"When two reflections share one destiny, the veil between them does not protect, it prepares."
───────────────────────────
For the Preservation of Equilibrium and Survival
Location: Kasanaan - The Land of the Dead
The Land of the Dead stretched infinitely, an expanse of shifting twilight where the sky bore no sun and the ground cast no shadows. In this realm, power did not roar; it merely observed.
Sitan stood at the heart of a floating platform composed of black stone.
Opposite him, Dian Alintana maintained her composure, her hands tucked within her sleeves.
Laon stood with arms crossed, silent yet attentive, while Mandayog leaned against a fractured pillar of light, his expression inscrutable.
Sitan spoke first.
"The Cloaking Veil."
Dian inclined her head slightly. "It remains intact."
"For how long?" Sitan inquired.
"For now," she replied. "It prevents the Other Gregorio from detecting Kristel directly. Her presence is refracted and displaced in pattern."
Laon's voice was steady. "But it is not erased."
Dian did not contest this. "He will scrutinize it. He will test it. Once he comprehends its structure, he will dismantle it."
"Time, then," Mandayog murmured. "That is what you have secured."
"Yes."
Sitan directed his gaze outward, toward a horizon invisible to the others.
"Kristel is not merely shielded," he asserted. "She is essential."
Laon nodded in agreement. "Our Gregorio cannot confront his counterpart alone,"
Sitan continued. "Power alone will prove insufficient. Force will not suffice."
Dian grasped the implication first.
Sitan elaborated, "Bathala creates nothing without a counterbalance. He prioritizes equilibrium above all."
Mandayog exhaled slowly. "Then the two must unite in their struggle."
"Yes," Sitan affirmed. "Their alignment is crucial."
Laon straightened. "And if the veil collapses before they are prepared?"
"Then they will confront him unready," Sitan replied evenly. "This is why we cannot delay."
His gaze shifted to Dian. "You will notify Maximo."
Dian nodded once.
Sitan added, "He is vital to the preservation of balance as well."
Mandayog tilted his head. "And our role?"
"We prepare," Sitan stated. "When the confrontation arises, we will support our Gregorio in vanquishing the other."
The platform trembled faintly.
The meeting concluded without ceremony.
Kasanaan returned to stillness.
───────────────────────────
Brief Silence Amidst the Rumbles
Location: Sandata Safe House, Binan Laguna
The house appeared unremarkable from the outside—a two-story structure enclosed by high walls on a quiet street, devoid of any unusual markings.
Inside, layered Myth-Tech systems manipulated perception and obscured arcane signatures. Anyone searching through ritual or resonance would find nothing amiss.
Gregorio stepped through the door.
Kristel was already waiting. "You're late," she remarked lightly.
"Traffic," he replied.
She smiled, though it quickly faded.
"I sensed something," she said.
Gregorio paused. "Hmmm?"
"When the sky fell silent."
He stepped closer. "The lunar manifestation."
She nodded. "It wasn't merely power," she said slowly. "It felt… familiar."
Gregorio frowned. "Why would you feel it?"
"I don't know."
She appeared frustrated—not frightened, but unsettled.
"It was akin to hearing your name called from across a crowded room," she added. "You can't see who called you, but you know it was meant for you."
Gregorio took a moment before responding.
They sat across from each other.
For a while, their conversation revolved around the trivialities of daily life, including Agosto's corny dad jokes, Renato's questionable dancing, and Marian's fervent admiration for K-Pop idols. They also discussed Gregorio's activities between missions, the strengthening bonds of friendship within the Sandata team, the repairs initiated after the storm, and the profound silence that followed.
They shared a laugh.
Time passed more swiftly than either anticipated.
Eventually, Gregorio rose.
"I need to return to base."
Kristel nodded, masking her disappointment with understanding.
As he moved toward the door, a sudden knock echoed through the room.
Gregorio's demeanor shifted to one of seriousness as he peered through the peephole.
"It's me, Maximo," came the voice from outside.
Gregorio opened the door, and Maximo entered with calm composure.
"Good evening," he said.
Kristel inclined her head politely. "Maximo."
Gregorio studied him. "Is something wrong?"
Maximo's expression remained neutral.
"May we speak?"
Gregorio glanced at Kristel, then back at Maximo.
"Outside," Maximo added gently.
Kristel watched as the two men stepped beyond the threshold.
The cloaking systems hummed quietly.
And far beyond Laguna, something began to search.
───────────────────────────
Threshold of Betrayal
Location: Sandata Safehouse site, Binan, Laguna
The night air outside the Sandata Safe House felt ordinary.
Gregorio stepped past the edge of the cloaking field. The subtle pressure against his skin faded as he crossed the Veil's threshold.
Maximo stood a few steps ahead, hands folded behind his back, posture calm.
"Speak," Gregorio said quietly.
Maximo did not answer immediately.
The Eye of Bathala on Gregorio's shoulders flared. A pulse of violet heat spread across his spine.
Not Maximo.
The realization arrived without emotion. Only clarity.
Gregorio's gaze sharpened. The figure before him still wore Maximo's face, still carried his voice, still held his measured composure.
