Chapter 5 Part Two: Eye of the Storm

Battle Start — 4 vs 2

[Maya + Christian vs. Megumi]
[Keith + Ava vs. Jason]

Megumi vs Maya and Christian

“Try to keep up,” Megumi murmured—and vanished.

She reappeared behind Christian with inhumane speed, blade already mid-swing. Christian spun and blocked, barely catching the strike with his reinforced gloves, spiritual energy sparking at the impact.

CLANG!

Christian winced. “Too fast…”

Maya tried to flank, teleporting behind Megumi—but she pivoted cleanly, sword slicing horizontally, forcing her to warp out mid-swing.

“She’s reading my movements…” she growled, crouching beside Christian again.

Christian grit his teeth. “Her strikes… they make no sound.”

Maya blinked. “What?”

“No wind. No vibration.”

She saw it now. Megumi’s blade didn’t slice the air—it glided past it.

Megumi lunged for Christian again. In that instant, Maya grabbed his shoulder and teleported him three meters left.

Megumi’s strike cleaved empty air.

Christian blinked. “That was close.”

Megumi chuckled, turning toward Maya with curious interest.

 “You… make this fun. Very few think like that mid-battle.”

“Are you part of the Order?” Maya asked, eyes narrowed.

Megumi smiled, unfazed. “And what if I am?”

Jason vs Ava and Keith

Jason sprinted backward, leaping onto a concrete divider as Keith gave chase.

“Spirit Expand,” Keith muttered again, casting another wave of detection—reading Jason’s motion.

Ava flicked her wrist. “He’s fast. Kinda like Christian, but twitchier.”

Keith nodded. “Still wet behind the ears, and cocky.”

Jason suddenly stopped and turned. “You two suck at stealth,” he muttered, eyes glowing faintly as his Leosphere expanded—a translucent sphere that warped around him, displacing trajectories and vision lines.

Ava grinned. “His ability’s a copycat version of Christian’s. I've fought Christian before. Beat him too.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

FZZT!

In an instant, Ava shimmered. Time distorted.

Time Freeze.

She reappeared behind Jason and launched a roundhouse kick straight to his ribs. Jason's Leosphere tried to block the force with his left arm, but it couldn't recalibrate in time.

He flew over the edge of the highway, slamming into the lower road divider.

Jason groaned, left arm dangling awkwardly. “Okay. Okay. That’s a broken arm.”

Back to Maya + Christian

Megumi pressed forward. Blade spinning, feinting, slicing. Christian ducked, weaved, blocked.

But he was sweating.

Each strike was faster. Each swing more deliberate.

Maya’s teleportation helped—barely—but even that was becoming predictable.

She narrowed her eyes. “Christian—cover me.”

She vanished.

Megumi slashed at her image—only to find nothing.

Christian surged forward. Megumi pivoted to meet him—but Maya reappeared above, mid-air, foot glowing with a charged burst of energy.

Megumi spun in time to block—but the force of her descending strike sent them both crashing into the highway divider.

Maya walked towards Christian, bruised but steady. “One down.”

Keith exhaled. “Two, if we’re lucky.”

But Megumi had already risen from the dust, blood running down her lip—and a wicked smile playing on her face.

“This is going to be fun.”

Jason – Final Clash

Jason stumbled to his feet at the Cape Town Harbour, coughing. “Megumi better give me a raise…”

Keith dropped down from above, fingers glowing with a spiritual weave.

“Soul Chain.”

Chains of spirit essence shot from his palms, aiming to restrain Jason.

Jason grunted, activating Leosphere again, narrowly dodging—but Ava was already there.

She faked left, feinted a high kick—and when Jason tried to counter, she whispered:

“Probability warp.”

Jason’s strike missed wildly.

Ava didn’t.

Her palm landed squarely in his gut.

Jason went flying—straight into the cold waters of the harbour, vanishing with a splash.

 The Tiger’s Eye

Jason’s boots skidded across shattered pavement, breath ragged, chest tight. Pain flared white-hot through his ribs, and his arm hung limp by his side—broken. He cursed under his breath. He hadn’t expected her to hit that hard.

Ava and Keith landed with sharp precision, both agents immediately closing the gap.

Jason staggered back, clutching his side, watching them. “How…?” 

His eyes narrowed at Ava. “How do you do that? I know I countered your strikes. Mine should’ve landed.”

Ava didn’t answer. Her expression remained unreadable, eyes sharp with focus. Keith stepped beside her, jaw tightening.

“Get back,” he warned. “He’s not normal.”

Jason’s body straightened as his broken arm began to bend back into place, bones sliding into alignment with a sickening crunch. His ribs followed, each crack sealing. Keith’s eyes widened.

“That’s not low-level regeneration,” he muttered.

 “That’s… either from advanced study methods—or you have to be a prodigy.”

Jason looked up, voice quiet. “For me, it's both.”

Without waiting, Keith summoned his Soul Chains again. Azure light coiled from his fingers, the air buzzing with spiritual frequency. Ava crouched low beside him, aura humming around her.

But Jason had already begun. His voice dropped into a calm cadence, words slipping from his lips like a ritual.

“Length, Width and Height.”

His spiritual volume flared open, pages unwinding around him in luminous script. Energy burst outward.

“Spiritual Volume: Eye of the Tiger.”

Before Ava could stop him, the void consumed them.

It was silent—eerily so. The world had dissolved into a black expanse, the ground non-existent, the air oppressive. Floating in the endless dark, Ava blinked.

