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Black mentis staggered out of the rubble slowly, hunched forward, gripping his stomach with trembling fingers slick with his own blood.
His breathing rattled. His eyes were unfocused. And Megalodon was already stepping forward.
Black Mentis barely steadied himself before Megalodon surged forward and clamped a hand around his throat. The demon king's grip tightened—tendons bulging—before he hurled Mentis upward with enough force to rupture the air.
Mentis rocketed out of the atmosphere in less than a heartbeat—sky turning black, clouds spiraling apart beneath him like shredded paper. Megalodon still gripping his throat, he snarled in his ear—voice vibrating through Mentis' skull:
Megalodon: "How disappointing. Is this really the extent of your power, puppet?"
Mentis responded by snapping both legs upward—his heels slamming into Megalodon's chest. The impact cracked the void around them. Megalodon's grip slipped, and Mentis shot backward, creating distance between them.
Mentis panted, chest heaving, he halted himself in open space.
The two titans blurred into each other.
They collided in orbit—fists clashing, elbows slicing, knees cracking bone. Every blow sent ripples slicing through the vacuum. Space warped around fractures, forming hairline cracks that opened like wounds. Through the splits, entire dimensions flickered—worlds blinking in and out like dying lights.
Megalodon's fists met Mentis' again, and he muttered to himself mid-clash:
Megalodon (thinking): "Tch… I need to pull back my punches. One wrong hit and we'll set off a chain reaction across multiple universes enough to destroy everything."
He didn't hold back enough.
His next punch ignited with crimson cosmic fire, streaking across the void before smashing into Mentis' ribs.
Mentis crossed his forearms—but the force still blasted him away like a ragdoll.
He slammed into a nearby planet.
The entire surface detonated in a single flash.
Continents split open like cracked stone. Massive oceans vaporized into nothing. The crust peeled upward and the planet tore in half—core spilling out as molten rivers into space.
From the exploding core, Mentis burst free—gasping, coughing blood that evaporated the instant it left his mouth. His skin flickered with regeneration glow, but patches of flesh still hung loose.
Mentis: "F–fuck… this planet's done for… it's about to blow any—"
It exploded.
He shielded his face as a wave of molten debris blasted past him like a swarm of miniature suns. His cheek split open from the heat. Mentis wiped blood off with the back of his hand.
His aura snapped alive—blue flaring into purple, lightning firing out in jagged branches.
He extended his hand.
Mentis: "Get over here."
Space bent inward. Megalodon jerked forward, dragged like he'd been hooked by an invisible chain.
Mentis met him halfway.
His fist cracked upward into Megalodon's chin. The demon's head snapped back violently.
Mentis vanished—teleporting in front of him mid-spin—and drove both fists into Megalodon's jaw.
CRAAAACK—
The sound echoed across the void.
Megalodon snarled—a guttural sound that rattled distant stars.
Mentis didn't stop.
He punched him straight through an asteroid field. Thousands of rocks vaporized instantly, leaving a glowing dust trail behind them. They crashed through lunar debris, through orbiting fragments of dead worlds, through ancient ruins floating in the void.
Their fight tore them so far out that Mentis' home solar system shrunk to a pin-sized dot behind them. Time stuttered—frames skipping. The universe shook like it was bracing itself.
Then—
Both unleashed energy beams.
Two colossal blasts met between them.
KAAAAA—THOOOOOOM!
The shockwave went off like a star ripping open—light blasting outward, then dragging itself back. The space around them twisted, bent, then snapped tight. A hole tore open in front of them, pulling everything toward it. Loose debris spun, stretching into streaks as the pull got stronger, the air—or whatever counted as air out here—vibrating hard enough to buzz in their bones.
The black pit swallowed them whole.
They tumbled into a dead universe with no stars, no light, no sound. It was just silent, an infinite empty void.
Megalodon grinned like an animal, blood dripping from his teeth:
Megalodon: "Not bad, human. You've got enough power to entertain me. And look—"
He gestured at the empty space.
"—we knocked ourselves straight into a dead universe. The Null Void."
He cracked his neck, satisfied.
Mentis floated opposite him, aura burning.
Mentis: "Good. Then I'll go all out. Even If this place collapses, at least it won't take my universe with it."
His aura roared—blue Ki twisting with violent purple lightning until it choked the void around them. Space bent, quivered, shattered into ripples around his body.
Megalodon raised his fists.
Megalodon: "Bring it."
He cocked back his arm—his entire body vibrating with the force of a newborn Big Bang.
The void blackened. Another black hole bloomed—bigger, more violent.
Reality refused them and spat both out like poison.
They crashed into a dimension made of sparks and torn energy. Megalodon skidded over the surface, coughing up a spray of black blood into space.
Megalodon: "Impossible… I'm immune to physical attacks. His strength… it's comparable to some gods. His fists are birthing universes." His eyes narrowed. "…Unless—he's…"
(quiet) "Oh. So that's how it is. The string connecting you… I understand why I was assigned this task."
Mentis frowned, annoyed.
Mentis: "Why are you talking out of your ass? Speak louder."
Megalodon vanished.
He didn't just move fast but—beyond fast. Faster than a thought. Faster than the light itself.
He reappeared inches from Mentis.
Knee— smashing into Mentis' ribs so hard the sound cracked the dimension.
Then Megalodon grabbed Mentis by the face.
He spun—once, twice, dozens of times—momentum building like a planet-sized tornado before he hurled Mentis toward a planet tens of thousands of times Earth's size.
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