From the shadows of the training grounds, the First Gate Watcher stood motionless, heart pounding against his ribs. His hands clenched tightly at his sides, fingers digging into his palm as his eyes tracked every subtle movement between the two figures standing at the center of the arena.

  Watari Hayashi.

  Ryuko.

  Two warriors who had not only ascended the ranks faster than anyone in the Chūkan’s history—but had done so in ways no one could replicate.

  This wasn’t just a match.

  This was a csh of monsters.

  The First Gate Watcher swallowed hard. He was barely in the First State of Resonance.

  Watari and Ryuko? They had already ascended to the Second.

  And yet, despite the overwhelming gap in power, he couldn’t look away.

  He had to see this. He had to understand it.

  This was a rare opportunity—to witness what it meant to be beyond the First Gate.

  The two warriors stood facing each other.

  Watari rolled his shoulders, cracking his neck with a smirk. “So, this is what I get for being gone two years, huh? A welcome-back beatdown?”

  Ryuko scoffed, twirling his Reibaku in his hand. The air around him seemed denser—charged with something the First Gate Watcher couldn’t fully grasp.

  “You call it a welcome-back beatdown. I call it justice.”

  Without another word, they moved.

  The csh was instant.

  No hesitation. No warm-up.

  One second, they were standing apart—

  The next? Steel met steel, a burst of force cracking the very ground beneath them.

  The First Gate Watcher’s breath hitched.

  Fast. Too fast.

  Even with his trained eyes, it took everything he had to track them.

  Watari’s bde—Takeminakata—met Ryuko’s Erebus in a whirlwind of cshing steel and flickering footwork. Sparks danced between them, illuminating their faces in fshes of silver and shadow.

  From the First Gate Watcher’s perspective:

  ? Watari’s style was fluid, unpredictable, like an endless tide—always adapting, always pressing forward.

  ? Ryuko’s was precise, calcuted, merciless. There was no wasted movement—only kill shots.

  At first, it seemed banced—two warriors testing each other, finding the limits of their strength.

  But then—

  Erebus started overpowering Takeminakata.

  The shift was subtle.

  A few blows pushed Watari back.

  A few exchanges where Ryuko’s bde nearly found its mark.

  Watari grinned, slightly out of breath. “You got stronger.”

  Ryuko smirked. “Your footwork is sloppy. I simply just wasn’t scking off like you.”

  A pause. Then, Ryuko’s eyes narrowed.

  “If you can’t handle me, you have no chance against Ren.”

  Watari’s smirk twitched.

  And then—

  His Takeminakata vanished.

  In its pce, Takemikazuchi formed in his grasp.

  Raijin’s Fang roared to life, crackling with electric energy.

  The shift in power was instant.

  The First Gate Watcher felt it deep in his chest.

  The air around Watari changed—grew sharper, heavier.

  It wasn’t just a sword switch.

  It was an entirely different level of presence.

  Watari exhaled, gripping the hilt tightly.

  “Don’t forget, Ryuko.”

  The energy surged around him.

  “This… is my real sword.”

  Ryuko’s smirk didn’t falter. Instead, he exhaled through his nose, his shoulders rolling back in preparation.

  “Oh, kid…” His voice dropped lower, his Reibaku pulsing with something darker.

  “You’ve missed a lot.”

  The air shifted again.

  And then—

  His form changed.

  The darkness of Erebus expanded, thickened, deepened. It wasn’t just an aura—it was an entire presence.

  It took only seconds—

  But when the transformation completed, Ryuko wasn’t the same.

  NEW FORM – “NEMEAN” (冥暗, Meian)

  (Meian: “Dark Abyss”—a state where shadows take tangible form, turning every strike into something inescapable, like fate itself.)

  His Reibaku pulsed with pure void energy, a darkness that didn’t just consume light—it swallowed everything.

  His once human-like silhouette blurred at the edges, as if he were becoming a shadow himself.

  The First Gate Watcher stiffened.

  This… this was beyond Erebus.

  This was a different monster entirely.

  From the shadows, the recruit swallowed dryly.

  “This isn’t just a fight,” he muttered under his breath. “This is… a different world.”

  His hand instinctively gripped the sigil on his back—the “one” symbol of his First Gate Watcher rank.

  He felt small.

  This was only the Second State.

  And yet, watching them—

  It felt like watching gods.

  The fight resumed.

  Watari surged forward, Raijin’s Fang sparking with pure lightning. Ryuko met him head-on, the abyss of Meian swallowing the bde in a csh of opposing forces.

  Steel met void.

  Lightning met shadow.

  Their strikes became a storm—one that shattered the ground beneath them.

  The First Gate Watcher couldn’t even see them anymore. Only fshes of impact. Ripples of force. The sound of destruction.

  They weren’t holding back anymore.

  This was a battle between two warriors standing at the pinnacle of the Chūkan’s future——a convergence of forces so mighty that even the cosmos seemed to tremble in its wake. For a fleeting moment, he felt as if the world around him had become a canvas painted in the hues of thunder and shadow—a phenomenon that surpassed his wildest training and his most modest expectations.