The cloud of dust had yet to settle. Deep within it, a pair of ocean-blue eyes slowly emerged.
At first, nothing else could be seen. No silhouette, no outline, not even the faintest movement beneath the thick veil of dust. Only those two eyes, moving steadily forward as though their owner were walking out of the smoke.
Then a voice broke the silence. "This is finally worth my time." John Merciless stepped forward.
His white mask gradually became visible, followed by his black clothing and the sword resting in his right hand. He rolled his neck once, then glanced toward the distant figure of Deboras. "I shall let you witness my true power." His ocean-blue eyes brightened. "Be honored. You're the third person to experience it." Deboras didn't answer. Instead, the ancient god disappeared.
A powerful gust of wind swept across the battlefield, pushing the dust away in every direction. The earth became visible again, revealing the devastation left by their previous exchanges and then Sinai appeared directly in front of John. His fist was already moving.
The punch carried enough force to obliterate whatever stood in its path. The air compressed around his knuckles, and the earth beneath them began to fracture before the attack even landed. John didn't retreat. He simply walked forward. Sinai's fist came closer. A meter. Half a meter. Several inches. Then it passed through John's head. Or rather, through the place where John's head had been.
Sinai's expressionless face remained unchanged, but the scales covering his body registered something impossible. John was no longer there. The figure standing before him was nothing more than an echo of his displacement, an afterimage left behind by a movement that reality itself seemed to have accepted.
It was as though John had never occupied that position in the first place. Sinai's punch continued forward and the consequences were immediate. BOOOOOOOOOOM! The force behind the attack tore through the landscape.
Half of the continent beneath them was devastated in a single instant. Mountains disappeared, plains were flattened, and the earth split apart as the destructive force continued beyond the horizon.
The land directly in front of Sinai was obliterated. The shock wave traveled across the sea, swallowing everything in its path before finally dissipating far beyond the continent. For the first time since transforming into Deboras, Sinai looked genuinely surprised. He slowly turned his head.
John stood behind him. No dust. No displacement. No visible indication that he had moved at all. Sinai's scales shifted, attempting to register John's position. Then a voice came from directly in front of him. "I am right here."
Sinai turned. Too late. John's fist drove into his stomach.The impact folded the ancient god forward. His body bent around the blow, and blood erupted from his mouth as the force traveled through his torso.
Sinai's feet lifted from the ground. He nearly dropped to his knees, struggling to maintain his balance as the pain spread through his body. John withdrew his fist. "What's wrong?" he asked casually. "You were moving rather quickly a moment ago." Sinai raised his head.
The scales across his body shifted again, attempting to understand the phenomenon that had allowed John to bypass his perception but John gave him no opportunity to recover. He crossed his index and middle fingers. "Shatter." The words were quiet. The effect was not. Massive cuts appeared throughout the battlefield.
They formed across the earth, through the remaining mountains, and within the air itself. The landscape seemed to separate along invisible lines, as though an enormous blade had sliced through the very structure of the world.
Sinai's body was caught among the intersecting cuts. For an instant, everything became still. Then Deboras roared. The sound was unlike anything a living creature should have been capable of producing.
It spread outward in enormous waves, each one carrying an authority that erased everything it touched. The cuts disappeared beneath the force of the roar, and the surrounding landscape was consumed by successive waves of destruction. The earth vanished.
The remaining mountain peaks crumbled. The atmosphere itself seemed to recoil. Yet John had already moved. He appeared directly beneath Deboras's chin. His right leg rose. And he kicked. CRACK! The blow struck beneath the ancient god's jaw, sending him flying into the sky.
Deboras burst through the clouds. His enormous body crossed the upper atmosphere before he finally regained control, stopping in midair with a violent distortion of the space around him. For a moment, he remained motionless.
Then the scales across his body began shifting. He searched the surrounding area. Above him. Below him. Across the horizon. Nothing. John's presence had vanished. Not concealed or suppressed. Gone from his perception entirely.
Deboras's scales continued searching, each one functioning as an independent sensory organ. He could detect energy fluctuations across an immense distance, perceive movement through the slightest disturbance in the atmosphere, and recognize the presence of beings that ordinary senses could never discover.
But John was nowhere. Then a voice echoed from every direction. "Let me introduce you to something." The sound came from the sky. From the earth. From the space surrounding Deboras. A void seemed to open within the atmosphere.
"The circuit called..." The surrounding darkness deepened. "Shadow Sovereignty." Sinai went still. For the first time, the ancient god experienced something that resembled genuine unease. He couldn't determine where the voice originated. He couldn't locate its source.
And more troublingly, he couldn't tell whether John was standing somewhere nearby or whether the entire space around him had become an extension of John's existence. Sinai slowly turned his head. "I feel like I'm in his palm".
The thought emerged with unsettling clarity. He had fought countless beings throughout the ages. He had encountered strange circuits, ancient authorities, and powers that defied the logic of the lower realms but this was different.
He wasn't simply fighting someone who could move faster than he could perceive. He was fighting someone who seemed capable of controlling the very conditions under which perception occurred. Then Sinai spotted him. Far below, John stood on the ground. His sword hung loosely at his side. He looked almost bored. Sinai's body stiffened.
If he couldn't locate John properly, then he would simply eliminate the entire battlefield and if the battlefield included everything around him, so be it. He raised both hands toward the sky. "Since you can hide yourself, I'll just destroy the planet." Black energy began gathering above his palm. "Sphere of Destruction." The energy condensed into a dark sphere.
It grew larger with every passing second, expanding until it resembled a small star suspended above the ancient god's hand. Its surface distorted the surrounding space, while the force contained within it caused the clouds to spiral toward its center.
