Senjuro and Kyrin moved like lightning through the
narrow corridor, cutting down the entire wave of enemy soldiers with flawless
precision. Their movements were a blur of steel and energy, each strike
calculated and deadly. As the last soldier fell, an eerie stillness settled —
broken only by the distant sound of screams.
"Did you hear that?" Senjuro asked, his eyes
narrowing.
Kyrin nodded, already sprinting toward the source.
"Let's move!"
They burst into a larger chamber, and the sight
that met them froze them in place. Blaze, Rin, and Syvian stood facing a
monstrous figure — a towering giant
clone pulsing with dark energy, its form
shifting and flickering as if struggling to hold itself together. The air
around it vibrated with malice.
Before anyone could speak, a cold, familiar voice
echoed through the chamber.
"Well, well — the whole team's here," Lord Z sneered, his image flickering into
existence on a holographic display. "Perfect timing! Meet my newest creation — Aburen Z, my most
powerful clone yet. A prototype, yes… but one more than capable of your
destruction. I'd stay and watch, but I have more important matters to attend
to."
With that, the image of Lord Z vanished, and the
chamber was plunged into darkness. For a moment, there was silence — and then
the clone's eyes snapped open, glowing with an ominous red light.
"Get ready!" Syvian warned, his voice tense.
As one, the team activated their Hybrid Mode — the second stage of their core awakening. Their
bodies surged with enhanced power, their energy flaring so brightly it pushed
back the darkness.
The battle erupted.
Kyrin moved first, his Aetherstorm Catalyst igniting as he unleashed a relentless
volley of gunfire. His weapons shifted seamlessly — from rapid-fire submachine
guns to high-powered rifles and energy cannons — each shot finding its mark.
The air filled with the roar of explosions and the sharp crack of gunfire.
Blaze followed, his Solarflare Ember Flux igniting his body in golden fire. He
moved like a phoenix reborn, launching devastating flame attacks with every
strike. His swords blazed with heat, cutting through the clone's defenses as he
unleashed torrents of fire, searing the monstrous flesh.
"Take this!" Blaze roared, hurling a Solarburst Flare that detonated against the clone's
chest, staggering it backward.
Rin was already in motion, his Dimensional-Rift Translocator warping space around him. With a flick
of his hand, he opened portals to other dimensions, summoning devastating
attacks from realms beyond. Void
Spears, Aether
Blades, and Plasma
Storms rained down on
the clone in an endless barrage.
"Let's see how you handle this!" Rin shouted,
unleashing a Chrono
Tempest — a storm of
energy that bent time and space, slowing the clone's movements while increasing
the speed of their attacks.
Meanwhile, Syvian hung back, his glowing purple
eyes scanning the clone with intense focus. Every movement, every attack, every
ripple of energy — he analyzed it all, looking for weaknesses.
"There!" he called out, launching forward. His Mythrian Spirit Flux surged, and his weapons became a blur.
His Ninjatō slashed through tendons, his Kunai struck critical points, and his Kyoketsu-shoge wrapped around limbs, pulling them off
balance.
"Attack the joints and the core!" Syvian
commanded. "That's where the energy's most unstable!"
The team responded instantly. Kyrin switched to
armor-piercing rounds, targeting the weakened joints. Blaze launched
concentrated flame strikes at the core. Rin's dimensional attacks focused on
the clone's exposed vulnerabilities.
The clone roared in pain, its massive form
convulsing as cracks of dark energy spread across its body. But it wasn't done
yet. With a sudden surge, it lashed out — sending a wave of corrupt energy that slammed into the team, throwing
them back.
Senjuro was the first to rise. Blood trickled from
his lip, but his eyes burned with determination.
"Stay focused!" he called, his Prism Aetherheart flaring to life. Energy gathered
around him, forming into his Prismatic
Blades. He dashed forward, his attacks leaving streaks of light as
they carved into the clone's body.
"We end this now!" Kyrin shouted.
The team pushed forward together, combining their
strength. Blaze's flames raged brighter, Rin's dimensional attacks grew
fiercer, and Syvian's strikes became impossibly fast. Kyrin's guns roared, and
Senjuro's blades danced in the air.
