The deep, shadowed pit offered only temporary reprieve. Nitsuki and Sami watched the glow intensify—a persistent, sickly yellow light that managed to pierce the surrounding gloom. Both were utterly still, fear holding them captive, their eyes fixed on the mysterious phenomenon just ahead.
"Should we go and check what this is?" Sami whispered, her voice barely audible, the tension making her instinctively reach for the hilt of her sword. Her pragmatism warred with the primal urge to flee.
"No, wait…" Nitsuki cautioned, his own fear a cold knot in his stomach, but his mind demanded observation. He knew blind movement meant certain death in this new world.
Then, beneath the glowing yellow, a secondary, malevolent red circular light began to glow brightly. The color—the hue of blood and danger—was immediately recognized by Nitsuki. He understood the terrifying signal instantly. "Hey, Sami, Movee! It's a Soul Reaper, and it's right there!"
He barely completed the warning before the moonlight momentarily broke through the canopy, falling directly onto the creature's face, a horrifying flash of scales and predatory eyes. At that precise moment, the monster fired a laser beam straight into the pit where they huddled. Sami reacted with the agility of pure terror, leaping hard and fast to the right. Nitsuki threw himself desperately to the left. The laser sliced the air where they had been resting seconds earlier, vaporizing the rock and earth in a searing display of power.
"Damn it," Sami hissed, scrambling back to her feet, her salvaged armor scraping against the stone. "What should we do now? We're trapped."
"I... I don't know!" Nitsuki stammered, the paralysis of fear creeping back into his limbs. His survival mechanism was overwhelmed by the sheer, repeated terror of the last few hours.
He began shaking uncontrollably. The sight of his own hands trembling violently, the involuntary shuddering of his legs—it was a betrayal. Why am I even shaking? he thought, his internal voice a high, thin panic. He was physically fit, but this monster represented a threat beyond the scope of human experience. His vision started to blur badly, the tunnel vision of impending shock threatening to consume him.
He lifted his gaze from his useless, shaking hands and looked forward. Through the swimming haze, he saw the horrific culmination of his fear: the Soul Reaper had grabbed Sami. It held her suspended in the air, its focus absolute, staring straight into her eyes, actively drawing out her life essence. The creature's grip was immense, causing the salvaged metal plates of Sami's armor to bend and crack, then shatter entirely under the pressure. Sami slashed wildly at the monster's thick arm with her sword, the blade scoring the tough hide but failing to release its death grip.
"Leave me alone! Ugh!" Sami cried out, struggling against the inevitable.
"No, no, no, no!!!" Nitsuki screamed, the sight of his closest friend—his last connection to his old life, his 'second family'—about to be extinguished, ripped through his paralysis. The raw, desperate surge of love and loss instantly burned away his fear, his exhaustion, and the trembling in his limbs.
He didn't think about his broken arm or his lack of Phore. He simply acted. With a primal yell, Nitsuki instantly rushed forward, sword raised, and delivered a desperate, powerful slash against the Soul Reaper's enormous, grasping arm, severing the limb completely at the elbow joint.
The creature roared, its yellow eyes wide with surprise and pain.
"I won't let you take my second family away from me," Nitsuki vowed, his voice tight with a ferocious, righteous anger. "Even if it costs my life, I will protect my precious people."
Freed from the grip, Sami fell heavily to the ground. Nitsuki was at her side instantly, helping her back onto her feet.
"Get up, get up…" he urged, scanning the wounded monster. "And stay behind me. I will protect you. Your armor is broken; you're exposed."
"Thanks…" Sami whispered, leaning on him, her breath ragged.
But the Soul Reaper was not defeated. It roared with renewed, agonizing fury, channeling its immense power into another massive pressure wave of wind. The force slammed into them both, sending Nitsuki and Sami tumbling and spinning high into the air.
"Heyyy, just grab me!" Nitsuki yelled, spinning in mid-air, desperately searching for Sami.
He found her, grabbed her tightly, and pulled her in front of his body, twisting so that his back would take the brunt of the impact. They slammed hard into a fractured wall of earth and stone, the collision shattering the remaining pieces of Nitsuki's own armor.
"Ouch!!" Nitsuki groaned, collapsing to the ground, his body aching from the strain of his protective action. But they were alive.
Sami quickly stood up and helped Nitsuki get back on his feet. "Now how are we going to defeat this Soul Reaper?" she asked, her voice vibrating with fear and determination.
"I don't know," Nitsuki admitted, staring down the creature, which was already showing signs of regenerating its severed arm. "But we have to. We don't have the luxury of giving up."
The Soul Reaper was advancing toward them again, its terrifying, creepy look promising a slow, painful end. Just as it closed the distance, a massive, echoing explosion ripped through the air outside the pit. The shockwave and light—Kento's final, devastating blast—blew the Soul Reaper off its feet, sending it tumbling violently out of the immediate area.
"What was that sound?" Sami asked, eyes wide with astonishment at the power of the external event. "It feels like something huge just happened outside. It truly felt like it had turned into daytime."
"I thought the same," Nitsuki concurred, a wave of profound worry washing over him. "Are they fine? Takashi and Kento! That blast was enormous."
"I don't think so," Nitsuki replied, his voice laced with dread.
"Should we go out?" Sami asked, desperate for some direction.
