The withdrawal of Mugen Dansai no Kengoku began almost quietly.
Across the black sky, the immense swords Igor had suspended above Sereon started losing their definition. Their edges blurred into living darkness, while the thin crimson lines running through each blade narrowed until they resembled wounds closing across the heavens. No weapon fell. None shattered. The countless executions stored inside them simply ceased to wait.
One after another, they disappeared.
Hundreds of miles from the centre of the battlefield, Igor lowered his ruined arm. Living shadow moved beneath the openings in his armor and gathered around his hand, rebuilding God Killer until the long black greatsword settled beside him once more. Beneath his boots, the buried swords of his Domain Verse sank out of sight. The severed routes cutting through Sereon's territory closed, and the black influence of Mugen Dansai no Kengoku receded from the sky.
Igor remained still as the final trace vanished.
He understood Dark's decision.
Dark had allowed Igor to finish what began with Kurai. Igor had been given the opportunity to answer Sereon directly, and he had used it. Now Dark had stepped between them and taken responsibility for what came next.
Igor did not enjoy abandoning an unfinished enemy.
He disliked disobeying Dark considerably more.
God Killer lowered beside him.
Igor: My Emperor.
Dark heard him.
He did not turn.
He did not need to.
Mugen Dansai no Kengoku disappeared completely.
Kakō Seishin Kyōiki did not.
The moment Igor's Domain Verse withdrew, Sereon's Domain World expanded into the space that had been contested. The pale reflective surface beneath Dark's boots spread across every visible horizon. Towers repaired themselves in the distance, damaged sections flowing back together before rising higher into the black sky. Silver pathways multiplied between them, curving through one another at impossible angles, some descending beneath the horizon while others vanished overhead.
There were too many routes to follow.
That was the point.
Dark stood at the centre of them.
Kyuketsu remained pressed against Suigōraku.
Neither man had moved since Igor withdrew.
Sereon's completed Soul Ryūgu covered his body in living white plates that no longer resembled ordinary armor. They shifted with every breath, overlapping and separating with the subtle rhythm of muscle beneath skin. Pale eyes had opened along his throat, shoulders, collarbones, ribs, forearms and legs. Some looked at Dark. Others watched Kyuketsu. Several had already turned toward the allies Dark had ordered away from the fight.
The human eyes in Sereon's face remained fixed upon him.
Dark saw his own reflection inside the smaller eyes.
None of the reflections agreed.
One showed Suigōraku through his throat.
Another showed Dark missing an arm.
One reflected him kneeling.
Another showed Leona falling behind him with silver buried through her chest.
Dark's eyes remained on Sereon.
Sereon noticed.
The pressure between their weapons increased.
Sereon shifted his right wrist.
Barely.
Dark felt the blade beneath Kyuketsu weaken and pushed into it.
Sereon had wanted exactly that.
Suigōraku slipped away from the pressure.
Kyuketsu dropped.
The black sword struck the pale surface and opened a split extending for miles.
Sereon entered the gap before Dark's weapon could rise again.
His knee came toward Dark's face.
Dark blocked with his forearm.
Bone struck bone.
The ground beneath Dark folded into a wide depression.
Sereon did not withdraw the knee. He used Dark's arm as the centre of his rotation, allowing his body to turn while Suigōraku travelled behind his own back. The silver blade reappeared from an angle hidden by Sereon's torso and crossed toward Dark's neck.
Dark lowered his head.
The edge passed through his hair.
His palm struck the ground.
Dark rotated through the planted arm and swept both legs toward Sereon's footing.
His heel connected with the outside of Sereon's knee.
One white plate split.
Sereon did not resist the strike. His leg folded with it, bringing his body lower instead of throwing him away. His free hand caught Dark's ankle.
The movement interrupted Dark's sweep.
His leg lifted.
His balance opened.
Sereon stepped into it.
Suigōraku came straight for his abdomen.
Black material tore from Dark's ribs.
Three tendrils wrapped around the approaching blade.
The first divided.
The second peeled apart.
The third caught the guard and dragged Suigōraku several inches away from Dark's stomach.
Several inches were enough.
Dark planted his foot.
Kyuketsu returned from below.
Sereon stepped backward.
Dark's sword stopped midway through the swing.
Sereon had moved one pace.
He stood impossibly far away.
The pale surface between them stretched for hundreds of metres. The towers behind Sereon appeared to move backward with him, leaving his body at the end of an artificial horizon.
Dark did not attack.
He watched.
Sereon stood at the distant end of the Domain and raised one finger.
A foot touched the ground behind Dark.
Dark turned.
Suigōraku entered beneath his ribs.
The blade passed through his body and emerged behind him.
Blood ran along the silver edge.
Dark looked toward the Sereon holding the sword.
The distant Sereon remained visible at the other end of the pale world.
Sereon: You watched the distance.
Dark's breathing tightened around the blade inside him.
Dark: You wanted me to.
Something faint entered Sereon's expression.
Approval.
Not enough to distract him.
Dark caught his wrist.
Black material emerged from the wound around Suigōraku and crawled over Sereon's hand, forcing itself between the living white plates covering his forearm.
Dark tightened his grip.
The wrist felt real.
The bones felt real.
The warmth of Sereon's blood beneath the broken armor felt real.
Dark no longer trusted any of those things.
He drove his forehead toward Sereon's face anyway.
His skull passed through empty air.
The Sereon in his hand lost definition without breaking. Its shape distorted through several overlapping positions, one face becoming three, then none. Dark's fingers closed around the empty space left behind.
The real Sereon stepped inside Dark's exposed side.
His elbow struck behind Dark's ear.
Dark's head snapped sideways.
Suigōraku came from beneath his arm.
Kyuketsu rose.
Their blades met beside Dark's face.
Sereon pressed.
Dark answered with more strength.
Sereon released the pressure entirely.
Dark's arm rose farther than intended.
Sereon moved beneath it.
The pommel of Suigōraku struck Dark's nose.
Bone broke.
Blood ran over his mouth.
Dark did not retreat.
His elbow entered Sereon's jaw.
The white plate across it fractured.
Sereon's head turned with the strike.
Dark caught the back of his neck.
He drove him downward.
Sereon planted one palm against the floor and rotated around it before his face struck the surface. His leg swept behind Dark's knee.
Dark dropped.
Suigōraku descended.
Dark rolled.
The blade buried itself beside his shoulder.
Dark kicked Sereon's wrist.
The silver sword left his hand.
Dark caught the hilt before it travelled farther.
The pale reflection beneath Dark changed immediately.
He saw Suigōraku turn inside his grip and sever his hand.
Another reflection showed Sereon reclaiming it.
Another showed the blade inside Dark's throat.
Another showed nothing happening at all.
Dark stared at the real hilt in his palm.
At least, the hilt he could feel.
Black material crawled over it.
Dark drove Suigōraku into the ground and buried the weapon nearly to the guard.
The black substance hardened around it.
Sereon stood.
His hand lowered.
Suigōraku dissolved.
The silver spirit travelled beneath the reflective surface and emerged beside him, rebuilding itself into his waiting hand.
Dark was already moving.
Kyuketsu descended.
Suigōraku rose.
The impact forced nearby towers away from the collision.
Sereon lowered beneath Dark's strength while the eyes across Soul Ryūgu watched different pieces of him.
Dark followed them.
Three watched his footing.
Two watched his shoulders.
One remained on his left hand.
Dark released Kyuketsu with that hand.
Sereon adjusted for the punch.
Dark opened his palm.
The air became heavy.
Dark: Hunter Magic.
His fingers closed.
Dark: Ruler's Authority.
Gravity collapsed around Sereon.
The surface beneath his boots caved inward. Nearby towers bent toward the centre of the pressure. Invisible force closed across his shoulders, spine and knees from several directions at once.
