"You two are truly foolish," the figure said in a voice so casual it almost felt mocking. "Have you still not realized that the two of you are nothing more than test subjects in someone else's experiment?"

"Experiment?!" Jogo barked back, his voice sharp. "What do you mean by that? What do you know?"

Jogo and Rudi exchanged confused looks, uncertain of how to respond to such a claim. But as the words lingered in their minds, the more they thought about it, the more everything that had happened to them began to resemble some sort of twisted experiment. The strange spheres of energy that appeared from nowhere, the lifeless corpses scattered around, and the bizarre stones they encountered—it all began to connect in an unsettling way.

"Because of nothing more than hatred, blinded further by obsession, you chose to meddle with a power... with an energy that no human was ever meant to touch." The figure's tone remained calm, yet that very calmness made his words pierce deeper, like a knife slowly sliding between ribs rather than a blade swung in haste.

The weight of those words sank into them, making both men uneasy. Rudi clenched his jaw and ground his teeth together. He turned sharply to Jogo, as though searching for confirmation, for something to cling to—but the only thing he found was Jogo's hollow stare, a gaze that was full of doubt.

"How do you know all this?!" Rudi shouted, his voice cracking, the pitch betraying fear more than defiance. "Who are you, really?!"

The figure simply shook his head. He shrugged his shoulders and raised his hands outward, as if saying he neither cared nor owed them any explanation.

"You don't need to know why I know these things," he said plainly. "What you should be concerned about right now is that energy. You would do well to find a way to rid yourselves of it—sooner rather than later."

His eyes, still glowing with that blood-red hue, pulsed faintly like smoldering embers refusing to die out. His face remained cloaked in shadows, but the oppressive coldness of his aura pressed against them, as if even the forest itself instinctively recoiled from his presence.

"Let go of it? Do you take us for fools?" Rudi snapped, his voice rising with irritation. "Hah! Don't think you can trick us into giving up our power just so you can defeat us more easily. You're probably just scared of us!" He let out a loud, forced laugh, puffing his chest as if to push away the fear gnawing at him.

Jogo straightened his back as well, attempting to appear braver than he felt, though his knees still trembled faintly beneath him.

The figure let out a quiet sigh. "Hmph. I don't know exactly what that man did to you, but it's clear the experiment performed on your bodies is far from perfect. That energy may indeed grant you strength for now, but the cost… is that it will corrode both your bodies and your very souls."

His words were flat, emotionless, yet the blazing intensity in his gaze turned them into a verdict—cold, undeniable, and absolute.

"Enough talk!" Rudi roared, unwilling to listen any longer. His body surged forward, cloaked in layers of dark energy, leaping into the air with reckless determination. His battle cry tore through the silence of the forest, and the earth quaked under the force of his step. Dust exploded around his feet as he launched himself like a living weapon.

BRUKK!!

The strike was stopped effortlessly. With one hand, the figure caught Rudi's leg mid-kick, then slammed him into the ground before kicking him away with crushing force.

Rudi's body smashed into the dirt, the air in his lungs bursting out of him in a choked gasp. He flew backward, crashing into a tree with such impact that the trunk split apart, bark flying in shards as the groan of splintering wood pierced the night.

From behind the figure, Jogo appeared, his right fist enveloped in oiling dark energy as he swung with everything he had, driving it straight toward the man's abdomen.

BAAAMM!!!

An explosion of energy shook the ground, scattering leaves into the air.

But Jogo's unstable body could not withstand the recoil. He was flung backward by his own attack, rolling across the ground with a grimace of pain, his breath ragged, every inhale stabbing into his ribs like broken glass.

And yet, when the dust cleared...

"What...?" Jogo muttered in disbelief, eyes wide.

The figure stood there, unmoved. He looked almost bored. The dust swirling around him bent away, as though unwilling to touch his form. He remained upright and unshaken, exuding an arrogant composure that made it clear—the earlier explosion was as meaningless to him as a gentle breeze.

Rudi and Jogo gritted their teeth and lunged forward again, unleashing a flurry of attacks—kicks, punches, blasts of aura, everything they could muster, striking from both sides like a storm of violence.

Rudi's body twisted midair, his leg whipping around in a spinning kick aimed at the man's head. At the very same instant, Jogo followed through with his right fist, cloaked in dark energy, aimed from the opposite side. Their movements mirrored each other perfectly, like twin jaws of a vice seeking to crush their target between them.

