Toka stood rooted to the spot, his eyes darting frantically back and forth between the two identical presences in front of him.
"Hey, hey... now what on earth is going on here?" Toka demanded.
The orange-haired twin completely ignored him, keeping his glare locked on Pico, who was shivering pitifully on the floor.
"Come on, Chico... help me out," Pico pleaded, his voice raspy and disoriented. "You know we need each other!"
"Agh?!" Chico spat, looking down at his brother in utter disgust. "You complete idiot! What happened to all that big talk about how you were going to handle this yourself?!"
Pico’s eyes filled with tears again. "Come on, brother... that doesn't matter right now! You know we need each other, don't forget our goal!"
Chico flinched, pulling back slightly as he let out a sharp, irritated hiss. "Tch!"
"That's why we came to this survival test after all!" Pico pressed, desperate.
Agitated, Chico began aggressively scratching his orange hair. "You don't need to remind me!"
"Hey!" Toka interjected.
"Huh?!" Chico snapped, turning his head toward Toka, who was visibly losing his cool.
"I really hate being ignored," Toka warned, his voice dropping into a dangerous register.
Chico stared at him for a long, quiet moment with sharp, cold eyes before letting out another hiss and scratching his messy orange hair again.
Toka shifted his weight, taking a step forward. "I..."
"Don't even dare," Chico interrupted sharply, without even looking back at him.
Toka froze. "What?"
Slowly, Chico stretched his right hand out toward the solid stone wall beside him.
Right before Toka's eyes, the surface of the wall rippled like wet clay, and a human face slowly began to submerge outward from the rock. As the features materialized, Toka’s eyes blew wide in sheer horror.
"Cindy...!" he gasped.
Toka snapped his attention back to Chico, but the orange-haired boy simply wagged his index finger back and forth, shaking his head.
"Now, I wouldn't try pulling any stupid stunts if I were you," Chico said coldly. "You see... you may have managed to defeat my brother, but in reality, your lives still firmly in our hands. We still have our final card to play, so don't go getting ahead of yourself, boy."
Toka’s chest heaved with rage. "Let her go! She has nothing to do with this!"
"What? Are you stupid?" Chico sneered. "As a matter of fact, not only is she part of it, but so are all those friends of yours who thought they could infiltrate this territory. Looking at how things are going, I'd say they've all probably been captured by now."
Toka's mind raced, a wave of cold dread washing over him as he thought of Kairo and the others.
Chico turned his head back toward the emotionless, unconscious face of Cindy merging with the rock face. "Now, looking at this beauty right here... I'd estimate she has less than ten minutes left before she completely loses the privilege to be part of this world. Right now, she's just unconscious, but I'm sure you don't want it to end like that for her... do you?"
Toka stood frozen, a harsh hiss escaping through his gritted teeth. "Tch!"
"Good," Chico smirked. "Now then... all you have to do is surrender, and this will all be over in just a teeny-tiny bit."
Toka’s gaze locked onto Chico as he slowly slid his back foot into a firm, anchored stance.
Chico's eyes glinted. "Oh? So, I guess that's a no to my offer, then? Good... because I was getting bored watching from the sidelines anyway."
The moment the words left his mouth, Chico released his hand from the wall. The stone rippled once more, swallowing Cindy’s face back into the dark rock.
Toka’s expression twisted into pure disgust, his eyes burning with fury as Chico glare back at him.
He turned his head down toward Pico, whose morphed body had shrunk back to its normal proportions, though the severe injuries and bloody wounds from his fight with Toka still covered his skin.
"Hey, Pico," Chico said softly.
Pico raised his head, wiping tears from his face as he let out a pathetic, sobbing groan. "H-Hmm...?"
"I still haven't forgotten our goal," Chico said, his tone turning surprisingly gentle. "That's why we have to pass this test no matter what. Common, go find a safe place to recover, and let your big brother handle this."
Pico gave a weak nod, slowly dragging his battered body away into a dark, secluded alcove of the cavern.
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Once his brother was out of harm's way, Chico turned his full focus back toward Toka. He stretched both of his arms out sideways, taking a step backward directly into the solid stone wall.
"Now then..." He began, his voice echoing unnaturally as the rock surface rippled like liquid clay, slowly absorbing his boots and legs into the wall. "I'm sure we all have our own personal motivation in this survival test. But for me... and for my brother... I will do whatever it takes to take down anyone who stands in our way."
Toka narrowed his eyes, analyzing the bizarre sight as the stone crept up Chico's torso. Within seconds, the cave wall had completely merged with his body, leaving only his outstretched hands and serious face visible on the rock's surface.
"Even if it means putting my life on the line," Chico declared.
With those final words, the stone rippled one last time, swallowing his face and hands whole. The wall smoothed over, returning to a completely still, solid slab of cold rock.
Toka dropped into a low, guarded stance.
"I need to keep my guard up," Toka thought. "If he can merge with the wall... then there's no reason to assume he's limited to the surface."
From a dark corner of the wide chamber, Pico sat huddled against the rock, clutching his battered, aching body. He watched with a grim satisfaction as Toka’s eyes darted frantically around the room, unable to pinpoint where the next strike would come from.
A cruel smile stretched across Pico's face. "He's completely done for," Pico thought, his eyes gleaming. "Brother's camouflage is so perfect he won't even know what hit him."
Across the cavern, Toka took a slow, cautious step backward, trying to analyze the eerie, motionless stone walls.
Pico chuckled softly to himself. "Look at him... acting so cool, thinking he's the only one who can pull off an ambush."
Toka stood frozen in the center of the chamber. The walls remained completely still, not a single vibration, not a single trace of movement. But as the silence dragged on, a sharp, throbbing agony flared in Toka's leg. He glanced down, his teeth clenching tightly.
"The injury is getting worse... and I'm running dangerously low on flow," Toka realized, sweat dripping down his temple. "If this drags on, I'm at a complete disadvantage."
He stopped moving entirely. Closing his eyes, he drew in a slow, deep breath, letting the air settle in his lungs.
"And Cindy... I don't have time to waste. I have to make do with whatever energy I have left."
The air surrounding Toka suddenly whipped into a sharp gale as his gradient red and light green seikon flow flared back to life, surging through his veins with renewed intensity. He snapped his eyes open, sinking his boots firmly into the stone in a solid, ready guard.
"If I'm standing dead in the center of the chamber.... where is he going to attack from?"
Suddenly, a strange, localized ping of energy flared directly beneath him.
Toka’s eyes shot down to the stone floor. "From the ground?!"
Before the thought could even finish, Toka channeled his remaining seikon into his legs, launching himself upward into the air just as the stone floor shattered. A massive hand made of dense, molten-like clay erupted straight out of the ground, snapping its fingers shut right where Toka’s ankles had been a millisecond prior.
"My intuition was correct!" Toka thought, his body soaring through the air. "He really can move through the entire cavern structure seamlessly!"
Reaching the high ceiling of the chamber, Toka extended his arms, catching hold of a protruding stone ledge to anchor himself and survey the floor below.
But the moment his fingers gripped the rock, a sudden, terrifying spike of energy traveled straight through the ceiling at blinding speed, heading directly for his hands.
Toka’s head snapped upward in shock. "What?!"
BOOM!
The stone ceiling right above him violently exploded outward. Toka released his grip instantly, throwing both arms over his face to shield himself as the blast sent him hurtling backward toward the ground amidst a shower of shattered rock.
"AAAAARRGH!" Toka screamed, the concussive force blasting through his guard as he tumbled through the air.
Watching from the shadows, Pico pumped his fist, his face lighting up with wild delight. "YES! Got him!"