The mountain screamed.
There was no other way to describe it.
The instant the final restraints shattered, a shockwave of ancient power erupted from the guardian's body and tore through the ruins with catastrophic force. Towers that had survived centuries collapsed in seconds. Massive cracks split across the cavern walls while entire sections of the underground city crumbled into darkness below.
Hiroto was thrown off his feet immediately.
The pressure alone felt suffocating.
Not malicious.
Not even angry.
Simply too immense for the human body to withstand.
Akari slammed her sword into the ground to stop herself from being blown backward while Kenzaku shielded Yui from falling debris overhead.
"Everyone move!" Goro shouted.
But even his voice nearly disappeared beneath the roaring destruction surrounding them.
The guardian slowly rose to its full height.
And for the first time—
they understood its true size.
It towered above the ruins like a living catastrophe.
Broken chains hung from its body like scars from another age, dragging across the stone floor with deafening weight. Crimson markings burned beneath the cracks in its dark scales while ancient symbols continued glowing across its massive form.
Its golden eyes surveyed the collapsing ruins silently.
Then it inhaled.
The air itself distorted around it.
Yui froze in terror. "What is it doing—?"
"DOWN!" Tamagichi roared.
Everyone dropped instinctively.
A pulse erupted from the guardian's mouth.
Not fire.
Not energy.
Something denser.
A wave of compressed force exploded through the cavern and annihilated everything in front of it. Entire sections of the ruined city vanished instantly. Stone evaporated. Ancient pillars shattered into dust.
The attack tore straight through the mountain wall and continued outward into the distant night beyond.
Silence followed.
A horrible, stunned silence.
Even Hiroto struggled to process what he had just witnessed.
One attack.
That thing had destroyed part of a mountain with a single breath.
The guardian lowered its head slowly.
"…Pathetic," it rumbled.
Its voice echoed like thunder throughout the collapsing cavern.
"This era has grown weak."
Akari stared upward in disbelief. "You call that a guardian?!"
The creature's golden eye shifted toward her.
"In your language," it replied calmly, "there is no proper word for what we once were."
A violent tremor interrupted the conversation.
The mountain was beginning to collapse entirely now.
Massive fractures spread across the ceiling overhead as streams of debris poured downward into the ruins.
Kenzaku looked upward sharply. "We're running out of time."
But Hiroto barely heard him.
His attention remained fixed on the guardian.
Because the blade at his side continued reacting.
Not with fear anymore.
Recognition.
The guardian noticed immediately.
"You hear it now," it said quietly.
Hiroto frowned. "Hear what?"
"The memories."
The crimson markings on the blade pulsed again.
Fragments flashed through Hiroto's mind once more.
Warriors dressed in silver armor.
Ancient gates surrounded by oceans of darkness.
The previous wielder standing before thousands alone.
Then blood.
So much blood.
Hiroto staggered slightly.
Tamagichi immediately stepped beside him.
"Focus."
Hiroto gritted his teeth. "I'm trying."
The guardian watched them silently before speaking again.
"The blade is awakening because the shadows have begun moving once more."
Its gaze narrowed slightly.
"And because he has returned."
Everyone understood who it meant.
The Black Daimyo.
Akari's expression hardened. "Why would he free you if you're enemies?"
The guardian fell silent for several moments.
Then it answered.
"Because chaos benefits his kind."
A low growl echoed from deep within its chest.
"He wishes to force the gate open completely."
Hiroto's eyes sharpened instantly. "What gate?"
The guardian looked directly at him.
For the first time, genuine heaviness entered its voice.
"The gate between worlds."
The ruins fell silent.
Even the collapsing mountain seemed distant for a moment.
Yui blinked slowly. "…What?"
"The shadows your clans fear…"
The guardian's golden eyes darkened.
"…are not human."
A cold chill ran through Hiroto's body.
Everything suddenly felt much larger than before.
Bigger than clans.
Bigger than kingdoms.
Bigger than war.
The guardian continued.
"Long ago, our kind sealed the crossing between realms after the first catastrophe. But humans desired the power beyond the gate."
Its chains rattled heavily as rage entered its voice again.
"So the ancestors of the Ten Shadow Clans betrayed us."
Tamagichi closed his eyes briefly.
As if hearing a truth he already knew.
"They stole power from the other side," the guardian growled. "And poisoned this world with it."
The mountain shook violently again.
Huge sections of the ceiling collapsed nearby.
Goro looked upward sharply. "We have to leave. Now."
But before anyone could move—
the guardian suddenly turned toward Hiroto again.
Its golden eyes burned intensely.
"Successor."
The blade pulsed once more.
Then the creature lowered its head slightly.
And asked the question that froze Hiroto completely.
"When the gate opens again…"
A pause echoed through the collapsing ruins.
"…will you have the strength to kill what comes through it?"
To Be Continued