Shadow turned his attention fully towards Akihiro, paying no mind to the exhausted Helios behind him, battered and bruised from their earlier fight. Shadow's face expressed no emotion, though beneath the exterior, new excitement coursed through him. His eyes briefly scanned his fallen comrades, their wounds knitting themselves back together as his Shadow Manipulation worked to mend them.
"Akihiro Oni," Shadow spoke, his voice cutting through the tension from his entrance. "I've heard a lot about you. Through the news, from your father, and of course, your rivalry with the last son of the Daystar."
Shadow vanished from Helios' line of sight, taking the unconscious bodies with him in an instant, depositing them somewhere safe. He reappeared before Akihiro in the blink of an eye, the movement so fast it could have been mistaken for teleportation.
Akihiro, however, knew better. Shadow's ability wasn't using teleportation; it was using time manipulation, a power that originated from Chronos. Shadow wasn't merely fast, he was stopping time and accelerating himself simultaneously.
"I've always wanted to test myself against you, Oni,” Shadow continued. "As a Gale, it's my honor to face you."
From the distance, Helios, still reeling from his injuries, caught the mention of the word 'Gale'. His voice, hoarse with disbelief, mumbled, "What does that have to do with my father’s family?"
Akihiro's eyes flickered with intrigue as Shadow's effortless transport of his allies caught his attention.
"That was fast," Akihiro commented jokingly, though the amusement didn’t last long. "I've fought faster."
Without warning, Akihiro punches the air with sheer physical strength alone. Shockwaves--no, waves of annihilation, shredded through the battlefield as an invisible force, their presence only known by the trail of destruction they left in their wake.
Shadow seemingly remained still, indifferent to the chaos around him. Craters formed at his feet, dust rose like a storm, enveloping the entire arena. Yet, as the dust began to dissipate, Shadow stood still, his cold gaze locked on Akihiro, unimpressed.
"I thought you'd do better. I'm disappointed, Oni. All those tales about you just to do this?"
Akihiro's eyes glinted with amusement at Shadow's arrogance. Yet, even as Shadow stood tall, seemingly unscathed, a sudden, sharp pain shot through his ribs. It was unexpected and it still felt so brutal.
Shadow's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't seen the strike coming, hadn't felt the shift in the air. Akihiro's sadistic grin widened as he watched the first real crack in his opponent's composure.
"You talk too much," Akihiro said, his voice low and finally carrying confidence. "You really thought you could just avoid my attack by dodging?"
Shadow winced, the pain entering through him. This fight wasn't going to be as straightforward as he thought. Akihiro was playing an entirely different game.
As the clash continued, a knowing smirk crept across Shadow's face, unsettling Akihiro. It was no longer an ordinary fight. Both warriors were now locked in a dance, where the flow of combat dictated everything. This was Shadow's ability: Rhythm Ritual. The rules were simple: the fight had to remain fair, balanced, and most of all, progressive. Every move Akihiro made, every display of strength, speed, or technique of his ability, would push Shadow's mirroring ability higher, increasing its tier from 1 to 5.
Shadow's plan is to force Akihiro to show more of his hand, he could drive the fight forward, slowly rising through the tiers without Akihiro realizing the requirements of his ability. To him, the ritual wasn't even a thing he was aware of. And once Shadow reached Tier 5? He'd copy Akihiro's ability permanently, making it game over. Even if Akihiro was aware of what the ability is, it was a gamble he couldn't avoid. To hold back and limit the tiers meant risking defeat. But using his full power would give Shadow exactly what he needed.
As Shadow swung his blade down, ready to push Akihiro to reveal more, he felt the flow stall. Something wasn’t right. Still Tier 1? It dawned on Shadow. Akihiro hadn't been using his ability this entire fight.
Does that mean all he has done was through raw mana alone!?
In an instant, Akihiro redirected the attack not with a complex technique or devastating ability, but with the most unexpected thing Shadow could imagine. His eyes widened for a moment, absolutely fucking flabbergasted that his attack was parried by a raw beef leg Akihiro had apparently saved for later. For a moment, it was quiet, then the thwack of raw meat meeting Shadow's face broke the silence.
Akihiro followed up each hit with a punctuation of his voice:
"MEATCHECK!"
Shadow's head swung backward, still reeling from the absurdity of the situation. Akihiro wasn't done, slamming the beef leg into Shadow's side.
"MEATCHECK!"
As Shadow scrambled to get his thoughts to grasp what the fuck was going on, Akihiro kept swinging, his voice rising above the sounds of raw meat smacking against Shadow's body.
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"You think your stolen abilities make you powerful?! You’re a fraud! All you do is emalute the talents of others! But you can't compare to the real thing: ME!"
Another meatcheck drove Shadow further back, the two reaching ground with the weight of Akihiro's words hitting just as hard as the beef leg.
"Every ability you’ve shown me, I've already beaten before! You think you're special? You think mirroring makes you unbeatable?" Akihiro slammed the beef leg down on Shadow's shoulder, forcing him to drop to a knee. The Time Manipulation didn't make him fast enough to evade Akihiro's attacks.
"All you are is an imitation! A shadow of the real thing. And I've fought better, stronger than you could ever hope to be! MEAAATTCHECCCKK!"
Akihiro knocked Shadow back across the battlefield with one final meatcheck, the words left ringing in his ears as he struggled to regain his footing.