But—

Dodged. Blocked. Deflected. Countered.

The figure bent slightly, letting Rudi's kick slice harmlessly through the air. With a casual flick of his arm, he brushed aside Jogo's punch as if swatting away a fly. Then, in the same fluid motion, his elbow drove into Rudi's chest, while his knee struck into Jogo's gut. His follow-ups came like lightning: a sharp slap across Rudi's jaw, a sweeping low kick to Jogo's legs.

Both of them were hurled across the ground, their bodies rolling, slamming into dirt and roots with bone-jarring force. Every impact tore groans of agony from their throats, their joints screaming as though ripped apart. Breath came in broken gasps, their vision blurred with pain and desperation.

The figure moved as though reading their thoughts, predicting every strike before they even launched it. With every passing second, their movements slowed, their stamina fading.

"You can feel it, can't you?" he said coldly. "Your bodies growing heavier. Your emotions unstable. With every moment that passes, that dark energy gnaws deeper—consuming your flesh, your spirit, your very essence."

Sweat poured down their faces as they stumbled backward, gasping. Blood dripped from Rudi's lips, falling into the dirt. His limbs trembled, joints locking as if turning to stone. He slapped his thigh in frustration, trying to will strength back into it, but only sharpened the pain.

"Damn it... he's right... my body... feels like it's turning stiff..." Rudi muttered hoarsely.

"No," Jogo rasped, shaking his head, voice strained as if convincing himself. "It's just exhaustion. We've been fighting too long tonight. That's all it is."

Rudi nodded quickly, clinging to the excuse. "Yeah. That's all it is. Just fatigue. Let's finish this quickly."

Summoning every shred of remaining power, they forced the energy to surge once more. Dark flames flickered around them, wild and unstable, burning like a fire kept alive despite lacking fuel.

But before they could unleash it—

"Ughh... you two are insufferable."

The figure moved.

Fast. Too fast.

The air cracked apart around him, shattering as if stabbed by countless invisible blades. His body blurred into shadow, leaving only streaks of afterimages in his wake.

And then—in the blink of an eye—he was already before them, both palms pressed firmly against their foreheads. This time, his eyes burned with greater focus, his expression hardened.

"To be honest, I don't like either of you. And now, I am only even more disappointed," he said bitterly. "Someone like me struggles, fights, and claws against the weight of existence just to be able to live the life of an ordinary human like you. Yet you… instead of cherishing that peace, you crave a life as vexing, as miserable, and as suffocating as the one I am forced to endure. You willingly hurl yourselves into the same wretched torment I suffer." The figure spoke, his tone laced with a faint but cutting irony.

"Perhaps... after this, you'll finally learn to value the lives you were given."

And then—

SKRIWWRRR!!

From his hands erupted a spiraling surge of silver-white energy. It whirled like a vortex, its brilliance blinding, casting the forest in violent shadows, as though the trees themselves trembled in protest at such power.

"Uwaaaaaaghhhhhh—!!!"

Jogo and Rudi screamed as their bodies convulsed violently.

Grgrgrrrkkk!!

Their muscles spasmed uncontrollably, their teeth chattered so hard they nearly cracked, veins bulged along their necks, and their eyes nearly burst from their sockets as pain consumed them utterly. It was as though their very consciousness was being torn from within.

Yet in the chaos, with the last shred of willpower, Jogo's trembling hand clawed forward, tearing away the mask from the figure's face.

And—

"Y-you... Arghhh... y-you're...!!" Jogo gasped, his voice trembling more from shock than pain.

Both he and Rudi froze, eyes wide in disbelief. Their minds refused to accept the reality before them.

The figure was—Al.

His face calm, yet cold. His eyes hollow, devoid of emotion. The very emptiness of his gaze only deepened the knife of betrayal that stabbed into them.

"You... Al... h-how... could this be...?!"

But before Al could complete his technique, his eyes shifted, glancing past them. He had sensed another presence—strong, familiar, lurking behind one of the big trees.

And then—

SREETT—DWARR!!

A sudden attack streaked in from afar, striking from the opposite direction of the tree.

Al turned his head, his gaze darkening, annoyance flickering across his features.

"It seems this night... is far from over," he muttered softly, his voice calm but his eyes sharp, like a predator disturbed mid-hunt.

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