Chapter 23:

The War in Solarii Part 2 (ソラーリの戦争 / Sorāri no Sensō)

The Last Genesis

The sky over Solarii shook as if the heavens themselves were being split apart.

Hajime reached the center of the crater just in time to see three pillars of power crash together above the shattered gate. Sunfire tore through the clouds. Corruption waves rolled across the ruins like a living storm. A blade of void carved a perfect line through the smoke, slicing the air without sound.

He froze.

Izumi stopped beside him, vines tightening around her calves. Sweat ran down her cheek despite the burning heat around them. “That isn't normal battle aura,” she said quietly.

Hajime didn’t answer. His throat locked.

Up on the broken platform near the breach, the three Celestine lords stood like anchors against a cosmic tide.

Hayate’s aura burned gold-white, a halo of sunfire rolling behind him.
Raiden’s seraphim wings spread wide, their edges shimmering like glass.
Kazuki’s healing radiance flowed like ribbons of green light.

Across from them, emerging through the broken gate, the three Chainbound Lords stepped forward.

Kurotaka’s corruption aura sank into the ground, turning stone into sludge.
Renjirō’s serpentine Seiki twisted around him like a living coil.
Shigure’s void halos spun behind him, bending the flames backward.

The air between the two sides warped.
The world felt smaller.
Hajime suddenly felt like a child standing before giants.

“I’m not close to achieving my dream,” he muttered. “Not even close.”

Adam spoke from deep inside him, voice rough and unimpressed. “Slow and steady. They didn't become this strong overnight.”

The sky cracked.

Hayate vanished.

A streak of gold tore across the battlefield. “Solar Lancer!”

His spear thrust downward with the force of a falling sun. Kurotaka lifted his cleaver and snarled.

“Blight-Rend Point.”

Light and corruption collided.
The shockwave blew apart the nearest walls.
Ash rained from the sky like snow.

Raiden’s blades moved next. “Choral Edge. First Verse.”

Wind harmonized with each slash, creating a rhythm that sliced the air. Renjirō bent backward until his head nearly touched the ground, laughing as he twisted through the openings.

“Serpent-Body Deviation. Now this is fun.”

He slithered forward, claws snapping like fangs.

Kazuki moved softly, stepping into the gaps, staff glowing. “Grace Light.”

A beam of healing force shot toward Shigure, but the Chainbound Lord slipped into a crack of darkness as if stepping into another dimension.

“Shadow Step.”

He reappeared behind Kazuki, Mirrorblade descending. Kazuki turned and sliced a green arc upward.

“Withering Line.”

The two attacks met with a ringing note that vibrated through the entire plaza.

Hajime shielded his face with his arm as dust and debris hit him. Izumi crouched beside a wounded soldier, using her vines to protect him from falling rubble.

The six lords tore across the battlefield like storms.

Hayate’s spear painted arcs of sun-bright heat across the sky. Each clash with Kurotaka sent bursts of light and corruption flying, melting stone into liquid pools. Hayate pivoted, thrusting again. “Radiant Break!”

The downward smash cracked the ground. Kurotaka skidded back, half his armor burning away, but he only grinned wider, corruption pouring from his shoulders.

Raiden danced with Renjirō in a swirl of light and serpents. Sparks flew as claws met blades. Raiden’s voice remained calm even under pressure. “Echo Parry.”

He redirected a serpentine strike into a building wall. Renjirō licked his own blood from his arm.

“Serpent-Bite Armament.”

His gauntlets twisted into living snake heads that snapped toward Raiden’s throat.

Kazuki and Shigure moved like dueling concepts.

Healing and void.
Creation and erasure.

Kazuki raised his staff. “Decay Sigil.”

A decaying mark tore across Shigure’s chest, eating through cloth and skin. Shigure barely reacted. He lifted his Mirrorblade, voice barely above a whisper.

“Dark Severance.”

A void slash cut the air and nearly took Kazuki’s arm.

Hajime stared upward as all six lords collided again in a blinding exchange of light and shadow.

This wasn’t a fight.
This was a war between Wills.

He looked at his own hands, still covered in dried blood, Seiki flickering weakly under his skin.