Shadow was beaten senseless by Akihiro, his breathing coming jaggedly as he's never been damaged like this before, Akihiro was the first to do this and it will be the last. If the equal flow of the dance is interrupted, the tier will reset back to 1, no matter who had the upper hand. Though that didn't matter since the tiers never rose in the first place. Finally he rewinded the damage he took with Time Manipulation, though that was apparently not enough to make his wounds disappear. He stitched off the rest with his own shadows, and used light to speed up the process, slowly rising back to his feet as he was able to regain his strength. A grin slowly crept up on his face, a familiar mana starts leaking from Shadow slowly surrounding the entire warehouse, permeating the entire area in his familiar purple color.
Akihiro & Helios are the first to notice as the rest slowly look up with Orion having a smug face looking at Midir who seems to notice the amount of power Shadow has been holding within him just to unleash at once. Orion extends her arm towards him boosting his already absurd power to greater heights.
"Thanks for the lesson, Akihiro. However, even with Oni blood flowing within you. You're still beneath me. Playtime's over. I'll make you reveal your ability, even if it costs everyone's lives here!"
Sight was not needed, as Midir's senses were connected to the environment, predicting of the future long before it had arrived. There was one misconception that Orion still held: the illusion of powerlessness. Midir had waited for this moment since yesterday. As Shadow's aura spiked, Midir's eyes began to glow, and his arm emanated a dark purple effulgence as a signal to him activating his own power. What was this otherworldly light? It wasn't aura but the runes of his bones, signifying the use of a power not inherently his, yet one he was gifted to command.
"I cannot bear to witness the world's destruction, where there is no hope or salvation. And still, even at the end, a bird sings of a new tomorrow."
Through the gaps between atoms, void was drawn forth by Midir.
The tendrils disperse as Midir backhands Orion, hurling her body aside as he focuses on the more pressing matter at hand.
Shadow's power pulses through the veins of the atmosphere, the buzzing sound of his flowing mana growing disturbingly louder with each passing moment, while a violet radiance emanates from him like a star, the sole source of light existing besides his crimson eyes. It seems using all three healing abilities angered him. His voice echoed with power as the intention to seek the almighty becomes clear, turning to nuclear. The distorted humming finally reached its apex, and everyone held their breaths as the impending attack was left with only an incantation.
"RELEASE: --"
However, before Shadow uttered the final words, a deafening silence followed afterward. Before anyone realized, his mana vanished without a trace, as though it had never existed. It took a moment for even Shadow to realize it, wondering what had happened. It didn't take long for Helios, Zero, Akihiro--everyone's gaze to turn towards the source of the outcome. A faint yet noticeable purple glow from Midir's hand, while a pitch-black mist shrouded Shadow's figure. The light from his body, the mana that once flowed through the air, all had been swallowed by the bottomless stomach of nothingness.
"Either you got too pressured willing to destroy the artifact alongside us, or your stated reasons aren't as you say. Why are you still fighting if not for the artifact? What is it that actually brought you here?"
Zero and Kronos stood back-to-back, nodding in agreement before switching opponents. Kronos quickly spat up a canopy of bones pointing upward, trying to protect as much as he could. The bones held for a moment before shattering, sending shrapnel flying everywhere. Gritting his teeth, Kronos readied his knife, slashing and deflecting as many sharp projectiles as possible, though some grazed him, leaving small cuts all over his body. Finally having enough, he attacked savagely, slashing away like a trapped animal, slamming blunt bones into the projectiles, and cutting with his Heirloom.
"Well... you definitely hurt me. It's only fair I make you bleed the same."
He stabbed his knife into the ground, causing a rumble beneath the surface. A graveyard of bones erupted, creating a trail from the knife toward Andromeda. In his free hand, he formed a jagged bone shiv, and with a platform of bones beneath his feet, he flew through the air toward his opponent. Leaping down with pure bloodlust, he aimed a stab right at her face, then kicked the knife at her with such force that it propelled him backward. He landed next to Midir, panting and gritting his teeth.
Meanwhile, Zero faced off against Lyra. Flames flickered around him, lighting the air with their heat. He summoned a wall of fire, hoping to block her from making any moves, but she leaped over it effortlessly, closing the distance between them as she rushed towards his heart.
Zero grinned, unleashing a wave of flames toward her, but Lyra managed to rush pass the heat with her raw strength, pushing through the fire even if she was burning. However those flames were a distraction for Kronos to send himself flying and dropkick Lyra away, and now all of the main crew were regrouped.
"What the hell's going on with you now?" Midir shouted to Kronos.
"You have no idea!"
Shadow looks at Midir after dropping from the sky landing on his feet, he wasn't interested in the group's outlier at first but seeing his ability in action…he's shocked. If it even counts as an ability. He doesn't have any mana for God's sake.
Midir claims that Shadow wasn’t even after that artifact in general, and he was half right.
"Midir, was it? I'm impressed."
A sly smug appears on his face as he rests his head on his hand taking on the group as he snaps his fingers stopping Lyra and Andromeda from continuing her fight with Kronos. Orion dusts herself off after being knocked away by Midir.
"I was never interested in your little artifact, I was more interested in your group. What Nebula strives for isn't a goal, but chaos."
The others stare at him except Midir stare at him dumbfounded, how did he know about Fortuna, does he know more than he lets on? The two stare at each other in utter silence only exchanging words with their gaze before he stands up with the rest of Nebula appearing behind him.
"…Lorin, do not trust him."
Shadow locks eyes once more with Helios & Akihiro before disappearing with the rest of Nevula leaving the main cast puzzled: what was his true purpose? He's clearly not telling them the whole story but it seems like only Midir understood what he meant.