The silence of the void where Suchumus hung was shattered, not by sound, but by the sheer violence of motion. Kyusei, the caped savior, didn't hesitate. Grief for Yoraseeh, fury at Dentetsu's casual genocide, and the burning weight of his proclaimed 'justice' ignited into pure kinetic fury. He exploded forward, a brown blur against the backdrop of stars, leaving swirling eddies of distorted space in his wake.
His fists became a storm. Not elegant techniques, but raw, annihilating speed and power. Hundreds of blows rained towards Dentetsu in the space of a single cosmic breath; punches that could shatter planets, kicks that could alter the flow of the world, elbow strikes carrying the force of dying stars. Each strike screamed through the vacuum, trailing spirals of unleashed spiritual energy that scorched the glassy crater rim below.
Dentetsu didn't block. He flowed. His movements were minimal, economical to the point of absurdity. A subtle tilt of the head here, a fractional shift of the hip there, a sway back that defied perception. Kyusei's furious barrage passed through empty space Dentetsu had occupied a nanosecond before. It was like watching water flow around an immovable boulder. Dentetsu's expression remained one of mild boredom, his brown eyes tracking the onslaught with detached interest, his bare chest untouched, not even a ripple disturbing the air around him.
"RRRAAAGH!" Kyusei roared, the psychic blast carrying his frustration. He disengaged, hovering a kilometer away, chest heaving beneath the brown cape. The sheer futility of his assault was a cold shock. He's not even trying!
Realizing speed alone was futile, Kyusei abandoned restraint. He threw his arms wide, the worn brown cape billowing outwards. From deep within his core, a torrent of power erupted. It wasn't just spiritual energy; it was the condensed essence of his conviction, his centuries of existence, his justice. A blinding, golden-white aura exploded around him, radiating outwards like a newborn star. The light washed over the devastated Southern village, bleaching the glassy crater, making the distant mountains seem like paper cutouts. The sheer pressure made the very fabric of Suchumus groan; atmospheric pressure spiked, tectonic plates shifted minutely.
Dentetsu shielded his eyes, not from pain, but from the glare. A genuine flicker of surprise, then appreciation, crossed his brutal features. "Whoa," he rumbled, his voice carrying easily through the psychic and spatial distortion. "I'm... quite impressed." He lowered his hand, squinting at the blazing figure. "That's some serious energy you're packing there, Mister Saviour. More than most relics I've squashed. You're truly a strong one. For a mortal playing hero."
The condescension ignited Kyusei's fury anew. Impressed wasn't enough. He needed impact. He needed to hurt this monster. Channeling the colossal energy he'd unleashed, Kyusei clapped his hands together before his chest, then thrust them forward in a single, shoving motion.
BOOOOOOM-SSSHHHHH!
A visible shockwave, not of air but of pure, compressed spiritual force, erupted. It wasn't aimed; it was a hemisphere of obliterating energy expanding outwards at light speed, centered on Kyusei. Space itself warped, bending light into impossible curves. The shockwave hit Dentetsu like a cosmic tsunami.
For the first time, Dentetsu moved defensively. He didn't dodge; he braced, crossing his massive forearms before his chest. The force slammed into him with the weight of a collapsing star cluster. His boots ground into the glassy rock, carving deep furrows for kilometers as he was pushed back, back, back across the face of Suchumus. Mountains blurred past, oceans flashed beneath him, continents shrank to insignificance. In seconds, he was hurled bodily off the planet, tumbling through the void trailing streamers of displaced solar wind.
Kyusei watched, panting, a surge of grim satisfaction cutting through the exhaustion. *Got him! That had to—*
His thoughts froze. Dentetsu stopped tumbling. He uncrossed his arms, flexing them casually as if shaking off a stiff breeze. He looked completely unharmed. Not a scratch, not a singe on his chinos. He tilted his head, looking back at Kyusei across the planetary distance, a slow, disappointed shake ruffling his spiky dark hair. "Impressive scale," his voice boomed psychically, devoid of strain. "Visually dramatic. But fundamentally lame. All flash, no substance. You waste your power broadcasting your location to half the universe. You can quite literally kill someone with a finger. No need to show off."
