"When darkness steals the face of a king, do not ask the crown to answer. Ask the one who knew the child before the crown existed."
— Ancient Heavenly Proverb
"Come then," Yami said.
His shadow-black hand opened.
"Surprise me."
The Plains of Eternity answered with silence.
Knowledge stood before him with his cracked staff held in both hands, the old god's breathing heavy, his robes torn, his bronze monocle fractured across one side. Kaito stood to his right, golden spear trembling faintly in his grip. Daniel stood to his left, one revolver raised, the other hand weakened beside the cracked Void Claw.
The three of them were injured.
Exhausted.
Barely standing.
Yet none stepped back.
Yami watched them through Kanetaro's stolen body, his expression cold and amused. The darkness had now spread almost completely. The shape standing before them no longer resembled the Sky King who had returned to Heaven.
Kanetaro's midnight-blue armor had blackened into jagged plates of shadow. His skin was no longer human in color, but pale ash marked by crawling black veins. His right arm had become fully demonic, clawed and long, while the darkness had spread across his chest, neck, and face. His hair hung heavier, darker, like strands of night given form. His eyes no longer carried Kanetaro's warmth, wit, or stubborn light.
This was Yami now.
Kanetaro's body had become Yami's shape.
Kaito's jaw tightened.
Daniel swallowed once.
Knowledge's fingers tightened around his staff.
Yami took one step forward.
The sacred stone beneath his foot darkened.
Then he stopped.
His smile vanished.
For the first time since revealing himself, Yami looked away from them.
Not at Knowledge.
Not at Kaito.
Not at Daniel.
He looked toward the horizon.
The air changed.
It did not darken.
It deepened.
A pressure older than judgment rolled across the Plains of Eternity. The shattered runes beneath the battlefield flickered green. Far away, abandoned banners bent low though no wind touched them. The broken stone trembled, not from fear, but recognition.
Yami's eyes narrowed.
Then the roar came.
It tore through Heaven like the voice of a forest remembering fire.
Not the roar of a beast.
Not the cry of a warrior.
It was the sound of roots splitting mountains, of storms bending before ancient trees, of life refusing to surrender its child.
Kaito's eyes widened.
Daniel lowered his revolver slightly.
Knowledge closed his eyes.
A faint, tired smile touched his lips.
"She knows."
Yami slowly turned toward the source of the roar.
Emerald light erupted across the battlefield.
Roots burst from the cracks in the sacred stone, not attacking, not yet, but announcing her arrival. Flowers bloomed and withered in the same breath. Vines rose like serpents around the broken edges of the battlefield, and every fragment of celestial stone seemed to remember it had once belonged to something living.
Mother Nature appeared at the center of the light.
She did not step out gently.
She arrived like wrath given grace.
Her hair flowed around her like dark leaves caught in a storm. Flowers adorned her form, but their beauty no longer softened her. Her emerald eyes burned with fury so controlled it became terrifying.
She looked at Yami.
Not Kanetaro.
Yami.
And the whole battlefield felt the difference.
Mother Nature's voice carried across the Plains of Eternity.
"All of you who still stand in Heaven, hear me."
Her words did not need volume.
The roots carried them.
"The one who returned to this battlefield was never Kanetaro."
Kaito froze.
Daniel's face went pale.
Yami's gaze sharpened.
Mother Nature continued, each word cutting through the silence.
"The King who commanded the armies to halt… the one who sat upon the throne… the one who challenged the gods…"
Her eyes did not leave Yami.
"That was Yami."
Kaito's spear lowered slightly.
"No…"
Daniel whispered nothing, but his expression broke.
Knowledge remained still, eyes heavy with grief.
Mother Nature's voice softened, but only for a moment.
"Kanetaro's body was stolen. His soul was not."
Kaito's head snapped toward her.
Daniel's eyes widened.
Mother Nature lifted one hand, and faint sky-blue light flickered between her fingers.
