The cave was a cathedral of damp stone and shimmering starlight. Kai hung limp against the jagged wall, his breathing so shallow it barely stirred the dust. Sayomi moved with silent grace, dipping a cloth into a basin of cold spring water to dab at the weeping wounds on his chest.
The heavy thud of a sandal hitting stone broke her concentration. Ma'am Neko strolled in, swinging a grease-stained bag of mochi.
"Sayomi-san! I brought snacks!" Neko chirped, her voice echoing too loudly.
"Shhh," Sayomi hissed, her eyes sharp. "He's finally asleep."
"Is he?" Neko tilted her head, popping a sweet rice ball into her mouth. "That's not sleep, kid. That's Part Two. His body is here, but his spirit is currently trekking through the bottom floor of the Underworld."
Sayomi froze. "The Underworld? You sent his soul to hell while his body is still recovering from blood-poisoning?"
"Calm down. It's a spiritual stress test," Neko explained, her tone turning uncharacteristically academic. "To reach the state of a Force, Kai's anatomy has to cheat. A human heart pumping at the pressure required to fuel God-level Kishō would cause the aorta to rupture instantly. The brain would liquefy under the neural load."
Sayomi's Hōzuki analytical mind kicked into overdrive. "The cardiovascular catastrophe would be immediate. To withstand seven hearts' worth of pressure in a single chamber... you're essentially turning his chest into a pressure cooker."
"Exactly," Neko smiled. "His body has already adapted physically. Now, his spirit has to learn to handle the burden of that power without snapping. If his mind breaks, the hearts won't pump—they'll explode."
In the white, suffocating silence of the Hell Plane, Kai sat cross-legged across from a woman draped in tattered black silk. Her eyes were voids, and her horns curved like obsidian scythes. He remembered her. He had bested her once when he wore the mantle of Lord Umbra.
"Slay me, Kai, and the gate opens," the Devil whispered, gesturing to the void around them. "Your spirit will be unbreakable. But consider the cost."
"The cost?" Kai asked, his voice steady.
"To be unbreakable, you must be unfeeling," she said, leaning in. "One breakdown, and your emotions vanish. That smile your friends love? It will become a mask of porcelain. You will gain the power of a malevolent god, but lose the heart of a benevolent man."
Kai looked at his hands. "If losing my smile is the price for the kingdom's safety... I'll pay it. I'm not here to be happy. I'm here to endure."
The Devil sighed, her form beginning to dissolve into ash. "I'll never understand your kind. Just remember: the most terrifying demons are born from the most benevolent saints. Protect 'Kai,' little Shadow. Don't let Umbra swallow him whole."
"I won't," Kai promised. "Enjoy your eternal slumber."
Back on the Academy grounds, the sun beat down on Reina and Kurone. Reina sat in perfect zazen meditation, her breathing rhythmic. Kurone, however, was a vibrating wire of kinetic energy. She lasted three minutes before jumping up to slash at a training dummy.
"Reina! How can you just sit there?" Kurone groaned. "The tournament is a week away!"
"Kai taught me this," Reina said, opening one eye. "Meditation synchronizes the spirit and the flesh. If they aren't one, your Kishō is just wasted heat."
"Fine, fine. Let's test that 'synchronization,'" Kurone challenged. "Long-range target practice. Winner decides what we do for the next thirty minutes."
They lined up before stone pillars a hundred meters away. Kurone moved first, her hand blurring as she unleashed a jagged whip of blood that shattered the stone into gravel. "Beat that, Masakado!"
Reina didn't move. She didn't even draw her sword fully. She simply pointed two fingers at her pillar. A silent, invisible ripple distorted the air. A second later, the top half of the pillar slid off in a perfectly diagonal, glass-smooth cut.
Kurone's jaw dropped. "What... what was that?"
"A trick Keito-sensei showed me," Reina said, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow. "It concentrates Kishō into a vacuum-thin blade. It's invisible, silent, and requires a perfect balance of minimum and maximum output. It's called the Ghost-Edge."
Back in the cave, the sparring had reached a fever pitch. Kai was a blur of motion, his new athletic build allowing him to move with a predatory fluidity.
"One," Kai whispered, ducking a kunai.
"Two. Three," he counted, slipping a punch and parrying a crane kick.
"Four," he grunted as Neko's fist buried itself in his gut. He didn't flinch. He used the momentum to roll, sweeping Neko's leg and pinning her to the damp floor in a grapple.
"Good," Neko panted, looking up at him. "You've mastered Mui-shō Adaptability. Your body can take four or five hits and learn the 'rhythm' of the enemy. But remember: if you stop bleeding, you stop adapting. A constant flow of Kishō is the fuel for evolution."
Kai sat back, catching his breath. "Is that enough to kill a god?"
"Not even close," Neko said, her face darkening. "For that, you need the Shatter Technique."
Sayomi leaned in, her interest piqued. "Shatter?"
"It's the ultimate heresy," Neko explained. "A god's regeneration is instantaneous. To kill them, you have to destroy all seven hearts at once. The Shatter Technique forces a transition of energy from Kishō to Dōwa-ryoku (Sync-Power) and finally to Kenshin-ritsu (Devotion-Order) within a window of: 10-¹² seconds
"That's... that would cause a molecular collapse," Kai noted. "The energy would be totally unstable."
"Exactly. It's balanced through imbalance," Neko said. "The Benevolent Class focuses that destruction into a single point—a surgical strike. The Malevolent Class... well, that levels everything within fifty meters. It nullifies regeneration because it doesn't just cut—it erases."
Kai looked at his hands, trembling slightly. "Can I do it?"
"No," Neko laughed, popping another mochi. "I'm a Force, not a God. I've only read the legends. If you want to learn to 'Shatter,' you'll have to ask Princess Aurelia. The Solaris Clan are the only ones who truly understand the Kenshin-ritsu."
"Aurelia?" Kai was stunned. "She's that strong?"
"She's a Mui-shō master, Kai. If she and Lyra fought, Lyra would win on pure physical violence, but Aurelia would win on 'Stillness.' Which is why you're going to wear this."
Neko tossed him a white porcelain Cat Mask.
"The announcers will call you Kai. The royals will know who you are. But to the hundreds of people you're about to face... you'll just be the 'Demon Cat.' It'll help keep your 'Kai' persona separate from the killer you're becoming."
As night fell, the cave grew cold. Kai sat alone, practicing the rhythmic breathing Neko had taught him, trying to stabilize the seven "ghost" heartbeats thudding in his chest.
The air shimmered. The Umbra Crown appeared in a circle of kneeling shadows.
"Your breathing radiates hesitation, Master," Renaria whispered.
"You're worried about the innocents," Kaelin added, her iron fan clicking shut.
Kai stopped, looking at his shadows. "I'm going into a cage with seven hundred people. Most of them are just desperate or fooled by Valena. Am I really supposed to just... erase them?"
Veyla curled around his neck, her fur soft against his skin. "Sowy, Master..."
"It's okay, pup," Kai sighed, ruffling her hair.
Zira didn't speak. She sat cross-legged across from him, her eyes closed in a mask of cold iron.
"All are guilty under the sun, Kai," Zira said, her voice like a closing tomb. "Mercy makes you strong, but a lack of mercy makes you a monster. I am a monster. You are a King. A King draws the line so the monsters don't have to. If they entered the Rite, they accepted the blood. Do not weep for those who chose the blade."
She stood and vanished into the dark, leaving Kai alone with his reflection in a single drop of water falling from a stalactite.
END OF CHAPTER