The sword struck Igor's damaged shoulder.
The armor separated.
Beneath it, no human arm remained.
Dense living darkness stretched from the wound, shaped like muscle without possessing flesh. Crimson lines passed through it like veins carrying light instead of blood. Suigōraku entered the shadow and attempted to divide it.
The darkness closed around the blade.
Sereon pulled.
Igor's arm lengthened with the motion.
It did not tear.
The shadow followed Suigōraku, climbed the silver edge, and closed around Sereon's wrist.
Sereon changed the direction of its movement.
The darkness continued.
He removed the meaning of distance from the space between his wrist and Igor's shoulder.
The shadow continued.
He changed his perception of where the arm began.
The shadow continued.
Sereon's third eye widened.
Igor appeared in front of him.
God Killer passed through his abdomen.
The blade entered beneath his ribs and emerged from his back in a burst of blood and pale spiritual material.
Sereon looked down.
Igor: You attempted to decide what my body was.
Sereon's hand tightened around Suigōraku.
Igor: I stopped being that body a long time ago.
Sereon drove the silver blade through Igor's chest.
It passed through armor, shadow, and the crimson lines within him.
Igor did not release God Killer.
Sereon leaned closer.
Sereon: Then what remains beneath the armor?
Igor looked at him through the narrow visor.
Igor: Choice.
The world became black and white.
Sereon's head separated from his body.
Color returned.
Sereon released Suigōraku and struck Igor's wrist with both palms. Influence passed through God Killer and removed the direction of its edge. The blade ceased to possess a side capable of cutting him.
Sereon pulled himself from the weapon.
The wound remained open.
Igor swung.
God Killer passed through him without resistance.
Sereon stepped inside the failed cut and pressed his hand against Igor's visor.
The battlefield disappeared.
Igor stood within a stone hall.
His armor was gone.
God Killer was gone.
The body beneath both had returned.
Human flesh covered his arms. Blood moved through ordinary veins. His lungs drew air that felt cold and real. His hands were younger, smaller, and covered in old calluses earned before immortality had taken meaning from age.
A longsword rested within his right hand.
Someone stood at the opposite end of the hall.
Dark.
Not the Emperor who had brought Igor into the present.
This Dark was wounded, younger, and exhausted. Blood covered his clothing. Kyuketsu hung loosely beside him.
Dark looked at Igor with disappointment.
Dark: You killed him because it was easier.
Igor remained still.
Dark: You could have stopped Kurai without ending his life.
Igor looked down at the longsword.
Dark: You chose certainty.
The hall stretched.
Bodies appeared along both sides.
Soldiers.
Kings.
Monsters.
Children who had hidden behind broken walls while armies fought around them.
Every person Igor had failed to save stood without speaking.
Kurai appeared nearest to Dark.
The wound in his chest remained open.
Kurai: Was she worth more than me?
Igor looked at him.
Kurai: The woman I killed.
The hall became quieter.
Kurai: Was her life worth more because she was weaker?
Igor: No.
Kurai: Then why does her death justify mine?
Igor: It does not.
The false Dark's expression changed.
Dark: Then you admit you were wrong.
Igor: No.
Igor raised the longsword.
Igor: I admit that justification and consequence are not the same thing.
Kurai's face twisted.
Igor: Your death did not restore hers.
He stepped forward.
Igor: It prevented you from creating another.
The hall cracked.
Sereon's voice came from every wall.
Sereon: You cannot know that.
Igor: Correct.
The dead turned toward him.
Igor: I acted without certainty.
The illusion pressed closer.
Every corpse opened its mouth.
Voice after voice entered the hall.
Murderer.
Failure.
Weapon.
Servant.
Coward.
Igor continued walking.
Igor: Certainty is a luxury given to those who act after the danger has passed.
The longsword left his hand.
It struck nothing.
The hall divided from ceiling to foundation.
The illusion collapsed.
Igor returned to the battlefield with Sereon's hand still pressed against his visor.
God Killer was already moving.
Sereon pulled away.
The blade cut through three fingers before he escaped.
Blood followed him.
The severed fingers did not fall. Pale material stretched from the stumps, reached through the air, and pulled them back into place. Bone, skin, and spirit reconnected with a wet series of movements.
Sereon looked at the restored hand.
Igor: You entered my guilt.
Sereon: There was less than expected.
Igor: There was enough.
Sereon lifted his eyes.
Igor: You mistook acceptance for absence.
The incomplete armor spread farther across Sereon's body.
White plates formed over his ribs and shoulder. Several cracked immediately, then rebuilt in different shapes. New eyes opened beneath them, each one watching Igor from a separate angle.
Sereon: You speak as though carrying guilt makes you honourable.
Igor: It does not.
God Killer lowered slightly.
Igor: It makes me responsible for remembering why the choice was made.
Sereon: Kurai was more than the decision you witnessed.
Igor: Then grieve all of him.
Sereon became still.
Igor: Not only the part that loved you.
The next attack arrived without movement.
Direction vanished from God Killer.
Igor's hand remained wrapped around the hilt, but the weapon no longer pointed toward anything. Above and below became meaningless around his body. Sereon stood in front of him and behind him at the same time. Distance folded through itself until every path led away from the target.
Igor moved anyway.
He did not choose forward.
He stepped where Sereon had removed the possibility of arrival.
His body disappeared from every direction available to the battlefield and returned inside Sereon's guard.
God Killer's crossguard struck the white plate over Sereon's ribs.
The plate shattered.
Igor's fist followed through the opening.
It entered Sereon's chest.
Bone broke beneath his gauntlet.
Sereon caught Igor's arm and changed the meaning of the impact. The strike became a pull rather than a blow. Igor's fist dragged Sereon toward him instead of driving him away.
Their foreheads collided.
Blood burst from Sereon's nose.
Igor released God Killer.
The sword remained suspended beside them.
Sereon redirected it toward Dark.
The blade turned.
Dark did not move.
Igor caught the hilt before God Killer completed the change.
His eyes remained on Sereon.
Igor: Do not involve him.
Sereon: He involved himself when he defended you.
Dark spoke from several metres away.
Dark: I did not defend him.
Both looked toward him.
Dark: I respected his decision.
Sereon's face hardened.
Dark: There is a difference.
Sereon: Convenient.
Dark: No.
Dark raised Kyuketsu and rested the flat of the blade against his shoulder.
Dark: Convenient would have been killing you while you were focused on him.
Sereon looked at the distance between them.
Dark had remained completely open.
No trap surrounded him.
No hidden strike waited inside the statement.
Dark: I am still considering it.
Sereon turned back toward Igor.
The unfinished eyes across his body closed.
For one moment, the pale armor stopped changing.
Igor noticed.
Sereon raised Suigōraku.
The battlefield transformed around them.
Countless mirrors appeared throughout the open sky.
They formed no walls and reflected no single angle. Each mirror contained a different Sereon.
A child standing beside Kurai.