"His consciousness survived within the Sky Spark. It reached the Old Roots. It called to me."
The words struck harder than any attack Yami had thrown.
Kaito staggered half a step.
"He's alive?"
Mother Nature looked at him.
"Yes."
The single word became hope.
Then her gaze returned to Yami, and the hope became rage.
"And you…"
Her voice dropped.
"Step away from my child's face."
Yami stared at her.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then he smiled.
"You found the fragment."
Mother Nature's expression did not change.
"You failed to destroy him."
"I broke him."
"You failed."
The smile faded from Yami's face.
The air around his body twisted. Shadow gathered at his feet, spreading outward in a slow black circle. He lowered his stance for the first time, one clawed hand raised, the other drawn back near his chest.
A battle stance.
Knowledge noticed immediately.
Yami had not prepared that way against him.
Against Kaito.
Against Daniel.
But against Mother Nature, he guarded.
Daniel saw it too.
"He's taking her seriously," he muttered.
Knowledge exhaled faintly.
"As he should."
Yami's shadow deepened.
"Mother of forests," he said quietly. "Do you intend to bind me with leaves?"
Mother Nature vanished.
Yami's eyes widened.
She appeared directly in front of him.
No vines.
No divine spell.
No emerald explosion.
Just her fist.
It struck him beneath the ribs with a sound like a temple bell cracking.
Yami's body folded around the impact.
Before he could recover, Mother Nature seized him by the shoulder, turned with impossible force, and slammed him into the sacred stone. The ground split beneath him.
Kaito stared.
Daniel's mouth opened slightly.
Knowledge's smile grew weak but proud.
"Ah," he murmured. "She is displeased."
Yami rolled from the impact, shadow flaring from his back, but Mother Nature was already there. Her knee drove into his midsection before his feet found the ground. Her elbow struck his jaw. Her palm crashed against his chest. Each blow landed with savage precision.
No divine power.
No nature technique.
Only raw strength.
The strength of the thing that taught beasts to hunt.
Yami tried to raise his demonic arm.
Mother Nature caught the wrist.
For a single breath, they strained against one another.
Yami's shadow pulsed.
Mother Nature's eyes narrowed.
Then she twisted.
Yami's entire body spun through the air and struck the ground again, hard enough to send broken stone flying in every direction.
He rose with a growl.
Mother Nature struck him before the sound finished.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Her movements were not elegant like Water's.
Not explosive like Fire's.
Not heavy like Earth's.
Not gap-seeking like Wind's.
They were older.
Predatory.
Necessary.
Every attack carried the merciless truth of survival.
Yami stepped back, finally bringing both arms up to guard.
Mother Nature broke through the guard.
Her fist crashed into his forearm.
The shadow armor cracked.
Yami's eyes sharpened with anger.
He swung his clawed hand toward her throat.
Mother Nature lowered her head by a breath, stepped inside the attack, and drove her shoulder into his chest.
The impact sent him skidding backward.
He dug his claws into the stone to stop himself.
Black energy erupted around him.
"Enough."
Yami thrust his hand forward.
A wave of shadow surged toward Mother Nature.
She walked through it.
Not because it failed to touch her.
Because she refused to honor it.
The shadow scraped across her skin and clothing, tearing flowers from her hair, darkening the edges of her robe. She did not slow.
Yami's expression shifted.
Not fear.
Shock.
Mother Nature reached him again.
Her open palm struck his face.
The sound silenced the battlefield.
Yami's head snapped to the side.
For one impossible moment, Kanetaro's stolen body stood frozen beneath the force of that blow.
Mother Nature's voice trembled for the first time.
"That is for wearing his face."
She struck him again.
"That is for taking his body."
Again.
"That is for making him suffer alone."
Yami staggered.
His shadow tried to rise behind him like wings.
Mother Nature grabbed the darkness itself by the edge and pulled him forward.
Daniel blinked.
"Did she just—"
"Yes," Knowledge said quietly.
Mother Nature slammed Yami down again.
