The courtyard burned with chaos. The demon tide slammed against the Kokuryūkai formation, their sheer numbers grinding down the once-iron discipline of the guild.
Takashi roared as he drove his twin spears into the chest of a hulking fiend, pinning it against the wall before twisting both weapons and snapping its spine. The creature fell, dissolving into foul smoke. But another rushed him instantly, claws raking down his arm.
Takashi staggered back, blood streaming from his shoulder. His vision blurred. He grit his teeth, spinning his spear defensively, but his legs buckled. "Tch—dammit…" His knees hit the stone. For the first time, the veteran master bled openly, shadows flickering around him like failing flames.
"Hold the line!" Hikari cried, her ravens scattering into shards of black smoke as another spell collapsed. The betas around her were faltering—two already dragged into the swarm, their screams lost beneath claws and teeth.
"Gammas! Regroup—" But her voice broke as she turned—only half the Gamma squad still stood, their rifles running thin, shadows sluggish, pulling at them like anchors. Fear had begun to poison the ranks.
At the center of it all, Kazuki's scythe carved arcs of death, each swing felling monsters in gory swaths. His every movement was crisp, commanding, undeniable. Yet the weight pressing on him was heavier than the horde.
Because before him stood Hanzo.
The fallen disciple moved with a grace that mocked his old training. Every strike of his corrupted blade carried unnatural weight, shadows recoiling as though they, too, feared his new master.
Kazuki's scythe clashed, sparks exploding in showers of black light. Blow after blow, their shadows screamed and writhed against each other.
"Still you resist?" Hanzo's voice slithered through the noise, sickly and doubled. "Your guild crumbles around you. Look, Kazuki—they are prey waiting to be devoured. All you protect will rot."
Kazuki's jaw clenched, his arms trembling under the clash.
"They're still standing. And as long as they stand… so do I."
Hanzo smirked, twisting his corrupted blade in a sudden flourish that knocked Kazuki's scythe aside, leaving the master open. Kazuki barely evaded, blood spilling from a deep slash across his side.
He exhaled sharply. There was no more time.
"Hikari!" His voice cut through the battlefield, commanding, urgent.
Her head whipped toward him. "Master—!"
"Get Renji. Now."
She froze. "But if I leave—"
"Go!" Kazuki thundered, parrying another strike, his scythe shrieking against Hanzo's weapon. "He is the only one who can turn this tide. If I fall… it must not be in vain!"
Hikari's chest tightened. Her ravens dissolved, and she sprinted through the chaos, carving a path with quick, vicious cuts of her shadow daggers. Demons lunged but she moved like smoke, vanishing and reappearing, determined. She didn't dare look back.
Kazuki pressed harder, scythe flashing in broad arcs, carving demons and holding Hanzo at bay. For every strike Hanzo landed, Kazuki answered with two more, but already the blood loss weighed on him. His movements slowed; his breath hitched.
Hanzo's grin widened.
"You always were the strongest, Kazuki. But strength has limits. And mine has been… rewritten."
He feinted low, scythe meeting scythe—and then, in a blur, Hanzo's other hand conjured a dagger black as tar, a blade born from demon flame.
Kazuki's eyes widened.
The dagger plunged deep into his chest, sliding between his ribs and burying itself in his heart.
The sound—the wet, final gasp—cut through the battle like a bell.
Kazuki's scythe faltered, shadows breaking apart like dust. His knees hit the stone. Blood spilled down his robes, staining them blacker than shadow.
Around him, the Kokuryūkai faltered. Some cried out his name. Others froze in horror.
Hanzo leaned close, whispering into Kazuki's ear as the Guildmaster coughed blood.
"The era of Kokuryūkai dies with you. Shura rises… and no shadow will ever resist him."
With a twist, Hanzo ripped the dagger free, letting Kazuki collapse onto the blood-soaked stones.
For a breath, silence swallowed the courtyard. Even the demons paused, savoring the despair.
Then the horde surged again, and the Kokuryūkai screamed as the battle consumed them.
By the time Renji got to the scene, a wave of devastation had already rippled through Kokuryūkai. " Master Kazuki!!" Hikari screamed her wail echoing the base.
The rest of the guild surviving –as a testament of their iron clad resolve– kept pressing attack despite the fact that their master had been killed even with the fatal injuries they endured.
" It's over, Kokuryūkai is dead" Hikari said, her voice choked with tears. Something in her voice unhinged Renji and yet kept him.
The courtyard seemed to still, even with the screams and tearing of flesh around them. For a heartbeat, despair reigned. Then Renji spoke.
"No," he whispered, voice flat, unearthly. "It's not over yet."
The air warped. Shadows surged as if dragged by a tide, folding into him, fusing with flesh. Veins bulged, muscles knotted, and his cursed eye flared until both burned with abyssal fire.
"Kurogami!!!" The name was less a word than an eruption.
Darkness detonated. A shockwave flattened demons and guild alike. Where Renji had stood was no man at all, but a towering horned demon wrapped in void-black armor, dragging a cleaver so heavy it split stone with each step. His mere presence bent the air—an unholy gravity, pressing the battlefield down.
A shockwave rolled out when the demon that took Renji's place opened it's eyes. That was when Hikari regarded him for the first time. Both eyes were now fully demonic.
" Hikari tell the others to fall back and locate Hanzo" The Demon said it's voice harsh. The demon upon seeing the monstrosity heading towards them trembled.
Renji as the kurogami sped through the chaos at the speed of sound, materializing just beside Hikari before the evidence of his carnage appeared with the dismemberment of the demons.
" Hunter?" Takashi prompted. " Where is Hanzo" The demon inquired. As if on cue an explosion rumbled through the base, their stronghold had been breached.
Kurogami materialized at the spot on impulse in time to see Hanzo absorb the first seal in a surge of power.
Kurogami—stood amidst the wreckage, his cleaver dragging sparks across the stone. The very shadows recoiled from his form, as though ashamed to belong to anything less.
Across the ruined courtyard, Hanzo turned after retrieving the seal –an obsidian stone humming with energy, his eyes glowing a sickly green, face twisted with Shura's malice. For a heartbeat, the old disciple stared at the monster Renji had become.
Kurogami's armor cracked, molten shadow leaking from the seams as Renji's human face flickered through the abyss. His voice, layered with ten others, echoed across the courtyard.
"Hanzo… it's me. Renji. We trained together. We fought side by side. Don't tell me you've forgotten."
For just an instant—just one—Hanzo's blade faltered. His breath hitched, and behind the corruption there was something human. Something haunted.
Then he sneered, burying it under venom.
"Renji is dead. Whatever stands before me is just another demon. And demons burn."
His corrupted blade flared, shadows hissing with Shura's fire.
Kurogami's horns tilted forward, his cleaver rising like a thundercloud. His abyssal eyes locked on Hanzo's, not with hatred, but with something worse—sorrow.
"Then I'll make you remember… even if it means breaking you."
The courtyard erupted. Hanzo surged forward in a blur of corrupted steel, Kurogami answering with a cleaver swing that split the air like a storm. Sparks and shadows collided, shockwaves ripping stone from the ground as the two former brothers crashed into each other—one fighting to erase the past, the other to drag it back from the abyss.