Sinai stared at John for several seconds. His empty eyes revealed nothing. There was no excitement, no apprehension, and no visible trace of the curiosity that might have been expected from someone standing before an opponent like John Merciless. He simply observed him. Then he stepped forward and suddenly…. Time itself seemed to stop.
There was no sound of movement. No disturbance in the air. One moment Sinai stood several meters away, and the next, he was beside John, his sword already descending toward John's neck. The blade fell with enough force to divide the earth beneath them but John had already moved. He casually stepped forward, allowing the sword to pass behind him.
Sinai's blade struck the ground.
BOOOOM!
The earth split apart. A gigantic sword mark stretched across the landscape, tearing through the mountainside and sending enormous chunks of rock into the air. The shock wave swept across the battlefield, flattening everything in its path. John glanced at the destruction.
"That's quite a greeting." He raised the Black Smile Sword and swung it once. The motion was almost lazy, yet the moment his blade moved, countless sword slashes erupted through the air, each one carrying enough force to divide a mountain. Sinai retreated.
One step. Two. Three.
His movements were precise, his body shifting between the incoming attacks with almost unnatural efficiency. He tilted his head to avoid one slash, turned his shoulder away from another, and stepped through the narrow opening between two intersecting blades of energy.
The final slash passed inches from his face. Sinai stopped retreating. His sword rose then he struck vertically toward John.
John brought the Black Smile Sword up to meet him. CLANG! The collision produced a deafening metallic ring. A mountain range in the distance split apart. Not one mountain…
The entire range. Its peaks separated into enormous sections as invisible sword pressure tore through the landscape. Mountains collapsed one after another, their foundations severed by the force of the clash.
John and Sinai remained locked together, their blades pressed against each other. Sinai's empty eyes examined the man before him. John, meanwhile, appeared almost amused. Then John pushed. Sinai's sword was forced aside. In that instant, John's left eye changed. A crimson light appeared within it. The atmosphere grew heavy.
"Koketsu."
The circuit activated. Sinai's body froze. For one second, his movements became impossible. His muscles refused to respond, and his consciousness was caught within the authority of John's left eye. One second was all John needed but before he could capitalize on the opening, Sinai's body trembled. The space around him distorted and the paralysis shattered.
Sinai moved again. John's eyebrows rose slightly. Sinai looked directly into his eyes. Then he activated the same technique. The effect was immediate but nothing happened. John remained perfectly still by choice, his sword resting at his side. Then he smiled. "To resist Koketsu and copy the effect of my eye..." He tilted his head. "It's the first time anyone has done that."
Sinai released the technique. He stepped backward and lowered his body into a combat stance. "Then I'll have to try something else." He disappeared. John's sword rose just in time. CLANG!
Their blades collided. The first exchange was so fast that the surrounding landscape barely had time to react before the next impact arrived. Sinai attacked from the left.
John parried. John countered toward Sinai's torso. Sinai twisted aside and brought his sword down. John caught the strike with the flat of his blade, rotated his wrist, and redirected the attack past his shoulder. Their swords scraped against each other. Sparks scattered through the air. Sinai drove his knee toward John's abdomen.
John blocked with his forearm and answered with a short kick that forced Sinai backward but Sinai recovered before his feet touched the ground. He turned in midair, bringing his sword around in a horizontal arc. John ducked. The blade passed above his head and cut through the mountains behind him.
John rose into an upward slash. Sinai intercepted it. Their swords met again and again. And again. The rhythm became impossible to follow. Every movement flowed into the next. Their footwork tore apart the earth, their sword techniques divided the air, and their defensive maneuvers were so precise that neither could land a decisive blow. They crossed the battlefield in an instant.
One moment they fought atop a mountain. The next, they were hundreds of meters away, exchanging strikes above a valley. Their swords collided. A shock wave obliterated the surrounding cliffs. Sinai twisted his blade and attempted to trap John's sword against his own. John rotated his wrist, escaped the bind, and thrust toward Sinai's chest. Sinai shifted aside.
The thrust missed. He countered with a diagonal slash. John blocked. Their blades locked. For a brief moment, their faces were only inches apart. Sinai's empty eyes remained fixed on John. John's ocean-blue eyes glowed through his white mask. Neither showed any sign of fatigue. Then they moved simultaneously. Their swords struck with such force that the ground beneath them collapsed.
A circular shock wave expanded outward, destroying the remaining mountains and reducing the surrounding terrain to a vast field of broken stone. They separated. Sinai landed on a distant ridge. John touched down on the opposite side. For a moment, they stood still. Then both disappeared again. Their next clash produced a flash of light.
CRACK! The two swords collided at the exact same point. The impact was so powerful that the weapons slipped from their hands. Both blades flew through the air. John's Black Smile Sword spun across the battlefield before embedding itself in the earth. Sinai's sword traveled in the opposite direction, disappearing into the distance.
