The wasteland had no name, but it was a dead stretch of earth beyond the city's reach. There were no buildings, no civilians, and no witnesses.
Blue Volt had chosen it on purpose.
Asol rolled across the dirt, coughing as grit filled his mouth and scraped his lungs raw. He pushed himself up just as the ground exploded where his head had been a fraction of a second earlier.
Lightning split the sky—not downward, but sideways.
Blue Volt hit him.
The impact felt like being struck by a moving horizon.
Asol's body left the ground before his mind could catch up. The world spun, flipped, then vanished as he smashed through a concrete pylon of a ruin. The structure disintegrated on contact with the rebar screaming as it tore free, causing dust erupting in a towering plume that swallowed the battlefield.
Blue Volt was already gone.
Asol hit the ground hard, skidding across the earth until friction burned heat into his skin. His Adamantium arm dug into the earth, finally arresting his momentum in a violent spray of shattered rock.
His ears rang with pain. It was not delayed. It was not creeping. It was immediate and brutal.
He sucked in air through clenched teeth and forced himself upright as his Aura coursed unsteadily along his limbs. His vision stuttered as the world lagging half a beat behind itself.
Too fast. Way too fast.
"Come on," Blue Volt's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once. "You wanted this, right?"
A thunderclap detonated behind Asol.
He twisted on instinct.
Blue lightning tore past his face, close enough that the static made his teeth ache. The air itself screamed as Blue Volt ran through it, carving a trench into the ground just by passing.
Asol swung.
His fist cut through empty space.
Blue Volt reappeared behind him and drove a knee into Asol's spine. The blow detonated Aura outward in a concussive ring, flattening the ground for meters in every direction as Asol slammed face-first into the dirt, vision exploding into white noise.
Blue Volt didn't let him breathe.
He kicked and he punched with each one landing before the last had finished echoing.
Asol felt like he was being dismantled by a storm that knew anatomy. His Adamantium arm came up just in time to block a strike that would have taken his head off. The impact rang like a bell, the sigils along the metal flaring violently as heat and electricity poured into them.
The arm screamed.
Not metaphorically.
The feedback tore through his nervous system as phantom pain ignited where flesh no longer existed. Asol roared and shoved forward with his Aura surging in a desperate counter.
But Blue Volt vanished, and Asol staggered.
Focus. You can't chase him. You can't react. You have to predict.
The ground to his left cracked.
Asol jumped.
A bolt of blue lightning tore through where he'd been standing, vaporizing the earth and leaving behind a smoking crater. Blue Volt emerged from it, skidding to a stop on one heel like gravity was optional.
"You're learning," he said, genuinely amused. "That was almost impressive."
Asol wiped blood from his mouth and spat into the dirt.
"Talk less," he growled. "Run more."
Blue Volt laughed and then the world fractured. He accelerated. Not forward, but everywhere.
The battlefield detonated into motion as Blue Volt split into afterimages, each one a lie wrapped around a truth as lightning crisscrossed the wasteland in a blinding lattice. Shockwaves overlapped, colliding into each other, tearing the ground apart in overlapping rings of destruction.
Asol planted his feet and Aura poured into his core, stabilizing his body as the air itself began to shear. Stones lifted off the ground, vibrating as pressure waves tore through them.
Blue Volt hit him again.
And again.
And again.
Asol blocked one strike. Took the next to the ribs. Redirected a third with his metal forearm. Each impact pushed him further back, carving trenches in the earth beneath his boots.
He couldn't see Blue Volt anymore.
He could only feel him and his pressure, static, and intent.
Blue Volt's voice snapped right next to his ear.
"You're still thinking like a brawler."
A fist slammed into Asol's jaw, snapping his head sideways.
"You can't hit lightning!"
Blue Volt reappeared a dozen meters away, crouching low as electricity crawled along his skin like living veins.
"You can only survive it!"
He launched.
Asol didn't try to block.
He slammed his Adamantium arm into the ground and released everything.
Aura detonated outward—not as a strike, but as density. The air thickened and Space resisted.
Blue Volt hit the field at full speed and staggered just for an instant. But an instant was enough.
Asol surged forward, muscles screaming, and fist already drawn back. He poured compressed Aura into the Adamantium, the sigils along it burning white-hot as stress fractures spiderwebbed further up the limb.
"Got you—!"
