Khael rose slowly, his cloak still wrapped protectively around Mari, the fabric whipping gently in the storm-torn wind. The world around them felt muted like even the night itself held its breath out of respect for the fallen.

Juno stayed kneeling between Vince and Ryn, his trembling hands hovering above them as if afraid that touching them would confirm the truth. Vince's final words still echoed in his skull,  "Emotion, Juno… that's the gate they can't close."

He swallowed hard. Emotion. He finally understood.

K descended from the ridge with measured steps, each footfall impossibly calm for someone who had just witnessed two titans fall. His void-touched eyes glimmered faintly in the darkness, analytical, cold, dissecting everything he saw.

He stopped only a few meters behind Juno.

For a long moment, silence.

Then K tilted his head slightly, as though examining an insect that had somehow surprised him.

"…So," he murmured, "you are the disciple of that old man."

Juno didn't look up at first. His shoulders trembled not from fear, but from the sheer violence of emotion boiling inside him. When he finally lifted his head, tears streaked down his face, but his eyes…

His eyes were burning.

He rose to his feet, fists clenched so tightly blood dripped from his palms.

Lightning flashed.

The wind froze.

Juno stepped forward.

"I…"

His voice cracked, but he didn't falter.

"I am Juno Arkai!!"

K's expression didn't change but his eyes sharpened.

Khael felt the shift instantly. The air thickened, the pressure of two rising auras swirling like twin storms preparing to collide.

Mari clutched Khael's arm.

"Khael… stop them! Juno will die!"

But Khael did not move.

He stared at Juno's back straight, trembling, defiant and something inside him stirred. Respect. Recognition. Resolve.

Juno's declaration still vibrated in the air, raw and defiant, when another voice cut through the battlefield hoarse, trembling, and furious.

Garron.

He stood where Sierra had faded, staring at the red motes still drifting in the wind like dying embers. For the first time, his carefree grin was gone. His jaw tightened, his hands balled into fists.

He whispered her name

"Sierra…"

soft, broken, as if the word itself hurt him.

Then he lifted his head.

His eyes locked onto Juno.

Then onto K.

And something snapped.

Garron roared, voice cracking from rage and grief:

"K!!!"

K shifted his gaze lazily, as if mildly inconvenienced.

"…Hmm?"

Garron pointed at him, trembling with fury.

"Sierra's money every contract, every bounty, every coin she hoarded—ALL OF IT WILL BE MINE!"

Even Juno blinked.

Ceyla stared.

Matthew stopped mid-fight.

Andromeda froze.

Mari whispered "Eh?"

K raised an eyebrow, almost impressed.

"Very well."

He shrugged. "It was never of value to me."

Garron turned to Juno with a fire that felt entirely disproportionate to the reason behind it.

He jabbed a finger at the boy.

"AND I WILL KILL THAT BRAT FOR YOU AND EVERYONE HERE!!"

The battlefield went silent.

Then

"OI OLD MAN!" Andromeda shouted from a pile of twitching Voidborn. "DO YOU EVEN HAVE THE POWER TO KILL ANYTHING THAT ISN'T ALREADY DEAD!?!"

Garron snapped his head toward her.

His lips curled into a cocky grin.

A dangerous one.

Then

He laughed.

A deep, unhinged, battle-drunk laugh that rolled through the ruined forest.

"Power?"

He cracked his neck.

"Little girl… I'm Garron the Red Bull! I have power because I—"

Wind burst around him as he slammed his foot into the ground, the earth spider-webbing beneath him.

His aura yellow, sun-scarred, old but terrifyingly dense erupted upward like a dying star flaring one last time.

His voice boomed

"—AM AN EX–ECLIPSE VANGUARD!!!"

Ceyla stepped forward, eyes narrowing, lightning dancing around her wrists.

"Yeah, we KNOW. But that doesn't mean you can kill us."

Juno clenched his fists, newly awakened power trembling around him.

He glared at Garron, voice firm, loud, burning:

"Don't underestimate us!!"

Garron wiped his mouth with the back of his thumb, and grinned like a demon who'd finally been given permission to wake up.

The battlefield trembled as he stomped forward, shoulders rolling, aura flaring in a way no one had ever seen from him. His grin widened, feral, reckless, utterly alive.

Then he shouted—

"5TH GATE!!"

And the world changed.

The air buckled.

The trees bent backward.

Lightning and crimson motes scattered.

Every Veinwalker felt it.

Every Voidborn froze.

Even Khael turned his head.

The ECLIPSE GATE didn't just open

it HOWLED.

A sun-bright pillar of yellow Shinrei surged upward, spiraling around Garron like the horns of a cosmic bull.

His muscles expanded.

His veins glowed.

His heartbeat thundered loud enough to shake dust from the trees.

Matthew said with shock expression. "H–holy sh—"

Andromeda's jaw fell open. "OLD MAN, SINCE WHEN CAN YOU DO THAT?!"

Ceyla took a step back, lightning defensive. "That… that's Eclipse-level pressure…"

Even Juno felt the weight.

Like a mountain leaning in.

Like gravity doubling.

He swallowed but his eyes didn't back down.

Inside Garron's body, the 5th Taishin Gate—the IRON NERVE GATE—snapped open.

Pain vanished.

Fear vanished.

Limits vanished.

Only power remained.

He cracked his knuckles, Shinrei swirling around him like molten gold.

Garron bellowed to the heavens

"I HAVEN'T USED THIS GATE IN TWENTY YEARS!!

YOU BRATS BETTER PRAY I REMEMBER HOW TO STOP IT!!!"

Juno exhaled sharply.

His thoughts echoed:

So this… is the former eclipse vanguard is

Ceyla's lightning flickered.

"You… you'll tear your body apart—"

He laughed, loud and unhinged.

"GOOD!!

THAT MEANS I'M STILL ALIVE!!"

He pointed straight at Juno, grin stretching ear to ear.

"K SAID IT. YOU WANT TO ACT LIKE A HERO?

THEN I'LL KILL YOU FIRST AND TAKE YOUR SHINREI AS PAYMENT FOR SIERRA'S TAB!!"

Juno stepped forward, aura surging

stone-like, steady, unshaking.

"Don't underestimate us!!"

Garron stomped, earth erupting.

"UNDER? BOY—

I'M GONNA BURY YOU!!"

Khael slid Mari behind him.

Matthew and Andromeda took stances.

Ceyla raised her blades.

And K…

K just smiled faintly.

"Ah. A three-way clash between a rising Veinwalker, an ex–Eclipse Vanguard, and a Gate-breaking Taishin… How nostalgic."

He folded his arms behind his back.

"This should be entertaining."

Garron charged

the ground exploding under each step, his roar splitting the night—

"IRON NERVE GATE—FULL RELEASE!!!"

Juno braced himself, teeth clenched, eyes burning.

Because this wasn't a fight.

This was a storm of three generations colliding:

The Old Vanguard.

The New Eclipse.

And the Boy who Walked with No Shinrei

Juno Arkai.

And the next second

their worlds crashed.

To be continue

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