Chapter 49: The Blade That Shattered the Sky

The world burned red.
Lightning slashed through the storm clouds, scattering ashes and embers across the city below.
Tokyo Tower trembled under the clash between a fallen god and a cursed boy.

Kanata stood with his sword of blue flame drawn, his hair whipping wildly in the blood-soaked wind.
Across from him, Vlad hovered effortlessly—cloak billowing like wings, his eyes glowing with infernal delight.

“You’re still standing?” Vlad sneered. “Good. I prefer my prey defiant.”

Kanata tightened his grip, his breath visible in the cold night air.
“Then you’ll love this.”

They vanished.
To anyone watching, they would have looked like two streaks of light colliding midair.

CLANG!
The impact split the tower’s steel frame.
Energy crackled through the structure as glass exploded outward in showers of fire and rain.

Vlad’s claws met Kanata’s blade—each strike throwing shockwaves across the skyline.

“<Crimson Oath>!”
Kanata’s sword blazed brighter, waves of blue light cutting through the darkness. He swung upward—his strike tearing through the air like a meteor.

But Vlad was faster.
He deflected the blade with one hand, his grin widening.
“Impressive. But your strikes lack purpose.”

Kanata slid backward, boots scraping against metal, sparks trailing his feet.
“Purpose, huh? My purpose is simple.”
He lunged again. “To end you!”

Below the tower’s mid-level, Lucy fought her sisters—Subject-01, 03, and 04.
Their movements were synchronized, elegant, deadly.

“Sister,” Subject-01 hissed, eyes glowing. “Father commands your death.”

Lucy’s tears glistened in the red moonlight.
“Then I’ll save you, even if I have to kill you!”

She twirled, her nails morphing into shining blades of blood. The sisters clashed in a storm of crimson light—fangs and claws striking faster than lightning.
The sound of their battle echoed through the steel corridors as Lucy’s cries mixed with the roars of her kin.

Back above, Kanata felt his power surging again—the Right Hand of Oblivion pulsing with uncontrollable energy.
The blue veins on his arm glowed brighter, threatening to consume him once more.

“No… not now…” he growled, forcing control through sheer will.

Vlad laughed, circling him like a hawk.
“You’re trying to restrain a dragon with human resolve? Pathetic!”

He raised his hand, summoning a crimson sphere that pulsed like a living heart.
“<Blood Nova>!”

The blast hit Kanata dead-on.
The explosion tore through the upper section of Tokyo Tower, sending flaming debris across the skyline.
Kanata was thrown backward, crashing through the iron lattice.

For a moment, everything went silent.

Then, from the smoke, a figure emerged—burned, bleeding, but unbroken.

“You’re still alive?” Vlad asked, genuinely amused.

Kanata spat blood, wiping his mouth. “Takes more than that to kill me.”

Their battle reignited.

Vlad appeared behind him, claws aiming for his heart. Kanata ducked, spun, and countered with a dragon’s roar that erupted from his lungs.
“<Dragon Breath>!”

The torrent of blue flame engulfed Vlad, hurling him upward. Kanata followed, breaking through the cloud barrier, striking again and again.
Each swing of his sword split the sky with trails of fire.

But Vlad caught the blade mid-strike—barehanded.

The steel screeched.
Cracks spidered along the blade, spreading like ice over glass.

Kanata’s eyes widened. “No—”

“Your resolve is admirable,” Vlad said calmly, tightening his grip. “But resolve without power… is just noise.”

And with a casual twist of his wrist—

CRACK.

The blue blade shattered.

Fragments of Kanata’s sword scattered across the night, glittering like dying stars.
The shockwave knocked him back, slamming him against the steel framework.

Vlad hovered above him, eyes burning with cruel satisfaction.
“Look at you—broken, desperate, helpless. Did you really think you could kill me?”

Kanata’s breathing slowed. His right hand trembled, the remnants of his sword fading into mist.

“No weapon… no plan… nothing left but foolish defiance.”
Vlad’s voice dripped with mockery. “You are not a hero, Kanata. You are a mistake.”

He drove his clawed hand forward, piercing Kanata’s shoulder. Blood sprayed across the steel.

“So weak. So mortal.”
He leaned close, whispering. “And so… predictable.”

But then—Kanata smiled.

A quiet, defiant smile that made Vlad pause.

“You’re right,” Kanata said, blood dripping from his mouth. “I am weak.”

Vlad frowned. “What—?”

Kanata’s hand clenched around the broken fragment of his sword.
It pulsed once—then began to glow, brighter and brighter, until the light consumed his arm entirely.

“But weakness…” he whispered, voice rising, “is exactly what makes us human.”

The shards of the shattered blade began to rise, orbiting around him in a ring of blue fire.
The mark on his right arm blazed like the eye of a dragon awakening once more.

“Let me show you,” Kanata said softly, his gaze locking with Vlad’s. “The power you’ll never understand.”

Vlad’s smirk returned. “Oh? Another trick, little dragon?”

Kanata’s aura erupted like a supernova, shaking the heavens.
Lightning streaked across the clouds, and the Red Moon itself seemed to dim in his presence.

Vlad shielded his eyes from the sudden burst of light.
“What—what are you doing!?”

Kanata raised his hand.
The shards formed a circle around his arm, the dragon’s sigil blazing across his palm.

“Finishing what I started.”