Soul Ryūgu hardened around him.
Sereon's knee touched the ground.
Dark stepped forward.
Kyuketsu crossed toward his neck.
Sereon brought Suigōraku up.
The weapons collided.
Dark increased the pressure of Ruler's Authority.
The depression deepened.
Sereon's arms lowered.
Kyuketsu turned.
Its edge entered the plate above Sereon's shoulder.
Black metal cut through white armor.
Blood appeared.
Dark pressed deeper.
Sereon's head lowered.
Dark moved the sword toward his neck.
Kyuketsu passed through it.
Sereon's head separated.
It turned once through the air.
Dark did not move.
The severed head looked at him.
Sereon: Better.
Dark turned immediately.
Suigōraku cut beneath his raised arm.
The blade opened him across the ribs.
Dark twisted with the wound and punched.
Sereon leaned away by barely an inch.
Dark's fist missed.
Sereon entered the missed strike.
His knee hit Dark's stomach.
Dark folded.
Sereon's elbow followed into the side of his neck.
Suigōraku reversed.
Dark caught the flat against his palm.
The blade opened his hand to the bone.
Black material poured through the wound and hardened around the silver edge.
Sereon released the sword.
Dark expected it to dissolve.
It did not.
Sereon struck Dark's wrist with his empty hand.
The black restraint loosened.
Suigōraku dropped.
Sereon caught it before the weapon fell more than several inches.
The blade returned upward.
Dark moved his face.
The edge still opened his cheek.
Sereon was already inside his guard.
Dark brought Kyuketsu across.
The swords collided.
Sereon planted his foot between Dark's and drove his shoulder into Dark's chest.
Dark moved backward half a pace.
Suigōraku turned for his abdomen.
Blue light gathered around Dark's free hand.
Cold spread between them.
Several eyes across Soul Ryūgu shifted toward it.
Sereon changed his angle.
The blue light disappeared.
Dark caught his sword arm under the elbow.
His forehead struck the vertical eye at the centre of Sereon's evolved face.
The plate around it broke.
Blood and pale fluid scattered between them.
Dark dragged him closer instead of allowing him to retreat.
Dark: You looked.
His knee struck Sereon's ribs.
Soul Ryūgu cracked inward.
Sereon accepted the impact, stepped around Dark's leg and cut across his thigh.
Dark released him.
They separated by several metres.
Sereon touched the blood below the damaged central eye.
A faint blue glow remained around Dark's fingers.
Sereon watched it.
Dark closed his hand.
Nothing happened.
Sereon: You were never going to use it.
Dark: I needed you to think I would.
Sereon remained quiet for several seconds.
Sereon: Good.
Dark raised Kyuketsu.
Dark: Do not sound proud.
Sereon: I am not.
His stance changed.
The next attack came faster.
Suigōraku descended from Dark's right.
Kyuketsu blocked.
Sereon cut low.
Dark stepped over it.
The silver blade reversed.
Dark leaned away.
Sereon stopped before the full rotation and drove his shoulder toward Dark's chest instead.
Dark caught it.
Sereon's knee rose.
Dark turned his hip and took it against his thigh.
Dark's free hand opened above them.
Black flame gathered.
Sereon's eyes moved.
Dark: Flame Magic.
The fire compressed until Dark's hand disappeared inside it.
Dark: Infernal Blackout.
Sereon shifted away from the forming attack.
Dark did not fire.
He stepped directly into the space Sereon had chosen.
Kyuketsu crossed Sereon's ribs.
The outer plate opened.
Blood followed.
Suigōraku returned immediately.
Dark blocked.
The blades met.
Dark released Infernal Blackout past Sereon's shoulder.
Black flame crossed Kakō Seishin Kyōiki.
A distant tower lost half its structure.
There was no ordinary burning. The portion touched by the flame simply ceased to occupy the place it had.
The surrounding Domain pulled inward to fill the absence.
Sereon adjusted his footing.
Dark attacked the adjustment.
Kyuketsu slipped beneath Suigōraku and opened Sereon's side.
Sereon moved away.
Dark followed with a fist.
Sereon caught it.
Dark released Kyuketsu.
The sword fell.
One of Sereon's eyes followed it.
Dark kicked the hilt.
Kyuketsu shot beneath them and rose behind Sereon.
Suigōraku intercepted it.
Green electricity erupted around Dark's hand.
The current spread in a violent circle around Sereon, not targeting his body directly but closing the easiest exits around him.
The smaller eyes across Soul Ryūgu tracked the storm.
Dark had left one opening.
Sereon saw it.
He moved through it.
Dark met him there.
His elbow crushed into Sereon's throat.
Sereon staggered.
Dark caught Kyuketsu as the sword returned.
The blade descended.
Suigōraku stopped it.
Dark stepped closer.
Sereon struck him with his forehead.
Dark answered immediately.
Their skulls collided.
Blood opened across Dark's face.
The damaged vertical eye in Sereon's armor split farther.
Neither moved away.
Sereon thrust.
Dark turned.
Suigōraku passed through his side rather than the centre of his abdomen.
Dark caught Sereon's wrist.
Black material covered his hand.
Sereon's knee rose.
Dark blocked with his thigh.
Bone cracked.
Dark's grip remained.
Kyuketsu entered beneath Sereon's arm.
The black blade drove through Soul Ryūgu and emerged from his back.
Sereon's body tightened.
Dark pushed deeper.
Sereon struck his wrist.
Dark did not release the sword.
Another strike hit the same joint.
Dark's forearm bent.
Black material spread beneath the skin and braced the damaged structure.
Dark stepped forward.
Sereon moved backward with Kyuketsu still through him.
A tower approached behind them.
Dark accelerated.
Sereon struck it back first.
The pale structure burst around them.
Dark continued.
Another tower collapsed beneath Sereon's body.
Then another.
Soul Ryūgu repaired pieces of itself between impacts, but Dark drove him through the next structure before the repairs could finish.
Tier's screens lost both fighters inside the debris.
Dantero leaned toward the nearest display.
Dantero: Come on, you bloody thing.
Tier did not respond.
His visor continued tracking something the screen could not maintain.
The next tower burst.
Dark emerged with Kyuketsu still through Sereon.
He rotated once.
Sereon left the blade.
His body crossed the Domain and tore through two distant structures.
Dark landed.
His free hand touched the white surface.
Blue power travelled through it.
The temperature dropped hard enough for surrounding moisture to disappear instantly.
Frost raced across the Domain.
It climbed broken towers, debris and the suspended silver pathways nearest Sereon.
Dark closed his hand.
The frozen structures collapsed inward.
A dense sphere formed around Sereon.
Black tendrils rose from Dark's back and wrapped the outside.
Dark pulled.
The sphere came toward him.
Kyuketsu rose.
Suigōraku appeared through the frozen shell.
One clean cut opened it.
Sereon stepped through.
Dark was waiting.
Their blades met.
Dark's knee entered his stomach.
Soul Ryūgu bent.
Dark's elbow struck his jaw.
Sereon moved with it.
Dark followed.
His fist broke one of the chest plates.
The layer beneath cracked.
Sereon blocked the next strike and cut low.
Dark withdrew his leg.
Suigōraku reversed.
Kyuketsu stopped it.
Black material rose from Dark's shoulder.
A long blade formed.
Then another.
Then two more.
They surrounded the exchange without rushing immediately.
Sereon's many eyes spread their attention across all four.
Dark attacked.
The first black weapon came from behind Sereon.
He moved outside it.
Suigōraku knocked the second away.
Sereon stepped beneath the third.
Dark attacked with Kyuketsu at the same time.
Suigōraku caught the black sword.
