K's sleeve fluttered as the wind settled around him, the sound strangely gentle for someone who had just dismissed Garron's corpse with nothing more than a bored glance. His eyes—those calm, cutting, fathomless eyes—lowered to the fallen body for only a breath.

"Useless goon."

No grief.

No irritation.

Just mild annoyance, like stepping on a wet stone.

K's attention shifted, sharp as a blade turning toward its next victim.

He took one step toward Khael.

Just one.

The earth underneath cracked.

"Well…" K murmured, voice smooth, almost polite. "Hand me the shard, Khael Corzedar. I know you have it."

A shock rippled through Khael's chest, cold and loud.

The weight of the shard suddenly felt like a mountain pressing against his ribs.

Khael's breath tightened.

Before Master Vince died… he slipped it into my pocket. I can't let him, I can't let anyone take it. Not him. Not ever.

He forced a shrug, spreading his hands slightly, masking the spike of fear under a lazy expression.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

K tilted his head, analyzing every inch of Khael's posture.

His gaze was not the gaze of a man it was a dissecting instrument. A scalpel that saw through lies, flesh, soul.

Ryn, clutching his side and still drenched in Sierra's fading warmth, glared with bloodshot eyes.

Mari rushed to him, steadying him with trembling hands.

But Ryn didn't look at Mari.

He didn't look at the battle.

He looked only at K.

A hatred hotter than magma burned behind his eyes. A hatred born from watching Sierra vanish into dust.

The word he snarled was quiet, but it trembled like a string pulled to its breaking point.

"K…"

K didn't bother acknowledging him.

He continued forward slow, inevitable, like a tide that erased whatever dared stand in its path.

Khael slowly planted his foot back, settling into a stance. Not attacking.

Preparing.

K's lips curved not warmly, not cruelly, but with the unsettling poise of someone about to peel back the world and show its hollow core.

His fingers lifted, drawing a slow, deliberate shape into the air.

A circle.

A cradle.

A command.

His eyes thinned with faint amusement.

"Very well… if you insist on pretending."

His palm flipped outward, fingers unfurling like an opening black lotus.

"Then allow me to offer a special gift to all of you."

The temperature dropped instantly.

No—it wasn't temperature.

It was existence itself thinning, becoming fragile like cracked glass.

A soundless rupture tore through the air as K pressed his palm forward.

"VOID ART: SANCTUM SANTRY."

The words didn't echo.

They consumed the echo.

Every voidborn on the battlefield scattered, shrieking, tearing through stone and air—froze in unison. Their bodies shuddered, veins glowing obsidian, eyes turning into hollow pits.

Then

They lunged toward each other.

Not to fight.

To merge.

A tidal wave of limbs, tendrils, teeth, and swirling formless mass slammed together, fusing, absorbing, writhing. A vortex of living shadow spun into the sky as if dragged by a cosmic whirlpool.

The ground vibrated violently.

Juno's eyes widened, his Fifth Vein Gate blazing across his skin.

"Fuck."

Lightning surged behind him as Andromeda's hands sparked uncontrollably.

"What the heck is that!?"

Ceyla stumbled back, her daggers trembling, her heartbeat hammering in her ears. She craned her neck up higher, higher as the monstrous silhouette grew.

A colossal voidborn titan roared into existence, its chest splitting into countless blinking eyes, its arms dragging like pillars of nightmare flesh.

Ceyla's voice cracked.

"It's… it's so huge."

Matthew's wind spiraled around him, his breath shaking as Harmonae's ribbon-spirits coiled tighter, trying to stabilize the pressure crushing the battlefield.

His echo pet Sae whimpered, fur standing on end.

Far beyond the battle, in Tashi Village, Captain Robi lifted his head from patrol as the sky darkened unnaturally. His eyes widened; his pipe fell from his mouth.

The other Tashi Protectors froze beside him.

"What the hell is going on!?" Robi shouted, voice cracking as a shockwave slapped across the village.

Children cried.

Animals ran.

The protective barriers flickered.

The titan's roar rolled across the mountains like a dying star collapsing.

Back on the battlefield, dust exploded outward as its massive limbs slammed into the ground. Trees uprooted. Rocks shattered. The world shook as if rejecting the abomination pressing against its fabric.

Khael stepped forward instinctively, the pressure tightening around his spine.

K didn't look at the monster because to him, it wasn't the threat.

It was just a tool.

His tool.

K's gaze remained fixed on Khael, unblinking.

"A proper environment," he murmured, "for forcing the truth out of liars."

Khael's fists clenched.

Damn it… if that thing reaches the village if it reaches the others everything is over.

Juno spread his stance, aura flaring violently.

"Matthew! Andro! Ceyla! Prepare yourselves!"

Matthew swallowed, nodding sharply.

"We hold it here!"

Andromeda roared, lightning bursting behind his back like twin draconic wings.

"Come on then, you oversized trash bag!"

The titan turned its thousand blinking eyes toward them, its maw unfolding in a spiraling howl.

K spoke again soft, elegant, merciless.

"Let us see how long your trust lasts… before everything you care for is devoured."

Khael grit his teeth, Shinrei surging through him.

I can't let that happen. I can't let him or that thing touch them.

He took a step.

A storm rose with him.

The air shivered beneath the shadow of the colossal voidborn titan. Its countless eyes pulsed like dying stars, its tendrils dragging trenches across the earth. Every heartbeat trembled beneath its weight.

Yet K did not look impressed.

He stood atop a broken ridge hands folded behind his back, cloak drifting as if a private wind answered only to him. His eyes gleamed with detached curiosity, as though he were watching performers in a play whose ending he already knew.

Khael didn't look at him.

Not yet.

He faced the others first because before he could fight K, he needed to make sure everyone else stood alive.

Juno, chest heaving, wiped the blood from his lips. His Fifth Vein Gate still glowed faintly, a dim star fading behind exhaustion. Matthew tightened the ribbon-bound spirits of Harmonae around his arms, wind swirling like chains. Andromeda cracked his neck, sparks hissing around him as Junjun growled beside his leg.

Ceyla steadied her daggers, lightning whispering faintly across their edges.

Khael took a breath, planting his sword into the shattered ground.

"Everyone… we need to hold this line."

Andromeda barked a laugh, bravado trembling but relentless.

"Hold the line? Brother, that thing is big enough to crush the line."

Matthew forced a grin, wind spinning tighter.

"Then we make a new one."

Juno exhaled slowly, eyes never leaving the titan.

"We're not dying here. Not after everything. Not after them."

Behind them Mari knelt beside Ryn.

Her breath caught when she saw him move.

Slowly, painfully, Ryn's eyes peeled open. One crimson iris gleamed from behind the broken mask fragments. His hand rose shakily toward her.

Mari threw her arms around him, burying her face into his shoulder.

Ryn winced, then slowly smiled.

"…Mari… you're safe…"

"You idiot," she sobbed against him. "You scared me… you scared everyone…"

Ryn lifted a trembling hand to her hair.

I'm alive… I'm actually alive… thanks to them…

To be continue

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.