Kondo began falling down the wall, but before he could crash, he plunged his sword into the surface and managed to stop himself. He tried to steady his footing, but before he could even stand properly, the White-Eyed Kondo appeared beside him and placed his foot on Kondo's back, gripping his sword with both hands as he attempted to drive it straight through Kondo's back.
Kondo quickly pulled his own sword free and swung at him, but the White-Eyed Kondo effortlessly dodged and kicked him away.
Kondo was sent plummeting downward once again. Acting on instinct, he stabbed his sword into the structure beneath him, halting his fall. Hanging from the sword, he looked up.
The White-Eyed Kondo slowly walked toward him, taking one deliberate step after another until he stood only a short distance away.
"So?" he asked. "Have you finally given up?"
Raising his voice, he continued,
"If you can't even survive here, what exactly are you planning to do once you return?"
Pointing at himself, he said,
"If you can't even control your own power, what can you possibly accomplish?"
"...Enough," Kondo muttered quietly.
The White-Eyed Kondo looked at him carefully. Only then did he notice that Kondo's eyes had changed. The fear and confusion that had once filled them were gone. They were calm... tranquil, as though Kondo had finally found the answer he had been searching for.
Mockingly, he asked,
"What happened? Did my words finally get through to you?"
Kondo slowly rose to his feet.
"No," he said. "Your words aren't bitter. They're true. I believe what you said."
He paused.
"But you are not that victorious king... and I am not that defeated king."
A smile appeared on the White-Eyed Kondo's face.
Without another word, he lunged forward and attacked.
This time, however, Kondo calmly blocked the strike.
"The one thing both kings had in common," Kondo said as he pushed him back with the force of his blade, "was power. Both possessed territories. Both had subjects."
"But what truly separated them... was the power they wielded."
He looked directly into the White-Eyed Kondo's eyes.
"And you are that power."
Kondo spread his arms apart as if surrendering.
"And I..."
"...am the King."
The White-Eyed Kondo rushed forward and thrust his sword straight through Kondo's heart.
An unbearable pain coursed through Kondo's body.
Kondo slowly reached out and touched the black blade piercing him.
"So... this is your power."
The White-Eyed Kondo released his grip on the sword.
"If we meet again in this place," he said, "I won't hold back next time."
Kondo smiled.
The White-Eyed Kondo glanced at Kondo's white sword.
"Let's see... how you pass judgment."
Darkness suddenly swallowed Kondo's vision.
The black smoke flowing from the sword seeped into his body.
The next moment, Kondo opened his eyes once more.
He had returned to the endless void.
He was once again floating in space, surrounded by nothing but darkness.
Yet something felt different.
Suddenly, Kondo sensed an overwhelming presence.
His eyes widened.
He looked downward, toward the source of that terrifying energy.
At first, he only saw a faint glimmer of light.
Straightening himself, Kondo focused on it.
And then, he froze.
Beneath him was a black hole.
It was unimaginably enormous. Its boundaries stretched beyond sight, as though infinity itself had taken shape.
Its accretion disk was so vast that it looked like an entire universe revolving around it.
The brilliant light radiating from its event horizon only added to its breathtaking beauty.
Kondo stared at it in awe.
Then he realized something.
He was being pulled toward it.
The event horizon was dragging him toward the singularity.
"W-What kind of test is this?!"
Panic overtook him.
Kondo desperately flailed his arms and legs, trying to escape, but it was useless.
The black hole's gravity continued pulling him closer.
Before he could understand what was happening, he had already drifted dangerously close.
The accretion disk, though unimaginably distant, now appeared frighteningly near.
Kondo looked around frantically, searching for anything—anything at all—that could save him.
But there was nothing.
Then, in the distance near the horizon, he noticed something.
A shadow.
"What is that...?" Kondo wondered.
He stared at it.
Suddenly, the shadow noticed him.
In the next instant, it rushed toward him at a speed surpassing light itself.
Kondo could only watch in shock.
From this distance, it merely looked like the silhouette of a walking person.
But suddenly—
It vanished.
Kondo couldn't understand where it had gone.
Only then did he realize that he had already crossed into the singularity.
Looking behind him, he saw the event horizon twisting and folding in impossible ways.
Gradually, even its light disappeared.
Kondo continued falling deeper and deeper into darkness.
There was no end.
Only an endless abyss.
Although darkness surrounded him, Kondo could still see his own body.
Suddenly, he felt something strange.
Looking down at his hand, he froze.
His hand was turning into countless grains of sand.
At first, he felt nothing.
Then—
Pain.
An unimaginable pain assaulted him.
Kondo wanted to scream.
He wanted to cry out.
But no sound escaped his throat.
It was as if someone was strangling him.
He felt trapped.
Helpless.
Terrified.
His entire left arm eventually disintegrated into particles and vanished.
The pain only intensified.
There was no one to hear his cries.
No one to save him.
Gradually, even his shoulder began crumbling away.
Then—
Warmth.
Kondo looked downward.
A brilliant light was rising from below.
The moment it touched him, it engulfed his entire body before passing straight through him.
Kondo felt as though he were burning alive.
His clothes were instantly reduced to ash.
His flesh was burning.
That light was erasing his very existence.
Kondo could feel the cells within his body dying.
He could feel himself disappearing.
'I can't die.'
'I can't die!'
'I CAN'T DIE!'
Kondo repeated those words over and over.
His body was riddled with holes as the light passed straight through him.
Countless cells perished.
Yet Kondo's overwhelming will to live breathed life into what remained.
The surviving cells multiplied.
Again.
And again.
And again.
His body began regenerating.
Outside the black hole, colossal streams of energy erupted from both poles, annihilating everything in their path.
Kondo endured those destructive beams.
Then black smoke appeared.
It wrapped itself around both of his arms.
The smoke began devouring the energy itself.
Gradually, the energy weakened.
Moments later, the entire beam ceased.
A smirk formed on Kondo's face.
He had done it.
He had survived.
The black smoke vanished.
His body had fully regenerated.
But he was exhausted.
So exhausted that even keeping his eyes open had become difficult.
Once more, he found himself falling endlessly through darkness.
Slowly, he closed his eyes.
Then—
Light.
Kondo sensed light.
Opening his eyes, he realized he was moving toward it.
He entered the light.
It was so bright that he could see nothing.
The radiance blinded him.
Suddenly, Kondo felt someone holding his hand.
He tried opening his eyes wider.
But all he could see were pure white wings, blurred by the overwhelming light.
Unable to see anything else, Kondo closed his eyes.
At that exact moment—
Kondo disappeared.
His existence vanished from that place completely.