For the first time in nearly a century, the myriad-branched blade, Nanatsusaya, was fully unsheathed.
The blood-red katana in Iaiashin's hands pulsed faintly, its crimson steel whispering with a restless, hungry heat. Iaiashin could feel her oldest partner warning her, telling her to be wary of the boy standing across from them.
She let out a soft, melodic giggle. "You might truly be rusty, Nana... it is no big deal." She tilted the blade, watching the light dance along its lethal edge. "Or could it be you simply wanted a battle?"
Merun was powerful, sure. But he was far from a Martial Master.
Still, she gazed back at Merun, her eyes wide with a quiet, mounting awe at his surging presence.
But Merun was no longer sparring. His consciousness had plunged into a freezing, bottomless void, swallowed whole by the terrifying echoes of his nightmare. In his fractured, instinct-driven mind, the elegant woman standing before him was no longer Itahaya Iaiashin.
She was the source of fear. She was the devourer of stars. She was the ultimate END of everything he loved.
A primal hatred swelled in his chest. His Saiyan blood, hardwired to fight to the death when backed into a corner, violently rebelled against the looming apocalypse.
I HAVE TO PROTECT THEM, his mind screamed, though his throat was so utterly consumed by rage that he could only produce a guttural, beastly snarl. I HAVE TO KILL IT!
His heart, already hammering at a frantic pace, suddenly spiked to a dangerous tempo that sounded like a mechanical piston. Merun's flesh began to visibly bubble. His veins turned a dark, bruised violet beneath his skin as a violent, crimson mist began to seep from his pores.
With a deafening blast, a boiling, bloody red aura violently erupted over his golden-white energy.
"KAIOKEN!"
The air in the chamber grew suffocatingly hot. The strain of the technique on his physical frame was immense, but in his mindless state, Merun didn't care if his muscles tore themselves off the bone.
Across the arena, a slow, ecstatic smile spread across Iaiashin's face. She relaxed her shoulders, her eyes shining with pure fascination.
His Divine Arsenal is perfect. Peerless.
It reminded her of the late Sage Oda's legendary technique—filled with an unyielding rage and a self-destructive will to fight.
She could feel the staggering rise in his strength. His power had clearly more than doubled! But through her sharp senses, she could also feel the chaos in his mind and the intense, trembling fear locked in his heart.
But the fear didn't matter. The fear would subside once he breached the Sage Realm! And when that day came, he would surely thank her for this rare opportunity to go all out.
Why on earth would she stop him now?
"COME!" she laughed, her voice echoing with a fierce, ancient joy.
All of a sudden, even before Iaiashin's eyes could track the movement, Merun vanished. He reappeared directly to her right, his crimson-wrapped fist executing a brutal, bone-shattering strike.
She swayed, letting the crimson fist miss her temple by a hair.
But Merun's beastly instincts were adapting. His combat skill began to grow in real-time, matching her immaculate predictions. He transitioned the missed strike into a brutal, backward elbow, simultaneously throwing his tail to snare her wrist.
CLANG!
Itahaya parried the elbow with her right palm, but to her surprise, a sharp, heavy numbness vibrated up her arm from the exchange.
Merun pursued instantly, his strikes coming faster, heavier, and completely devoid of human rhythm. Left hook. Low sweep. Uppercut. Grab. Right Straight. A double-palm strike that rattled the very air.
CLANG! CLANG!
For the first time, Itahaya's predictions failed to keep him entirely at bay. His strikes grew faster and faster, his form refining itself under the pressure of battle, his strikes growing even more powerful with each furious exchange.
Finally, a savage, grazing kick from Merun clipped her shoulder, tearing a clean strip of fabric from her pristine white kimono and flinging her backward across the hall.
Her eyes glimmered with glee as she was finally pushed to the edge.
As a Martial Master, Itahaya was a being who had fundamentally ascended humanity. In Panama, Martial Masters were not merely "strong martial artists"; they were strategic national assets. They were deterrents powerful enough to destroy whole nations.
They possessed flawless mechanical and thermodynamic efficiency. While martial squires acquired the evolutionary body of a martial artist, and martial seniors tapped into the body-amplifying potential of the martial heart, a Martial Master discovered the Martial Mind. By expanding her conscious mind to encompass the untapped, deep reservoirs of the brain, she operated with near-perfect mechanical efficiency. She could exert titanic, mountain-level force without scratching the paint on a wall—unless she chose to.