The fourth weapon entered beneath Sereon's arm.
Blood left his side.
Dark pressed.
Another black blade opened Sereon's thigh.
Kyuketsu crossed his chest.
Sereon retreated.
Dark did not allow the distance.
His hand closed around Sereon's throat.
Black material crawled around the living plates.
Dark drove him into the surface.
The Domain cratered.
Dark lifted him.
He struck him down again.
The crater widened.
Soul Ryūgu opened across Sereon's back.
Dark raised Kyuketsu.
He stopped.
Sereon was looking at him.
Calm.
Too calm.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Sereon: You found the man standing in front of you.
Dark tightened his grip.
Sereon: You learned to punish what watches you.
Dark said nothing.
Sereon: You learned to close my exits.
Dark brought Kyuketsu higher.
Sereon: And then you made the mistake.
Dark's grip tightened further.
Sereon's voice became quieter.
Sereon: You decided you had learned enough.
A thin reflective division passed through the scene.
Dark's eyes moved.
It was not a crack in the air.
There was no physical break.
The world itself appeared to separate across a surface that had never been visible before.
Another division passed through Dark's arm.
Another crossed the sky.
The towers, the white plane, the blood across Sereon's armor, the frost, the black weapons and Dark's own body remained where they were, but no longer seemed to belong to the same continuous moment.
Sereon lowered Suigōraku.
Sereon: Shatter, Suigōraku.
Dark's entire certainty collapsed.
The frozen sphere was gone.
The black weapons disappeared.
The towers Dark remembered driving Sereon through stood undamaged.
Blood vanished from sections of the battlefield where Dark had watched it fall.
His hand was no longer around Sereon's throat.
Kyuketsu was nowhere near Sereon's body.
The sequence did not break apart into literal shards. It separated through layers of perception, each accepted moment peeling away from the one beneath it until Dark could no longer tell where the deception had begun.
Then the final false layer disappeared.
Dark stood almost a mile from where he believed himself to be.
His left hand remained extended from the moment he had first frozen the battlefield.
Kyuketsu had completed a swing into empty space.
Sereon stood behind him.
Dark's eyes widened.
Sereon moved.
No speech followed.
He punished the mistake.
Suigōraku entered beside Dark's spine.
The blade emerged through his chest.
Dark's body jerked.
Sereon pulled it free and kicked the back of his damaged knee.
Dark dropped.
Suigōraku crossed his shoulder.
Dark blocked late.
The impact drove Kyuketsu back against his own chest.
Sereon stepped around him.
His foot struck the wound beneath Dark's ribs.
Dark was thrown across the Domain.
He hit the ground, rolled and tore a trench behind himself before black material erupted from his back and anchored him to the pale surface.
Dark stood immediately.
Blood ran from his chest.
Sereon walked toward him.
Sereon: You wanted certainty.
Dark wiped blood from his mouth.
Sereon: I gave you enough to become comfortable.
Dark's expression remained unreadable.
Sereon: Believing what you saw was not the mistake.
Suigōraku rose.
Sereon: Believing you had solved me was.
Dark looked at him for several seconds.
Sereon attacked.
The first cut met Kyuketsu.
The second opened Dark's shoulder.
The third stopped inches from his throat when Dark caught Sereon's wrist.
Dark felt the bones beneath his fingers.
He felt the pressure of Sereon trying to pull away.
He felt Soul Ryūgu moving under his grip.
He trusted none of it.
Dark released him.
Sereon noticed.
Suigōraku came forward.
Dark stepped aside.
The blade missed his chest.
Sereon reversed.
Dark allowed the cut to open his ribs.
He did not chase the face in front of him.
He did not look for a reveal.
He did not wait to discover whether the body was real.
Dark opened his left hand.
Dark: Domain Verse....
The shadows beneath them deepened.
Dark: Abyssal Convergence.
Darkness spread across Kakō Seishin Kyōiki.
It did not seek Sereon.
That was what changed.
Black pillars, blades, hooked structures and narrow spears rose throughout the surrounding space, occupying the positions a skilled fighter would naturally use to exploit Dark's movements.
Sereon stepped toward Dark's outside shoulder.
A black structure rose there.
He changed direction.
Another denied the route.
Sereon moved behind him.
Dark's own shadow rose and closed the space.
Suigōraku struck Kyuketsu.
Dark pushed.
Sereon's feet moved backward.
Dark: I do not need to know whether you are real.
Several eyes across Soul Ryūgu narrowed.
Dark: I need to stop leaving somewhere safe for you to punish me from.
Sereon broke the clash.
He moved right.
Dark's structures did not chase him.
They covered the opening.
Sereon cut through one.
Duck beneath another.
Dark stepped in.
His fist struck Sereon's ribs.
Resistance travelled up his arm.
Dark did not react to the confirmation.
Sereon returned a cut.
Dark blocked.
Sereon changed grip.
Dark watched the shoulder instead of the sword.
The blade came low.
Dark moved his leg.
Sereon's free hand struck his sternum.
Dark accepted it.
Sereon looked up.
Dark's forehead hit the damaged section of Soul Ryūgu's face.
The plate split.
Dark caught his wrist.
Sereon moved to exploit the grip.
Dark released him first.
Kyuketsu travelled from the opposite side.
Suigōraku blocked.
Dark's left hand opened.
Ruler's Authority struck downward.
Sereon dropped with the sudden weight.
Dark released the spell before Sereon could finish compensating.
Sereon's body rose too quickly against resistance that no longer existed.
His stance opened.
Dark kicked him in the chest.
Sereon crossed the Domain.
Dark followed.
Sereon recovered before hitting the surface.
Suigōraku came from above.
Kyuketsu met it.
The weapons collided hard enough to tear silver pathways apart overhead.
Sereon's knee rose.
Dark caught it.
Sereon expected the hold.
Dark released instantly.
The rotation continued farther than Sereon intended.
Dark entered behind it.
Kyuketsu opened the plates along his back.
Blood followed.
Sereon turned.
A black tendril caught his ankle.
He cut through it.
Dark's fist struck his mouth.
The plate split against his teeth.
Sereon stepped backward.
Dark followed.
Suigōraku came from the left.
Kyuketsu blocked.
Sereon rotated around the collision.
Dark saw the second cut and ducked.
Sereon stopped halfway.
His heel struck Dark's damaged knee instead.
Dark lowered.
Suigōraku came down.
Kyuketsu rose.
Sereon hit the sword.
Dark's wrist bent.
Another strike lowered his arm.
A third nearly opened his grip.
Then Sereon changed the rhythm.
Dark had been waiting.
Black flame erupted from Dark's shoulder.
Several of Sereon's smaller eyes turned.
Dark released Kyuketsu.
Sereon's blade followed the falling weapon.
Dark punched him directly in the throat.
The outer plate collapsed.
Sereon staggered.
Black material caught Kyuketsu before it touched the surface and threw the sword back into Dark's hand.
Dark attacked.
Sereon blocked.
Blue power gathered around Dark's fingers.
Sereon saw it.
Dark released green lightning instead.
The current struck the living plate along Sereon's side.
Soul Ryūgu hardened.
Dark entered with it.
His knee hit Sereon's stomach.
Kyuketsu came toward his shoulder.
Suigōraku stopped the blade.
Sereon shoved Dark away.
Both men moved back several metres.
They stared at one another.
Blood covered Dark's face, chest, ribs, shoulder and thigh.
Sereon's white body carried black cuts and red openings Soul Ryūgu had not yet finished repairing.
Neither spoke.
The observers had become quiet.
Tier studied the information moving across his visor.
Tier: He stopped trying to beat it.
Dantero looked toward him.
Dantero: Beat what?
Tier enlarged the distant image.
Dark and Sereon disappeared into another exchange.
