SailorStar9: With Chapter 25 uploaded, I present Chapter 26 of this fic. For everyone who put this fic on your favorited and followed lists and/or story alerts, thank you, but remember everyone, a lot of authors (myself included) sustain on readers' reviews.

Disclaimers: I only own the plot.

Chapter 26: Sand Blasted


In Talpa's throne room...

"Warlord of Illusions, Dais." Talpa summoned his next fighter. "Sekhmet and Cale have been successful in drawing Torrent and Halo into the Dynasty. How are your preparations?"

"My target is Hardrock and my plans are gradually taking shape, Master Talpa." Dais responded. "My plan is perfect. I have determined the weakness of Hardrock. As such, I would like the use of the Sand Strikers."

"What use to you is the demon that turns armor into sand?" Talpa questioned.

"Please leave it to me." Dais requested. "I will destroy Hardrock's Iron Rock Crusher and will definitely draw him into the Dynasty."

"Don't forget your words to me, Dais." Talpa warned.


En route to Mount Daisetsu...

Those words from Athena in my dream... Kento was on board a ship to his destination. What do they mean? I'll be sure to grasp it for you and for us. On board a train, he shut his eyes as he recalled Athena's words. Vein of the sand... what exactly does that mean? And that dream, was she saying there's a weakness in the Iron Rock Crusher? "Mount Daisetsu, who awakened me to the spirit of the armor, please tell me. The Dynasty!" exiting from the train station and arriving at a farm, he was alerted by the rumbling of an incoming tractor. "Since Talpa turned out to be alive, I can't help being on edge." he sighed, jumping on top of the tractor and finding no one on it. "That's so unlike me." he let himself fall on his back on the tractor's roof and allowing the vehicle to take him to his destination. "The Dynasty?" he was suddenly alerted by the sudden overcast of dark clouds as the tractors passed through a construction site. "They're coming after me?" he leapt off the tractor onto a crane, only to be met by a wrecking ball that was swung at him.

Kento jumped to dodge the demolition ball, only to have the shockwave knock him to the ground.

"What pitiful sentimentality." Dais mocked, standing out a protruding iron bar. "Humans are such fools."

"Dais!" Kento snapped. "You're still alive?"

"Don't take the Warlord of Illusion to be a pushover." Dais snorted.

Kento jumped to avoid getting pinned by a bulldozer and a wrecking ball. "Damn!" he cursed and pulled out his armor orb, donning on his undergear.

"Hardrock," Dais started. "Your technique is no different from the ball on this crane. You try to defeat the opponent only with strength. However, power alone will not defeat us."

"What's your point?" Kento retorted, heaving a large rock that had fallen nearby to fend off the incoming wrecking ball. He ducked to dodge the swung ball, only to find the iron sphere had crashed into a half-demolished wall and the two Sand Strikers emerged from the falling concrete dust. "What the..." he looked down when one of the Sand Strikers turned into a thread of sand and wrapped itself around his ankle. With Kento sufficiently contained, the second Sand Striker wrapped itself around Kento's neck, before securing his other ankle.

"Demons?" Kento winced, held in place by the two Sand Strikers who had then turned into their humanoid forms.

"How is it, Hardrock?" Dais taunted. "You think you can defeat the Sand Strikers?" he sent a wrecking ball towards the trapped Kento sending him crashing into a half-destroyed wall. Both Sand Strikers melted into sand and fell away from Kento, allowing him to get crashed against the wall. Rematerializing back into their humanoid forms, they charged Kento who rode on the wrecking ball as a counterattack. Temporarily confusing the Earth warrior with afterimages, one of the Sand Strikers cut off the steel rope the wrecking ball was hanging from.

"Go to hell!" the Sand Striker sneered, Kento defending himself using the cut off steel rope.

"My power and speed should be better." Kento growled, managing to avoid getting backstabbed by the second Sand Striker. I can't destroy the sand with power alone. He had an epiphany, seeing the sand flow from the partly-destroyed wall. Was this what Athena walk talking about? But what's the meaning of the 'vein of the sand'? He was suddenly alerted when the building in front of him started tumbling and he reacted too late to escape and found himself pinned under the debris.

"Hardrock," one of the two Sand Strikers was poised to finish off Kento. "I have seen your weakness."

"All you know how to use is your power." Dais mocked. "You cannot defeat the Dynasty with that. Have a good taste of your powerlessness, Hardrock. Hold, Sand Strikers." he stopped the two Sand Strikers from killing Kento. "I can finish him off at any time. I want him to suffer more before we bring him to the Dynasty."

"You trying to run, Dais?" Kento snapped as Dais retreated.

"I'm not running away." Dais laughed. "Don't worry, Hardrock. I'll be waiting at your favorite spot, Mount Daisetsu."


At Mount Daisetsu...

