Chapter 11: THE ZONE

The cemetery shuddered under the pressure of cursed energy.

Fog rolled between the gravestones, curling like restless ghosts as Cyan and Megumi moved through the mist — two streaks of light and darkness striking in perfect sync.

Ethan stood at the center of it all, his breath steady, his hands raised like a conductor commanding chaos.

Each movement of his fingers sent cursed threads whipping through the air, but Megumi was already gone — slipping into the shadows Cyan had planted across the battlefield.

He reappeared at Ethan’s blind side.

Crack!

Playful Cloud slammed into Ethan’s ribs, sending him stumbling.

Before he could recover, Cyan burst from another shadow — elbow first — catching him across the jaw.

Ethan staggered again. 

Blood flew. 

The ground split beneath his heels.

Megumi vanished.
Cyan appeared.
Megumi reappeared.
Cyan struck again.

Their rhythm was surgical — an unspoken dance of precision and trust.

Each attack flowed into the next, leaving Ethan with no room to counter, no time to breathe.

From a distance, Amanda watched, her eyes wide. 

Petals from her earlier technique still drifted faintly around her like glowing embers.

“They’re working well as a team…” she murmured. “We might just beat this guy.”

Ethan dropped to one knee, breath ragged.

 Bruises bloomed across his arms and face; blood streaked the corners of his mouth.

Each impact from Playful Cloud, each knee and elbow from Cyan, pushed him closer to the edge.

He smiled.

A small, broken smile that looked almost… peaceful.

“So this is it,” he thought. 

“The threshold. The line between death and clarity.”

His vision blurred. The roar of battle dimmed.

And in that stillness, something inside him snapped — or awakened.

A caterpillar in a cocoon… breaking free into light.

He looked up, blood dripping from his chin, eyes wild.

“Yes!” His voice cracked into a manic laugh. 

“This is it! What I’ve been looking for this whole time!”

A surge of cursed energy exploded from his core — a blinding, golden shockwave that hurled Cyan and Megumi backward.

The ground cratered beneath his feet.

 Lightning streaked through the fog, coiling around him like a living thing. 

His entire body began to glow, veins illuminated in yellow light.

Amanda’s breath caught in her throat.
Her pupils dilated as the realization hit.

“That’s the Zone!…” she whispered.

Megumi pushed himself up, his chest heaving. 

“What?”

Amanda’s voice trembled as she watched Ethan rise, his movements suddenly fluid — effortless.

“The Zone is a state… where a sorcerer’s mind becomes completely still. No hesitation. Just instinct,”

“The Zone isn’t just a power up— it’s about total surrender. When you stop thinking, stop fearing… and what’s left is everything you are.”

“Cursed energy flows perfectly in that state. Every strike, every motion — pure efficiency.”

“And near-death… is the trigger.”

Cyan’s eyes widened as Ethan stepped forward, his golden aura humming like thunder.

“So he’s… evolved?”

Amanda nodded slowly. 

“No. He’s awakened.”

Ethan looked down at his hands, flexing them as golden sparks danced between his fingers.

For a moment, he almost seemed in awe of himself.

Then his gaze lifted — and the madness returned.

“Sharp…” he murmured, voice distant yet clear.

“I’m sharper than ever.”

Before anyone could react, he vanished — the ground beneath his last step fracturing from sheer force.

Megumi barely saw the flicker before Ethan appeared behind him, fist already cocked.

 Cyan shouted, shadows rushing to intercept—

Impact.

The entire cemetery detonated in a flash of yellow light.

Boulders split. 

Trees tore from their roots. 

The veil above them flickered like a dying flame.

Amanda shielded her eyes, petals scattering in panic.

Through the haze, she saw Ethan standing amidst the ruin — golden, radiant, terrifying.

Cyan and Megumi lay on opposite ends of the field, struggling to rise.

Ethan tilted his head, smiling faintly.

“Come now,” he said softly. 

“Don’t stop now. We were just getting started.”

The fog trembled.

Lightning whispered through the soil.

The fight was far from over.

THE ZONE (PART II)

The air split with every clash.

Ethan moved like lightning — no hesitation, no wasted motion. 

Every strike, every step, calculated by instinct alone.

Cyan and Megumi fought back in unison, their coordination still sharp, but even together… they were being overwhelmed.

Cyan’s Shadow Garden spread beneath them like living ink — the only thing keeping them alive.

Her darkness surged and bent reality itself, teleporting her and Megumi between flickering patches of shadow just fast enough to avoid Ethan’s killing blows.

Amanda watched from behind the wreckage of a fallen monument, her hands trembling.

The petals of Pure Blossom drifted weakly in the air, unable to stabilize under the crushing pressure.

“This guy… he’s unbeatable in this state,” she whispered. 

“I’ve only ever seen one other person use it — Elle.”

Her words disappeared under the roar of the storm Ethan created with each movement.

Cyan appeared behind him, silent as her shadow — elbow drawn back, cursed energy swirling around her arm like smoke.

But Ethan didn’t need to see her.

