Juno floated gently downward, his cloak fluttering, feet never touching the ground—just hovering, carried by the hum of dark energy swirling beneath him like invisible wings.
His small frame cast a long shadow as he descended, eyes glinting with that violet tint, still alight with thrill.
Iri rose from the dust, brushing off bits of shattered stone from her shoulder, her stare locked on him. She wasn't angry—just impressed. And a little more alert.
Niko, still standing nearby, could hardly speak.
That kid—
The one who just launched Iri, the White Ghost, across the battlefield like nothing—
He was just a boy.
Fifteen. Two years younger than Niko himself.
"How is he that fast…" Niko muttered under his breath, watching Juno land softly like a feather, posture relaxed, that same bright, almost innocent grin still stretched across his face.
Juno tilted his head toward Iri.
"Still got more in you, Ghost?" he asked, eyes gleaming.
Niko gulped.
Looking at iri, worried for her.
Iri dusted off her cloak with a casual flick, then rolled her neck once, cracking the tension loose. Her eyes didn't leave the boy—not for a second.
She exhaled slowly. "Maybe…" she muttered, "it's time to take this seriously."
Above Juno, a soft golden glow pulsed—
A rune.
It appeared so suddenly, so precisely, even Niko blinked to see if it was real.
Its inscription flared into view:
"Don't Move."
Juno's pupils shrank.
He barely had time to register it before—
Flash.
Iri was in front of him.
One leg bent back, eyes narrowed, a glint of wild thrill in her expression.
Another rune blazed to life beside her:
"Triple Kick."
"Wha—?"
CRACK.
The first kick slammed into Juno's gut, folding him in half.
WHAM.
The second smashed into his chest, launching him back midair.
BOOM.
The third connected clean with his ribs, a brutal roundhouse that sent him flying like a comet.
He spiraled through the air, skipping across the ground like a stone across water, until he finally crashed and rolled—hard—into the stone far off, a dust cloud billowing up around the impact site.
Niko's eyes widened.
"Holy—" he started, but couldn't even finish.
Iri landed calmly, her hands behind her back like she'd just taken a stroll.
"Better get up, kid," she called with a smirk. "You said this was fun, right?"
From the dust cloud, movement—fast.
Too fast.
Juno shot out of the rubble like a streak of shadow, no hesitation, no wind-up. One moment silence—then boom—he was in front of Iri.
Blade drawn. Eyes gleaming.
He dove in for the slash—straight, clean, deadly.
Clang!
Iri caught it, barely—her forearm braced by a flash of steel.
But the smile on Juno's face said it all—that wasn't the real strike.
He feinted to the side in a blur—but Iri had already seen it coming.
"Arsenal."
The rune spun open beside her as her hand snapped into it—pulling out a dagger mid-motion, her arm moving like a blur, aiming for his ribs.
But—
Flip.
Juno twisted through the air, flipping clean over her slash, his movements like liquid shadow.
And midair—he let go of his sword.
Uppercut.
His leg slammed into her chin, lifting her off the ground.
But Juno wasn't done.
Still rising, he reached back, grabbed his falling sword mid-flip, and shouted:
"Rising Shadow!"
Darkness surged upward—four, five, six shadow clones burst from the floor beneath him, launching upward like missiles. They caught Iri in midair.
One—two—three—four hits.
An impossible combo. Aerial strikes from every angle.
Iri tried to parry—tried to block—but they were too synced, too fast.
Her body was battered downward, falling like a meteor.
But the moment she hit the floor—he was already there.
Juno dropped in from above like a bolt of black lightning, twisting midair into a devastating overhead heel strike.
"Eclipse Kick!"
A shimmering crescent of dark energy trailed behind his leg as he crashed down—
Iri threw her hand up—
"Block!"
The rune appeared just in time.
BOOM!
The impact shook the entire hallway.
Walls cracked. The floor spiderwebbed. Even the ceiling trembled from the force.
Dust exploded outward in a ring.
And still—Juno was smiling.
The dust cleared—but only slightly.
The air was heavy now. Cracked. Warped.
From beneath the collapsed stone, Iri shoved Juno off her with one hard flip of her legs, sending him tumbling backward through the air. She sat up, spitting blood into the cracked floor.
Her eyes narrowed.
The "Block" rune had saved her—but just barely.
The Eclipse Kick had landed harder than anything yet. Her ribs ached, her energy flickered—but her resolve?
Unshaken.
"Alright," she muttered, rising to her feet, rolling her shoulder back with a pop. "No more playing."
She brought both hands up.
An L-shape. Two fingers from each hand. Pointed upward.
Juno froze—his head tilted curiously.
Then—
The sky cracked.
A deafening hum began to fill the air, low and ancient, like the slow breath of a god. And then—
It appeared.
A rune—massive—descended from above like a falling moon.
It wasn't just big.
It was colossal.
Bigger than a skyscraper. Bigger than a city block.
Niko's heart skipped as he looked up, his voice dry, almost whispering. "That's… that's not a technique. That's a divine execution."
The rune pulsed slowly, a golden-red hue, humming with apocalyptic energy. It nearly filled the entire hallway, stretching endlessly in both directions, like the walls had bent just to let it through.
Juno's face lit up.
Not in fear.
In pure excitement.
Eyes wide, almost sparkling.
"That's more like it," he grinned.
Iri's eyes locked onto him—fierce, unwavering.
"You have three minutes," she said coldly. "Three minutes to kill me. When that rune finishes descending—"
She pointed up.
