Gilded Ashes-Chapter 36: Golden Flash

The arena wasn’t quiet, but it wasn’t quite loud, either.

It sat in a strange middle place where every sound felt forced.

Above the ruined concourse, the scoreboard had collapsed into simplicity. Everything else dimmed out until only two names stayed bright.

[RAIZEN]

[HIKARI]

The crowd could see it. The drones could see it. The arena could see it.

It felt like everyone was staring.

Down in the wrecked concourse, the arena looked like it had already lost a war. Broken stalls leaned against each other. Torn signs hung in strips. Debris covered the ground in a messy layer of cracked tiles and snapped beams. A tram sat half-buried in the floor, stuck at a weird angle.

Drones hovered far back, not swarming. Almost careful.

The host’s voice tried to return to its job.

"Final two contestants, everyone! If you are holding your breath, please pass it to your neighbor when you faint."

A ripple of laughter tried to start, but nobody was in the mood for laughter now.

Even the host felt it. His next words came softer, less playful, like he didn’t want to push the mood too hard.

"Neoshima... You might want to watch this."

Raizen stood on one side of the concourse, blades low, shoulders loose, stance grounded. He didn’t look at the screen, for cameras or anything else that could distract him. His whole attention was on Hikari, like the whole exam had narrowed into a single point.

Hikari stood across from him. Her staff rested along her back for a breath, then slid into her hands. She moved her feet for a wider stance, small adjustments, nothing wasted. Her posture looked calm, but the calm felt sharp.

The suit nodes at their spines glowed yellow.

Not locked yet, but close enough to remind them what this place was.

No speeches. No ceremony. Just survival and supremacy. Either you prove you’re the best, or get eliminated trying.

Hikari moved first.

Not a wild charge, just a shift. A test, almost.

Raizen moved with it, closing distance like it was the only natural thing left to do. Their weapons met on the first beat. Steel and staff hit hard enough to knock dust out of the air.

Raizen cut sideways, aiming to throw off her balance – nothing lethal, just something that could quickly turn against you. Hikari turned it aside like it was child’s play.

He cut low. She hopped back just enough, then snapped the staff toward his ribs.

Raizen leaned away and felt the air move. The staff didn’t miss by too much. She was seriously not holding back.

They didn’t pause after that.

They crossed broken tiles and cracked steps, sliding around debris without looking down. Their bodies learned the terrain in motion. One wrong step could turn into a suit lock. Neither of them gave the arena that opportunity.

Raizen pressed with short, fast cuts. No big swings putting him at risk, just enough to force openings. He tried to steal her wrists, her knees, anything that would make her staff feel heavier in her hands, or force her to make a mistake.

Hikari answered by turning his blades away and striking back in the same second. Ribs. Shoulder. Throat line. Hip. She didn’t overreach. She hit, moved, hit again.

They were close enough that every clash felt personal. Raizen slipped inside one of her rotations and almost got the blade to her forearm plate. Hikari turned and smacked the flat of his sword away with the staff, then snapped the tip toward his face.

Raizen jerked his head aside and felt the staff brush his hair.

He didn’t blink.

Hikari backed a step, then stepped back in immediately, refusing to be walked down.

Their suit nodes stayed yellow, steady. Warning range, but slowly building stress.

After another hard clash, Hikari’s grip shifted. A thin blue line crawled along her staff.

It wasn’t bright at first. It simply appeared, like a vein lighting up under skin.

Then small marks pulsed near her hands as she moved them, and the blue deepened.

The air changed.

Not in a magical way, but Raizen felt it fully in the next strike.

Hikari swung and the staff hit his blade with a kind of weight that wasn’t there before. It didn’t just clash. It pushed. Raizen’s arms jolted. Dust jumped off a broken beam overhead.

The host’s voice dropped into something close to a whisper.

"Eon is in play."

Hikari attacked again. Faster. Heavier. The strikes came in a tight rhythm that didn’t give Raizen time to do anything but block and survive.

A hit slid past his guard and smacked his shoulder plate. His suit flickered hotter yellow. Not orange yet, but close enough to make his teeth clench.

Raizen didn’t retreat. He raised his blades and attacked her again. "Eon, huh?" Gold flickered along the spines of his swords. He felt his body surging with energy, lighter, stronger.

The clash hit like a hammer. The concourse echoed as the tram door behind them rattled in its broken frame.

Hikari’s eyes stayed calm. Her staff moved unrealistically fast. The marks pulsed with every grip change, and the staff strikes kept coming, quick and heavy, forcing Raizen to give ground.

Raizen gave it for a breath, then immediately took it back. He stepped in, cut low, trying to catch Hikari off-guard. She turned it aside and struck his ribs. Raizen blocked, but the impact still shoved him, still stole breath.

His suit node buzzed in warning. It was as if she was seeing his moves before he even decided to move. He needed a miracle to defeat Hikari.

They moved across the concourse and into narrower terrain where broken stalls created tight lanes. Raizen tried to use it. He angled Hikari toward places where her staff would have less room. But she refused to be guided.

