Another year had passed. Two years since Sosuke had seen his friends' faces. Two years of silence.
He never planned on returning. Not until it was over. Not until every last one of their enemies was dead. He had taken the burden upon himself. If he stayed away, they wouldn't be caught in the crossfire. They wouldn't suffer. Only he would.
The Blight Dimension stretched before him—an endless wasteland of cracked, blackened earth. Twisted trees lined the jagged hills, their gnarled branches reaching toward the churning green sky like grasping hands. The air was thick, heavy, reeking of rust and decay. It clung to his skin, settled in his lungs. He barely noticed anymore.
The wind shifted. Something shifted with it.
Sosuke stilled, fingers resting on his katana's hilt. His senses sharpened. A pulse of wrongness pricked at the edge of his perception, something foreign slithering through the air, coiling beneath the earth.
He exhaled. "I've become like Shadow, haven't I?" His voice was quiet, lost to the wasteland.
"Do ya always talk to yourself, Champ?"
A voice. Low. Raspy. Crawling from the forest.
Sosuke reacted instantly. A sigil flared to life beneath his feet—black flames roared forward, swallowing the source of the voice in an explosion of heat and smoke. The trees crackled and burned, the scent of charred wood filling the air.
A growl.
Low. Amused.
"Not one… for visitors?"
Behind him.
Sosuke turned. His eyes locked onto the figure stepping from the gloom.
A wolf-like Blight. Taller than him, lean but powerful, its thick black and gray fur matted with filth. Its long snout twisted into something resembling a grin, jagged yellow fangs peeking through cracked lips. Scars cut jagged lines across its body, old wounds barely healed. Its golden eyes gleamed, pupils slitted like a beast's.
Sosuke said nothing.
The creature sniffed the air, claws flexing at its sides. "Strong smell," it muttered. "Blood. Fire. You."
Sosuke's fingers twitched on his blade. "What do you want?"
The Blight's mouth twitched. "Your head," it growled. "Not orders. No. But—ooh—the glory… the glory! Can't resist."
Sosuke smirked. "Pathetic tricks for someone craving glory."
The growl deepened. "Tricks?"
Sosuke pointed down. "Your friend's under me."
A beat of silence.
Then—
BOOM.
The ground split apart as something erupted from the burrow beneath him.
Sosuke leapt back, landing lightly on cracked stone. The thing that emerged was nothing like the wolf.
Its body was a mass of pale, bloated flesh, segmented like a centipede, but wrong—each segment pulsating, shifting. Clawed limbs jutted out at unnatural angles, twitching, scraping against the rock. Its head, eyeless and bulbous, split open into rows of writhing tendrils, each one twisting and curling as if trying to form words. A gurgling, choked screech tore from its throat, wet and broken—like it was trying to speak but couldn't.
Sosuke wrinkled his nose. "That's disgusting."
The wolf—Ghoul—grinned, ears flicking. "We are… Julius' lieutenants," it rasped. "Second only… to generals. I'm Ghoul." It gestured toward the thing beside it. "That's Worm."
Worm let out a deep, gurgling moan, the tendrils on its face writhing violently.
Sosuke tilted his head. "Worm, huh? Not much of a talker—or a looker." He unsheathed his katana. The blade hummed, eager. "You said second to only a general? That means if I kill you, I might just get a shot at one."
Ghoul's ears twitched. "Never… gonna happen."
The wolf lunged. A blur of black fur and flashing steel—its machete-like sword slashed through the air.
Sosuke ducked low. The wind of the blade kissed the top of his head. He twisted, drove his foot into Ghoul's skull. Crack.
The Blight was sent flying, slamming into a tree with a sharp thud.
A deep, wet gurgle.
Sosuke turned—Worm was changing.
The pale flesh bulged, swelling as it twisted and tore. Limbs snapped, reshaping—thickening. The tendrils on its face curled inward, reforming into jagged fangs. It reared up, nearly twice its size now, its entire body pulsing as though something inside it was trying to escape.
It let out a shrill, gurgling screech—a mockery of speech. A sound that almost formed words but failed.
Sosuke sighed. "Ah, hell. That's even worse."
His hand shot up. A sigil flared—ice-blue, crackling. Shards of frozen energy rained down, piercing through Worm's shifting flesh. BOOM—! Ice erupted across its lower half, freezing it mid-transformation.
Sosuke moved.
He closed the distance in an instant, katana slicing deep into the creature's bloated torso. Black ichor sprayed from the wound.
Worm shrieked, its tendrils writhing violently. The creature flopped onto the ground as the life drained from it.
"Worm!" Ghoul growled, his voice rough, primal. His golden eyes flared, pupils shrinking to slits.
A sharp clash of metal. Too close.
Sosuke barely saw him move. Even with Star Eyes active, Ghoul's speed blurred against his vision. His heartbeat spiked.
"What the hell…" Sosuke muttered. "I guess it makes sense you'd be hiding some strength. Killing a lieutenant wouldn't be that easy."
Lightning crackled down Sosuke's blade. He lunged, the electricity snapping outward, lashing onto Ghoul. The scent of burning fur filled the air
Ghoul barely flinched.
His claws slashed across Sosuke's chest. Impact. Sosuke flew back, skidding across the dirt, his cloak tearing as he tumbled.
He forced himself to his feet, but Ghoul had already turned.
"Come to me… Worm…"
Ghoul raised his arms toward the lifeless corpse of his fallen partner.