A captain within Kōseikan.
A prisoner frozen outside the movement of time.
A man speaking gently to someone who trusted him.
A manipulator watching lives collapse because every conclusion had been placed where he wanted it.
A grieving friend beside a corpse.
A ruler without a throne.
A weapon pretending it had never wanted to be held.
Every reflection moved differently.
Some lifted Suigōraku.
Some lowered it.
Some looked at Igor.
Others looked toward Dark.
One looked only at Kurai.
Igor turned slowly within them.
Sereon's voice came from every reflection.
Sereon: Which one do you intend to fight?
Igor studied the mirrors.
God Killer remained steady.
Igor: The one who chooses to attack.
Every reflection smiled.
Not one smile looked the same.
Sereon: And if none of them chooses?
The mirrors moved.
Hundreds of Suigōraku blades entered the battlefield from every direction.
Igor closed his visor.
God Killer rose.
Igor: Then none of them will be struck.
The blades reached him.
Igor did not move.
Every attack stopped less than an inch from his armor.
The mirrors trembled.
One Sereon had hesitated.
Only one.
Igor turned toward it.
The reflection broke before God Killer reached it.
Sereon emerged from the fragments and drove Suigōraku into Igor's side. The blade passed through the existing wound and opened it farther. Living darkness poured around the silver edge.
Igor caught Sereon's shoulder.
Sereon tried to redirect the grip.
Igor tightened it.
Sereon changed what the pressure meant.
Igor tightened it.
Sereon removed the sensation from Igor's hand.
Igor tightened it.
The armor around his fingers broke into the flesh beneath Sereon's unfinished plate.
Igor pulled him closer.
Their weapons remained buried within each other.
Igor: Your control is not the same as certainty.
Sereon looked into the crimson visor.
Sereon: Your experience is not the same as wisdom.
Igor: Correct.
A fracture spread through the mirror behind Sereon.
Igor: Experience only shows me how many ways wisdom can arrive too late.
Sereon twisted Suigōraku.
The wound in Igor's side opened from hip to ribs.
Igor drove God Killer through Sereon's shoulder.
Both remained where they were.
Neither released the other.
Around them, the mirrors changed.
Kurai appeared in every reflection.
In one, he laughed beside Sereon.
In another, he stood with lightning moving across his hands.
In another, he murdered the woman Dark had failed to save.
In another, Igor's sword entered his chest.
Sereon looked toward the final reflection.
His breathing changed.
Barely.
Igor felt it through the hand gripping his shoulder.
Igor: There.
Sereon's eyes returned to him.
Igor: That is the hand holding your sword.
Sereon tore Suigōraku from Igor's body.
Igor pulled God Killer free.
They separated.
Blood and living shadow spread between them.
The mirrors remained.
Sereon held his blade beside his body, his face calm again, but the calm no longer concealed what stood beneath it. Grief remained there. Anger remained there. Love remained there. So did the knowledge of what Kurai had become and the refusal to let that knowledge simplify what his death meant.
Igor raised God Killer with both hands.
Igor: You may grieve him.
Sereon's eyes narrowed.
Igor: You may hate me.
The greatsword's point settled toward his chest.
Igor: You may decide that my reason was insufficient and try to kill me for it.
Suigōraku rose.
Igor: But if your grief is going to hold the blade, then stop pretending your hand is steady.
The mirrors shattered.
Sereon moved.
Igor met him.
Silver and black crossed through the center of the broken reflections, and the collision swallowed every sound across the battlefield.
Dark watched from beyond them.
He did not mourn Kurai.
He did not forgive what Kurai had done.
But as Sereon's blade struck God Killer with enough grief to shake the surrounding sky, Dark understood him more clearly than he had before.
The next exchange began before the sound of the last collision returned.
God Killer slid down Suigōraku's edge, throwing a continuous stream of sparks between them. Igor changed his grip before the blades separated, his right hand tightening near the guard while his left moved lower along the handle. The greatsword rotated around Suigōraku instead of withdrawing from it, the flat passing over Sereon's knuckles before the edge descended toward the inside of his wrist.
Sereon released one hand.
Suigōraku dropped through his remaining grip, turned vertically, and caught God Killer against the narrow section beneath its guard. He pushed upward and stepped through the space beneath Igor's arms, allowing the descending greatsword to pass over his shoulder.
The silver blade rose behind him.
Its edge travelled backward toward Igor's throat.
Igor leaned forward instead of away.
Suigōraku passed behind his helmet, close enough to cut several strands from the dark length falling behind it. Igor drove his shoulder into Sereon's chest, but Sereon rotated around the contact and allowed the impact to carry him across Igor's side. His sword continued moving with him, completing a circle around both bodies.
Igor bent beneath the returning edge.
The blade crossed above his visor.
God Killer rose from below.
Sereon twisted sideways in the open air, his spine nearly horizontal as the black greatsword passed beneath him. He planted one foot against the flat of God Killer for less than an instant, using the blade as though it were solid ground, then forced himself upward.
Igor turned the greatsword beneath his foot.
Sereon lost the point of balance before he could push away.
God Killer reversed.
The pommel struck him beneath the heel and rotated his entire body through the air. Igor followed the movement, brought the sword around his back, and cut toward the path Sereon's neck would enter.
Sereon folded at the waist.
The edge passed over him.
He continued rotating beneath it, Suigōraku drawing a silver line toward Igor's ribs from an angle that should not have existed within the turn.
Igor pulled God Killer close to his body.
The lower portion of the blade intercepted Suigōraku beside his hip. Metal struck metal. Sereon allowed his wrists to collapse beneath the resistance, changed the sword's angle, and let the edge slide around God Killer's spine.
Suigōraku entered the opening beneath Igor's arm.
Igor drove his elbow downward.
The armor struck the flat of the blade and trapped it against his side.
Sereon pulled.
The sword did not move.
Igor brought God Killer down with both hands.
Sereon released Suigōraku completely.
He moved past Igor's shoulder as the greatsword fell, caught the silver hilt again with his opposite hand, and tore the weapon free from behind Igor's back.
The edge opened a long wound across Igor's side.
Living darkness spilled through the broken armor.
Igor completed the descending strike anyway.
God Killer missed Sereon and continued into the open sky beneath them. The pressure behind it divided the air into a black vertical trench. Sereon moved toward the unguarded side of the swing, but Igor pulled against the weapon's momentum and allowed his own body to rotate around the hilt.
His armored heel struck Sereon's jaw.
Sereon's head snapped aside.
Igor released one hand from God Killer and seized the back of Sereon's cape. He pulled him into the rising return of the greatsword.
Sereon cut the cape from his own shoulders.
The fabric remained in Igor's grip.
Sereon dropped beneath it as God Killer passed through the space where his spine had been. He turned on his descent and drove Suigōraku upward between Igor's hands.
The edge struck the greatsword's handle.
Igor's lower hand opened before his fingers could be severed.
