Kashigi neither shifted his stance nor reached immediately for the Sigma engraved across the back of his hand. Instead, he quietly extended two fingers toward the silent industrial landscape surrounding them, and the battlefield that had remained perfectly motionless until now answered with mechanical obedience.
A low metallic groan spread throughout the abandoned district before swelling into something vastly larger as thousands of tons of forgotten steel awakened simultaneously.
Shipping containers scraped across fractured concrete without visible propulsion, overhead cranes tore themselves free from rusted foundations that had imprisoned them for decades, while enormous conveyor systems twisted apart into countless individual sections that hovered motionless above the factory grounds. Every suspended fragment rotated into mathematically perfect formations until the entire industrial complex resembled an immense three-dimensional diagram drawn across the night sky, each piece occupying a position so precise that Kanji immediately understood what Fujinaka had meant when describing Kashigi as a strategist before a warrior. The battle had begun long before either man had thrown a single punch.
Kashigi – ''Strength has a habit of convincing people that overwhelming force eventually solves every problem. The greater the force becomes, the more carefully it must be guided, otherwise it merely destroys itself alongside its target. This place was chosen every kilogram of steel surrounding us already possesses a predetermined purpose.''
The final word had barely left his mouth before the district itself moved. Hundreds of immense steel beams accelerated simultaneously from different directions, converging toward Kanji through trajectories so perfectly synchronized that they appeared less like projectiles than components of a colossal machine assembling itself around him.
Thick chains lashed through the air behind them, weaving together an enormous lattice designed to deny every possible avenue of escape while gigantic shipping containers descended from above like collapsing skyscrapers. Every route Kanji's eyes instinctively identified vanished another fraction of a second later beneath another precisely positioned wall of steel.
Kanji inhaled slowly.
Then...
he stepped forward.
The first steel beam reached him with enough force to split reinforced bunkers in half.
His right fist met it directly.
The collision echoed across the industrial district with the deafening violence of artillery striking bedrock before the twenty-meter girder simply ceased to exist, exploding into thousands of incandescent fragments that continued flying harmlessly past him.
Without allowing the motion to finish, Kanji shifted his weight through his hips exactly as Akashi had forced him to practice countless times inside Yggdrasil, driving a second punch into an approaching shipping container.
Hundreds of tons of reinforced steel folded inward around his fist before erupting outward in every direction like paper caught inside an explosion. Chains snapped apart before touching his body, overhead cranes shattered beneath shockwaves generated by strikes that never reached them directly, and entire formations that Kashigi had spent years perfecting collapsed one after another beneath strength so absolute that structure itself ceased possessing meaning.
Every lesson carved into Kanji through defeat, adaptation and relentless training converged inside each movement until raw power and refined technique became indistinguishable from one another.
Kashigi's eyes widened.
The distance separating them disappeared.
One instant Kanji stood buried beneath collapsing steel.
The next...
Golden lightning tore across the battlefield as shattered fragments continued raining harmlessly behind him, his acceleration so explosive that the concrete beneath his feet detonated into enormous craters before his body had completely left the ground.
Kashigi reacted immediately, several steel barriers materializing between them in layers thick enough to stop anti-tank artillery. Kanji drove through every one without slowing. The barriers shattered one after another beneath a single uninterrupted advance until the final wall exploded apart less than a meter from Kashigi's body.
Kanji's fist buried itself deep beneath Kashigi's ribs.
The impact stole every remaining sound from the district.
For a fraction of a second, Kashigi's feet remained planted against the concrete while his entire torso folded around Kanji's punch. Then the force finally propagated through his body. Blood burst from his mouth before the ground beneath him collapsed into a crater several meters wide, the transmitted shockwave continuing outward to split surrounding warehouses in half.
Kashigi's body left the earth like a projectile fired from siege artillery, smashing through successive factory walls before finally skipping across the broken concrete another hundred meters away. Every impact painted the abandoned district with clouds of dust and twisted steel until he finally came to rest against the remains of an enormous blast furnace support, coughing another mouthful of blood onto the fractured ground.
Kanji lowered his fist without triumph.
If anything...
his expression became more focused.
Akashi would have remained standing.
That single thought reminded him how enormous the mountain before him still remained.
Far across the battlefield, Kashigi slowly pushed himself upright. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth before disappearing beneath the back of his gloved hand, his breathing noticeably heavier than before. Several fractured ribs protested beneath every movement, yet his expression remained almost unnaturally composed.
Kashigi exhaled.
