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The battlefield did not slow.
Screams kept slicing through the smoke, thin and raw, coming from under collapsed concrete and twisted steel. Bodies lay everywhere. Some were human. Some were demons. At this point it was impossible to tell. Blood soaked into the asphalt, mixed with oil, glass, and fragments of armor. Mixed bodies, and rubble fused together in the heat. Everything cooked on the shattered street.
Fire crawled through broken buildings. Emergency lights flickered where power hadn't died yet. A siren wailed somewhere under the rubble, stuck on a loop, growing weaker by the second.
Higher above the chaos, the real fight still hadn't properly begun, but the air already felt wrong.
Mentis and Megalodon stood about thirty feet apart on a stretch of street that had been split and warped by earlier impacts. Neither of them moved. Neither of them spoke. Fires crackled in the distance. Wind hissed through exposed rebar and hollowed buildings.
Loose gravel between them began to lift off the ground. Pebbles rattled, then floated. Cracked chunks of concrete rose slowly, spinning in place. A bent street sign groaned as it peeled upward, its base snapping loose from the sidewalk. Flames nearby leaned sideways, pulled toward the space between the two of them instead of rising into the air.
Ash hung suspended, drifting but never falling.
Their shadows stretched too far across the ground, darker than they should have been, crawling forward inch by inch.
No one said a word.
The block felt frozen.
Black Mentis lifted his hand and wiped blood from his nose with his thumb. It smeared across his glove. His breathing stuttered for half a second before he forced it steady.
Something's wrong. My power feels delayed. Heavy. Like I'm moving through someone else's body.
The thought barely finished forming.
Megalodon vanished.
He moved so fast there was no sound.
He reappeared to Mentis's left, already in motion. His fist drove into Mentis's ribs before his presence fully registered.
CRACK.
Mentis grunted hard, air exploding from his lungs.
The street beneath them groaned, then gave out. The ground folded inward. Buildings on both sides of the road collapsed at the same time, their lower floors giving way, upper levels dropping straight down. Dust blasted outward in a choking wave. Windows burst, glass spraying across the street.
Mentis was launched backward. His boots tore through softened asphalt, carving long gouges as he skidded across the ruined road. He planted his hands down fast, flipped his body in the air, and used his legs to kick straight at Megalodon's stomach as he twisted back upright.
The kick connected with a thud.
Megalodon staggered half a step, his eyes narrowing.
But Mentis didn't stop. His shoulders locked. His jaw clenched. Heat rolled off his aura as he surged forward again.
He slammed his fist into Megalodon's torso.
The impact split the air.
BOOOOOOOOM.
A double shockwave ripped out from the punch, the first blasting debris away in a circle, the second amplifying the force straight into Megalodon.
The city center detonated outward. Entire blocks vanished in a flash of force. Cars liquefied where they stood. Buildings disintegrated, their frames torn apart and erased. A massive crater opened beneath them, swallowing a quarter of the district in seconds.
Megalodon's body tore through layers of space, his outline warping as the sky around him fractured. Reality cracked and snapped back together in violent pulses. The double shockwaves propelled him higher, sending him hurtling toward the edge of the atmosphere.
Mentis exhaled rough, wiping more blood from his lip.
"Shit."
Then Megalodon was gone.
And appeared behind Mentis.
A low chuckle rolled out of him, close to Mentis's ear.
Both of Megalodon's fists drove into Mentis's stomach.
SPLURCH.
Mentis folded instantly, a sharp grunt escaping as blood burst from his mouth and sprayed across the air.
His body rocketed backward and smashed into a skyscraper. The building caved inward on impact, concrete and steel collapsing over him as floors pancaked down in a roaring cascade.
The building groaned, then began to fall.
Dust and debris swallowed the street.
Black Mentis staggered out of the rubble, hunched forward, one arm wrapped tight around his stomach. Blood ran between his fingers and dripped onto the broken concrete below. His boots dragged as he stepped clear of the collapsed building, chunks of rebar scraping against his armor as they slid off his shoulders.
His breathing came out uneven and rough. His vision swam for a second. The city behind him burned and groaned, but the pressure in the air told him he did not have time to recover.
