After unleashing the true Heaven's Chains, Akashi instantly shifted right into the ball's path and swung hard. Behind him, Enkidu's chains sped up, spiraling around. Enkidu spread their arms wide and pressed down toward the ground.
In the mental world, countless chains suddenly burst from beneath Byoudouin's court. As he used Eight Consciousness to perform multiple attack stances, the chains wrapped around him tightly. All of his figures vanished, and the superhuman power of Eight Consciousness was sealed away.
Byoudouin froze in place as if struck by a binding curse, unable to move. The ball whizzed past him and bounced out of bounds.
"15-15!"
Heaven's Chains was a weapon created by the gods to restrain Gilgamesh. The higher the target's divinity, the stronger the chains' power. To those without divinity, they were nothing more than ordinary iron chains.
Of course, in the world of tennis, gods didn't exist. But with spiritual force as support, Akashi developed Heaven's Chains into an ability that specifically countered powers like the Shura Path, which surpassed human limits. Its principle was somewhat similar to Yukimura's yips.
Even Akashi himself hadn't expected Enkidu to appear. His Gilgamesh alternate dimension was a special template given by the system, with unique abilities beyond those of ordinary projections. Yet Akashi had also tried many times to awaken his own alternate dimension.
But every attempt hit a bottleneck. No matter how much his spiritual power grew, he always lacked the final trigger. Akashi even suspected it might be because he already possessed an alternate dimension template.
Then, during the Nationals match with Sanada, when he used Heaven's Chains to deal with Sanada's Shura Path, that missing trigger suddenly clicked into place. Perhaps because of his long-term development of Gilgamesh, Akashi inexplicably awakened the alternate dimension of Enkidu.
Still, Akashi faintly felt it might not truly be his own. With his immense spiritual power, he could sense that deep within his soul, another force remained dormant. Enkidu might just be a special offshoot of the Gilgamesh template.
"What on earth is going on? Even Nanjirō shouldn't be able to do something like this!" Mifune muttered from the bench, his long-held views of tennis utterly shaken as he stared at the two projections behind Akashi.
"Should I say, no surprise it's little Akashi? Always pulling off shocking feats… this talent really might be unprecedented!" Irie nearly lost his composure, and as someone who had awakened an alternate dimension himself, he knew—awakening two different dimensions was practically impossible.
"Now I'm curious. What kind of conviction lies in the depths of Akashi-kun's heart?" Oni spoke in a low, heavy tone after his initial shock.
"Sure, awakening two alternate dimensions at once is shocking. But doesn't anyone care what just happened to Byoudouin-senpai?" Mitsuya asked calmly.
"That's something only Byoudouin himself knows," Tanegashima replied once he'd steadied his emotions.
On court, Byoudouin stared blankly at Akashi. Even with all his experience, this was the first time he'd seen someone wield two alternate dimensions simultaneously.
'So that's your trump card? Then let me see if you have the resolve to stake everything for victory, Akashi Seijūrō!' Byoudouin thought silently, though he said nothing and returned to the baseline.
Just as he prepared to serve again, Akashi sensed the violent fluctuations of the Shura Path's aura around him. He instantly unleashed a torrent of spiritual force. Byoudouin's mind was crushed beneath the intensified pressure of the Emperor Eye.
Even with his formidable mental power, Byoudouin blanked for an instant. When he came to, his limbs were already bound by Heaven's Chains. Enkidu's grass-green hair fluttered in the air without wind.
In the next moment, the raging aura of the Shura Path slowly calmed. Byoudouin realized in shock that he could no longer tap into Eight Consciousness freely. Still, his body reflexively struck the ball.
The match heated up again as the two traded fierce rallies. In the mental world, Gilgamesh and the skeletal pirate clashed at high speed, while Enkidu devoted full strength to sealing Byoudouin's Eight Consciousness.
Though Byoudouin now stood as the roadblock to Akashi's rise as Japan Team's No.1, he was not truly an enemy. Using Eight Consciousness only wasted his lifespan without affecting Akashi in the least. That was why Akashi had summoned Enkidu—to stop this pointless self-destruction.
