Consciousness returned to Nero not with a jolt, but as a slow, painful tide. He found himself in a featureless void, a realm of oppressive nothingness. A man stood before him, his expression one of bored arrogance.
"Greetings. Comfortable?" the man asked, his voice echoing in the emptiness. "We can't have you ruining our plans so easily. My name is Alexius. And this place... you can call it Tartarus for Gate Users. A prison. But don't worry, you're our special guest. We can't let you go so easily."
Nero struggled against invisible bonds. "Who are you people? This place..."
"Don't think too hard. Even for Obsidian, it would take time to reach here. He's currently busy in high council meetings, including our lord, Aekai. By the time he's free, our plan will have already succeeded. You'll be released then. Until then... enjoy your stay."
///
On Earth, the news of Nero's disintegration reached Sugeto and General Blaze.
"He... he turned to ash!" Sugeto stammered, his voice cracking.
Blaze's face was a mask of grim denial. "No. He can't die. Not like that. Gate Users are not immortal, but they can recreate their bodies until their true life span ends. His soul has been locked away somewhere."
"We have to do something! Toki and Seino have vanished too!"
Blaze's fists clenched. "Hmmmm."
///
Toki awoke to a nightmarish landscape—a sterile, artificial plane. A man with a detached air addressed him.
"I could leave without an explanation, but that would be unfair. I dislike unfairness," the man said. "I am Berro. You are in a private dimension of my creation. There are thirteen floors. Clear each one of its monsters, and you may return home. It's a deal. I won't go back on my word."
Toki glared, his spirit defiant. "You power-crazed bastard... What do you take me for? An entertaining clown?"
"What if I don't succeed?" Toki challenged.
Berro's smile was cold. "Then happily die here."
'Damn you,' Toki thought, a fire igniting in his heart. 'I swear, if I get out of here alive, I will kill you first.'
///
Seino's predicament was even more dire. He was dumped into a plane teeming with monsters, their hungry eyes fixed on him. He was no warrior. As they lunged, he squeezed his eyes shut, awaiting the end.
But it never came.
A brilliant, geometric light erupted from the intricate tattoos on his skin, forming an impenetrable barrier around him. The monsters' attacks shattered harmlessly against it.
'What... what is this?' Seino thought, trembling. 'These patterns... they've been on my body since I was a child.' He remembered an S-Rank break years ago, where a monster's nuclear breath had failed to scratch him. This was a technology far beyond this world.
///
When Mr. Yu received the news of Nero's capture, a silence colder than the void fell over him. Then, his rage ignited, a silent supernova of intent.
On the battlefield, the situation was dire. With Nero, Toki, and Seino gone, the remaining team was pushed to their limits. Sugeto and the hunters fought the unending monster hordes. General Blaze, his holy magic a beacon against the re-emerged dark entities, held the line Nero had briefly sealed. The Calamity of Thunder clashed with Vapi, each of the prince's blows feeling like a cataclysm.
And Vapi was still holding back.
///
Back in the prison dimension, Nero was on the verge of collapse. Artificial Gate Users assailed him relentlessly, their borrowed power effective against his soul form. He was purely on the defensive, his spiritual energy flickering like a dying candle. If it dissipated, he would dissolve into nothingness.
"Don't worry," one of his captors sneered. "We'll end it with this!"
As the final, collective attack descended, Nero braced for the end.
It never landed.
In the blink of an eye, every single Gate User surrounding him was annihilated, erased from existence. Nero looked up to see a familiar, furious figure.
Mr. Yu stood there, his usually calm eyes burning. "Sorry I'm late, brother."
"How... how did you find me?" Nero gasped.
Mr. Yu offered a faint, pained smile. "Brother's instinct."
With a touch, Nero's soul was instantly restored, the energy flooding back into him.
Alexius, who had been observing, paled. "Y-Yu... Don't interrupt Heaven's order!"
"Fuck off, you trash," Mr. Yu replied, his voice dripping with contempt. "Before I kill you."
Sweat poured down Alexius's face. 'I have to buy time... Even as a Fifth Gate User, Yu is a monster who can slaughter an entire squad of us. I never thought I'd have to face him.'
"Be ready, Nero," Mr. Yu said, not taking his eyes off Alexius. "We depart in ten minutes."
///
In Seino's prison, a Gate User finally broke through his faltering barrier. The man grabbed the injured, bleeding boy by the throat. "It's over, kid."
As consciousness faded, the patterns on Seino's body glowed with a final, desperate intensity.
[Host is unconscious. Initiating Cosmo Hunter Analog.]
Seino's eyes snapped open, but they were no longer his. They glowed with the same cold, geometric light. He caught the Gate User's wrist with impossible strength.
"Excuse me?" a new, calm, and utterly alien voice spoke through Seino's lips.
A loud, tech-charged gunshot echoed. The Gate User fell, a hole clean through his head.
More arrived. They only heard screams. When a Third Gate User came to investigate, he found a battlefield of corpses and Seino standing calmly amidst them, a glowing, high-tech pistol in his hand.
"Was that their best?" the entity controlling Seino mused. "How embarrassing."
The Gate User called for reinforcements. Multiple Third Gate Users appeared.
Seino's lips curled into a smirk. "Rita. Analyze opponents."
A smooth, AI voice responded in his mind. [Analyzing. Database contains complete information on Gates 1 through 6. Current power level sufficient to obliterate users up to Gate 5.]