The body twitched. Shifted.
Flesh pulsed. Tendrils slithered out of the corpse, reaching, writhing. They crawled toward Ghoul, latching onto his limbs, his torso, his neck.
The fusion began.
Ghoul's body snapped unnaturally, bones elongating, muscles bulging beneath his fur. His torso expanded, grotesquely stretching as if something inside him was reshaping his very structure. His arms split apart, new limbs sprouting from his sides, each one twitching with life. His snout cracked and lengthened, his fangs growing jagged, uneven.
A second set of eyes burst open above the first—milky white, inhuman. His voice, once gruff and animalistic, deepened into something more wrong.
Sosuke took a step back, his nose wrinkling. "Ugh, this is gross even for me."
His left hand rose, a sigil forming in the air. Wind coiled, twisting into itself. Flames ignited, roaring to life, swirling within the vortex.
"Ultimate Fire Cannon."
A surge of mana exploded outward. The sigil pulsed, inhaling the surrounding air before—
BOOM—!
A column of fire detonated from the sigil, thick as a fortress wall, stretching toward the heavens. The heat warped the air, melting the very ground beneath it. Trees instantly turned to ash, their remains swept up in the swirling inferno. The blast expanded outward, consuming everything in its wake, obliterating the entire battlefield in a storm of red and gold.
Sosuke didn't stop there.
"Infinite Winds."
A second sigil flared to life. Air compressed, twisting violently as a howling tornado ripped through the flames. The two forces combined—wind feeding fire—turning the battlefield into a cataclysm. The very earth trembled beneath the pressure.
Ash. Smoke. Charred remains.
Sosuke exhaled. The flames slowly faded, revealing the destruction left behind—
Ghoul—no, Worm—still stood.
Sosuke's stomach twisted.
The fused Blight's flesh peeled in places, strips of charred muscle hanging loose, still smoldering. One of his extra arms dangled limply, its bones shattered and useless. Deep burns carved across his chest, exposing layers of twisted, unnatural tissue beneath. Yet—his stance was solid. He had taken the full force of the attack and endured.
"How are you still standing…?" Sosuke muttered.
The creature rolled its shoulders, its extra set of eyes glinting in amusement.
"It is only in fusion that I gain full control," it spoke, voice now smooth, measured. Refined.
Sosuke narrowed his eyes. "You said something different before. You even speak differently."
The creature tilted its head. "I am not Ghoul. I am Worm. Once the fusion is complete, I take charge."
The contrast was unsettling. Ghoul had been raw, instinctual, driven by bloodlust. But this—this was intelligence. Cold. Calculated.
Sosuke tensed. "That's a pretty jarring difference between the two of you." He pointed his blade toward Worm. "Now tell me—how exactly did you survive that? I put my all into that attack, you know?"
Worm smiled. A slow, knowing smile.
"By the power of Redirection."
Sosuke blinked. "Huh—?"
Before he could react, Worm's body ignited.
Not in pain.
In power.
The very same flames Sosuke had unleashed—his own Ultimate Fire Cannon—flared to life across Worm's body, wrapping around his limbs, condensing into a swirling mass of destruction. The same heat. The same force. Unleashed back at him.
Worm raised all four of his arms.
And fired.
Sosuke's instincts screamed. Every fiber in his body told him to move.
Run.
Dodge.
This will kill you.
But he didn't move. He couldn't. The spell coming at him—it was his.
The flames tore through the clearing like a tidal wave of heat and fury. Trees evaporated into ash. The sky glowed red. The ground buckled beneath the pressure.
Sosuke braced. He felt the fire graze his skin—
—and vanish.
When the flames cleared, he stood untouched. Not a single burn.
Worm stared, mouth hanging open, still smoldering from the heat.
"What…?" Sosuke whispered, eyes wide. He looked down at his hands. He felt the spell hit. Saw the moment the fire should've swallowed him whole. And then—nothing.
"Impossible!" Worm's voice cracked into a shriek. "I know it hit you! What kind of trick are you pulling, human?!"
Sosuke staggered back a step, still staring at his skin. That heat—he should be dead.
Why didn't it work? What just—
Spit.
A wet, hacking sound pulled him back to reality.
Sosuke dropped low, just in time to dodge a glob of sizzling black acid. It slammed into the dirt behind him, burning straight through to the roots.
A sharp sting tore through his shoulder.
He hissed in pain. Steam rose from the fabric as the acid ate through both cloth and flesh.
"Shit," Sosuke growled. His hand tightened around the katana. Electricity surged across the blade like a violent pulse.
He didn't hold back. No restraint. No calculation. Just raw frustration.
He poured mana into the sword until the hilt crackled in protest. Sparks arced from the steel to his skin.
With a shout, he swung.
A massive wave of thunder exploded outward, howling across the landscape. It split the earth. Trees snapped in half.
The bolt ripped through Worm. A clean cut—if such a word could be used. The blight's body tore apart mid-scream, melting away as the lightning burned the life from it.
Silence.
Sosuke dropped to a knee, panting. His vision swam, lines doubling and twisting. He rubbed his eyes, breath heavy.
The star eyes faded.
"That's my longest record yet," he muttered. "Three days."
He rose slowly, using the katana like a crutch. The forest around him was gone. Nothing but blackened earth and twisted ash. Worm's remains smoked in the center, unmoving.
He stared at the destruction.
I thought killing blights would make me feel better.
Sosuke turned.
And walked away like nothing had happened.