The air warped around them, bending like molten glass. White sigils spiraled around Eiden in rapid, blinking patterns, while green runes pulsed around Yajin like a heartbeat. Their auras pressed against each other, distorting the air between them.
Yajin grinned, all three eyes narrowing. "Let's see if you can keep up, Eiden."
Eiden raised both blades, white aura swirling around him like a storm.
They vanished.
A thunderous crack split the air as they reappeared mid‑charge, blades colliding in a burst of white and green light. The shockwave blasted outward, flattening the dead grass in a perfect ring. Sparks of divine energy scattered like meteors.
Yajin swung the Sword of Judgement in a brutal arc. Eiden flash‑stepped aside, reappearing behind him in a blink of white light. His katana slashed across Yajin's back, leaving a burning cut that bled down his spine.
Yajin snarled, "Shit—!"
He spun, swinging the massive blade with enough force to split a mountain. Eiden ducked beneath it, the wind of the strike ripping a trench into the earth behind him — but the blade itself never touched him.
Eiden countered instantly, thrusting the longsword along his arm toward Yajin's ribs. Yajin blocked with the flat of the Sword of Judgement, sparks exploding outward.
"Spells won't save you," Yajin growled. "This blade nullifies everything."
Eiden smirked. "Who said I'd use spells?"
He vanished again.
Yajin's three eyes darted around, searching. "Where the hell—"
Three Eidens appeared around him.
One to the left. One to the right. One behind.
All identical. All radiating a white aura. All moving with perfect synchronization.
Yajin snarled, "Illusions? Cheap tricks again?!"
He swung the Sword of Judgement through the left clone— it vanished in a burst of white light.
The right clone slashed across his thigh, leaving a burning cut. Blood dripped down his leg.
"Damn it—!"
Yajin swung again, cleaving the right clone in half— it dissolved into dust.
The real Eiden appeared behind him, katana already descending.
Yajin barely raised his sword in time. The blades clashed — steel to divine steel — sparks flying. Eiden pressed forward, pushing Yajin back step by step.
Yajin roared, aura flaring. "ENOUGH!"
He unleashed a burst of green energy that blasted Eiden away. Eiden flipped mid‑air, landing on his feet, skidding across the dirt.
Yajin charged, swinging the Sword of Judgement downward. Eiden crossed both blades, catching the strike cleanly — the divine blade never touching his body.
The force sent him sliding backward, heels carving trenches into the earth.
Eiden gritted his teeth. "You hit like a child."
Yajin grinned. "And you bleed like anyone else."
He thrust forward — Eiden dodged cleanly, the Sword of Judgement slicing through empty air. The aura trailing behind the blade tore the ground apart.
Eiden flash‑stepped behind him. "You're too slow."
Yajin spun, swinging wildly — Eiden vanished again.
This time, five clones appeared.
They circled Yajin, moving in a blur, each one flickering with a white aura. Yajin swung wildly, cutting through two instantly, but the remaining three darted around him, slashing at his legs, arms, and sides.
Small cuts opened across Yajin's body, each one glowing with green light.
"DAMN IT!" Yajin roared. "SHOW YOURSELF!"
Eiden appeared above him.
The real one.
He descended like a falling star, both blades glowing white.
Yajin raised the Sword of Judgement overhead, blocking the strike. The impact detonated like a bomb, sending shockwaves across the plains. The clones vanished instantly.
Yajin staggered backward, panting, blood dripping from multiple wounds.
"You tricky bastard…" he growled.
Eiden wiped blood from his mouth. "You're too predictable."
Yajin's aura flared violently. "Then predict this!"
He swung the Sword of Judgement horizontally. A wave of green energy tore across the plains, ripping the earth open — but Eiden flash‑stepped above it, untouched.
Yajin leapt after him, swinging upward. Eiden blocked with both blades, sparks raining down like falling stars.
They clashed mid‑air, neither giving ground.
Eiden slashed across Yajin's chest.
Yajin punched Eiden in the ribs, the shockwave blasting Eiden down to the ground.