Of course, she didn't need to use it—nor plan to use it.
Still, her passive Martial Mind allowed her to sense the exact emotional makeup and physical intent of her opponent in real-time. To her, Merun's movements should have been completely transparent... and yet, at this moment, his raw speed and shifting intent were actually bridging the gap.
But she didn't get angry. She laughed in pure joy. Her heart was beating fast, and her blood grew desperate for a worthy battle. It had been a very long time since she had been forced to use the Blossoming Blade Style.
"Magnificent!" she cried, her voice ringing through the arena. "You have far surpassed my expectations, Merun!"
Before the echo of her voice could even fade, Merun lunged again—a blood-red streak of pure, unbridled violence.
He was upon her in a fraction of a millisecond. His fist aimed straight for her jaw. Itahaya didn't sway this time. Her thumb slowly touched the ornate guard of Nanatsusaya.
"Blossoming Blade: Bloom", Iaiashin whispered.
A single, blinding red flash divided the air. It was a lightning-fast iai draw, so impossibly fast that Merun's eyes couldn't even see the sword leaving its scabbard. The flat of her blade intercepted his knuckles mid-flight with a deafening CLANG, deflecting the titanic force of his fist skyward, while the razor edge left a shallow, clean line across his forearm.
Ignoring the blood dripping from his arm, Merun snarled, his tail lashing out to sweep her ankles while his other fist drove forward in a savage counter-punch. Itahaya glided backward, her crimson blade flowing in continuous, elegant circular paths that seemed to weave an navy of invisible lines in the air.
"Blossoming Blade: Thorn Basket"
Iaiashin's arms blurred as her sword strikes deflected and cut Merun. Each flowing cut created dense pockets of pressure that left Merun with less and less space. Merun tried to dodge left, but a wall of razor-sharp air forced him back. He lunged right, only to find the space already occupied by her oncoming blade, forcing him to dodge as his tail warned him of death.
With every frantic movement, the invisible vines of her pressure funneled him into increasingly worse positions until there was only one place left for him to stand—directly in the path of her descending pommel, which cracked heavily against his collarbone.
CLANG!
"RRRGGHH!" Enraged by the restriction and the feeling of overwhelmed, Merun dropped low, tensing his entire frame as he crossed his arms violently over his chest.
His boiling crimson aura stopped flaring outward and instead sucked aggressively inward, condensing directly into his core. The air around him warped, screaming with a high-pitched, highly concentrated pressure as golden-red lightning crackled frantically across his skin.
He threw his arms wide with a feral roar.
"SUPER EXPLOSIVE WAVE!"
A solid, shimmering dome of concentrated crimson and gold energy violently detonated outward from Merun as the epicenter. It was a heavy, expanding wall of pure destruction that pulverized the very air, rushing to consume everything in the chamber.
Though the master-grade floor refused to shatter, the metal beneath his feet groaned and heated to a dull, glowing orange under the sheer, crushing mass of the expanding sphere.
As the towering crimson dome rushed to consume her, the sheer, crushing density of the energy made Itahaya's breath stop.
Yet, even as the intense thermal heat singed the very edges of her hair, a wild, ecstatic laugh spilled from her lips, her eyes burning with pure, unadulterated triumph.
"Marvelous! Truly boundless!" she cried out, completely intoxicated by the realization that he had more! He had more surprises in store!
But as the wave pressed closer, she realized her physical limits alone would no longer suffice to match this technique. If she wanted to use her high-level sword techniques, she had to tap into her one of her own sources of power.
She giggled like an innocent girl.
Deep within her chest, her centuries-old Martial Heart ignited.
The activation hit the chamber with a profound, terrifying weight. The heat of the arena suddenly plummeted, replaced by a majestic, suffocating pressure that made the very air smell of cold ozone and molten iron.
A brilliant, blinding crimson light radiated from her chest, flowing down the fine cracks on her skin and pulsing vividly across her arms. While Nanatsusaya itself remained a silent, unyielding shadow in her hands—untouched by her energy, as she could not bridge her Martial Heart into her weapon—her physical frame surged with terrifying power. Her muscles reinforced, her mind sharpened to a razor's edge, and her presence expanded to dwarf the raging storm before her.
