Chapter 26 - Reflections In The Void - The Great Rift Valley Arc Part 3

The explosion rocked the area, dust and debris clouding the air. Akira's blood wall rose up to shield us, and the dust settled in waves around us.

"Can't you guys use your realm or something?" Akira called out, his voice tinged with frustration as he surveyed the chaos.

"I can," I said, my eyes fixed on the Chi Leech, "but there's a different option."

Akira raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation, but I didn't give him one. Instead, I turned toward the creature, my hands crackling with energy. "Akisada."

Akira blinked, confused, but before he could ask any more questions, I growled, "Akisada... Fuse!"

"Yes, Master," Akisada's voice resonated from within, and before I knew it, a searing wave of power surged through me.

My skin burned as dragon scales emerged, and my body rippled with flames. I could feel Akisada's essence coursing through me, and in that moment, I was both human and dragon. The air felt heavy with the power in my body.

"Time to test this out."

The Chi Leech hissed, narrowing its eyes. "You think you're the first to wield such power? You are nothing," it spat.

I cracked my knuckles, flames licking the air. "You'll find out just how wrong you are."

Behind me, Ren was already getting antsy. "This is taking too long!" he muttered, his eyes darting to the Leech. He clenched his fists, visibly frustrated. "Why are we standing here? Just get rid of it already!"

"Ren, calm down," Akira said, trying to keep him in check, but Ren wasn't hearing it. His eyes were blazing with impatience.

Ren's voice dropped into a growl, his tone sulky. "I'm tired of waiting. We don't need a plan, just hit it!" Without another word, he charged forward, his blood power surging around him like a shield.

"Ren, wait!" Akira shouted, but it was too late. Ren was already in the air, fists flying toward the Chi Leech. "Dammit!" Akira muttered, forming another blood wall to cover our backs.

Ren was reckless, throwing himself into battle with no hesitation. "Come on, fight back!" he yelled, attacking without a single thought to strategy. The Chi Leech's claws swiped at him, but Ren was too fast, blood energy swirling around him as he ducked and dodged, landing a punch to the creature's side.

"You're a fool," the Chi Leech hissed, clearly irritated by Ren's recklessness. "You think you can hurt me with that?"

Ren only smirked, his anger boiling over. "I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm trying to kill you!" He leaped in for another blow, but this time, the Chi Leech retaliated with a blast of dark energy.

Before Ren could get hit, I snapped, "Akisada, Dragon's Roar!"

A torrent of fire erupted from my body, filling the space between us and the Chi Leech. The creature howled in pain, reeling back from the intensity. Ren, too caught up in his rage, didn't back down, charging again, blood energy flaring.

"Stop!" Akira shouted, trying to rein him in, but Ren wasn't listening. "I've got this!" Ren yelled, diving forward to land another hit.

"Ultimate Flame!"

The fire shot forward, enveloping the Chi Leech in an inferno. The creature screeched, but the flames only grew more intense. Ren's blood energy surged alongside it, pushing the creature further into the flames.

The explosion that followed was deafening, the Chi Leech writhing in agony, but it wasn't enough to stop its fury.

I turned to Akira, who was standing protectively, his blood wall still holding up. "Is it over?"

Ren, panting and frustrated, kicked at the ground. "It's not over, I'm not done with it yet," he muttered, sulking. His hands were clenched into fists, and he wasn't even looking at the now charred remains of the creature.

Akira sighed, his patience thinning. "Ren, you can't just go charging in like that every time."

Ren shot him a dark look, his voice laced with annoyance. "I don't have time to wait around for plans, Akira. I just want it gone."

"I get it, but we need to think before we act," Akira said, shaking his head. "Your impulsiveness is going to get us killed one day."

"Yeah, yeah," Ren grumbled, kicking the ground again, his energy still crackling with frustration. He wasn't listening, lost in his sulk.

Ren's eyes blazed with determination, his body tense and coiled like a spring. The Leech's gnarled form snapped forward, but Ren wasn't having it.

"You think you can take us down that easily?" he spat, his voice low and seething with anger.

The ground beneath him cracked as reality itself bent to his will. His body trembled with the surge of power, and his fingers twitched as the technique activated.

"Configure."

In an instant, the air around Ren warped, reality fracturing into unstable lines. The Leech lunged at him, but it never reached its target.

