The cave felt alive.
Dark pools of Ink crawled across the cracked floor like living shadows, twisting around stone and broken debris. The air itself had grown heavy—thick enough to choke on.
Silence ruled the chamber.
But it wasn't peaceful.
It was the kind of silence that came before disasters.
At the center of it stood Yamato.
Face-to-face with Rujer.
Yamato's eyes were empty.
Not calm.
Not focused.
Empty.
Rage burned so deeply inside him that it had gone beyond emotion. His jaw tightened until veins bulged beneath his skin, fingers twitching violently at his sides.
Around him, his aura spiraled like a storm tearing itself apart, smashing into the cave walls hard enough to make the stone tremble.
Across from him, Rujer stood tall.
Still.
Controlled.
But sweat rolled slowly down the side of his neck.
For the first time since awakening—
Fear touched him.
He felt it instinctively.
His body understood before his mind did.
Fight with magic.
Every nerve in his body screamed the warning.
Yet he refused to step back.
Refused to kneel.
Behind them, the others had already stopped moving. No one dared interfere.
Even breathing felt dangerous.
Yamato took a single step forward.
CRACK.
The floor beneath him split apart.
His aura surged harder.
"The girls you almost killed..." Yamato's voice came out low and rough, forced through clenched teeth. "Do you remember their power?"
Rujer's eyes shifted lazily toward the group.
His finger lifted.
Pointing directly at Chella.
"That one?"
The temperature dropped instantly.
The cave groaned.
Yamato's body screamed with pressure as his aura burst outward again, crushing against the air itself like a monster forcing dominance over everything around it.
One more second—
And he would explode.
Then Ozaki moved.
It happened so naturally that no one reacted at first.
He simply stepped forward.
Calmly removing his cloak, he handed it to Ichiha without a word.
Lumei blinked in confusion.
Ozaki's face carried no emotion whatsoever.
No anger.
No tension.
Nothing.
Sora felt his hand slip away from her arm as he walked past her.
His body looked carved by endless battle—lean muscle hardened through survival rather than training.
Every scar.
Every movement.
Every breath.
It all carried quiet authority.
Then he kept walking.
Slowly.
Each step cracked the ground beneath him.
Unlike Yamato's violent eruption, Ozaki's aura did not explode.
It leaked.
Slowly.
Like smoke spilling from the mouth of something ancient.
Cold.
Monstrous.
Heavy enough to freeze the air itself.
Every step he took felt absolute.
Not confidence.
Not intimidation.
Authority.
The kind that announced victory before combat had even begun.
Sora's eyes widened.
"What... is this?"
Ichiha's gaze sharpened immediately, his senses trying desperately to understand what stood before him.
"This is different."
Lumei's entire face lit up with excitement.
His eyes sparkled as they locked onto Ozaki.
"Ooooh my days..." he whispered. "I finally get to see Master fight seriously."
Chella frowned at him.
"What do you mean?"
Lumei never looked away.
"Just watch."
Rujer felt it clearly now.
Two different monsters.
Yamato's aura was uncontrollable fury at its peak.
Ozaki's—
Controlled.
Perfectly controlled.
And somehow even worse.
Ozaki walked directly into Yamato's raging aura as though it were nothing more than rain.
No hesitation.
No resistance.
He raised one hand—
And sliced through the pressure effortlessly.
Then—
His fist tightened.
A short movement.
Barely visible.
The famous One-Inch Punch landed squarely against Yamato's back.
POOWW!!
The impact detonated through the cave.
Yamato's torso burst open from the front.
Blood.
Shredded flesh.
Fragments of damaged organs exploded outward and slammed wetly against the ground.
His aura vanished instantly.
Yamato dropped to one knee, coughing blood violently as he clutched the hole in his stomach.
The cave echoed with stunned silence.
Ozaki lowered his fist calmly.
"Shape a plan for the support... Yamato."
Yamato understood immediately.
Even while kneeling, his eyes remained locked onto Rujer.
Then—
The wound began to close.
Skin pulled together.
Muscle reformed.
Bone knitted itself back into place.
Within seconds—
The hole vanished completely.
Rujer's pupils shrank.
Now he understood.
Ozaki had done that intentionally.
And worse—
He finally understood why the world called Ozaki the strongest.
His body trembled uncontrollably.
The pressure alone forced his knees downward until they struck the floor.
Ozaki looked down at him quietly.
"What if they hadn't woken up, Rujer?"
Silence.
The question lingered heavily throughout the cave.
"What if?"
Behind them, Sora and Ichiha rushed toward Yamato, helping him sit upright.
Lumei nearly shoved them aside trying to inspect the injury.
But there was nothing there.
No scar.
No wound.
Nothing.
Chella blinked repeatedly.
"Wait... can't you heal him?"
"There's nothing to heal," Lumei muttered, staring. "It's already gone."
Sora pressed trembling fingers against Yamato's stomach.