She planted the staff once, pivoted, and redirected one of his downward cuts so cleanly that Raizen’s blade slid past her too much on the outside.

Then she slammed the butt of the staff into his chest.

It hit like a truck.

Raizen’s suit flashed bright orange. His breath dumped out of him. His chest burned.

For a split second, his vision blurred. He stumbled back into the edge of a broken stall, fingers tightening on his blades like they were the only thing keeping him upright.

Hikari didn’t rush him while he was off balance. She stepped forward and pressed calmly, even and relentless.

Raizen forced breath back in through clenched teeth. He raised his blades again. Something warm ran down under his sleeve. He hadn’t even felt the cut happen. He looked down once, just a flicker, and saw blood on his forearm.

The blue on Hikari’s staff wasn’t cosmetic.

It was real. Sharp. Dangerous.

Raizen’s jaw tightened. He moved again, pushing her away from the stalls and toward the tram.

A makeshift bridge lay ahead - a twisted tram door tied up with cables, spanning a gap where the floor had collapsed. It was ugly, unstable, and narrow.

They stepped onto it without hesitation.

Hikari attacked in rhythm, the staff strikes coming like a fast drumbeat. Raizen kept adjusting, kept shifting, kept catching the hits on his blades and trying not to let the bridge steal his balance.

The cables creaked under them, the bridge swayed, and their balance was constantly unstable.

Raizen let his guard open for one breath.

Hikari swung.

Her staff accidentally cut through one of the support cables.

The bridge jerked hard, and for a heartbeat, everything shifted sideways.

Raizen’s stomach dropped as the bridge leaned. He grabbed air with his hands and forced his balance to follow. He expected Hikari to slip, even just a little. She didn’t. Hikari rode the tilt like it was nothing. She vaulted, landed near the edge with a clean step, and turned back into her stance before Raizen could even finish stabilizing.

It wasn’t a trick. It wasn’t luck. Balance was just another strong point for her. Raizen’s suit buzzed again. Orange faded back toward bright yellow.

He stepped off the bridge onto solid ground into the corridor of shattered storefronts.

The air in here was thicker with dust. The walls were closer. The signs overhead hung crooked, still shaking from the earlier impacts. Broken glass crunched under boots.

Raizen kicked a stall into Hikari’s path, trying to slow her down, while he tried to find a moment to breathe. Hikari vaulted it without breaking rhythm and brought the staff down the moment she landed.

Raizen blocked, and the clash boomed through the corridor, loud enough that even the distant crowd went still.

Hikari’s Eon thickened. The blue line on the staff looked denser now, less like light and more like something alive. Every strike carried more weight, and anything the blue lines touched was instantly slashed, leaving a glowing cut behind.

Raizen felt his own gold respond. It flickered brighter along the blades, sharper at the edges.

They traded hits again. Strike. Block. Cut. Redirect.

A shallow line opened across Raizen’s forearm where the staff brushed him. Even more red smeared onto his glove.

He answered with a controlled cut down Hikari’s forearm plate. It didn’t bite deep - the suit absorbed most of it - but it still made her suit flash warning yellow and forced her to shift her grip for a fraction.

That fraction was all he got.

Hikari recovered instantly and pressed again, closer now, using the staff like a lever, trying to hook his blades, trying to steal his grip.

Raizen tightened his hands until his knuckles hurt. He pulled his blade free and cut toward her shoulder. Hikari turned it aside and struck his hip. Raizen’s leg buckled for a half step.

His suit buzzed harder, warning him that the strain was rising.

She was almost playing with him, and they both knew it.

They were too close to breathe properly now. Too close for anything except survival.

Then, suddenly, the floor decided to join their dance. A huge crack opened in the tiles beneath their feet, while a pillar above them gave out with a groan.

The corridor shook.

Raizen and Hikari looked down at the same time and saw the floor breaking like it had waited for this moment.

They both fell down.

Two levels.

The fall stole sound for a beat. The air rushed past their ears. Their suits flared warnings mid-air, yellow jumping toward orange.

Raizen hit the ground first.

He tried to absorb most of it, knees bending, shoulders tucking, rolling the shock on his back through training he didn’t even think about. Pain still blasted up his legs. His chest tightened. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Hikari landed a breath later. She rolled cleanly and came up on one knee, staff already in her hands, eyes already locked on him.

Dust drifted between them in slow waves.

They were back in open space now. The space around them looked even worse down here. Debris piled higher. The tram’s undercarriage jutted out like a broken spine. The ceiling beams above were cracked and hanging.

Their suit nodes both pulsed darker now.

Orange.

Not bright and clean like earlier. Dark orange, strained.

They stared at each other for a breath. Now, they were pretty far from each other. Maybe forty to fifty meters, maybe more.

Raizen’s breathing sounded loud. His hands trembled once, then steadied.

Hikari’s blue lines thinned, like a flame being calmed down. Her staff still glowed, but it wasn’t effortless anymore. Her shoulders rose and fell just a little harder.

