In the next second.
The ring around Arceus radiated a piercing glow.
Countless gentle specks of light began to fall, continuously brushing against Shiko's motionless body.
This was Arceus's unique mark.
It was a cosmic power that only the ruler of this universe could wield.
The light sank into the void like grains of sand falling into a lake.
Then, within that empty space, it gathered and condensed.
Immediately after.
It transformed into Arceus's exclusive move.
Judgment.
The dazzling light carried Shiko's body and blasted straight toward him.
It was like the tolling of a heavy golden bell.
Every beam of light carried destructive power.
The space in its path was torn into countless fragments.
Wherever it passed, mountains and rivers were ripped apart and crushed.
As the light reached its peak, Shiko roared.
"Omegamon!"
He had wanted to stop the consequences of this reckless gamble, but it was already too late.
Although there was still hesitation in his heart, Shiko did not regret it.
He knew that there was still a gap between his current self and this ruler of the universe.
Arceus's attack still carried a destructive pressure like divine punishment.
How many times had it been now?
Shiko suddenly thought of that.
Just from this single exchange, Shiko had already clearly sensed how terrifying Arceus was.
Compared to the First-tier Legendaries he had fought before, this opponent was far, far stronger.
Those gods had already been extremely difficult to deal with.
But Arceus was on a completely different level.
As expected, the light of the Creator God was as cold as frost.
A streak of light brushed past the sharpest edge in Shiko's hand.
After destroying that attack, the blade in Shiko's hand seemed to be awakened by the wind.
The sword's momentum rose to an unimaginable height.
Two fierce forces belonging to WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon gathered together.
As Shiko fused with them, their power condensed to the extreme.
In the next second.
Sword light suddenly surged out from within his body.
When it appeared again, it was already right in front of Arceus.
For a moment, it was as if Shiko's disappearing afterimage could still be seen.
Those two attacks actually fused at the moment the light blades clashed.
All his blades, all his will, and all his fighting spirit were gathered inside them.
After two consecutive slashes, the entire space boiled.
The twin flashes of sword light collided head-on with Judgment.
A violent roar erupted.
Arceus once again magnified its own power, releasing an even more ferocious light.
Unfortunately, this repeated and layered attack had already been predicted by Shiko.
The blue radiance around Shiko's body traced a sharp arc through the air.
However, Arceus's divine power continued to press downward.
In just a single flash, Shiko used the divine sword to cut through the attack.
The sword force was smashed apart and turned into a vortex-like storm of slashes.
Then, with the force of a falling star, he pushed Arceus back.
Because of that, Shiko could not immediately follow up with a second strike.
The battle between the two continued to spread as their attacks clashed again and again.
But what truly surprised Arceus was that Shiko had actually managed to force it back.
That shock lasted only for a moment.
Arceus's figure reappeared in the void.
As Shiko's sword was drawn, violent divine power erupted from the tip of the blade and spread along its edge.
Aside from Arceus taking the initiative at the beginning, the rest of the fight had become an exchange of divine pressure and overwhelming assaults.
After several consecutive flashes, Arceus was actually forced back half a step by the weapon in Shiko's hand.
The silhouette of its figure flickered, and overlapping afterimages appeared within the sacred light.
Shiko seized the opportunity.
But Arceus only looked on coldly.
Its attack showed no sign of panic from beginning to end.
Not a single one of those attacks had truly landed on Shiko's starlit sword body.
The power of Arceus's attacks was simply too great.
An ordinary mortal body would have been unable to withstand even the aftermath.
Each time the sword force reached Shiko's body, he used the divine sword light to push it away.
But the force pushing him back still came from Arceus.
There were no other thoughts in Shiko's mind.
In the next instant, five streaks of light erupted violently.
They directly tore through Arceus's attack, shattering it into countless star-like fragments that scattered toward the end of the universe.
After a dozen attacks swept across the battlefield without achieving any result, Shiko could not help but curse.
In the next second.
His anger gave him a new answer for this battle.
Since dragging this out would not work, then he would stop dragging it out.
He decisively switched into another combat state.
But very quickly, he discovered that even after changing forms, the effect was not obvious.