Sereon continued the cut toward the wrist of the remaining hand.
Igor reversed his grip and allowed God Killer to fall behind him. The weapon passed across his back while he rotated beneath Suigōraku. His free hand caught Sereon's sword arm above the elbow.
Sereon bent the arm with the grip instead of fighting it.
Suigōraku turned inward.
The point drove toward Igor's visor from beneath his own forearm.
Igor tilted his head.
The silver point entered the narrow crimson opening and scraped along the side of his face.
Blood ran beneath the helmet.
Igor pulled Sereon closer.
God Killer completed its rotation behind him and entered Sereon's side.
The black edge passed through the unfinished white plating across his ribs, opened flesh beneath it, and emerged from his back.
Sereon's body tightened around the blade.
Igor attempted to draw it across his spine.
Suigōraku struck the greatsword near the wound.
The impact changed its angle by less than an inch.
It was enough.
God Killer tore through muscle instead of bone as Sereon forced himself away. Blood poured from the opening, followed by thin strands of pale material that immediately reached toward each other and attempted to close the damage.
Igor gave them no time.
He advanced through the blood.
God Killer came from Sereon's lower right, rising toward the opposite shoulder.
Suigōraku descended.
The blades crossed.
Igor rotated his wrists and pushed past the block, but Sereon moved with the pressure. He allowed God Killer to force his arms upward while his body slipped beneath both weapons. His shoulder passed against Igor's chest.
Suigōraku changed hands behind his back.
The silver blade cut toward Igor's spine without Sereon looking.
Igor raised one knee and struck the inside of Sereon's sword arm.
The cut moved wide.
God Killer descended between them.
Sereon placed both hands against the flat and forced it aside. The edge passed so close that it opened his clothing from collar to waist without touching the skin beneath.
Igor let the sword continue.
He released the hilt.
God Killer spun past Sereon's shoulder.
Sereon's attention moved with it.
Igor's fist struck his throat.
The cartilage collapsed beneath the gauntlet.
Sereon's breath stopped, but his sword did not.
Suigōraku turned horizontally and crossed toward Igor's waist.
Igor caught the back of the blade between both armored palms.
The silver edge cut through the outer plates and entered the living darkness beneath them.
He held it there.
Sereon pushed.
Igor pulled.
Their bodies moved toward each other.
Sereon drove his forehead into Igor's visor.
The impact cracked the front of the helmet.
Igor answered with the top of his skull.
Blood burst from Sereon's forehead.
God Killer returned from behind him.
The rotating greatsword approached with its edge aimed toward the center of his back. Sereon sensed it without turning. He released Suigōraku with one hand and reached behind himself.
His palm struck the flat of God Killer.
The weapon's rotation changed.
It passed around his side and continued toward Igor.
Igor released Suigōraku.
His hand caught God Killer's handle as the sword crossed between them.
He converted its redirected motion into a horizontal cut.
Sereon bent backward.
God Killer passed above his chest.
Suigōraku remained suspended between them for a fraction of a second.
Sereon caught it by the hilt while still leaning away and thrust upward.
The point entered beneath Igor's jaw.
It passed through the lower edge of the helmet and emerged near the back of his skull.
Igor's body stopped.
Sereon pulled the blade sideways.
Igor's hand closed around his wrist before the cut could widen.
Living darkness poured down Suigōraku's edge and wrapped around Sereon's fingers.
Igor tore his head away from the blade.
The silver edge ripped through the side of the helmet and opened the shadow beneath it, revealing no ordinary face, only dense blackness shaped around a pair of thin crimson lights.
Igor swung God Killer one handed.
Sereon raised Suigōraku too late.
The black edge struck the silver blade near the tip and knocked it aside. God Killer continued through the failed defence and opened Sereon from the left hip to the right side of his chest.
The unfinished plates shattered.
Blood exploded across the space between them.
Sereon was thrown backward, but he caught the greatsword's edge inside the wound before it could leave his body. Both hands closed around the black metal. His blood ran across his palms and down the blade.
Igor pulled.
Sereon moved toward him with the weapon.
He released it at the final instant, passed beneath Igor's arms, and drove Suigōraku through the opening created by the missing section of helmet.
Igor rotated his head.
The blade passed beside the crimson light and emerged through the back of the shadowed skull.
Igor continued turning.
The sword remained inside him.
His rotation dragged Sereon around with it.
Igor brought God Killer down across Sereon's exposed shoulder.
Sereon twisted before the edge landed fully. The greatsword carved through the white growth, entered the collar, and stopped against bone.
Sereon forced Suigōraku deeper through Igor's head.
Igor drove God Killer deeper into Sereon's shoulder.
Neither released the weapon.
They remained joined through both wounds, rotating slowly within the open sky while blood and living darkness spread around them.
Then Sereon changed the direction of his own sword.
Suigōraku moved sideways inside Igor's head.
The crimson light in the damaged side of the helmet disappeared.
Igor changed his grip.
God Killer cut through Sereon's collarbone.
The bone broke beneath the edge.
Sereon released Suigōraku and dropped beneath the greatsword before it could sever his arm. Igor pulled the silver blade from his own head and threw it after him.
Suigōraku rotated point first.
Sereon turned during his descent and caught the hilt behind his back.
Igor was already above him.
God Killer descended vertically.
Sereon raised Suigōraku horizontally.
The collision bent both bodies away from the center. The pressure formed a perfect ring around them, expanding through the battlefield and erasing the remaining mirrors into silver dust.
Igor pushed downward.
Sereon turned Suigōraku by a fraction.
God Killer slipped from the center of the block.
Sereon moved his head aside.
The greatsword passed beside his face.
Its edge cut through his ear and continued along the side of his neck.
He stepped around the descending blade and struck Igor's wrist with the back of Suigōraku.
The joint broke.
God Killer fell from the damaged hand.
Igor caught it with the other before the weapon dropped more than an inch.
Sereon attacked the new hand.
Igor rotated the sword vertically and allowed Suigōraku to strike the guard.
Sereon changed the cut into a thrust.
The point passed through one of the openings near Igor's fingers.
Igor closed his hand around the blade.
Suigōraku cut through the gauntlet and separated three armored fingers.
The severed pieces began falling.
Black strands stretched from the open hand, caught them, and pulled them back into place.
Igor tightened his restored grip around the silver blade.
Sereon attempted to withdraw.
Igor stepped forward through empty air.
His shoulder struck Sereon's chest.
God Killer rose from beneath both weapons and slammed into Sereon's side with the flat.
The blow folded him around the blade and launched him upward.
Igor followed beneath him.
God Killer thrust toward his spine.
Sereon turned in midair and placed Suigōraku against the side of the greatsword. He did not block. He guided.
The black point passed beneath his arm.
Sereon slid along the weapon's length, entered Igor's reach, and cut across the broken opening in his helmet.
The silver edge passed through the crimson line.
Igor's head turned with the strike.
