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Phantom Samsara: Path of Asura
Chapter XXXII: Unbreakable Vow

Chapter XXXII: Unbreakable Vow

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There was a long silent and tension formed after his future self passed away, Raiden collapsed down onto his rear while have tears falling on his cheek. They were horrified to witness his ultimate sacrifice for their best friend, which it felt so painful to see it right in front of them and couldn't be done. He was so lost in his mind that he witnessed his own future's dead body laid there, silent while trembling his figure as tears running on his cheeks.

"He’s… gone.”

Raiden muttered quietly as the others were staring at him, Sanju was speechless after that horrifying scene--as he couldn't imagine what to say. Before he could open his mouth, he was shocked when a bolt of lightning was launched to the mysterious man in suit and his mysterious partner using his gauntlet to shield it. Then, Raiden scowled at Future Karuna and Future Althair--he stand up as he was the one who send the thunderbolt to them. “That’s it, you have gone too far! I wouldn't forgive you even if it cost me from my hands, for making all of us suffering with everything you had done... to destroy the timeline we had live since the years ago!" he pointed out, his eyes reverted into the colors of his Raksha form. “I never done anything wrong in your future, because you’re just a bunch of assholes who just wanted to achieve your goals!” he yelled.

Future Karuna knitted his eyebrows together, he started to get very annoyed by his heated words. “Well then… looks like this is where we started hm? Now give us back what you have stolen,” Future Althair spoke.

“NEVER!”

All of them snapped, as they turned into their respective Raksha forms. Sanju was flaring in his Senapati Raksha form, along Raiden who's a Mahamatra Raksha and Akito is a Mahapatih Raksha. There was Kanae in her Shinta Raksha form, along Kinana transformed into her Arjuna Raksha form--lastly Karina becoming a Srikandi Raksha and Senja himself also turned into a Bima Raksha. They were so mad that they couldn't help it, they all have their anger built up that they're about to unleash it at them. Yukito didn't, there are many things in his mind right now that he decided to stay put at first--but he transformed into a Mahayana Raksha in case they're losing control and he contacted the other members of Silver Slumbering Dragon regarding this.

Future Karuna growled, how dare they refuse to work with them. "Then so be it," he said before two of the mysterious man take an action before Sanju interrupted. The latter battled with Sanju when Raiden handled on Future Althair who assumed to be what his future self mentioned, he uncovered his hood with removing his mask by forcing it to open.

Future Althair’s appearance was similar to his present self from his crimson neck-length hair with long bangs framing messily on his forehead and dark brown eyes, fair complexion and tall physique for an Indonesian like him. However, the difference is that his hair is slightly longer with his bangs and has light white highlights on his bangs and streaks--he also has a black corrupted marks on his skin, one goes down below his left ear, another are on his forehead as if its a symbol and several unknown marking lines appearing his bare chest and arms. He wears a black dress shirt underneath his grey blazer, and black slacks that slightly ruffled and tucked to his black-lined boots. He was terrifying and almost different as if he was someone he knows, especially those markings and that unusual aggressive demeanor from him when he looked at him and their present Karuna from the opposite sides.

Future Althair didn't seemed bother by him, instead he was casually standing before him with hands stuffed into his pockets. "Althair... from the future..." Sanju muttered, glancing at his somewhat sinister appearance that seems to look like a demon more than a human. Future Karuna did told them when they came to deliver a message from the future, but how come it looked different as the story his Future Raiden told them. "You believed that brat? Wow, and I can see... all of you," he said casually with an indifferent tone. His words implied that he was certainly different than he looked like, all of the members of Raiden's future group were dead--who knows if they got corrupted and revived through the Eclipse's curse or whatnot. "Sorry to tell you, but there is no Althair... from this timeline. However, we're a different kind of this world, the beings of Eclipse's gate."

“Dude, you’re going to grow old, do you hear me?”