Under the dual suppression of Mental Pressure and Heaven's Chains, Byoudouin had no answers left. His five attributes slowly declined, and at last, the crushing weight began to show on him.
A yellow beam of light exploded at Byoudouin's feet. As he turned to return it, his body stiffened for a fraction of a second. The ball skimmed past his racket and flew out of bounds.
"15-30!"
Byoudouin glanced at the ball behind him, his expression unchanged, though the fierce aura around him had noticeably weakened. Calmly returning to the baseline, he grabbed another ball, tossed it high, and smashed it with full force.
The ball shot across the net and landed near the left baseline. But as soon as it bounced, Akashi was already waiting there. With the sharp crack of impact, he countered with a baseline passing shot, since Byoudouin had already started charging the net after his serve.
While running forward, Byoudouin dragged his racket downward, intercepting the ball and sending up a lob. His momentum carried him straight toward the net.
Soon, the two settled into a rally of basic tennis. Akashi even dismissed Enkidu's alternate dimension, knowing Byoudouin would no longer open Eight Consciousness. Maintaining two alternate dimensions was a huge drain on mental energy—even for Akashi.
In the mental world, Gilgamesh and the skeletal pirate faced each other from afar, neither attacking first, both searching for a weakness. Yet as Akashi and Byoudouin exchanged in basic tennis, Gilgamesh's domain had already begun to erode the sea.
Honestly, dueling Akashi in basic tennis while he wielded the Emperor Eye was pure folly. On the spectator side, Yukimura knew this deeply. Every time he faced Akashi, he relied on mental force, because Yukimura understood: no one could beat Akashi in fundamentals.
Now Byoudouin faced the same problem. No matter where he placed the ball, Akashi anticipated it in advance. And it didn't feel like data tennis calculations or probability—it was absolute, like an unchanging fact.
"15-40!"
After only four or five rallies, Akashi seized on Byoudouin's fleeting opening and converted it into a point. Byoudouin seemed to have lost his final resistance. Whether in fundamentals, technique, or alternate dimension, he was being crushed.
"GAME! 6-1! First set ends! Winner, Second String Selection! Total score 1-0!"
Byoudouin quickly lost the first set. He hadn't held back—in fact, he had gone all out. Yet he was still defeated by a wide margin. Still, his unyielding spirit ensured no setback could truly break him.
"Never thought you'd be beaten so thoroughly, Byoudouin," Tokugawa said with a complex tone as he watched him cover his head with a towel.
"Boss actually lost the first set? That's really beyond what I expected," Duke remarked as he returned to the court after accompanying Akutsu to the infirmary, eyes flicking to the scoreboard with surprise.
"Akashi-kun's strength may already have reached Volk's level. That too is beyond my expectations," Oni admitted with deep emotion, remembering how he had watched Akashi grow.
Back in Oni's first year, when he first noticed Akashi's alternate dimension awakening, the boy's power had surged at a pace Oni couldn't fathom. He vividly remembered their first practice match two years ago—he could still suppress Akashi slightly then.
But a year later, Akashi had completely overtaken him. Once Akashi unveiled his trump card, Oni had been utterly crushed, without the slightest chance to fight back. At that moment, Oni realized Akashi might already surpass Byoudouin.
That was why Oni had suggested to Mifune that Akashi be the one to restrain Byoudouin. But never in his imagination did he think Byoudouin would be defeated so miserably once they truly faced off.
"You're not planning to just give up, are you, Byoudouin?" As he rested under the towel, a sharp voice suddenly cut in.
Everyone turned. Standing behind Byoudouin was Toono Atsukyo, who had always shown him respect. Now, with a frown and eyes locked on the bench where Byoudouin sat, his tone carried a trace of mockery.
"No one can stop me from seizing victory. That is the law of the pirate, and the path of my tennis!" Byoudouin slowly pulled the towel from his head, his gaze sweeping to Toono behind him, his eyes burning with a fearless resolve.