Sereon reversed.
A second cut crossed the first.
The front of the helmet broke apart.
Darkness spilled from the opening and formed the rough suggestion of a face before collapsing back into shadow.
Igor drove the end of God Killer's handle into Sereon's sternum.
The bone broke inward.
Sereon's body moved back, but his arms continued forward.
Suigōraku crossed toward Igor's throat.
Igor raised God Killer between them.
The blades struck.
Sereon rolled his wrists and allowed his sword to rotate around the black edge. Suigōraku travelled beneath God Killer, crossed behind it, and emerged on the opposite side without losing speed.
Igor pulled his head away.
The point cut through the shadow where his throat had been.
He shortened his grip and attacked with the lower half of the greatsword.
Sereon caught it near the guard.
Igor released the upper hand and struck with his elbow.
Sereon blocked with his shoulder.
Igor changed the elbow into a grip around the back of Sereon's neck.
Sereon changed his own height, dropping beneath the arm while bringing Suigōraku vertically between them.
Igor's gauntlet closed around the edge.
The blade cut halfway through his palm.
Igor continued closing his hand.
Sereon pulled downward.
Igor moved with him.
Their knees collided.
The impact broke both positions apart.
They separated by less than two metres.
God Killer rose beside Igor's head.
Suigōraku settled near Sereon's hip.
Neither paused.
Igor attacked first.
A diagonal cut descended from Sereon's right shoulder toward his left side. Sereon stepped inside it, but the greatsword stopped halfway and reversed. He leaned away from the returning edge, only for Igor to release one hand and rotate the weapon into a thrust.
Sereon turned sideways.
God Killer passed through his torn cape.
Suigōraku moved toward Igor's exposed forearm.
Igor changed the thrust into a rising cut.
Sereon's sword met the underside of the greatsword.
Both blades rose.
Sereon allowed his arms to follow, then dropped one wrist and changed Suigōraku into a descending point aimed between Igor's eyes.
Igor stepped beneath the thrust.
The blade passed behind his head.
His shoulder entered Sereon's ribs.
Sereon rotated around the impact and placed one foot behind Igor's knee despite there being no ground beneath either of them. He hooked the leg and pulled while forcing Igor's upper body in the opposite direction.
Igor allowed himself to fall backward.
God Killer travelled with the fall.
The edge rose from beneath Sereon and opened his stomach.
Sereon continued the throw.
Igor rotated beneath him.
Both men inverted.
Their swords crossed between their bodies.
Suigōraku cut toward Igor's heart.
God Killer cut toward Sereon's throat.
Sereon altered his shoulder and allowed the black edge to scrape along his collar.
Igor twisted his torso and allowed the silver point to pass through the living darkness beside his heart.
They moved past each other.
For one silent instant, their backs faced one another.
Then both turned.
God Killer and Suigōraku collided above their heads.
Sereon stepped beneath the crossing weapons.
Igor stepped with him.
Their hilts struck.
Both blades became trapped between their arms.
Sereon rotated left.
Igor rotated right.
The weapons tore free in opposite directions.
Suigōraku cut across Igor's chest.
God Killer cut across Sereon's abdomen.
Blood and shadow crossed between them.
Sereon continued through the wound and attacked again.
Igor intercepted.
The first collision created a white flash.
The second shattered the air around their hands.
The third drove them higher.
The fourth turned both weapons aside.
The fifth occurred behind Sereon's back.
The sixth occurred beneath Igor's arm.
The seventh never produced contact because both recognized the trap and abandoned the attack before the blades arrived.
They changed direction simultaneously.
God Killer came from below.
Suigōraku came from above.
Both edges stopped against the other's throat.
Igor's blade rested beneath Sereon's jaw.
Sereon's blade rested against the exposed darkness where Igor's neck should have been.
Neither had completed the cut.
Their bodies remained still while the shockwaves from the previous exchanges continued breaking across the distant sky.
Then Sereon's wrist turned.
Igor's grip shifted.
Both blades moved.
God Killer opened Sereon's throat.
Suigōraku severed Igor's head.
Blood erupted from one body.
Living darkness burst from the other.
Sereon moved backward with one hand pressed against the wound beneath his jaw. Pale material spread beneath his fingers and pulled the divided flesh together.
Igor's head rotated through the air.
His body remained upright.
Black shadow stretched from the open neck, caught the falling head, and dragged it back into place. The broken helmet sealed around it in uneven sections, leaving one crimson eye exposed through the damaged front.
They faced each other again.
Sereon lowered the hand from his throat.
Igor raised God Killer.
Suigōraku settled beside Sereon.
Then..
The distance between them disappeared. Or no.
Deleted.
Erased entirely.
God Killer and Suigōraku crossed toward the other man's neck.
Raiku exhaled.
It was not a command. No light left his mouth, no pressure gathered around his body, and nothing within the breath suggested that it carried enough power to change anything. It sounded ordinary, almost quiet enough to disappear beneath the violence already moving through the battlefield.
The sky vanished.
Dark felt solid ground beneath his feet.
The transition possessed no interval. One moment, he stood within the broken air of the battlefield. The next, his boots rested upon a vast plain of dark stone beneath an untouched night sky. The air carried natural weight. Wind moved across the land. Mountains stood along the distant horizon, oceans shifted beyond them, and pale moons turned slowly around the planet as though they had existed for billions of years.
Every person who had occupied the battlefield had arrived with him.
The Champions stood across the stone plain in the same relative positions they had held before. Leona, Tier, Dantero, Cosmic, One, Biru, Orvane, Kaelith, and the remaining allies appeared across the surrounding land. Broken weapons and drifting debris had followed them, but each fragment now rested safely upon the ground instead of continuing through open space.
The True Emperors remained farther away.
Enra stood with his arms crossed. Lybel's hand rested upon his katana. Larthax, Luther, Axiom, and Archanos had not changed their positions. Raiku remained beside them, his golden hair moving lightly in the wind produced by the new world.
Yet the world beneath them was only one piece of what his breath had created.
Beyond its atmosphere existed stars, galaxies, Universes, multiverses, Existences, Verses, Worlds, Meta Worlds, Spheres, and the greater structures beyond them. Countless complete realities had formed within the same exhale, every layer functioning with its own time, space, matter, laws, and movement. Oceans possessed tides. Planets carried cores. Stars burned. Dimensions turned beside one another. Entire cosmic histories had appeared already complete.
Together, they formed a new Absolute Sphere.
There was no life anywhere inside it.
No animals moved through its oceans. No people occupied its cities because no cities had ever been built. No unseen civilisation waited behind a distant star. Nothing within the Absolute Sphere could become collateral damage except the land, the heavens, and the fighters Raiku had brought there.
Sereon and Igor remained less than a sword's length apart.
Their blades had stopped before contact.
Raiku looked toward them.
Raiku: Power is difficult to understand when innocent lives are forced to pay for its expression.