The sphere continued growing. Sinai looked down at John. Then he threw it.
The enormous sphere descended toward the ground, accelerating as it approached the surface. Its shadow swallowed the surrounding landscape, and the air screamed beneath the pressure of its arrival. John stood perfectly still. He watched the attack approach. Then his gaze shifted toward the distant horizon. If I don't get rid of him, he'll keep messing around and destroy the planet.
His attention briefly moved toward the surrounding regions and those brats are still here. He had no intention of allowing Sinai to turn the entire planet into collateral damage. John raised his right hand. His ocean-blue eyes gleamed through his white mask. "Abyssal Shadow." The earth beneath him changed.
A black sea spread outward from John's feet. It moved across the ground without disturbing the earth, its surface smooth and silent, stretching in every direction as though an ocean had appeared where land once existed. The darkness expanded.
Then it rose. Thousands of shadows erupted from the black sea, reaching toward the descending sphere. The Sphere of Destruction collided with them. For a moment, its immense energy resisted. Then the shadows swallowed it.
The entire sphere disappeared beneath the darkness, leaving not even a trace of its former presence. Sinai stared down. Before he could react, he formed another sphere. Then another and another.
Within seconds, multiple spheres of destruction surrounded him, each one carrying enough power to devastate enormous regions of the planet. He threw them all toward John.
The spheres descended from different directions, filling the sky with darkness. John remained still. He didn't raise his sword. He didn't move from his position. He simply watched. The first sphere reached the black sea. It vanished. The second followed. Then the third.
One after another, every sphere disappeared into the shadows until the sky was empty again. Sinai's scales shifted violently. He tried to locate John but the moment he focused his perception, something changed. The air became still. His body stopped moving. Sinai froze in place.
A force had seized him, holding him suspended in the sky. It wasn't merely restricting his muscles. The power seemed to be acting upon the relationship between his body and the surrounding space, preventing him from moving regardless of the strength he applied.
John appeared behind him. His sword was no longer raised. He stood quietly in the air, looking at the ancient god. Sinai's body remained motionless.
Then his aura exploded. The scales across his body vibrated as he forced power through every part of his existence. The pressure surrounding him intensified, and the space around his limbs began to distort. The invisible restraint cracked.
Sinai broke free. He moved but John had already raised his right hand. A thin black line appeared in the air. It ran vertically through Sinai's body. For one brief instant, nothing happened. Then the line widened. Sinai had been cut in half. Not merely his physical form.
The black line had divided something far deeper than flesh and scales. His power split apart along with his body, the authority sustaining his transformation severed by the same invisible boundary.
Sinai's roar never came. His body began to disintegrate. The black scales scattered into particles, followed by the remaining fragments of his existence. His power attempted to gather itself, but the separation continued through every part of him.
There was nothing left to hold him together and the line did not stop there. It continued downward through the atmosphere, through the clouds, through the earth, across the continent. Then farther still. The black line extended around the planet until the entire world seemed to shudder beneath its passage. Kael'Ar had been split in half.
A colossal division stretched across the planet, cutting through the land and reaching into the depths beneath its surface. The resulting disturbance sent shock waves through the surrounding regions, while the sky trembled above the ruined battlefield.
John remained suspended in the air.
His right hand slowly lowered. The black line faded. The planet's two halves remained separated by an immense divide, a wound left behind by a single movement. John looked toward the place where Sinai had disappeared.
Then he spoke. "You should be proud, Sinai." His voice was calm, almost respectful. "Even when something was holding you from the Shadow Realm, preventing you from moving, you still found a way to break through."
He paused. "That's not something many people could accomplish." John turned his head. His gaze traveled across the distant horizon, beyond the destroyed continent and toward another location entirely.
The place where his lover Tessandra Liones was. For a moment, the usual amusement disappeared from his expression. He had finished his fight. Now he wanted to make sure she was safe.
Far away, on the mountain peak, Arata slowly rose to his feet. He had felt the conclusion of the battle.
The moment Sinai's existence was severed, the atmosphere around the mountain had shifted. Even from this distance, the consequences of John's final attack were unmistakable. Arata looked toward the divided horizon. Then he laughed. "See what I mean, Kitakim?"
Kitakim stood beside him, his expression twisted with mild irritation. He had watched the battle unfold. He had felt the power released by Sinai and he had witnessed the final result. Yet rather than acknowledge John's victory, he clicked his tongue. "They were all useless."
His gaze shifted toward the distant battlefield. "That's why they died. They weren't worthy of standing against the great gods of the circuit." He turned toward Arata. "We've done enough waiting." Kitakim's expression hardened. "Now it's our time."
Arata slowly shook his head. For a brief moment, he appeared almost disappointed. "So you still need a lesson?" He took a step forward. The wind around the mountain stopped.
Arata's eyes settled upon Kitakim, and the atmosphere seemed to become heavier beneath his gaze. "Fine." His voice remained quiet. "You shall see for yourself that your provocations and your purpose for this war are meaningless in front of me."
On a distant rooftop, War Lord Zenith stood beside Queen Nullis.
Both had been watching the events unfold. Neither spoke immediately. Their eyes remained fixed upon the mountain where Arata and Kitakim stood facing each other. Below them, on the ground, Jaotsu and Reinhart watched the same scene.
The four of them could feel the change in the atmosphere. The battle between John and Sinai had ended but the war itself had not and now, at last, the two beings who had been observing everything from a distance were preparing to step forward.
Arata Kurogane versus Kitakim.
The next confrontation would not be a battle between subordinates. It would be a clash between the beings standing behind the war itself.