….
Dabi stood dead center in the middle of the destructive arena.
He wore only a loose hospital gown, torn and frayed from the supersonic velocity of his flight across the city.
Yet, as the opposing pressures of absolute zero frost and blazing blue fire rippled across his skin, the tattered fabric clung firmly to his optimized, mutation physique.
The shredded hem whipped wildly, riding the fierce thermal updrafts like a battle-worn cloak.
========
[GENETIC MILESTONE SYSTEM]
[PHASE - 1] - 100%
….
[PHASE - 2]
> [FROSTFIRE DRAGON SLAYER] - 39/100%
….
| LIFE SPAN LEFT: Calculating…
========
Dabi ignored the screen completely.
His white-hot arachnid danger sense and newly expanded perceptions had already mapped a flawless three-dimensional layout of the entire battlefield inside his mind, seamlessly scanning every move.
Fifty meters out, Best Jeanist lay motionless within a shattered crater, his breathing shallow and faint.
Along the western perimeter, Mt. Lady, Tiger, and Gang Orca remained pinned under massive blocks of heavy masonry.
Behind the wall, Izuku, Tenya, and Eijiro hung frozen mid-air, their momentum completely suspended by shock.
Down in the dirt, the members of the League of Villains were already breaking, trembling violently, their knees knocking together out of pure survival instinct.
They had faced his wrath in the forest, and seeing him stand before them as a god of dual elements completely paralyzed them with primal terror.
"Well, well..." All For One's rasped voice greeted him. "I was under the impression that you had perished during your suicidal stunt in the forest. To transcend such absolute damage... you truly are full of surprises, Blue Sun."
"Perished?" Dabi mocked. "You will have to try harder than a giant oversized pet to lay me down."
All Might stood rigidly nearby as his eyes darted from Dabi's dual-element output over to the kids. His knuckles whitened as he kept his guard raised, his voice dropping into a tense rumble–
"Young Dabi... what is the meaning of this? You're still recovering!"
Beside him, Endeavor couldn't summon a single syllable.
His throat was completely dry, his eyes wide and trembling as he stared at the son who has an Ice Quirk, along with his signature Fire Quirk.
It was his dream!
Enji Todoroki's dream to create the perfect creation.
But….
….why does he not feel anything?
In stark contrast, Shoto and Bakugo let out a visible breath of relief as the suffocating aura of All For One completely lost its grip on them.
Finally, Dabi's eyes drifted down to Rumi.
The Rabbit Hero was on her knees, her knuckles bloodied and her posture broken.
The exact microsecond she registered the dense, familiar heat of his signature blue fire, a weak, ragged smirk pulled at the corner of her lips.
"Those bastards..." she cursed as she thought of Stain and Twice back at the hospital. "Can't do... a single damn job correctly..."
Dabi's face remained impassive, his eyes narrowing faintly as his gaze locked onto her injuries. "Save your breath, bunny. You talk too much when you're bleeding."
He took one calm, heavy step toward All For One.
In a fraction of a second, the entire surroundings of battle changed.
Jagged, glistening glaciers of pure ice erupted from his heel, spreading across the pulverized earth like a rushing tidal wave.
And within seconds the entire battlefield of two miles had turned frozen land.
The frost didn't spread blindly, instead gliding gracefully beneath the scattered civilians and responding officers, lifting them onto smooth glacial tracks that carried them several blocks away before gently depositing them beside the flashing lights of the arriving ambulances.
Another sheet of ice slid under Mt. Lady, Tiger, and Gang Orca, safely extracting them from the collapsed masonry.
A flawless pillar of absolute-zero ice formed around Rumi, shielding her wounds from the ambient heat and sliding her back into the defensive area of the police forces.
Shoto's breath caught as a colossal wall of ice surged from the earth, cleanly separating him and Bakugo from the League of Villains.