His voice remained gentle.
Raiku: Here, nothing stands behind either of you.
His eyes moved briefly from Igor to Sereon.
Raiku: Do not confuse freedom from consequence with freedom from responsibility.
Neither swordsman answered.
Their blades completed the movement that Raiku's breath had interrupted.
God Killer struck Suigōraku.
The ground beneath them collapsed.
A circular section of the plain dropped several hundred metres while the surrounding stone rose in a wall around it. Sereon turned his wrists through the collision, causing God Killer's edge to slide past his shoulder. He stepped along the inside of Igor's stance and brought Suigōraku upward beneath the greatsword.
Igor released his lower hand.
The black weapon rotated around the remaining grip. Its handle passed beneath Sereon's blade, caught his wrist, and forced the rising cut away from Igor's throat.
Sereon changed hands.
Suigōraku passed behind his back and emerged beside Igor's damaged helmet from the opposite side.
Igor ducked.
The silver edge shaved through the darkness rising from his broken collar. Igor stepped forward while still lowered, planted one armored foot between Sereon's legs, and drove God Killer upward toward his chest.
Sereon turned sideways.
The edge opened his clothing but missed his body. His elbow descended toward the back of Igor's helmet.
Igor lifted one shoulder.
The strike landed against armor instead of the exposed darkness beneath it. The plate shattered, but Igor used the impact to rotate. God Killer came around horizontally at the height of Sereon's waist.
Sereon jumped without leaving the ground.
His knees folded toward his chest while the greatsword passed beneath him. He landed with both feet upon the flat of God Killer, stepped once along its length, and drove Suigōraku downward through the opening in Igor's helmet.
Igor released the hilt.
God Killer fell beneath Sereon's feet.
His balance disappeared.
Igor caught his sword arm with one hand and the front of his clothing with the other. He turned and hurled Sereon into the crater wall.
Sereon struck the stone feet first.
The wall cracked behind him.
He pushed away from it before the fractures could spread, cutting downward as he returned. Suigōraku passed across Igor's chest and opened three armor plates in one continuous line.
Igor caught God Killer before it reached the ground.
The greatsword rose from beneath Sereon's descending body.
Sereon placed the side of Suigōraku against the black edge. He did not stop it. He guided it across his ribs, allowing its pressure to carry him around Igor's shoulder.
His foot touched the back of Igor's knee.
Sereon pulled.
Igor allowed the joint to fold, lowered himself beneath the throw, and swept God Killer backward without turning.
Sereon bent around the blade.
The edge passed beneath his spine and cut through the pale growth forming across his back. He landed behind Igor and thrust toward the opening between two plates.
Igor stepped sideways.
Suigōraku entered his cape instead.
Sereon twisted the blade and wrapped the fabric around it. He pulled, forcing Igor's upper body backward while attacking beneath his arm with the sword's guard.
Igor tore his own cape free.
The cloth remained wrapped around Suigōraku.
God Killer came down through it.
Sereon released the sword before the black edge could trap it against the ground. He stepped inside Igor's reach, caught his forearm with both hands, and redirected the descending strike past his own body.
The greatsword struck the plain.
The planet opened beneath them.
A fracture raced beyond the horizon, passing through mountains and beneath distant oceans. Molten light rose from the crack as the planet's mantle became visible through the separated crust.
Sereon placed one foot against Igor's wrist and kicked away.
Suigōraku rose from the torn cape behind him.
Sereon caught it in the air.
He returned immediately.
The silver blade crossed toward Igor's throat from the right. God Killer intercepted it. Sereon rotated beneath the block and cut from the left without allowing the weapons to separate.
Igor shifted the greatsword vertically.
The second cut struck its flat.
Sereon reversed his grip and thrust beneath it.
Igor turned his hips. The point entered the darkness beside his spine.
God Killer dropped behind Sereon's shoulder.
Sereon pulled Suigōraku free and bent forward. The greatsword passed above him, but Igor shortened the swing and brought the guard into the back of Sereon's head.
Sereon struck the ground face first.
The stone cratered beneath him.
Igor raised God Killer with both hands.
Sereon rolled onto his shoulder as the blade descended. The edge entered the earth beside his neck and passed so deeply that the hilt nearly touched the ground.
Sereon's legs rose around Igor's sword arm.
He locked them against the elbow and twisted.
The armor cracked.
Igor released one hand before the joint could separate, caught Sereon by the ankle, and lifted him from the ground.
Sereon swung with the movement.
Suigōraku opened Igor's side.
Igor threw him.
Sereon crossed the crater in a blur, struck the opposite wall, and passed through it. He travelled beneath the surface for several miles before forcing his direction upward. Stone erupted into the sky as he returned.
Igor met him above the crater.
God Killer descended.
Suigōraku rose.
The collision flattened every mountain visible along the horizon.
Neither man gave ground.
Igor moved his lower hand along the hilt and pushed the greatsword forward. Sereon angled Suigōraku, redirecting the pressure toward his own left side. Igor released it before the change completed and punched with the hand that had abandoned the weapon.
Sereon caught the fist.
Igor's knee struck his ribs.
Sereon folded, but his grip remained closed around the gauntlet. He twisted the wrist, pulled Igor forward, and drove his forehead into the exposed darkness inside the broken helmet.
Igor's head moved back.
Sereon thrust Suigōraku toward the crimson light.
Igor caught the blade between both palms.
The edge cut through the armor covering his hands and entered the living darkness underneath. Black strands wrapped around the steel.
Sereon pulled.
Igor stepped closer.
Their shoulders struck.
God Killer remained suspended beside them.
Igor released Suigōraku with one hand and caught his own sword as it fell. The black blade travelled upward from beneath Sereon's arm.
Sereon leaned away.
The edge opened his chest from stomach to collarbone.
Blood spread across the white material beneath his skin.
Sereon continued moving backward, but his hand remained extended. Influence caught God Killer during the completed cut and turned its direction toward Igor.
The greatsword reversed inside his grip.
Igor allowed his shoulder to follow. His body rotated with the forced movement until the blade passed beside him instead of entering his chest.
He completed the rotation and returned it toward Sereon.
Suigōraku struck God Killer near the guard.
The impact bent Sereon's knees.
Igor pressed down.
Sereon changed the direction of gravity around his own body and fell upward from beneath the pressure. God Killer struck the ground where he had stood.
Sereon rotated above Igor.
Suigōraku cut downward.
Igor turned and blocked behind his own back.
The blades remained crossed while both men faced opposite directions.
Sereon pushed.
Igor pulled.
They moved past each other, changed grips, and attacked again before either had completed the first turn.
Black and silver lines crossed at impossible angles.
God Killer struck from beneath Igor's left arm while his body turned right. Suigōraku appeared above Sereon's opposite shoulder while the hand holding it remained below his waist. Their feet changed position against broken ground that existed for less than a second before collapsing under them.
Each cut created the next opening.
Each defence became an attack.
