The earth trembled under Vince's feet, the Taishin energy bleeding out of him like sunlight through shattered glass. His body glowed faintly, veins etched in molten gold as the Seventh Gate consumed him from within.

He smiled faintly through the pain.

"Then I'll die doing what masters should protecting those who still have something to live for."

A slow clap echoed through the ruin.

"Ahahahaha… so this is the conclusion you've come up with, Wandering Fist?"

From the smoking ridge above, K emerged, his porcelain mask gleaming, black robes whispering in the wind. The void mist coiled around him like serpents, each movement calculating, deliberate his aura was not rage, but cold intellect, the emotion of someone who viewed war as a board game.

His eyes bright, unnatural locked on Vince.

"How poetic. The master who once swore to wander without attachments during the glory days… now dying for them instead…. How poetic"

Vince lifted his head, his single arm clenched into a fist that trembled with power. "You talk too much, tactician."

"Do I?" K tilted his head, amused. "I simply admire the irony."

Behind him, Garron and Sierra Vance, battered and bloodied from their fight with Ryn, turned toward Vince, their eyes narrowing. The tension in the air sharpened like a blade drawn too slowly.

K's tone shifted low, commanding. "Mercenaries. Prove to me your worth."

Sierra hesitated, glancing briefly at Ryn's fallen form. "You said… double pay."

K's voice dropped to a whisper, sharp as a knife. "Triple, if you bring me the head of the Wandering Fist."

Her eyes darkened. The crimson shimmer of her Shinrei flickered across her arms. Garron cracked his neck, muscles tightening, the tattoo on his chest burning faintly with silver light.

Ceyla took a step forward, lightning flickering around her hands. "Don't even think about it."

K's laughter was a quiet hum, detached, scientific. "Oh, but they will. Greed, survival, desperation those are truths of emotion too."

He raised one hand lazily, and the air around him shimmered. "Now, shall we see the difference between your humanity and my calculation?"

His tone shifted again, colder.

"You're going to die here, Master Vince and all of you with him."

The words rolled like thunder.

Then his gaze moved, calculatingly, to the side to Khael Corzedar, who stood amidst the wreckage, his dragon-marked eyes blazing, wind twisting at his back.

"Except you, Khael Corzedar."

The way K said his name felt like a knife scraping the soul.

"It seems master wants you alive. I wonder why."

Khael clenched his fists, the wind around him beginning to howl. "Don't test me."

"Oh, but I already have," K replied softly. His eyes flickered with data lines of possible outcomes reflected in his mask's faint glow. "According to every probability I've run, your survival rate is… less than thirty percent."

"Then I'll break your math." Khael growled.

K only smiled, that clinical, merciless smile. "Try."

He lifted both hands this time, and the sky split open.

From the void's rift poured an army hundreds of voidborn, crawling, shrieking, their twisted bodies pulsing with black veins of corrupted Shinrei. Their screams drowned out the wind, and the ground cracked beneath their weight.

Ceyla's breath caught. "There's too many…."

Matthew's voice came through the comm bead, hoarse but steady. "Captain Robi's pulling civilians back to the cliffs! Just hold the line!"

Juno drew his blade, trembling. "Hold the line?! Against that?!"

But Vince's voice cut through the panic, low and steady. "Fear is a seed. If you let it grow… it devours everything."

He straightened, golden light burning brighter from his core. The Seventh Gate pulsed his veins of Taishin cracking open like molten fissures.

K smirked. "The shard of flesh, Master Vince. That's what I came for. Hand it over, and I'll make your death painless."

Vince exhaled slowly.

"You'll never have it."

K sighed, like a disappointed teacher. "Pity."

He snapped his fingers. The voidborn charged.

The world became chaos again.

Ceyla's lightning tore through the front ranks, sizzling dark flesh. Khael unleashed a hurricane burst, scattering dozens into the air. Juno, though trembling, struck down anything that slipped through. Andromeda's barrier shimmered like a veil of glass, catching the wounded behind her.

Mari screamed, clutching Ryn's limp body. "Stop it! Stop this madness!"

Ryn, barely conscious, muttered weakly, "Sis… run…"

But Khael's voice cut through the noise, rough and defiant. "No one runs."

He stepped forward, wings of wind flaring behind him. "As long as we breathe Tashi stands."

The voidborn crashed upon them like a black tide.

Vince moved before anyone could react his figure blurring, faster than lightning, faster than reason. His Taishin aura rippled the world itself. Each punch shattered the ground, each step left a crater of molten stone.

"Seventh Gate—Heaven Pulse!"

The impact vaporized the first wave of voidborn. The air itself screamed.

Ceyla shielded her eyes. "His power, it's tearing the air apart!"

Juno's voice was hoarse. "He can't keep that up… he'll, he'll burn out."

But Vince didn't care. His focus was absolute, every strike pure intention.

Across the battlefield, K watched with eerie fascination. "Incredible. Even in self-destruction, the human will defies logic."

Then his voice dropped into a whisper half to himself.

"Yet… that is what I will erase."

He raised his hand, channeling his own Void resonance.

A dark ring spread from his palm, corrupting the ground it touched. More voidborn sprouted like cancerous roots, screaming into existence.

Vince stopped briefly, sweat and light dripping from his chin. "You… never learn."

K tilted his head. "And you never evolve."

But what K didn't see what no calculation could predict was the pulse that suddenly rippled across the field.

The faint, burning glow in the hearts of those around Vince.

The defiance in Khael's eyes.

The storm of despair and hope in Ceyla's lightning.

The trembling courage in Juno's eyes

The quiet resolve in Mari's tear-streaked face as she stood over her brother.

It wasn't Shinrei, or Taishin. It was something older.

Something K could never model, never predict.

Emotion.

The raw, wild thing that drove humanity to fight even when reason said they couldn't.

As Vince's vision blurred, he felt it, their emotions resonating with his, feeding the dying flame within him.

The Seventh Gate pulsed once more, brighter than before.

"Impossible," K whispered, stepping back. "The calculations"

Vince opened his eyes. Gold light surged from within. "Your numbers forgot one thing, K."

His voice thundered across the battlefield, alive with final purpose.

"Emotion doesn't follow probability."

And with that, Vince clenched his glowing fist—

and charged.

The Wandering Fist's final step shattered the night.

To be continue

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