Tier: The deception.
Leona watched Dark's posture.
Tier: He is treating uncertainty as a permanent condition now.
Dantero's brow tightened.
Dantero: Meaning?
Tier: Meaning he has accepted that Sereon may lie to every sense he has.
Tier looked toward the battlefield.
Tier: So he is building decisions that remain useful even when the information is wrong.
Leona watched Dark.
His shoulders had lowered.
His movements had become smaller.
He was no longer reacting to every threat Sereon placed in front of him.
Leona: He is angry.
Dantero: He has been angry since this started.
Leona shook her head.
Leona: Not like this.
Igor stood ahead of them with God Killer lowered beside his body.
He understood.
Dark was not fighting harder because he had been wounded.
Dark had been wounded too many times for pain to change him that much.
Something colder had begun.
Sereon attacked again.
Dark parried.
Suigōraku slipped around Kyuketsu and cut toward his neck.
Dark moved his head.
The edge opened the skin beneath his jaw.
Dark's fist entered Sereon's chest.
The white plate cracked.
Sereon used the impact to create distance.
Silver pathways shifted above them.
Tier appeared behind Sereon.
Suigōraku entered his throat.
Dark did not move toward him.
The image remained.
Tier fell.
Dark watched Sereon.
Sereon attacked from the right.
Dark blocked.
Leona screamed behind him.
Dark did not turn.
Sereon's human eyes narrowed.
Suigōraku changed angle.
Dark caught it.
Sereon: Better.
Dark's jaw tightened.
Sereon stepped away.
A scream came from somewhere behind Dark.
Dantero.
Dark's eyes moved.
Less than a fraction of a second.
Sereon entered immediately.
Suigōraku opened Dark's side.
Dark turned with the wound and drove his elbow toward Sereon's shoulder.
Sereon slipped away.
Dark stared at him.
Sereon: There.
Dark's breathing slowed.
Sereon: Your mind understands.
Sereon walked closer.
Sereon: Your body still answers them.
Dark: They are my people.
Sereon: Exactly.
Suigōraku remained lowered.
Sereon: That is why it works.
Dark said nothing.
Sereon: Every threat I place near them takes part of your attention away from me.
Dark looked toward the distant observers.
This time he did it deliberately.
Leona stood.
Tier stood.
Dantero stood.
Igor, Cosmic, One, Biru, Orvane, Kaelith and the others remained where Dark had ordered them.
Dark returned his attention to Sereon.
Sereon: You cannot protect every death I can make you believe is about to happen.
Dark lowered Kyuketsu until the point touched the reflective surface.
Sereon stopped.
Dark: You are right.
Several eyes across Soul Ryūgu narrowed.
Black material entered Dark's wounds and tightened them into functional shapes. It did not heal what Sereon had done. It forced torn muscle together, bound cracked bone and held damaged tissue where Dark needed it.
Dark: I cannot protect every version of them you put in front of me.
Sereon raised Suigōraku.
Dark lifted Kyuketsu.
Dark: So I will stop protecting versions.
The Domain changed.
Dozens of false deaths appeared around them.
Some of Dark's people were wounded.
Some already dead.
Some screamed his name.
Dark watched Sereon.
Sereon moved.
The first false Suigōraku came from behind.
Dark ignored it.
Another came from beneath the surface.
He ignored that too.
The real shoulder rotated.
Dark saw it.
Kyuketsu rose.
Metal struck silver.
Sereon entered close.
Dark blocked the knee.
Suigōraku cut high.
Dark ducked.
The blade reversed.
Dark caught it.
Sereon broke the bind and tried to move outside Dark's shoulder.
Black material occupied the opening.
Sereon cut through it.
Dark was already turning.
Kyuketsu entered beneath Sereon's arm.
The black blade opened the plate across his ribs.
Blood appeared.
Sereon moved backward.
Dark stayed close.
Sereon's smaller eyes watched Dark's left hand.
Dark opened it.
Nothing happened.
The eyes returned to Kyuketsu.
Blue power erupted beneath Dark's foot.
Frost spread across the surface.
Sereon's stable footing slipped by less than an inch.
Dark punished him.
Kyuketsu knocked Suigōraku aside.
Dark's shoulder entered Sereon's chest.
The plate broke.
Dark caught him behind the neck.
Sereon cut toward Dark's abdomen.
Black material caught the sword.
Dark's knee drove beneath Sereon's ribs.
Something cracked inside Soul Ryūgu.
Sereon struck Dark's elbow.
The grip weakened.
He escaped.
Dark stepped backward.
Sereon stopped.
That surprised him.
Dark saw it.
Dark: You wanted me to chase you.
Sereon remained silent.
Dark: So I will not.
Sereon moved.
Dark met him halfway.
The next exchange began without magic.
For several seconds, there were only two swords.
Suigōraku cut diagonally.
Kyuketsu intercepted.
Sereon turned the bind into a thrust.
Dark stepped outside it.
Dark cut low.
Sereon withdrew his leg.
Kyuketsu reversed.
Suigōraku blocked.
Dark's fist travelled toward Sereon's face.
Sereon parried the wrist with his free hand.
Dark caught his elbow.
Sereon rotated through the grip.
His shoulder hit Dark's chest.
Dark accepted the contact and hooked Sereon's ankle.
Sereon lost balance.
Kyuketsu descended.
Sereon rolled beneath it.
Suigōraku travelled toward Dark's spine.
Dark blocked behind himself without turning.
Sereon's eyes sharpened.
Dark spun.
Their blades met again.
Sereon changed grip halfway through the collision and used the shorter angle to cut Dark's wrist.
Dark released Kyuketsu before the edge reached him.
Sereon expected the sword to fall.
Black material caught it.
Kyuketsu moved without Dark's hand and cut from below.
Sereon leaned away.
Dark punched him in the chest.
The impact drove him backward.
Black material threw Kyuketsu back into Dark's grip.
Sereon recovered.
Dark was already there.
The black blade came down.
Suigōraku caught it.
The pale surface beneath them opened.
Both fighters fell through.
Kakō Seishin Kyōiki continued beneath the floor in layers of reflective pathways and unfinished scenes. Silver roads crossed open darkness. Possible battles appeared across distant surfaces and vanished before becoming complete.
Dark ignored them.
Sereon attacked while falling.
Dark blocked.
They rotated through empty space.
Sereon kicked Dark in the chest.
Dark caught the leg.
Sereon used the grip to pull himself closer.
His elbow entered Dark's jaw.
Dark's head snapped back.
Suigōraku thrust.
Dark shifted.
The blade passed through his shoulder.
Dark kept Sereon's leg.
He swung him through one of the silver pathways.
Sereon disappeared inside it.
Dark followed.
The pathway opened around them.
They emerged into another section of the Domain where every tower had already collapsed.
Sereon landed first.
Dark landed opposite him.
Suigōraku moved.
Kyuketsu met it.
The exchange accelerated.
Black and silver crossed repeatedly through the ruined field.
Suigōraku opened Dark's shoulder.
Kyuketsu cut Sereon's thigh.
Dark's fist shattered a plate over Sereon's ribs.
Sereon cut across Dark's side.
Kyuketsu entered Sereon's forearm.
Sereon twisted free.
Dark kicked his knee.
Sereon struck Dark's throat.
Dark caught the wrist.
Suigōraku moved from the opposite side.
Dark blocked.
Sereon's foot came around.
Dark ducked.
Dark's elbow entered Sereon's stomach.
Sereon folded and drove his forehead into Dark's face.
Blood burst from Dark's nose.
Dark answered with his own headbutt.
The damaged centre of Soul Ryūgu split wider.
Sereon staggered.
Dark's black material rose behind him.
Two arms formed.
One caught Suigōraku.
