Darkness swallowed the entire arena as the men remained perfectly still, while Raiden’s mind churned with frantic, fearful thoughts.
Their unseen eyes seemed to drill into his golden ones, the malevolent intent behind them sending shivers through his body. He began taking steps backward.
Whether they planned to kill him remained uncertain, but he wasn’t foolish enough to provoke people who could so easily evade his dragon instincts.
Step by step, he backed away while keeping his gaze fixed on them. The entire arena seemed to stop and watch, curious about what would happen next. Raiden hardly registered the crowd’s attention; his only thought was escape.
The moment he felt comfortable with the distance between them, he whirled around to run. But quicker than a heartbeat, one of the men was already there, cutting off his escape. Cold dread washed over him as sweat prickled his forehead.
What was that? Teleportation?
Before he could string together a coherent thought, the man was right there, inches away. Terror flashed across Raiden’s face as he attempted to flee, but the man’s fist buried itself in his stomach, dropping him hard to the ground.
Raiden cried out, eyes clamped shut in pain. The impact disrupted his mana flow to his eyes, flooding his brain with excruciating pain that overshadowed even the blow to his gut.
Before he could collect himself and restore his sight, the other two joined their companion. Fists and feet hammered into Raiden from all directions.
Before he could even process one blow, another would land. His vision was nothing but a haze, making it impossible to see where his attackers stood, let alone fight back.
He covered his head with both hands, gritting his teeth as he blinked frantically and squeezed his eyes tight, desperate for the retinal rift to end and the overwhelming torrent of information to stop.
But every blow landed with bone-shaking force, his body convulsing with each impact as his concentration shattered. He felt himself going numb, his body surrendering despite his healing factor.
He needed to counterattack, or they’d kill him. He tried to push himself up, but the next moment his legs were thrashing in mid-air, his body hurtling through the cold wind as the ground dropped away beneath him.
"Am I actually hovering?" he asked with a trembling voice, his head swiveling frantically as he tried to figure out how this was possible.
He forced mana into his eyes to clear his vision and stared downward in disbelief. Somehow, something was holding him fifteen feet above the ground.
From below, everyone gazed up at him with unsettling calm. He knew he was about to be driven into the ground, and judging by their expressions, the spectators were looking forward to it.
He struggled frantically against the unseen force. At least if he fell on his own terms, he could try to land safely, but his body wouldn’t respond. It was like everything except his head was trapped in an invisible straitjacket.
"They’re going to kill me," he breathed, struggling desperately against whatever held him.
Suddenly, he was launched downward, plummeting through the air toward the earth below. Panic flooded through him as he realized the truth; hitting the ground at this velocity would obliterate him completely, leaving nothing to regenerate.
In the final moments, he clenched his eyes shut and concentrated every bit of remaining mana into protecting his head, chest, and legs. When he crashed into the floor, the sound of breaking bone echoed through the entire space.
The arena fell quiet as spectators watched blood spreading from Raiden’s broken form. His body felt like lead, his heart beating slower and slower as he lay staring at the ground with a peculiar smile.
Shouldn’t my berserk mode be taking over right about now?—he thought dimly.
He never understood why they’d targeted him, but as consciousness slipped away, his mind focused on oddly calming things: his own shallow breathing and the blood trickling down his face. His body felt ice-cold as the world receded into distant fog. He was dying, and he could feel it happening.
Despite everything, he’d managed to keep mana flowing to his eyes. Small victory, but it lifted his spirits slightly. The thought that consumed him most was whether death might transport him back to his old world, back to the people who deserved his wrath. Maybe dying here was actually his ticket home.
Before long, his body had gone completely numb. His heart beat so slowly he could barely feel it, his eyes growing impossibly heavy as his dying senses seemed to whisper: Sleep now. Everything will be alright.
He smiled warmly as consciousness slipped away. But when his eyes shut, his blue aura darkened to black, causing the men in black to stumble backward, alarm replacing their earlier confidence.
There was nothing left of Raiden’s consciousness, yet his body surged upright without his control, healing at an impossible rate. His golden eyes moved erratically, unable to focus on anything specific, but somehow he knew the precise position of everyone in the arena.
His dark hair transformed into pure, radiant white that seemed to glow with its own light. It became beautifully chaotic, soft and weightless, floating in loose spikes that moved like white fire around his head.
Luminous dark tattoos traced across his hands, running up over his knuckles and winding around his wrists. A massive sigil materialized on his forehead—perfectly balanced and otherworldly, resembling a runic symbol with wing-like extensions that swept across his brow.
He took in his transformed appearance, a devilish smile curling his lips as pure euphoria surged through every fiber of his being.
People began fleeing in all directions, but this version of Raiden was transfixed by his transformation and the luminous moon overhead. The fear emanating from the crowd was tangible, amplifying his euphoria, and the simple thought of butchering them all was almost overwhelming in its appeal.
At that precise moment, Noelle and Ash appeared in the entrance. Noelle was still catching her breath, gazing at Raiden with complete confusion, while Ash wore a strangely warm expression.
This wasn’t the same Raiden everyone recognized. Ash was the only one who knew what he truly was beneath the surface, and seeing him in this dark state unmistakably filled her with excitement.