Future Althair’s eyes slitted that he took that as an offense, making him grilled by the insult that Raiden made in front of him. Of course, he was annoyed by him when he turned towards him, sneering. "Silence," he muttered, sounding sharp. "Do not deny our plans, are you going to help us... or not?" he repeated, but stopped when Senja aimed his blade at him. "You think... we're going to do what you said, just because the Althair in our world is missing and you can take over him?" he asked, scowling down at them. "You're not Althair that we know, he would never do this--YOU'RE NO LONGER A PART OF SILVER SLUMBERING DRAGON!" Kinana yelled.

He was angered to see them both, but Future Althair was staring at him and Raiden; who slowly pointing his katana on his face that's enough to give him quite a mess to deal with. "Wow, trying to threaten us with your pretty little toy? You should consider if that work on me."

“You brat- you’ll pay for that,” the four of them transformed into their Raksha forms, but each two of them have different forms that Sanju and some of his friends have Exalted Raksha forms; the other two have Eclipse forms. Which is even more dangerous, due to the Eclipse Gate affected them as well.

All of the Rakshas are stopping the Phantom Beasts and the portals from attacking, Karuna and Althair’s allies are catching up on the other two. Sanju and Kanae faced with Future Karuna, seeing him in his Eclipse Mahesvara Raksha form which he has consumed by the darkness around his cape. “I’ll test this out for you, do you mind Sanju-san?” Sanju permitted him with a nod, she dashed against him and Future Karuna knitted his eyebrows together.

“Huh?”

Future Karuna’s eyes widened a bit when she swung her glaive aggressively at him, before he shielded it with his dual pair of black and blue chakrams and seeing that she has a brute offenses. As he can’t predict her moves and her attacking techniques, she kept her sleepy-looking and bored face--obscuring her movements with missed and inaccurate weak attacks--this gave her enough information about Future Karuna’s reflex speed and positioning.

Future Karuna hissed until he goes to swung one of his chakrams towards her, she jumped by surprise after she evaded that. Until she’s stepping back by a jump flip and lands beside Sanju, spinning her glaive before catching it with her stance. “Be careful, he is almost similar during the time you fight him for the first time; there’s slight differences when he does his attacks,” she whispered at him, making him nod that he need to be very careful of him.

Both of them clashes into their own weapons when they did, Future Karuna’s chakrams aren’t the similar ones like his Brahmastra--it’s corrupted and somewhat morphed into a different kind of weapon. “Sanjaya, I’ve been waiting to fight you for a long time!” he yelled at him with his maniacal laugh, which he find him disturbing when he tried to push him and he yelled at him. Future Karuna startled a little when he yelled at him but doesn’t flinch, he was about to clash his other chakram until Kanae interrupted him with kicking his wrist.

It’s not simple to deal with the two due to their reflexes combined by Eclipse’s curse they consumed with, and they increased their strength even more which made them even more murderous and ambitious. Raiden flinched a little when Althair passes his own corrupted claymore across him, causing him to aggressively gazed at him with blasting a thunderous blast from his Thunders of Retribution towards one of his eyes.

“You think you can stop me, Senja? Karina?"

Future Althair smirked at his past teammates, which both of them launching their attacks at him in their Exalted Raksha forms and made him surprised. He was about to evade them, until he look up and he thought he manage to clash against Karina--it was a trap. “What the--” Future Althair yelled when Raiden swung his thunderous strike at him which made him evaded his attack as a warning, before Senja appeared as he slain down his sword--making Future Althair's left eye got lost and damaged. He howled in pain before he fell to the ground on his knees, gripping on the burnt holes and covered his losing sight.

The white-haired man chuckled menacingly after he watched the battle that they attempted to start, which Raiden growled from the distance. The two corrupted figures were interrupted by the present Karuna who stood between the two of the Rakshas, he landed on the ground with Jaemin who adjusted his spectacles. Haruse was glaring at them when he stood beside Salihin, Aldiano, Renata, and lastly Icha--both factions were surely pissed as hell. "So, you two are the anomalies we're talking about," the Superintendent of Nirvana Organization stated, before his future self growled at Karuna who said that to him. "Past me..."