The other closed around Sereon's shoulder.
Dark stepped forward.
His real fist entered Sereon's stomach.
Soul Ryūgu collapsed inward.
Sereon coughed blood.
Dark released him.
Kyuketsu came horizontally.
Sereon ducked.
Dark expected it.
His knee struck Sereon's face.
Sereon was launched backward.
Dark followed.
Sereon recovered in the air.
Suigōraku pointed toward him.
Several Sereons appeared throughout the pathway.
Dark did not try to identify one.
Green electricity spread outward from his body in a wide violent field.
Every possible approach became dangerous.
The figures moved.
Dark attacked the route rather than the body.
Kyuketsu cut across the place where any Sereon attempting to punish his next step would have to enter.
Suigōraku met it.
Resistance reached Dark's arms.
He did not smile.
Dark: There.
Sereon's human eyes narrowed.
Dark: Not you.
Dark increased the pressure.
Dark: The place you needed.
Sereon stepped inside the clash.
Sereon: Better distinction.
He released Suigōraku.
The weapon dissolved.
Dark's sword continued forward.
Sereon moved beneath it.
His palm struck Dark's sternum.
Suigōraku reconstructed behind Dark.
Sereon caught it without looking.
The silver blade drove into Dark's back.
It passed through the centre of his chest.
Dark stopped.
Sereon pushed the sword deeper.
Blood spread across Dark's clothing.
Tier's screen flashed red.
His head snapped upward.
Tier: His heart.
Leona looked toward him.
Tier's visor filled with warnings.
Tier: He hit it.
Dantero's weapons rose.
Dark had ordered them not to interfere.
Every person watching remembered it.
None of them relaxed.
Inside the Domain, Sereon pulled Suigōraku free.
Dark remained standing for several seconds.
Kyuketsu lowered.
His head followed.
His body started to fall.
Sereon raised the sword.
Dark's hand closed around the silver edge before it reached his neck.
Suigōraku cut into his palm.
Sereon looked down.
Dark lifted his head.
White light remained beneath his eyes.
Black material had already entered his chest.
It wrapped around the ruined heart.
Tightened.
The organ contracted.
Not healed.
Not restored.
Forced.
Dark drew breath.
The black material contracted again.
Another heartbeat followed.
Sereon's eyes narrowed.
Dark stood.
His hand remained around Suigōraku.
Dark: You keep waiting for me to die correctly.
He pulled Sereon closer.
Dark's forehead struck the damaged centre of Soul Ryūgu.
Sereon staggered.
Kyuketsu entered beneath his arm.
The black blade drove through his upper back.
Sereon's body tightened.
Dark pushed deeper.
Sereon reached toward the wound.
Dark tore Kyuketsu sideways.
White armor and flesh opened across Sereon's ribs.
Blood filled the air.
Sereon struck Dark's wrist.
Dark kept the sword moving.
Sereon kicked Dark's damaged knee.
Dark's leg bent.
Suigōraku entered his abdomen.
Dark caught the weapon beneath the guard.
They remained face to face.
Both bleeding.
Both breathing harder.
Sereon pushed the silver blade deeper.
Dark moved toward him instead of away.
The hilt touched his stomach.
Dark's expression did not change.
Dark: You hurt my people.
Sereon's eyes hardened.
Sereon: Your people killed mine.
Dark: Kurai killed a mother.
Something changed in Sereon's face.
Dark saw it.
Dark: In front of her child.
Sereon's fingers tightened around Suigōraku.
Dark: Igor answered him.
Sereon: And I answered Igor.
Dark: Then stop pretending this is justice.
The eyes covering Soul Ryūgu opened wider.
Sereon: You believe consequence belongs only to the side you understand.
Dark: No.
Dark pulled himself farther along Suigōraku.
Blood travelled down the silver blade.
Dark: Kurai chose what he did.
Another step.
Dark: Igor chose what he did.
Sereon's jaw tightened.
Dark: You chose what came after.
He stopped inches from him.
Dark: This is grief.
Sereon remained silent.
Dark: It is ugly.
The living plates across Sereon's chest tightened.
Dark: It is selfish.
Sereon pushed Suigōraku harder.
Dark's body bent around the weapon.
His eyes did not leave Sereon.
Dark: It is yours.
Dark drove his forehead into Sereon's face.
The damaged white plate collapsed.
Dark tore Suigōraku from his abdomen.
His hand closed around Sereon's throat.
Dark: So carry it yourself.
He threw him.
Sereon crossed the lower pathway and broke through its boundary.
Dark followed.
They emerged above the primary surface of Kakō Seishin Kyōiki.
Sereon landed first.
Dark attacked before his feet had fully settled.
Kyuketsu descended.
Suigōraku blocked.
The impact drove Sereon knee-deep into the surface.
Dark pressed downward.
Sereon raised his eyes.
Behind Dark, another Dark appeared.
Then another.
One turned toward Leona.
One toward Tier.
One attacked Sereon.
One remained completely still.
Dark felt every offered decision pulling at him.
Sereon: You cannot remove choice from yourself.
Dark said nothing.
The pressure between their swords increased.
The towers surrounding them began to tremble.
Sereon: You cannot refuse every meaning placed in front of you.
Dark's breathing slowed.
The metallic strain between Kyuketsu and Suigōraku disappeared.
Not because either weapon stopped moving.
Every sound in Kakō Seishin Kyōiki vanished.
The towers continued shifting without thunder.
Silver pathways crossed overhead without vibration.
Tier's equipment continued operating in silence.
Dantero opened his mouth.
Nothing emerged.
Dark's blood struck the pale surface.
No sound followed.
Sereon remained beneath him, Suigōraku pressed against Kyuketsu.
The eyes covering Soul Ryūgu turned toward Dark one after another.
Dark's head lowered.
His hair covered the upper half of his face.
His body was damaged in more places than a normal body could continue functioning through. Black material held the wound through his chest together around a heart that had already stopped once. His shoulder remained open. His abdomen continued bleeding. One leg carried a fracture. Several ribs had been cut or broken.
None of it changed his posture.
Sereon increased the pressure.
Kyuketsu lowered by an inch.
Sereon: Silence does not make you unreadable.
Dark answered quietly.
Dark: I know.
His voice entered the silence.
The silver pathways above them trembled.
Sereon's human eyes narrowed.
Dark: You keep trying to make me choose the wrong thing.
Sereon: Because you continue choosing.
Dark: No.
Sereon pushed harder.
Dark's knees bent.
Sereon: Every movement is a choice.
Dark slowly raised his face.
The shadow remained across his eyes.
Dark: Then watch mine.
His fingers tightened around Kyuketsu.
The next heartbeat did not remain inside his chest.
The pulse entered every tower across Kakō Seishin Kyōiki. White structures expanded around it, then contracted with enough force for fractures to race from their foundations toward the black sky. Every false Dark reflected beneath the surface stopped moving at the same time.
Sereon's many eyes widened.
Dark pushed.
Kyuketsu rose.
Suigōraku moved backward.
Barely.
It moved.
Another heartbeat followed.
The reflections beneath Dark began disappearing.
The versions of him protecting, attacking, hesitating, failing, dying and surviving faded until only one silhouette remained beneath his feet.
Dark.
The body actually standing there.
The moment actually happening.
Sereon looked down.
Sereon: You narrowed yourself.
Dark: No.
Dark raised his head fully.
The upper half of his face remained beneath shadow, but the white in his eyes cut through it.
There was no wild rage in them.
Sereon had hurt people Dark loved.
He had entered Dark's Empire.
He had turned concern into openings and loyalty into something to exploit.
Whatever anger Dark felt had already burned beyond shouting.
Dark: I stopped dividing myself for you.
