Match 1: ONI & Levia vs. Kanori – The Crucible
The air crackled with residual energy. ONI lay half-conscious, his prized alloy bat shattered by Kanori's devastating "Asura's Eye" arrow. The blow hadn't just broken steel; it had fractured his aura pathways, leaving him stunned and vulnerable. 'Take it...' Nero's voice echoed in his fading awareness. '...strongest alloy...' The memory of receiving the bat was a lifeline in the encroaching darkness. General level... insane... he thought dimly, recognizing the terrifying gulf Kanori's last strike represented.
Kanori nocked another arrow, its tip coalescing pure, annihilating aura. "Farewell, boy." She loosed the killing shot.
SHINK!
A translucent figure – Spector – phased before ONI. Her spectral form strained, diverting the arrow with a shriek of displaced energy. Kanori's eyes narrowed. "A wandering spirit? Interfere and find final rest!" She fired again, aiming to erase the distraction.
Dark symbols flared around Spector like malevolent constellations. Her form rippled, shifting, solidifying. Wisps of shadow coalesced into raven-black hair, pale skin, and robes woven from night itself. A grimoire, bound in abyssal leather, materialized from the swirling sigils before her.
Kanori froze, her bow trembling. "...Levia?" The name was a choked whisper, laden with decades of pain. The infamous dark mage... her friend.
(Flashback: Academy Days)
Sunlight dappled through leaves. Two young women, Kanori and Levia, celebrated their graduation. "So, Levi," Kanori asked, nudging her friend playfully, "What now? World domination with dark magic?" 💬
Levia smiled softly, her eyes kind. "Just healing my village. As a doctor. Curses plague them... but dark magic can counter curses too. Give them a carefree life." Her ambition was pure.
Years later, the news shattered Kanori: 'Dark Mage Levia kills 4000 in cursed rampage! Vanished!' Betrayal became a scar.
(Present)
Levia's spectral eyes held infinite sadness. "What if I told you the truth, Kano? Who would believe a dead spirit... a monster?"
No more words were needed. The past was a battlefield now. Levia moved. True Dark Magic erupted – not chaotic destruction, but Curse Manipulation, a terrifyingly broken ability. Dark energy flowed like liquid night, shifting instantaneously from corrosive curses to devastating blasts and back. Her power, once rated "C," had felled "SS" mages. The air screamed with inverted realities and decaying force.
Kanori met her with Mirror Dimension mastery, warping space, reflecting curses, creating lethal illusions. It was a dance of light and void, friendship and betrayal made manifest.
Interlude: The World Watches in Terror
Across dimensions, in modern Earth – Korea, Japan, America, India – the sky tore open. Hunters froze mid-step. Sirens wailed. "S-Rank Gate formation?!" an A-Rank yelled, scanning the impossible rift.
Through the cosmic wound, they saw the Plain of Infinity. And the war waging within.
National-Level Hunters, S and SS-Ranks, paled. "What... what are those things?!" one gasped, watching Nero trade blows with Fernando. Each clash wasn't just powerful; it erased landscapes. Thousands of kilometers vaporized with casual backhands. The sheer scale defied comprehension.
"Impossible..." an SS-Rank Hunter breathed, cold sweat beading his brow. "That level... I couldn't replicate a fraction of it." They weren't watching monsters; they were witnessing gods wage war. Panic spread. They prayed for the rift to close before that devastation spilled into their world.
Then Nero's roar echoed through dimensions: "Stop dodging, you old bastard! TAKE IT!" The next strike connected. The planet they were standing on imploded, reduced to cosmic dust. The hunters choked on terror. "Rank...? Above SS?!" The concept shattered their reality. The rift snapped shut, leaving Earth trembling in the silence of newfound insignificance.
Match 1: Crucible's End – Resurrection Ignited
Back in the Astral Plain, Kanori pressed Levia. "Resistance is futile! Yield!" Her mirror spells replicated Levia's own dark energy blasts, each copy amplified, stronger. Levia staggered, her spectral form flickering.
"Arises..." Levia whispered, pouring her remaining essence into the grimoire. A vortex of pure void-energy birthed a monstrous, shifting entity – her final spell. She collapsed, fading. Kanori, face grim, dismissed her bow. She conjured a colossal mirror shield, a perfect, amplified replica of Levia's spell.
BOOOOOOM!
The collision birthed a singularity of destruction. When the dust settled, Levia lay defeated, her form barely cohesive.
(Q&A: Why ONI fights Kanori?)
ONI had begged Nero: "Let me crush Zoke! Arata!" Nero refused. "Our fight isn't personal revenge, ONI. It's liberation. Zoke and Arata are beyond you... for now. Your strength is needed elsewhere." ONI fumed, but Nero's conviction anchored him. The mission came first.
