Above the sky, savage winds raged as dark clouds churned.
Jin An lightly tapped the void with the tip of his foot and drifted upward, his cloak snapping loudly in the high air.
Amatsuki Toki stood below, looking up at his retreating figure, her eyes filled with both worry and trust.
Jin An gently exhaled, his pitch-black pupils reflecting the abyss-like darkness in the distance.
His body bore the marks of battle. The torn clothing at his shoulder was still scorched, and the long blade clenched in his hand trembled faintly, as if it sensed its master's resolve.
He raised his head, a smile curling across his lips—a smile that feared nothing even after passing through utter despair.
"The founder of the World Government..."
His voice echoed through the heights, low and powerful.
"As expected of you... your strength runs unfathomably deep. Even I came to truly understand the weight of the word 'oppression' while fighting you."
Before his words had faded, a bolt of lightning tore across the sky, illuminating the long-oppressed heavens.
Within the darkness, a mass of black mist poured down from the endless abyss like tears shed by a god, vast and mysterious, like the eyes of an ancient deity opening in the night.
Jin An's pupils narrowed. The energy within him seemed to answer that pressure, while the will blazing through his bones forced his spine straight as a spear.
He slowly raised the long blade in his hand, its point aimed directly at where the black light descended.
"However..."
He murmured softly, yet his voice crashed into every ally's heart like a war drum.
"I've been getting stronger too."
The instant his words fell, the air beneath his feet violently exploded. A halo burst outward from his body, like the first ray of dawn