"The sky is worshipped because it stands above all things. Yet even the sky must fear the darkness it carries within itself."*
— Ancient Heavenly Proverb
Streams of liquid gathered around Water's arms, instantly sharpening into curved blades that shimmered with cold blue brilliance.
Fire moved first.
He did not roar.
He did not waste breath.
Flames coiled around his limbs, compressed tightly against his skin until they no longer resembled wild fire, but armor made of burning intent. His feet struck the sacred ground once, and the battlefield exploded beneath him.
In a single instant, he stood before the King.
His fist drove forward.
Not toward Kanetaro's chest.
Toward his throat.
A direct strike.
Fast.
Brutal.
Final.
Kanetaro did not step back.
He watched the punch approach with calm eyes, his cloak shifting faintly behind him. Then, at the very last moment, he lowered his body and planted one foot into the white stone.
The air beneath him compressed.
Energy gathered around his legs, not blazing, not flowing, but hardening.
Settling.
Rooting.
Fire's fist struck Kanetaro's raised palm.
The sound shook the Plains of Eternity.
Flames burst outward in a violent ring, but Kanetaro remained unmoved. His arm did not tremble. His feet did not slide. Beneath him, the sacred stone cracked in circular waves, accepting the force that his body refused to carry.
Fire's eyes narrowed.
Kanetaro's voice was quiet.
"Too direct."
He shifted his wrist.
The entire weight of Fire's attack sank downward, swallowed into the battlefield like rain vanishing into thirsty soil.
Then Kanetaro stepped forward.
His shoulder drove into Fire's chest with the force of a collapsing mountain.
Fire flew backward, skidding across the stone, flames tearing trenches into the ground before he stopped himself with one hand.
Earth's eyes sharpened.
"That was mine," he rumbled.
Kanetaro turned slightly toward him.
"No."
His gaze remained steady.
"That was understanding."
Earth surged forward.
Unlike Fire, he did not move quickly.
He did not need to.
Every step he took changed the battlefield. The sacred stone rose beneath his feet, forming massive plates that carried him forward like the world itself had chosen to march. His stone warhammer formed in his hand, enormous and ancient, its surface carved with mountain runes older than Heaven's current order.
He lifted it high.
The shadow of the weapon covered Kanetaro entirely.
"Then understand this," Earth said.
The hammer fell.
The ground screamed.
Kanetaro moved at last.
He did not meet the hammer head-on. His body softened, his outline dissolving into liquid energy as the weapon struck where he had been standing. The blow shattered the stone, sending chunks of sacred ground spiraling into the air.
Kanetaro flowed through the cracks.
White-violet energy streamed across the broken terrain like water seeking hidden paths. It curled around Earth's ankles, slipped beneath his armor, entered the tiny spaces between stone plates and divine flesh.
Earth's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Kanetaro reformed beside him, one hand resting lightly against the giant's armored side.
"Earth endures," Kanetaro said. "But even mountains break from within."
The liquid energy hardened.
Not outside Earth's defense.
Inside it.
Cracks erupted across the Earth God's stone armor. He grunted as the internal pressure forced him sideways, one knee nearly touching the ground before he slammed his hammer down and anchored himself.
Water's eyes narrowed.
"That was mine."
Kanetaro glanced toward him.
"No."
His voice remained calm.
"That was direction."
Water moved.
No wasted motion.
No fury.
No pride.
Only calculation.
The blades around his arms extended into long streams, bending and splitting into dozens of razor-thin weapons. They did not rush Kanetaro from one direction. They surrounded him.
Above.
Below.
Behind.
Beside.
Every possible escape route was marked before Kanetaro even chose it.
Daniel lowered his hat slightly from the loyalist ranks.
"He's getting boxed in," he muttered.
Kaito's grip tightened around his spear.
"No," he said quietly. "Water is not boxing him in."
Daniel looked at him.
Kaito's eyes remained fixed on the battlefield.
"He is predicting the box Kanetaro will create for himself."
The water blades descended.
Kanetaro's eyes shifted.