Blue Volt twisted mid-motion, barely avoiding a direct hit, yet Asol's punch still connected just barely grazing him but the shockwave that came after was destructive. Asol's body was screaming in pain, but he persisted.
The wasteland had begun collapsing.
A shockfront tore outward in a perfect ring, flattening everything in its path. Earth liquefied. Stone shattered. A crater bloomed beneath them, wide and deep enough to swallow buildings.
Blue Volt was launched through the air, skipping across the ground like a thrown blade before crashing through the remains of a collapsed tower.
Silence followed.
Asol dropped to one knee, breathing hard, smoke curling off his arm. The Adamantium Arm glowed faintly with heat bleeding into the air as the sigils flickered erratically.
His arm felt… wrong. It was heavy. Sluggish even. Though he had the arm for a couple months, he still was getting used to it. He'd pushed it too far.
A laugh echoed from the ruins. Blue Volt rose from the rubble, rolling his shoulders as electricity flared back to life around him. Blood trickled from a cut at his temple, evaporating before it could fall.
"…Okay," he admitted. "That actually hurt."
His grin returned—wilder now.
"But you see the problem, right?"
He vanished.
Asol barely had time to raise his guard before Blue Volt reappeared above him, both fists crackling with condensed lightning.
"You can't keep that up," Blue Volt said, already mid-strike. "And I can do this all night."
The blow landed.
The world went white.
Asol was driven into the crater floor with enough force to fracture bedrock. His Aura shattered outward, the shockwave ripping through the earth like a buried bomb. He lay there, chest heaving, vision swimming. Blue Volt hovered above the crater's edge, lightning illuminating his silhouette against the dead sky.
"So tell me," he called down, voice sharp and curious, "how long do you think you can keep standing?"
Asol dragged himself to his feet, blood dripping from his brow, Adamantium arm trembling as the cracks along it glowed faintly.
He looked up and smiled.
"Long enough," he said hoarsely, "to make you stop running."
The lightning flared brighter and Blue Volt's grin widened.
"Fine," he said. "Then let's see what breaks first."
Blue Volt crossed the distance in less time than thought could form causing his lightning to fold the space around him as he accelerated past sound, past pressure, past anything resembling restraint.
Yet, Asol didn't raise his guard. He turned, and Blue Volt's fist missed his skull by a hair.
The impact still detonated the air beside Asol's head, rupturing the ground and throwing a shockwave that split the crater wall in half. Stone vaporized and debris screamed skyward like shrapnel from a buried bomb.
Blue Volt slid to a stop mid-run, boots carving molten lines through the dirt as he twisted his torso.
"…You anticipated that," he said, eyes narrowing.
Asol staggered but stayed upright, blood running down the side of his face.
"No," he replied, breath ragged. "I accepted it."
He slammed his Adamantium arm into the ground again—but this time, he didn't release power outward.
He pulled and the ground beneath them collapsed inward.
A sinkhole formed instantly, not from erosion but from forced density, the earth compacting and tearing itself apart under unnatural pressure. Blue Volt was yanked downward as gravity spiked violently, lightning scattering erratically as his footing vanished.
"—Tch!"
Blue Volt shot upward on reflex, barely escaping the collapsing pit as the ground swallowed itself, forming a churning abyss of fractured stone.
Asol didn't chase.
He knew better now.
Blue Volt reappeared behind him—faster, sharper, angry.
Asol pivoted and took the hit head-on.
The punch caved into his guard, driving him backward through layers of compacted earth and stone. He skidded, rolled, and slammed into a jagged rock face hard enough to crater it.
Pain flared white-hot.
His Aura flickered.
For a heartbeat, everything went quiet.
Then Blue Volt was there again—knee raised, lightning screaming.
Asol moved before thinking.
He stepped into the strike.
Blue Volt's knee slammed into Asol's ribs—but instead of being launched away, Asol wrapped his metal arm around Blue Volt's leg and locked it.
The world stalled.
Blue Volt's eyes widened.
"—You're insane!"
Asol roared as he poured Aura directly into his grip—not explosive, not wide, but absolute. The Adamantium shrieked as stress fractures raced up the limb, the sigils flaring blinding white.
He twisted and the air ruptured.
Blue Volt was ripped sideways and slammed into the ground with catastrophic force, the impact creating a localized earthquake that shattered the crater's edge and sent shockwaves rolling across the wasteland in expanding rings.
