Korav's golden eyes narrowed the moment Riku's aura flared. The narrow bunker corridor trembled violently—dust cascaded from the ceiling, light fixtures flickered, and even the sealed doors behind them warped slightly under the pressure.
Riku's silver-white aura erupted like a celestial typhoon, spiraling into radiant fractal patterns across his body. His Triad Divine Avatar had awakened.
His grey hair floated, glowing with a divine sheen.His eyes burned radiant blue, intense and unblinking.His aura pulsed—a storm of celestial power—almost too overwhelming for the confined space they stood in.
Korav planted his foot and shifted his stance, prepared for the incoming assault.
He wasn't prepared enough.
Riku disappeared—not stepped, not dashed, but blinked—and suddenly Korav was flying backwards. A gut-wrenching strike had landed clean into his midsection, fracturing his essence shield on impact.
Before Korav could recover, Riku was there again.
WHAM!A silver kick to the side of his jaw. The echo rang through the corridor.CRACK!Riku's elbow followed, breaking through the red defense glyph Korav barely managed to raise in time.
Korav tried to counter, swinging his twisted blade in an arc of dark crimson energy—but Riku ducked low, his aura coiling around his arms like serpent flame. His triad-enhanced punch met the sword edge—
—and shattered it.
The corrupted blade splintered into essence shards, dissolving midair as Korav stumbled backward, stunned.
"Your numbers… are off," Riku said coldly. "You assumed my limit was the Divine Avatar's first stage."
Korav growled, raising a fresh glyph to summon another weapon—but Riku was too fast.
He grabbed Korav by the cloak, spun once, and hurled him down the corridor, smashing through walls of steel and tech debris like a meteor.
Korav groaned, trying to stand.
Riku walked toward him slowly—step by silver-etched step, his fractal aura growing brighter with each move.
Korav panted, blood running down the side of his mouth. "So… this is the Triad form…"
Riku tilted his head. "And you're just the first High Code? That's disappointing."
Korav's hand trembled as he activated another technique, dark essence surging beneath him.
But Riku's expression never changed.
The silver storm was just getting started.