With a flourish of pure elegance, Itahaya spun Nanatsusaya in a perfect, full 360-degree rotation.
"Blossoming Blade: Garden"
In an instant, it looked as if a hundred crimson roses bloomed simultaneously around her. Driven by the supreme power of her active Martial Heart, the intersecting fields of circular sword pressure met his chaotic shockwave head-on, completely neutralizing the massive energy.
The violent torrent of his ki that was touched by the range of her domain was shredded into harmless, warm gales before a single spark could touch her tattered kimono.
Unfazed by his technique's failure, Merun's aura returned to its red, boiling state of Kaioken as he rocketed into the air with his ki flight.
Hovering near the ceiling, his face twisted in fury, he fired a rapid, continuous barrage of heavy, compressed ki projectiles down upon her.
DADADADADADADADADADADADADA!!
Itahaya stood her ground, her sword blurring above her head at speeds that defied human sight as her shining eyes tracked each projectile and struck it with ease.
"Blossoming Blade: Canopy."
Reinforced by her Martial Heart, a perfect, shimmering dome of sheer sword pressure formed over her. The falling yellow spheres of condensed ki struck the dome and were instantly sliced into microscopic, glittering particles, dissolving into harmless light before they could get within three feet of her body.
Realizing his aerial assault was useless, Merun ceased firing. He gathered the entirety of his boiling aura and charged like a human meteor. He dropped straight down, aiming a devastating, double-fisted hammer blow designed to break through her guard.
Itahaya didn't try to contest his terrifying, physical strength directly. She waited until the very last millisecond, her eyes calm amidst the howling wind.
"Blossoming Blade: Falling Petal."
With microscopic precision, she slid the side of Nanatsusaya along the outer edge of his descending wrists. Like a petal drifting weightlessly around a violent gust, she guided his massive downward momentum harmlessly into the empty space beside her.
As his fists slammed into the indestructible floor, Itahaya pivoted on her heel, delivering a swift, decisive cut across his exposed back.
SLASH!
Merun stumbled forward, his back torn open and bleeding, the deep gash spewing blood across the floor.
But during that exact exchange, Merun's beastly combat instincts had bypassed his own safety. He had willfully sacrificed his body's positioning to slip past her defensive arc, using the momentum of his fall to throw a brutal, desperate punch that connected squarely and true against Itahaya's chin!
CRACK!
The impact of the blow was massive. Itahaya's terrifying, majestic presence completely vanished. As her Martial Heart temporarily deactivated from the shock of the hit, her shoulders sagged. Her grip on Nanatsusaya loosened, and her stance became tired, broken, and completely open.
Driven entirely by his drive to protect and to win, Merun committed everything to one final, desperate lunge to crush her throat.
The instant he grabbed her throat, her sword bloomed.
"...Blossoming Blade: Wilt."
Itahaya's figure crumpled, leaving nothing in his hands but dust. Behind him, Merun could hear her heart revving up once more like a violent, waking engine as it reactivated her supernova state right at his back.
"Blossoming Blade: Petal Dance."
Before Merun could even turn, hundreds of microscopic cuts converged on his position simultaneously.
To an outside spectator, it looked like a beautiful spiral wave of crimson flower petals rising like a dragon and swallowing Merun whole. But each "petal" was a high-speed sword strike that had actually carved through his dense ki defense and his Sanchin, sending him crashing heavily onto the floor.
It was her ultimate move.
"AAAAAGH!!"
Merun lay on the ground, his body tattered, bleeding from dozens of fine cuts as well as the giant gash on his back. But he still absolutely refused to yield.
With a low, guttural growl, his muscles began to violently steam.
The deep wounds across his back began to knit together at a visible, terrifying pace as his tattered body regenerated.
He dragged himself back up to his feet, his boots grinding against the metal as he forced his body into a deep horse stance, roaring once more to urge his physical frame for even more power—power to save his family, power to survive the dark void of his mind, power to protect the world!
As though something buried deep within him had finally reached its breaking point...
Merun roared.
"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
The scream that tore from his throat no longer sounded human.