Each attack concealed another blade angle behind the first.
The crater widened until it became a valley.
Sereon stepped upon a falling slab of stone and pushed himself horizontally. Suigōraku thrust toward Igor's heart.
Igor raised God Killer too slowly.
The point entered between the armor plates.
Sereon drove it deeper.
Igor shifted his torso and trapped the silver blade between two ribs that no longer contained ordinary bone. Living shadow tightened around the weapon.
He swung God Killer toward Sereon's head.
Sereon abandoned the hilt.
The greatsword passed across his face and removed part of the unfinished white plate covering his jaw. Sereon caught Suigōraku again with his opposite hand and pulled it from Igor's chest while turning beneath the returning blade.
The edge opened Igor's abdomen.
Igor answered with the pommel.
Sereon blocked it with his forearm.
Bone broke.
The damaged arm folded, but Sereon used the altered angle to bring Suigōraku beneath Igor's chin.
The point entered the lower edge of the helmet.
Igor caught his wrist.
Both stopped.
Their weapons remained buried inside one another.
Blood ran from Sereon's broken forearm.
Living darkness moved along Suigōraku from Igor's throat.
Igor looked at him through the exposed crimson light.
Igor: Kurai's death was not a tragedy.
Sereon became still.
Igor's grip tightened around his wrist.
Igor: It was the first consequence he failed to escape.
The wind stopped.
Sereon's expression did not change immediately.
The calm remained across his face. His breathing remained controlled. His eyes stayed fixed upon the damaged opening in Igor's helmet.
Then something behind them disappeared.
Not mercy.
Not restraint.
Something older and far more deliberate.
Sereon pulled Suigōraku from Igor's throat.
Igor released his wrist and raised God Killer.
A sound entered the Absolute Sphere.
VMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
It began beneath hearing.
The stone vibrated before the noise became audible. Dust rose from the ground and remained suspended. The oceans on the opposite side of the planet flattened beneath a pressure that had not yet reached them.
The sound deepened.
VMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
A second tone joined it, higher and thinner, like metal screaming through a corridor too long for the echo to return.
KRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNN.
White lines spread beneath Sereon's skin.
They moved from his chest into his neck, shoulders, arms, face, and legs. The pale material inside his wounds stopped trying to resemble flesh. It pushed outward through the openings, forming smooth plates that closed across his body in overlapping layers.
The broken bone in his arm straightened.
New material replaced it.
The third eye along his throat opened fully.
Others followed.
One opened beneath his collarbone.
Two emerged across his ribs.
Another appeared along his palm.
More formed across his shoulders and the sides of his neck, each one pale and focused, each one looking in a different direction while sharing the same still anger.
The sound continued building.
It no longer came only from the air. It echoed through the planet's crust, the stars above it, the surrounding Universes, and the deeper structures of the empty Absolute Sphere.
Distant metallic impacts joined the resonance.
DONG.
DONG.
DONG.
Each one arrived several seconds after the last, like an enormous machine completing part of an awakening somewhere beyond reality.
Unfinished voices gathered beneath them.
Thousands at first.
Then millions.
Some whispered.
Some screamed.
Some spoke words that ended before meaning could form. Their voices overlapped until language became a continuous spiritual static surrounding Sereon's body.
Suigōraku dissolved.
The silver blade passed into his hand, climbed his arm, and entered the pale armor forming across his shoulder. A long ridge of sharpened spiritual material extended from his forearm, then withdrew. The sword reformed again beside him, no longer held by his fingers, but connected to them through thin white strands resembling exposed nerves.
A vertical eye opened across Sereon's forehead.
The final plate closed around one side of his face.
His body became taller without growing. Larger without changing its measurements. Every proportion remained human, yet the presence occupying those proportions no longer felt confined to one shape.
The awakening continued charging.
VMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
The sky above the planet divided into pale rings.
Each ring contained another image of Sereon at a separate stage of evolution. Some possessed too many arms. Some had no face. Some consisted only of white eyes inside a human outline. Others had completed forms that the present body had rejected.
They collapsed into him one after another.
The final impact silenced everything.
KRAAAAAAAM.
Sereon stood inside a field of suspended white fragments.
Soul Ryūgu had completed itself.
His human face remained visible beneath the living plates, but nothing within it attempted to hide what Igor's words had awakened. Grief had not disappeared. It had been stripped of hesitation and given a body capable of acting upon it.
Igor raised God Killer.
Sereon moved his right hand several inches to the side.
There was no contact.
Igor vanished.
A line appeared across the planet's surface.
It began beneath Sereon and continued beyond the horizon, carving through mountains, plains, and oceans in less than a fraction of a second. Igor travelled backward inside that line, his armor scraping against reality hard enough to create a trail of black fire around him.
Then his direction changed.
His body turned downward without rotating.
He struck the ground thousands of miles away.
The surface folded beneath him.
Igor passed through the crust, then through the mantle. Oceans above the impact rose from their basins. Continents cracked around the hole. Molten rock exploded through the tunnel while Igor continued deeper, carried by the force of a movement Sereon had barely completed with his hand.
He reached the outer core.
The pressure did not stop.
Igor entered the planetary core and disappeared inside the burning metal at its centre.
The entire world shuddered.
Dantero stared at the opening in the distant horizon.
Dantero: Bloody fucking hell.
His weapons appeared within his hands.
Tier's watch unfolded across his wrist. Sections of dark machinery moved over his arm while several artificial intelligences began calculating the depth, force, and damage produced by Sereon's gesture.
Leona raised her weapon.
Cosmic moved one foot forward.
One's hands tightened.
Biru lowered his centre of gravity, his blade already leaving its sheath.
Orvane's six wings opened behind him.
Dark did not turn.
Dark: Do not.
Dantero looked toward him.
Dantero: The knife fucker just put Igor through the bloody planet.
Dark: I saw it.
Dantero: Then perhaps we stop standing here like decorative furniture.
Dark's eyes remained upon Sereon.
Dark: Stay where you are.
The ground erupted.
A black line rose from the hole Igor had created.
It passed through the mantle, the crust, and the atmosphere without slowing. Molten metal followed behind it. The planet's core burned around Igor's body as he tore his way back to the surface with God Killer held beside him.
He emerged beneath Sereon.
The returning strike split the planet from the impact point to the opposite side.
Sereon lowered one hand.
Suigōraku intercepted God Killer.
The collision removed the atmosphere.
Air vanished from half the planet. Clouds were torn into space. The nearby moon cracked across its centre and separated into two silent halves.
Igor landed upon the broken plain.
His armor had partially melted. The entire left side of his helmet was gone. Living darkness replaced sections of his chest, shoulder, and face, while thin crimson lines moved through the exposed form beneath the metal.
He straightened.
Another two percent of his restraint disappeared.
The change did not explode outward.
God Killer became heavier.
Not physically.
