—
Their clash echoed like a drumbeat of war through the city—Hoshiro and Akushiro, two halves of the same soul, colliding under a sky that still bled from the Rift. Every strike between them twisted the air. Time flickered. Reality bent.
Ayame shouted through the distortion. "Kazuki, we need to separate them—if they keep fighting like this, the entire dimension could collapse!"
Kazuki nodded, typing furiously into the Balance console. "I'm initiating an aura split! It'll temporarily separate their energies, but I'll need ten seconds!"
He got four.
Akushiro knocked Hoshiro back with a massive pulse of crimson-black energy, sending him crashing into a crumbling statue of Amaterasu.
"You really don't get it, do you?" Akushiro snarled. "You didn't kill your past. You caged it. And now I'm free."
Hoshiro rose, wiping blood from his jaw. "You're not my past. You're my shadow. You're what I *could've* become if I gave up."
"Exactly," Akushiro grinned. "And maybe that version… is better."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a crimson shard—pulsing with Rift energy.
"Say hello to the *Mirror Core*," he said. "A gift from beyond the veil."
As he slammed it into his chest, his aura erupted—twisting with memories, regrets, rage, and something else… pure potential.
Ayame's eyes widened. "He's fusing with the Rift!"
"Then we stop him," Hoshiro growled, summoning every ounce of energy left in him.
The ground cracked beneath them.
The real battle was only beginning.
—