Reaching out instinctively, he pressed his fingertips against the frozen barrier and felt the unyielding chill of near-absolute zero radiating through the flawless ice, but he couldn't feel any numbness.
"So I wasn't wrong..." Shoto whispered, his voice trembling with a mixture of awe and validation.
He had begun to suspect Dabi could wield ice after their battle with the giant, but it had been nothing more than a vague intuition, and even then, he had never imagined Dabi's control had already reached such a terrifying level.
Beside him, Bakugo remained completely, oddly silent, his eyes transfixed on the raw scale of the output.
The League of Villains didn't even have time to scream as the ice swept over Muscular, Moonfish, Mustard, and Compress, encasing each of them up to the neck within milliseconds and neutralizing them before a single Quirk could be activated.
It happened with such breathtaking speed and terrifying elegance that the world itself seemed to pause.
High overhead, the news helicopter captured the colossal field of frost while thousands watching the live broadcast collectively forgot to breathe.
Before anyone could fully comprehend what had happened, Dabi took a second step.
This time, fire joined the canvas.
Blazing torrents of brilliant blue flames surged across the frozen landscape, weaving around the towering ice formations without the slightest hint of conflict.
Instead, the two elements moved in perfect harmony as the flames incinerated shattered debris, collapsed factory columns, and every unnecessary obstruction.
The violent thermal contrast instantly flash-evaporated every puddle and trace of moisture, leaving behind a battlefield that was flawlessly clean and completely dry.
Within seconds, the smoke settled.
The entire battlefield had been transformed into an arena of polished ice, its reflective floor enclosed by towering frozen spires that sealed off the combatants from the outside world like the walls.
And what price did this godlike display demand of Dabi?
He merely exhaled.
A single measured breath escaped his lips, half white frost and half blue steam, his perfectly balanced homeostatic loop maintaining complete equilibrium as though the overwhelming display had cost him almost nothing.
Now, at the heart of the colossal arena, only a handful of figures remained.
The lesser members of the League of Villains had been swept aside and cleanly isolated, while Tomura Shigaraki alone had been deliberately left within the perimeter, his feet frozen firmly to the glacial floor.
"DABI!!!"
Shigaraki roared, his voice cracking, manic shriek as his fingers dug into the solid frost, tearing his nails until they bled.
He was entirely trapped, unable to decay the absolute-zero ice faster than it was actively regenerating.
He looked up at the towering spires, his eyes wild with a boiling, rewritten hatred that completely bypassed his grudge against All Might–
"You think you can play god and stand in our way again?! I'll rot you to the bone, tear the flesh from your face, and grind you into nothing, you arrogant piece of trash!"
Dabi didn't even spare Shigaraki a backward glance.
His furious screams fell on deaf ears as the frozen colosseum settled into its final, lethal form, leaving only All For One, All Might, Dabi, Shigaraki, and Endeavor within the towering amphitheater.
The message carved into the ice was unmistakable.
Every unnecessary piece had been swept from the board, leaving Enji Todoroki with a silent ultimatum: stand down and walk away, or die in the crossfire.
Dabi didn't care which.
Only then did he tilt his head slightly.
He neither acknowledged the villains before him nor his father at his side, instead fixing his gaze on the three students still descending toward the safe sector beyond the barrier.
"Kids." Dabi's commanded. "Stay put, and don't try to do anything funny. The adults are going to handle the rest."
High on the safe side, Izuku, Eijiro, and Tenya hit the ground, tears visibly welling in their eyes as the crushing weight of their grief evaporated.
Even Momo stood behind the wall, her hands trembling as she wiped her eyes, her shoulders shaking.
The public didn't realize it, nor could the media ever truly quantify it.
No one….
Not even Dabi himself….
Fully understood that, to the students of Class 1-A, he had become far more than an instructor.
He was the unyielding anchor and the sky that kept the shadows at bay.
Turning his gaze forward once more, Dabi's glowing eyes locked onto the Symbol of Evil.
The real battle was about to begin.
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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