A single eye stared down from the void above—a tiger’s eye. It didn’t blink. It only watched. Cold. Patient. Ancient.

“Keith?” she called.

No reply.

Then—light flickered. Not from the tiger, but from inside her. She saw herself. A girl, no older than ten, crouched beside a burning car. Sirens. Screams. Her hand outstretched to a figure beneath rubble.

Her father.

And then the trauma rewound, sharpened, deepened. The moments she buried. The choices she made. The guilt she never voiced.

Ava’s throat locked. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t blink—the Eye of the Tiger wouldn’t let her. It wasn’t just showing her the memory; it was peeling it open, raw and bright, until the smell of smoke and sirens filled her lungs again.

She bit her tongue until it was bleeding- forcing herself not to scream. Her hands shook. Her body wanted to run, to curl into a ball, but there was nowhere to go in the void.

And then—silence. Only the unblinking eye above, watching, stalking, if to say: I know what you hide.

Elsewhere, across the battlefield—

Christian adjusted his stance, whispering to Maya, “Distract him for me. I’ll use my spiritual volume.”

Maya nodded, reluctantly.

“Length, Width and Height.”

Spiritual Volume: Maximum Instinct

Christian’s volume ignited—a brilliant tapestry of colours and mirrors unfurling around them. He launched forward with deceptive speed, glyphs circling his arms.

Megumi tilted her head. Unamused.

With a sigh, she slid into a samurai stance—feet planted, hand on the hilt of an invisible sword.

“Ioi Slash: Counter Style—Water Flow.”

It was like time folded. Invisible slashes surged through the air—soundless, formless, like the current of a river striking everything in its path.

Maya’s eyes widened as she watched Christian’s spiritual volume fracture, then shatter.

The mirrors of his volume split with a brittle sound, like glass cracking under a weight it could never bear. 

For a moment, Christian almost believed he could hold it together—that faith & strength alone might steady the world.

But when the colours of his volume scattered, his belief shattering with it.

Power shapes reality, he had always believed. That strength meant survival.

Yet here he was—bleeding, falling, watching his own reality collapse beneath a single sword stroke.

And for the first time, he wondered if faith was just another lie told to orphans who had nothing else.

Blood trailed from the gashes across his upper body before he dropped to the ground.

Maya opened her mouth to scream, to react—

“Too slow.”

Megumi’s blade—the real one—touched her shoulder. Energy surged through her nervous system. Her limbs stopped responding.

Paralyzed.

Megumi exhaled, calm as always. “You’re strong. Just inexperienced.”

She turned away, letting the silence linger.

“For what it’s worth,” he added, “I’m not part of the Order.”

Maya’s brow furrowed. “Then… why are you here? Who are you?”

Megumi looked over her shoulder, voice distant. “Just a tourist sightseeing.”

Back in the void, Jason struggled to keep the Eye active. His breathing was laboured; maintaining it was draining. But then—a flicker of pressure behind him.

Megumi emerged from the shadows, his spiritual presence coiled like smoke.

Megumi didn’t answer. Instead, he unsheathed his blade and whispered:

“Counter Style Slash.”

A clean, elegant arc severed the dark plane—without touching a single life inside it. Ava, Keith, and Jason dropped out of the volume into the real world as the Eye shattered into nothingness.

Jason groaned, steadying himself. “Why?”

“You’re wasting time,” Megumi said, brushing imaginary dust from his sleeve. “They’re AZO agents. Not our targets.”

Jason narrowed his eyes. “How do you know that?”

“That girl. If she were part of the Order....”

 Megumi replied, “she’d be dead.”

Suddenly, multiple new spiritual signatures flared in the distance—heavy, familiar.

“Reinforcements,” Megumi muttered. “Time to go.”

And then they vanished.

Minutes later, a transport team from AZO descended. Helena ran forward, her hands already glowing with soft gold. She crouched beside Christian first, whispering healing chants, her brow furrowed in worry. Then to Maya. Then to Ava and Keith.

Christian struggled to his feet, but his hands trembled. His shattered spiritual volume still flickered faintly around him—cracked mirrors refusing to vanish. He shut his eyes, ashamed. Faith shapes reality… The words rang hollow now. His silence told the others everything he couldn’t.

Ava stirred, half-conscious, Keith crouching beside her. She gripped his sleeve with surprising strength, whispering through chattering teeth:

“…it's still watching me… don’t let it back in…”

Her head lolled as she passed out, leaving Keith pale and speechless.

Maya stood apart, eyes fixed on the spot where Megumi had disappeared. Her jaw tightened. 

“Why didn’t he finish us?” she muttered, more to herself than anyone.

 “She could have… but she didn’t.” The thought gnawed at her, sharper than her bruises.

By the time reinforcements arrived, the battlefield was quiet, but the four of them were not. They had lost ground, yes—but each carried something heavier than defeat:

Christian, a fracture in his faith.

Ava, a shadow she couldn’t escape.

Maya, a question that wouldn’t let her sleep.

And Keith: Keith was just Keith. The one who had to be strong and keep everyone together.

They were battered, bruised, but alive.

When they returned to HQ, Xulu stood beside Miloslav in the atrium—expression grim.

Maya stepped forward.

“We failed to apprehend them,” she said. “But they weren’t Order.”

Keith added, “They were… something else. Far more dangerous.”

Miloslav’s gaze narrowed.

Xulu crossed his arms. “Then our enemies are multiplying.”

No one said anything for a moment.

The shadows in District 7 started lurking.

And the war—had only just begun.