Karuna was disgusted at his Eclipse counterpart's twisted forms and how ugly he became, making his grip tightened on his red-golden trident while it turned into his Brahmastra. The Mahesvara Raksha sighed, before he was looking up at them. "I don't know where you two came from, but I heard everything," Haruse stated, folding his arms as the Tiger Raksha added. "... you must've killed him to steal his memories for that key."

Aldiano muttered, before Karuna's future self laughed at them and the corrupted Althair howling the laugh when he stand up with the painful sensation running through his body. "Well then, let's meet again," he said, before he and Future Althair left them and vanished into thin air through the black and red waves.

"Future me…" Raiden muttered, kneeling in front of his dead future self who was laid on the ground lifelessly. Sanju couldn't help but feeling extremely super upset and regretful for have letting him like this, but what can they do about it? Future Raiden is from the Eclipse World and they couldn't do anything as the dimension is now nothing. Once he saw Sanju was mourning because he's unable to save him, he felt that he was going to lose present-day Raiden but that's not the case since all of them are fighting together and here they are, trying to stop him. "I'm sorry, Raiden… I'm so sorry, future you..." Sanju muttered to himself with voice cracks, refusing to look at his future's corpse.

There was Raiden's father Ryoma who was also starting to feel worried about his son now, the Thunder Raksha feel horrible that he didn't want to end up like him. God, this made his head hurts that he couldn't believe things like this happened. As he decided to take a break by heading into the garden of the realm to let them be because he already mourned, after his future self's death driven him unable to find purpose in his life--until he stared at the cuts on his wrist. Radithya placed his hand on his son Sanju's shoulder, now they were in the Superstring Domain-Dimension where they had to stay out of their sight from them.

Raiden regretted himself for letting his future self ended up like this, he can't stand seeing his future self after that. He was overwhelmed and made him had to take his time to find the meaning of his life, he need to think on how to stop their future from becoming like this. "If only you were here… Oka-san…" he truly missed his late-mother after what happened to her, he was sad he would have come to her and seek for comfort from her.

Raiden entered the waterfall area and climbing up to the cliff, he just wanted a break and isolate himself for a while. There was cherry blossom tree near him when he was sitting on the edge, pulling his leg up as he was observing the view of the clouds at the sky in front of him. "Raiden…" he heard the voice of his late-mother somewhere here, making him look around and searching for the source. "Oka-san? Are you there, Oka-san?" Raiden called, getting up as he decided to climb up the hill.

Raiden could feel her presence and able to sense her from behind his back, he decided not look back because he know who that is. "No need to leave, I'm right here by behind you," the voice spoke, he nodded while he turn around to face her--even if she isn't present it's enough for him to feel her presence.

Makoto Amagiri is a beautiful young woman who was Ryoma's lafe-wife and Raiden's mother, she died before the Phantom Eruption in Yogyakarta happens. She has a smooth, long black hair with the hime-bangs over her eyes and cheeks, she has a dark sapphire eyes and alabaster complexion--she wears a pink-white noblewoman's kimono, a lavender obi wrapped around her torso with a pink coat covered with rose petals and light purple shoulder-straps that hides her feminine curves. Most of all, she have a light pink sakura on the right side of her hair with her white necklace around her neck. "Oka-san… do you think my future will be ended up like this?"

Raiden asked when he was looking forward at the view with his slight frown, unable to believe about how his future self ended up like this and tried to take it over himself to create a new one that's different from his original. Makoto calmly sat beside him when the petals falling down slowly onto the surface, sighing to herself and thought over what happened to them and Raiden.

"Like you could've asked, sometimes we failed to prevent the catastrophes, our fate may differ and turned into something even more than our best. A broken promise, a single heartbreak and a chain of events, a single decision you could had chosen--some were meant to happen and some were not, but this is you."