"Let's go outside," Nitsuki decided, gripping his sword tight. "Staying here like this won't change anything. We have to do something. If they are in trouble, we need to know."
They left the protective cover of the pit. Sami climbed out first, and the moment she looked ahead, she stopped, her breath catching in her throat, her face draining of color.
"Holy shit!! Nitsuki, come out fast!!"
Nitsuki grabbed the hand she offered and scrambled up onto the forest floor. Once standing, the situation became terrifyingly clear. Takashi was visible a short distance away, supporting the utterly limp, unconscious body of Kento in his arms.
"Look at Takashi," Sami noted, pointing, her mind struggling to process the scene. "He looks extremely stressed and exhausted. He's at his limit."
"Yeah, and Kento is lying unconscious in his arms!" Nitsuki added, his heart sinking with a terrible finality. "What has happened?"
Nitsuki's eyes, now sharpened by his recent survival experience, scanned the periphery of the destroyed jungle. He immediately noticed the massive, heat-radiating shapes moving through the smoke-filled air.
"S…Sa…Sami!" Nitsuki stammered, pointing with a shaking hand toward the giants. "Takashi is in grave danger! Look around him. There are five more 3rd-grade Soul Reapers converging on their position!"
"Damn…" Sami breathed, her face pale with mounting horror. "In this situation, how is he going to fight? He can barely stand, and he has to carry Kento!"
"Let's go!! We have to save hi—" Nitsuki started to charge forward, pure, self-sacrificing loyalty driving him.
At that crucial moment, Sami acted with the cold, hard logic of a survivor. She slapped her hand firmly over Nitsuki's mouth, physically halting his charge.
"Look, Nitsuki," she said, her voice low and firm, forcing him to meet her gaze. "We don't have any power right now. If we try to save Takashi now, we'll die—and it'll be even harder for him. We would only be a distraction, a burden he has to protect while carrying Kento against five monsters!"
She removed her hand, forcing him to face the painful reality, even as tears blurred her own eyes. "The only logical choice we have is to escape from here, find that meteor, achieve our powers, and then come back to help Takashi! That is the only way to ensure both our survival and his ultimate rescue."
"Bu…but! Takashi!!" Nitsuki protested, panic seizing his throat. The idea of leaving his friend was agony.
"Just understand, Nitsuki," Sami said, her voice stern and final. "Don't be that dumb! We have to survive, for the sake of the plan! We cannot let his sacrifice be in vain."
"Sigh… As you wish," Nitsuki finally conceded, his face a mask of frustration and profound anguish. The decision felt like a profound betrayal, but the cold, hard logic of Sami's argument was undeniable.
They turned their backs on their endangered friend and ran, fleeing in the opposite direction, toward the presumed impact site where the meteor lay—their only chance for Phore.
The scene shifted back to Takashi. He stood alone in the devastation, holding the unconscious Kento tightly, surrounded by the terrifying shapes of five 3rd-grade Soul Reapers. The sheer scale of the challenge was paralyzing.
"Ohh. So there are five more 3rd-grade Soul Reapers," Takashi muttered, his face grim with stress and the agonizing exhaustion eating away at his Phore reserves. The combined heat radiating from the five creatures was suffocating, making the air thick and painful to breathe. "I have to beat them and save Kento at the same time. How will I do this? I cannot leave him. He is the key to all this."
Then, the Soul Reapers began their coordinated attack. Thick, poisonous smoke and intense heat started filling the area rapidly, signaling the imminent assault of fireballs and concentrated blasts.
"Sigh… They leave me no choice," Takashi whispered, his mind racing through calculations he had no time to execute. "I have to act right now." He knew any second of delay meant immolation.
In a moment of desperate necessity, Takashi tore off his already tattered shirt and used the durable cloth to wrap Kento tightly against his back, securing him like a backpack. His hands trembled not from fear, but from the immense exertion required to channel his depleted Phore. Suddenly, brilliant yellow lines of Phore energy began to glow on Takashi's skin, spreading all over his body, intensifying his Speed Phore to an extreme, suicidal degree. He took a single, deep, focused breath, settling his mind against the wave of panic.
At that moment, a massive fireball came hurtling toward him. Just by drawing that single breath, Takashi began moving at an incomprehensibly high speed—a blinding flash of yellow. He dodged six or seven fireballs in less than a second, moving like a particle accelerator through the smoke. At one point, he saw a tall, relatively unbroken tree ahead. Without wasting any time, he leaped onto the trunk, climbed it in a single, fluid motion, and then began jumping laterally from tree to tree, flying through the ruined canopy, finally moving out of the immediate, suffocating range of the smoke.
Suspended high above the deadly fog and the heat, Takashi clung to a precarious branch, looking down, his face etched with profound worry.
"Shit!!" he whispered, his body already protesting the extreme Phore use. "Almost the entire area is covered by this smoke. Is Nitsuki and Sami fine? I don't know. I hope they made the rational choice." He sent a silent, desperate thought out into the void. "Guys, don't die. Just wait for me. I will kill all of them."
Immediately, Takashi tightened his hold on Kento even more, bracing himself for the onslaught. An intense surge of fresh, almost painful energy coursed through him, a final, forced reservoir of Phore he hadn't known he possessed. His eyes narrowed, blazing with defiance. The most impossible fight of his life, a testament to his sheer will, was about to begin.