Neither attempted to retrieve their weapon. Sinai looked down at his empty hand. Then he raised his head. "Sacrifice — Heart." A black aura erupted from his body. It spread across the battlefield, swallowing the light around him. Sinai's muscles tightened as his physical strength increased. His presence grew heavier, and the air around him trembled beneath the pressure.
The change was immediate. He disappeared. John barely had time to turn. Sinai appeared beside him and drove a kick into his side. BOOOOM! John was launched across the battlefield.
He crossed the distance between several shattered mountains before crashing into the side of an enormous peak. The mountain collapsed around him.
Sinai remained suspended in the air. He slowly raised his right palm. "Sacrifice — Liver." Dark energy gathered above his hand. At first, it resembled a small point of black light. Then it expanded and expanded. Within seconds, a colossal spear had formed above his palm, its immense size dwarfing the sun hanging over the ruined world. The surrounding atmosphere bent toward it. The ground trembled. Sinai looked toward the mountain where John had disappeared.
Then he threw the spear. The weapon crossed the battlefield. Its shadow swallowed the mountain and then….BOOOOOOOOOOM! The explosion erased everything in its path. The mountain vanished. The surrounding land vanished. The shock wave swept across the horizon, tearing through the earth until the entire region had been transformed into a gigantic sinkhole.
Dust and debris rose into the atmosphere. For several seconds, the battlefield was hidden beneath an enormous cloud of smoke. Sinai lowered his hand. He watched the destruction without changing his expression. Then he felt it…A presence, an immense killing intent. It struck him so suddenly that his body reacted before his mind could process it. For the first time since revealing his Identity Circuit, Sinai felt something travel down his spine.
He turned. John was above him. Floating in the air. His white mask was untouched. His black clothing fluttered in the turbulent atmosphere, and the Black Smile Sword had returned to his right hand but something about him had changed. The air crackled and Circuits blazed along his body.
His left eye ignited crimson, veins of black spiraling outward from the pupil. The energy surrounding him began to rise. Sinai stared upward. John raised his left hand toward the sky. His right hand tightened around the sword. Then he spoke.
"Nova."
Light bloomed. Not flame or lightning but aomething far worse. A sphere of pure white energy began forming above John. At first, it was no larger than a small star. Then it grew. The sphere expanded, consuming the surrounding atmosphere and swallowing the light around it. Space itself seemed to bend as the energy continued to accumulate. The battlefield fell silent as the sphere grew larger and larger.
Its brilliance became so intense that the ruined landscape disappeared beneath its radiance. Sinai watched it from below. For the first time, he understood that the attack was not something he could casually endure. The sphere continued to expand. Then…Silence it was deafening and absolute.
The sphere collapsed inward. Its enormous surface folded into itself, compressing an unimaginable amount of energy into a single point. The light disappeared. For one brief instant, nothing happened. Then the explosion came. The blast consumed the battlefield. A tremendous pillar of white light erupted from the earth, expanding outward with overwhelming force. The remaining terrain disappeared beneath the explosion as the shock wave swept across the region.
The ground was crushed and the air was displaced. The surrounding landscape was reduced to nothing but destruction and then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the light vanished.
Silence returned. A massive crater remained where the battlefield had once stood. Its diameter stretched roughly twenty meters, while its depth extended nearly a thousand feet into the earth.
The surrounding ground had been reduced to rubble.
Smoke rose from the crater's edges, and the atmosphere remained thick with dust. John hovered above the destruction. His sword rested in his right hand. He looked down into the crater, His ocean-blue eyes glowed through his white mask. For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then a smile appeared beneath the mask.
He could feel it….Sinai was still alive and he was coming up. A faint movement stirred within the depths of the crater. Then a figure emerged from the smoke. Sinai floated upward, his black robe burned and damaged from the explosion. His body had endured the full force of John's attack, but he remained conscious. He reached for the ruined fabric and removed the robe, letting it fall into the crater below.
His expression remained empty Yet his voice carried something new. Curiosity. "Why is there another person with that left eye in existence?" John glanced at him. "Don't misunderstand."
He raised his left hand slightly, allowing the crimson light in his eye to become visible.
"This isn't even close to the original. This is just the basic form of Koketsu and the Soul Circuit."
He paused. "And it's not even my original circuit."
Sinai stared at him then he laughed. It was a quiet laugh at first, but it gradually grew louder. "So that's how it is." He looked at John's left eye with renewed interest. "It's similar to my Identity Circuit. I can turn into anyone and use their circuits for myself." His empty eyes narrowed slightly. "But I can't seem to turn into you." John began descending toward the ground.
His feet touched the ruined earth. He looked at Sinai through his white mask, the Black Smile Sword resting loosely in his hand. "Of course you can't." John's ocean-blue eyes shone. A smile spread across his face. "Because it's me..." He tilted his head. "John Merciless."