Not to the weapons.
To the spaces between them.
He raised two fingers.
The air did not move.
There was no flash.
No thunder.
No visible strike.
Yet the first water chain split before it fully formed.
Then another.
Then another.
Thin lines of compressed energy snapped across the battlefield, invisible until they touched something. Each one struck the exact gap between Water's flowing weapons, severing the structure before the attack completed.
Water's calm expression finally tightened.
Kanetaro stepped through the collapsing formation untouched.
"Flow is beautiful," he said. "But even flow has pauses."
Wind's voice came from nowhere.
"And pauses have consequences."
Kanetaro turned.
Too late.
Something invisible touched his shoulder.
For the first time since the fight began, blood appeared.
A clean strip of muscle tore from beneath his armor, not cut like by a blade, but peeled away by compressed pressure. Kanetaro's eyes narrowed as pain flashed across his face.
The Wind Goddess appeared several steps away, one hand raised, silver hair resting still against her shoulders.
There was no breeze around her.
That was what made her terrifying.
She was not storm.
She was absence.
Another invisible compressed-air strike slid toward Kanetaro's ribs, aimed not at his armor, but the small opening created when his arm lowered after blocking Water.
Kanetaro did not dodge.
White-violet energy ignited around him.
Not flame.
But it behaved like one.
It expanded violently, filling every empty space around his body with aggressive pressure. The invisible attack struck the field and bent, revealing itself for half a heartbeat as a thin distortion in the air.
Kanetaro turned his head.
"Found you."
Wind vanished.
Kanetaro's energy bloomed outward in short, violent bursts, each one burning through the gaps she tried to use. The space around him no longer offered openings. It had become hostile, flooded by flame-like energy that punished approach.
Fire rose from the broken ground, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.
His smile returned.
"So you can imitate us."
Earth stood fully again, stone armor repairing itself slowly.
Water lowered his arms, new blades forming.
Wind hovered above them, expression unreadable.
Kanetaro looked at all four.
"I do not imitate elements."
The white-violet aura around him pulsed once.
"I imitate understanding."
Silence followed.
Then Fire laughed.
Not mockingly.
Excitedly.
"Good."
He rolled his shoulders, flames condensing tighter than before.
"Then let us see how long understanding survives pressure."
The second assault began.
This time, they did not attack as individuals.
Fire charged from the front, but his rhythm had changed. His strikes were no longer straight lines. He feinted, shifted, stopped midway, then burst forward from unexpected angles. Every punch carried compressed flame, but now each blow ended just short, forcing Kanetaro to choose between blocking early or waiting too long.
Earth did not rush.
He controlled.
The battlefield rose in jagged segments beneath Kanetaro's feet, not to crush him, but to interrupt his balance. Stone plates tilted, cracked, and folded, forcing him to constantly adjust his stance.
Water attacked during those adjustments.
Blades emerged from reflections on broken stone. Chains formed around ankles, wrists, and sword paths. Each time Kanetaro prepared to move, Water had already placed a weapon where the movement would end.
And Wind—
Wind waited.
That was worse.
She did not fill the battlefield with attacks.
She found the gaps the others created.
When Kanetaro blocked Fire, Wind struck his exposed shoulder.
When he flowed past Earth's rising stone, Wind compressed air into the path of his liquid form, slicing through the stream before he could reform cleanly.
When he shifted to gas, Wind pressed the surrounding air inward, scattering his particles and forcing him to gather himself under pressure.
Kanetaro reformed near the throne, one knee bending slightly.
A thin line of blood ran down his arm.
Another cut appeared across his cheek.
The soldiers watching from both sides stood frozen.
This was not a duel anymore.
This was Heaven testing its King.
Fire came again.
Kanetaro raised his arm to block, but Earth slammed his hammer into the ground before the strike landed. A seismic wave traveled through the stone, climbing Kanetaro's legs and disrupting the density of his solid form.
Fire's punch connected.
Kanetaro slid backward for the first time.
A murmur passed through the battlefield.
Kaito stepped forward instinctively.