"This is going to be fun," the entity said.
///
Toki was losing. He had cleared floor after floor, but fatigue was a chain around his soul. He lay broken, on the verge of giving up.
'I'm too weak... I'm not like Nero...'
A voice, warm and familiar, echoed in his mind. 'Yes, you can. The greatest strength comes from your will. That friend of yours, Nero, uses the same strategy. The power of your will. Once you believe, you are unstoppable. Now wake up, and slaughter the evil.'
Toki's heart hammered against his ribs. He opened his eyes, a new resolve burning within.
His enemies mocked him. "Let's burn him alive and take that bow!"
But Toki just smiled. "For a moment, I saw my grandfather... the one who taught me archery. I wonder if it was a dream. I really miss you."
He fought with renewed fury, a one-man army, until Berro himself intervened. The Fifth Gate User shattered Toki's arm with a casual blow and snatched the legendary bow, Light, from his grasp.
"Enough of this kitty fight," Berro scoffed, turning to leave. "Kill him. I'm taking the bow."
Toki's laugh stopped him. "It seems you fear the power of this bow."
Berro froze. "Nonsense! I am a divine entity! I fear nothing!"
Toki struggled to his feet, grabbing a nearby wooden stick. "Is that so?" He spoke the command. "Light, now it's your turn to shine."
The stick in his hand transformed, glowing with the divine radiance of the Gandiv bow. The fake in Berro's hand crumbled to dust. As the bow returned, Toki's body healed at a miraculous rate. He nocked an arrow, and the energy that gathered was terrifying.
He saw the image of his grandfather, guiding his hands. "Release it."
Berro erected his strongest shield, but it was like paper. "This is... 40% of the bow's power?!" he screamed before the attack consumed him.
The energy wave didn't stop. It obliterated the thirteen floors, countless Gate Users, and one of Berro's arms. It tore through the prison dimension, out into space, vaporizing the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn before finally dissipating at Neptune.
///
On Earth, everyone felt the cataclysmic shockwave. The injured Berro fell from a rift in the sky, crashing to the ground. The battle halted as all eyes turned to him.
Vapi rushed to his side. "Friend, are you okay? Who did this to you?"
Then, Toki emerged from the same rift. He was transformed, hovering on wings of pure energy, his aura blazing. "It was me. And you're next."
Berro, bleeding and enraged, cast a spell on Vapi. "Be ready for what comes next!" A dark, monstrous aura erupted from Vapi, breaking a seal on his true power.
'I can't use my full power on this planet... by law,' Berro thought, seething. 'Those ancient weapons... they're our natural predators. Otherwise, that brat would be dead! But once Vapi causes enough destruction, the law will no longer protect this world. Then, I will return and give you a painful death.'
"Good luck, everybody!" Berro vanished.
Vapi had transformed into a true monster, his form radiating apocalyptic power. With a wave of his hand, he summoned the full, terrifying army of his home planet. "Now, I will let you re-experience the legendary Gate break!"
///
Meanwhile, Seino—or the entity piloting his body—faced his own Fifth Gate User, Oran.
"Impressive. You slaughtered them all without breaking a sweat," Oran said. "But it's not you, is it? Who are you?"
The entity raised its tech-blade. "How to explain? You may refer to me as... a Ghost from Cosmo Paradise."
The name sent a primal fear through Oran. 'Cosmo Paradise... the civilization even Lord Aekai failed to conquer! The one that decimated our ranks!'
Seino sliced through Oran's private dimension, and their battle spilled out into real space above Earth.
///
In the prison dimension, Mr. Yu and Nero fought back-to-back against a swarm of Gate Users. "Yu, you can protect yourself, but not him!" they taunted.
Nero felt his energy waning again. But then, he felt it—two heavy, karmic chains that had long bound him suddenly snap. One from Toki, purified by the Gandiv bow. The other from Seino, severed by the alien technology.
The condition was met.
Nero froze, his body going rigid.
"Brother? What's happening?" Mr. Yu called out, concerned.
Then, the very fabric of the prison began to oscillate. A tremendous, dense energy erupted from Nero's soul, a shockwave of pure power that vaporized the weaker Gate Users and sent the stronger ones reeling.
A Fourth Gate User stared in horror. "This... this is the awakening of a Dual Gate User! This power level... it's near the Fifth Gate! The difference between a normal user and a Dual Gate is this vast?!"
Nero's eyes opened, blazing with cosmic blue and hellish red light. He moved, and a Third Gate User was obliterated in a single, casual blow.
Mr. Yu could only watch in disbelief. "He just awakened... and he's already this powerful?"
Opening a stable portal, Mr. Yu nodded to Nero. "Go. Your world needs you."
"What about you?"
"Consider this our farewell. I have business here. Hope we meet again."
Nero clasped his brother's shoulder. "Take care. See ya." He stepped through the portal.
As he traveled at impossible speeds, he realized the truth. Eri's voice echoed in his mind, amused. "You know, you were locked in the largest black hole in this universe. A nice prison, but it can't hold those above Gate 5."
Nero grinned, a plan forming. "Hmmm. I have an idea."
On Earth, Toki, Blaze, Sugeto, and the few remaining hunters stood together, facing down the fully unleashed Vapi and his galactic army. They were on the brink of annihilation.
The chapter closed as a new portal ripped open in the sky above the battlefield, and Nero descended, his power a blazing sun against the dark tide, his voice echoing with the authority of two worlds.
"I'm back."