The reason was simple.
Whether it was WarGreymon's body or the newly fused Omegamon state, the raw destructive power he could unleash was still limited by the level of power he currently possessed.
So Shiko tried once again to force a deeper fusion.
He had originally thought that by doing this, he could achieve the power he was pursuing, the merging of two different forces into one.
But very soon, he realized that this idea was not as simple as he had imagined.
Although his physical power had become stronger and his energy consumption had increased, reaching the level where he could truly shatter a small universe was still extremely difficult.
Each of his attacks was powerful.
But they were still scattered by the structure of Arceus's divine power.
The battle between the two now looked like ripples created by two pure and absolute sources of energy.
The waves continuously spread to Shiko's side, but they still could not truly pierce through his star-dragon body.
At that moment, Shiko suddenly spoke.
"You're using the power of this universe."
The collision between them was a clash between the laws of this universe and the power of another world.
And Shiko was one of the beings who controlled an entirely different mark.
"How is it? Even after using your own divine power, you still can't suppress my attack from earlier!"
The two different marks clashed in space and exploded against one another.
It seemed that the being before him was not completely invincible after all.
As soon as he thought of that, Shiko thought of what might come after this battle.
If an existence like this guarded the center of the universe, then once Shiko's power continued to grow…
Would such an opponent really be impossible to kill?
Arceus looked at Shiko again.
"I will give you one more chance to consider whether you wish to follow me."
Arceus extended another invitation to Shiko.
If Shiko truly agreed, then perhaps everything before this could still be overlooked.
However.
Shiko did not need to think for long.
He frowned slightly and gave his answer.
No.
There could never be two absolute rulers in one universe.
In this universe, there could only be one being who held true control.
So from the very beginning, Shiko and Arceus had stood in an irreconcilable relationship.
As long as one of them existed, the other could not remain above all things.
"I refuse!"
Shiko roared.
Then, he no longer held anything back.
He released his attack once more.
The divine power in Shiko's body struck toward Arceus.
He retracted the core of his fused body's attack.
The power he displayed was enough to leave anyone speechless.
Shiko completely cast aside the outer shell of the fused divine state.
The golden armor covering his twin claws revealed an even sharper, tearing power.
Anyone who saw him now would have been able to recognize that terrifying silhouette.
Shiko's divine power burned as if it had turned into battle flames.
The aura coming from his breath was simply too powerful.
The two fought more and more fiercely.
Everything around them was torn into nothingness.
The marks belonging to the two cosmic beings collided again and again.
Without anyone noticing, their battle had already spread from Earth into the universe.
In the boundless cosmos.
Shiko's body was covered in wounds.
But the more he fought, the fiercer he became.
It was as if the energy inside his body was endless.
The battle continued.
Shiko's fighting spirit slammed again and again against Arceus's divine body.
After several more exchanges.
Shiko's divine power was already close to drying up.
Damn it.
This guy was terrifyingly strong.
At first, Shiko had thought that he could at least exchange blows with the opponent.
But after truly fighting, he discovered that the gap was still larger than he had expected.
It could only be said that this was worthy of the strongest existence in the universe.
It was powerful beyond imagination.
Too terrifying.
Shiko took a deep breath.
At the moment he fell into a desperate situation, he suddenly felt a powerful surge of energy pour into his body.
It was the power coming from his evolution factors.
For victory.
His will fixed itself at this critical point.
Shiko was in danger.
The battle erupted again.
The enemy was already before him.
At that moment, Shiko was wrapped in two-colored light.
A mysterious aura enveloped him.
It could still go further.
His power could still rise.
"Are you really trying to kill me?"
Shiko laughed coldly.
He had actually withstood it.
That mysterious aura wrapped around him even more tightly.
He had never encountered a situation like this before.
It completely exceeded his understanding.
Before Arceus, Shiko's previous fused divine body had already been beaten to the point of collapse.
He had almost no strength left to fight back.
Arceus looked at Shiko quietly.
But the next moment.
A white light slowly bloomed.
Shiko's figure began to undergo a tremendous change.
His body was gradually covered in sacred white armor.