It was primal.
It was desperate.
It was the furious cry of a warrior who needed power no matter what the cost.
BOOM!!
A terrifying shockwave erupted from his body.
The master-grade steel slammed violently against their reinforced frames, creaking as they endured against the burst of power.
Watching his spectacular, unnatural resilience, Itahaya's eyes filled with an ecstatic, almost manic joy. She was damn near close to tearing up due to how happy she was.
He wasn't done! He had more! He actually had more!
She felt alive! She felt challenged!
Thus, she didn't deactivate her Martial Heart; instead, she fed even more energy into it, encouraging him to push further.
"SHOW ME!" she cried, her voice echoing with authority and wild exhilaration. "GROW STRONGER! REACH EVEN FURTHER... BEYOND!"
The pressure continued to rise.
The indestructible master-grade steel of the chamber did not yield, remaining perfectly solid and unblemished—but the very space around Merun began to warp.
The air grew impossibly heavy, turning thick as deep-sea water.
Light itself began to bend around his silhouette, distorting the clean, metallic lines of the walls behind him like a heat mirage.
A silent, crushing weight settled over the room, a concentrated gravitational pressure that pressed down on Itahaya's shoulders and made her skin tingle.
The boiling crimson mist of the Kaioken surged wildly around him, roaring like a raging inferno.
Then... it faltered.
The scarlet aura twisted violently before collapsing inward upon itself. It buckled. It convulsed. It was as though it could no longer contain the monstrous power awakening beneath it.
Merun's roar climbed even higher.
"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
A single strand of his black hair flashed gold.
Black.
Gold.
Black.
Gold.
The flickering spread through his hair with every thunderous beat of his heart, each pulse lasting longer than the last until the darkness struggled to reclaim it. His entire body trembled violently. Every muscle tensed. Every vein bulged. His physical frame strained against the overwhelming torrent of power forcing its way to the surface.
KZZZT!
A violent arc of golden lightning burst from his shoulder. Another exploded across his chest. Then dozens more. Golden electricity snapped frantically around his body, lashing through the chamber before vanishing into the air, only to erupt again with even greater violence.
The Kaioken finally reached its limit. Thin fractures of brilliant gold ripped through the crimson mist. One became ten. Ten became hundreds. The scarlet aura violently collapsed before shattering into countless crimson fragments.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
A colossal pillar of blinding golden ki erupted from Merun's body. The violent pressure warped the air into a shimmering vacuum, but the master-grade floor remained perfectly whole, groaning silently beneath the density of his ki.
The entire mountain trembled.
Itahaya's smile slowly faded.
For the first time since the battle had begun... she could no longer perceive the upper limit of his strength.
He was slowly becoming unreadable.
Almost as if... he becoming just as powerful as her.
Such an unthinkable thing... but it was right in front of her eyes.
The towering pillar of golden ki continued to rage, its violent currents twisting high above Merun like a newborn sun.
Then... the storm subsided. The deafening roar faded. The pillar of golden light slowly dispersed.
Standing at its center... was Merun.
Golden flames danced gently around his body. His hair no longer flickered.
Every strand of his long, wild hair had completely locked into place, the top standing proudly upward in brilliant golden spikes while the ponytail hung sharp down his back like a lion's mane. Matching golden brows framed a face stripped of every trace of rage.
Then... his eyes opened.
Iaiashin was met with his teal-green, indecipherable eyes.
The desperate fury that had consumed him only moments ago had vanished without a trace.
Only unshakable certainty remained.
Itahaya's lips quivered.
The golden radiance reflected within her widened eyes as she stared silently at the young Saiyan before her. She could feel it—the compressed energy radiating from his body.
She longer cared about his realm or her plans.
All she could think of was...
...How magnificent.
She didn't know it yet, she was the first to witness the awakening of a Super Saiyan on Gaia.
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A/N
To put into perspective, Post-Steel Convergence Merun would be about 60,000-70,000 PL, with Divine Arsenal or Kaioken, Sakuma would be far outclassed.
A peak Martial Senior is about 80k.
A Martial Master averages 200k – 5M.
You can look up what the multiplier for Super Saiyan is...
Also will be deleting unneeded old author notes lol.
Thanks for reading!