The idea of the sword deepened until every edge inside the Absolute Sphere felt like an imitation of the weapon in Igor's hand. Cracks across the planet sharpened. Broken mountains separated along cleaner lines. Even the distant stars appeared divided by the angle of the black blade.
Sereon's many eyes focused upon him.
Igor moved.
The planet beneath his foot ceased to possess a surface.
He reached Sereon before the collapse began.
God Killer crossed toward the vertical eye in Sereon's forehead.
Suigōraku met it.
The silver weapon bent.
Sereon's arm moved backward.
Igor continued.
He struck again from below.
Sereon turned the cut aside, but the black edge passed through the influence placed upon it and opened the living armor along his ribs.
Igor reversed.
God Killer entered Sereon's shoulder.
Three pale eyes closed beneath the wound.
Sereon caught the blade with one hand.
Igor pulled.
The armor around Sereon's palm separated.
He did not release it.
His other hand passed through the empty space beside Igor's head.
The air struck first.
Igor blocked with the flat of God Killer.
The invisible blow folded the greatsword against his chest and drove him backward across the planet. He stopped after several hundred miles by forcing the point into the ground.
Archanos laughed.
The sound rolled across the ruined planet with the warmth of distant thunder.
Archanos: Ha.
His enormous arms remained crossed.
Archanos: Thou still feedest him crumbs, black knight, whilst he bares every tooth within his soul.
Igor pulled God Killer from the earth.
Archanos: Unbind thy hand, or be buried beneath thy caution.
Igor looked toward him.
The exposed crimson light inside his broken helmet narrowed.
Igor: A blade revealed before the enemy is understood belongs to the corpse holding it.
Archanos' smile remained.
His laughter did not.
Igor turned back toward Sereon.
The white eyes across Sereon's evolved body closed simultaneously.
His human eyes remained open.
Sereon lowered Suigōraku toward the broken ground.
Sereon: Domain World.
The planet stopped moving.
Sereon: Kakō Seishin Kyōiki.
The domain opened.
It did not spread from Sereon as a wave.
It appeared complete.
The shattered planet, the moons, the sun, and every surrounding star were replaced by an endless white world beneath a black sky. The ground resembled smooth glass, but beneath its surface moved countless memories, decisions, emotions, lies, and unfinished intentions.
White towers rose in every direction.
None possessed doors.
Each tower contained a separate conclusion that could have followed a decision made by anyone inside the domain. Some ended in victory. Some ended in death. Some contained events that had never been considered, yet had become possible the moment Kakō Seishin Kyōiki recognised the mind capable of creating them.
Silver pathways crossed the sky.
They bent through one another, passed behind distant horizons, and returned beneath the feet of those watching. Every path represented direction, but direction no longer belonged to space. It belonged to Sereon.
The domain had once influenced minds, senses, choices, and conclusions.
Now it influenced the relationships between them.
A thought could become distance.
Fear could become gravity.
Confidence could become blindness.
An attack could be redirected before the body decided to perform it. A wound could be persuaded that it had always existed. A defence could arrive at the correct position and still discover that the meaning of protection had been moved somewhere else.
Every person inside the domain appeared within the glass beneath them.
Dark saw countless versions of himself moving under his own feet. Some attacked Sereon. Some protected Igor. Some turned toward the True Emperors. Some stood motionless while everyone around him died.
None were illusions.
They were conclusions waiting for influence.
Tier's machines produced warnings faster than his eyes could read them.
Dantero looked down and saw himself already dismembered beneath the glass.
Leona saw her own blood spreading through a room she did not recognise.
The Champions tightened around Dark.
The True Emperors remained unmoved.
Sereon lifted one finger.
Igor's right arm attacked without him.
God Killer swung toward his own throat.
Igor stopped the blade with his left hand. The edge entered his palm and divided the living darkness beneath it.
Sereon turned his finger.
The hand holding God Killer forgot which body it belonged to.
Igor released the weapon.
Suigōraku appeared beside his throat.
Igor bent backward while drawing a shorter blade of compressed shadow from his own forearm. The two weapons collided above his face.
Sereon stepped forward.
The distance between them changed its allegiance.
He arrived before the step landed.
His knee struck Igor's chest.
The armor collapsed.
Igor moved backward, but Sereon appeared behind him before his body completed the motion. Suigōraku entered the opening beneath his shoulder and emerged from the opposite side.
Igor swung the shadow blade behind himself.
Sereon was no longer there.
He stood above.
Suigōraku descended through Igor's spine.
The body separated.
Living darkness attempted to reconnect.
Sereon influenced the two halves to recognise each other as strangers.
The shadow recoiled from itself.
Igor fell toward the glass.
God Killer remained suspended above him.
The fingers of his severed upper body moved.
The greatsword returned to his hand.
Igor's voice crossed the domain.
Igor: Domain Verse.
The True Emperors looked toward him.
Enra's eyes narrowed.
Lybel's hand settled more firmly upon the hilt at his waist.
Axiom raised his head.
Even the unfinished smile on Archanos' face disappeared.
Igor closed his hand around God Killer.
Igor: Mugen Dansai no Kengoku.
The Domain Verse unfolded.
Black entered the white world.
It began as a single line beneath God Killer.
The line crossed Kakō Seishin Kyōiki from one horizon to the other. Then another appeared. Then thousands. Then numbers lost meaning.
The silver pathways in Sereon's sky were divided by black seams.
The white towers split open.
The glass ground beneath everyone became an endless field of dark blades, each one buried point first within a world that no longer possessed a reliable direction.
Above them appeared a sky without stars.
Across it hung enormous black swords, distant enough to resemble pillars holding the Verse together. Thin crimson lines moved along their edges, marking every decision that had become definite enough to sever.
Igor's body reconnected.
Not because the two halves recognised one another.
He severed the influence telling them not to.
The living darkness joined.
His armor reformed around it.
God Killer rose beside his head.
Within Mugen Dansai no Kengoku, every completed action produced a cut.
Every committed direction became an edge.
Every conclusion created a line by which it could be divided.
Illusions could exist.
Manipulation could exist.
Influence could still alter thought, movement, purpose, and truth.
But the moment any of them became definite, Igor could see where the sword belonged.
Sereon moved.
A black seam appeared across his throat.
He became unfinished before the cut completed.
The seam passed through an abandoned version of his neck.
Suigōraku reached Igor's chest.
God Killer intercepted it.
The weapons collided across two Domains.
The sound broke several distant Universes inside Raiku's empty Absolute Sphere.
Sereon attacked from Igor's left.
Igor cut through the decision.
The Sereon performing it split in half.
Another emerged from the unchosen right.
Suigōraku entered Igor's ribs.
Igor severed the wound from its depth and reduced it to a surface cut.
Sereon influenced the surface to become the centre of his body.
The wound opened around Igor's heart.
Living darkness poured from his chest.
God Killer crossed Sereon's waist.
The evolved body separated.
White strands connected both halves before they moved apart.
