The tropical air of Okinawa, once filled with the scent of salt and summer, was now thick with the metallic tang of blood and the ionized hum of high-level magic. As the civilian students were ushered into the depths of the hotel shelters, the "normal" world fell away, replaced by the grim theater of war.
For Satoshi, there was no hesitation. He didn't wait for permission or orders from the Reikage. He walked directly toward the command perimeter where the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF)—specifically the National Defense Force—was struggling to hold back a landing party of New Soviet Union (NSU) special forces.
"I'm joining the battle line," Satoshi stated as he reached the command post.
The commanding officer began to bark a refusal, but he stopped when he saw the boy's eyes. Beside him, Shiba Tatsuya appeared, dressed in the dark MOVAL Suit of the 101 Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion.
"He's with me," Tatsuya said, his voice carrying the absolute authority of a Special Officer. "Equip him."
Just as the NSU forces launched their secondary assault, the sky roared. Several dark transports descended—the 101 Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion had arrived to reinforce the local JSDF units.
Major Kazama Harunobu stepped from the lead craft, his eyes narrowing as he took in the scene. He saw Tatsuya, and then he saw the boy beside him—a boy whose Psion signature was a terrifying echo of the "Mahesvara" who had defended this island in the past.
"Special Officer Ooguro," Kazama acknowledged Tatsuya, before turning his gaze to Satoshi. "And you... you must be the one they call the Zero."
Satoshi didn't respond with words. He reached for the specialized equipment provided by the battalion. He was handed a high-performance CAD—a Silver Horn trident type, customized for high-speed decomposition. It was an exact repetition of history: a high schooler stepping into the JSDF's defense line to protect what was precious to him, just as Tatsuya had done years before.
What followed was a nightmare for the NSU. Satoshi stepped onto the beach, the CAD in his hand glowing with a steady, lethal light. With his Double-Capacity MCA, he processed the battlefield like a supercomputer.
To the NSU soldiers, he was a ghost. Bullets fired at him simply unmade themselves in mid-air, turning into a fine grey mist. When he raised his CAD, entire squads of soldiers and their armored transports didn't explode—they simply ceased to exist. Mist Dispersion swept across the shoreline like a silent reaper, leaving nothing but dust in its wake.
But it was his left hand that truly terrified the beholders. Allied JSDF soldiers, their bodies torn apart by shrapnel or struck by lethal spells, found themselves standing back up in a blink of an eye. Regrowth worked with a speed that surpassed human cognition, restoring the fallen to their peak condition before they even realized they had been hit.
Back at the command center, the high-definition feeds were being monitored by the most powerful families in the world. The Reikage Patriarch watched the screen with a trembling hand. He saw his son—the boy he had shunned—becoming the pillar of the nation's defense.
Beside him, the Yotsuba delegates, including Kuroba Mitsugu, stood in stunned silence. Their eyes flickered between the feed of Satoshi and the legendary records of Tatsuya's past battles.
"It's a mirror," Mitsugu whispered, his voice cracking with awe. "The same cold efficiency... the same absolute destruction... the same miraculous restoration. It's like watching a ghost from the past reborn in the present."
He looked at the side-by-side data. Years ago, Tatsuya had been the "Demon" who stood alone. Now, Satoshi was doing the same, but with a fluidity that even Tatsuya hadn't possessed at that age. The era of the Ten Master Clans being the undisputed peak of magic was over. A new "God of Destruction" had claimed the beach of Okinawa.
The horizon of the Pacific was no longer a line of blue; it was a wall of approaching steel. The New Soviet Union (NSU) fleet, realizing their ground forces had been dismantled, had moved into their final formation. They were preparing a saturation bombardment to turn the Okinawa coastline into a lunar landscape.
On the cliffs overlooking the sea, Major Kazama stood beside Tatsuya and Satoshi. The air was thick with the ozone of cooling magic and the heavy psion pressure of the two "Demons" standing side-by-side.
"The fleet is positioning for a full-scale strike," Kazama said, his voice hard. "Officer Ooguro, the directive is clear. We use the successor."
A specialized transport case was brought forward by the 101st Battalion technicians. When it hissed open, a large, rifle-shaped device was revealed—the Third Eye. It was the legendary large-scale CAD, the only device in the world capable of providing the precision required for the ultimate Strategic-Class Magic.
Satoshi looked at the weapon, then at Tatsuya.
"This CAD is not for calculation," Tatsuya said, his eyes meeting Satoshi's. "It is a lens for your perception. To use Material Burst, you must look past the matter. You must convert 'Information' into pure 'Destruction.'"
Satoshi hoisted the Third Eye. His Double-Capacity MCA locked onto the distant NSU flagship. Through the lens, the physical world of water and steel vanished, replaced by the glowing lines of the Information Dimension.
"Material Burst."
Satoshi pulled the trigger. On the horizon, the NSU flagship didn't explode; it was converted. A small portion of its mass was directly transformed into pure energy.
A pillar of incandescent white light erupted from the centre of the ocean, stretching into the stratosphere. The shockwave leveled the waves for kilometres, vaporizing the water and the surrounding fleet instantly. The NSU fleet was gone—erased from the material world.
In the high-security command centre, the Reikage Patriarch watched the mushroom cloud of steam dissipate. For the first time in seventeen years, the fear in his eyes was replaced by a soaring, arrogant light. He stood up, his robes rustling as he turned toward the Yotsuba delegates with a triumphant smirk.
"Do you see?" the Patriarch boasted, his voice filled with a booming confidence. "That is the blood of the Zero. My son has finally mastered the power that everyone feared! He has conquered the curse of the Reikage and turned it into the ultimate victory! He has surpassed the limits of your 'Numbers' and your institutes!"
He laughed, a sound of pure vindication. "Look at that scale! The Reikage have produced a god that can rewrite the map of the world. Our era has finally arrived!"
The Yotsuba delegates remained silent, but Kuroba Mitsugu stepped forward, his expression one of icy, clinical amusement. He adjusted his glasses, his voice cutting through the Patriarch's shouting like a scalpel.
"A magnificent display, certainly," Mitsugu said smoothly. "However, I suggest you temper your boasting, Patriarch."
The Patriarch didn't flinch. He looked at Mitsugu with a defiant, challenging grin. "What? Are the Yotsuba jealous of a power they cannot replicate?"
"Jealousy has nothing to do with it," Mitsugu replied, his eyes flashing behind his lenses. "The spell you just witnessed—Material Burst—is not a Reikage art. It is the personal, proprietary magic of Shiba Tatsuya. It is a spell so complex that only a mind like his can conceive it."
Mitsugu gestured toward the screen where Tatsuya stood calmly beside Satoshi. "If your son was able to execute that miracle today, it is only because Tatsuya-san spent the last several days personally refining Satoshi's chaotic power. He didn't just 'master' his magic; he was trained by the man who owns the very abyss your son was drowning in."
The Patriarch's grin didn't fade; if anything, it grew more complex. He looked back at the screen, watching Satoshi hand the Third Eye back to Tatsuya. He wasn't pale or shaken; he was calculating. He realized that while Satoshi had been "tamed," the resulting alliance between the Reikage's raw capacity and the Yotsuba's supreme technique had just created the most dangerous duo in the history of the world.
"Then it seems," the Patriarch said, his voice dropping to a low, satisfied hum, "that the Shiba and the Reikage have more in common than we realized. Let the world fear what happens when the Master and the Successor stand together."