Knowledge raised one hand.
"Do not."
Kaito stopped.
"But—"
"Watch," Knowledge said quietly.
His monocle rotated slowly.
"Thou art witnessing not defeat."
His eyes narrowed.
"Thou art witnessing adaptation."
Kanetaro straightened.
The wound on his shoulder steamed faintly.
His gaze moved from Fire to Earth, from Earth to Water, from Water to Wind.
They were learning.
That made them dangerous.
Fire had stopped feeding him direct force.
Earth had begun disrupting his matter transitions through the ground.
Water had started attacking the seams of Energy's Forge before weapons could fully form.
Wind had found the deadliest weakness of all.
The half-breath between forms.
Kanetaro exhaled.
For a moment, his aura dimmed.
Then his fingers moved.
Reality split beside him.
Not like a portal.
Like a wound.
A thin black-white rupture opened in the air, and from within it spilled raw energy, dense and humming with impossible potential.
Energy's Forge.
Several gods stepped back instinctively.
Water acted immediately.
A blade shot toward the rupture, aiming to sever the formation before Kanetaro could draw from it.
Wind attacked the same instant.
An invisible compressed-air needle pierced toward Kanetaro's wrist, targeting the tendon that controlled his grip.
Kanetaro smiled faintly.
"Better."
His hand entered the rupture.
The air around his wrist turned liquid.
Wind's invisible attack passed through the softened state and lost cohesion. At the same time, Kanetaro shaped the Forge energy not into a sword, but into a circular shield dense as a mountain.
Water's blade struck it.
The blade shattered.
Kanetaro pulled the shield free.
It was not stone.
Yet Earth felt its weight.
It was not metal.
Yet it rang like a divine bell.
Kanetaro drove the shield downward.
The battlefield stopped moving.
Earth's shifting terrain froze under the pressure of Kanetaro's forged weight.
Earth's eyes widened.
Kanetaro released the shield.
It sank halfway into the sacred stone and became an anchor.
Then he moved.
Fire attacked from the side, flame-wrapped knee aimed at Kanetaro's ribs.
Kanetaro met him with Earth's principle again.
Not by standing still.
By becoming heavy mid-motion.
His elbow dropped onto Fire's knee with impossible density. The impact cracked the flame around Fire's leg and forced him downward.
Kanetaro turned, grabbed Fire by the shoulder, and hurled him toward Earth.
Earth caught him with one hand, boots carving into the ground.
Water's expression remained calm, but his eyes had sharpened.
"He is using our principles against formation," he said.
Wind appeared beside him.
"No," she replied quietly.
Her gaze stayed on Kanetaro.
"He is using our formation to teach himself faster."
Kanetaro heard her.
His eyes shifted toward her.
For a brief moment, Wind felt something press against her senses.
Not killing intent.
Recognition.
Then Kanetaro vanished.
He did not teleport fully.
His body split into three states at once.
Solid feet struck the ground.
Liquid torso bent around Water's incoming blade.
Gas-like shoulders dissolved under Wind's compressed attack.
Then he reformed above them, hand already raised.
Another rupture opened.
Energy poured out like a storm.
This time it became ribbons.
Thin, flowing strands of white-violet power coiled around his arms like rivers given light.
Earth raised stone walls instantly.
Kanetaro flicked his wrist.
The ribbons flowed around the walls instead of striking them. They slipped into cracks, curved beneath stone plates, and hardened inside the structure.
The walls burst outward from within.
Earth grunted, forced back again.
Water moved to cut the ribbons, but Kanetaro's second hand opened.
Invisible lines of compressed energy snapped across the field.
Water's blades split apart before completing their motion.
Wind's eyes widened slightly.
That was her method.
But not air.
Energy.
Compressed so thinly that even divine sight barely caught it.
Fire roared forward, flames expanding at last, trying to overwhelm the entire space before Kanetaro could shape another technique.
Kanetaro answered with Fire's principle.
White-violet energy ignited around his body, aggressive and expanding. It did not burn the ground. It burned direction. It filled the battlefield with violent pressure, forcing Fire's flames to reveal their exact flow.
