Kazuki’s breath caught in his throat.

  The sky around him twisted violently as Kairyuuha emerged from the smoke—not just glowing, but transformed.

  “Demon Arts; Phase 4 – Dragonic Infusion.”

  His voice echoed like thunder across the heavens.

  Kazuki’s eyes widened.

  Kairyuuha's body shimmered as demonic energy surged around him, collapsing and reshaping. His arms thickened, layered with glowing, obsidian-blue scales. Clawed fingers extended like blades, razor-sharp and dripping with violet sparks. From the right side of his forehead, a curved black horn twisted out, pulsing with dark light. His wings—once tattered remnants—now unfolded wide and regal, shaped like a seraph, yet forged in chaos.

  He exhaled slowly… and from his mouth spilled a stream of blue flame, ethereal and alive.

  The infernal heat radiating from it scorched the air, and Kazuki staggered back, hand to his chest as the oppressive aura pressed down like a mountain. Every instinct screamed to flee.

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  His vision blurred.

  His breathing slowed.

  “W-What is this…” he muttered. “Why does it feel so familiar?”

  As the flames danced before him, Kazuki’s mind wavered—

  —and then snapped back to the past.

  Visions. Faint flickers.

  A younger Kairyuuha—laughing at a dragon statue.

  Training beside him, mimicking a dragon’s roar.

  “I’ll become strong like them someday,” Kairyuuha once said, eyes burning with childlike pride.

  Kazuki’s heart tightened.

  These weren’t just memories—they were his.

  Before the seal.

  Before time, and betrayal, and pain.

  “I remember now,” Kazuki whispered. “You loved dragons… You wanted to become one.”

  His fists clenched, red aura simmering like magma.

  “But you’ve become something twisted, Kairyuuha. And I won’t let it stay this way.”

  Kairyuuha's draconic eyes narrowed.

  Without warning, he swung his claws, each motion slicing the atmosphere and leaving crescent waves of blue fire. Kazuki flipped back, evading the strikes—but the heat trailed him, singing his robes.

  A fourth slash came.

  Then a fifth.

  Then seven more in rapid succession, each one howling like a dragon's cry.

  Kazuki vanished.

  In a flash of crimson, he reappeared near Kairyuuha and struck with a spinning kick—only for Kairyuuha to vanish just as quickly.

  A crack of thunder followed.

  Then silence.

  Only light streaks tore the sky apart—flashes too fast for any mortal eye to follow.

  Every time they collided, rings of pressure exploded, bending clouds, and shattering the upper atmosphere like glass. Fire and red lightning mingled. The scent of ozone and ash choked the skies.

  “To fight a beast... I must become a hunter,” Kazuki muttered.

  He leaned forward, teleporting mid-air, dashing and weaving, trying to get behind Kairyuuha.

  But Kairyuuha was already there—a dark blur with eyes glowing like twin stars, aura spiraling like a maelstrom.

  Their battle blurred into the chaos above.

  Below, the heavens shook.

  Waves of energy spiraled across the battlefield.

  Mortals looked skyward, witnessing gods in motion.

  The flame-roars of Kairyuuha.

  The battle-cries of Kazuki.

  Two destinies, colliding in fire and fury.