Kyusei felt a chill deeper than the void seep into his bones. The satisfaction evaporated, replaced by dawning, terrifying realization. "You... you're really strong..." The words were a whisper, carried by disbelief. Not just strong. Impossibly strong. His strongest area-of-effect blast, fueled by his unveiled power, had been shrugged off like a playful shove.
Dentetsu folded space, appearing a hundred meters away, hands on his hips. "Well," he scoffed, "what would you expect of a Monarch? We're not exactly neighborhood toughs." He gestured dismissively at Suchumus. "Though, granted, most of the others are disappointments."
Kyusei's mind raced. This power level... it defied his experience. "That's not it!" he protested, his voice gaining strength fueled by incredulity. "I know how strong Monarchs are! I defeated two of them! Eons ago! Kharlan and Xylos! Those were their names! They were titans! But you...!" He pointed an accusing finger, the cape swirling. "You're completely something else! A different order of existence!"
Dentetsu's eyes widened. Genuine surprise, then a fierce, predatory excitement ignited within them. "Defeated two Monarchs?!" His voice boomed, shaking nearby asteroids. "Seriously?! Now that's a resume! Kharlan was a brute, Xylos a tricky bastard... but taking them down?" A savage grin split his face. "You're not just strong, Saviour, you're rightfully so! That makes it more worth it!" He cracked his knuckles, the sound echoing like boulders colliding in the void. "Finally! A worthy warm-up!"
Kyusei frowned, the excitement chilling him further. "You... you don't seem too surprised. Or threatened. I can tell... you're operating on a level beyond anything I faced before. Those two probably wouldn't compare."
Dentetsu waved a dismissive hand. "Nah. Don't flatter yourself. I bet those Monarchs you scrapped with were not that good, To be fair it's not like I know about them that much. Light work for someone like you, maybe." He tapped his bare chest. "Probably just Tuesday. Now," his grin turned feral, "stop talking about the past. Show me what you've got now. Make me feel something before I get bored and vaporize this rock."
The dismissal of his greatest feats, the casual threat to Suchumus; it ignited Kyusei's rage like a supernova. "DON'T MOCK ME, MONSTER!" he screamed, the psychic blast distorting space around him. Justice demanded retribution! He became a golden comet, streaking towards Dentetsu not with technique, but with pure, unadulterated rage. His fist, wreathed in incandescent power drawn from the core of his being, aimed not for a block, but for a brutal, overwhelming impact on Dentetsu's torso.
CRACK-THOOOOOM!
The punch connected. Not a glancing blow, but a direct, planet-shattering impact. The force didn't just send Dentetsu flying; it fractured the space he occupied. Dentetsu vanished from near Suchumus, transformed into a dark streak hurtling across the cosmos at speeds that warped causality. Kyusei didn't pause. Fury demanded escalation. He raised both hands, gathering the swirling remnants of his spiritual tempest, focusing it into a single, searing point of golden-white annihilation.
"FOR THE DAMNED! FOR JUSTICE!" The cry was a dirge for planets. He unleashed it.
FWOOOOOM-KABLAMMM!
The beam wasn't a line; it was a cone of pure annihilation. It lanced across the void, intersecting the trajectory Dentetsu had been flung on. It struck not Dentetsu, but the heart of the 13th Galaxy. Stars didn't explode; they winked out. Nebulae dissolved into harmless dust. Planets ceased to exist without fanfare. The beam traversed the void, intersecting the 14th Galaxy in its path, repeating the silent apocalypse. Two galaxies, billions of stars, countless worlds, civilizations unaware of the conflict; all destroyed in the blink of an eye, reduced to expanding clouds of cooling plasma and cosmic dust. Silence, profound and absolute, settled where vibrant star systems had spun moments before.
