Chapter 61

Kenzo gasped for breath, relief washing over him as he felt his wounds begin to close. The searing pain from his burns faded, strength gradually returning to his limbs.

Across from him, Gine collapsed onto her side, unconscious from sheer exhaustion. A soft golden light shimmered across her body, its hum low and steady, lulling her into peaceful sleep.

The rest of the hunters let out sighs of relief. Some slumped to the ground, others exchanged weary smiles as the same healing light bathed over them, easing their pain and renewing their spirits.

But Xhen remained still.

He narrowed his eyes as he observed the hunters. None of them looked worried anymore. In fact, they looked… comforted. Safe.

His gaze slowly shifted back to the girl standing quietly at the center of it all.

He studied her, her golden-blonde hair cascading gently past her shoulders, her bright blue eyes calm yet resolute, and the luminous circle that had erupted from beneath her feet only moments ago, still faintly glowing. Then, something unfurled from her back.

Massive white wings, pristine and radiant, stretched outward.

Xhen’s expression twisted in recognition, his jaw tightening as his fist clenched, leather and metal creaking under the pressure.

‘She’s one of them!’

Kaede tilted her head slightly, catching his movement.

[[Have you come to finish the job?]] Xhen barked in his native tongue, the words sharp and guttural.

“What’s he saying?” Ilya whispered, leaning closer to Elise.

Elise, still gulping from a water bottle, gave a lazy shrug. “Who cares? The Guild Master is here. We can finally get out of this damn dungeon.”

Kaede kept her eyes on the red-armored statue that stared her down with unveiled hostility. She took a step forward.

Xhen instinctively stepped back.

[[Was it not enough that you embedded this cursed stone in my neck? You’ve already shattered the minds of everyone else!]]

Kaede raised a brow at him. [[What are you talking about?]]

Ilya’s eyes widened. “Wait… she can understand him? No… she’s speaking his language. That’s… that’s the language of monsters.”

"And those wings. Is she even human?"

Elise paused, halfway through stuffing a chocolate bar into her mouth. Her eyes drifted to Kaede, then to the wings that glowed like moonlight against the shadows.

“Maybe she’s a god,” she murmured. “Or an angel. Heaven knows we need one right now.”

Xhen bared his jagged teeth, fury radiating from his cracked stone form. [[Don't screw with me, you worthless husk! Confusion isn't even an emotion your kind understand, and neither is rage!]]

Kaede took another step forward, the floor subtly shuddering beneath her heel. [[My kind? I think you’re mistaking me for something I’m not.]]

[[You must be a defective product. Deceit is something you Heavenly Soldiers are incapable of.]] Xhen sneered, his voice sharp like broken glass. [[Did your fruit fall off early or something?]]

Kaede tilted her head slightly. [[Heavenly Soldiers?]] Her tone cooled to a simmering calm. [[You think I’m with the Rulers?]]

A flicker of doubt sparked in Xhen’s eyes. ‘Is she not?’ the thought clawed at the edge of his mind. He instinctively took a step back... only to freeze in mid-air.

Kaede’s hand hadn’t moved, but the invisible weight of her [Commander's Authority] coiled around him like chains, lifting his heavy body clean off the ground. His limbs twitched, but he couldn’t even struggle.

Her gaze sharpened. [[They're the ones that put you here, aren’t they?]] Xhen struggled to even budge under her power.

Xhen glared at the creature standing before him, his cracked lips curling into a snarl. [[Wh... What are you?]]

Kaede didn’t answer. Her eyes drifted slightly, voice lowering as if she were speaking more to herself than to him. [[Queresha claimed that the dungeons weren’t just battlegrounds... but prisons, used to contain the Rulers’ spoils of war.]]

Xhen’s expression shifted, eyes widening in alarm. [[You... You know of the Monarch of Plague?]]

Kaede’s gaze locked with his, piercing and unflinching. [[You said the Rulers embedded stones in your neck. What are they for? What do they do?]]

For a moment, silence hung in the air like a blade between them.

Then Kaede’s voice cracked like thunder. [[ANSWER ME!!!]]

The world seemed to collapse into her shadow. Her presence swelled, eclipsing reality itself. To Xhen, it was as if the entire universe had narrowed into her furious eyes, blazing and merciless, boring into the very core of his being.

He convulsed, spasms racking his massive frame. Then, trembling, he spoke.