Kashigi – ''...So Fujinaka wasn't exaggerating.''
His right hand slowly extended.
Sigma answered.
Unlike before, no surrounding machinery moved.
Instead, The surrounding air rang with a high, crystalline resonance as an impossibly slender spear emerged from the silver radiance, its shaft covered in intricate geometric engravings while the blade resembled polished liquid metal frozen into perfect form.
Kashigi lowered the spear until its tip hovered a finger's breadth above the shattered concrete.
The Sigma mark ignited once more.
Every fragment of broken steel scattered across the district rose silently into the air before flowing together in a colossal metallic torrent. Plates, beams, chains, cranes and twisted reinforcement bars compressed into an enormous avian silhouette whose wings blotted out the moonlight itself. Molten silver eyes opened beneath an armored beak while thousands of razor-sharp feathers settled into overlapping rows of polished steel. When the creature finally spread its wings completely, the resulting pressure blasted dust and shattered concrete across the entire industrial complex.
Kanji instinctively shifted his stance.
The Metal Falcon didn't roar.
The monster crossed hundreds of meters before Kanji's instincts could fully react, its steel talons carving across his chest in a shower of golden sparks that hurled him violently backward through the remains of a warehouse.
Kanji barely completed the motion of rolling back onto his feet before the Metal Falcon descended again, its wings slicing through the night with a shriek so sharp that the surrounding warehouses seemed to answer in painful resonance.
Unlike every metallic construct Kashigi had controlled moments earlier, the creature no longer behaved like assembled machinery obeying commands from a distant master. It hunted. Every alteration in Kanji's breathing, every adjustment of his footing and every subtle shift of his center of gravity appeared reflected instantly within the monster's flight path, transforming impossible speed into something even more dangerous: precision.
Kanji drove a golden fist upward, intending to intercept the descending talons before they reached him, yet the falcon folded one wing at the final instant and rotated around the punch with frightening elegance. Steel claws scraped across his shoulder, tearing away several plates of condensed Yin Armor before continuing past him in a shower of incandescent sparks. The impact itself caused little damage, but the realization struck far harder than the wound.
This creature was not merely fast. It possessed the battlefield awareness of an experienced combatant.
Several dozen meters away, Kashigi observed the exchange while slowly wiping the remaining blood from the corner of his mouth. The pain radiating through his fractured ribs remained severe enough that every breath reminded him of Kanji's overwhelming physical superiority, yet instead of frustration, a faint satisfaction quietly emerged beneath his otherwise disciplined expression.
The calculations Sigma continuously assembled around him had already reached an unavoidable conclusion. Competing directly against Kanji's current level of raw strength bordered on impossibility. Every previous strategy based upon controlling terrain through superior structure collapsed the moment Kanji's power exceeded the tolerances around which those structures had been designed.
Silver Yin slowly flowed across Kashigi's body before condensing beneath his skin in countless geometric patterns resembling interlocking mechanical engravings. The Symbol engraved upon the back of his hand burned brilliantly, illuminating the surrounding district with metallic light that reflected from every twisted beam and shattered crane scattered throughout the ruined complex. Unlike Kanji's radiant transformations, no overwhelming pillar of energy erupted toward the heavens. Kashigi's evolution resembled an intricate machine quietly engaging another layer of hidden mechanisms, each movement locking perfectly into the next until the atmosphere itself seemed to tighten around him beneath invisible pressure.
Every line of silver light disappeared beneath his skin before reemerging along the surface of his spear, spreading across its blade through impossibly intricate patterns that pulsed like veins carrying molten steel instead of blood. At precisely the same moment, identical engravings ignited across the colossal Metal Falcon circling high above the place.
Kashigi raised the spear.
Kashigi – ''Power Mode... Tenfold.''
Only an instant earlier the creature had required fractions of a second to reposition itself between attacks. Now even those fractions disappeared completely. The steel monster crossed the distance separating them before Kanji could fully rotate his shoulders into a defensive stance, its armored beak slamming into his abdomen with enough concentrated force to launch him through two enormous warehouse walls before his body skipped violently across fractured concrete.
The impact echoed throughout the district like successive artillery strikes while shattered support columns collapsed behind him beneath the transmitted force. Before the debris even finished falling, the Falcon appeared again overhead, metallic wings folding backward as both talons descended simultaneously toward his exposed position.
Kanji crossed both forearms just before impact.
The collision drove him knee-deep into the ground.
