A cold breeze was blowing sharply into the councillors' private room from the large hole in the wall, along with all kinds of unnerving sounds from the courtyard below. But instead of running, the councillors were huddled around Tanaka, the old man who headed the council.
He was lying on his back, clenching his fists against his chest as he convulsed wildly, but the other councillors could only stand there.
"What do we do?" one of them asked. "We have to get him help or he'll die."
"That's easy for you to say, but are you the one who's going to risk your neck going outside in all this chaos?" another shot back.
"So what do we do?" he asked.
They all turned their heads away, already accepting his fate. When he looked down at Tanaka, he seemed to be getting weaker and was barely conscious.
He almost gave in, too, but then the door was flung open by two guards.
"Are you okay? Is anyone injured?" the elder of the two asked, but they didn't respond. Instead, all their eyes turned to Tanaka.
Seeing his condition, the two immediately walked up to check on him, and from the bleak expression on the elder guard's face, they knew that there wasn't much that could be done.
"How did this happen?" the younger guard asked. "Was it because of the attack?"
"It was," the councillor from before said. "He started convulsing immediately after the attacker was driven outside by that stranger."
"How long has it been?"
"I don't know. Four minutes, maybe five."
"This is bad," the elder guard said. "We have to get him out of here and to a physician quickly. We need to get you all out of here, too."
"But what about him?" one of the councillors asked as his eyes darted outside. "Won't he come after us if we try to escape?"
"I don't know the details of it, but it seems that there's some other guy keeping him busy outside, so this is our best chance."
"But still, this is Kobayashi we're talking about," one of them said before being elbowed into silence.
The councillor who did it said, "We'll cooperate, but tell us the state of things outside first."
"It's pure havoc, sir. Fires are spreading out from the direction of the shrine, and there's widespread chaos. But there's nothing to fear. We'll get you out of here safely," the elder guard said as he lifted Tanaka onto his back. He then instructed his junior to cover their rear as the group exited the room.
Outside, the confrontation between Zeiros and Izumi continued as the two of them leapt back to catch their breath.
Then, in a flash, both of them charged at speeds blinding to the onlooking guards. Zeiros aimed for an upward swing, and Izumi met it, but just like before, the blood smeared on the edge of the axe gave off explosions that propelled it forward, disarming Izumi.
This didn't faze him, though, as he immediately switched to a martial combat stance. With a veil of golden energy around his fists, he delivered consecutive punches to Zeiros's chest that stunned him for a moment and cracked his blood-clot armour.
The impact of the punches disoriented him for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure and swung his axe straight for Izumi's face.
Izumi barely dodged as he did a flip to get away and closer to his sword, which was now lying on the ground. He picked it up and charged again, but this time, he intentionally delayed his pace so that Zeiros's enhanced swing missed him completely, giving him an opening to strike at the newly formed cracks in his armour.
A cloak of red energy enveloped his sword as he swung it, yelling, "Taksho Tenyin!"
The increased propulsion of his swing, along with the power of the energised strike, succeeded in finally breaking through part of his black-blooded armour. However, the armour lessened the strike's impact, and Zeiros immediately moved in for a counterattack with a powerful downward swing that shattered the ground beneath them as Izumi dodged it.
The debris from the ground made him lose sight of Zeiros, and when it cleared, so had Zeiros disappeared. But Izumi wasn't going to be fooled that easily.
Sure enough, Zeiros had blitzed behind him and was getting ready for another enhanced swing. Izumi turned and met it, and then the two of them began exchanging swings, each trying to land a strike but failing.
Soon, the sheer force of Zeiros's swings began to overwhelm Izumi, and he was forced to jump back. As he did, he noticed a glow from Zeiros's chest, indicating that he was trying to repair the part of the clot he had broken.
Before, Zeiros had extended the armour from his limbs and neck to his chest so discreetly that Izumi hadn't recognised it immediately. Now, he was trying to do it again, but this time, Izumi wouldn't let him.
Izumi pointed the index and middle fingers of his left hand at the exposed part of Zeiros's chest, just below his left shoulder, and called out a spell.
"Vanguard series number 2: Shimmering Blaze."
A small septa circle came into view as a pulse of red energy shot toward Zeiros from Izumi's fingers. He tried to block it with the back of his hand, but it was bare, and the pulse shot straight through and into his chest.
Izumi immediately charged and aimed directly for the spot. The sharp pain in Zeiros's chest took away his focus, and he wasn't able to react in time before Izumi broke through his defences and stabbed him right in the chest wound.
Izumi immediately pulled out before Zeiros could counter, but he was still hit at point-blank range by a projectile of energised blood from Zeiros's injured left hand.
It blasted him back, but he managed to regain his balance before Zeiros could make any other moves. Once the smoke from the attack faded, it revealed his crossed arms, which were covered in what seemed like a silver metal, though it was peeling off.
"Is that the Ashura Samurai's inferior version of our blood clotting?" Zeiros asked. "Iron Shell, was it?"
"Who said it's inferior?" Izumi asked amid heavy breaths. "The blood clotting you're so proud of just tore away like it was nothing, so don't go getting cocky."
Even though he put on a brave face, he noticed Zeiros's unbothered expression, and it only made him more tense.
His stamina is insane, he thought, and he isn't even reacting to the wounds on his body. Just how tough is he? And he's unbelievably fast, too.
He gripped his sword tighter as he thought, Should I use it now? Will that give me the edge I need? But I haven't used it in a real fight before.
The last flakes of his Iron Shell fell, and with them came an excruciating pain.
Looks like I have no choice, he thought as he sank back into his stance. As he did, his blade started to turn black, and the strength of his presence intensified.
Zeiros looked at this and thought, So he was holding back after all.
He gripped the handle of his axe harder and covered his wounds in clots as he braced himself for what was to come next. But as he did, he didn't notice the remaining half of his disguise diminishing little by little.