The image returns to the arena at the exact moment something goes wrong.
Not an explosion.
Not a scream.
Not a visible mistake.
But a sound.
Crack.
Athena feels it before she hears it.
The Aegis vibrates in her left arm, an impossible resonance coursing through the shield as if something were arguing with the very concept of "indestructible."
Her eyes widen.
"...No."
Vergil stands before her, too relaxed. Shoulders slumped. Posture almost nonchalant. No weapons in hand. Only clenched fists, enveloped in a blackish-red miasma that pulses like something alive, breathing along with him.
He smiles.
It's not a cruel smile.
It's worse.
It's bored.
"This here?" he says, raising his fist slowly before taking another step forward. "I always heard it was absolute."
The punch comes. Athena reflexively raises the Aegis.
BOOM.
The impact doesn't throw her back.
It doesn't tear the air.
It doesn't create shockwaves.
It sinks.
