Our clash felt endless. Steel screamed against steel, fists tore through the air, and every second was an unbroken storm of movement.
I swung, parried, ducked, weaved, yet no matter how precisely I read them, neither yielded an inch.
Individually, either one might already surpass me. Together, without my Regalia, victory was impossible, at least by conventional means.
I had never experienced this before.
For someone like me, it is a rare and bitter thing to feel a weapon you've relied on simply… absent. But perhaps it wasn't gone.
Perhaps they were smothering it.
There is a method, one reserved for the truly strong, where you exude such a dense flood of spiritrons that any external power simply fails to take hold.
It is a dangerous technique, laying one's soul bare for the world to touch.
If the opponent is even slightly stronger or more skilled, your soul is erased entirely.
And yet… it works. Against my Regalia, they were gambling everything on that gamble.
If I could not break them with it, then I would break them with something else.
I abandoned all thought of Inanis and poured my focus into my body.
My muscle, bone, tendons, every fiber wrapped in a suffocating pressure of my own power.
The fight shifted instantly.
Vernidict lunged, his spear aimed for my heart.
I stepped aside, the tip whispering past my ribs, and ducked under Freah's incoming kick.
My hand shot up, catching her ankle mid-spin.
Vernidict's spear swept to follow, but I swung Freah down like a blunt blade.
Her body smashed into his weapon, bending its line, and she snarled as her shoulder crunched audibly against the shaft.
I let her drop, blasted to the right, and spun a disk of pure darkness into existence.
I hurled it. Vernidict twisted, barely avoiding the edge, exactly what I wanted.
The moment his stance opened, I locked him in a cage of shadow. I clenched my fist, shattering it from within.
The shards sliced through his armor, embedding deep into flesh; blood spattered the dirt in long, streaking arcs.
Freah's voice cut through the clash, sharp and vicious. In an instant she was before me, her hand clamped around my throat.
My vision tightened, her dull green eyes blazing.
"Combo Breaker!" she roared.
Pain exploded. A barrage of strikes rained down, fists, knees, elbows, kicks.
Bones cracked. My jaw snapped sideways. Ribs gave way one after another.
Each blow landed with more force than the last, until I felt as though I was being crushed between the earth and the sky.
In the space of a single second, she had struck me over one million times.
The world blurred, her form dissolving into afterimages as every nerve in my body screamed for release.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the onslaught halted. She drew back, gasping for air, sweat rolling down her neck.
I moved to counter, only for Vernidict to catch my wrist mid-swing.
His grip was like an iron vice.
"One and a half million hits," he said with a small, maddening smile. "And you're still standing."
Blood streamed from my lips. His other hand pressed flat against my chest.
"Now… bear the weight of my glory."
Light surged into me, searing through muscle and marrow, and I dropped to my knees.
My body trembled uncontrollably, my heart pounding as though trying to escape my ribs.
He snapped his fingers. "Star Celestial Consumer."
Golden-white orbs materialized all around me, dozens at first, then hundreds.
They pulsed with a terrible life, humming like the breath of some divine predator.
Freah's smirk returned as they began to converge.
Now I understood. Freah's Regalia multiplied her power exponentially, each strike not merely stronger, but magnitudes beyond the last.
And Vernidict… he could anchor catalysts into his target, then attach any effect he desired to them.
The name gave it away, Star Celestial Consumer wasn't the limit of his arsenal. It was merely a single facet.
Just as Freah could amplify her power, she could also strip away the defenses of those she struck.
Two opponents wielding powers that brutal, and my own Regalia locked away.
I coughed as the orbs around me dissipated. "Seems a bit unfair, right?"
Vernidict pressed his spear against my throat. "This world is not kind."
Freah stepped up behind him, resting an arm casually across his shoulder.
"And we are the kind of people who hate that," she said, her smile sharp, almost predatory.
"That is why we shall bring about a new world. One where we all live in peace."
"And you do this through blood and death?" I asked, my voice trembling despite myself.
Vernidict scoffed. "We do this with cleansing. All those who exist are evil. We erase the now to create a before."
I shifted my gaze to Stiffer, planning to wait, but even I have my limits.
I gripped my sword, letting raw power surge through me. Just as Vernidict thrust his spear forward, I spoke.
"Eidolon Aevum."
Time fractured. In that single heartbeat, everything changed. I appeared at Freah's side, plunging my blade deep into Vernidict's flesh.
She reacted instantly, attempting a rounded kick, but I caught it under my arm and twisted sharply.
Bones snapped with a sickening crack, her scream cutting through the air.
Vernidict released his spear to grab my blade, shoving me backward.
He then caught Freah as she fell, scowling. "You'll pay for that. The holy shall smite you!"
"The holy? Don't tarnish the divine with such a muttered lie. You and your people are frauds!" I spat, blood dripping from my lips.
Freah snarled, eyes ablaze. "We are delivering revelation, resurrection of good and righteousness! And if we must commit evil to erase it…"
She bit her lip, crimson staining her teeth. "Then we shall!"
Before my eyes, she did something grotesque. She lunged at Vernidict, biting into his neck.
Blood poured freely, yet as she fed, he healed.
The life that had filled his body drained into her as if it were a shared stream, leaving him pale, broken, and weak.
She turned to Stiffer for confirmation, and he gave the slightest nod.
Then her gaze fixed on me. Red, vibrant, unrelenting.
"You… vile creature," I rasped, despair in every syllable.
She laughed, a sound of pure malice and joy intertwined. "That is why today I shall lay down my life to end yours."
She seized Vernidict's spear, and I immediately felt a terrifying surge of power.
The weapon's edge shimmered with the totality of her accumulated strength, a clear-white aura that transcended even my perception.
"Take this, Ultimate Omega, Disintegration!"
I met her charge, our blades colliding. The impact shattered space around us.
Time itself quivered, the universe groaning under the pressure.
My soul splintered, my will threatened to break, but I forced forward. My sword split her spear clean in two.
Calmly, I spoke, "Void Slash."
Void magic, the end result of my studies.
Unlike other powers, it was not force or energy, it was the absence of being. Anything that "is" simply ceased to exist.
When my blade struck her, Freah did not fall, she unraveled, erased from existence. Only her broken spear remained.
I stepped forward, laughter escaping me. "That is the result of my effort, my power, my might!"
I turned to Stiffer. "So… will you stand before my blade, only to fall?"
Hands in his pockets, he approached, unhurried. "Go on. Use your strongest attack."
Blood dripped from my mouth as I raised my sword.
Void magic seeped into every fiber of it, passively consuming space, time, and all else that existed.
Unbound by the usual limitations, I poured every ounce of mana, infons, and spiritrons into it, the culmination of all my strength, the ultimate spell.
"VOID SLASH!" I screamed, my voice tearing through reality itself.
The universe answered, gifting me a vision of an endless sea, flowing endlessly.
Born from a single tear of mourning, a complete absence of being, a void incarnate.
My Regalia returned. I fused with it fully, skin burning, body stretching to its limits.
Every atom of my existence channeled into one inescapable strike. I was certain he would die here.
And yet…
With a single finger, he stopped my blade. My spell, my power, my effort, all nullified.
"You. This is the strongest warrior they have to offer? How… utterly weak."