Igor cut the strands.
Sereon removed the conclusion that separation followed division.
His upper body remained above the lower without reconnecting.
He continued fighting from both sections.
Suigōraku attacked from his upper hand.
The lower body kicked Igor's knee from the opposite direction.
Igor blocked the sword and allowed the leg to strike.
The joint bent.
He severed the relationship between the impact and the damage.
His knee straightened.
Sereon influenced balance itself.
Igor's body fell sideways despite both feet remaining beneath him.
Suigōraku opened his throat.
God Killer struck Sereon's forehead and destroyed the vertical eye.
The eye opened within Igor's shadow instead.
It looked outward from his own chest.
Sereon saw through him.
Every defensive angle Igor prepared became visible before his muscles moved. Every change of grip appeared beneath the glass. Every use of Mugen Dansai produced another conclusion for Sereon to influence.
Igor abandoned preparation.
He attacked without deciding where the cut would land.
God Killer disappeared from Sereon's awareness.
The blade entered his neck.
Sereon's head began separating.
One of the eyes across his chest looked toward the wound.
The cut changed direction inside his body.
Instead of crossing his throat, it travelled down through his shoulder and exited beneath his arm.
Sereon caught the greatsword between two plates.
He turned his hand.
Igor's grip opened.
God Killer left him.
Sereon redirected the weapon toward the black sky.
Igor severed the direction.
The sword stopped.
Sereon influenced stillness into acceleration.
God Killer vanished upward.
Igor called it back.
The returning weapon passed through his own abdomen before reaching his hand.
Sereon had changed which side of the hilt belonged to him.
Igor pulled the blade free.
Suigōraku entered the opening.
Sereon drove it upward through his chest.
The point emerged beside Igor's throat.
God Killer came down toward Sereon's head.
Sereon raised one finger.
The black seam marking the completed cut appeared across Igor instead.
His sword arm separated at the shoulder.
God Killer fell.
Sereon caught it.
For one instant, he held both weapons.
Suigōraku remained inside Igor.
God Killer rested in Sereon's opposite hand.
Igor's severed arm reformed from shadow.
Sereon drove God Killer into the ground.
The entire Domain Verse recognised the act as Igor willingly surrendering his sword.
Every black blade across Mugen Dansai no Kengoku turned away from Sereon.
The hanging swords in the sky rotated.
Their points faced Igor.
Sereon pulled Suigōraku from his chest.
Then every sword descended.
Igor raised both hands.
Mugen Dansai cut through the conclusion.
Half the falling weapons divided.
Sereon influenced the remaining half to arrive before they fell.
Black blades appeared through Igor's body.
One entered his shoulder.
Another passed through his spine.
Three crossed his abdomen.
Two pinned his legs.
One entered the broken opening in his helmet and emerged from the back of his skull.
Igor remained upright.
Living darkness crawled along every weapon.
He attempted to sever the interpretation Sereon had placed upon his Domain.
Sereon was already inside his reach.
Suigōraku cut through God Killer's shadow before it could return.
The silver blade crossed Igor's chest.
A second cut followed from the opposite side.
A third opened him vertically.
The fourth passed through the crimson lines inside his body.
Igor attempted to move.
The ground influenced his feet to remain.
He severed the restraint.
The air influenced his body to fall.
He severed the direction.
His own shadow influenced itself to reject his command.
He cut through that as well.
Every answer consumed another moment.
Sereon used all of them.
Suigōraku entered Igor's throat.
The living armor along Sereon's arm opened, revealing hundreds of thin white strands connected directly to the blade. Each one carried a different influence into the wound.
One prevented regeneration.
One separated Igor's consciousness from the shadow containing it.
One persuaded his armor that it had never protected him.
One changed loyalty into hesitation.
One changed memory into weight.
One changed every death shown through Mugen Dansai into an injury occurring at the same moment.
Igor's body convulsed.
Thousands of completed severances opened across his shadow form.
His right arm fell.
His left leg divided at the knee.
The crimson light inside his helmet flickered.
God Killer remained buried beyond his reach.
Sereon raised Suigōraku for the final cut.
The Domain World gathered around its edge.
Every white tower collapsed into the blade.
Every silver path bent toward Igor.
Every influenced conclusion beneath the glass became one result.
The black swords of Mugen Dansai no Kengoku turned against their master.
The kill no longer approached Igor from one direction.
It arrived from every decision he had made since the fight began.
Sereon swung.
Kyuketsu entered between them.
The black blade struck Suigōraku.
The completed death shattered.
Dark stood beside Igor.
His arm bent beneath the force of Sereon's strike. The ground below him collapsed through countless layers of both Domains, but his feet did not move.
Sereon pushed.
Dark raised his eyes.
White light burned beneath them.
Black material spread across his arm and closed around Kyuketsu's hilt.
Dark turned the blade.
Suigōraku was forced aside.
Sereon's evolved eyes moved toward him.
Dark placed one hand against Igor's chest.
A pulse left his body.
It did not contain enough power to harm anyone.
It contained enough force to remove them.
Igor was thrown backward.
Dantero, Tier, Leona, Cosmic, One, Biru, Orvane, Kaelith, and every other Champion and ally disappeared from the immediate battlefield. They crossed hundreds of miles before their bodies slowed, landing across distant sections of the Domain.
The True Emperors did not move.
Enra's clothing remained still.
Lybel did not shift his feet.
Larthax, Luther, Axiom, and Archanos stood exactly where they had been.
Raiku remained beside them.
Sereon remained in front of Dark, held in place by the pressure between Suigōraku and Kyuketsu.
Tier recovered first.
He turned in the air before striking the distant ground and pressed two fingers against his watch. A black device unfolded above his wrist, releasing hundreds of small geometric fragments into the surrounding space.
One fragment stopped before every person Dark had pushed away.
Each expanded into a thin floating screen.
The image of Dark and Sereon appeared across them from several angles, clear enough to reveal the movement of their eyes and the pressure gathering between their weapons.
Dantero wiped blood from his mouth and looked at the screen hovering before him.
Dantero: Suppose we are spectators now.
Leona did not answer.
Her eyes remained fixed upon Dark.
Far away, at the centre of both Domains, Dark pushed Igor's broken sword arm away from the clash and placed himself fully between him and Sereon.
Igor understood.
His shadow body gathered around God Killer as the shockwave carried him farther from them.
The space surrounding Dark became empty.
Sereon stood before him in the completed form of Soul Ryūgu.
Kyuketsu remained locked against Suigōraku.
The True Emperors watched from the edge of the ruined Domain.
Raiku looked around once.
A plain wooden chair appeared beneath him.
It possessed no gold, decoration, symbol, or supernatural light. It looked like something taken from an ordinary kitchen.
Raiku sat upon it in the open air.
His hands rested loosely upon his knees.
He looked toward Dark and Sereon.
And waited.
To Be Continued.
End Of Arc 4 Chapter 13. Part 2