Night enveloped the deepest part of the Abyss Woods.
The poisonous fog hung low, shimmering faintly under the moonlight.
In the open, barren area—without trees—the mist was thinner, but the air felt far heavier. The ground was cracked, claw marks from mutated monsters scattered here and there.
Two figures stood facing each other.
On one side—Gabriel, katana sheathed at his left hand.
On the other, about twenty meters away, Cid held his black slime sword in his right hand.
"You know… Shadow," Gabriel said calmly, "it's been roughly six years since we last met. It's only natural that Ash would be curious about your abilities, isn't it?"
The night wind blew.
Unhurriedly, Gabriel drew his katana.
Its blade gleamed coldly under the moonlight.
He tossed aside the scabbard and lifted the tip of the sword, pointing it straight at Cid.
"Would you mind if Ash invited you to dance?"
A brief silence.
Cid lowered his head slightly, his black bangs covering part of his face.
The corner of his mouth twitched upward.
"Dance?" he murmured softly.
The slime sword in his hand slowly shifted shape, elongating slightly, its surface rippling like living liquid.
"It's been a long time since I danced with someone who truly wouldn't shatter in a single step."
He raised his sword, pointing it back at Gabriel.
A bluish-purple mana aura began to flow around him—calm, controlled, yet profoundly deep.
"Six years…" he continued softly. "I'm curious too."
He stepped forward.
The ground beneath his feet cracked faintly.
"Is Ash still standing in the same place…"
The wind twisted between them.
"Or has he moved further ahead?"
In an instant, their auras pressed against each other. The poisonous fog around the area was pushed aside by the invisible clash of force.
Cid smiled faintly in the shadowed night.
"Alright. Try to keep up."
The next moment—they vanished.
As if the night had swallowed their presence completely.
DANG!!!
The clash of blades shattered the silence of Abyss Woods. Thin fog was forcefully swept away for hundreds of meters, and the ground beneath their feet cracked, forming a massive crater with a radius of tens of meters.
Bluish-purple and pale white mana sprayed into the air, sparkling like fireworks in the darkness.
Gabriel gave a faint smile.
"Don't blink…" he murmured softly. "Or you'll miss the climax."
Without warning, another figure of Gabriel appeared on Cid Kagenou's right side, his fist thrusting straight forward with a pressure capable of crushing diamonds.
Cid moved like lightning.
He lifted his leg, blocking the strike with the sole of his black shoe.
The shockwave tore through the ground beneath them, spreading rapidly.
At the same time, from behind Cid, white spears forged from dark matter emerged, hurtling through the air with lethal intent.
Cid spun his body.
The tip of his black slime suit trench coat twirled, forming a dense mini-tornado that shredded the area around him.
The white spears shattered into pieces before they could make contact.
The two Gabriels vanished.
Like thin mist swept away by the wind.
A few seconds later, the whirlpool ceased.
The wind stabilized once more.
Cid stood upright.
"Is that your new technique… or an improvisation?"
Gabriel's voice came from not far off—exactly where he had thrown the scabbard earlier.
The fog slowly parted, revealing Gabriel standing there, unharmed—no injuries, no labored breathing.
"An illusion spell?" Cid analyzed. "Or… an afterimage?"
Gabriel gave a faint smile.
"My brother," he said calmly. "It's neither an illusion nor an afterimage."
A brief silence fell.
The mist moved sluggishly between them.
Cid lowered his sword slightly.
The bluish-purple mana surrounding him dimmed, but did not disappear.
"Existence-splitting technique?"
"Wrong," Gabriel replied briefly and nonchalantly.
Cid narrowed his eyes.
"Not an illusion. Not a clone. Nor ordinary displacement."
He lifted his sword slightly.
"You're manipulating sequence… not form."
His gaze was sharp.
"Some kind of cause-and-effect distortion?"
Gabriel kept smiling.
He began to move—calmly.
Neither retreating nor advancing. Just circling slowly.
Their steps were measured.
"The technique is called Yūmei no Enshō," Gabriel explained. "I don't create shadows. I merely shift what you call an event… with an occurrence."
On the other side, Cid Kagenou moved as well. They circled each other at a constant distance—like two predators testing each other without needing to run.
Cid gave a faint smile.
"Shifting events, huh…"
His voice was low, almost swallowed by the thickening pressure of mana around him.
"So you're not relocating."