Pressure entered Kakō Seishin Kyōiki.
The nearest tower bent away from Dark.
Another followed.
Then another.
Across an entire horizon, immense white structures leaned until their upper sections touched the surface beneath them.
Sereon broke the clash.
Three bodies appeared.
Dark did not choose one.
The real attack came from the left.
Kyuketsu blocked it.
A false blade crossed Dark's throat.
Dark ignored the sensation.
Sereon moved behind him.
Dark turned before the foot touched the ground.
Their swords collided.
Sereon's eyes sharpened.
Dark opened his left hand.
Ruler's Authority struck.
Sereon dropped under the sudden weight.
Dark released the spell immediately.
Sereon compensated upward.
Dark attacked the recovery.
Kyuketsu crossed Soul Ryūgu's chest.
Sereon staggered.
Dark stepped into him.
His shoulder broke another plate.
A false movement appeared behind Dark.
Dark did not look.
Suigōraku came low.
Dark blocked.
Sereon moved high.
Black material caught his wrist.
Sereon cut through it.
Dark's fist entered the opening.
The impact threw Sereon across the Domain.
He recovered on his feet.
Dark approached.
He did not rush.
He walked.
Sereon watched him.
The next heartbeat travelled farther.
The dead planet Raiku had created beneath them stopped rotating.
Its oceans flattened.
The burning core deep below the battlefield compressed into impossible stillness. Moons paused along their paths. Stars continued burning, but the movement inside their flames slowed until they appeared fixed.
Dark's presence did not expand like an explosion.
There was no approaching wall of pressure.
One moment, the structures beyond him existed without acknowledging him.
The next, they could not.
Universes dimmed around the awareness.
Timelines slowed.
Multiverses tightened around their centres.
Existences that had never contained living beings recognised that somewhere beyond them, something alive had become impossible to ignore.
The pressure travelled through structures Dark himself did not know how to name.
Worlds shifted.
Meta Worlds moved from positions they had occupied since Raiku created the empty Absolute Sphere.
Spheres pressed against neighbouring Spheres.
Dark did not understand the architecture.
Sereon did.
One of the eyes across Soul Ryūgu narrowed.
For the briefest instant, the grief around Sereon changed.
Something older looked through it.
Recognition.
Sereon: (thinking) Finally.
Tier's watch filled with warnings.
Every screen surrounding the allies went black.
Then Dark's face appeared across all of them.
Tier had not moved a camera.
The systems had simply stopped considering anything else the primary event.
Measurements climbed through every scale available to Tier's artificial intelligences. Numbers disappeared and were replaced by symbols. Those symbols failed as well.
Tier stared.
Tier: I am no longer measuring his output.
Sound returned to the observers.
Dantero looked at him.
Dantero: Then what the hell are you measuring?
Tier did not look away.
Tier: How much of this place can still pretend he is not here.
Leona watched Dark's image.
His eyes had not moved toward her.
They had not checked Tier.
They had not checked the Champions.
Leona: He stopped looking at us.
Dantero turned toward her.
Leona tightened her grip around her weapon.
Leona: He trusts us to remain standing.
Igor remained farther ahead of them.
God Killer rested beside his body.
The living darkness beneath his armor continued repairing what Sereon had damaged, but the crimson slit beneath his helmet did not leave Dark.
Igor: My Emperor.
Cosmic remained still.
A small change reached his expression.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
Cosmic: There you are.
One looked toward him.
Cosmic said nothing more.
Biru slowly lowered part of his blade.
Orvane's wings settled closer behind him.
Across the battlefield, the True Emperors remained where they had been.
Enra's arms stayed crossed.
Lybel watched without concern.
Larthax did not change his posture.
Luther remained silent.
Axiom lifted his head by the smallest amount.
Raiku remained seated upon the plain wooden chair suspended in the air.
Dark's pressure passed over him without moving his clothing or disturbing a single strand of golden hair.
Archanos stood farther from the others.
A smile appeared across his face.
Archanos: There stands the boy beneath the title.
Enra glanced toward him.
Archanos continued watching Dark.
Archanos: Nay.
His smile widened.
Archanos: There stands the title beneath the man.
Sereon raised Suigōraku.
Dark continued walking.
Sereon: You believe refusing distraction places you beyond deception.
Dark: No.
Another step.
Sereon: Then what changed?
Dark stopped.
Kyuketsu rested beside his body.
Dark: I stopped caring whether you are lying.
Sereon's eyes narrowed.
Dark: If the body in front of me is real, I cut it.
Black material moved across Dark's shoulders.
Dark: If it is not, I keep moving.
Black flame gathered around his left hand.
Dark: If you show me my people dying, I trust them to fight.
Blue frost spread faintly around his feet.
Dark: If you actually touch them...
Green electricity flickered through the black material at his side.
Dark looked directly at Sereon.
Dark: Then I stop you.
Sereon moved.
Suigōraku came from the right.
Dark blocked.
The Sereon in front of him distorted and disappeared.
Dark continued the motion.
Kyuketsu passed through the false body and struck the real Suigōraku behind it.
Sereon's human eyes widened.
Dark had not identified him.
He had covered the place the punishment had to come from.
Dark stepped closer.
Ruler's Authority slammed downward.
Sereon moved with the pressure.
Dark froze the only stable foothold beneath him.
Sereon cut through the frost.
Infernal Blackout came from Dark's opposite hand.
Sereon turned away from the fire.
A black tendril was already waiting.
It wrapped around his wrist.
Dark pulled.
Sereon came toward him.
Dark's fist hit his face.
The white plate cracked.
His knee entered Sereon's stomach.
Soul Ryūgu bent around it.
Kyuketsu crossed Sereon's chest.
Blood opened.
Sereon moved backward.
Dark stayed with him.
A black blade formed behind Dark's shoulder and attacked from the opposite side.
Sereon blocked it.
Dark attacked with Kyuketsu.
Suigōraku caught both.
Dark released the false pressure.
The extra black blade dissolved.
Sereon's stance adjusted to a force that no longer existed.
Dark punched him.
Sereon crossed the Domain.
Dark moved.
He appeared ahead of the trajectory.
Sereon saw him.
For the first time since Dark entered the fight, surprise reached his human eyes without any uncertainty around it.
Dark: There you are.
Kyuketsu struck.
Suigōraku rose in time.
The black sword tore through the outer form of the silver weapon and continued into Soul Ryūgu.
The cut opened Sereon from shoulder to hip.
White plates split.
Blood erupted.
The remaining force tore through Kakō Seishin Kyōiki behind him.
Sereon was launched from the Domain.
He crossed one World.
Then another.
Then chains of them.
Verses passed.
Existences followed.
Multiversal structures fractured around his movement as he continued through levels Dark had never learned enough about to name.
Dark only understood one thing.
Sereon was getting farther away.
Suigōraku reconstructed fully inside Sereon's hand.
He drove it through the structure of a distant World.
The blade screamed across the boundary.
His movement slowed.
Another impact threw him onward.
Several Meta Worlds passed before Sereon finally rotated and forced his body under control.
He landed inside the remains of an empty World.
His feet touched the ground.
Dark stood ahead of him.
Sereon stopped.
Sereon: How?
Dark's face remained shadowed.
Kyuketsu rested beside him.
Dark: You still think I followed you.
Dark stepped closer.
Dark: I watched where you were going to stop.
Sereon's expression changed.
Dark: So I went there.
Sereon swung.
Kyuketsu caught Suigōraku.
The World around them disappeared.
No explosion followed.
The entire structure ceased to remain between one moment and the next.
Dark punched Sereon in the face.
Soul Ryūgu bent around the hit.
Sereon crossed the surrounding Meta World.
Dark appeared beside him.
His knee entered Sereon's stomach.