She answered which made him look up at her with his soft expression, not wanting to lose him no matter what happened to her. He didn't realize that his late-mother will be able to guide him from his doubts and even his fears, even if she was no longer there with him. She may not have a physical form since she's too gentle, but being a ghost really hurts her especially since her presence is hurt by the presence.

"Even if your future self isn't from your current world, there's still a chance on how to stop that from happening."

Makoto narrowed her eyes with a melancholic eyes, her expression shows both anguish and romance when she was seen. "I understand how you truly missed me, but I'm glad that you're finally able to live on a great life with your friends," she said that made his eyes widened when she said that, making him flushed a little with embarrassed face. "You've grown so much in your life, my son."

He averted his eyes somewhere else with a nervous chuckle as she stood up, the woman smiled sadly as she looked at the sky and touch the butterfly landing on her finger.

"Thank you for being born in this world, my dearest son, please carry on what your future self last said; in order to mend what had happened in this world."

There were a butterfly landed on Raiden's right hand, slowly it was opening its wings as a color of blue appearing. Raiden turn his head over his shoulder to look at her presence, the kimono of his clan still being worn by her. Makoto nodded with a smile towards her son, before she turn around to see someone across them. "I believe your father is looking for you," she said. Raiden nodded until he was about to stand up, he suddenly slipped back and he yelped when he fell into the waterfall. Makoto turn around to see her son falling with a scream (like a dumbass he didn't even had time to summon his dragon companion Kurikara), making her horrified before she went to find Ryoma who's supposed to be here to find him.

Ryoma was extremely worried when he was searching for his son, until Makoto has arrived in her ghostly from and yelled at him. "Ryoma!" he was frozen when he saw his late-wife is here as a ghost, he was trembling as he snapped out of his senses and asked. "Where is Raiden?!" he yelled, desperate on searching his son.

Makoto sweat dropped, looking around before she look back at him. "HE'S OVER THERE!" she yelled as she watched him sprinting off as she turn around, making her tilted her head with abrupt confusion.

"What…?"

Raiden never though he would experience this all along, he couldn't summon his companion that he was busy screaming and not paying attention nor shit around him. "You bastard!" Ryoma yelled as he jumped towards him, his arms wrapped around him and both of them fallen into the river. Diving into the waters both of them rising up into the surface immediately, Raiden spurted the water from his mouth and his father rose up while coughing up some waters from his throat. "How come did you fell?!"

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Ryoma scolded his son for have falling when he was searching for him, he is wide-eyed that his father was looking for him. "Well, uhh… I was talking with Oka-san, did you…?" he paused when he mentioned her, there was silent before Ryoma shook his head. "You fucking scared me, you brat! I was looking for you the whole time!"

There was a few moments before the realization began, until Makoto appears in a blue floating light and sigh while folding her arms at him. "Dumbass..." she muttered, watching both of them got up to the edge in the ground and the ghost watched them in front of her. "Makoto, I thought you're..." Ryoma said, while Raiden still busy laying on the ground--still recovering from the from falling like a moron.

Makoto sat in front of them, appearing translucent without a color unlike her clothes. She hummed a little, seemingly enjoying herself until she said. "I can do myself appear once a year, today is my special occasion," she said in her usual gentle demeanor, folding her arms. "... and on top of that, you have to keep your focus as a parent--well, I'm feeling concerned about our son too but don't let your guard down."

Ryoma spluttered up his words but he can't win against his deceased wife, so he sighed and scratched the back of his head. "I know, but..." he paused when Makoto walked closer to him and pecking his cheek, smiling cheerfully and a blushing face appeared. "Happy Birthday, Ryoma. I wish I could able to celebrate this day with you..." she said with a slight frown that made him hug her, albeit the hug was transparent-like. "I didn't remarry, I swear. I remain faithful for you since you died, I never moved on with anyone," he said with his honest tone. "It's okay, the circumstances weren't under my control," she replied, thinking over what happened in her timeline that forced her to stay put.