Asol staggered, coughing blood.
His arm burned. The Adamantium glowed red-hot in places, the cracks along it smoking as if the limb itself were screaming in protest.
Blue Volt lay in the shattered earth for half a second, then lightning exploded outward. The ground disintegrated as Blue Volt launched himself free, electricity spiraling violently around his body. His breathing was heavier now, grin strained but still sharp.
"…You're adapting," he admitted. "That's dangerous."
Asol wiped blood from his mouth with shaking fingers.
"So are you," he shot back. "You're slowing down."
Blue Volt laughed—but there was a hitch in it.
"You think this is slow?"
He vanished.
The wasteland became a storm.
Blue Volt stopped fighting Asol.
He fought the environment.
Lightning carved trenches miles long. Shockwaves flattened distant ridges. The ground ruptured again and again as Blue Volt ran circles around the battlefield at impossible speeds, turning the entire wasteland into a weapon.
Asol stood at the center, boots sinking into fractured earth, and Aura flaring unevenly as he tried to track the impossible.
There were too many vectors, too many angles, and he was too fast.
A strike then hit his back. Then his side. Then his legs. Each impact landed from a different direction, each one precise, brutal, stripping away endurance piece by piece. His Aura sputtered under the assault, struggling to keep up.
Blue Volt's voice echoed through the chaos.
"You're still thinking you can win."
Another hit, this one to the jaw, causing Asol hit the ground hard.
"You don't win against speed," Blue Volt continued, appearing above him, lightning coiling. "You endure it. Or you break!"
He raised his arm.
Lightning condensed—not scattered, not wild, but focused. Controlled. Lethal.
Asol pushed himself up, arm trembling violently.
Behind him, space bent. Just for an instant. And Blue Volt felt it.
He turned but it was too late. The lightning bolt fired. And vanished. The beam cut straight through a seam in reality, disappearing into nothingness as space folded sharply and snapped shut.
Blue Volt's eyes widened.
"…What."
Asol staggered to his feet, breathing hard.
Behind him, Kurogane stood at the edge of the battlefield, one hand raised, crimson eyes blazing. Sweat streamed down her temple, her Aura flickering violently as the air around her warped and screamed.
'I told you,' her voice echoed faintly in Asol's mind, strained but steady.
'Only when necessary.'
Blue Volt stared at her—really stared.
"…You," he said slowly.
Lightning flared violently around him, anger finally bleeding through his bravado. Blue Volt's Aura surged, causing the surrounding space to tremble under the pressure of his acceleration.
"Get out of my way," he snapped at Kurogane.
She didn't move. Her hand shook—but remained raised.
'I will not erase you. But I will deny you.'
The ground screamed as Blue Volt accelerated again—faster than before, lightning collapsing inward as he pushed past his previous limits.
Asol felt it immediately. This wasn't speed. This was desperation.
"Kurogane!" Asol shouted. "Don't hold him—redirect him!"
She understood instantly and the space folded. Blue Volt hit it at full speed. The result was catastrophic. The battlefield imploded as Blue Volt was forcibly angled, his momentum redirected sideways through a warped corridor of space that slammed him into the far ridge with enough force to collapse it entirely.
The explosion lit the horizon. Silence followed. Asol dropped to one knee, gasping. Kurogane staggered, barely catching herself, blood trickling from her nose as the distortion around her finally collapsed.
'…That,' she whispered, 'was too much.'
Asol forced himself upright and looked toward the smoking crater where Blue Volt had vanished.
"I know," he said hoarsely. "That's why we end this now."
Lightning flickered in the smoke. A figure rose. Blue Volt emerged slowly, electricity crawling weakly along his skin, coat torn, breathing heavy—but his eyes were no longer amused. They were sharp. Focused.
"…You're dangerous," he said quietly. "Not because you're strong."
He took a step forward.
"But because you don't play by the rules."
Asol lifted his ruined arm, cracks glowing faintly.
"Neither do you," he replied.
The lightning around him still crackled, still screaming against the dead sky. But it was uneven now. Fractured even. His breathing was audible, sharp and measured, like someone forcibly reasserting control over a body that wanted to tear itself apart.
Asol noticed. That single fraction of hesitation was everything. He pushed himself upright, ignoring the screaming protest of muscle and bone. His Adamantium arm hung lower now, the glow along its sigils dim and unstable, but still responsive. Still his.