Kanetaro stepped through the inferno.
Fire swung.
Kanetaro ducked.
The false flame around him burst outward.
Fire's guard opened for less than a blink.
Kanetaro struck him in the chest with a palm wrapped in compressed energy.
Fire staggered back, coughing once as the impact passed through his flames and struck the force beneath them.
Water's chains wrapped around Kanetaro's arm.
Earth's stone rose around his legs.
Wind's invisible blade formed at the back of his neck.
Perfect coordination.
For one second, the four gods had him.
Then the dark energy seeped out.
It began at his wrist.
A thin black vein crawling across his skin.
Knowledge's eyes sharpened instantly.
Kanetaro pulled against Water's chain.
The chain did not break.
It decayed.
Not dissolved by energy.
Not cut by force.
It withered, losing shape as though the concept holding it together had been poisoned.
Water's calm finally cracked.
Kanetaro looked down at his own hand.
For a fraction of a moment, confusion passed through his eyes.
Then it vanished.
He ripped himself free.
Earth's stone prison closed around his legs, but the black vein pulsed again. The stone touching his shin darkened, cracked, and collapsed into dust.
Wind's invisible blade reached his neck.
Kanetaro tilted his head.
The blade scraped his skin and drew blood.
But the blood was darker than before.
Not red.
Not fully black.
Something between.
The battlefield fell quieter.
Daniel noticed first.
"His aura…"
Kaito's expression hardened.
"I see it."
Around Kanetaro's right arm, white-violet energy continued to glow.
But beneath it, something darker moved.
Not like smoke.
Like hunger.
Kanetaro clenched his fist.
The darkness retreated slightly.
He breathed once.
Twice.
Control returned.
Fire wiped his mouth and stared at him.
"What is that?"
Kanetaro did not answer.
Water's gaze narrowed.
"You brought something back."
Earth's voice lowered.
"Something old."
Wind said nothing.
She was watching the gaps again.
But now there was a gap inside Kanetaro himself.
And something was looking through it.
Fire charged again.
This time, he did not come alone.
Earth slammed both hands into the battlefield. Massive stone pillars erupted in a circle around Kanetaro, limiting his movement. Water filled the spaces between them with suspended blades and chains, creating a prison of liquid steel. Wind stood above it all, fingers extended, forming dozens of invisible compressed-air attacks at every gap Kanetaro might use.
Fire entered the prison last.
His flames condensed into both fists.
"Let's see if a King bleeds like the rest of us."
He struck.
Kanetaro blocked.
The impact shook the stone prison.
Fire struck again.
Kanetaro parried.
Water's chains snapped toward his elbows.
Kanetaro shifted to liquid.
Wind compressed the air around his liquid form, tearing part of it away.
Kanetaro hissed and reformed unevenly.
Earth's pillars closed in.
Kanetaro ruptured reality with two fingers.
Water immediately severed the edge of the opening.
The Forge flickered.
Fire took the opening and drove a burning fist into Kanetaro's ribs.
The blow landed.
For the first time, Kanetaro coughed blood.
The rebel ranks erupted in shock.
The loyalist army froze.
Kaito took a step forward again.
Knowledge's voice cut through him.
"Still."
Kaito clenched his jaw.
"He's hurt."
"Aye," Knowledge said.
His tone was grave now.
"Yet that is not what troubles me."
Inside the prison, Kanetaro slowly raised his head.
Fire's fist remained against his ribs.
Flame pressed into armor.
Armor cracked.
Kanetaro's eyes lifted.
They were still his.
But the light inside them had changed.
Fire felt it.
For the first time, he tried to pull back.
Kanetaro's black-veined hand caught his wrist.
Fire's flames dimmed.
Not extinguished.
Afraid.
Kanetaro's grip tightened.
Fire's eyes widened as pain shot through his arm. The darkness crawling from Kanetaro's fingers spread across Fire's flame, turning its edges black before Kanetaro released him and kicked him backward.
Water attacked instantly, forcing distance.