"It's over."
Juno let out a short, delighted laugh, twirling his blade once.
"Then let's make it fun."
Iri's eyes flicked up toward the massive rune still slowly descending like divine judgment—unstoppable, inevitable.
Her energy reserves were half-drained, her breath uneven, but her stance was solid. Her will was absolute.
Juno's, too.
They both knew what was coming.
With a snap of his fingers, Juno unleashed a wave of darkness, thick and high like a black tsunami. It surged forward, swelling with jagged spikes of shadow that stabbed forward like spears, pushing Iri back with brutal force.
But she gritted her teeth, raised her fist—
And punched straight through it.
A blast of shockwave cracked outward from her strike, scattering the front of the wave into smoky tendrils.
But that was just the bait.
From the collapsing shadows—clones burst forth. Ten. Fifteen. More. All of them launching into the sky with silent, razor precision, their eyes glowing violet.
But this time, Iri was ready.
The Arsenal rune spun beside her, pulsing.
She reached in.
One blade. Two. Four. Six—her hands a blur.
She became a whirlwind of slashes, slicing through the clones like paper, one after another bursting into wisps as her momentum built. She flipped midair, cutting the last two in a scissor motion—shhkk—before landing in a crouch.
And in that instant—he was there.
Juno, using his max speed, blitzed forward—appearing right in her space with his blade already swinging.
But Iri had seen the future in his eyes.
Her fingers moved just fast enough.
A rune pulsed at his feet—HEAVY DOWN.
Gravity multiplied in an instant, slamming Juno into the ground like a meteor.
BOOM.
The floor cratered. Dust flew.
Iri was already there, no time wasted.
She grabbed him mid-collapse, spun, and hurled him upward, her throw echoing like thunder as wind exploded around them, rushing in both directions.
Juno sailed skyward just as the massive rune above loomed closer—its glow casting the entire corridor in a blinding gold.
And in that breathless moment—
Both of them were airborne.
The world holding its breath.
And the countdown continued.
Niko watched, silent.
Dust whipped around his feet as shockwaves echoed through the ruined hallway. Above him, the massive rune still descended—like a slow, divine judgment. He glanced at it again. Sixty seconds had passed. One-third of the time Iri had given Juno.
And right now?
It was in her favor.
She was pressing the pace now—slamming Juno into the ground, using the Heavy Down rune, then meeting him midair with the wind howling behind her. Every attack from Juno was answered. Every feint punished. Her focus was locked in.
And Niko could feel it—she wasn't holding back anymore.
He stared at her, almost in awe.
So this is what she's really like… the White Ghost.
He glanced at Juno next. The boy was still fighting back, still smiling—but the grin was narrower now. Less playful. More real.
"This is insane," Niko muttered under his breath.
If this was the level of strength it took just to hold back someone like Juno…
If this was what battles with the Ten looked like…
Then everything ahead was going to be harder than he ever imagined.
…
Juno landed softly, boots skidding across the fractured ground as silence reclaimed the space where chaos had just raged.
Above, Iri hovered midair—cloak torn, blade steady, a single bead of sweat tracing the edge of her cheek. Her eyes locked on him, focused, alert.
High above them, the massive rune still loomed, descending like judgment from the heavens.
Forty seconds left.
That was all.
Juno's gaze never left it.
This couldn't end in a draw. If they kept clashing like this, nothing would stop that thing from landing. And whatever it brought down with it—he didn't want to find out. Not after what he'd seen Iri do. Not after the look Niko gave that rune… like he was staring at the end of the world.
I have to end this.
He inhaled once, slow and sharp. A cloud of frost left his lips—winter breath in a dead hallway.
And he whispered the words only he was meant to hear.
"Heavenly Divider."
He stepped forward, lowering his stance, blade at his waist.
The air around him shifted.
The shadows twisted, spiraled, rose.
His katana changed—no longer cold metal, but darkness set ablaze. A sword forged from living void, flickering with streaks of violet, devouring the light around it. The floor beneath his feet cracked. The pressure thickened. The House itself groaned.
Juno closed his eyes.
A sin on the battlefield.
Even Iri flinched.
Then—
"PROTECT."
Two runes flashed into existence. One wrapped around her. One around Niko.
They blazed gold like suns behind a storm, pulsing with raw energy.
Juno opened his eyes.
And raised the blade.
A sound rang out. Thin. Piercing. Endless.
It wasn't the blade.
It was the House, screaming.
The rune in the sky trembled. Wavered.
Then split.
There was no visible strike.
No slash.
Just division.
A single line cracked through reality—and everything followed.
The hallway exploded into symmetry.
The walls cleaved into quarters. The ceiling split like glass. The ground collapsed, pulled apart down the center like pages of a book.
Even the colossal rune—so large it eclipsed the world above—shattered like porcelain. Its fragments fell like dying stars, burning to nothing.
Everything shook.
Everything fell.
Everything broke.
And when the tremors stopped, only floating ruins remained.
Debris hung midair like forgotten memories. The wind howled through the void Juno had carved into the House.
And he stood at the center of it all.
Katana still glowing, a black fire licking along its edge.
Breathing ragged. Shoulders trembling.
He looked up once more—just once.
Then the darkness left the blade.
And Juno collapsed.
His body hit the fractured ground hard, eyes rolling back, breath shallow. Spent. Drained. Every ounce of energy gone.
The boy who split the world with a sword of shadows—
Fainted, with a small smile on his lips.