"You feel it too," Asol said, voice hoarse but steady. "Don't you?"
Blue Volt's eyes narrowed.
"Feel what?"
"The lag," Asol replied. "That half-second where you think instead of move."
Blue Volt scoffed, but the sound lacked conviction.
"You're imagining things."
But he moved again and this time, Asol saw it. Not the motion, but the choice before it. Blue Volt accelerated, but instead of becoming a blur, he split with afterimages lagging a hair too long behind him, lightning echoing instead of leading. He struck from Asol's left—
Asol was already turning.
The punch still landed, slamming into Asol's shoulder hard enough to crack stone behind him, but it wasn't clean. It wasn't perfect. Asol slid back, boots carving trenches through the dirt, but he didn't fall.
He laughed, breathless and raw.
"There," he rasped. "That one was late."
Blue Volt skidded to a stop several meters away, electricity snapping violently as he dug in.
"Shut up," he snapped.
Asol lifted his head.
"You're fast," he continued. "Faster than anything I've ever fought. But you're not infinite."
Blue Volt clenched his fists.
"You think I don't know that?"
Lightning surged again—but this time it didn't explode outward. It compressed, drawn tight around Blue Volt's body like a storm strangling itself.
Asol's instincts screamed. This wasn't another barrage. This was focus. Blue Volt vanished again but not into chaos. He moved in a straight line. A single vector. And Asol raised his arm just in time.
The collision was destructive. Blue Volt's shoulder slammed into Asol's guard, lightning detonating point-blank as the Adamantium shrieked in protest. The shockwave tore the ground open beneath them, creating a jagged fissure that raced outward for miles. The sky above rippled as displaced air collapsed inward. They were locked in an Aura Clash.
Asol was driven backward—but he held.
His feet gouged twin furrows through stone as his Aura screamed as he forced it inward instead of letting it explode.
Blue Volt froze mid-impact. That wasn't supposed to happen.
"…Why aren't you breaking?" Blue Volt growled.
Asol gritted his teeth, blood running freely now. He twisted. Not fast. Not clean. But heavy.
[SHATTERED LEGACY!]
His metal fist slammed into Blue Volt's ribs at close range. The sound was wrong. It was not a crack, nor a boom. It was a dull, concussive thud, like a bell rung underwater. Blue Volt was thrown sideways, skipping across the ground and tearing through a ridge like a living meteor. He crashed, rolled, and finally came to a stop in a cloud of dust and ozone.
The wasteland went still. Asol dropped to one knee, gasping, arm hanging uselessly for a moment as the sigils dimmed to embers. Kurogane staggered behind him, one hand braced against warped air, and her breathing shallow.
'He is… slowing,' she said, eyes narrowed. 'His acceleration is collapsing. He is pushing beyond sustainable thresholds.'
Asol didn't look back.
"I know," he said quietly. "That's why he's dangerous right now."
The dust shifted.
Blue Volt rose again—slower this time. His coat was shredded, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth, lightning flickering unevenly across his shoulders. His grin was gone.
In its place was something colder.
"…You really don't understand," he said, voice low.
He rolled his neck once, sparks snapping.
"I wasn't holding back because of Providence."
Asol forced himself to stand.
"Then why?"
Blue Volt looked at him.
"Because if I go all out," he said, "I stop being me."
The air trembled and lightning condensed again—but now it wasn't elegant. It was jagged, unstable, clawing at the edges of reality itself. The ground beneath Blue Volt began to vitrify, turning to scorched glass under the stress.
"I don't lose control like Kazuma," Blue Volt continued. "I erase myself."
Asol swallowed.
"And you're still going to do it?"
Blue Volt's eyes burned.
"Because you pushed me there."
He stepped forward. This time, Asol didn't brace. He inhaled a deep, painful breath and planted his feet onto the earth beneath him.
"Kurogane," he said quietly. "Don't interfere."
Her head snapped toward him.
'Asol—'
"I need to know something," he continued, eyes locked on Blue Volt. "And I think he does too."
Blue Volt paused.
"What?"
Asol lifted his Adamantium Arm.
"If you weren't Providence's dog," he said evenly, "who would you be fighting for right now?"
The lightning stuttered. Just for a fraction of a second. In that moment, Asol stepped forward. Not to strike. Not to block. But to close the distance. The wasteland held its breath. And Blue Volt, for the first time since the fight began...
Hesitated.