Golden lightning erupted wildly around his body while the surrounding concrete fractured outward in concentric circles extending dozens of meters across the factory floor.
Kanji's muscles strained visibly beneath the pressure as Yin Armor groaned beneath repeated impacts that continued arriving faster than his body could fully recover from the previous exchange.
Kashigi did not waste the opportunity.
Moving with considerably greater speed than before, he closed the remaining distance while the Falcon continued forcing Kanji's attention upward. The silver spear traced a flawless arc through the air, its blade gliding toward Kanji's unprotected flank with surgical precision rather than overwhelming force.
Kanji barely twisted aside in time, the weapon carving through the edge of his armor before continuing harmlessly beyond him, yet the attack had never intended to inflict a decisive wound. It had forced movement. The instant Kanji shifted his footing to avoid the spear, the Falcon reacted with perfect synchronization, abandoning its previous angle to rake both talons across his back. Golden fragments of shattered Yin Armor scattered through the night while Kanji stumbled several steps forward, momentarily trapped between two opponen.
Kashigi recovered the spear in one smooth motion without ever allowing unnecessary momentum to accumulate, his breathing remaining disciplined despite the injuries Kanji had inflicted earlier. Every exchange now unfolded according to a rhythm he understood completely.
They fought like two halves of the same mind.
Kanji slowly straightened, fragments of broken golden armor dissolving into radiant particles before fresh layers of Light condensed across his forearms. A thin line of blood escaped the corner of his mouth as he wiped it away with the back of his glove, his breathing noticeably heavier than it had been only moments before.
Kanji slowly pushed himself upright, fragments of shattered Yin Armor dissolving into countless motes of golden light before reforming across his body with noticeably slower rhythm than before. Several shallow wounds crossed his chest and back where the Falcon's talons had finally managed to pierce his defenses, each one burning sharply enough to remind him that Kashigi's adaptation had not merely slowed his advance but had genuinely forced him onto the defensive.
For several long moments neither combatant moved. The Falcon circled high overhead, silver inscriptions pulsing rhythmically beneath its metallic feathers, while Kashigi stood with his spear lowered beside him, every breath carrying the subtle tremor of ribs that had never fully recovered from Kanji's earlier strike.
Kanji unexpectedly smiled.
It was not the exhilarated grin Akashi wore whenever he discovered another impossible opponent, nor the relieved smile of someone escaping certain death. Instead, it carried quiet disappointment, as though reality itself had failed to reach the expectations he had unknowingly carried into the battle.
The expression immediately caught Kashigi's attention because it possessed none of the arrogance usually accompanying confidence. It resembled certainty. Slowly lowering his guard rather than raising it, Kanji allowed the silence to linger another heartbeat before finally speaking, his voice remaining calm enough that it barely rose above the wind threading itself through the shattered skeletons of abandoned factories.
Kanji – ''I expected more.''
Without mockery.
Without triumph.
Kanji continued looking directly into Kashigi's eyes, his own expression never changing.
Kanji – ''Fujinaka spoke about you as though you represented one of Enazumi's greatest walls. After everything I experienced against Akashi... after every lesson carved into me by defeat... I believed this battle would force me to climb again. You won't survive the next few seconds.''
There was no bluff hidden inside his voice.
No attempt to provoke.
Kashigi recognized that immediately.
Years spent analyzing opponents had taught him to distinguish confidence from desperation, arrogance from discipline and lies from conviction. Kanji's words belonged to none of those categories. They resembled a simple observation, delivered with the same emotional weight another man might use while commenting on tomorrow's weather. That realization disturbed Kashigi more profoundly than the injuries spreading beneath his broken ribs. If Kanji genuinely believed the battle had already ended...
Kashigi's grip tightened around the silver spear until fresh cracks spread across the metal beneath his fingers. Every calculation, every battlefield prediction and every tactical adaptation assembled since the beginning of the confrontation converged upon a single unavoidable conclusion. Continuing exactly as he was guaranteed defeat.
The silver inscriptions covering Kashigi's body suddenly ignited with blinding intensity.
Kashigi's voice thundered throughout the district with a force that shook every remaining warehouse.
Kashigi – ''POWER MODE... FIFTY TIMES!!''
It compressed into him with such overwhelming density that portions of his skin immediately fractured apart like thin sheets of crystal struck by invisible hammers. Jagged cracks raced across both arms, his shoulders and neck before stopping only moments later, revealing blinding metallic radiance flowing beneath flesh no longer capable of containing it completely. Veins blackened. The whites of his eyes disappeared beneath absolute darkness while brilliant silver irises continued burning inside them like stars suspended within a moonless sky. His hair rose violently upward as waves of compressed Yin erupted around him, every strand stiffening into metallic spikes while the fractured earth beneath his feet collapsed under pressure alone.