[[The stones... I... I hear voices. In my head. Kill the humans. Kill the humans. Over and over... endlessly.]] His breath hitched, eyes flicking about in desperation. [[The others... they’ve lost their minds. There’s nothing left of them. Just Mindless Savages With Only One Desire.]]

"Kill... the humans." Kaede repeated softly in Japanese, tasting the words like poison on her tongue.

She stared down at the trembling figure before her, eyes distant. “These Rulers... was there a part of me that hoped Queresha was lying?” Her voice wavered. “It was pretty obvious she wasn’t telling me everything. But I thought...”

Her fist clenched at her side, trembling slightly.

“I thought maybe...” she whispered, trailing off.

She took in a slow breath, the tension in her shoulders easing slightly, her expression hardening again. Then she stepped forward.

[[Whose subordinate were you?]] she asked, her voice like frost cutting through silence.

Xhen flinched. The invisible pressure constricting him twisted tighter, causing veins to bulge across his neck and forehead. Hairline cracks began to spiderweb across his body, faint embers escaping between them. He gritted his teeth, gasping.

[[Demon King... Baran. The Monarch of White Flame.]]

Kaede blinked, caught off guard. [[Baran? He’s dead, isn’t he?]]

[[Yes.]] Xhen struggled to speak as the cracks crept up his neck, splitting open his flesh and leaking glowing yellow ichor. [[That’s why I brought it with me.]]

Kaede’s brows furrowed. "[[It?]]" she asked sharply. [[What are you talking about?]]

Despite the pain, Xhen managed a crooked grin. Yellow blood seeped between his teeth, sizzling against his lips. [[I knew... that I would eventually find...]]

Boom!

A sudden shockwave tore through the air.

Kaede’s eyes snapped to the side, catching a flash of blinding red in her peripheral vision.

[[...his successor.]]

Before she could react, a flaming fist struck Xhen square in the face, the impact thunderous, like a sun collapsing into itself. The force tore him free from Kaede’s restraints, launching him across the sky.

He crashed through a dozen obsidian spires, each one shattering like glass under the momentum, trailing fire and debris across the horizon.

Time slowed as Kaede laid eyes on the one responsible.

The figure stood tall, her upper half bare, revealing a muscular, sculpted physique marked by dark, swirling patterns that shimmered like ink suspended in water. Her body seemed almost unreal, as if someone had sketched her form with fire and shadow onto reality itself. Each movement carried the surreal grace of a living drawing.

Her hair blazed upward in fiery waves of purple and pink energy, crackling and shifting like an aurora trapped in flame.

Then, she opened her eyes.

Each iris was split into two halves, one side a vibrant fusion of glowing pink and gold, the other cloaked in shadowy purples and midnight blacks. From a distance, they appeared as deep violet orbs etched with golden yin-yang symbols, rotating slowly like celestial wheels.

Kaede froze, breath caught in her throat. Recognition hit her like a hammer.

“Vivi...?”

But there was no reply. The figure gave a single, unreadable blink, and vanished.

A heartbeat later...

BOOM!

The sky tore open ahead of Kaede in a cascade of explosions, shockwaves ripping through the air.

---

Xhen grinned, even as his limbs were torn from his body one by one, ripped away with brutal force. Yellow blood gushed from the wounds in great waves, splattering across the shattered battlefield.

His body was sent hurtling downward, slamming into the deepest part of the island-sized rock. The impact was so violent it cratered the ground beneath him, sending tremors through the floating mass. A spiderweb of cracks split across the rock’s foundation, deep enough to threaten its stability.

An instant later, a red blur descended like a meteor.

Boom!

Vivi slammed into him with such force that the crater deepened further, the rock beneath groaning under the pressure. She stood over him, a living inferno, eyes burning with fury.

Her hand closed around his throat, claws digging into his flesh. She roared in a voice not her own, monstrous and guttural.

[[What did you do to me!?]] she demanded, though she was unaware the words came out in Monster Tongue.

Xhen only smiled through bloodied teeth, even as life drained from his broken body.

[[I gave you... what was rightfully yours, Candidate.]]

He coughed, a wet, painful sound.

[[I gave you your Inheritance.]] His chest heaved with a final breath as he laughed faintly.

Behind Vivi, something immense stirred.

Wings, vast, blazing wings of fire, erupted from her back, dwarfing both her and Xhen. A colossal firebird took shape behind her, majestic and wrathful, its wings spreading wide across the sky.