This time he did not rise immediately.
His body twitched once against the cracked stone. The shadow around him flickered, unstable. His full Yami form remained, but the control behind it had been shaken.
Mother Nature stood over him, breathing steadily.
Her eyes glowed emerald.
"Do not mistake gentleness for weakness," she said.
Yami tried to lift his head.
Mother Nature raised her hand.
Now the vines came.
From every crack in the Plains of Eternity, divine roots erupted upward. Thick emerald vines wrapped around Yami's wrists first, then his ankles. He snarled and tried to pull free, but the vines tightened, glowing with ancient symbols from the Old Roots.
The battlefield behind him shifted.
A massive circular root-sigil formed in the air, woven from emerald light and living wood. It resembled no symbol of modern Heaven. It was older, wild, and vast, its patterns curling like roots around a central void.
Mother Nature lifted her hand.
Yami's body rose into the air.
His arms were pulled upward diagonally, stretched wide.
His ankles were drawn downward diagonally, bound apart in the same severe angle.
Wrists and ankles locked.
A living X against the glowing circular seal.
His head fell forward.
His dark hair hung over part of his face, but the markings of Yami still pulsed beneath. Shadow leaked from his body in thin streams, only to be burned back by emerald light.
The seal tightened.
Yami's body went still.
Unconscious.
Or close enough.
Mother Nature lowered her hand.
The divine vines remained, holding the full Yami-formed body suspended in mid-air like a captured nightmare pinned to the memory of the world.
Kaito stared upward.
His face twisted with pain.
That was his brother's body.
But not his brother's form.
Daniel stepped beside him, breathing heavily.
"He's… contained?"
Knowledge leaned on his cracked staff.
"For the moment."
Mother Nature did not look away from Yami.
"For the moment is enough."
Footsteps thundered across the broken plain.
Fire arrived first, one side of his face still marked faintly by Yami's earlier grip. Water followed beside him, calm but watchful. Earth came behind them, massive hammer resting across his shoulder. Wind appeared last, silent, her eyes fixed on the sealed figure.
Fire stopped beneath the floating prison.
His expression tightened.
"So that thing…"
Mother Nature answered without turning.
"Is Yami."
Water's gaze narrowed. "And Kanetaro?"
"Alive," she said. "But not within that body."
Earth looked toward Knowledge. "Then the civil war is over."
Knowledge gave a tired exhale.
"Would that wisdom had arrived sooner."
Fire clicked his tongue, but for once he had no sharp reply.
Mother Nature finally turned toward the four gods.
"Guard this place."
Fire's eyes narrowed. "You are giving us orders now?"
Mother Nature stepped closer.
The air grew colder, though no ice formed.
"I am asking you to guard the body of the King you challenged, the prison of the shadow you cannot defeat, and the only vessel that may still save Heaven."
Fire held her gaze.
For a moment, old pride flickered.
Then he looked back at Yami suspended in the seal.
His jaw tightened.
"Fine."
Water bowed his head slightly. "We will guard him."
Earth planted his hammer into the stone. "No one approaches."
Wind's voice came quietly.
"And if he wakes?"
Mother Nature's expression hardened.
"Then hold him long enough for us to return."
Wind looked up at the seal.
"There are still no gaps around him."
Mother Nature answered softly.
"Then make none for him."
The command settled.
Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind took their positions around the seal.
Fire stood to the front, flames low and ready.
Water moved to the left, streams forming into silent blades.
Earth stood beneath the seal itself, anchoring the ground with both hands.
Wind disappeared into the air around the prison, watching every space where escape might begin.
Mother Nature turned away.
Knowledge swayed.
Kaito caught him by the arm.
"Master."
Knowledge attempted a smile.
"I remain upright. That is presently my greatest accomplishment."
Daniel winced, holding his cracked Void Claw.
"Can we save the jokes until after nobody is falling apart?"
Mother Nature approached them.
"Stand still."
Daniel opened his mouth.
