Chapter 8 – The First Blood of Justice

The corridor narrowed. Even the air itself grew heavy, like liquid mercury filling the lungs.

The man standing before them, Negra, was not merely a knight. He was the Kingdom's physical manifestation of the word "Stop." His silver armor did not reflect the torchlight. Instead, it swallowed it, turning it into a cold, metallic gray. The massive two-handed sword in his grip, World Breaker, trembled faintly, as if defying gravity itself, releasing a low-frequency hum that vibrated through the corridor.

Behind them, Field pressed himself against the wall, trembling, his face drained of color."It's over…" he whispered, his voice caught in his throat. "Negra… If he's here, there's no exit. He's not a normal human."

NO9 melted deeper into the shadows, their tails twitching nervously. Their eyes narrowed."His mana… it's overwhelming. That man is far beyond our league."

Hope spun his scythe. The whistle of metal slicing through air tore through the suffocating silence. The familiar calm smile appeared on his face, but his eyes were calculating.

"Field, NO9," Hope said without taking his gaze off their enemy. "Fall back and check the ventilation shafts. Chart a new route. While we deal with this wall, cover our rear."

Gashadokuro Jr. stepped forward. He tossed aside the crude blade made from his own ribs. The metal clattered uselessly against stone. A toothpick wouldn't be enough for this opponent.He plunged his hands into his own chest, fingers tearing through flesh and muscle. With a wet, nauseating CRACK, he ripped out two long, jagged bones. Blood-soaked, he gripped them in reverse.

"Under that armor…" Gashadokuro growled, saliva dripping from his mouth."I can feel a very high-quality spine. Milk-fed. Packed with calcium… Delicious."

Negra spoke from behind his helmet, his voice dull and metallic, like a dungeon gate slamming shut."Justice will not be reduced to a feast for monsters like you."

Negra took a single step forward.

That simple step shook the entire corridor. He raised his sword. The motion was so fast the air compressed and detonated.

WHOOSH!

The massive blade came crashing down toward Gashadokuro's head. At the last instant, Gashadokuro crossed his bone daggers to block.

BOOOOM!

The impact was like a sledgehammer smashing glass. The marble floor beneath Gashadokuro fractured into a spiderweb and collapsed. His knees buckled, the bones in his forearms shattered. Yet Gashadokuro screamed, not in pain, but in ecstasy.

"Heavy…" he gasped, blood seeping between his broken teeth, his face twisted into a manic grin."So heavy! HIT ME HARDER!"

"Disgusting," Negra said with contempt.

He twisted his sword slightly, releasing an incredible amount of torque, and flung Gashadokuro aside like a rag doll. The skeletal man smashed into the wall, stone exploding as he disappeared into a pile of rubble.

Now it was Hope's turn.

Negra spun his body a full three hundred and sixty degrees without losing momentum. A horizontal slash.Target: Hope's waist.That strike could have cleaved even an ogre in two.

This time, Hope couldn't break the ground. The spot where Negra stood was as solid as an anvil, reinforced by his enchanted armor.

That left only one option.

Flow.

Hope drove the shaft of his scythe into the floor and vaulted into the air like a pole vaulter. The wind from the blade grazed the soles of his feet as it passed beneath him.

Flipping midair, Hope used gravity to bring his scythe down toward the gap beneath Negra's helmet, aiming for the neck.

CLAAANG!

Metal struck metal. But the sound was not deep or heavy. It was sharp and shrill.Not a single scratch appeared on Negra's armor.

Hope landed and retreated, his hands tingling violently from the recoil.

"Armor hardness exceeds level nine," Hope muttered, resetting his stance."Impact-absorbing enchantment. Kinetic energy dispersal across the surface. Cutting damage is ineffective."

Negra turned to face him. Blue light flared within the eye slits of his helmet."Finished analyzing, boy? Execution comes next."

Negra attacked again. This time, it wasn't brute force. It was speed.

A barrage of slashes followed. Right. Left. Overhead. Downward.Hope dodged like a dancer, deflecting strikes with the shaft of his scythe, but every clash forced him further back. Walls shattered under the sword's blows, dust and debris filling the corridor.

"JUDGMENT OF JUSTICE!" Negra roared.

A crescent-shaped wave of blue energy tore through the corridor.Hope dove right. Gashadokuro burst from the rubble to the left.The energy wave pulverized the pillar behind them into dust.

Gashadokuro lunged again, wilder than before."BONE STORM!"

His joints exploded outward as hundreds of bone fragments fired like shrapnel. They struck Negra's armor with rapid tick-tick-tick sounds before bouncing harmlessly away.

Negra ignored the attack entirely and charged forward. With a single armored hand, he caught Gashadokuro by the throat mid-air.

"You are weak," Negra said coldly."Do not compare me to the minor scum you've killed."

He slammed Gashadokuro into the marble floor with such force that cracks spread across the ceiling. Then he raised his massive sword, its tip pointing straight at Gashadokuro's heart.

Hope's eyes gleamed within the swirling dust.

[Architect's Vision: Maximum Focus]

The world turned gray. Time slowed.

Hope scanned Negra's armor like an X-ray. No weak points. Joints sealed by enchantments. Metal layers forged in dragon fire. Penetration from the outside was impossible.