With a single punch, Ren's fist connected with the Leech's massive arm. The force wasn't just physical—it was pure destruction. The moment his punch made contact, the Leech's arm began to disintegrate at the atomic level. Every cell, every molecule, every atom of the arm was torn apart and ripped from existence, turning into nothing but a fine mist of broken matter. The Leech howled in agony as its entire limb was obliterated in a fraction of a second, reducing it to nothingness.

The creature staggered back, but Ren wasn't done. He grinned, eyes alight with the thrill of battle.

"Too slow."

In an instant, he was upon the Leech again. Another punch, another destructive ripple through reality. The Leech's body began to unravel as Ren's fists connected with its core. It screeched, but it was already too late. With every punch, its massive body disintegrated further, broken down atom by atom.

The Leech tried to fight back, its claws raking through the air in desperate, violent swipes, but it couldn't keep up. Ren's Configure Technique split the monster into nothingness before it could even strike. Every time Ren's fist landed, it was as if the world itself was torn apart—atom by atom, the Leech's form dissolved, leaving behind a void where the creature once stood.

And then, with one final strike, Ren's fist hammered into the creature's chest. The Leech's entire torso vanished, reduced to a fine dust, every atom scattered and erased from existence. The creature collapsed into nothing, leaving behind only the echoes of its final scream.

Silence.

"Akisada... Defuse please." I muttered.

My hybrid form vanished.

Ren stood in the middle of the area, breathing heavily. His body pulsed with energy, the aftershocks of the Configure Technique still resonating in the air. He looked at the others, his eyes still burning with fury.

"That's how it's done," Ren muttered, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. "Next time, let's not waste time with the small fry."

Akira, who had been watching from behind his blood wall, lowered it slowly, his gaze impressed but cautious. "Yeah, but don't get cocky. That was just one fight."

"Guys... Do you think there is something much stronger?" I asked.

"Of course." Ren shot, "There is something much powerful watching us. And we have to fight it."

A rustling in the trees cut through the silence.

Ren's fists ignited instantly. "Who's there?"

Luka stepped out from the treeline, trident resting lazily against his shoulder, his usual unreadable expression intact. His gaze flickered from Ren's glowing hands to the battlefield around us, then back to me.

"You're all too loud," he said, voice flat.

Akira lifted a hand in greeting. "Oh hey, Luka. Welcome to—" he gestured vaguely at the scorched, crumbling landscape "—whatever the hell this situation is."

Ren didn't lower his fists. "What are you doing here?"

"Well... I was trying to find you guys to kill whoever is responsible."

"Well now you did. Do you know how to find the person responsible?"

"No... But I have a clue."

"Yeah, sure Sherlock." Akira joked.

Luka ignored him, crouching near the remains, dragging his fingers through the dust the same way I had. He rubbed it between his fingertips, feeling it. Testing it. The way it clung—too fine, too unnatural—made his brow twitch slightly. A rare reaction from him. He wiped his hands on his pants and stood.

"This thing wasn't real," he muttered.

Ren frowned. "What?"

Akira tilted his head. "Like... an illusion?"

Luka shook his head. "No. Illusions don't hit back." His voice was calm, almost bored, but there was something sharp underneath it. "They weren't real Shadows."

I stiffened.

Luka dragged the tip of his trident through the dirt, carving a slow, deliberate line as he spoke. His voice was even, detached—like he was discussing the weather instead of some unknown force manipulating reality itself.

"This place is wrong."

Ren scoffed. "No kidding."

Luka ignored him. "The energy here doesn't flow naturally. It's being... redirected. Twisted." He lifted his fingers, watching the faint shimmer of lingering chi in the air. "Someone is shaping this battlefield. Controlling what we see. What we fight."

Akira frowned. "So, you're saying..."

Luka turned to face us, his cold, blue gaze steady. "None of this was real."

The words hit like a hammer to the chest.

Ren tensed. "What do you mean, 'not real'? I punched that thing. I felt it break."

"You destroyed something," Luka admitted, "but it wasn't what you thought."

I clenched my fists, recalling the way the Chi Leech had turned to dust, the unnatural way its remains had dispersed. There hadn't been any lingering presence, no cursed remnants. Just... nothing.

"Illusions don't react like that," I murmured. "Whatever this was, it had physical form. It fought us. It bled."