Megalodon was already moving.
The demon king crossed the distance in an instant and seized Mentis by the throat. His fingers dug in, crushing muscle and armor together. The ground cracked under Mentis' feet as he was lifted off it.
Mentis grunted and grabbed Megalodon's wrist, trying to pry it loose. He swung his free hand, forcing his body forward for a punch.
Megalodon caught the strike mid motion.
"Get your hand off me."
The demon king tightened his grip and hurled Mentis straight up.
The air ruptured around them. The sky tore open as Mentis was dragged with him, clouds ripping apart beneath their ascent. The blue faded to black in less than a second. Stars bled into view as the planet fell away.
Megalodon stayed locked onto his throat, his voice vibrating through Mentis' skull.
"How disappointing. Is this really the extent of your power, puppet?"
Mentis snapped both legs upward. His heels slammed into Megalodon's chest with a sharp impact that rippled through the void. The grip broke. Mentis shot backward, spinning once before forcing himself to stop.
He hung there in open space, chest rising and falling hard. Blood drifted away from him and vanished.
"I will make you pay for this, demon," Mentis said. "You are underestimating me."
They blurred toward each other.
They collided in orbit. Fists crashed together. Elbows cut in close. Knees smashed into ribs and hips. Each hit bent the space around them, pressure rippling outward like shock rings. Thin fractures opened in the void, splitting and sealing again as entire realities flickered behind them for fractions of a second.
Megalodon traded blows without changing expression. His fists met Mentis' again and again, precise and heavy.
He spoke under his breath as they clashed.
Megalodon (thinking): "Tsk… I need to pull back my punches. One wrong angle of the hit and we could set off a chain reaction across multiple universes enough to destroy everything."
He misjudged it.
His next punch burned red as it traveled. Cosmic energy wrapped his arm and detonated against Mentis' ribs.
Mentis crossed his forearms in time, but the impact still launched him away.
He slammed into a nearby planet.
The surface exploded on contact.
The random planet shook violently. The crust ruptured outward. Shockwaves raced across continents as oceans boiled away in seconds. The ground split open, molten core exposed as the planet began to tear itself apart.
Megalodon watched from a distance.
"It seems you were the one overestimating yourself."
The planet shook violently. Plates separated. The sphere cracked down the middle.
Mentis burst free from the core, coughing hard. Blood left his mouth and vanished instantly. His skin glowed as it tried to knit itself back together, but strips of flesh still hung loose across his side.
"Fuck," Mentis muttered. "This planet's done. It's about to blow any second."
It detonated.
A wave of molten debris slammed past him. His armor screeched as fragments tore across it. Heat split his cheek open. He wiped the blood away with the back of his hand and steadied himself.
His aura flared. Blue snapped into purple. Lightning crawled over his arms and shoulders, cracking outward into the void.
Mentis extended his hand.
"Get over here."
Space folded inward. Megalodon jerked forward, dragged as if something had hooked into his core and reeled him in.
"What is this," Megalodon growled. "How…is"
Mentis met him head on.
His fist drove upward into Megalodon's chin. Bone cracked. The demon's head snapped back.
Mentis vanished and reappeared in front of him mid spin, both fists slamming into Megalodon's jaw.
CRAAAACK.
The sound rolled outward through space.
Megalodon snarled, the vibration rippling across distant stars.
Mentis kept moving.
He drove Megalodon straight through an asteroid field. Rock vaporized on impact, thousands of fragments turning to glowing dust. They smashed through lunar debris, shattered remnants of dead worlds, ancient structures drifting in silence.
They tore so far outward that Mentis' solar system shrank behind them to a distant point of light. Time stuttered. Movement skipped. The universe itself felt strained.
They stopped at the same moment.
Both raised their hands.
Energy erupted.
Two colossal beams collided between them.
KAAAAATHOOOOOM.
The shockwave burst outward, then collapsed back in on itself. Space twisted and tightened until it tore open. A massive void formed, pulling everything toward it. Debris stretched into long streaks as it was dragged in. The vibration drilled through bone and armor alike.
The pull intensified.
The black pit swallowed them whole.
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