Kyusei hovered, panting heavily, the golden light around him flickering erratically. The scale of destruction, even in righteous fury, was a cold weight in his gut. But necessity demanded it. *Had to stop the monster...*
Dentetsu materialized calmly amidst the dissipating stellar ash of the 14th Galaxy's corpse. He brushed imaginary dust from his chinos. Not a hair out of place. Not a mark on his skin. He looked at Kyusei across the light-years, his expression one of profound weariness. "That's great, Mister Saviour," his voice carried, flat and utterly unimpressed. "You annihilate two galaxies like snuffing candles. Very flashy. Very... final. But for a guy like me?" He yawned, stretching his arms wide. "Pretty boring. Where's the fight? Where's the struggle? You're just throwing tantrums with cosmic fireworks... Although I have to admit. I can see you defeating some Low Level Monarchs with that level."
Kyusei stared, the cold weight turning to ice. Terror, pure and absolute, began to crystallize around his heart. "The... hell are you?" The question was a whisper of existential dread. This wasn't power. This was something close to immunity. This was reality bending to Dentetsu's whim.
Dentetsu shrugged, a gesture that seemed to displace the void itself. "Just the strongest dude there is, I guess. At least until I find someone who makes breaking a sweat worthwhile." He began to drift closer, folding space with each nonchalant movement. "Come to think of it," he mused, stopping a few hundred meters away, his brown eyes boring into Kyusei's hidden ones beneath the hood, "you never asked what kind of Monarch I am. What my domain is."
Kyusei tensed, gripping his fists tighter. "Does it matter? Your power speaks for itself."
Dentetsu chuckled, a low, dangerous rumble. "Exactly. You don't need to know. It's futile trivia. Like naming the species of insect you're about to crush. It might hold significance but there is nothing for you to do with the info." His gaze hardened, the boredom replaced by chilling finality. "Because you're dying anyway. Right here. Right now. This little game of 'justice' is over."
"OH, BEING COCKY NOW, ARE YOU?!" Kyusei roared, the terror momentarily submerged beneath a tidal wave of indignant fury. *Justice could not be mocked! Justice demanded this abomination's end!* "BY THE SACRED NAME OF JUSTICE, I WILL DEFEAT YOU! I WILL END YOUR TYRANNY!"
He launched himself forward again, a golden fury incarnate. No more shockwaves, no more beams. Pure, relentless, close-quarters annihilation. He rained blows upon Dentetsu with desperate speed, each punch carrying the force to shatter worlds. Dentetsu didn't dodge this time. He stood, rooted in the void, letting the blows land.
THUD! CRUNCH! WHAM!
Each impact resonated like a dying star. Kyusei's fists connected with Dentetsu's chest, stomach, face. And with each blow, Dentetsu remained unmoved, unflinching. But the space around him buckled. The sheer kinetic overflow, the wasted force of Kyusei's attacks missing their true target, lanced outwards. Nearby planets, orphaned by the galaxy's destruction, didn't just explode; they shattered like glass baubles hit by a hammer. Asteroids vaporized. Debris fields bloomed and dissipated in silent, catastrophic blooms. The 16th Galaxy became a graveyard of unintended collateral damage, planets dying not from targeted malice, but from the sheer, uncontrolled spillover of Kyusei's futile rage against an immovable object.
Dentetsu yawned again, loud and theatrical, as a particularly vicious blow glanced off his jaw, causing a nearby gas giant to implode. "What kind of 'Saviour'," he drawled, his voice dripping with contempt, "destroys planet after innocent planet while supposedly attacking a 'villain'? That's... really funny. Hypocritical, even. Where's the 'justice' for them?" He gestured lazily at the expanding cloud of planetary debris.