A dark mantle unfolded behind him.
Golden lines extended across the armor.
One arm transformed into a WarGreymon-style sword arm.
The other arm transformed into a MetalGarurumon-style cannon arm.
At this moment, Shiko had completed his evolution.
Omegamon.
His entire body radiated a dazzling brilliance.
That pure and beautiful power surged outward in a grand tide.
All of Shiko's will gathered into this single form.
The universe trembled.
His heart shook to the extreme.
He was about to win.
Moonlight transformed into a blade and attacked.
It was no longer only the power of battle.
It was also the sublimation born from fighting itself.
At this moment.
He was Omegamon.
He had entered the divine light of the universe and stepped into the next realm through battle.
The Grey Sword appeared within the sacred light.
Blue-white sparks of energy flowed along the blade.
He swung the sword.
A streak of starlit sword energy was slashed out.
At the same time.
A violent pillar of energy tore open the night sky.
The sword energy flashed at the speed of light.
Shiko felt a power stronger than anything he had ever felt before.
This time, he no longer held anything back against his opponent.
He used everything he had left.
Arceus did not choose to strengthen itself any further either.
It focused all its strength.
It used its strongest defense.
The strike came straight toward it.
Arceus received the attack from the Grey Sword head-on.
Clang!
Crack!
Break!
Kill!
The blade tore open the god's chest.
The divine defense shattered.
This was the power of a god in the vast universe.
It was an unprecedented ability born from Shiko himself.
Shiko was the source of the entire galaxy-like attack.
And the power of Omegamon allowed him to suppress the opponent's origin and movement, then tear through the attack at terrifying speed.
The battle entered its most intense stage.
The body of the cosmic ruler ignited the universe.
Every collision between the two supreme existences brought forth an enormous shockwave.
Flames bloomed like a blazing sun, unleashing a horrifying attack.
Sword energy danced wildly, sweeping over the battlefield and overturning everything in an instant.
The sword energy pierced through the darkness and scattered the light of the stars.
The storm-like assault descended like a divine strike.
Shiko's strongest blade fell.
The battle did not last much longer.
Omegamon and Arceus both displayed power and wisdom far beyond ordinary beings.
The two supreme existences of the universe fought in the depths of space.
The gate of the stars seemed to open.
Countless fragments of divine light descended through the universe.
No one knew how many stars were shattered by the aftermath of their battle.
Every attack from either side was delivered with full strength.
Neither retreated.
Neither gave up.
With the blade in his hand, Shiko finally struck his opponent in that desperate, critical moment.
At first, he had still been somewhat unfamiliar with Omegamon's body.
But soon.
As the battle continued, he was able to fully and freely control it.
He became stronger and stronger.
He unleashed all of his combat strength.
"Raaah!"
Shiko roared.
The storm of starlight suddenly drew a long arc through the void.
The golden blade slashed down.
Light erupted.
A silver sword beam flew out.
That sword light pierced through the starry sky and space itself, then landed precisely on Arceus.
With this strike.
For the first time in the entire battle, Shiko gained a true advantage.
The terrifying sword, carrying star-destroying power, struck the opponent's body.
Arceus's divine body was wounded.
A scene of destruction instantly appeared in the universe.
Blood scattered through space.
At the same time, the two-colored light enveloping Shiko flickered violently.
This was the first time in this battle that he had suffered such a serious injury as well.
The clash between the god of one universe and the ruler of another caused both sides to be blasted apart from head to toe.
Although both had suffered terrifying damage, the entire universe was still interwoven with their divine light and nebula-like power.
Their strength began to recover within the galaxy.
Then the two of them collided again.
In this battle, no one could say who had won or lost.
In the end, even the light could no longer be seen.
Only one thunderous impact after another could be heard.
Shockwaves continued to spread.
Shiko's sword was blocked by sparks of divine power.
It struck the origin of Arceus's power.
After an incredibly long and bitter battle.
The fight finally came to an end.
In the end, Omegamon's starlit power and cold radiance suppressed everything.
All enemies had been defeated.
His energy had already been exhausted.
But he still stood above the battlefield.
(End of Chapter)
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