How was he supposed to free humanity from Wills that could reshape the sky?

How was he supposed to stand between mankind and beings like this?

Izumi steadied a soldier and looked up, breathing hard. Her eyes carried fear, but not for herself. “Hajime... those are angels and demons. For real.”

He swallowed.

“Not for long,” he said. “I'll free everyone from this carnage. You wait and see, Izumi.”

He didn’t know how.
Not yet.
But the fire was there.

Above them, Hayate and Kurotaka clashed again with enough force to shake the entire district. Raiden deflected another serpent strike that would have bisected three soldiers behind him. Kazuki staggered as void scraped across his ribs, but he stayed upright.

All six lords were bleeding now.
Burned.
Cut.
Struggling to keep their footing.

Their auras flickered, no longer perfect, no longer stable.

But none of them stopped.

The war raged around them.
The sky glowed.
The walls trembled.
The ground split.

Hajime clenched his fists.

Part of him wanted to run toward the breach.
Part of him wanted to scream at the sky.

Instead, he stepped forward.

Izumi rose beside him, vines coiling up her arms again.

“Let’s keep everyone alive,” she said.

“Yeah,” Hajime answered. “That much we can do.”

The lords tore into each other again, and the battlefield erupted in a storm of fire, corruption, void, wind, healing light, and serpentine fury.

The War in Solarii raged on.

The heat over Solarii grew unbearable.

Flames rolled across the rooftops as if pulled by invisible currents. Every time the lords clashed, the air pressure changed. Fires bent. Smoke spiraled upward. Broken glass rose and fell as if caught in a storm without direction.

Hajime kept moving through the crater, pulling a wounded soldier over his shoulder. Izumi’s vines carved out paths between falling debris, stabilizing whatever structures she could. Their breath came in harsh gasps; their bodies were coated in soot and grime.

Above them, the battle between the six lords reached a fever pitch.

Hayate’s spear scraped against Kurotaka’s cleaver, sparks of sunfire scattering through the smoke. Kurotaka’s corruption spread across the ground, splitting pavement like diseased veins. Hayate’s halo dimmed, sweat pouring down his face, but he didn’t falter.

“Lightstorm Step!”

He vanished into a burst of blinding speed, crashing into Kurotaka from the side. The impact shattered what remained of the wall behind them. Kurotaka spat blood, but his grin widened, teeth black from corruption.

“Calamity Shift.”

A shockwave rippled outward, knocking Hayate stumbling backward, armor splitting along his ribs. Blood seeped down the plates, dripping into the dust.

Raiden fought with silent desperation. His Choral Edge blades moved in rhythmic arcs, music clashing against serpentine malice. Renjirō lunged forward, fangs sprouting from the mouths of his gauntlets.

“Serpent-Bite Armament!”

Raiden’s seraphic wing flared. “Seraph Guard.”

A radiant manifestation of a seraphim’s shield intercepted the strike, shattering under the force. Raiden slid back, knees buckling, breath rattling. A purple-black burn spread across his forearm where venom had grazed him.

Renjirō laughed, blood running down his jaw. “Come on, where's that melody gone?!”

He twisted his whole body like a whip. “Serpent-Body Deviation!”

The sudden lashing movement caught Raiden across the chest, sending him crashing through a stone pillar.

On the far side of the battlefield, Kazuki’s breath grew shallow. His healing light flickered around him like a candle drowning in smoke. Shigure approached without sound, void halos spinning slowly behind him.

Kazuki lifted his staff. “Grace Light.”

A wave of healing energy surged outward, pushing back corruption and stabilizing the Celestine soldiers in range. But Shigure’s expression didn’t change. He stepped forward, raising his Mirrorblade.

“Hell’s Chapter. Belial.”

Void erupted from his blade in a straight line.

Kazuki braced himself, driving his staff downward.

“Decay Sigil!”

The mark clashed with the void slash, splitting it just enough that it tore into the ground instead of through his chest. Even so, the edge grazed him, ripping open a deep wound across his side. Blood soaked his robes.

Kazuki stumbled, gripping his staff to stay upright. “Shigure… stand down.”

Shigure’s voice was soft, empty. “I won't.”