Roots rose from beneath him and wrapped gently around his injured arm.
He closed his mouth.
Emerald light flowed through the vines into his body. His breathing eased. The cracks along the Void Claw did not fully repair, but the fading energy stabilized. The pain in his shoulder dulled.
Kaito was next.
Mother Nature placed one hand against his chest armor. Green light spread across the cracks, sealing the worst fractures, closing the deeper wounds beneath. Kaito inhaled sharply as strength returned—not fully, but enough to stand without trembling.
Then she turned to Knowledge.
The old god shook his head faintly.
"Attend to the children first."
"I did."
"Ah."
He blinked slowly.
"Then proceed."
Mother Nature pressed both hands against his shoulders.
The healing took longer.
Knowledge's wounds were not merely physical. Yami's shadow had seeped into the fractures of his energy, disturbing the clockwork rhythm of his divine core. Mother Nature's emerald light entered carefully, root by root, drawing out darkness like poison from soil.
Knowledge's breathing steadied.
But his staff remained cracked.
Mother Nature looked at it.
"That is beyond simple healing."
Knowledge glanced down at the staff.
"Aye. It hath become rather dramatic in its suffering."
Daniel gave a weak laugh.
Even Kaito almost smiled.
Mother Nature stepped back.
"We must go."
Kaito looked toward Yami's sealed body.
"Where?"
"To Kanetaro."
That silenced them all.
Mother Nature opened a path with one gesture. Roots rose from the battlefield and formed a living doorway, its center glowing with deep emerald-blue light.
Knowledge straightened slowly.
"The Old Roots."
Mother Nature nodded.
The four of them entered.
The Plains of Eternity vanished behind them.
The Old Roots welcomed them with ancient silence.
Kaito, Daniel, Knowledge, and Mother Nature stepped into the hidden chamber beneath Heaven, where living wood and ancient crystal wove together in patterns older than divine law. The air smelled of soil, rain, and forgotten time. Pale blue light pulsed through the roots like veins carrying the memory of the sky.
At the center of the chamber floated the Sky Spark.
It was smaller than before.
Fading.
Kanetaro's faint form flickered inside it, his outline unstable, his eyes half-open as though holding himself together required every fragment of will he had left.
Kaito froze.
"Kanetaro…"
Daniel removed his hat slowly.
For once, he had no joke.
Knowledge stepped toward the spark, his expression grave.
The Sky Spark pulsed weakly.
Kanetaro's voice barely reached them.
"Kaito…"
Kaito's face tightened.
"I'm here."
"Daniel…"
The Moon God swallowed.
"Yeah, buddy. Still causing trouble."
A faint smile almost appeared on Kanetaro's fading face.
Then the spark dimmed again.
Mother Nature looked at Knowledge.
The old god's monocle gears rotated slowly, damaged but functioning. He studied the spark, the roots, the fading rhythm of Kanetaro's consciousness.
His expression darkened.
"We have very little time."
Kaito turned sharply. "Then restore him."
Knowledge did not answer immediately.
Daniel's brows furrowed.
"Old man?"
Knowledge lifted his cracked staff and pointed gently toward the spark.
"Were time abundant, the path would be simple. We would purify Kanetaro's body of Yami's corruption, then return the Sky Spark to its rightful vessel."
Kaito stepped closer.
"Then do it."
Knowledge closed his eyes.
"We cannot."
The words struck like stone.
Kaito's voice hardened. "Why?"
"Because purification of that body would require time we do not possess," Knowledge said quietly. "Yami hath transformed the vessel completely. Every limb, every channel, every divine pathway hath been overwritten."
He looked at the fading spark.
"By the time the body is cleansed…"
Daniel finished softly.
"The spark will be gone."
Knowledge nodded.
Silence filled the chamber.
Mother Nature's hands curled slightly at her sides.
"There must be another way."
Knowledge opened his eyes.
"There is."
Kaito looked up.
Daniel straightened.