When she put her hands on his cheeks, she loomed closer to him and kissing him on the lips that made him shut his eyes--however, she has tears running through her cheeks that she could actually feel his lips despite her transparent form. She missed her beloved husband for fourteen years since she passed away, but it can't last forever because she no longer a part of the mortal world. When they pulled away, Ryoma smiled at her. "You haven't changed, you're still beautiful as ever."

"All I wanted to have in this life, was to see you again."

It lasted less than a minute, but it feels like an eternity for both of them. Makoto kneeled in front of her resting son, before she kissed her son's forehead with a smile. "May you have a safe trip with no regrets from now on," she said, before she disappeared after using the last of her power in this mortal world. "Happy Birthday, Otou-san..." Raiden muttered, before his father helped him stand up.

"Let's get going, shall we?"

They're on their way to meet the other members of Silver Slumbering Dragon and Karuna, seeing that Sanju was waiting for him to talk with him--seeing his sad expression over there that he wondered why did he look like that. There was something bad as it seemed, he can sense that what has happening... is about to happen. "Sanju, I'm not going to die," Raiden stated with a determined expression, changing Sanju's mind from his words. "I promise, I will fight along with you guys until our last battle," he continued, Sanju placed his hand on his shoulder. "All right then," he replied as they gave him a pat on his backs.

The Eclipse Gate took a form with the lower part of the door by the sun through the moon is dark red with gold lines, the upper part is green and divided into twenty-five segments. Surrounding the sun are several circles, the innermost connecting the moon and twelve holes, one in each segment. A set of steps leads to the door and two columns stand on either side of the door, connected by an arch. On the arch is the emblem consisting of eclipsed sun, on both sides of the gate there's an additional support in the form of leg attached to a ball, holding the gate itself.

"Yup… this is the one," Sanju said when they saw the gate for the first time they brought, observing the details with the key for the gate of the entrance. "Woah… so cool, it's like the one from my nightmare," Raiden said that he was holding the pocket watch on his hand, he was determined that he remembered the bits of how did his future self do this.

Karuna gathered the keys with the one that Raiden handed to him, he prayed that Althair is alright over there. Like, how the fuck did he survived in the Phantom Samsara? Oh right, he's a Flame Raksha--almost worse than a Martyr. I don't want to picture that scenario over there if we succeeded on capturing him with us, oh right. After how they ended up doing their research and the new-found keys, everyone are on their post and just waiting for the war to approach towards them. "This is going to be tough…" he grumbled angrily, after the death of Future Raiden--things didn't goes well that he had to deal with the mourning before doing the main task. "I know, Karuna… I know," Jaemin said to his superior, making sure that Karuna's daughter Vanya is doing fine.

He insert the four keys altogether with unison, according to the procedure they studied in their field of studies. "The Eclipse Gate must be opened with the keys inside altogether in unison, until you can reach to the end once you're in the realm before you can escape..." Raiden quoted their future self's diary with Akito by his side, waiting the keys in the right position as instructed. Sanju watched Karuna inserted the pocket watch into the dent, once the gate's mechanism starts to work. He twisted the key into opposite direction, before it ends. There was a light, blinding--making everyone trying to shielded their eyes with their arms.

As they stepped back carefully from the opening door, they happen to see the door begin to open wide before their eyes.

Karuna narrowed his eyes when he saw the door widely open before the two, so they step back immediately when they did. They heard a high resonating sound of the bell from inside the Eclipse Gate, the main weakness of the Rakshas are the high ringing sound that affected their sensitive ears. Without exceptions for Rakshas and anything related to Asuras; all of them are weak by the frequency of high ringing voices into their heads, and that will potentially triggering their aggressive and wild instincts into losing control. "ARGH!"