But the presence was wrong.
Hollow.
Calculated.
Gregorio did not look at him again.
He glanced back toward the safe house.
The front door had been forced open.
Anino conventional units moved with ruthless efficiency, dragging Kristel down the steps. She struggled, her movements restrained by shock cuffs glowing faintly around her wrists.
Gregorio's breath tightened.
The cloaking systems flickered as if in protest.
He turned back slowly.
The false Maximo smiled faintly.
The illusion dissolved.
Skin shifted. Height adjusted. Features sharpened into something colder.
Kuroda Jinzaburo stood before him.
The Muramasa at his waist pulsed with a dark crimson glow, as if tasting the air.
"You noticed," Kuroda said.
Gregorio did not respond.
Behind him, engines roared.
Engineered Anino units descended the street on black hover bikes, their armor angular and reinforced. They formed a perimeter in fluid motion, cutting off every exit.
Above them, support units took position across rooftops. Myth-Tech rifles ignited in synchronized sequence, their barrels humming with condensed energy.
Red targeting lines converged on Gregorio's chest.
Across the street, the conventional unit forced Kristel toward a black armored truck.
The rear doors were already open.
She fought.
She called his name.
The sound cut deeper than any blade.
Gregorio stepped forward.
The world narrowed.
One objective.
The truck.
The Eye of Bathala burned brighter.
The Kamay ni Bathala erupted with a fierce violet energy during its activation phase, causing Gregorio's sleeves to be torn asunder, thereby revealing the true form of the Sandata.
He lowered his center of gravity.
Kisapmata.
Time did not slow.
It sharpened.
He could see the tremor in a rifleman's trigger finger. The rotation of a hover bike turbine. The flicker of doubt in a conventional soldier's eyes.
He was about to move.
Kuroda vanished.
A flash step.
He reappeared between Gregorio and the armored truck, Muramasa drawn in one smooth motion. The blade screamed as it cleared its sheath, crimson light staining the pavement.
"You will not pass," Kuroda said.
Behind him, the truck doors slammed shut.
The engine roared to life.
Gregorio's jaw tightened.
The rifles charged to full output.
Hover bikes adjusted formation.
Kristel was inside the vehicle.
Distance increasing.
Gregorio remained in Kisapmata stance.
Kuroda shifted his footing, blade angled forward, aura rising like dark crimson flame.
Two warriors stood between a heartbeat and a massacre.
No words followed.
Only intent.
And then the night held its breath.
───────────────────────────
Shock Against Crimson
Location: Sandata Safehouse, Binan, Laguna
Muramasa pulsed in Kuroda's grip, casting dark crimson light across the pavement.
Gregorio stepped forward.
A sharp crack suddenly cleaved the air from the right.
A figure staggered into view from the side street.
Maximo.
His left arm was heavily bleeding, the sleeve shredded from shoulder to forearm. Blood cascaded down to his fingertips, dripping onto the asphalt.
"He ambushed me," Maximo declared, maintaining his composure despite the injury. "He took my blood."
Kuroda's gaze remained fixed on Gregorio.
"Your likeness was convenient," he replied calmly.
Rifles positioned on the rooftops ignited.
Hover bikes screamed as they surged forward.
Kuroda vanished.
He reappeared within striking range, Muramasa carving a vertical arc. A crescent of dark crimson energy tore through the air.
Gregorio performed an afterimage evasion.
The slash wave cleaved the street behind him, slicing through concrete and sending debris skyward.
He reappeared mid-air above Kuroda and drove an elbow downward.
Impact.
The air compressed.
A shockwave detonated upon contact with Kuroda's guard, fracturing the pavement beneath them in a circular pattern.
Kuroda slid back a step.
Three engineered Anino riders closed in. Myth-Tech rifles fired from the perimeter.
Maximo lifted the Sumpit ni Dumalapdap with his uninjured arm and exhaled sharply.
Sonic rounds tore forward.
Rifle beams were intercepted mid-flight, scattering in violent ripples.
A rider lunged at Gregorio, the Sandata blade descending.
Gregorio shifted inside the strike.
He seized the assailant's arm.
A swift hip turn.
A shoulder throw.
The rider was ripped from the hover bike and slammed into the pavement.
Gregorio did not hesitate.
He leapt into action. In mid-air, he executed a rotation, delivering a heel kick to the rider's jaw. The impact resonated loudly, propelling the rider into a closed laundry shop. The wall and glass shattered, sending fragments scattering across the ground.
The hover bike skidded and crashed into a wall.
Another rider approached from behind.
Kuroda advanced to intercept, Muramasa unleashing a narrow crimson wave directed at Gregorio.
Maximo fired a shot at the ground between them.
A sonic charge detonated, sending shockwaves outward.
The hover bike's stabilizers flickered erratically as the blast disrupted its balance.
The rider faltered.
Gregorio executed a flash step above the Anino rider.
He delivered a hammer fist into the rider's temple.
Gregorio followed through.
The rider and his hover bike darted downward like a comet, cratering the ground beneath them.
Kuroda reappeared, thrusting his blade forward in a precise lunge.
