Part one hundred eighty three — Where Is My Son

　Deciding the fight had gone on long enough, Kazuhiko sent Frederica and Finn directly toward the facility.

　Himari responded instantly.

　Two alternate versions of herself materialized directly in their path, Temporal Prisons closing around both primordial demons before they could take another step.

　Kazuhiko simply used Law Breaker again.

　The prisons shattered as easily as the first.

Not just offensive, Himari realized.

It invalidates the laws themselves.

　Kazuhiko raised his blade for what would have been the finishing strike.

　Divo appeared instead.

　Gemera and Regera flanked him, cutting Kazuhiko off completely.

　"What are you doing here?" Divo asked flatly.

　"I could ask you the same," Kazuhiko replied.

　Divo made his position clear without much preamble. Whatever Kazuhiko intended, it risked turning the entire Demon Lord Order against the Onmyō Order itself.

　He raised Mirella's own contract as proof of exactly how deep Kazuhiko's reach already extended.

　Kazuhiko admitted, honestly, that he barely remembered making it. It had happened so long ago that even the details had blurred.

　But he confirmed one thing.

　The contract had existed long before Mirella's own ascension.

　"So that's why she has no choice but to obey you," Divo said, understanding settling in.

　"Exactly."

　"Whatever you're planning with the Chaos Dragon," Divo said firmly, "you're not getting near her."

　"Are you planning to stop me?" Kazuhiko asked mildly.

　"If necessary, I'll kill you."

　Kazuhiko smiled, entirely unbothered.

　"I'd like to see you try."

　Then everyone stopped at once.

　Himari's Future Sight activated again.

　Unbidden.

　The vision itself fractured like breaking glass the instant it began.

　The capsule.

　Cracked open.

　And then—

　Nothing.

　The sight itself simply collapsed beneath whatever it had been trying to show her.

　An enormous presence rippled outward through the world.

　Unmistakable.

　Absolute.

Something's happened.

　Kazuhiko turned.

　And suddenly found himself several miles away from where he'd been standing.

　The Chaos Dragon was simply there.

　Awake.

　Upright.

　Entirely unbothered by the destruction Kai had built entire fortresses to withstand.

　She raised a single hand.

BOOM!

　Kazuhiko went flying.

　A single casual gesture tore through earth, trees, mountains, and entire rock formations in his wake before he finally crashed into a massive outcropping hard enough to bury half his body inside it.

　For several seconds, there was silence.

　Then Kazuhiko slowly stood.

　His considerable regeneration was visibly struggling for the first time in longer than he could properly remember.

　"What the hell…"

　He studied the damage across his body with genuine alarm.

　Then he looked toward her.

　"Did Kai fuse some kind of enhancement crystal into her core?"

　A short, uneasy laugh escaped him.

　"She just woke up, and she's already using me as a test subject."

　Frederica and Finn arrived beside him.

　Neither looked particularly interested in continuing.

　"Master," Finn said quietly.

　"I don't think we can take her," she added.

　"Just feeling her energy is enough," Frederica said.

　Kazuhiko finally understood.

　Completely.

　"Now I get why Vorath and Skorne wanted her dead."

　He paused.

　"We're leaving."

　The three of them vanished without another word.

　No pride.

　No false confidence.

　Kazuhiko knew precisely when a fight wasn't worth having.

　And this, clearly, was exactly that kind of fight.

　Divo turned toward the Chaos Dragon properly.

　Something old and reverent settled into his usually composed expression.

　"It's been a long time," he said quietly.

　Himari approached carefully.

　"Uh…hi," she managed, awkward despite everything. "You're Kai's mother, right?"

　The Chaos Dragon didn't answer immediately.

　She was still processing everything around her—the weight of a body newly formed, the unfamiliar air filling her lungs, and a world entirely rearranged since the last time she'd drawn breath within it.

　"Kai," Himari said simply.

　Her eyes opened wider.

　"Where is my son?"

　Himari told her everything.

　Plainly.

　Kai was still fighting Vorath and Skorne.

　Shimizu had attacked Horizoncrest.

　People had been lost.

　The invasion was still unfolding across two fronts.

　Nao Shimizu herself had played a direct role in all of it.

　But the instant she heard the words—

"Vorath and Skorne are fighting Kai."

　Her aura erupted.

　Vast.

　Absolute.

　It rippled outward across the entire world.

　Every battlefield felt it simultaneously.

　The armies froze.

　Soldiers on both sides forgot, for one long moment, that they had been fighting at all.

　The Holy Lights stopped.

　Senna stopped.

　Chloe felt it ripple through her.

　Nero.

　Vados.

　Enzo.

　Ivy.

　All of them, wherever they stood, felt the same overwhelming presence settle over the world like a held breath finally released.

　Inside Thyatire, Kai felt it too.

　And smiled.

　Something settled in his chest that had nothing to do with the battle in front of him.

　"She's awake," he said.

　Skorne looked upward.

　His expression turned grim.

　"She has awakened."

　Vorath's composure sharpened into something considerably more serious than it had been a moment earlier.

　"Indeed," he said.