But…

Every structure has a resonant frequency.Even the hardest metal has a molecular vibration limit.

"I can't break it from the outside," Hope thought."But I can shake the inside."

Time resumed.

"Gashadokuro!" Hope shouted, his voice cracking."Hold the sword! NO MATTER WHAT, HOLD IT!"

Gashadokuro grinned maniacally from the ground, his teeth stained red with blood. Instead of dodging, he tore his ribcage open with both hands.

"Come to daddy!"

SHLAK!

The sword pierced his chest, wedging between his ribs near the spine. Gashadokuro screamed as his body convulsed, but his hands clamped down on the blade. His bones grew and wrapped around the metal.

"Got you…" he hissed. "You shiny tin can!"

Negra tried to pull the sword free, but Gashadokuro used his own body as a lock.

For a single second, Negra was vulnerable.

Hope had been waiting for that second.

He poured every ounce of strength into his legs and slid across the ground straight toward Negra. He reversed his grip on the scythe, not to cut, but to wield it like a massive hammer.

The blunt end of the scythe locked onto the exact center of Negra's chest armor, right where his heart beat.

"Structural Resonance," Hope whispered."Impact Transmission: One hundred percent."

He condensed all his mana into a point no larger than a needle tip.

This was not a slash.

It was a shockwave.

BOOOOOOM!

The sound was not explosive, but deep and muffled, like a colossal bell struck from within.The armor did not crack. It did not dent.

But the force did not rebound either.

Hope sent the energy through the metal itself, using the armor as a conductor, transmitting the shock directly into the flesh, blood, and bone beneath.

Negra's armor became a bell.His body became its clapper.

The Perfect Knight.The Wall of Justice.Negra… trembled.

His eyes widened behind the helmet. Every organ in his body shook simultaneously. Blood burst from his mouth, spilling through the helmet's grille and staining his silver breastplate.

His knees buckled. Fingers loosened around the sword.

And the massive, invincible man fell to one knee, metal groaning as he knelt.

THUD.

Absolute silence filled the corridor.

Only Negra's ragged breathing and the sound of dripping blood remained.

Field stared, mouth agape.NO9 stood frozen.Even Gashadokuro, impaled through the chest, looked on in disbelief.

For the first time in his life, Negra knelt before an enemy.

"Impossible…" Negra rasped, his lungs burning, ribs screaming inside the armor."What… kind of magic is this?"

Hope rested the scythe on his shoulder. Sweat poured down his face, his mana nearly depleted.

"Walls may be hard on the outside," Hope said between breaths."But they're hollow inside, Knight. And emptiness has a strange relationship with vibration."

Hope raised his scythe for the finishing blow.

Victory was short-lived.

The door at the end of the corridor exploded open.

WUUU-WUUU-WUUU!

Magical sirens screamed. Red lights flooded the corridor like blood. Hundreds of Royal Guards, Battle Mages, and Elite Archers poured in. At the rear, a High Mage slammed his staff into the ground.

"GRAVITY FIELD!"

A purple ring engulfed the corridor. Hope and Gashadokuro were slammed to the floor as if a mountain had dropped onto their shoulders. The stone beneath them cracked under the pressure.

"SURROUND THEM!" a commander shouted."SURRENDER OR BE VAPORIZED!"

Field panicked, pacing back and forth."Surrender? Are we surrendering? Is it over?"NO9 tried to slip into the shadows, but light magic flooding from the doorway dragged them back into view.

Hope looked at Gashadokuro, lying in his own blood, and at Negra, barely holding himself upright on one knee.

There was no escape.

If they kept fighting, they would die.And if he died, he could never help Lypin.

An Architect had to know when a structure would collapse.And when evacuation was necessary.

Hope made his decision.

He dismissed his scythe. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself upright against the crushing gravity. He wore that innocent, harmless smile, but danger gleamed in his eyes.

"Fall back!" Hope shouted."Grab Gashadokuro! Ventilation tunnel, now! The dust will cover us!"

Instead of retreating, Hope crawled forward toward Negra. Gravity crushed his bones, but he had to reach him.

"You…" Negra said weakly, struggling to remove his helmet."You made me kneel…"

"Just a simple physics lesson," Hope said with a wink.

He placed his hand on Negra's armor. A faint green light flickered in his palm.

The soldiers surged forward. There was no time to finish the spell. Hope threw himself backward.

Negra collapsed face-first, losing consciousness as the lingering effect of the strike took hold. His fall kicked up a massive cloud of dust, obscuring the soldiers' vision.

"NOW!"

Using the chaos, Hope rejoined his team. Field and NO9 were already dragging the wounded Gashadokuro into the ventilation tunnel.

As they moved through the dark passages leading back to their cells, the shouts behind them faded.

Plan A had failed.They hadn't broken the wall.

But Hope stared at his trembling hands. Not from fear. From excitement.

He had proven that Negra could bleed.That even the wall could crack.

"Lypin…" Hope whispered into the darkness."Wait a little longer. Next time, we'll shake the building from its foundation."

This time, they would take a bigger risk.

And if Plan B failed…

No one would be returning to their cells.