Some battles are won.

  Others are lost.

  And then…

  there are the ones that simply leave you broken.

  This was one of those.

  And like every deadly dance… the mistake came.

  Satsuki, upon landing, slipped.

  She fell.

  Homura didn’t hesitate.

  —"Got you," she growled.

  Her elbow came down like a hammer.

  Satsuki’s right leg snapped with a sickening, bone-crunching crack.

  Homura raised her sword to end it—

  but even from the ground, Satsuki moved.

  She grabbed her arm and, with a scream of fury, broke it.

  Then, with her Lux, she drove the blade into Homura’s chest—

  piercing her lung.

  Both bled.

  Both trembled.

  Homura clenched her jaw. With her remaining hand, she dislocated Satsuki’s left wrist.

  She wasn’t letting go.

  The arena burned with their agony.

  Blood. Ash. Steam.

  Homura summoned the Phoenix Flames—forcing her lung to heal…

  But something went wrong.

  The organ regenerated—

  but her external wounds didn’t close.

  She looked at Satsuki, confused—

  only to see her writhing in pain.

  Her shattered leg. Her dislocated wrist.

  And now—her side, burned raw, scorched just by standing too close to Homura’s unstable heat.

  They were at their limit.

  Nearly destroyed.

  But ready to finish it.

  And then…

  It happened.

  The seals.

  The 30-minute limit had been exceeded.

  Agony ripped through them—like invisible blades slicing through their souls.

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  It was torture.

  Inhuman.

  But they didn’t fall.

  Not them.

  The climax towered over them,

  a tidal wave of fury and pain.

  They stood—

  bloody, shaking, barely breathing.

  Eyes burning not just with rage…

  but with something deeper.

  Something that screamed from the soul.

  And that’s when the hooded ones appeared.

  Black silhouettes. Fast. Precise. Coordinated.

  On any other day, they would’ve been nothing.

  But now—

  Homura and Satsuki could barely stand.

  Simultaneously, others lunged at Queen Akari. Her guards reacted instantly—

  the coliseum turned to chaos.

  One attacker got too close—

  Akari incinerated him with a flame that roared like a wounded beast.

  Back in the arena, the enemies closed in—

  Until they were intercepted.

  Aunt Matsu.

  The patriarchs.

  The grandfather.

  A living wall of warriors.

  The crowd… didn’t move.

  Frozen in fear.

  And then—

  two shots.

  Silent. Precise.

  One struck the Queen.

  The other—Homura.

  The Queen’s heart skipped.

  She understood immediately.

  —"Hold on," she whispered, pale but steady.

  Then to her guards:

  —"It’s done. Evacuate. I won’t risk any more lives."

  But with Homura…

  it was different.

  Her body—already broken, the seal still active—couldn’t take it.

  Her mana erupted.

  Literally.

  And she screamed.

  A scream not human.

  One that shook the arena’s foundations.

  She collapsed, convulsing.

  The seal on her forbidden technique—Shingan no Ketsuryū—shattered.

  Molten light spilled from her mouth and eyes.

  Like magma.

  As if her insides were being devoured by her own power.

  Satsuki couldn’t move.

  She could only watch.

  Terrified.

  Helpless.

  The adults ran toward Homura.

  —"Dad, what’s happening?!" Ryu Kurogane shouted.

  —"Her mana… it’s overflowing!" the grandfather answered, voice grave.

  —"Was it the fight?!" Matsu asked, breathless.

  —"No… not that. But it doesn’t matter.

  Help me seal her. Now!"

  They formed the Red Dragon Seal—

  But a blast of mana-flame engulfed them.

  They burned.

  But they didn’t stop.

  They endured.

  In the infirmary, Akane and Fei Long tried to restrain Ishiki—who could barely stand.

  —"Let me go! She needs me!" Ishiki roared, eyes burning.

  —"You can’t! You’re on the edge, damn it! You’ll die!" Fei Long held him back with everything he had.

  Seiji stood frozen.

  Clara covered her mouth, wide-eyed.

  Charlotte was crying.

  In shock.

  Saburo crawled to Satsuki—

  shielding her from the blazing chaos in the center of the arena.

  Homura’s scream continued.

  A note from hell, stretching across the coliseum.

  And then…

  A boy broke through.

  Running like his life depended on it—

  a syringe in hand.

  The liquid inside glowed an ethereal blue.

  He dropped to his knees beside Homura—

  and injected her without hesitation.

  The mana slowed.

  Not fully—

  but enough.

  He looked up at the adults, steady and firm.

  —"Now!"

  They reformed the seal.

  This time… it held.

  The internal explosion stopped.

  The roar of power faded.

  The horror…

  was over.

  The third battle had ended.

  No victor.

  Only scars.

  And far more questions than answers.