Above them, the Falcon folded its wings.
Its enormous body dissolved.
Thousands upon thousands of silver fragments abandoned their avian form before plunging toward Kashigi in a colossal torrent of living metal. They collided against him one after another without resistance, flowing beneath cracked skin, wrapping around muscle and bone until man and monster ceased existing as separate entities. Metallic feathers emerged across his forearms before disappearing once more beneath reinforced flesh. The enormous wings compressed into his spine. The creature's luminous eyes vanished into his own.
The earth exploded beneath his feet.
The air screamed apart behind him while shattered buildings collapsed beneath the pressure wave generated by his advance alone. Even after witnessing Akashi's speed, Kanji acknowledged that Kashigi had ascended into an entirely different existence from the man standing before him only moments earlier.
Then...
Kanji quietly lowered his eyes.
His right hand slowly rose before his chest.
Thumb to forehead.
Then to his sternum.
Left shoulder.
Right shoulder.
The ancient sign of the Cross.
The same movement once taught to him by gentle hands long before hatred, Yin or revenge had entered his life. For a single immeasurable instant, the battlefield vanished from his awareness. There remained only his heartbeat, the memory of whispered prayers inside an old church, and the conviction that faith never absolved a man from becoming worthy of the road placed before him.
Kanji, almost beneath his breath – ''Lord... if this path truly leads toward the truth... then let these hands become worthy of walking it.''
His fingers slowly closed into a fist.
Kanji – ''Light Mode...''
Golden light awakened.
sunrise compressed into human form.
Kanji – ''...Five hundred times.''
Everything stopped.
Or perhaps...
Only Kanji continued moving.
Kashigi remained suspended before him, spear extended, every fragment of dust surrounding his body frozen within the golden world unfolding around them. The silver flames surrounding Sigma crawled through the air with agonizing slowness, each ripple advancing so gradually that entire seconds seemed incapable of carrying them forward. Kanji quietly walked.
One step.
Then another.
He circled Kashigi almost absentmindedly, studying the transformation from every angle while countless thoughts crossed his mind during what, outside this impossible perception, occupied less than the smallest fraction of a heartbeat. The cracks spreading across Kashigi's skin. The tension within his muscles. The desperate determination refusing surrender despite certain defeat. Minutes appeared to pass while Kanji simply observed a man still charging toward him, trapped inside a moment too slow to complete.
He finally stopped.
Standing directly before Kashigi.
His fist rested only centimeters from Sigma's face.
Kanji exhaled.
One instant Kashigi advanced.
The next...
Kanji's fist connected.
The impact compressed into a single infinitesimal point before expanding outward with violence approaching the detonation of a hydrogen weapon, though condensed into an unimaginably smaller radius. The abandoned industrial district ceased resembling architecture as concentric walls of force erased warehouses, pulverized blast furnaces and folded enormous cranes around invisible pressure before hurling millions of tons of steel across the horizon. The night itself flashed gold and silver while a colossal column of dust climbed into the heavens, visible from dozens of kilometers away.
When the shockwave finally passed...
Kanji was already breathing heavily.
Golden lightning flickered erratically around his body before vanishing almost immediately. His knees threatened to buckle as every muscle screamed beneath the unbearable strain of sustaining Light Mode ×500 even for less than a single heartbeat. Thin fractures spread across sections of his Yin Armor before dissolving into light altogether, forcing him to steady himself with one hand against a broken slab of concrete while blood escaped quietly from the corner of his mouth.
Far beyond the center of the devastation, Kashigi's broken body lay buried beneath mountains of shattered steel and concrete, life clinging to him by the narrowest possible margin.
Kanji slowly opened and closed his trembling hand.
The fingers barely obeyed.
He stared at them for several silent moments before speaking, not to Kashigi, not to Enazumi, but to himself.
Kanji – ''In the end... none of them changes reality.''
His hand slowly tightened into a fist despite the pain.
Kanji – ''If I had remained weak... my faith would not have saved my family. My hatred would not have defeated Akashi. My desire for revenge would never reach Enazumi.''
He raised his eyes toward the dark horizon where Yggdrasil still dominated the distant sky.
Kanji – ''God showed me the path...''