Mother Nature's gaze sharpened.
Knowledge's voice lowered.
"We need the body of the previous Sky God."
The chamber seemed to still.
Mother Nature stared at him.
"The previous Sky God's body?"
"Aye."
"Who would know where that is?"
Knowledge turned slowly toward the roots surrounding them.
His broken staff touched the floor.
The Old Roots pulsed faintly in response.
"It is here."
Mother Nature's eyes widened.
"Inside the Old Roots?"
"Somewhere within them," Knowledge said. "Hidden before the current order of Heaven was fully written. Sealed away not as a corpse, but as a dormant vessel."
Kaito's voice was cautious.
"You mean Kanetaro's spark can enter that body?"
"If the body remains intact," Knowledge replied. "If its divine channels still answer the Sky. If we reach it before the spark fades."
Daniel ran a hand through his hair.
"That is a lot of ifs."
Knowledge smiled faintly.
"Most miracles are built from such materials."
Mother Nature stepped forward.
"Where is it?"
Knowledge raised his hand.
The cracked gears of his staff spun weakly. A thin ribbon of golden light emerged from its broken head, trembling before stabilizing into a floating map. The map was not drawn on paper. It was made of light, root-lines, and shifting symbols.
It showed the Old Roots as a vast underground labyrinth.
Chambers.
Branches.
Forgotten seals.
Dead ends that moved.
Paths that existed only when remembered.
At the farthest edge of the map, a small blue mark pulsed.
"There," Knowledge said.
"The First Hollow."
Mother Nature studied it.
"I have never seen this path."
"Few have," Knowledge answered. "The Old Roots reveal only what they are ready to remember."
Kaito stepped forward. "Then we go now."
Daniel nodded. "No argument here."
Mother Nature reached for the map.
Knowledge held it out to her.
The golden-root light entered her palm, forming a glowing pattern across her skin.
She looked at Knowledge.
"You are not coming."
It was not a question.
Knowledge looked toward the Sky Spark.
"Nay."
His cracked staff trembled in his hand.
"I must remain here."
Kaito's eyes widened.
"Master—"
"The spark must be strengthened," Knowledge said firmly. "If left alone, it fades before thou returnest. And my staff…"
He looked at the fractured weapon with a tired sigh.
"…requires persuasion before it becomes useful again."
Daniel stared at him.
"You're going to repair your staff and keep Kanetaro alive at the same time?"
Knowledge smiled weakly.
"I have been accused of arrogance before."
Mother Nature's expression softened.
"You are injured."
"Then I shall work sitting down."
Kaito looked like he wanted to argue.
Knowledge met his gaze.
"Go."
The command was gentle.
That made it impossible to disobey.
Kaito lowered his head.
Daniel placed his hat back on.
Mother Nature turned toward the dark passage opening at the far side of the chamber.
Roots shifted, forming a narrow path downward.
Behind them, the Sky Spark flickered again.
Kanetaro's fading voice reached them.
"Hurry…"
Mother Nature closed her eyes for one breath.
Then opened them.
"We will."
Kaito gripped his spear.
Daniel checked his revolver.
Together, the three stepped into the path toward the First Hollow.
Knowledge remained behind.
Alone with the fading Sky Spark.
He lowered himself carefully before it, placing the cracked staff across his knees. One hand rested over the broken gears. The other lifted toward Kanetaro's light.
Bronze energy and emerald-root glow intertwined around the spark.
The staff trembled.
The spark steadied.
Only slightly.
Knowledge smiled despite the pain.
"Endure, child," he whispered.
The cracks in his staff shone brighter.
"Just a little longer."
Above them, Yami hung sealed against the Verdant Sigil.
Around him, Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind stood guard.
And deep within the Old Roots, Mother Nature, Kaito, and Daniel descended toward the forgotten body of the previous Sky God.
Knowledge closed his eyes.
"For once…"
His voice faded into the ancient silence.
"…let wisdom arrive before tragedy."