The fierce battle had caught the attention of someone else. Miso, the journalist from the school had followed them. "It's complete chaos going on, and i'm getting every last piece!"
She runs into the building. "Oh mystery boy, what is all of this?!"
The ground split open beneath Kaito's feet.
He barely leapt clear as Renji's fist drove into the floor like a wrecking ball, sending shards of stone flying. Shockwaves ripped through the marble, cracking the hall from end to end. Kaito rolled, sprang to his feet, but Renji was already there.
A blur of violet. A punch to the gut.
The air left Kaito's lungs. He folded over Renji's fist, eyes wide, then flew backward and slammed into a broken pillar.
"Kaito!" Nyla cried out, struggling to crawl toward him. Her voice shook with panic, her arms trembling from the earlier fight.
Kaito hit the ground hard. Groaned. Everything hurt.
Renji didn't let up.
He was on him again, faster than before. Kaito tried to block, but it was like catching falling stars with bare hands. A hammer blow slammed across his jaw. Then a brutal kick to the ribs. Kaito flew again, barely catching himself on one knee as blood hit the floor.
"You're disappointing me," Renji said, voice even, calm, like he was talking about the weather. "I expected more from someone who talks so much."
Kaito coughed hard, tried to steady his vision. "You talk plenty for both of us…"
Renji didn't smile this time. He just moved.
And Kaito was barely there.
He ducked, twisted, took a grazing blow across his shoulder that nearly tore his jacket clean off. Another punch cracked the wall behind him as he dove away. Renji was hunting him like a predator, merciless.
This wasn't a fight anymore. It was survival.
Nyla's voice rang again, softer this time. "Please… get up…"
Kaito braced himself against a broken support beam. His arms were shaking now. His legs felt like lead. He couldn't keep this up.
Renji tilted his head, eyes glowing. "This is what I meant, back at the valley. You still don't get it, do you?"
He stepped forward through the dust, one hand crackling with enhancement magic.
"In this world," he said, "power decides truth. Justice, morality, right and wrong… that's all fantasy. The strong write the rules. The rest of us either bow or break."
He raised his hand, palm glowing. "And I've already made my choice."
"The only reason, YOU, a KAYA are a villain, is because the people in power choose for you to be there."
The screen above them flickered on.
The battlefield filled the image: the Empire's golden armor on one side, the Coalition's jagged banners on the other. Thousands of soldiers marching toward one another. Lines drawn. Spells charged.
Nyla stared, eyes wide in horror. "They're too late…"
But before the armies clashed, a figure ran between them. Coat billowing. Blonde hair catching the wind.
Jack.
He screamed to be heard, arms outstretched.
"You're pointing your weapons in the wrong direction!"
"The empire didn't attack you, none of us did! This war is built on a lie!"
The armies paused. Not because they believed him. But because he refused to back down.'
"My name is Jack Reitz, Empire student, second year, I stand for the empire and the power of all the people in the world! I won't faulter, i wont shake, I wont move! I beg PLEASE halt this war for but a day!" He shouts.
A general steps up, the commissioner of the school. "Do we not see the boys stance?!" He yells. "We shall hold off for now, one day is all he gets, for I do not see a mere student but a soldier!?" He yells, Jack's unshakable stance never faulting.
Renji watched the screen, confused. "No. That's not… what's supposed to happen?"
Kaito slowly stood.
And smiled.
Nyla smiled brightly, as if knowing what comes next.
"You shouldn't have dragged my friends into this," he said, voice low.
Something shifted.
A hum. A pulse. A flare of heat inside his chest, deep and ancient and alive.
What swirled around him, he could see and feel it, his eternal Elara, he reached and grasped it in his hand.
He opened his hand, and fire sparked in his palm.
A gust of wind curled around his legs. His breath came cooler now, visible in the air as frost rimmed his sleeves. The world slowed. Every heartbeat rang like thunder in his ears.
For the first time in his life, when he called, it wasn't random, he was feeling it, the magic answered.
Renji took a step back. "What…"
Kaito's voice grew stronger. "Nanami. Rika. Dante. Toni. I know you're all there. I know you're fighting."
From every corner of the guild hall, his voice reached them.
He looked past Renji, past the chaos and smoke and shattered stone.
"I know it hurts. I know you're tired. But listen to me."
His aura ignited. Fire, wind, ice, and as he reached forward, enhancement surged into him, fusing in a swirl of impossible color.
"These people we're fighting? They're not better than us. They're not stronger than us."
The floor cracked beneath his feet. Debris began to float in the air.
"They're just in our way."
He lowered his stance. Magic danced across his arms. Power poured from every limb.
"And you know what we do to people who stand in our way?" Kaito looked smiling now.
He exploded forward, magic roaring around him.
"We run straight through them!"