His body sensed her coming

He pivoted instantly and drove a straight palm into her gut.

CRACK.

The impact sent Cyan hurtling backward — crashing through a line of trees, then slamming hard into a boulder. 

The stone cracked beneath her, dust and blood filling the air.

“Cyan!” Megumi shouted, but he didn’t have time to check on her. Ethan was already in front of him.

Megumi swung Playful Cloud, channelling cursed energy into its three sections, each strike aimed with surgical precision.

Ethan caught it.

With one hand.

He smirked, twisted, and used Megumi’s own momentum to hurl him skyward like a ragdoll.

Before Megumi could stabilize midair, Ethan vanished, reappearing above him.

The next moment, Playful Cloud — now in Ethan’s hand — was driven into Megumi’s ribs.

The impact sent him plummeting through the air, crashing into the forest floor, tearing through bark and roots until he finally stopped.

Amanda’s scream broke through the chaos. “Megumi!”

The battlefield fell eerily quiet. Smoke and dust curled around the shattered valley, the remnants of shadow still rippling under Cyan’s feet as she struggled to stand.

Her breathing was ragged. Her body screamed in pain.

“How… how do we beat this guy?”

The thought barely formed before another voice answered — smooth, mocking, and far too familiar.

“You look beat,” the voice said. 

Then laughter.

Cyan froze. 

She wanted to scream, to run — but something inside her whispered:

She wanted to scream, to run — but something inside her whispered

“You’ve always been mine.”

Her eyes widened. 

That voice.

“Jaden…” she whispered.

Then pain.

Sharp and sudden.

An eye opened on her forehead — crimson and gleaming.

And a mouth split open along her left cheekbone, curling into a grotesque grin.

The little mouth began to chant — words ancient and alien, vibrating through the air.

The sound wasn’t human. 

It was primal, divine, and terrifying.

Cyan’s cursed energy erupted like a storm.

Gale-force winds tore through the valley, flattening what was left of the trees. 

The ground split beneath her as shadows warped and twisted outward, pulsing like veins of living darkness.

Amanda shielded her face, staring in disbelief.

“Her cursed energy… it’s skyrocketing!”

Cyan looked down at her hands, horrified — and yet awed. The energy coursing through her was wild, alive, & endless.

“This… this power. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”

Jaden’s voice came through the small mouth again, calm and almost amused.

“I’m letting you borrow some of my power. Overwhelm his instincts — that’s the only way you’ll beat him.”

Cyan gritted her teeth.

“Why are you helping me? There’s always a hidden agenda with you.”

For a moment, silence. Then the eye on her forehead narrowed, glowing blood-red.

Her vision shifted — reality peeled away.

Suddenly, she could see cursed energy — not as colour, but as threads and pulses, every strand weaving through the air like a living map.

She gasped.

“I see… I see everything.”

Jaden’s chuckle echoed in her mind.

“You’re my vessel, Cyan. I need you alive…” he paused, the grin in his voice audible.

“…for now.”

Cyan exhaled sharply. 

“Yeah… I don’t like the sound of that.”

Ethan stood across the clearing, golden aura blazing. His eyes locked on hers — the new eye, the mouth, the black winds circling her like a curse reborn.

He started laughing.

Slow, low, and utterly unhinged.

“So it’s true,” he said, voice trembling with thrill. “You really are the vessel… of Jaden Ryūmen.”

The earth shook as both their cursed energies flared — gold and black colliding like two gods preparing to end the world.

Cyan moved first.

 Her strikes were cleaner, sharper — Wing Chun precision in every motion. 

Ethan blocked a jab, slipped past a straight, and countered with an uppercut.

Cyan parried it with her palm and struck upward with the other — her blow cracked beneath his chin like a thunderclap, sending him skidding backward, blood arcing through the air.

 

Ethan grinned through the pain.

 

Their movements blurred — palm, elbow, knee, block. 

A rhythm of violence, tightening with every exchange.

 

A few meters away, Amanda dropped beside Megumi, her hands glowing faint blue.

“Hold still,” she said, RCT surging through him, knitting bone and mending flesh.

 Megumi groaned, pushing himself up in time to watch Cyan drive Ethan back.

“She’s keeping up with him,” he muttered.

 “No—she’s overpowering him.”

Amanda’s gaze trembled.

“That cursed energy…” Her voice dropped to a whisper. 

“It’s not human.”

 

Cyan’s aura crackled — black waves threaded with gold and crimson, distorting the air. 

Each step forward shook the ground.

 Ethan ducked under a roundhouse, his grin widening.

“Impressive.”

Then he slipped past her next straight and drove a jab into her gut.

The air around Ethan folded inward.

Sound vanished.

And then — the world snapped.

“Black Flash!”

Black and red energy spiraled around his arm — condensed, precise.

The impact sounded like thunder.

Cyan’s body was launched backward, crashing into the Kuils River with a violent splash that shook the banks.

 

Megumi’s eyes widened. “He—he used a Black Flash!”

 

Amanda stared, her hands frozen mid-heal.

“This guy… he’s a prodigy.”