Buzz.
Marco vanished from the forest outside Magnolia and reappeared in another woodland nearly half a continent away.
To a true Gold Saint, that distance meant nothing.
He could circle the entire planet and return in an instant if he wished!
Acnologia sat beneath a tree, leaning against its thick trunk.
When Marco suddenly appeared in front of him, his mouth opened slightly, but no words came out.
"Looks like you've recovered."
Marco was the first to speak.
The man before him looked human, but Marco recognized him immediately as Acnologia's human form.
Dark blue hair fell to his waist, framing a pair of vicious eyes.
His skin was a deep brown, marked with dark patterns, and a black cloak hung from his shoulders while leaving his upper body bare.
He wore no shoes, only a necklace around his neck.
"How did you find me?"
Acnologia had spoken to Marco before, but that alone was unusual.
In the past, he had never bothered holding conversations with humans.
To him, they had been little more than insects, beneath the effort of speech.
Marco was different.
His strength had earned Acnologia's attention, then his respect, and during their previous battle, even his fear.
That fear had faded after Acnologia escaped and recovered. Marco's attacks had failed to leave permanent damage, and Acnologia had now returned to full strength.
Ordinarily, only another dragon or a Dragon Slayer could inflict wounds that a dragon's body could not heal.
That did not make dragons truly immortal, of course.
If someone destroyed every trace of the body and then erased the soul as well, there would be nothing left to regenerate.
"I saw where you were, so I came here."
Marco gave him the honest answer.
The moment he spotted Acnologia from across the continent, he simply crossed the distance.
Acnologia stared at him in silence, clearly convinced Marco was mocking him.
"Well?" Marco asked. "Anything you'd like to say before we finish this?"
Acnologia rose to his feet, his fighting spirit surging back to life.
"There is nothing left to say. We will fight again, and this time, I will hold nothing back."
He had acknowledged Marco as a worthy opponent.
In Acnologia's eyes, that alone was an honor few beings had ever received.
He had barely finished his declaration when a flash of light crossed the space between them.
A gaping hole appeared through his body.
No.... calling it a hole would have been generous.
His chest and abdomen had vanished completely.
His lower body collapsed where he had stood, while his severed head rolled across the ground.
"Fight again?" Marco lowered his fist as though he had done nothing more than swat aside a branch.
"If I still needed another long battle after everything I've done, then all those missions would have been pointless. Becoming a Gold Saint would have meant nothing."
Acnologia finally understood what the title truly represented.
The difference between the Marco of their first battle and the one standing here now was beyond comparison.
A hundred versions of Marco from back then would not have been enough to defeat him now.
Before, he had possessed a Gold Cloth without truly reaching the level of a Gold Saint.
Now he had both the Gold Cloth and the Seventh Sense.
In a world that placed no restriction on his power, even someone who had only just awakened the Seventh Sense stood at the level of a god.
"How...?"
Acnologia's head lay on the forest floor, his face filled with disbelief rather than fear.
Less than a year had passed since their previous battle, yet Marco's power had undergone a complete transformation.
Back then, they had at least been close enough for the encounter to qualify as a battle.
Acnologia had been badly wounded, but Marco had also been forced to retreat in terrible condition. Neither could honestly claim a clean victory.
This time, there had been no battle at all.
Acnologia had been killed before he could even move!
The reversal was almost impossible for him to understand. He had always been the one who erased others with a casual attack.
He had never imagined himself on the receiving end.
"Sekishiki Meikai Ha."
Marco had no intention of taking chances.
Acnologia's body looked incapable of recovering, but leaving his soul untouched would be careless.
Accumulated Corpse Qi struck the last spark of life within the Black Dragon and tore his soul from the ruined remains.
Freed from his failing body, Acnologia could speak clearly again.
"What are you?"
He stared at Marco, no longer angry or afraid, only desperate to understand.
He had stood unmatched at the top of the world for centuries.
How had he become so helpless before one man?
"I already told you. I'm a Gold Saint." Marco answered without emotion.
"Your last real chance to kill me was during our first battle. Once you allowed me enough time to grow this far, the outcome was decided. Forget about fighting. You should be thinking about how you want to face the end."
Looking back, their previous encounter truly had been Acnologia's only opportunity.
Neither of them had understood the other's abilities, and if the fight had continued, either one might have won.
Acnologia had not made an unreasonable choice by retreating.
He had been badly injured and knew nothing about Marco's limits. Continuing the battle would have been reckless.
His mistake was simply that Marco's growth had gone beyond anything he could have imagined.
Less than a year was no more than a passing moment to Acnologia, yet during that brief time, Marco had become something entirely different.
"Disappear, Acnologia."
The Cancer Gold Cloth replaced the armor around Marco's body, strengthening the Accumulated Corpse Qi flowing through him.
"Dying beneath the fist of a Gold Saint is a fitting end for a legend like you."
Marco drove his fist forward.
The force of Sekishiki Meikai Ha swept through Acnologia's soul.
There was no struggle and no second chance.
In a single instant, the soul of the world-ending Black Dragon shattered completely, dissolving into faint points of magical light before vanishing from existence.