Episode 58: Battlefield of Forgotten Worlds

The world was fire.

Gunfire snapped in the distance, shells shrieked through the air, and the horizon blazed with a veil of black smoke. Blood and mud became one under Kuro's feet, each step matted and dense with memory.

But this was more than memory. The air was too biting, the screams too raw, the pain tearing its way through his chest too alive.

Kuro stumbled, holding his emberblade as it shimmered between its black-steel form and the shadow-tainted weapon he'd created in Noveria. His eyes grew large at the scene before him—lines of soldiers wearing helmets and fatigues he recognized from Earth. Rifles held in shaking hands. Soot-smeared faces, blood-soaked.

".No." His voice cracked. "This is… the day I died.

A shriek pierced the mayhem. A soldier's chest burst into red, a shower of bullets ripping him wide apart. The corpse landed in the mud, eyes open, dead.

Kuro's gut twisted. He had known that man. He had tried to save him. He had failed.

"Blood remembers. Stone remembers. The Seal remembers."

The whispers gnawed at him, threading through the din of war.

---

And then the battlefield shifted.

From the smoke, monsters emerged—not human soldiers, but wraiths in the form of Noverian beasts. Wolves of black fire, knights of shadow steel, twisted forms of Elira's frost and Reina's daggers, all turned against him.

It was Earth and Noveria, fused together, a battlefield of forgotten worlds.

Kuro grit his teeth, raising his emberblade. "If this is the Seal's game… then I'll cut my way out."

The first monster charged. A huge wolf of fire-shadow hurled itself at it, its maw open. Kuro whirled, emberblade cutting across its skull, flames erupting as the monster was incinerated in smoke.

There were three more, and between them, gunfire. Shadows in the form of soldiers levelled rifles, their bullets glowing with red fire.

Kuro's shadow troops burst behind him, called forth by instinct. But they had also changed. Some carried rifles, others Noverian blades, their bodies half-Earth, half-Noveria.

The battlefield boomed.

Shadows of tanks advanced, their cannons firing bolts of voidfire. Smoke helicopters twirled above, spattering ruby bullets. The earth split, and from under it, serpent beasts crawled up, their scales etched with the glyphs of Noveria's Seals.

Kuro bellowed, his emberblade slicing through monsters and soldiers with equal ferocity. Each blow was a battle of worlds—flame against frost, steel against shadow.

And yet, whispers pounded at his skull.

"You failed them. You failed us. You'll fail her."

Elira's face appeared before his eyes. Her violet eyes. Her quivering lashes.

He growled, sending the whispers scattering. No. Not again. Never.

---

Far away—

The sewer-chamber continued to burn. Elira knelt where Kuro had disappeared, frostfire raging uncontrolled around her hands. Her chest was heaving, her violet eyes wide, desperate.

"Where is he?! Where did they take him?!"

Akira smashed his blade through a writhing wraith and growled. "Concentrate, Princess! He's alive, but the Seal's pulled him further in. We can't let it get out of control here, or none of us are getting out!

Reina whirled, daggers flashing, striking three shadows simultaneously. "Damn it, he's battling alone in whatever hell they've dumped him into. If we don't rescue him, he's lost!"

The chamber shook, cracks fissuring the ceiling. Reddish ichor oozed from the altar, its glow intensifying.

Elira clamped her hands together, frostfire swirling like a maelstrom. She shut her eyes, her voice cracking. "Anchor… anchor, damn it… Kuro, listen to me!"

The frostfire surged outward, a wave of violet-blue light sinking into the cracks of the altar.

---

Back in the battlefield—

Kuro staggered as frostfire sparks fell from the sky like snow. They melted into the mud, soft and warm against his skin.

"Elira…" His voice trembled. "You're… calling me?"

For a heartbeat, the whispers faltered.

But then a roar tore the air.

From the smoke, a gigantic shadow appeared. A knight in modern steel and ancient armor, a terrible fusion of Earth's war and Noveria's Seal. Its sword was longer than a tank, its rifle integrated into the blade. Its face obscured by a cracked crown.

"The Third Seal awakens," it thundered, its voice a composite of hundreds of screams. "And you… will shatter with it."

It lifted its blade-rifle, firing at him.

Kuro's emberblade burst into flame. "Then try and take me."

The battlefield trembled as they met.

---

The first blow almost cut him in two. The knight's sword clashed against Kuro's, sparks flying like a meteor storm. Gunfire blazed point-blank, bullets bashing into his armor. Kuro spat blood but pushed his body ahead, emberblade against the knight's gigantic power.

His shadows poured, rifles firing, tanks thundering—but the knight swept its sword once, and whole squadrons of shadows evaporated into smoke.

"Your army is dust," it growled. "Your will is ash."

Kuro's knees gave way. His arms howled. His eyes went dim—until frostfire snow fell once more, covering his blade.

Elira's voice called through the tempest. "You are not alone."

His emberblade burned hotter, shadow blending with frostfire. The steel throbbed with living flame.

No," Kuro snarled. "I never was."

He plunged forward, cutting the knight's chest. The strike shattered armor, ichor spilling. The knight bellowed, reeling back.

---

In the falling sewer—

Elira panted, dropping to her knees. Her frostfire faded.

Reina ran to her side, clutching her shoulder. "Princess, you're burning yourself out—stop before you kill yourself!

But Elira shook her head in a wild motion, tears streaming down her face. "No… if I let go, he's gone forever. I won't lose him."

Akira took out another wraith and glared. "…Then we hold the line. Reina, with me. Give her the time she needs!"

The two warriors moved like a hurricane, covering Elira as the chamber crumbled bit by bit.

---

Back in the battlefield—

The knight roared, its body cracking, fissures of red light splitting its chest.

"The Seal… awakens!"

The earth convulsed. From the fissures, red tendrils burst upward, entwining Kuro and the knight.

Kuro breathed in sharply as the battlefield around them started to unravel, bits of Earth's war and Noveria's beasts crashing and mashing into each other. Helicopters coiling into wyverns, tanks into golems of shadow, soldiers into wraiths with bone rifles.

The knight laughed, even as its body disintegrated. "The Third Seal… is yours, Monarch! Claim it—or perish!"

The tendrils wrapped around Kuro, pulling him into the altar's core. He shrieked, emberblade raging wildly, frostfire sparks adhering to him like lifelines.

"Elira!!"

And then—nothing.

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Silence.

The sewer chamber erupted in scarlet light.

The altar shattered wide open, shadows pouring forth in a tidal wave.

Elira's frostfire flared for a final time, her scream shivering the chamber. "KURO!"

Shadows engulfed everything.

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[ To Be Continue... ]

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