Chapter 64: No Sacrifice, No Victory

The sky trembled as reality itself screamed.

Broken Kanata stood at the heart of the collapsing world, unwrapping the ancient bandages from his arms.
The right arm glowed a deep crimson-blue, scales pulsing like the veins of a slumbering dragon.
The left arm shimmered in radiant gold, divine and venomous in equal measure.

“So this is how it ends… I’ll kill the last version of myself with my own hands.”

His voice was quiet, cold, but laced with centuries of agony.

Across from him, Kanata of the Prime World raised his head. His Cyborg Arm hummed with mechanical life, silver-blue circuits flashing like the heartbeat of a god.
Behind him, the survivors—A.R. Kanata, Elyana, Itsuha, A.R. Celestine, A.R. Aine, and Reiga’s shadow scouts—watched in disbelief.

“Evacuate everyone from this island,” Kanata ordered without looking back. “This fight won’t end quietly.”

“Kanata, are you sure you can defeat him?” asked A.R. Celestine, her voice shaking.

Kanata smiled faintly. “I don’t need to win. I just need to buy enough time for everyone to live.”

Elyana turned toward the rain-filled horizon. Despite the chaos, she felt strangely at peace.
For the first time, she truly understood the kind of man Kanata was.

Broken Kanata took a step forward.
“So… you’ll stand against me, little shadow of perfection?”

The ground split beneath their feet as the storm thickened.

On the northern shore, A.R. Celestine sprinted toward the camp where Itsuha was tying down the tents after the hurricane’s passing.

“Celestine?! Wait—you’re not the one I know.”
“I’ll explain later. Kanata said you need to evacuate. Now. Something big is coming.”

Itsuha looked up at the sky—gold lightning, heavy rain, and the trembling of the island beneath her boots.
That was enough. She nodded.

“Everyone, you heard her! Move! We’re leaving—now!”

Elsewhere, A.R. Aine informed Reiga and Kobayashi of the coming disaster.
They hesitated at first, but when Kanata’s name was spoken, they understood.

The High Elite Wizards fired a yellow flare into the clouds—
the signal that all exams were officially over.

Back in Tokyo, Naomi, Haqua, and A.R. Nagisa boarded a military vessel.
The sea around them churned with golden storms.
They could only pray they weren’t too late.

At the center of the ruins, under a sky of fractured dimensions,
Broken Kanata halted a few meters from his counterpart.

“This is where it ends,” he whispered.
The voice was rough—ancient exhaustion given form.

Prime Kanata faced him calmly. “I don’t want to fight you.”
“There’s no other choice,” Broken replied. “You’re the only fragment left in a world that stayed perfect. A world that should’ve been mine.”

The storm descended.
Every drop of rain was like cold glass striking their skin.
Above them, the sky split open, showing dying reflections of countless lost worlds.
Each flash of lightning was a memory—each thunderclap, a requiem.

They stood face to face, both surrounded by the ruins of creation.

Kanata’s Cyborg Arm pulsed with life, the Overdrive Core inside it glowing like liquid lightning.
The silver plates flexed and locked into place, runes tracing down to his shoulder.

“I created the Fountain to stop time from hurting me,” Broken murmured.
“I know,” Kanata said softly. “I’ve seen everything.”

Broken’s gaze softened—briefly, painfully.
“Then you understand why I have to replace you.”

Kanata lifted his sword of blood, the veins of his mechanical arm glowing brighter.
“There’s nothing to replace. You don’t have to become me.”

Broken laughed bitterly, his voice echoing with thunder.
“I’ve tried being myself—thousands of times. But the world always steals my happiness.”

Lightning fell between them, golden and divine.
The ground shattered.
Kanata didn’t flinch.

Broken pointed toward the Fountain.
“You know this is the only perfect world. The only Fountain that survived. The only place where I can be happy—if I take your place.”

Kanata’s reply was soft but sharp as steel.
“Then let me be the one to break. The world doesn’t need to lose you too.”

The rain stopped.
Time froze.
Broken closed his eyes for a heartbeat—and when they opened, all humanity was gone.

“I envy you… so much it’s tearing me apart.”

He raised his blade, black and fractured by the lines of time itself.
“So now… let’s end this.”

Rain became shards of memory.
Each drop shimmered with images of forgotten worlds—
villages that once stood, cities that burned, faces that had long vanished.

Above, the sky cracked like glass, revealing layers of colliding realities.
Rivers flowed upside down.
Mountains inverted.
Fragments of other universes crashed like falling stars.

And in the midst of it all, two Kanatas clashed like dying suns.

The Cyborg Arm blazed with violent energy, every motion birthing arcs of blue lightning and warped time-fields.
Broken Kanata’s twin dragon arms tore through space itself—one summoning freezing light, the other molten flame.

Their blades collided.
—BRAAANGGG!!!

A shockwave ripped across continents.
Mountains fell.
Oceans split.
The Eternal Fountain shrieked like a wounded god.

Runes burned along Kanata’s arm.
“Clock Shift — Maximum Drive!”
He vanished, reappearing mid-air as a streak of blue light.

Broken turned his wrist.
“Temporal Erase.”

The moment their swords met again, the world split in two.
Every mirror of reality shattered—
a billion fragments of time spilling into the void.

With every blow, the ground screamed.
Each clash tore new fissures in space, revealing glimpses of other timelines—

— A.R. Kanata dying alone.
— Friends from another world crying out.
— A colorless Earth.
— A frozen sky.
— Worlds that had simply… stopped.

Kanata faltered for a second, watching the endless ruin spread.

Broken spoke quietly, almost tenderly.
“This is what my soul has become. Every swing, every breath—brings destruction. I carry ruin wherever I go.”
He looked at Kanata with hollow eyes.
“You’re the only fragment the world refuses to break.”

Kanata tightened his grip on the hilt.
“Then I’ll carry that burden with you.”

Broken roared, eyes burning gold and crimson.
“Don’t talk like you understand my pain!”

He lunged forward.
Kanata met him head-on.

The world fell silent.
Raindrops hung in mid-air.
Light bent and froze.

Their blades collided one last time—
and at that instant, something inside Kanata’s right arm awakened.

A deep, guttural roar echoed from the Cyborg Arm.
The glowing circuits cracked open, revealing scales of obsidian and azure beneath the metal.

“Overdrive Ignition — Limit Break!”

Energy surged. The blue runes flared red, twisting into black flames.
The mechanical hand reshaped—
metal bending into scales, gears melting into flesh.

The dormant Dragon Arm—the true one—merged with the machine.

Broken’s eyes widened.
“That power… it shouldn’t exist anymore.”

Kanata’s voice shook, half-human, half-beast.
“This isn’t power… it’s a promise.”

Lightning converged around him, forming a burning halo.
“Iron Soul Protocol: Activate!”

The ground imploded.
Every swing of his arm shattered time itself, launching waves of plasma and kinetic energy.
Broken countered with his twin dragons—one spewing gold fire, the other freezing blue light.

The two collided.
Reality buckled.
The Fountain howled.

Above the chaos, a single thought burned inside Kanata’s heart—

No sacrifice… no victory.