Kanetaro raised his hand.
This time, he did not rupture reality gently.
He tore it open.
The sound was wrong.
Not like glass breaking.
Like a living thing gasping.
A massive wound opened beside him, spilling raw energy and shadow together. From within it, Kanetaro pulled a weapon unlike any he had formed before.
A long spear.
White-violet along the shaft.
Black at the blade.
Knowledge's face went pale.
Kanetaro spun the spear once.
Earth brought down his hammer.
Kanetaro met it with the spear's shaft.
The impact exploded outward, cracking every pillar around them.
Water's blades descended from above.
Kanetaro released one hand and drew invisible compressed energy through the air.
The blades split.
Wind struck from behind with a Muscle Reaver, compressed air aimed at the back of Kanetaro's shoulder, sharp enough to peel the flesh from bone.
Kanetaro did not turn.
The false flame around him ignited violently, revealing the invisible attack just before contact.
Then his black-veined hand moved.
Too fast.
He caught the compressed air.
The Wind Goddess froze.
No one caught wind.
No one gripped pressure.
No one held absence.
Kanetaro crushed his fist shut.
The invisible attack collapsed.
Wind's arm jerked backward as feedback tore across her muscles. She landed hard several meters away, eyes wide with disbelief.
Fire rose again.
Earth stepped beside him.
Water reformed his blades.
Wind slowly stood.
The four gods looked at one another.
Then, without a word, they prepared their final formation.
Fire spread his flames for the first time, not wild, but vast. A ring of crimson heat surrounded the battlefield.
Earth lifted both arms, raising four enormous stone gates around Kanetaro.
Water gathered every stream, blade, chain, and droplet into a spiral above the King's head.
Wind disappeared entirely.
Not to flee.
To enter every gap within the attack.
Kaito whispered, "They're combining everything."
Daniel's hand hovered near his revolvers.
Knowledge did not move.
His eyes were fixed on Kanetaro's right arm.
The darkness was spreading faster.
Fire slammed his fists together.
"Burning Heaven Formation."
Earth's voice followed.
"Fourfold Mountain Seal."
Water raised one hand.
"Endless Severing Tide."
Wind's voice came last, everywhere and nowhere.
"Gapless Execution."
The attack descended.
Fire closed the outer space with heat.
Earth crushed the inner space with weight.
Water filled the remaining paths with blades.
Wind erased the gaps between them.
For the first time, there was nowhere to move.
No air to become.
No crack to flow through.
No ground to anchor.
No path to forge.
The four gods had learned him.
They had studied his matter.
His rhythm.
His choices.
His arrogance.
His mercy.
And now they had built a prison from understanding.
Kanetaro stood at the center of it.
Silent.
Then he closed his eyes.
The attack reached him.
And his right arm turned completely black.
Not covered.
Not stained.
Changed.
From shoulder to fingertips, Kanetaro's arm became shadow-black, the skin hardening into something demonic and ancient. Jagged markings crawled across it like living scripture. His fingers lengthened slightly, nails sharpening into dark claws. The white-violet energy surrounding him recoiled from the arm as though refusing to touch it.
Then the arm moved.
Kanetaro raised it toward the descending formation.
The fourfold attack stopped.
Fire froze in place.
Earth's mountain seal trembled.
Water's tide lost its shape.
Wind's invisible execution scattered into harmless pressure.
Not blocked.
Not redirected.
Stopped.
By a single demonic hand.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Even Heaven seemed afraid to breathe.
Kanetaro opened his eyes.
For one terrible heartbeat, his gaze was not entirely his own.
Knowledge took one step forward.
His monocle cracked.
The sound echoed louder than thunder.
No one noticed.
No one except Daniel and Kaito, who turned toward him immediately.
Knowledge's face had lost all color.
The old god's lips parted, but for the first time in centuries, wisdom found no words.
He stared at Kanetaro's shadow-black arm.
At the markings.
At the aura.
At the ancient darkness coiled beneath the King's skin.
And then he whispered a name he had prayed never to speak again.
"Yami…"