"But we saw it. Skin... bone... everything—"
Yamato gave a faint smile.
"I guess you two still don't know me that well."
Ozaki turned slightly toward the group.
"Kaku's plan is simple," he said calmly. "He used Nent to identify your power types. Now he's using this one to observe how you fight."
His aura pulsed again.
Soft.
Controlled.
Yet powerful enough to silence the entire cave.
Ozaki looked back toward Rujer.
"I asked a qu—"
"I heard you, Ozaki."
The interruption cut sharply through the air.
Rujer slowly lifted his head.
For a moment, he stared at the cave ceiling.
Then down at his own hands.
"All my life..." he said quietly, "I was taught that you eliminate the weak before facing the strong."
Silence settled once more.
"I was born with black eyes. Deformed. Without magic."
His voice remained steady—
But bitterness bled through every word.
"The people in my hometown called me a monster. They despised my parents for giving birth to me."
He exhaled slowly.
"But my parents still loved me."
A faint smile touched his lips.
Then disappeared.
"They kept searching for ways to feed me. Ways to help me survive."
His eyes darkened.
"And that got them involved with rich people."
A pause.
"I was two years old when my parents were poisoned during a royal ball."
The cave remained silent.
"But evil men are careful. They used a delayed poison... so my parents died after returning home."
Yamato's expression shifted slightly.
There were similarities.
But unlike Rujer—
Yamato had always found a solution.
Rujer continued.
"They framed me for their deaths."
His voice cracked slightly.
"Then sold me into slavery on GAKI-WORLD Continent."
Even Sora froze.
"I survived until I was seven. Somehow, a few others and I escaped to an orphanage."
He laughed weakly.
"My life there was hell."
His fingers tightened against the floor.
"No magic. Black eyes. A demon child."
"Crumbs. Leftovers. Endless work until my body nearly gave out."
Ozaki listened silently.
Lumei and Chella still occasionally glanced toward Yamato's perfectly healed torso.
Ichiha remained tense, prepared for any sudden movement.
Sora's thoughts were elsewhere entirely.
How strong is Ozaki...?
Rujer shifted slightly.
"I endured everything until I turned seventeen."
His eyes hardened.
"Then I escaped again."
"I came to this continent hoping things would change."
A bitter chuckle escaped him.
"They gave me a new name instead."
"The Demon Human."
Tears slowly gathered in his eyes.
"Is it the fault of a beast for looking like a beast?"
No one answered.
"People never care what a beast feels."
His voice shook harder now.
"They judge first... then fear what they created after cornering it."
He lowered his head.
"I wandered around begging. Eating garbage."
"Seven days ago, I was ready to die from starvation."
His fists clenched tightly.
"Then a beast fed me."
A broken laugh escaped him.
"I didn't care if the meat was raw. I ate because I wanted to survive."
His eyes slowly rose toward Ozaki.
"And then I realized... if I wanted to live... I had to weaken you."
His gaze sharpened.
"Or kill you."
Ozaki rested a hand against his jaw thoughtfully.
But his thoughts weren't on the story.
If I'm right... SILVER chose him.
But his body rejected it.
That rejection caused the black eyes... and the loss of magic.
Ozaki's eyes narrowed slightly.
Then what type of offset to SILVER does he use?
The tension inside the cave deepened further.
His aura still bled silently into the atmosphere while the others watched from behind him.
Far away.
Inside Regns' realm.
Regns suddenly rose from his seat.
The ruined landscape around him had already settled back into eerie calmness, as though the destruction had never happened.
Nearby, the others trained relentlessly.
Mira held a one-arm plank.
Kiro balanced on three fingers during push-ups.
Leah continued endless squats.
Seouk remained perfectly still in a double-hand plank.
Renji and Daigo competed aggressively through sit-ups.
But Regns ignored all of it.
"I can't feel that rage anymore," he muttered.
His eyes narrowed.
"But... that's Ozaki."
A slow breath escaped him.
"How strong is the person forcing Ozaki to use his real strength?"
Back inside the cave—
Ozaki chuckled softly.
"Rujer."
His voice echoed calmly through the chamber.
"I'll tell you this so you can repeat it to Kaku."
He took another step forward.
His aura thickened.
The shadows around him trembled.
"Their power is only beginning."
"Sure."
"But I'll show them something far beyond this."
Rujer slowly raised his head.
His voice lowered.
"Don't place me and that weakling in the same sentence."
His aura flickered violently.
"I'll show you power, Ozaki."
Ozaki ignored him completely.
Instead, he raised his voice toward the darkness beyond the cave.
"Kaku."
"I hope you're listening."
The cave fell silent.
Then Ozaki smiled.
A calm smile.
The kind that came before catastrophe.
"I'm going to make them your equals."
Yamato slowly looked up.
The others stared silently at their master.
At Ozaki.
The storm had finally arrived.