"Exactly." Luka stabbed his trident into the dirt, his voice still eerily calm. "It wasn't just an illusion. It was a construct. A fabrication made entirely of chi."

Akira exhaled sharply. "Someone made that thing?"

Luka nodded. "And they're still watching."

The wind shifted. The air felt heavier.

I scanned the treeline, my senses sharp. We weren't alone. The energy Luka mentioned—it was still here, still surrounding us, but now it felt... aware.

Akira must have sensed it too. He shifted closer, fingers curling slightly as blood energy flickered at his fingertips. "If they're watching," he muttered, "they're probably planning their next move."

Ren cracked his knuckles. "Good. Let 'em come. I'm just getting warmed up."

Luka gave him a blank look. "That's exactly what they want."

Ren bristled, but before he could argue, the world around us shuddered.

The ground warped, the trees bending at unnatural angles. The sky flickered between shades of deep crimson and void-like blackness. It was as if reality itself was being rewritten—edited by some unseen hand.

And then—

A voice.

Deep. Hollow. Distant, yet deafening.

"You struggle so fiercely against mere projections... and yet you believe you are ready for the truth?"

The air vibrated.

A shadowy figure materialized in the shifting landscape, its form shifting and undefined. Not quite human. Not quite anything.

"Let's see if you survive the next lesson."

The ground beneath us cracked open.

And we fell.

Darkness swallowed us whole.

The ground had simply ceased to exist beneath our feet, as if reality itself had unraveled in an instant. There was no impact, no sensation of falling—just an abyss stretching endlessly in all directions, swallowing sound, light, and thought.

For a brief, disorienting moment, I wasn't sure if I was even still myself.

Then—

Boom.

I hit something solid. Hard. The air left my lungs in a sharp gasp, my limbs protesting as I tumbled across rough stone. Around me, echoes of similar impacts rang out—Ren's frustrated grunt, Akira's muffled oof, Luka's much quieter landing.

I forced myself up, vision swimming. A new space had formed around us—a vast, open temple of polished black stone, stretching infinitely in all directions. Monolithic pillars loomed overhead, carved with symbols I didn't recognize. Torches burned with unnatural blue flames, casting shifting shadows against the walls.

Akira let out a slow whistle, rubbing his shoulder. "Okay. That was... new."

Ren was already back on his feet, fists clenched, eyes darting around. "Where are we?"

Luka, ever the picture of composure, rose smoothly to his feet, his gaze scanning the surroundings. He pressed his palm to the stone floor, closing his eyes for a moment. Then—he frowned.

"...There's nothing."

I stiffened. "What do you mean, nothing?"

He lifted his hand. "No natural chi. No lifeforce. No flow. It's like this place exists outside of everything."

Ren scowled. "Tch. Great. Another creepy, void-like nightmare. Because the first five weren't enough."

Akira scratched his head. "So, we're in a fake place, made by a fake thing, that wants us to fight more fake stuff?" He paused, then nodded to himself. "I hate it here."

I wasn't so sure it was that simple.

The voice had called the Chi Leech a projection, a test—meaning this was a constructed reality. But the more I looked around, the more unsettling it felt. It wasn't just an illusion, wasn't just a trick of the senses. This place was.

And something was watching.

I turned sharply.

There, just beyond the furthest pillar, something moved. A presence—not quite seen, but felt. A shifting ripple in the air, like heat rising from stone. No form, no shape. Just there.

It was waiting.

Ren cracked his neck. "So? Do we call it out, or do we start breaking things until it shows itself?"

Luka sighed. "Yes. Because randomly destroying things in an unknown dimension has never had consequences."

Akira crossed his arms. "I mean, to be fair, sometimes it works."

I ignored them, taking a slow step forward. The moment my foot touched the ground—

The temple came alive.

Pillars twisted, walls shifted, the very stone beneath us reshaped itself as if reacting to our presence. And from the shifting walls, figures emerged.

Not Shadows.

Not illusions.

But us.

Copies—identical in every way. Standing just a few feet away, facing us.

Akira let out a slow breath. "Oh, cool. Love this."

Akira scoffed. "Oh, hell no." He took a step forward, glaring at his double. "What is this? Some cheap mind game?"

The copies didn't answer. They simply stood, motionless, blank-eyed.

Then—simultaneously—

They smiled.

And they attacked.