Eiden shot back up in the same breath and drove his knee into Yajin's jaw.
Yajin followed him down, swinging the Sword of Judgement in a brutal downward arc — Eiden dodged cleanly as they dropped, and the blade carved a crater the moment it hit the ground.
They landed together, the impact cracking the earth and leaving them standing in a crater of shattered stone.
Eiden rose first, panting, blood dripping from several cuts.
Yajin rose more slowly, aura flickering, wounds glowing green.
"You're… starting to piss me off…" Yajin muttered.
Eiden pointed his katana at him.
Yajin charged.
Eiden vanished.
Yajin skidded to a halt, eyes darting wildly as his aura flared in jagged bursts. "STOP RUNNING!" he roared, slamming his free hand into the ground.
Emerald spires erupted from the earth in a wide circle, jagged pillars of green crystal lancing upward in every direction. They stabbed through the air where Eiden had been a heartbeat before — but each one only pierced empty space, shattering into glittering fragments.
A white streak cut between two collapsing spires. Eiden reappeared for an instant, dragging his blade along one of the emerald pillars. The entire structure shattered from the point of contact, collapsing into dust.
Yajin spun toward the sound, swinging the Sword of Judgement in a vicious arc — but Eiden was already gone, his afterimage torn apart by the swing while the real Eiden reappeared at Yajin's flank, carving a shallow line across his side.
"Hold still!" Yajin snarled, aura spiking. He thrust his palm forward.
"Emerald Barrage!"
Dozens of spear‑shaped projectiles formed in the air around him, each one a condensed shard of green light. They launched in all directions, homing in on Eiden's flickering presence.
Eiden flash‑stepped through the storm, each movement a sharp, precise cut through space. White sigils flared beneath his feet with every step, redirecting his momentum at impossible angles. Spears slammed into the ground, detonating in bursts of green light, but none so much as grazed him.
He reappeared above Yajin, blades crossed.
"Celestial Descent."
He dropped like a meteor, both swords crashing down toward Yajin's shoulder. Yajin twisted at the last second, bringing the flat of the Sword of Judgement up to intercept. The divine blade never touched Eiden — it met only the force of his strike, the impact detonating between them in a shockwave that blasted the dust away in a perfect sphere.
Yajin slid backward, boots grinding through stone. His arms trembled from the force.
Eiden landed lightly, aura flaring brighter. "You're slowing down."
Yajin's three eyes narrowed, veins of green light crawling across his skin. "Then I'll stop holding back."
He raised his free hand to his face. All three eyes glowed, runes spiraling within them.
"Tri‑Sight Severance."
The world around them dimmed. For a heartbeat, everything froze — the wind, the dust, even the distant clouds. Lines of green light traced through the air, marking paths, angles, and trajectories only Yajin could see.
He moved.
To anyone else, it would have looked like teleportation — but it was speed, pure and sharpened. Yajin blurred forward, the Sword of Judgement carving through the space Eiden had occupied a fraction of a second before.
Eiden flash‑stepped sideways, but Yajin was already there, his blade tearing a canyon through the ground where Eiden's feet had just been.
"You can't outrun what I've already seen," Yajin growled.
Eiden's eyes narrowed. "Then I'll change the future."
White sigils flared around his arms, wrapping his blades in spiraling light. He didn't retreat this time. He advanced.
He stepped directly into Yajin's predicted path.
Yajin swung, certain of the hit — but Eiden twisted his body just enough that the Sword of Judgement passed within a hair's breadth of his chest, the aura trailing behind it ripping his cloak but never touching flesh. At the same time, Eiden's katana carved across Yajin's forearm, forcing his swing wide.
Yajin hissed, green blood spraying. His perfect lines of prediction fractured, the glowing paths in his vision splintering into chaos.
Eiden pressed in, blades moving in a relentless rhythm — high, low, diagonal, thrust, twist, step. Each strike forced Yajin to defend with the flat of his sword or his free arm, never once allowing the divine edge to come near him.