And then the world began to crack.

The sky above splintered like glass, fragments falling away to reveal a swirling void of deep purple and black, as if reality itself was peeling back before them.

Xhen's gaze lifted toward the firebird, his expression softening. A small, almost wistful smile touched his lips.

[[It’s as beautiful as the first time I saw it... Isn’t it, brother?]]

He looked back to Vivi, his eyes calm now.

[[You want answers? Then do it. Take what is yours.]]

Vivi let out a roar that shook the heavens, then drove her hand into his chest.

Her fingers closed around something glowing.

She pulled it free, a radiant orb, pulsing with warmth and power.

Xhen’s eyes turned dull grey. A second later, his entire body began to petrify, the stone flaking away until nothing remained but dust.

The Elite General died smiling.

Vivi remained standing in the heart of the crater, still engulfed in flame. She stared at the orb as it slowly sank into her palm.

Her breath hitched.

She gasped.

And her eyes flew wide open. The memories flooded in.

---

"This is Reiko Ochako, reporting live for T.J.N News," the reporter said, her voice steady despite the electric tension in the air. "I'm currently standing before what officials have now confirmed to be Japan's second-ever S-Rank Gate."

Behind her loomed a massive crimson portal, pulsing ominously with a heatless glow. A faint hum radiated from it, setting the nerves of everyone nearby on edge. Cameraman Shoji panned the shot to capture the gate in its full magnitude before returning to Reiko.

She wasn’t alone, reporters from nearly every major outlet crowded the area, each jockeying for the best angle. Emergency personnel held the perimeter, and a cautious ring of hunters stood ready just beyond.

"You heard me correctly, second. The first S-Rank gate was officially confirmed only three months ago, and it was cleared in record time by none other than Kaede Tawata, Japan’s twenty-second S-Rank hunter." Her voice sharpened with awe. "And moments ago, that same hunter, the leader of the Maple Tree Guild, walked directly into this Red Gate." She gestured behind her, wide-eyed. "A feat that, until now, has never been witnessed, much less recorded, before."

Suddenly, the Red Gate pulsed and shifted.

A bright shimmer ran across its surface before the entire portal changed color, deep red fading into brilliant, swirling blue.

Gasps erupted across the crowd. Reiko turned to face the gate, stunned speechless. Around her, reporters halted mid-broadcast, hunters paused in disbelief, and even the stoic law enforcement teams stood still, their mouths agape.

It hadn’t even been a full minute. Kaede Tawata had entered, and now...

The surface of the now-blue gate rippled like disturbed water.

Figures began to emerge.

One by one, hunters walked out of the gate, whole and unharmed. Their armor was scorched, their weapons cracked, but they stood tall.

First came a collective exhale. Then, as recognition set in, cheers erupted from the crowd.

They had survived.

Kaede Tawata had done the impossible once again.

---

Kaede walked at the center of the returning hunters, her boots crunching softly against the pavement as camera flashes exploded around them like fireworks.

She raised an eyebrow at the blinding lights. "Reporters are still here?" she muttered under her breath.

"Look this way, please!" one of the reporters called from behind the police cordon, his voice nearly drowned out by the buzzing excitement of the crowd.

"Yeah, I heard time flows differently in red gates," Gine replied with a subdued shrug, her usual bright smile noticeably absent. “Probably wasn’t that long for them.”

Kaede nodded thoughtfully. “Right… that happened with the first one too. Though it looks like the crowd’s even bigger this time.”

Their boots echoed on the asphalt as the group continued forward. Just then, Vivi slowed to a stop.

“I think I’ll head home from here,” she said softly, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “I already dropped off all the loot with Gine-san. That okay?”

Kaede blinked and looked at her. “Yeah, of course. You’ve earned the rest. Some alone time sounds good... if that’s what you want.”

Vivi offered a tired smile, one tinged with something unreadable. “Thanks. See you later… Maple-san.”

Kaede’s expression softened as she watched Vivi turn and disappear into the crowd. She wasn’t sure whether to smile or cry. In the end, she did neither.

She turned to the others. “Anyone else heading off?”

The hunters glanced around at one another before most of them shook their heads.

Kenzo let out a breath. “I need to get back to training anyway.”

“All I need is the vice master, and I’ll be back to peak performance,” Gine declared with a stretch, her energy slowly returning.

Kaede smiled, even as she watched Vivi's fading back.

"See ya later... Mii."