Levine chuckled, the sound low and ominous, like the crackling of embers before a wildfire. His smile twisted into something darker as his eyes swept across the group before him.
"Sensei… Gara Tengu…" His voice dipped into scorn as he uttered the rest, each name like a weight dropped on the earth. "Kaze Wind-Fang. Raijin Inazuma. And you…"
He narrowed his eyes, grin widening. "Xzavier Shishiroma."
The air turned thick. Each name Levine spoke radiated with layered hatred, like old scars being torn open again.
He stepped forward slowly, the wind swirling with heat around his Flame Blade. Then, almost mockingly, he turned to the one standing at the center of it all—calm, unreadable, and utterly grounded.
"…But should I say," Levine added, the words like venom, "Kineta Terra… or do you prefer your code name, Shoei Kazemura?"
The moment he spoke the alias, the very earth beneath them trembled.
A tremor cracked the dust-dry ground, then five jagged platforms of stone erupted upward in a fan around Kineta—no, Shoei. They lifted him high above the others, a silent throne of rock beneath his feet. Shoei stood tall, expression unreadable, but the faintest smirk touched the corner of his lips.
From under his unruly brown bangs, a single blue Aku no Eye gleamed, pulsing with restrained energy. His Earth Blade remained sheathed across his back, heavy and still.
Levine spat to the side and shouted, "Let's see what you've got, brat!"
With a flick of his wrist, the Flame Blade—alive with snarling fire—whirled toward Xzavier, the heat bending the air around it like a mirage.
The blade shrieked through the air.
Xzavier's gaze locked onto it—but his mind was already somewhere else.
A dirty alley. Moonlight. Zadie, wounded, in his arms. The blood. The tears. The moment he fought his brother for the second time.
Now, the memory ignited something deeper.
Xzavier's pupils narrowed. His fingers twitched.
As the Flame Blade approached, he caught it mid-spin, the hilt slamming into his palm with enough force to crack bone. But Xzavier didn't flinch. Flames licked at his coat, singing the edges, but his gaze was locked on Levine with raw fury.
"Another pity weapon?" he snarled, voice cracking like thunder. "I'll murder you…"
He tightened his grip, the fire crawling up his forearm, veins glowing faint orange as if feeding off it.
"…You ass of a brother!"
The heat exploded outward from him as his latent energy surged, fire and wrath combining in a vortex. The cracked symbol on his neck glowed briefly, and the ground around him blackened.
Shoei narrowed his eyes.