A cut opened across Yajin's shoulder. Another across his thigh. Another along his ribs. His aura sputtered with each wound.
"You're not the only one who can read a fight," Eiden said quietly.
Yajin roared, aura exploding outward in a jagged burst that forced Eiden back a few steps. His breathing was ragged now, his stance less steady.
"I'M NOT LOSING TO YOU!" he screamed, lifting his free hand toward the sky.
High above, something answered. A distant emerald point ignited in the clouds, spinning slowly, gathering power.
Eiden's gaze flicked upward for a fraction of a second — then snapped back to Yajin. He moved in again, refusing to give him space.
Their blades clashed once more — steel against divine steel, never skin against edge. Eiden slipped inside Yajin's guard, driving a knee into his gut, then carving another line across his arm as he staggered.
The emerald light in the sky grew brighter. The air vibrated.
Yajin's lips curled into a blood‑streaked grin. "Too late…"
He slashed both blades across Yajin's torso, leaving two deep, burning cuts. Blood sprayed in glowing arcs.
Yajin charged.
Eiden vanished.
Slash.
Yajin spun.
Slash.
Yajin staggered.
Gasping.
His grip faltered.
The Sword of Judgement slipped from his hand, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.
Yajin fell to his knees.
Eiden approached, aura burning bright.
He planted both katanas into the ground beside Yajin.
He grabbed Yajin by the hair, pulling his head back.
Yajin winced.
Eiden embedded the longsword through Yajin's chest.
Yajin trembled, but a faint chuckle escaped him.
Eiden narrowed his eyes. "What's so funny?"
Yajin grinned weakly.
"You… should've watched the skies…"
Eiden's eyes flicked upward — but the realization came a heartbeat too late.
A streak of green light tore down from above, striking him with brutal force and knocking him flat onto his back. Dust spiraled upward as the weapon snapped back into the sky in a flash of emerald light.
For a moment, the world rang.
Eiden exhaled sharply, gripping the wound with a trembling hand before tearing the glowing blade free and flinging it aside. His breath hitched, but he forced himself upright, rising slowly, defiantly, aura flickering around him like a storm barely held together.
Yajin let out a low, breathless laugh — half‑broken, half‑triumphant.
Eiden staggered forward, each breath sharp, each step heavier than the last. The longsword embedded through his forearm pulsed with white light — his own aura reflected back at him — every movement sending a tremor through his body. But he refused to fall. White energy flickered around him like a storm barely held together.
Yajin watched him approach, still kneeling, still trembling, still bleeding green light from a dozen wounds. His three eyes narrowed, but disbelief flickered behind them — disbelief that Eiden was still moving at all.
Eiden dragged his arm behind him, the embedded longsword carving a thin glowing line through the dirt. When he finally reached Yajin, he lifted his free blade with a shaky, deliberate motion.
Yajin's breath hitched.
Eiden swung.
The strike connected with Yajin's forearm — a clean, brutal impact that snapped his balance and sent his upper body whipping sideways. The force alone was enough to make Yajin's entire posture collapse, his head dropping forward as if the world itself had just cut out beneath him.
For a heartbeat, everything went silent.
Dust drifted.
Aura flickered.
Yajin's body slumped, the weight of the blow dragging him downward in a way that left no doubt: Eiden had landed something final.
Yajin's chin dipped toward his chest, his posture folding in on itself, the life in his stance collapsing like a structure losing its foundation. His arms hung limp, his aura sputtering in weak, uneven pulses.
Eiden stood over him, chest rising and falling, aura crackling around him like broken lightning. The embedded longsword still jutted from his forearm, glowing faintly.
Yajin let out a low, rattling exhale — half‑laugh, half‑groan — the sound of someone who knew the fight had slipped from his hands. His voice wavered, thin but still carrying the weight of something deeply personal.
"You… You are a traitor…" A pause, a tremor. "I once saw you as a friend."
The words hung in the air like a final verdict.
Yajin's body swayed once… then collapsed fully, the last of his strength leaving him as he fell still upon the shattered earth.