The lords collided again in the center of the breach. Flames twisted. Buildings groaned. The ground trembled nonstop.

Izumi pulled a pair of children behind a collapsed cart. Her vines snapped outward, intercepting a corrupted beast that had slipped through the chaos. The creature crashed into her barrier of thorns, shrieking.

Izumi’s breath shook. “Hajime, we can't... we can't let the line break.”

“We won’t,” Hajime said. His fists tightened. His Seiki flared weakly, but the fire in his eyes didn’t dim. “Just keep them moving. I’ll handle anyone who slips through.”

A roar shook the sky.

Hayate struck Kurotaka with another powerful thrust. “Solar Lancer!”

Kurotaka blocked with his cleaver, but the sunfire burned through his shoulder, melting flesh down to the bone. He howled, corruption flaring around him like a storm.

Raiden plunged from above, blades crossing. “Choral Edge. First Verse!”

He slashed through Renjirō’s serpent tail, which burst into a spray of red-violet Seiki. Renjirō screamed, half furious, half thrilled, half unhinged.

Kazuki limped into position beside them, raising his staff once more. “Withering Line.”

The decay slash struck Shigure across the chest, peeling away layers of voidlike armor. Shigure stumbled for the first time, coughing blackened blood.

For a brief moment, all three Celestine lords stood shoulder to shoulder.

And all three Chainbound Lords snarled back at them, battered but unbroken.

The ground between them cracked. Their Seiki roared, and corrupted armies screamed from below.

Then everything moved all at once.

Kurotaka lunged, cleaver raised.
Hayate pivoted, spear glowing brighter than ever.
Renjirō vanished into a coil of serpentine speed.
Raiden met him with a synchronized step.
Shigure’s void halos spun faster.
Kazuki steadied his breath, ready to intercept.

The six of them collided in a single explosion of divine and demonic Will.

Hajime had to drop to one knee as the shock tore across the crater and the sky.

Izumi grabbed his arm, eyes wide. “They’re going to kill each other.”

Hajime shook his head. “They'll kill everyone around if this keeps up.”

Another explosion. Another shockwave. Another tower collapsing.

The lords stumbled apart, all six panting, bleeding, shaking. Sunfire dimmed. Void flickered. Serpent illusions fell apart. Healing light shrank into thin strands. Corruption sputtered like dying embers.

And yet not a single one of them fell.

They kept fighting.

Because stopping meant Solarii died.

Hajime wanted to scream at the imbalance of power. How small he felt. At the chains binding humanity beneath the might of Wills.

He couldn’t free anyone.
Not like this.
Not yet.

But as he looked at the soldiers behind him—bloodied, limping, terrified, still holding the line because he told them to—something hardened in his chest.

“I swear,” he whispered. “I'll bring back the human spirit.”

Izumi turned her head toward him, breath trembling. “Hajime...”

He didn’t look at her. He kept watching the sky.

“I'll break all of it,” he said as his fists bled from clenching too hard. “Every Will. Every chain. Everything that keeps us under their shadows.”

The battlefield above roared again.

But something else stirred in the distance.

A ripple of red-black Seiki pulsed across a burning plaza on the far side of the mid-ring. The temperature dropped. Steam thickened in the air.

Rei turned his head sharply.

Akane Yatogi stood atop the fountain, smiling like a goddess carved from chaos. Her hair fell wild around her shoulders, chains glowing faintly around her hips. Demon spawn prowled the plaza like loyal hounds.

Akane lifted one hand.

“Don’t look away now, Rei-Rei.”

Her nails extended into glossy black talons.

She dragged them down her forearm.

Blood spilled, thick and dark.
Her Seiki pulsed.
The blood boiled.
Shapes crawled out of her wound like newborn creatures of Hell.

Rei’s eyes widened.

“Akane... don't make me hurt you.”

She stepped forward as the spawn gathered at her feet.

“Just a little warm-up,” she said softly. “Come on, don't always be a buzzkill.”

Uriel roared inside him with holy fury.

Rei tightened his grip on his sword.

He couldn’t kill her.
Not someone who looked like Mirae.
Not someone whose smile hit the same part of his chest.