The crater beneath them continued to deepen. The impact unleashed a shockwave that rippled through the mountain range, instantly flattening distant trees like blades of grass under a colossal palm.
For a brief moment, the two figures locked their blades together, muscles straining. Then, Reigen's father twisted his grip, slipped inside Zerach's guard, and crashed his shoulder into Zerach's chest.
BANG!
Zerach was propelled backward, but this time, he spun in mid-air, drove his blade into the earth to anchor himself, and slingshotted forward in a rising arc, counterattacking with a slash aimed at Reigen's father's throat.
Reigen's father ducked but didn't retreat. Instead, he surged forward, slamming his palm into Zerach's sternum.
BOOM!
Zerach smashed through the crater wall and into the mountainside beyond, carving a tunnel through the rock.
Reigen's father followed in a straight line, bursting through the stone like a spear. For a fleeting moment, the fight vanished into the mountain, until the ridge bulged outward and exploded as both figures erupted from the other side, clouds of debris swirling around them as they landed on a higher slope overlooking the vast plains.
Azravel attempted to restrain them the instant they emerged. His staff reassembled midair, plates aligning as it compressed space into a narrowing corridor around Reigen's father.
Vaelor fired trajectories into that corridor to lock down any escape routes. Nyss emerged from the landslide like a ghost, partially restored chain-blade poised to bind Reigen's father's sword arm. Keth's null field returned, thin and eager, creeping across the slope like darkness spilling from a wound.
Reigen's father ended the chaos with a single movement. He turned, holding the Bane with both hands, and cut through the air, a simple horizontal slash, lacking theatrics but exuding perfect alignment.
The world split in two. A pale line appeared across the mountain range and expanded into a colossal ravine that stretched out of sight, so wide that the cliff faces on both sides trembled and collapsed inward.
Azravel's compression corridor shattered. Vaelor's trajectories inverted and ripped backward, drilling holes in distant peaks like cannon fire. Nyss's chain fragmented, the restored segments turning into metallic dust. Keth's null field tore apart, recoiling like a living shadow fleeing a fire.
All four Exarchs were thrust away, flung into the distance like stones skipped across a pond, bodies crashing through ridges, collapsing hills, disappearing into dust clouds miles apart.
For a brief moment, only Zerach remained. He rose from the shattered stone, blood trailing from his mouth, and then did something that made the air tense.
He let his sword slip from his grasp. The bone-white blade dissolved into particles and vanished.
Reigen's father narrowed his eyes.
Zerach rolled his shoulders and stepped forward, hands empty.
"You're hiding behind those Banes," he said, his voice steady despite the blood on his lips. "Let's see if you can still break gods without them."
Reigen's father remained silent. He lifted his chin slightly, and the five Banes began to hover before him, then slowed as if responding to a silent command. One dissolved into thin air. Another drifted back. In the next heartbeat, all five vanished, leaving him with empty hands as well.
The wind howled across the ravine between them.
Then Zerach moved. He didn't throw punches like a brawler; he struck with the precision of a judge, straight lines, brutal angles, blows that commanded authority. His first punch came in a blur aimed at Reigen's father's temple.
Reigen's father shifted just enough for the punch to miss, but the air behind it detonated violently, carving out a crater in the slope that burned with heat from friction.
Reigen's father launched a palm strike aimed at Zerach's throat, but Zerach intercepted it with his forearm. The force of the block sent shockwaves through the air, scattering the fog and hurling boulders into the sky like mere pebbles.
Zerach retaliated with a knee strike, but Reigen's father twisted his hip and countered with his shin.
CRACK!
The impact shattered the ridge beneath them, sending cracks cascading outward.
They vanished and reappeared a hundred meters away, fists colliding mid-motion.
BANG!
The impact sent both of them flying backward, launching across the mountainside and into the air. Zerach, drawing on sheer force, kicked off nothing and propelled himself forward again, his elbow aimed squarely at Reigen's father's spine.
In a swift move, Reigen's father ducked under the strike, spun around, and slammed his fist into Zerach's ribs.
BOOM!