The clone stumbled, its body collapsing under the
onslaught. Dark energy poured from its wounds, and its form began to unravel.
"Finish it!" Syvian ordered.
With one final, coordinated assault, they struck —
and Aburen Z let out a final, ear-splitting shriek
before its body disintegrated into a burst of black light.
As the dust settled, the team stood victorious —
but they knew this was only the beginning. Lord Z was still out there. And the
real battle was yet to come.
As the dust settled and the echoes of their battle
faded, a squad of guards from the backup Kyrin had summoned arrived at the
scene. Without wasting time, they began collecting the remains of the defeated
clone, carefully loading the pieces into containment capsules. The air still
crackled with traces of dark energy, but the battle was over — for now.
Kyrin turned to Blaze;
his expression grim but resolute. "Burn it down," he ordered.
Blaze grinned, the
flames of his Solarflare Ember Flux already flickering to life around his
hands. "That's an order I like to
follow," he said with a smirk.
Within seconds,
brilliant golden flames erupted across the chamber, consuming everything in
their path. The intense heat swallowed the dark remnants of their enemy,
reducing it all to ash and cleansing the area of any lingering corruption. The
inferno raged fiercely, but Blaze controlled it with precision, ensuring no one
else was harmed.
When the fire
finally died down, the once-intimidating chamber was nothing more than
smoldering ruins. Satisfied with their work, the team turned and headed toward
the lab, their minds heavy with the implications of what they'd just faced.
At the Neo-Kyoto
Advanced Research Facility, they were greeted by Professor
Dante Kriyu, the renowned energy specialist. His face was drawn with
concern as he approached them.
"Kyrin," the
professor began without preamble, his voice tight, "the energy Lord Z is using…
it's called Abyssal Craven Flux. It's an incredibly
powerful and dangerous variant of Dark Ripple Energy — far more unstable, far more
destructive."
"Abyssal Craven
Flux?" Senjuro echoed, his brow furrowing. "Why haven't we heard of it before?"
"Because it's
incredibly rare and incredibly dangerous," Dante explained. "Even among dark
energy variants, this one is… different. It feeds on instability. It thrives on
destruction. And the clone you faced today was a prototype designed to test its
limits."
Syvian crossed his
arms, his sharp gaze fixed on the professor. "So, he lured us into a fight just
to test the power and stability of his creation," he said coldly.
Dante nodded.
"Exactly. And what's more worrying is that this one was even more unstable than
the clone you brought me yesterday. The multiple vital points you saw. That's a
sign of insufficient energy distribution. The Abyssal Craven Flux wasn't
flowing evenly through its body — it was breaking apart under its own power."
Kyrin's mind
raced, recalling the battle and the strange, glowing fractures that had spread
across the clone's form. "So that's why it had so many weak points," he
muttered. "It lacked the energy to keep its form intact."
"Precisely," Dante
confirmed. "But make no mistake — the next versions will be far more dangerous.
Lord Z knows the flaws now. He'll fix them. And when he does…"
The weight of
those words hung heavily in the air. The room fell silent as everyone
considered the terrifying possibility of an army of perfected clones — each one
more powerful than the last.
Dante finally
broke the silence. "You should all get some rest. Tomorrow's going to be a long
day — you'll need to start arranging security protocols for the Eclipse
Agent Examination. And with the Aurora Blossom Ceremony approaching…
well, I don't need to tell you how vulnerable that makes us."
Kyrin nodded
slowly. "You're right. We'll prepare."
The team left the
lab in thoughtful silence, the weight of their responsibility settling heavily
on their shoulders. When they finally returned to Senjuro's
Mansion, the sky was already dark, the stars glimmering faintly above
the sprawling city of Neo-Kyoto. But even the peaceful night couldn't chase
away the tension that filled the air.
Gathered in the
main hall, they sat quietly, each lost in their own thoughts. The danger ahead
was clear — and they had only three days to prepare.
"We'll be ready,"
Senjuro said at last, his voice quiet but determined.
Kyrin nodded. "We have to be. Because if we fail… the world
falls with us."