The Sand Strikers had arrived ahead of time and used their control over sand to turn the plains into a dry desert.

"That's enough." Dais chided. "Sand Strikers, the rest of the stage will be set by Kento of Hardrock: with his ultimate technique, the Iron Rock Crusher."


At Mia's mansion...

"It's been a while since the guys left." Yuli mused. "I wonder how they are."

"I agree." Mia concurred. "Ryo should be arriving at Mount Fuji soon. And Rowen's probably still on his way to Amanohashidate."

"It's Kento I'm more worried about." Ami supplied. "I wonder if me sending all of them on their own spiritual awareness journeys is a good idea at a time like this."

"Not to worry." Mia assured the younger female. "I'm sure all of them will come back stronger than ever."

A sudden gust of blew into the research room and sent a hourglass smashing onto the floor.

"Kento..." Ami breathed, seeing the shattered sand.


At Mount Daisetsu...

"What's going on?" Kento arrived at the dead landscape. "That Dais, he must be up to something. A rock shaped like a tree?" his outstretched hand broke off a brittle tree trunk. "The trees have been petrified."

"So, you made it, Hardrock." Dais greeted his adversary.

"Dais!" Kento snapped. "Were you the one who turned this forest into stone?"

"Of course!" Dais replied, tossing his spiked flail at Kento.

The two fighters engaged in hand-to-hand combat, with Kento throwing Dais off with an over-the-shoulder throw.

"A one-trick wonder, as usual." Dais scoffed, barely fazed. "Hardrock, I want you to experience through this forest the consequence of your power."

"Fine." Kento retorted. "You'll see the power of Hardrock. Armor of Hardrock, Tao Gi!" he summoned his armor.

"Hardrock, your armor is overflowing with Wildfire's new power." Dais declared. "It is awakening to the same power as ours. Understand?"

"Am armor possessing the virtue of Justice is not the same as yours." Kento snapped, spinning his three-jointed tetsubo rapidly.

Dais countered with spinning his six scythes.

"Running away, Dais?" Kento challenged, each blocking off the other's attacks.

"I won't run away." Dais corrected. "Not until I show you what power is all about. And I won't want the grave you created for yourself to go to waste. The Iron Rock Crusher leads to destruction. That technique is no different from ours."

"Why, you!" Kento growled. "Iron Rock Crusher!" he released his sure-kill attack.

"Come to me, Sand Strikers!" Dais summoned the two sand demons, the flowing sand from the Sand Strikers shielding him from Kento's attack. "Hardrock, do you not understand? Your armor is the source of destructive power. You may hide behind the notions of justice, but your technique is about to turn everything to dust."

"Shut up!" Kento barked, sending an energy sphere towards Dais. "Did I get him?" he wondered after the attack clashed into Dais. "What?" he was stunned when he looked around to find his surroundings had been reduced into sand.

"The power of Hardrock." Dais droned. "You've leveled the forest and turned it into a lifeless desert. Look at this desert. The world will be covered by an unbroken blanket of sand, as long as you are alive."

The two Sand Strikers launched their attack, confusing Kento with their afterimages.

"I'll deal with you, Sand Strikers!" Kento barked. "Iron Rock Crusher!" he fired his sure-kill technique at the two sand demons.

The two Sand Strikers dissolved into sand and attacked Kento with their flood of sand.

Kento jumped back to dodge the attack, only to find himself sinking in quicksand. He tried to climb out when the two Sand Strikers merged their power into a swirling sand pit and sucked Kento in.

Reforming back into their humanoid forms, one of the Sand Strikers kicked Kento out into the air and held him from behind, allowing the other Sand Striker to use the Warrior of Earth as a punching bag.

"Hesitating in battle means death to a warrior." Dais taunted his defeated foe. "Watch him while I report to Lord Talpa." he instructed.

Vein of the sand... his head now cleared, Kento realized what Athena had meant. I can see it, the vein of the sand.

"You!" the Sand Strikers encircled the hardheaded Kento who had once again risen to his feet.

"The sand is constantly moving." Kento stated. "What disturbs that movement must be their energy." must feel the energy of the sand. He focused. The vein of the sand is simply the flow of nature. I must become one with nature. "I see it!" his eyes snapped open and he blocked off the Sand Strikers' attacks. "Ultra Ballistic Iron Rock Crusher!" his powered-up attack took out both Sand Strikers at the same time.

"Hardrock!" Dais barked. "Should you be happy about defeating the likes of the Sand Strikers? I'll tell you this. Your friends, Torrent and Halo, have already been captured by the Dynasty. I will soon send you to the Dynasty as well."

"Now that I know my true power, I have nothing to be afraid of." Kento declared. "I'll go anywhere to save my friends."

"Then, come with me if you want to save Torrent and Halo." Dais taunted, tempting Kento to follow him.


SailorStar9: This chapter is officially over. Read and review.