Blink: Ethereal Fury

The Last Gate

The world around Benji was falling apart. The courtyard was in ruins, the sky above flickering with lightning that flashed in violent arcs. He could feel the storm in his chest, pounding with the same rhythm of the untamed energy surging through him. His vision was narrowed to one singular focus: Black Star.

Benji blinked forward again, appearing right in front of the villain, fists blazing. He swung with every ounce of strength he had left, but Black Star countered, his shield coming up in an instant, deflecting the attack with a deafening clang. Benji twisted, spinning into a kick that connected with Black Star's side, but it wasn't enough. The man didn't even flinch.

Instead, Black Star's fist came crashing down into Benji's gut, sending him flying backward, skidding across the cracked stone ground. Benji gasped for breath, the wind knocked out of him, but he could hear Tao, still groaning on the ground behind him.

"Benji," Tao coughed, his voice hoarse. "We can't hold him off... unless..."

"Unless what?" Benji managed to say, staggering to his feet. He could taste blood in his mouth, his body barely responding, but the flicker of something—hope, or fear, or maybe just desperation—kept him standing.

Tao's eyes flicked toward the entrance of the temple, the grand double doors now cracked open, revealing a dark stairwell that led deep beneath the temple. "The prison," he said, his voice strained. "We have to lead him down there."

Benji's heart skipped a beat. The prison beneath the temple—the thing Sensei had always warned them about, the thing that had been kept sealed for centuries—was the last place they should ever go. It was a vault for something terrible. Something even the Sensei feared.

"What's down there, Tao?" Benji asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Tao didn't meet his eyes. "It's... the only way to stop him."

Another burst of energy erupted from Black Star's shield, ripping through the air toward them. Benji blinked out of the way just in time, reappearing near Tao, who struggled to his feet. They were out of time. Black Star was advancing, slowly, methodically, his shield gleaming in the broken light.

"If we can get him down there," Tao said through gritted teeth, "the energy from the prison... it'll overwhelm him. But we'll have to be careful. If we go too far, if we unleash what's sealed down there—"

"There's no turning back," Benji finished, his heart racing.

Tao nodded. "Exactly."

They didn't have a choice. Black Star was too strong, too relentless. Even with their combined strength, they couldn't hold him off forever. But if the energy from the prison was as powerful as Sensei had always hinted, it might be enough to stop Black Star—for good.

Benji glanced at Tao, the man who had betrayed him, the man who had caused so much pain. But in this moment, none of that mattered. All that mattered was stopping Black Star. And whatever lay beneath the temple, whatever darkness was sealed there—it couldn't be worse than what Black Star would do if he got his hands on whatever power he sought.

"Let's do it," Benji said, blinking toward the temple doors. Tao followed, limping, his body barely holding together. They burst through the cracked doors, racing down the narrow stairwell that spiraled into the earth. The air grew colder with each step, the walls damp and slick with moisture. The further they descended, the more the very air seemed to hum with a strange, electric tension, like static before a storm.

Behind them, Black Star's footsteps echoed ominously, unhurried but relentless. He knew they had nowhere left to run.

The stairwell finally opened into a vast underground chamber. The ceiling stretched impossibly high, supported by massive stone pillars inscribed with ancient, forgotten symbols. In the center of the chamber was a great, circular door, embedded into the ground—a vault sealed with thick iron chains and heavy locks, pulsating faintly with a dark, unnatural energy.