Another structure collapsed around them.
Sereon caught Dark's leg.
Dark expected the throw.
Sereon saw the expectation.
Suigōraku entered Dark's chest instead.
The blade passed directly through him.
Dark's eyes lowered.
Sereon looked upward.
Dark's hand closed around his wrist.
Dark: Found you.
Black material erupted from Dark's wound and swallowed the section of Suigōraku inside him.
It climbed the blade.
Covered Sereon's hand.
Wrapped around his forearm.
Dark pulled.
Sereon came toward him.
Dark's fist struck his face.
The impact travelled through the Meta World and through countless structures contained beneath it.
Sereon disappeared into the distance.
Dark remained where he was.
Black material closed around the wound in his chest.
His breathing stayed controlled.
His presence continued increasing.
It had already filled the Absolute Sphere Raiku had created.
Then it passed beyond it.
The boundary did not break.
Nothing threatened Raiku's creation at its true structural level.
Dark's presence simply stopped treating that boundary as the furthest place capable of recognising him.
It entered the Absolute Expanse.
One Absolute Sphere felt him.
Then ten.
Then hundreds.
Origin Spheres shifted within them.
Higher Spheres trembled.
Greater Spheres moved inside structures that had remained stable across ages beyond ordinary time.
The presence continued.
Not as destruction.
As recognition.
Far behind Dark, Sereon recovered.
The many eyes across Soul Ryūgu looked outward.
He felt the distance Dark's presence had crossed.
His expression did not brighten.
He did not smile.
Something inside him simply settled.
Confirmation.
Hundreds of Absolute Spheres away from Raiku's creation, True Ancient Sukojo stood within another region entirely.
He had not been following the fight.
He had not been watching Dark.
There had been no reason for Dark to enter his thoughts.
A collapsed Sphere rotated beneath one of Sukojo's feet while he stood upon nothing above it. One hand supported the side of his face. The other hung loosely beside him.
He looked bored.
Around him existed an Absolute Sphere containing its countless descending structures, entire fictional realities beginning and ending across distances no ordinary traveller could ever make useful.
Sukojo had existed long enough for size to stop impressing him.
Then Dark reached him.
The collapsed Sphere beneath Sukojo's foot stopped rotating.
His eyes moved.
Nothing struck him.
No force moved his body.
Dark had not attacked him.
Sukojo had simply become aware of him.
Across hundreds of Absolute Spheres.
His hand lowered from his face.
The boredom disappeared.
Sukojo: Oh.
A smile formed.
Not pride.
Not affection.
Interest.
Sukojo: That is you.
The structure beneath him trembled.
Dark's pressure had not damaged it.
Sukojo had stopped being bored enough to remain still.
His head tilted toward a direction that possessed little physical meaning at the distance separating them.
Sukojo: You finally sound like yourself.
A laugh escaped him.
The collapsed Sphere beneath his foot divided.
Sukojo leaned forward.
Sukojo: Do not calm down before I arrive.
He moved.
The boundary of the Absolute Sphere opened violently along the path of his body.
Sukojo entered the Absolute Expanse.
Hundreds of Absolute Spheres remained between him and Dark.
He accelerated.
There was no journey anyone on Raiku's battlefield could have followed.
Sukojo did not teleport.
He crossed the distance physically.
The distinction became irrelevant to everyone waiting at the other end.
One moment, he remained hundreds of Absolute Spheres away.
The next, something entered Raiku's creation.
Sereon felt it first.
His head turned sharply.
Every eye across Soul Ryūgu followed at once.
Dark stopped.
That reaction alone mattered.
Sereon had spent the entire battle tracking false movements, allies, pathways, sword positions, wounds and Dark simultaneously.
Now every eye had abandoned him.
Dark looked toward the same empty sky.
Dark: What?
Sereon did not answer.
Recognition entered his face.
Then irritation.
Sereon: No.
Dark looked at him.
Sereon's grip tightened around Suigōraku.
Sereon: He was supposed to wait.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Dark: Who?
The sky collapsed.
No portal formed.
No doorway opened.
A black point appeared impossibly high above them.
The World reacted before Dark understood what he was seeing.
Atmosphere compressed downward in a widening column. Clouds flattened into rings and disappeared. The remnants of Kakō Seishin Kyōiki bent beneath the approaching force. Silver pathways twisted out of alignment.
Tier's screens flashed white.
His watch produced a warning tone none of them had heard before.
Tier looked down.
The reading changed.
Again.
Then again.
The speed measurement vanished completely.
Tier: Something entered the Absolute Sphere.
Leona turned toward him.
Leona: Something?
Tier raised his eyes.
Tier: Someone.
Dantero followed his gaze.
The point above them had become a descending body.
Dantero: You have got to be fucking joking.
Biru drew his sword.
One raised his fists.
Orvane's wings opened.
Igor turned God Killer toward the sky.
Cosmic did not move.
His expression did.
Cosmic: Sukojo.
Champion Sukojo heard the name.
His body locked.
The living darkness constantly moving across his form stopped completely.
For a moment, there was nothing on his face.
Then fear reached it.
Champion Sukojo: No.
One looked toward him.
One: Sukojo?
Champion Sukojo did not hear him.
His breathing shortened.
His fingers opened.
Closed.
Opened again.
Champion Sukojo: No. No, no.
Cosmic turned toward him.
Champion Sukojo stepped backward.
There was nothing tactical in the movement.
His body had decided before his mind could.
The original was coming.
High above them, Sukojo continued descending.
The atmosphere around him ignited beneath compression.
Light bent across the pressure wrapping around his body. The sky behind Sukojo appeared stretched into a black corridor reaching beyond anything Dark knew how to name.
Dark stared upward.
His grip tightened around Kyuketsu.
He did not understand exactly what Sukojo had crossed.
Tier had explained enough about the greater structure for Dark to understand that the answer was absurd.
That was enough.
Dark: He felt me.
Sereon looked toward him.
Something passed through his eyes.
Confirmation.
Dark saw it.
Dark: What?
Sereon looked away.
Dark: Sereon.
The descending pressure increased.
Sereon raised Suigōraku.
Dark lowered his stance.
Neither attacked the other.
For the first time since Dark had entered the fight, both men stopped because something else was about to enter it.
Sukojo came down.
He struck between them.
The planet reacted before sound.
A vast section of its surface collapsed into the mantle. The core deformed. The opposite side of the planet swelled outward under the transferred force while continental structures folded over one another.
Then the pressure escaped.
The dead planet split.
Both halves began separating.
The shockwave tore through what remained of Kakō Seishin Kyōiki.
Towers were ripped from their foundations.
Silver pathways snapped.
Reflective layers folded through one another.
Dark drove Kyuketsu into the collapsing surface.
Black material erupted from his body and anchored itself through several layers beneath him.
The shockwave struck.
Dark slid several miles.
His boots carved trenches behind him.
He stopped.
Sereon did not attempt to overpower the impact.
He turned into it.
Suigōraku crossed before his body at an angle as he cut through the densest portion of the incoming debris, then moved with the remaining force instead of fighting it.
The shockwave still took him.
Soul Ryūgu screamed across the broken ground.
Sereon crossed thousands of miles before driving Suigōraku through the surface and using the sword to arrest his movement.
Dust, stone and fragments of his damaged Domain filled the space between them.
Dark pulled Kyuketsu free.
Sereon rose.
Neither spoke.
The debris parted.
Sukojo stood between them.
Completely upright.
One hand remained buried in the broken ground where he had landed.
He pulled it free.
Straightened.
Then looked toward Dark.
The boredom he had worn hundreds of Absolute Spheres away was gone.
Sukojo: So that was you.
Dark said nothing.
Sukojo studied him.
His wounds.
The black material holding them together.
