The storm rolled in without warning. Thick, heavy clouds loomed overhead, casting an eerie twilight over the battlefield. The wind carried the scent of damp earth and burning chakra, whispering through the ruins of a once-thriving village now reduced to rubble. Shin Noragetsu stood at the center of it all, his Abyss Eye scanning the shifting shadows for movement.
They had been tracking the Void Cult's movements since the last encounter, and now, standing on the precipice of another inevitable confrontation, Shin could feel it—the pull of something beyond human comprehension. The rift that Hana had warned him about still pulsed in the distance, a jagged wound in space itself, but their immediate problem lay elsewhere.
A figure emerged from the ruins.
Tall, clad in a dark, tattered cloak, his silver mask gleaming under the pale light. Shin's grip on his katana tightened. He recognized this presence.
"Tenkai," Shin muttered, his voice steady despite the weight in his chest.
The masked figure took a slow step forward, his presence exuding an unsettling calm. "You've been meddling in matters beyond your comprehension, Shin Noragetsu."
Shin scoffed. "And you've been playing with forces that could destroy everything. Seems we're both in over our heads."
Hana appeared at Shin's side, her breathing heavy but controlled. She had been tracking their enemy just as he had, but even she seemed momentarily unsettled by the aura radiating from Tenkai.
"Shin," she whispered. "This isn't like before. There's something… different about him."
Shin didn't need her to tell him that. Tenkai had always been dangerous, but now, the air around him felt warped, almost as if reality itself bent to his presence.
Tenkai raised a gloved hand. Shadows flickered around him, tendrils of something unnatural writhing in the air. The space around him seemed to twist, distorting like a mirage.
"We are no longer bound by the same laws," Tenkai said. "The Void has granted me its blessing."
Shin didn't wait for further explanation. In a single motion, he surged forward, his katana slicing through the air with precise, lethal intent. The blade met resistance—Tenkai didn't dodge, didn't retreat. Instead, something unseen stopped the attack inches from his body.
A shockwave erupted from the impact, sending Shin skidding backward. Hana reacted instantly, forming a string of hand seals.
"Wind Release: Tempest Blades!"
Gale-force winds erupted from her palms, condensing into razor-sharp arcs of slicing energy. The attack should have shredded anything in its path—but Tenkai remained unmoving, his body phasing as though he were barely there at all.
A deep chuckle resonated from behind the mask. "You still think in such limited terms."
Then, he struck.
Faster than Shin could react, the space around him collapsed inward. A crushing force pressed against his body, as though gravity itself had been turned against him. He barely had time to reinforce himself with chakra before he was hurled backward, slamming through the remnants of a crumbling building.
Hana cried out his name, but she too was forced onto the defensive as Tenkai's tendrils of Void energy lashed toward her. She spun away, narrowly avoiding the attack, but the ground beneath her feet fractured from the sheer force of the unseen power.
Shin coughed, forcing himself to stand. Pain pulsed through his ribs, but he pushed it aside. He had felt worse.
This wasn't just a battle against another shinobi. Tenkai had crossed a threshold—he was something beyond human now.
Shin activated his Abyss Eye fully, the world shifting into a sea of swirling colors and fractures of energy. He could see it now—Tenkai's movements weren't just fast. He was bending the very fabric of space itself, slipping between dimensions, existing in multiple places at once.
A new strategy was needed.
"Hana!" Shin called. "We're not fighting him directly. If we attack conventionally, we'll never hit him!"
Hana gritted her teeth but nodded, adjusting her stance. "Then what's the plan?"
Shin steadied his breathing. If Tenkai was slipping through dimensions, then they needed to attack on a level he couldn't phase through.
"I'll break his foothold in this reality," Shin said. "You hit him the moment he's locked in place."
Hana didn't question it.
Shin closed his eyes for the briefest moment. Then, when he opened them again, the Abyss Eye flared to life, black and violet energy rippling outward in waves. The air around him darkened, shadows bleeding into the earth beneath his feet.
Tenkai tilted his head. "Oh? So you do understand some of the Void's nature."
Shin ignored him. He focused. Felt the flow of the world, the threads that connected everything together. And then—
He severed them.
For an instant, silence fell. The air itself seemed to stop moving, the weight of the world pressing inward as Shin manipulated the very concept of space.
Tenkai staggered, if only for a fraction of a second. It was enough.
Hana's attack struck like a bolt of lightning.
A torrent of wind-infused chakra slammed into Tenkai's chest, sending him hurtling backward. His body flickered, distorting as he struggled against the force, but for the first time in the battle, Shin saw something rare—Tenkai was off balance.
Shin moved.
He closed the distance in an instant, his katana a blur of motion. The blade connected. This time, there was no unseen force stopping it.
A sharp crack rang through the battlefield as the attack landed, a deep gash carving across Tenkai's torso. But even as blood splattered against the ground, the masked warrior didn't fall. Instead, he laughed.
A low, distorted sound that sent chills down Shin's spine.
"You truly are interesting," Tenkai mused. "But this isn't over."
Then, without warning, the space around him collapsed inward.
In the blink of an eye, he was gone.
The battle was over—but the war was far from won.
Shin exhaled slowly, lowering his katana. Hana stepped beside him, her gaze still wary.
"That was too close," she muttered.
Shin nodded. "He's stronger than before. If we don't find a way to counter him completely…"
He didn't need to finish the sentence. They both knew what was at stake.
The Void's influence was growing.
And time was running out.
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