His eyes narrowed.
"You're moving the outcome."
The violet mana pulses trembled softly around him, thin cracks spreading across the ground with every step.
"Interesting. Very interesting."
Gabriel tilted his head slightly.
"Is there no other word besides 'interesting'?"
Cid paused for a moment. His steps continued, rhythm unchanged.
"Stylish?"
A faint smirk lifted the corner of Gabriel's mouth.
"Not bad. Though… your choice of words still sounds like half-baked improvisation."
Cid chuckled softly.
"Improvisation is the essence of style."
His gaze sharpened.
"And style… is everything."
Their steps stopped—simultaneously.
Silence.
And in the next instant—they vanished.
DANG!!!
The second impact was far louder.
Dust and soil were hurled high into the air as they reappeared, their sword blades clashing in a brutal collision.
In their perception, the dust froze.
Grains of sand hung suspended in the air.
As if time itself was holding its breath.
They moved out from the frozen clouds of debris.
And in the blink of an eye, the chase began.
Gabriel lunged forward.
Stabs appeared from impossible angles. Slashes came from empty space. White spears formed without pattern, striking from the front, sides, below, even from spaces that didn't fully exist.
His attacks defied the logic of the battlefield.
He struck from outcomes that had already occurred.
Yet Cid adapted.
Every trick was analyzed in fractions of a second.
The slime sword in his hand shifted as needed—becoming a thin shield, a flexible blade, a countering spear.
He parried. Deflected. Twisted. And struck back.
Amid the escalating intensity, both of them smiled.
Not out of underestimation.
But out of sheer enjoyment.
In Cid's mind, a quiet laugh echoed.
This was it.
This was his stage.
Strange techniques. Distorted concepts. An opponent who truly understood high-level combat.
Every strike from Gabriel felt like a puzzle, and every solution he uncovered gave him an almost intoxicating thrill.
It had been so long… since he could fight without holding back.
DANG…!!! DANG…!!! DANG…!!!
The bluish-purple mana vibrated subtly.
Not wildly.
But with anticipation.
Brother, indeed…
A faint smile spread across his face in the shadowed night.
DANG…!!!
At last, the two faced each other once more.
Their eyes met—and in that single moment, their swords slipped from their hands, thrown far behind them by the impact of their previous clash.
They smiled, then stepped back eleven meters in a single stride.
As Cid's heels touched the ground, circuits of bluish-purple mana ignited across his entire body. Branching patterns like lightning crawled across the skin beneath his clothes.
He raised his right hand.
The middle, ring, and pinky fingers curled, while the index and thumb extended, forming a gun-like gesture.
On the other side, Cid Kagenou watched Gabriel mirror the same stance.
"Mana Zone: Full Release."
The air shifted.
Pressure dropped drastically.
Pale white mana streamed from Gabriel's body, forcing the surrounding space to bow as if reality itself were kneeling.
"Fifty Unit: Maximum Output."
With the simultaneous release of fifty units of Compression Energy, pale white magical circuits appeared—irregular zig-zag patterns sprawling across a five-hundred-meter radius.
Now the entire battlefield was engulfed in two networks of energy.
Bluish-purple and pale white.
Overlapping one another.
"I am…" Cid said calmly.
"Overwrite…" Gabriel continued, his voice equally flat.
A pause.
A fraction of a second stretched into eternity.
"Atomic."
They spoke in unison.
The world flickered and then vanished in an explosion of mana that surpassed the limits of perception.
The sound of the blast itself seemed distorted.
In an instant, an area nearly five hundred meters across was enveloped in irregularly patterned bluish-purple magical circuits, blinking slowly, as if the world itself had transformed into a gigantic circuit board.
Some others managed to flee, driven by instinctive panic.
And at the center of the devastation, two slender silhouettes remained.
Exchanging blows amid the storm of energy, as if such massive explosions were merely a backdrop to their stage.
Meanwhile, deep within the heart of Abyss Woods—a Mist Dragon awoke from its slumber.
Its large eyes fixed on the pillar of light splitting the sky.
Its expression remained calm.
Yet beneath that calm, an unusual excitement stirred.
"Power… capable of killing me," it murmured softly.
And for the first time in ages, the dragon smiled.
___
Author's Note:
How is it? Do you like it? I've fulfilled my promise to one of the readers in the comments—Gabriel and Cid are dueling.
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