BOOM!
An explosion shook the ground, sending dust and debris flying outward.
A figure burst out from the cloak of dust that engulfed the point of impact, smoke rising from his crossed arms as the force of the blast shoved him backward.
“He got me…”
Jerom’s eyes were wide, and his mind ran faster than it ever had.
Back then, he didn’t know how Malakai had done it. All he knew was that the burst of Vita had grazed the bottle Malakai had handed Kendal, and then it exploded.
Jerom had scanned that bottle inch by inch. He’d seen the small, jutted-out piece strapped to the bottom, which didn’t look like it could hold water.
He had thought it was just part of the bottle’s design. But now, he had seen the same exact object below him, and like the last one…
It had exploded.
In Jerom’s generation, explosives that utilized compressed Vita were still in development, especially by the Lucerna Clan, who were the dominators of all tech within the dome.
But no matter how much he sifted through his thoughts, Jerom had never seen a device like this.
Still, now wasn’t the time to think about that.
Not when he was facing him, where any slip-up meant swift death.
‘He’s coming!’
A crimson gaze flared through the haze, and the sound of a blade slicing through air followed.
Jerom’s head snapped right to see the edge of a scythe arcing toward his neck.
His eyes narrowed into pinpricks. He called upon every ounce of power he had, and an electric surge surged through him.
His reflexes screamed.
His head snapped back just in time, evading the air-splitting strike…
But not completely.
“Ugh!”
He grunted as hot crimson leaked from the shallow cut across his neck.
The blade had grazed him.
‘Focus!’
Jerom swallowed the pain and forced his mind to snap into place.
He regained balance, his eyes locking on the haze that had begun to fade.
‘That explosive… he must have planted it when he killed Kendal.’
They were fighting in the very spot where Kendal had died. Jerom had watched Malakai closely during their clashes, and he was sure Malakai hadn’t dropped anything.
It must have been planted back then.
‘I can’t waste any more time. I have to end this.’
Just as the thought passed through his mind, something shot out from the thinning haze.
Jerom’s eyes sharpened.
He dodged instinctively to the side, gaze never leaving the fog.
‘I can’t be caught off guard.’
But the moment he saw the projectile, his heart nearly stopped.
‘The bomb!’
The realization hit him like a hammer, just as a burst of Vita shot out of the haze and struck the device squarely.
Jerom’s eyes widened—
BOOM!
Another explosion tore through the hall.
The force of it destabilized Jerom’s footing, sending him jerking to the side.
“Shit!” he grunted, feeling searing pain race through his left arm. But his eyes sharpened in the next instant.
‘I can’t be caught off guard!’
He twisted mid-air and planted a foot on the ground, ready to regain his balance.
Then, he heard it.
A sound.
One that shouldn’t have felt dangerous. And yet, it was exactly that.
Dangerous.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Gulp.
He heard it in that exact, successive order. And the moment he did, a dread unlike anything he’d ever felt slammed into him.
‘He’s eating the Devil’s Fruit!’
Jerom’s head snapped upward, only to see the pointed tip of a scythe inches from his forehead.
Time slowed.
Jerom’s eyes locked with Malakai’s, crimson and cold as death.
And in that instant, everything flashed before him.
Their first meeting.
Their cryptic conversations.
The mind games.
The battle.
And through it all, one realization bloomed like a blade in his gut:
An unevolved had bested two evolved beings.
An impossibility. And yet, it was the reality.
In his final moments, Jerom’s eyes widened with dread.
‘I don’t want to die.’
The blade pierced straight through the center of his forehead, the tip bursting out the other side with a sickening crunch.
A splatter of crimson painted the floor.
The hall fell silent for a single second before Malakai pulled the scythe free with a wet, dragging sound.
Jerom’s body collapsed to the floor, lifeless, painting the ground in a widening pool of blood.
Malakai’s breathing was steady—until it wasn’t.
Three seconds later, he felt it.
The Vita began draining from his body like water from a cracked vessel, and with it came a wave of bone-deep exhaustion.
He staggered back two steps, then lowered himself onto the blood-stained floor.
Jerom’s blood reached him. It was warm and sticky against his skin, but he didn’t care.
He inhaled deeply, then exhaled in a shuddering breath.
His body ached, his nerves screaming and muscles crying.
‘I used it twice… without spacing them.’
The Devil’s Fruit worked differently depending on what the body demanded.
When injured, it funneled the Vita into the systems responsible for regeneration—accelerating cell repair, boosting blood flow, energizing hormones, and pumping the endocrine system to keep him from collapsing.
But in battle, it was another thing entirely. The Vita surged through every part of him—his muscles, nerves, ligaments, brain, lungs, even his heart. Every cell was forced to operate at maximum capacity.
But that power came at a cost. Too much use would kill him.
While he could still move, it was painful. It felt like his insides were on fire.
He needed rest.
He needed food.
And more than anything, he needed time.
Still panting, Malakai’s gaze drifted forward, locking on Jerom’s glassy, lifeless eyes.
‘It was tough… but it’s good I prepared early.’
This wasn’t the hardest battle he’d ever fought, but it was still close.
Malakai could only thank his foresight, his paranoia, and all the planning he’d put in before the inevitable clash with Jerom and Kendal.
He hadn’t poisoned Kendal’s water. Instead, he’d planted a bomb on the water bottle.
Malakai reached into his utility belt and pulled out a small, round device.
A Mini Vita Mine.
Back in Jerom’s era, it hadn’t been invented yet. But in Malakai’s time, it was one of the more effective tools used in battle.
It was small, discreet, and deadly.
It was made of volatile, compressed Vita and was rigged with pressure plates designed to explode on contact or when struck with another volatile energy signature.
While they were perfect for trapping the mindless darkness beasts, it was different for humans. Since Jerom wasn’t mindless, Malakai hadn’t relied on him stepping on it.
Instead, he’d taken another route.
The Vita inside the mine was already unstable. All it took for it to explode was a reaction from another volatile Vita.
That was why he’d used the gun.
It had been a long process. Risky and also complicated.
But now, here he was. Sitting on the floor. Bleeding. Panting.
But still alive.
He had won.