Then she spoke.

Not mocking.

Not angry.

"Why are you letting me do this?"

Raizen’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t answer.

Hikari stepped forward one pace, staff spinning in her hands. "You’re holding something back, aren’t you?"

Raizen’s jaw tightened.

Hikari’s voice stayed calm. "I can feel it. You keep stopping short. You keep choosing not to cross it."

She lifted the staff slightly, blue marks pulsing weak but steady. "Show me, Raizen."

One slow breath.

"Show me your real strength."

The words echoed through the arena.

Raizen’s grip tightened until the black leather creaked. He felt the cut on his forearm burn. He felt his chest ache from the earlier hit. He felt the suit trying to keep him from tearing himself apart.

And under it all, he felt the thing he’d been refusing to touch.

A memory flashed - not a scene, not a long thought. Just a line, as simple as it can be.

Keep the world lit.

Raizen’s blades stopped flickering.

The gold light steadied - calm, concentrated.

Tiny arcs began snapping off the steel. Not soft sparks. Real cracks of golden lightning that jumped and died. One hit the tram frame and the metal twitched. Another slapped the floor and left a black dot that smoked for half a second. The air around him changed. Dust lifted off the ground in a low ring, circling his boots like it couldn’t stay down anymore.

His suit screamed warnings.

Not a single buzz now. A flood of warnings. Lights on his node jumped, trying to climb into red, trying to force a lock before he could destroy himself, but the color became brighter and brighter until it climbed to white.

Raizen exhaled once. It hurt like hell.

The arcs erupted outward more from both blades at the same time, lashing into the ground, the broken stalls, the metal scrap all around. For a heartbeat, the arena lost all detail - just silhouettes and a violent light. Sound dropped out completely, like the world had been muted.

And in that same heartbeat, he was gone.

From the place where Raizen stood one second ago, a ripping line of light tore across the whole arena.

Dust detonated in a ring behind him. Thin tiles evaporated into dust. The ground blackened along the path like something had burned straight through it. Golden sparks crawled over the scorch line, snapping weakly into nearby metal as they died.

Then...

Silence.

The arena was now covered in a thick dust cloud. Nobody knew what actually happened. They just saw Raizen take a step, then got blinded by a bright flash, and then just... Nothing.

The dust cloud started slowly dissipating.

Raizen wasn’t where he was anymore.

He was standing directly in front of Hikari.

Close enough that she could’ve counted his breaths if she wanted.

His blade was raised, and the tip rested just under her jaw. Not a finger more.

Stopped with absolute precision.

Hikari’s staff was half raised. There had never been an angle to answer that dash. No time to turn. No time to parry. No time to do anything... But realize it was already over.

Her suit flashed red.

The arena didn’t roar. The crowd didn’t scream. The host didn’t speak. Silence filled everything.

Hikari didn’t look at the blade at her neck.

She looked at him.

For the first time since the exam started, her eyes softened. Calm. Honest.

She swallowed once and then her voice came out soft, maybe even almost proud.

"Congrats, Raizen" she whispered.

"You won."

Raizen’s gold flared one more time like it wanted to keep going.

Then reality hit him. His legs shook so hard he almost dropped. His chest burned like knives. Every breath felt sharp, like his lungs were trying to pull in air through broken glass. His vision fuzzed at the edges, the world turning grainy.

Blood started running from his nose in a thin line and dripped onto his lowered blade.

His suit kept shining dimly in deep orange, struggling to hold him upright, lights flickering.

One of his blades slipped.

It fell from his hand and stuck into a crack in the floor with a dull clang. The sword hummed softly, gold dimming along its spine like a dying ember.

Raizen tried to step.

His legs gave out, and he fell forward, on his knees.

The suit tried to brace him and almost tripped him instead, locking his muscles at the wrong moment. He still rolled with the fall out of pure training instinct, shoulder hitting first, then hip, then back.

For a second, he saw only dust and broken tile spinning.

Then he saw Hikari.

She was still locked in red. The suit held her in place, but she fought it anyway, stepping as close as the system would allow. Her eyes stayed on him, trying not to let him hit the ground.

Raizen blinked once.

The world above him blurred.

He heard nothing from the crowd. Nothing from the host.

Only his own breathing, ragged and thin, and the soft hum of his blade stuck in the floor.

Raizen tried to speak, but no sound came out. His vision started tunnelling. His hands twitched like they wanted to grab his blades again, like they wanted to stand up, like they wanted to keep fighting even though the fight was over.

But his body didn’t listen. The orange in his suit flickered.

He heard a faint crackle in his ears, like his system was shouting too many alerts. For a second, the world went dark, then it came back.

Hikari’s voice reached him again, quieter now, like she was speaking only for him.

"You won"

Raizen tried to focus on her. Tried to hold onto the moment. Tried to stay awake.

The host shouted something into the sky, but it sounded very far away.

Raizen’s mind went black.