Chapter 09 Breaking Through the Limits

It stopped flailing. The dramatic tone vanished, replaced by a flat, mocking voice.

"...I'm just kidding!"

It then puckered its shadowy lips and with a single, dismissive pffft, blew out the raging blue flames as if they were nothing more than birthday candles on a cake.

It looked directly at Enji.

"You call that pathetic little fart a 'Blue Flame'? You must be a clown or something. Didn't think anyone would tell a joke that funny right before they die! You're a strange human."

Before Enji could even process the insult, the creature simply swiped its clawed hand through the air. There was no energy blast, no spell—just the sheer, overwhelming air pressure from the swing. It hit Enji like an invisible freight train, lifting him off his feet and hurling him backward to crash against a shattered tree trunk, where he slumped, unconscious.

The creature's gaze swept over the devastated clearing. Instructor down. Students scattered and broken. Its eyes landed on the one spot: Shota, standing motionless inside his blue bubble.

"Huh? What do we have here. That's strange. One survived the blast. Well, no matter... Die!"

It swiped its clawed hand dismissively through the air. Three scything arcs of dark energy screamed across the distance and slammed directly into Shota's barrier.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The triple explosion rocked the Otama Gorge, sending new tremors through the ground and kicking up a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The creature didn't even bother to look back, already turning to leave.

"Well, he's dead. Time to go back to..."

Its thought trailed off. A faint, steady blue glow persisted in the settling dust. It stopped and slowly turned its head.

The dust cleared. Shota's barrier didn't have a single scratch, flicker, or even a smudge on its surface. It was as untouched as it had been before the attack.

The creature looked down at its own claw, then back at the impossible barrier.

"Huh... did I hold back? I think I hit it pretty strong."

Intrigued now, it slowly descended until it was hovering right in front of the barrier. It reached out one razor-sharp claw and scraped it against the blue surface.

SCREEE-

A shower of bright white sparks erupted from the point of contact. The barrier remained unmarred. Instead, the tip of the creature's own sharp claw was visibly dulled, as if filed down.

It pulled its hand back, examining the damaged claw.

"Hmmmm... interesting. This barrier pretty strong. How about this then?"

Just as the creature raised his claw, a voice come from the tree line—a high, giggly, almost singsong tone cracking with euphoria.

"Hey, hey, shadow-saaan~?"

The creature turned. 

Mirai stood at the edge of the clearing, one hand braced against a tree. Her whole body trembled, but not from fear. It was the tremble of barely contained ecstasy. A furious blush painted her cheeks, and her smile was so wide it looked like it might split her face, a gleeful smile she tried—and failed—to hide behind her hand.

"Hey, listen. I ignored you fighting the instructor and others. I honestly couldn't care less what you do to them. But then... you touched my Sho-kun. You... you don't get to touch my Sho-kun. His pain, his fear, his beautiful, broken moments... they're all for me. For my eyes only. He's for my hands, and mine alone. Every bit of him belongs to me. And you…” she tilted her head, almost playfully, “you’ve overstayed your welcome, shadow-saaaan~!"

She took a wobbly step forward, a delirious giggle escaping her covered lips.

"I think It's time for you to leave, okay? So please... just disappear."

The shadow tilted its head as Mirai’s mana rippled across the gorge like static. It chuckled, a hollow, echoing sound. 

 “Hmmm… this one’s a bit more interesting. You’re all kinds of crazy, aren’t you, human girl? I can sense it—your power. Not as strong as mine, no, but... definitely better than the last guy with his little blue fart tricks. But don’t you worry, pretty thing. I’ll leave... when you’re all dead—”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh~! I hoped you’d say that shadow-san~!!”

The ground beneath her feet cracked—veins of light spiderwebbing outward as the air imploded. A thunderclap of pressure followed, kicking up dust in a perfect ring.

Mirai blurred—one instant standing still, the next already in front of him. Her golden curls whipped violently in the wake of her speed, her pupils dilated, a feverish smile carved across her face.

Her arm was mid-swing, the flesh of it already turning to stone as the drill of rock spiraled to life around her fist.

“Hey, hey! Let’s play, shadow-saaaaaanyoooo~!”

The blow came with a sonic boom, the earth itself screaming as the drill-arm slammed forward, tearing through air. The shadow exhaled slowly, almost bored. His claws flexed, glinting like blades of obsidian. 

“Charging at me head-on, huh... and here I thought this might get interesting. Dumb girl.”

His arm swept sideways.

SHRAAK—

The sound tore through the gorge. Mirai’s body split cleanly in two, her upper half sliding from her lower before collapsing onto the cracked ground.

 “What a disappointment. This one showed promise. A bit of entertainment but I was wrong.”

 He looked at his hand, narrowing his glowing eyes. On his claw—dust, not blood. 

"Hmmm? A rock clone?"

He looked at her body; the pieces crumbled into fine sand. 

 “…Ahhh. Not so dumb after all. Clever girl.”

The ground rumbled under his feet. Cracks spread outward like lightning veins, the air vibrating with pressure.

BOOM.

Hundreds of pillars of stone erupted from below, rising in rapid succession until they enclosed him in a titanic dome of living rock, sealing him inside.

For a moment, there was only silence. Then—

Thud.

Mirai stepped out of the stone wall. Then another emerged from a different angle, and another, and another.

The dome filled with dozens of Mirais, each one smiling that same unhinged, delighted grin.

The shadows inside the dome twisted with their movement as the clones began to dart between walls, flashing and rebounding faster than the human eye could follow, their laughter echoing in layers—soft, playful, and manic.

“Let's play, shadow-san-yooo~!”

Mirai's earth clones lunged, their drills spinning. They were faster, more aggressive than before, a reflection of her frantic state. They managed to score a few shallow gashes across the creature's shadowy form, drawing flickers of dark energy.

"Not bad, human girl! You managed to scratch me! But... not good enough."

It curled in on itself, then violently swiped its hands outward. A visible pressure wave erupted from its body, slamming into the rock dome Mirai had created. The dome cracked, then exploded outward, raining rocks down across the gorge.

Before the dust could settle, the creature meteor-d down, slamming its fist into the ground with a roar of his spell.

"DARKNESS WAVE!"

 The ground cracked and erupted in a circle around it. Massive chunks of the gorge peeled away and were hurled into the air, leaving a vast, gaping crater. The shockwave pulverized the remaining clones into dust.

From the settling rubble, the real Mirai stumbling forward. In a flash, the creature was before her. A shadowy claw snapped shut around her neck, lifting her off the ground.

"Oh. You seem like the real one this time. Well, it was short, but fun while it lasted. Got any more tricks? Well? Does the little mouse have one last trick? Come on, I will entertain you. Give it your best shot!"

A choked, gurgling laugh escaped her lips. Her eyes, wide with a mix of pain and delirious excitement, remained locked on the creature.

 "Hahahaha! J-just... one..." 

She tapped her foot against the ground. Polished, steel drills the size of small trees erupted in a vicious forest from the earth. They weren't just pushing upward; they were spinning at high-pitched whine, a carpet of industrial destruction designed to shred and impale. It was an evolution of her magic, a final, desperate upgrade from stone to metal.

With a sound like a hundred bells shattering, the creature simply swiped its claw. Every single steel drill was sheared clean off at the base, their twisted, broken tops spinning away. The creature didn't even bother to land. It simply floated upward, its shadowy form untouched, and its claw tightened once more around Mirai's throat, lifting her limp, gasping body off the ground.

"See...? Pretty... cool... right...?" 

Mirai dangled in its grip, directly in front of Shota's barrier, her feet kicking weakly in the air. Her eyes found Shota's.