Sanju was covering his ears while his father did the same, he couldn't stand the high frequency of the bell inside. "Close it, close it now!" Ryoma shouted that they're unable to restrain themselves, seeing Raiden growling with the rest and Karuna closing the gate with the kick of his foot to close it.

"Crap, that was terrifying…"

Karuna was kneeling on one knee, panting while his daughter Vanya suddenly approaching them. "Vanya, what's wrong?" his little girl was panicked, horrified from what she just saw. "Papa! There's someone who looks like you, both of them are inside the dimension!" she informed him, including everyone.

All of them nodded before they fleed to find somewhere to hide, because they need to deal with this on their own as they were their future counterparts. "Vanya, you better hide too, it's dangerous!" he whispered at the twelve-years old girl, until she shake her head and whispered back. "No! I've seen worse, I will stay with you!" she begged her father not to go, which he nodded sadly. "Fine, can you hide behind my coat?" he asked, making her nodded with a smile happily. "Okay!"

Two figures were arriving towards the light from the darkness with glowing yellow, red and black eyes, before revealing their future selves without any weapons to them. Once all of them hiding, they meet their future selves in the Central Terrace where the chaos has begun. "Hello, past me," Future Karuna greeting him while he was standing beside Future Althair, with his hand on his hip under his coat.

"Future me, how awful of what you have become."

Karuna commented, he was so sick of how his future self looked like this. There is no longer the warmth and love that was seen in his eyes, it's only murderous instinct he has that drives him mad. Vanya was hiding under his coat from behind, while listening to them. "What are you two doing here, you are not supposed to be in here," he asked coldly without showing his trust, knowing what happen from what Sanju explained.

Future Karuna chuckled with a smile that caught the attention of the others, before he pull out something from his pocket. It was the same pocket watch with a difference it was tarnished and the chain was broken in one piece. "Past me, why are you so unpleased to see your future self? This is you… right?" he asked, causing Karuna to narrow his eyes dangerously at the two of them. "We can work together as a team you know, to investigate the Phantom Samsara. That's what you wanted, right?"

The Mahesvara Raksha narrowed his eyes as he patted on his side a bit but making it like he let his hand loose, comforting Vanya who's listening to their conversations. He huffed, folding his arms. "I have a daughter you know, only if she allowed me to fight you," Karuna stated which his future self shrugged a bit. "So you're saying that you wouldn't do the job?" Future Karuna questioned his past self, the air around them were thick of tension and angst. Vanya popped out from the side of his coat, she blinked twice before surprised at her father's future self.

"You're… Papa from the other world?"

Future Karuna paused, he was frozen that he witnessed his daughter in the past has presented in front of him without any fear. He wasn't heartless but not good as her father, although he appeared to show little disinterest about her because her appearance at the sight. "Huh… are you, Vanya? Nice to meet you, cutie," he greeted her and gave her his genuine but little off grin. 'What the... he lost his memories?' Karuna thought, never thought the Eclipse's curse might've doing its number on him.

'Vanya? What's the meaning of this?' Future Althair thought within his mind, but he didn't seem to regret that he can't remember anything since he wanted to forget the past. "So, you didn't remember huh? Vanya, close your ears please?" Karuna asked with a smile, she nodded as she covered her ears with her fingers before he began. "Tell me, did you kill her?" he asked, making Future Karuna froze in sudden as his golden yellow eyes were widened.

'Kill? What does he meant with killing Vanya, something wasn't right.'

Future Althair stared confused at them, blinking for a moment as there's something fishy and his doubts were taken away quickly as soon as Future Karuna averted his gaze somewhere else before grinning darkly. "Heh, what are you talking about?" Future Karuna replied, making him frowned and turning cold at the thought. However, he was shocked when Vanya touched his hand--the memories of the past revealed, back then when she died in front of them before. Future Althair jerked back in surprising by the powerful memories he absorbed as he collapsed to his knees, wincing and gritted his teeth in painful howling.