Gregorio twisted aside as the tip of Muramasa grazed his shoulder, slicing through fabric and drawing a thin line of blood.
Maximo fired another sonic round.
Kuroda pivoted and sliced through it.
The projectile split in half, detonating harmlessly behind him.
For a moment, all three stood in fractured silence.
Two engineered riders lay defeated.
Two hover bikes remained operational, their engines whining.
An armored truck was already turning the corner at the end of the street.
Gregorio moved first. He mounted the nearest hover bike in one fluid motion.
Maximo, pale yet steady, climbed onto the second, placing both hands on the controls despite his injury.
Then the engines roared.
The hover bikes lifted off the pavement and shot down the street.
Kuroda did not pursue.
He stood amid broken asphalt and crimson light, Muramasa humming in anticipation.
Gregorio glanced back at him once as they sped away. The chase had begun.
───────────────────────────
Skyfall
Location: Laguna Highway
The armored truck accelerated northward along the unfinished Laguna Highway, closely pursued by Gregorio and Maximo, who maintained a distance of several meters behind.
Three Engineered riders provided protection at the rear, while two others patrolled the flanks.
Concrete barriers lined the right side of the road, and to the left, open scaffolding loomed over a steep drop-off.
Maximo took aim and fired.
The sonic round struck the rear-left rider squarely in the back, sending him careening off his bike and across the hood of a moving taxi.
The taxi swerved violently into the barrier, while the hover bike crashed into a light post, snapping it in half.
Sparks rained down onto the road.
Gregorio accelerated down the center lane, when a rider broke formation and charged directly at him.
Gregorio held his ground. Upon entering range, he executed a swift afterimage dash, delivering a powerful punch to the rider's torso.
The impact propelled the rider off his bike, causing him to skid across two lanes of traffic.
The empty hover bike veered to the right, colliding with stacked construction pipes, which then rolled into oncoming vehicles.
Cars collided; glass shattered.
Inside a delivery van, the driver slammed on the brakes, glancing up just in time to see a man land atop a moving truck.
A flaming hover bike then careened past his windshield, prompting him to duck as metal scraped the pavement beside him.
Two riders descended from the overpass ahead at steep angles.
Maximo leaned left and fired a round using the Sumpit ni Dumalapdap.
The sonic blast struck one mid-dive, sending the rider crashing hard through a section of roadside fencing, tearing it apart.
The second rider swooped in from Gregorio's right, blade aimed menacingly at his neck.
Gregorio leaned low to let the blade pass, then executed a flash step upward, coming down with a powerful axe kick.
His heel shattered the hover bike into fragments of twisted metal.
The rider was propelled into the highway shoulder, colliding with orange barricades and skidding into a pile of steel beams.
Gregorio leapt and landed back on his bike just as the armored truck smashed through highway patrol barricades.
Above, the clouds parted ominously.
The Obsidian Wing descended—massive, black, and silent.
Panels beneath its hull opened, releasing four heavy hooks suspended by steel cables that shot downward with force.
The first hook pierced the truck's roof, while the second embedded itself near the rear frame.
The cables tightened instantly, jerking the truck upward as its tires ground against the asphalt.
Gregorio accelerated, shifting into the left lane to avoid a stalled SUV.
He stood on his bike and jumped, landing on the roof of a ten wheeler truck, which buckled under his weight.
Pushing off, he leapt toward the armored truck, managing to grasp the rear edge just as it began to lift off the ground.
The hooks pulled with tremendous force, raising the truck a few meters into the air.
Gregorio hoisted himself up and delivered a forceful punch to the roof, resulting in a cascade of metal debris falling inward.
A violet aura emanated from the Kamay ni Bathala.
With another powerful strike, the opening expanded, revealing Kristel struggling within.
As the truck ascended, Maximo positioned himself within firing range and aimed upward at one of the cables, taking his shot.
The sonic blast struck the steel hook, causing it to snap free and plummet, crushing the hood of an abandoned car.
Three cables remained, and the truck tilted precariously yet continued to ascend.
Another hook tightened and stabilized it, but suddenly, a crimson slash wave cut across from the right.
Gregorio saw it just in time and pushed off the truck, the slash severing one of the remaining cables.
The severed cable whipped downward, slamming into the highway and cracking the asphalt beneath.
With two hooks still attached, the Obsidian Wing adjusted its balance, retracting the cables and pulling the truck upward with increasing speed.
Gregorio fell backward, but Maximo adjusted his position beneath him, allowing Gregorio to land safely on the back of the hover bike.
Maximo steadied the bike and pulled away from the falling debris as the truck was dragged into the open bay of the Obsidian Wing.
The hooks retracted fully, and the bay doors closed, the airship ascending rapidly, ripping loose tarps and scaffolding from below.
Concrete barriers crumbled, and loose metal sheets were lifted into the air, while cars were shoved sideways by the sudden pressure shift.
The Obsidian Wing vanished into the clouds, leaving smoke to drift upward from the wreckage below.
Gregorio and Maximo gradually came to a stop amid the chaos of broken barriers,
overturned vehicles, and scattered debris.
The sky was now empty.