The air was still.Too still.
As the frozen mist began to clear from Roy's devastating Negative Freeze: Minus Zero, Aryan slowly turned—only to feel his heart shatter.
There, just a few feet away, encased in shimmering, jagged ice—
Selena.
Her eyes were closed, her body frozen mid-motion as if she were still trying to heal someone.
"No… no no no…" Aryan stumbled toward her, collapsing to his knees beside the block of ice.
He reached out, hands trembling, flames flickering to life around his fingertips.
"I'll melt it. I can melt it. I can save her—"
But a hand caught his wrist.
"Don't."
Kat's voice was low. Firm. Final. "If you try to melt that ice… she'll melt with it."
"She's gone," Molly muttered from behind, voice grim. "She didn't survive it."
Aryan froze—far colder than the ice before him. His lips parted, but no words came out. Just breath. Shaky, broken breath.
"She didn't do anything wrong…" he whispered. "She didn't deserve this. She only ever helped…"
His fists clenched so hard, blood began to seep from his palms.
"If I hide, people die."That's what she told him. Just hours ago."I may not have a sword… but I can still fight in my own way."
His head lowered, fire trembling across his shoulders.
"Why is it always the good ones?" His voice cracked. "Why… WHY?!"
Suddenly, with a roar of anguish, Aryan surged to his feet and leapt from the crater, flames spiraling wildly around him. His golden eyes burned—not with tears, but with rage.
"YOU WON'T ESCAPE THIS!" he roared toward Roy. "I'LL KILL YOU—"
CRACK!
In a flash of white light, Raizen appeared beside Aryan and kicked him across the chest, sending him flying like a broken arrow. Aryan crashed into a boulder, unconscious before he hit the ground.
The arena fell into stunned silence.
Bandits. Survivors. All frozen in disbelief.
Even Roy blinked in surprise—then threw his head back and laughed.
"HA! My man! That's what I'm talking about! Let's start the REAL game!"
But Raizen wasn't laughing.
His face—calm before—was now carved in cold fury.No more patience.No more mercy.
He raised his fist.Electricity danced across his arm like a living dragon.
And with a voice like judgment itself, Raizen whispered:
"Lightning Dragon Punch."
Then—he moved.
A streak of thunder blasted across the arena. Roy barely had time to brace before the full force of Raizen's blow collided with him.
BOOOOOOOM!!!
A cataclysm of light exploded, lighting the sky like a second sun. The ground fractured. Walls cracked. The air screamed.
When the radiance faded—
Roy lay slumped, coughing blood, his ice armor shattered to shards.
Raizen walked forward, lightning flickering across his back like spectral wings.
He stared down at the dying bandit king.
"Now that you're on the edge of death," Raizen said coldly, "you deserve to know my name."
"…Raizen," Roy whispered, blood trickling down his chin. "I… already knew. I knew from the moment you arrived."
Raizen didn't blink.
"And I know why you're here… for the scroll."
Roy chuckled weakly. "Check… my chest."
Raizen reached down and tore through Roy's cracked armor. Beneath his ribs, buried in metal and ice, pulsed a glowing scroll etched in ancient runes.
Roy wheezed his final words. "Tell your Crown Organization boss… he's not the only one chasing that thing. The World Government is coming too…"
His eyes closed. His breath stopped.
Roy was dead.
Raizen silently pulled the scroll free and examined it. The ancient symbols pulsed with power—a map… to something long buried.
"With this… the path to the god cube begins."
And without another word, Raizen turned away and vanished in a burst of lightning.
From the shadows, Blot and Rin watched, their expressions unreadable.
Kat, bruised and limping, knelt beside Aryan's unconscious body and gently lifted him over his shoulder.
As he turned to leave, he saw Molly standing off to the side.
"You coming with us?" Kat asked.
Molly shook his head. "Too late. I already said yes to another group—Blot and Rin. We've got our own thing going now."
Kat gave him a faint smile. "Take care of yourself."
"You too, swordsman."
One by one, the survivors walked away from the bloodstained arena.
And then…
Silence.
The once-roaring colosseum was now a graveyard.Frost clung to broken pillars. The scent of magic and blood lingered in the still air.Dead bodies. Dead hopes.
The storm was over.
But then—
Footsteps.
Soft. Cold. Deliberate.
From the shadows, a figure emerged. Cloaked in black, his eyes shimmered like dying stars.
He knelt beside Roy's corpse and whispered:
"So… you were strong in life. Let's see what you become in death."
The stranger placed his palm against Roy's frozen body.
The shadows stirred.