CHAPTER 160:

CHAPTER 160: 

The battlefield was silent.

Kaito Nakamura was dead.

His lifeless body lay limp in Akari's trembling arms, his blood staining the ground beneath them. His skin was still warm, his expression almost peaceful like he had just fallen asleep. But the absence of breath, the stillness in his chest, the emptiness in his once-burning blood red crimson eyes it made it real. It made it undeniable.

He was gone.

Akari's hands clenched around his bloodied jacket, her entire body shaking violently. Her golden hair, wet with sweat and dirt, clung to her face as silent tears streamed down her cheeks. Her breath hitched, ragged, desperate, her mind refusing to accept what had just happened.

Her Kaito-kun.

The one who had always stood beside her. The one who had always protected her. The one who never let her fall.

And she

She never even gave him a chance.

Her fingers curled, nails digging into his cold skin.

Flashback—Years Ago

Cherry blossoms fell in gentle waves, swirling around them in pink, delicate petals. The academy courtyard was alive with chatter, laughter, the distant sounds of training sessions. But none of it mattered. Not to Kaito. Not when she was there.

Akari stood a few feet ahead, her arms looped around Kouki's as they walked together, smiling, laughing, completely lost in their own world. She looked happy.

And Kaito?

He watched from the sidelines, hands in his pockets, heart aching with something he didn't have a name for.

"Yo, Kaito!"

He snapped out of his daze as Kouki called him over, grinning like he always did, like they were brothers.

"Come on, man. What's with that face? Akari says you're acting like an old man again."

Akari giggled, leaning against Kouki's arm playfully. "Seriously, Kaito-kun. Lighten up. You always look so broody."

Kaito forced a smirk, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets. "Maybe I wouldn't look so 'broody' if I wasn't third-wheeling all the damn time."

Akari laughed, but it was light, dismissive like she didn't even register the meaning behind his words. Like she never even considered the possibility that he

No. It didn't matter.

She was happy. That was all that mattered.

Wasn't it?

End Flashback

Akari's breath hitched.

The memory felt like a knife being driven into her chest.

All the time she let Kouki beat him up cause he was being a creep. All this time, she had ignored it. Ignored him. She had been so blind, so caught up in her own world, in Kouki's world, that she never stopped to see.

To see how much Kaito had been hurting.

How much he had loved her.

And now—

Now it was too late.

Her lips trembled. Her entire body quaked. A broken, gasping sob tore from her throat, raw and violent, and then—

Akari didn't breathe.

She couldn't.

Her hands still clutched Kaito's body, fingers digging into his bloodstained clothes, trembling, shaking, desperate to feel warmth, desperate to feel life. But there was none.

Kaito was gone taking the venom meant for her with him.

Saving him.

And she had never told him.

Never told him that.

That maybe, deep down, she knew.

That maybe, she had always known.

That maybe, if things had been different, if she had looked at him just once really looked at him then maybe he wouldn't have had to die for her.

Her breath hitched, eyes locked onto his lifeless face, her chest tightening as the words echoed in her mind again and again

"Even if you never loved me… I always loved you."

Her vision blurred.

She remembered everything.

Sitting under the sakura trees as kids, his awkward, cocky grin as he teased her, the way he always stood just a little too close but never close enough. The way he always seemed to be there, just at the edge of her life, waiting.

She never gave him a chance.

Because Kouki shone brighter. Because Kouki was the prophecy child. Because Kouki was supposed to be the one for her.

But Kaito was always there.

Protecting her.

Loving her.

Dying for her.

There for her whenever she got in a fight with Kouki.

And she had never even said his name like it mattered.

Something inside her shattered.

The pain, the guilt, the rage it was unbearable.

Tears streamed down her face, but they weren't just sorrow. They were fury.

White-hot, all-consuming fury.

She barely noticed as golden energy exploded from her body, warping, twisting, pulsing unnaturally. Her hair rose, strands lifting as her once-golden aura burned into something greater, something absolute.

The world trembled beneath her rage.

The Broodmother's golden eyes flickered with amusement, its voice a twisted mockery of sympathy.

"Oh, poor little girl, crying over a foolish boy who was never meant to have you."

Akari's breath came out ragged, her hands tightening into fists, her entire body shaking with barely contained energy.

"You humans waste your emotions on such meaningless things."

Akari's lips parted, her voice trembling, but not from fear.

"Shut up."

The Broodmother chittered, taking a step forward, towering over her.

"You should be grateful. He gave you such a beautiful tragedy to remember him by."

The ground beneath them cracked.

Akari's power surged higher, raw Omni Energy twisting violently, distorting space itself. The air around her shimmered, warping under the pressure of something that wasn't meant to exist.

"You took him from me."

The Broodmother grinned, fangs glistening.

"I did. And I will take more. Perhaps i will leave you alive as the sole survivor to suffer"

Akari screamed.

A sound so raw, so broken, that it shattered the very concept of sound itself.

A pulse of power erupted from her, golden light turning white-hot, expanding outward in a violent shockwave.

The Broodmother staggered.

For the first time—it felt something.

It felt pain.

Akari's feet lifted from the ground, her eyes now pure, blinding white. Her body pulsed with raw energy, her soul magic twisting into something else, something beyond its natural form.

"I'll kill you."

Her voice was hollow. Empty. A promise from something no longer human.

The Broodmother grinned wider.

"Then come, little girl. Show me—"

The world split in half.

A blur of golden light. A flash of steel.

And then

Blood.

Not Akari's.

Not Kaito's.

The Broodmother's.

Its massive body suddenly cleaved in two, a perfect, seamless cut running from head to abdomen.

Silence.

For a moment, even reality itself seemed unsure of what had happened.

Then

A soft, amused voice broke the quiet.

"Tsk. What a pathetic display of emotions."

Akari's blinding aura flickered as her head snapped to the side.

There, standing atop the severed remains of the Broodmother, a golden-haired elf woman twirled a still-dripping sword in her grasp, her expression utterly bored.

Celestia.

The Celestia.

Noboru's knight.

Noboru's personal guard.

Noboru's executioner.

Her piercing golden eyes landed on the Phoenix Kingdom's Vanguard, her lips curling into something cruel.

"You lot look worse than I expected."

She stepped forward, her boots pressing into the still-warm corpse of the Broodmother without a care, the ichor of the fallen monster sliding off her pristine, golden armor as if it refused to stain her.

She turned, her sharp gaze locking onto Meiyo first.

Then Akari.

Then the rest.

And finally—she grinned.

"I wonder… do you even understand the position you're in?"

Akari's breath was ragged, her body still trembling from the overload of power.

But Meiyo—Meiyo knew.

Knew what Celestia was.

Knew what she meant.

And behind her—

A soft giggle.

A second figure stepped forward from the mist.

Pink hair. Cat ears. A tail swishing lazily behind her.

A maid's uniform, slightly torn, but still immaculate.

And the softest, most innocent voice imaginable.

"Nya. Oh my, they do look weak, don't they, My apprentice?"

Stella.

Noboru's childhood maid.

Noboru's caretaker.

A monster wearing the skin of a girl.

But she's meant to be weak.

Her bright, catlike eyes landed on Akari first, then drifted toward Meiyo.

"Nya... Have fun Celestia but leave that one alive. I know noboru-kun want to deal with her himself." Stella said