Not a sound came from the building.
But Jabari didn't repeat himself. He simply waited, calm and unmoving, his eyes fixed on the door as if his will alone could drag the truth into the open.
The air around him chilled with every passing second. The very temperature seemed to fall with the weight of his stillness, frost edging into the silence.
Gichinga, who still stood over August, began to shiver – his breath now visible in the cold haze – but didn't dare utter a sound. He felt like a thread away from death, held in place by the quiet fury in Jabari's eyes.
Then-
*Clap. Clap. Clap.*
The sound echoed out as a lone figure finally stepped into view.
"How did you know it was me?" Silver asked softly, his ever-present gentle smile curling his lips like he was greeting an old friend.
"Why are you targeting us?" Jabari replied flatly, ignoring the question entirely.
"Now, now. I asked first," Silver responded, his tone cheerful, as though they were sharing tea rather than standing amidst betrayal, blood, and death.
Jabari didn't answer right away. He simply stared into Silver's silver eyes – bright, reflective, and unsettlingly deep.
"A sixth sense," Jabari said at last, voice cold and even.
The first time he had laid eyes on Silver, something deep within him stirred. His spirit had been too depleted to respond properly, but the remnants of his spiritual energy had reacted – not with hostility, but with resistance. It had been subtle, almost imperceptible. But Jabari, trained in spiritual sensitivity, had felt it – like a breeze pushing against the grain of his soul.
There had been an alien presence trying to slip into his senses. Subtle. Dangerous.
His instincts screamed at him that Silver wasn't what he appeared to be.
"Interesting," Silver murmured, eyes gleaming as he studied Jabari. The boy's silence only fed his curiosity.
"Oh, right, you asked why I'm targeting you," he said, clapping his hands together like he'd remembered something trivial. "I find you – and your 'sixth sense' – interesting."
"That's it?" Jabari asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Do I need more of a reason?" Silver replied sweetly, tilting his head with an almost childlike innocence.
Jabari's stare sharpened, reading every twitch of expression on the boy's face, searching for cracks in the porcelain.
"Why-"
"I believe it's my turn to ask a question," Silver interrupted smoothly, raising a finger with a playful smile.
Jabari fell silent. Arguing with someone like this – someone clearly unhinged – would accomplish nothing. He had to be methodical, measured. Let Silver play his game… for now.
"Excellent!" Silver grinned wide, his eyes lighting up with eerie excitement. "Do you want to be friends?"
Jabari almost stumbled.
Even August – who was bleeding on the ground – and Gichinga, who had until recently been possessed by madness, looked at Silver with expressions of utter disbelief.
"...If I say yes," Jabari asked carefully, "will you call off the beast tide attacking the Institute?"
Even as he spoke the words, they felt surreal. The idea that a teenager no older than him was behind an assault on one of the strongest institutions in all of Ulo…
It was insane.
And yet, somehow, he knew it to be the truth.
"No," Silver replied cheerfully. "But I will if you manage to beat me in a little game."
Jabari's eyes narrowed. "What's the game?"
Silver's silver eyes twinkled. "Don't worry about that just yet. I'll explain the rules after you ask your final question."
He slipped his hands into his pockets and tilted his head again. "Make it a good one."
Jabari hesitated for only a moment, then asked the question that had been weighing on his mind.
"Why didn't you take control of me or August?"
Silver sighed, as though the answer were obvious. "I'm already controlling too many creatures. To do so with August as well is beyond my current limit. The best I could do was nudge his senses, just enough to blind him to Mr. Gichinga's approach."
He glanced apologetically toward August, as if he were regretting not giving a friend a proper warning.
"And what about me?" Jabari pressed.
Silver's eyes returned to his.
"Why ask a question you already know the answer to?" he said gently. "My ability doesn't work on you."
Jabari gave a slow nod. He'd suspected as much. Even in his drained state, something about his Spiritual Essence had shielded him.
"Do you believe me?" Silver asked curiously, his tone devoid of mockery.
"I do," Jabari replied without hesitation.
And he meant it.
Even though a part of him knew he should doubt Silver – should assume the silver-haired teen was lying – Jabari couldn't shake the strange certainty that Silver was telling the truth.
It wasn't logical. It wasn't smart. But it was real.
He's telling the truth…
"The power of friendship is truly incredible," Silver said with delight, as if commenting on the ending of a light-hearted story. "Anyway, back to the rules of the game."
His tone shifted into something almost whimsical.
"You have five minutes from the moment I say 'go' to defeat your two opponents – either by killing them or knocking them out. That part is entirely up to you. But you must be the one left standing. If you win, I'll call off the beast tide. No one else has to die tonight."
Jabari's face remained calm. "And if I lose?"
Silver's smile didn't waver.
"If you lose, August dies. And my beasts…
Well, they'll keep going until there's nothing left. The end."
A long sigh slipped from Jabari's lips. "Why does this feel more like a test than a game between friends?"
Silver gave no answer. Only that same disarming smile.
"So, how about it?" he asked cheerfully, as if offering a child the first turn in a game of checkers.
Jabari glanced back.
August lay on the ground, blood pooling beneath him, yet his expression remained composed. The knife still jutted from his back, but he hadn't made a sound of complaint.
Jabari turned back to Azurian and Danso. Their eyes were still dull, emotionless – puppets waiting for strings to pull.
He looked down at his glaive.
The familiar weapon rested in his hands, its surface glinting with promise. As his fingers tightened around the shaft, something stirred deep within him.
A flicker of warmth.
A pulse of clarity.
He raised his head and met Silver's gaze with a sharp, confident smile.
"Let's play."
