The air tore apart with a sound that didn't belong in this world.
An invisible rift sliced through reality right in front of Ryouhei. It wasn't magic, nor a spell; it was as if the very logic of the world collapsed under the presence of the Man Without a Shadow.
"Don't look directly into his eyes," Sera whispered beside him, her voice barely more than a breath laced with tension.
Ryouhei didn't respond. He was too focused on the figure creeping along the edge of the ravaged field, gliding like a shadow that cast none.
The ground trembled with each of the being's unstable steps, and every crack of its form sounded like a lament trapped between timelines. It was him, and it wasn't. It was an aberration born of error, a residue of stories that should never have been told.
And now… it stood before them.
"Do you remember the plan?" Sera asked, drawing her bow wrapped in forbidden runes.
Ryouhei nodded. But something inside him was quietly fracturing. Staring at the Man Without a Shadow felt like staring into a distorted mirror—like seeing what he could become… if everything went wrong.
The first move didn't come from them.
The sky turned black.
Not metaphorically—the light was devoured, consumed by a force so primal even the System's laws seemed to falter.
Ryouhei reacted in a split second, activating a temporal seal that slowed the surroundings just enough to witness the impossible: the Man Without a Shadow had split into multiple echoes, each attacking from a different angle, each carrying a fragment of reality clinging to its form.
"Shadow Mirror!" Sera shouted, summoning a dark crystal barrier that exploded into multiple reflections.
Each reflection showed a different version of the monster. One was a crying child. Another, a broken adult with hollow eyes. Another still—identical to Ryouhei—wearing a cruel smile.
The battle wasn't only physical. It was symbolic.
The battlefield transformed. Every strike from the Man Without a Shadow warped the space around them, as if past, present, and future were collapsing into a single moment. Ryouhei and Sera fought through visions of possible endings, false memories, and illusions the System couldn't control.
And yet, there was a rhythm. A choreography between them.
Ryouhei set the pace with his decisions. Sera followed with surgical precision. They had fought before, but never like this. Every movement carried weight. Every second mattered.
"We can't beat him with brute force," Ryouhei said, panting as one of the illusory copies crumbled into dark ash. "But we can… unbalance him."
Sera looked at him. Fire burned in her eyes.
"What if you used that ability?" she asked carefully, referring to the one he had avoided for so long.
Ryouhei held her gaze. His throat tightened for a moment. Because he knew that if he used it—if he glimpsed the futures—he might not be able to return.
Then, the Man Without a Shadow spoke.
"I was you."
It was a broken voice, a whisper of despair. And in that verbal rift, something opened inside Ryouhei.
The fight had only just begun.