Future Karuna couldn't hold back his tears anymore, making Vanya hug her current father by the waist. "Papa, are you okay?"

Karuna stroke on his daughter's head, making his heart sank by how cruel his future self was done from what he did to Vanya in the original timeline. "I'm glad to see you again… even if I couldn't… able to meet you again…" he muttered, before he snapped. "… until now!" she gasped with horrified face when he's about to attack both of them, making her father growled at him.

"You bastard!"

The portal of the Eclipse Gate opened--revealing Althair in his Flame Raksha form as he ambushed both of the future counterparts of themselves right on time, panting heavily when he stand up and reverted back into his human form. "What took you so long, you idiot?!" he yelled at Future Althair until he stopped when both of them were disappeared after they attacked each other to be thrown away at distance.

Althair panted for a moment and catch his breath from the gate, he placed his hands on his knees after he took another breath--before noticing something was wrong as he stand up and glanced back at them. Vanya was excited to see Althair has returned, the others who were hiding were also happy that Althair was alive and well from inside of the Phantom Samsara, except that he's extremely shaking. "Do I… missed something?" he asked, his dark brown eyes looking back at them.

Karuna kicked his ass playfully, seeing Althair yelped. "Yes, you missed EVERYTHING!" he hissed with an angry tone that makes Althair flinched. "Wait, how many days did I missed?!" Althair asked, causing Karuna to scowl dangerously.

Once Althair arrived back, the situation has turn upside down that Future Karuna roared and roared in anger, before aiming his leg towards Future Althair with a strong kick from his right leg--like the first time he encountered with the Flame Raksha since the Eclipse's curse took a toll on him. "Goddamnit," Haruse grumbled, facepalming himself at this big fat mess. "Let us stop them, I've been waiting for this..." Althair stated, before Vanya nodded at her father Karuna so she can stand back. "Back in the old days, huh? Alright then," Karuna muttered when he leaped over Future Karuna from the ledge when he kicked Future Althair to the ground, there were a shockwave that follows once all of them fought him.

Karuna used his scimitar-like Brahmastra to create a hypernova of explosions of explosions where Future Karuna was slammed into the front of the fountain that damaged him on contact, it caught his attention immediately when he didn't realize that his past self was targeting him this entire time. "Look out! Eclipse's curse is infectious, if we got infected with that by touching it with our bloods..." Raiden yelled until his father Ryoma already leapt high using his swords and spun in 360° multiple times around him to create an air pressure that knocked him out.

Future Althair suddenly leaped towards Althair, making him narrowed his eyes and jumped into slamming his flame-hazing claymore down at him--failing when Althair slid away at the last second, before slashing him with a flaming whip that made him growl and flinch by the whip a few times, inflicting massive damage into his body. "This is a hard one, I wish Salihin was here to fight against him," Icha commented, making both Haruse and Renata scowled. "Icha, don't say things like that!" both of them scolded her.

"I'm right here, you know?" Salihin said with his usual smile, his closed eyes staring at Icha but deep down he wanted to smack her head a bit. "Well, we have a hard enemy to fight, do we?"

Future Karuna growled with hatred as his eyes glowed red, yelling wildly at everyone and began to attacking them. Future Althair was about to attack them as well, until Karuna and Althair nodded altogether--before they jumps and stabbed their weapons into their future counterpart bodies, shouting as the black vines began to growing their bodies and was slowly disintegrated. Both of their future counterparts fall into the void and the corrupt weapons disintegrated into the dark red particles, Karuna kneeling on one knee as his Brahmastra now evaporating the mist from the weapon.

Karuna knew he need to demobilize him, otherwise that won’t work if he keep continuing on their path. “I’m obviously not going to become like you, also I won’t going to repeat mistakes like last time,” he pointed his open palm towards him, his eyes widened that he know this ability and he yelled at him. “What are you thinking?! Do you know how dangerous your ability to everyone?!” he could tell that he has used this all the time in his world, during the Eclipse’s curse spreading and snapped. “The Eclipse has no effect on that! This is what happened to me when I did!”