Kyusei faltered for a microsecond, a flicker of doubt visible even beneath the hood. "YOU BASTARD!" he screamed, burying the guilt beneath righteous fury. "MY JUSTICE IS ABSOLUTE! DESTROYING PLANETS IS MERELY A SMALL, NECESSARY SACRIFICE AGAINST A MONSTER WHO DEVOURS UNIVERSES LIKE Y—"
He never finished. Dentetsu moved. Not a punch. A kick. A simple, almost casual front kick delivered with impossible speed and precision. It connected squarely with Kyusei's midsection.
SHHHH-KOOOOOM!
The sound was the universe itself tearing. Kyusei didn't fly; he was tgenuinely ranslocated. Space folded, compressed, and spat him out violently millions of light-years away. He tumbled through the void, the brown cape shredding, blood erupting from his mouth and nose, bones cracking under the impossible force. He slammed through the outer debris ring of a spiral galaxy, carving a fiery path through nebulae, before crashing onto the barren, irradiated surface of a dead world in the heart of the 1st Universe. He lay in a crater of his own making, coughing up thick, dark blood, his body a ruin. The golden aura was gone, extinguished. Only pain and terror remained.
*How... how the hell is he this strong...?* Kyusei's mind screamed, fractured by agony and disbelief. *Is he really just a Monarch? Saganbo's servant? I used everything... my strongest moves... galaxy killers... and he... he didn't even flinch!*
Dentetsu materialized above him, standing on the edge of the new crater, looking down. The setting light of a nearby red giant cast long, monstrous shadows from his spiky hair. His expression was one of profound, soul-crushing boredom. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," he sighed, the sound like grinding stones. "Enough speeches. Enough 'justice'. Just use your absolute strongest, final, desperation move already. Entertain me. This is getting boring as hell."
Kyusei looked up, his vision blurred by blood and tears of frustration. The terror was absolute. But beneath it, beneath the shattered bones and ruptured organs, a final ember of his conviction glowed. Justice demanded defiance. Even in death. Even in futility. He would not die begging. He would strike back with everything left, a final testament to the ideal he championed.
With a guttural scream that tore his throat, Kyusei pushed himself up onto his knees. He ignored the agony, the grinding of broken bones. He focused inward, deeper than he ever had before. He didn't gather his remaining energy; he tore it from the core of his being, from the very essence of his spirit. He ignored the warning screams of his body, the knowledge that this would burn him out, leave him a hollow shell even if he survived. It didn't matter. Only the strike mattered. Only defiance.
"THAT'S IT!" he roared, blood spraying with the words. "I DON'T CARE IF I END! IF I FADE! I JUST NEED TO DESTROY YOU! ONE SINGLE BLOW! FOR THE NAME OF JUSTICE! BRUTE FORCE IS ALL YOU UNDERSTAND! ALL THAT CAN TOUCH A MONSTER LIKE YOU!"
His right fist clenched. Not golden light, but a vortex of pure, desperate power coalesced around it. It sucked in the dim light of the dead world, warping space around it into a shimmering, unstable singularity of raw spiritual potential. It pulsed with terrifying, self-destructive energy. This wasn't an attack; it was a suicide note written in pure force.
Dentetsu watched, a flicker of something resembling respect finally touching his bored eyes. Not for the cause, but for the sheer, suicidal commitment to the strike. "Finally," he murmured. "Some actual effort. I'm tired of the 'Justice' shit. Just... hit me already."
Kyusei launched. Not with speed, but with the last, dying surge of his will. He crossed the short distance, his fist trailing a comet-tail of annihilating light. He put his entire soul, his shattered body, his extinguished aura, his very concept of 'Kyusei,' into that single, final punch aimed at Dentetsu's stomach.
IMPACT.
The sound was not localized. It was the birth cry of a new void. Where Kyusei's fist met Dentetsu's abdomen, reality shattered. A sphere of pure negation erupted, expanding at infinite speed. It wasn't light or heat; it was the unmaking of existence.
The dead world beneath them vanished. Not destroyed. It was genuinely gone without a trace. Like it had never been.