Zerach was hurled across the ravine, crashing into the cliff face and creating a crater.
As Zerach struggled to regain his footing, Reigen's father descended, preparing to deliver a knockout blow. With a powerful hammer strike, he aimed down with a fist that seemed to carry the weight of an execution.
Zerach managed to catch it with both hands.
The ground beneath them shattered, disintegrating into dust and stone as the entire section of cliff collapsed. In freefall, the two continued exchanging blows, punches and knees detonating midair, shockwaves scattering debris like shrapnel.
They crashed onto the plains.
KRAAAASH!
The impact formed a crater miles wide, sending a shockwave rippling outward. The force flattened grasslands and fractured the earth, creating fissures that glowed faintly with subterranean heat.
Zerach was the first to rise, launching forward with a barrage of strikes, straight punches, hooks, and elbow slams, each blow tearing through the air like artillery.
Reigen's father skillfully evaded, blocking just enough while allowing others to rip apart the terrain behind him. A missed hook sliced a trench in the plain, an elbow strike obliterated a field of boulders, and a knee strike erupted the ground into a geyser of dirt.
But then, Reigen's father stopped dodging. He let one punch connect, slamming into his jaw.
BANG!
Zerach's strike sent blood flying into the air as Reigen's father's head snapped sideways. Yet instead of reeling back, he stepped in, grasping Zerach's wrist.
The air warped around them.
For a split second, Zerach's arm twisted awkwardly until he forced himself free, retaliating with a fist aimed at Reigen's father's liver.
BOOM!
Reigen's father slid backward, carving a trench through the soil and rock, but remained on his feet. He straightened, wiped blood from his lip, and then unleashed his Shinkon, causing an eerie silence to fall over the grasslands.
His pupils turned dark, a faint crescent moon appearing in each iris, and nine dots ignited, slowly rotating like a celestial mechanism awakening behind his gaze.
The air around his eyes distorted, as if he could not only observe motion but command it.
The Eye of Samsara didn't feel like a prediction; it felt as if the world had already revealed its next ten seconds to him, leaving him to decide how to respond.
For the first time, Zerach's expression tightened.
"...So you finally opened it," he muttered, his voice low. Reigen's father took a deep breath.
In that moment, the plain transformed into a chaotic battlefield of afterimages.
Zerach launched his attack, so fast that each step cracked the air around him, fists striking from angles that should have been impossible. Yet Reigen's father moved as if he had foreseen every blow ten seconds in advance.
He was always just a fraction ahead. Always one step further. He dodged a jab and pressed his palm against Zerach's chest.
BOOM!
Sending Zerach hurtling backward.
Zerach twisted mid-air and retaliated with a spinning kick, but Reigen's father was already crouched low, sweeping Zerach's leg out from under him.
Zerach flipped gracefully, landed on his feet, and unleashed a downward hammerfist, but Reigen's father vanished again, reappearing behind him with an elbow aimed squarely at the back of his skull.
Zerach barely managed to block it. The impact of their clash sent shockwaves through the air. The resulting explosion carved out a crater in the earth, reducing it to swirling dust.
They continued their relentless exchange, blow after blow, impact after impact, as their speed escalated into nothing more than violent flashes racing across the landscape, leaving devastation in their wake.
Every strike created new chaos: ravines tore open, craters blossomed like flowers of destruction, and chunks of earth were flung skyward like meteors.
The fight surged across miles in mere seconds, from the plains to the edge of distant mountains that trembled under the mounting pressure.
Suddenly, Zerach halted mid-motion and raised one hand. His sword materialized in his grip as if bone were growing from nothingness, inscriptions glowing along its length.
Reigen's father's Banes remained absent.
He didn't need them yet; he simply focused on Zerach with the Eye of Samsara spinning silently within him, anticipating where Zerach would strike next,
where pressure would land,
where death would attempt to intervene.
Zerach pointed his blade forward decisively.
"Again," he said firmly.
And they clashed once more, blade against bare hand, as if gods were testing which force would yield first.
CLAAAANG! BOOOOOM!
The mountain behind them split apart,
and the plains below dissolved into clouds of dust.