“You bastard!”

Althair jumps out and ambushed both of the future counterparts of themselves right on time, panting heavily when he stand up from them. “What took you so long, you idiot?!” he yelled and he was trying to bait him to come out, watching Althair in his Flame Raksha as he stand up and stretched his arms. “Sorry, I just had to wait until the timing is right.”

Karuna rolled his eyes, folding his arms at him. Just like usual, his rival never changed and always been the same. “Of all the Rakshas I’ve been dealing with, you’re by far the worst,” the Mahesvara Raksha stated, watching his future self tried to get up but his wrists locked by his chakrams on the floor.

Future Karuna watched him lowering his hand, knitting his eyebrows together when he mention that. “Tell me about the Eclipse’s curse,” Vanya was curious so she take a full approach and stood beside him, he knew everyone will listen in their hiding place as Jaemin helped with his Spectramancy to make them invisible.

“Once you’ve made a wrong move while entering the Eclipse Gate, you'll be dead... there’s a powerful being known as Void of the Eclipse itself, that was known for the cause of the curse after it’s opened; that’s why the gate was designated with ringing bells to prevent Rakshas from entering there… you’ll know why it always close after the bell rings…”

Karuna was listening to him for a moment, folding his arms when he decided to listen.

“Past me… I don’t want to spoil what I’ve seen inside there, but if you want to find the Core of the Samsara… you have to fight the Void, the Eclipse World will not happen if you erase its existence… to keep the Phantom Samsara with the peace… you have to destroy the Eclipse World so the future will be changed its fate, trust me!” he explained, he didn’t want to tell his past self about the details yet. “If you want to know what does Phantom Samsara looks like; you gotta see that for yourself! You need your Raksha form to enter there, and if you want to get rid of that bell... you must break the seal and purify the curse!”

Future Karuna hoped that he let his past self informed about this, and he didn’t want him to ended up how he was in the future. “You have to be careful with the curse of the Eclipse, the Deep End is the final phase of the Phantom Samsara and you must work hard to reach it,” he lifted his eyebrows, not sure what does that mean until he continue to speak.

“We’ll vanish from the face of the earth if you stop the Void of the Eclipse… it means our world will no longer exist… you will create your own future in this world… and the period in your time will be fixed… however, one of you must be sacrificed and I ended up killing one of you recently… before I came here.”

Karuna was surprised when he said that out loud, making him hummed when he think about it. “Hmm… is there a way to stop this?” he muttered--before he saw him gestured his head with leaning closer, before he leaned forward a little to let him mouthing something that Vanya don’t understand.

Until he lean back and watching him closing his eyes, if what he stated is true... then he must take it as a warning to change the future. “I’m sorry for attacking her, I have been missing her so much, I regretted the moment I lost my friends because of my own mistake after opening the gate…”

Althair manage to take his future self down and made him fell on the ground, laying beside Future Karuna on the opposite side. “Don’t you regret the moment you’ve let Future Raiden died because of what you did?”

Althair asked while approaching the two on the floor, still in his Flame Raksha form with his hands on his hips. “Consider me imperfect… Raiden wanted to stop me, I didn’t like what he did and… it gets worse huh...” he clenched his teeth at him, before he let out an exhale while he keep facing his back at his daughter.

“Turn around Vanya, close your ears and don’t peek. This is not good for children.”

Vanya turn around while does what her father told her, she knew what he was doing so she said “Be quick, okay!” Karuna nodded when he aimed his open palm towards him, his eyes were wide with shock that he was going to exterminate him--but it seems like it is a different than before. “Do you have any last words?” he asked him calmly, Future Karuna couldn’t help but scoff with a smirk to his past self before him.

“I hope you like some hospital foods.”

Few minutes later, they heard a loud explosion from the distance.

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