The shockwave hit the surrounding star systems. Stars winked out. Planets dissolved into quantum foam.
The wave propagated outwards, accelerating. The local galactic arm dissolved.
Entire neighboring galaxies within the 1st Universe; eight of them, each containing billions of stars; were consumed by the expanding sphere of non-existence. They ceased to be, leaving only an echoing emptiness.
The shockwave itself, the residual energy of the negation, rippled outwards at the speed of causality, shaking the fundamental structure of the entire 1st Universe. Distant galaxies trembled, their light flickering erratically. The universe itself groaned under the strain.
Kyusei was flung backwards by the recoil, a broken doll tossed from the epicenter of his own apocalyptic strike. He tumbled through the newborn void, consciousness flickering. He saw the impossible emptiness he had created. Had it worked? Had the monster finally been unmade?
He looked up, towards the epicenter, hope a desperate, dying flame.
Dentetsu stood exactly where he had been. Floating in the absolute nothingness. He patted his stomach, exactly where Kyusei's universe-killing punch had landed. A faint wisp of smoke curled from the point of impact on his chinos. That was all.
"Nice hit, man!" Dentetsu called out, his voice cheerful, almost congratulatory, echoing bizarrely in the featureless void. "Finally! Something with a bit of kick! Felt that one, Even if not by much at all! Almost warmed me up!" He grinned, a predator savoring the fear he knew must be dawning.
Kyusei stared. The desperate flame of hope guttered and died. The terror returned, absolute, all-consuming, colder than the void he floated in. His shattered mind could only grasp one thought: *Impossible. God... Saganbo... Justice...* "B-B-By the N-Name Of J-J-Justi—" The plea, the final invocation of his shattered creed, died in his throat.
Dentetsu's grin vanished, replaced by utter, weary contempt. "Enough. I've seen enough despair out of you."
He didn't raise a hand. He didn't summon energy. He simply flicked his wrist. A gesture of absolute dismissal.
From the point of his flick, a wave of pure, annihilating force erupted. It wasn't like Kyusei's desperate blast. It was cleaner. More final. Even if no effort was put to it. It was the universe itself executing a delete command. The wave hit Kyusei.
There was no pain. No sound. No light.
Kyusei simply ceased to exist. Every molecule, every atom, every quantum particle, every echo of his spirit, his memories, his fervent belief in "justice" – all were meticulously, instantaneously disassembled and scattered into the entropic background of the cosmos. Erased.
The wave didn't stop. It expanded outwards from Dentetsu, a ripple of pure oblivion. It washed over the trembling remnants of the 1st Universe. Galaxies that had survived Kyusei's blast, stars that had flickered in the shockwave, nebulae, rogue planets, comets, dust; everything the wave touched simply... stopped being. The wave propagated to the very boundaries of the universe, scouring it clean. Where a vast, ancient cosmos filled with countless stars and potential life had existed moments before, there was now only an infinite, silent, featureless void. The 1st Universe was gone. Utterly. Completely. The 1st Universe was... Destroyed.
Dentetsu floated alone in the absolute nothingness. He let out a long, weary sigh, the sound strangely loud in the perfect silence. "I'm really tired of this 'Justice' shit," he muttered to the emptiness. "How many times did you say it? Five? Six? Like a damn broken record." He shook his head, spiky hair unmoving in the absence of any medium. "There is no 'Justice'. No grand cosmic balance. No inherent 'right'." He clenched his fist, staring at it, the only solid thing in the infinite void. "The only 'justice' that exists... the only law that matters across all realities..." He opened his hand, palm facing the endless dark. "...is claimed by none other than the Strongest. And right now, in this empty corner of existence?" He lowered his hand, a cold, absolute certainty settling in his brown eyes. "That's me. I'm Justice."
He took one last look at the perfect void he had created, a testament to his power and his profound boredom. Then, without a gesture, without a ripple, Dentetsu folded space and vanished, leaving only the echoing silence of absolute nothingness behind and a hypocritical echo.