Silver clapped once. "Excellent."
That single clap echoed like a gunshot through the clearing.
The game had begun.
Before Azurian or Danso could finish raising their legs, Jabari was already in motion, tearing across the blood-stained field with speed that startled even August.
He ducked beneath Azurian's opening blade, ignoring him completely, and barrelled toward Danso.
It looked reckless. Suicidal, even.
As if insulted by the notion that Jabari would dare challenge his strength head-on, Danso's body flexed. His biceps swelled, his war hammer gleaming in the dim light. With a grunt, he swung with every ounce of his formidable might.
Jabari didn't flinch. He didn't counter. He didn't dodge.
Instead, he braced himself – both hands gripping the shaft of his glaive, positioning it across his chest like a shield. At the last possible second, his feet came to a sudden stop, halting his forward momentum entirely.
It should've been impossible. Not at that speed.
But he wasn't done.
Just as the hammer neared, Jabari jumped back, absorbing the worst of the force. Even so-
*CRACK!*
The impact hurled him backwards through the air like a ragdoll. His arms went numb from the shock, but…
He was smiling.
A grin stretched across his face, wide and wild.
And then, something changed.
The faint trickle of spirit energy he had recovered – so small it had barely been worth noticing – moved. It surged through his veins and into the glaive.
*BOOM!*
The connection between Jabari and his weapon deepened. He could feel it – not as a tool, but as an extension of himself. Every fibre of metal, every groove in the blade – it all pulsed with life.
And then it happened.
A radiant white aura burst from the glaive like a miniature sun, enveloping it in a flickering brilliance. Light danced along its edge, shimmering like fire and wind entwined.
August's eyes widened as he watched from the ground.
He knew that light.
"Battle Force!" he exclaimed, voice trembling with both shock and pride.
Jabari laughed, still sailing through the air.
"HAHAHA! IT REALLY WORKED!"
The impossible had become real.
And the real battle had just begun.
Just before Jabari had accepted Silver's challenge, he had felt it – his glaive calling out to him. Not with words, but with presence. A deep resonance that vibrated through his bones, as though the weapon were reaching out in answer to the desperate whirlwind of emotion swirling within him.
Then, something clicked.
He remembered what Aziz once told him.
"Weapon-Wielders aren't those who merely use weapons – they're those who become one with them."
A crazy thought took root in his mind.
'If it's possible to become one with my glaive...
Then wouldn't I be able to channel my spirit into it, like it was an extension of my body?'
It sounded ridiculous. But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. And in the end, with nothing to lose and everything on the line, Jabari gambled.
And the gamble paid off.
Now, with his glaive glowing with radiant white light and the connection between them stronger than ever, Jabari's eyes locked onto Gichinga.
The traitor.
Gichinga froze.
He didn't understand why, but he suddenly felt like prey caught beneath the gaze of a predator far beyond him. Jabari hadn't even said a word – just stared.
And then-
The glaive left Jabari's hand like thunder made flesh, a silver streak tearing through the air with a sound like ripping lightning.
Gichinga stood frozen.
Time slowed.
His life didn't flash before his eyes in the usual way. No, only one person filled his thoughts.
Jabari.
The first time they met. The ridiculous moment Jabari stripped naked and chased him around campus. The day Jabari finally accepted his challenge. Their duel. His defeat.
He remembered it all with painful clarity.
Looking back, he realised – he was the one who caused it all. His pride, his insecurity, his envy. He'd been too arrogant to admit he was in the wrong. Too small to see past his own bruised ego.
And now, it was too late.
The world around him stood still, but that glaive hadn't stopped moving.
He looked at Jabari again – still midair, not even bothering to watch the result of his throw.
'Even now, I'm still not worthy of your attention, huh?' Gichinga thought bitterly.
But instead of hatred, a rueful smile formed on his lips.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
Only August, lying wounded nearby, heard his final words.
Then the glaive struck.
It tore through Gichinga's chest with the full force of Jabari's fury, launching his body backwards until both he and the glaive impaled themselves against the trunk of a tree – motionless.
August gave him one final glance before his gaze snapped back to Jabari.
The boy was still airborne.
Mid-flight, Jabari shifted his body, using the momentum of the throw to spin. As he twisted, his feet hit the ground, and the muscles in his legs coiled.
*BOOM!*
For the second time that day, Jabari unleashed the [Burst Step].
He vanished in a blur of motion, his figure flickering from sight, moving at a speed even trained eyes struggled to track.
Silver's pupils dilated in surprise – but only for a fraction of a second. Then, like always, he smiled.
A heartbeat later, Jabari reappeared directly in front of him.
With a roar that echoed across the clearing, Jabari swung his fist and smashed it into Silver's cheek.
*CRACK!*
Silver was launched through the air, spinning over five metres away before crashing to the ground.
At that moment, across the field, Danso gasped.
"I…
I can move! I can finally move my body again!" he shouted in disbelief.
And it wasn't just him.
All across the Institute, wild animals staggered back, dazed, their bloodlust evaporated. The Magical Beasts locked in battle with the Elders stopped in their tracks, blinking as their consciousness returned.
The spell was broken.
"You lose," Jabari said through a victorious grin.
And then he collapsed.
The exhaustion he'd been holding back swept through him like a wave, pulling him under.
He hit the ground.
Unconscious.
There was a beat of silence.
Then laughter.
From across the field, Silver sat up, rubbing his jaw with one hand as he laughed – not in anger, not in frustration, but in pure, genuine delight.
Even after losing his game, even after being bested…
He laughed.
"What an interesting friend I've made," Silver said, grinning up at the moonlit sky.
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