The white beneath his shadowed eyes.
The presence still extending through structures beyond Raiku's Absolute Sphere.
Sukojo: I felt you from where I was.
Dark's expression remained cold.
Dark: Why are you here?
Sukojo: I became curious.
Dark: That does not answer me.
Sukojo: It answers enough.
Dark raised Kyuketsu slightly.
Dark: I am in the middle of something.
Sukojo's eyes moved toward Sereon.
Sereon was already staring at him.
Neither needed an introduction.
Kōseikan existed between them.
Old conversations.
Old arguments.
An agreement Dark had never known existed.
Sukojo: Sereon.
Sereon: You were supposed to remain away.
Dark's eyes moved between them.
Sukojo: I did.
Sereon: You are standing between us.
Sukojo: Now.
Sereon: That is the problem.
Sukojo tilted his head.
Sereon's voice remained controlled.
Sereon: We agreed.
Sukojo: I remember.
Sereon: Clearly not well enough.
Sukojo looked back toward Dark.
Sukojo: He reached me.
Sereon: I noticed.
Sukojo: From hundreds of Absolute Spheres away.
Sereon: I noticed.
Sukojo: You expected me to ignore that?
Sereon: Yes.
Sukojo stared at him.
A faint trace of amusement entered his expression.
Sukojo: You have always expected too much from boredom.
Sereon: Your boredom is part of the reason the agreement existed.
Dark's gaze sharpened.
Dark: Agreement.
Neither answered.
Dark looked directly at Sereon.
Dark: What agreement?
Sereon remained silent.
Dark took one step toward them.
The broken surface beneath his feet darkened as his pressure deepened.
Dark: Answer me.
Sereon finally looked at him.
Dark's face remained partly hidden beneath his hair.
There was nothing difficult to read about the rest of him.
He was angry.
Not wild.
Not confused.
Focused.
Dark: You entered my Empire.
Another step.
Dark: You brought this war to my people.
Sereon said nothing.
Dark: Kurai murdered a woman in front of her child.
Sereon's jaw tightened.
Dark: Igor killed him.
Dark's voice lowered.
Dark: You nearly killed Igor because you could not accept what Kurai did finally reaching him.
Sereon: Do not speak as though you understood him.
Dark: I do not need to understand him.
Dark's pressure became heavier.
Dark: I saw what he did.
Several eyes across Soul Ryūgu opened wider.
Dark: Now you are standing here talking to him about an agreement that involves me.
Dark stopped.
Kyuketsu rested beside him.
Dark: What agreement?
Sereon did not answer.
Dark's expression became colder.
Dark: Tell me why my people are bleeding.
Nothing.
Dark: Tell me why you broke into my Empire.
Nothing.
Dark: Tell me why Igor nearly died.
Sereon's eyes hardened.
Dark: Tell me what you want from me.
Sereon: Enough.
Dark stepped closer.
Dark: No.
Sukojo watched.
Dark did not look toward him.
Dark: You have spent this entire fight deciding what everyone else sees.
His grip tightened.
Dark: What they believe.
Another step.
Dark: What mistake they make.
Dark stopped in front of them.
Dark: Make your own choice.
Sereon remained still.
Dark: Answer me.
Something crossed Sereon's face.
It disappeared quickly.
Dark still saw it.
Sereon: You would not understand yet.
Dark: Try me.
Sereon stared at him.
Then his eyes moved past Dark.
Not toward the allies.
Not toward the True Emperors.
Up.
Higher.
Dark noticed.
Dark: What is up there?
Sereon's gaze returned.
Sereon: More than you know.
Dark: That does not answer me.
Sereon: No.
Suigōraku lowered slightly.
Sereon: It does not.
Sukojo shifted his attention between them.
Sukojo: You are still taking the long route.
Sereon looked toward him.
Sereon: Because unlike you, I am capable of waiting.
Sukojo: You have waited long enough.
Sereon: That is not your decision.
Sukojo: It became interesting again.
Sereon's voice cooled.
Sereon: That is exactly what I feared.
Dark looked between them.
Dark: Stop talking around me.
Neither answered.
Dark's eyes moved toward Sukojo.
Dark: Whatever the two of you decided, whatever you planned, whatever you think I am supposed to become for you, it stops belonging to either of you the moment it involves me.
Sereon watched him.
Dark: I am not your tool.
Sereon: I know.
Dark: Then act like it.
Recognition moved through Sereon's expression.
Dark did not understand why.
He only knew Sereon had been waiting for something.
Sereon raised Suigōraku.
Sereon: That is why it had to be you.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Dark: What?
Sereon said nothing more.
Sukojo's mouth moved faintly.
Dark turned toward him immediately.
Dark: Do not.
Sukojo looked at him.
Dark: If you know something, tell me all of it or keep your mouth closed.
Sukojo studied him.
Then his attention moved beyond Dark.
The interest disappeared from his face.
Not because of fear.
Recognition.
Across the ruined battlefield, the True Emperors had barely reacted to Sukojo's arrival.
Enra remained where he had been.
Lybel had not drawn his weapon.
Larthax watched without concern.
Luther's expression remained still.
Axiom regarded Sukojo with distant interest.
Raiku remained seated.
None of them considered Sukojo a serious threat to themselves.
Archanos was different.
He stood several paces away from the others.
His body was barely more than two feet tall, but nothing about his proportions suggested fragility. Broad shoulders sat over a compact torso packed with dense muscle. His arms were disproportionately thick for his height, giving him the build of a brute compressed into a much smaller body.
He had been watching Dark.
Now he watched Sukojo.
The smile on his face disappeared.
His hands lowered beside him.
The fingers slowly closed.
Sukojo looked at him.
For the first time since arriving, Sukojo stopped looking entertained.
Sukojo: Archanos.
Archanos said nothing.
Sukojo's eyes narrowed.
Sukojo: You still remember.
Archanos moved.
No declaration preceded him.
No warning.
One moment he stood beside the True Emperors.
The next, his shoulder was buried beneath Sukojo's ribs.
Sukojo's eyes widened.
Archanos wrapped both arms around his waist.
Then drove forward.
The World vanished behind them.
A line tore across the ruined sky as Archanos carried Sukojo out of the remains of Kakō Seishin Kyōiki and into the distant empty structures beyond.
Only after they disappeared did the sound reach everyone else.
The detonation rolled through the broken planet.
Dantero braced.
Leona's hair snapped behind her.
One shifted his footing.
Biru raised an arm before his face.
Champion Sukojo did not move.
He remained staring at the place where the original had been standing.
His hands trembled.
Cosmic looked toward him.
Champion Sukojo lowered his head.
Champion Sukojo: Keep him away from me.
The words were nearly inaudible.
Cosmic's expression hardened.
Cosmic: He is gone.
Champion Sukojo: For now.
Far beyond them, another impact flashed.
Then another.
Archanos had not released him.
Dark watched the distant destruction.
Dark: What the hell was that?
Sereon looked in the same direction.
His expression returned to calm.
Sereon: History.
Dark looked toward him.
Sereon raised Suigōraku.
Sereon: Some of it does not improve with age.
Dark stared at him.
Sukojo's arrival had answered nothing.
It had made everything worse.
There was an agreement.
It involved Dark.
Sereon had known about him before this war.
Sukojo had known too.
And Sereon had just told him that whatever he had been waiting for could only have been Dark.
Kyuketsu rose.
The pressure surrounding Dark changed again.
The anger remained.
Suspicion joined it.
Dark: You are going to tell me everything.
Sereon settled Suigōraku beside his body.
Sereon: Eventually.
Dark's eyes disappeared beneath shadow.
Dark: Wrong answer, motherfucker.
To Be Continued.
End Of Arc 4 Chapter 14.