Kanori strode towards Levia, vengeance cold in her eyes. A shadow fell over her.
CRUNCH!
A flaming fist, wreathed in blue fire, slammed into her back. Kanori hurtled across the shattered plain, crashing hard. She looked up, stunned. ONI stood tall, radiating heat. His wounds were gone. In his hand blazed a new bat – forged from solidified blue flame, wickedly spiked.
"Hey," ONI grinned, flames dancing in his eyes. "Don't take your eyes off your opponent. Especially me."
Understood now, ONI thought. Kanori's arrow didn't just hit my body; it severed my aura flow. Stunned me cold. Levia... she didn't attack Kanori full force. Her 'last spell'... it was a Reverse Curse. She healed my core. Got me back on my feet. 💬
Kanori saw it too. "Blue flames... Like Nero. Clever, Levi. Sacrificing yourself for him." She spat blood. "But it changes nothing!"
The battle reignited. ONI was transformed. Kanori's mirror clones fractured space, unleashed amplified attacks, but ONI moved like living flame, his new bat shattering illusions and deflecting blasts with showers of blue sparks. He didn't weaken; he grew fiercer.
Match 2: Darky vs. Zoke – Void's Embrace
Nearby, the Moonlight Spirits recoiled from the primal fury of Darky vs. Zoke. Darky was a whirlwind of overwhelming darkness, every strike landing with shattering force. Zoke was battered, a hole torn clean through his torso by Darky's "Dreadful Nova."
"Was that all?" Darky sneered, darkness coiling around his fists.
Zoke, slumped against rubble, smiled. A chilling, wrong smile. Darky paused. "Void Walker." Zoke whispered. An unfathomable power surged – cold, absolute, void. His grievous wound sealed instantly, flesh knitting over emptiness. His eyes glowed with necrotic energy. Before Darky could react, Zoke blurred.
NECROVOID!
A fist, radiating pure entropy, slammed into Darky's gut. Agony, cold and profound, lanced through him. "OH SHIT!" Darky gasped, staggering back, confusion warring with pain. "That... hurts!" The Resurrection State had flipped the script. The brutal dance resumed, now charged with cosmic dread.
Match 1: The Phoenix Rises
Kanori and ONI were locked in a death spiral, both breathing raggedly. ONI charged, but Kanori switched tactics, abandoning her bow. A lightning-fast punch, amplified by aura, sent him sprawling.
"Enough kitten play!" ONI roared, pushing himself up, blue fire flaring. "Show me your damn TRUMP CARD!"
Kanori panted, wiping blood from her lip. A cruel light entered her eyes. "As you wish. Resurrection State: Mystic Echo Reversal!" Reality rippled. A Dome of Mirages snapped into existence around ONI. Within it, hundreds of Kanori materialized – past versions, present versions, each radiating lethal intent. They moved as one, phasing through illusions, striking from impossible angles.
ONI was overwhelmed. Punches rained down. Bones cracked. He couldn't land a hit; his strikes passed through mist or shattered illusions only to be struck from behind. He was near death, a broken doll in a hall of mirrors. Kanori, the true one, raised her hand for the final blow.
Then, a voice, ancient and resonant, echoed in ONI's fading consciousness: "I acknowledge your unshakeable spirit, Flame Child. I grant you my blessing..."
ONI's eyes snapped open, blazing with azure fire. "RESURRECTION!" he roared.
Kanori flinched, instinctively shifting to defense. "Lies! That state requires decades! You spout nonsense!" Denial warred with primal fear. She lunged, delivering the death strike.
She was meters away when ONI's body ignited. Not just covered in flames – consumed by them. An inferno of purest blue, hotter than stars, erupted. Kanori screamed, shielding her eyes. "IMPOSSIBLE! The Fire Calamity?!"
Within the crucible of blue fire, ONI was reborn. Wounds sealed not with flesh, but with molten lava. His form radiated power, the blue flames his new skin, his essence. The bat in his hand pulsed like a captured sun.
Kanori, desperate, unleashed the Dome of Mirages at maximum power, flooding the space with hundreds of amplified ONI clones – past and present – all converging on the true, burning figure.
ONI smiled within the inferno. This heat... it feels like home. He swung. Mountains of astral rock not just shattered, but melted instantly into lakes of lava under the blue fire's touch. Kanori fired a final, unavoidable shot – a lance of amplified mirror energy that punched a molten hole clean through ONI's chest.
But no blood flowed. Only searing blue lava and incandescent flame poured forth. The wound sealed shut in seconds, leaving only shimmering heat haze. ONI looked down, then back at Kanori, a terrifying, serene smile on his fiery visage.
"[Tch... tee... tee...]" A sound like cooling magma escaped him. "Stings a little."