prince controlled.
The broken stone.
Even debris on the battlefield trembled and pulled inward.
Condensed.
Focused.
Into Ryo's fist.
The Prince's control faltered.
Ryo looked at him calmly.
"Don't take it personally."
His grip tightened.
"I'm just cleaning the kingdom."
He punched him in the gut.
The impact detonated like thunder.
The Prince was driven downward at terrifying speed.
He hit the ground so hard the earth split open beneath him.
A crater formed.
Dust rose.
Silence followed.
Blood spilled from the Prince's mouth as he lay embedded in broken earth.
His blue Raiki flickered.
Then faded.
Ryo descended slowly from the sky.
The battlefield quieted as soldiers stared.
The winner of that fight—
Was Ryo.