Shiro widened his eyes. The backlash from the destruction of his domain sent his energy flow into chaos for a moment, making his body difficult to move temporarily. However, the most fatal thing was the absolute law of the spatial technique itself: his World Shield and energy were currently on cooldown and could not be used.
Realizing his opponent had lost his absolute defense, the smirk behind Unknown's mask grew wider.
"You rely too much on your toy!" Unknown mocked.
Without releasing his steel-like grip on Shiro's wrist, Unknown concentrated all the pure Pure Darkness energy in his free left palm.
The space above his palm warped violently. A fist-sized Black Hole manifested, sucking in the surrounding light and air with a terrifying humming sound.
Shiro tried to struggle, but Unknown's grip was unshakeable.
"Shatter!"
BAM!!!
Mercilessly, Unknown slammed the extreme-pressure black hole vortex right into Shiro's unprotected chest.
The space around Shiro's body distorted due to the pressure from the black hole, sucking in Shiro's flesh and exploding violently.
BOOOOM!!!
The impact of the fist-sized Black Hole exploded dead on. Shiro's body was sent flying far backward like a bullet, crashing into and destroying the remaining row of concrete arena pillars. Thick smoke billowed, and when the figure of the Rank 1 Hunter became visible, a horrifying hole gaped in his chest from the absolute energy suction just now.
However, Unknown didn't give even a second to breathe.
He shot forward, piercing through the billowing dust. He reached his hand out to the side, pulling out a legendary weapon in the shape of a Scythe (a giant sickle) with a dense aura from the spatial vortex.
Mercilessly, Unknown swung the scythe repeatedly without pity.
CRASH! SLASH! CRAASHH!
Fresh blood sprayed into the air. Shiro's body, which hadn't had time to recover from the domain's destruction effects, now became the target of Unknown's brutal slashes, his flesh torn apart and his body covered in blood from head to toe.
Smirking behind his mask, Unknown prepared to pull back his scythe for a finishing slash that would decapitate Shiro.
However, exactly a split second before the scythe's blade touched his neck... Shiro's cooldown ended.
Shiro's previously dimmed eyes now glinted sharply again. His hand moved as fast as lightning toward his attacker.
"Gravitation!"
A dense blue gravitational wave exploded from Shiro's palm. Immensely heavy pressure instantly struck Unknown's body, forcibly locking his movement in mid-air until the swing of his scythe came to a complete stop just a few centimeters from Shiro's neck.
With Unknown now strongly held back by gravity, Shiro chanted his absolute recovery spell with a cold voice.
"Reverse my body!"
A green aura instantly enveloped Shiro's destroyed form. In the blink of an eye, the horrifying hole in his chest knitted itself and closed perfectly, the scythe slash wounds evaporated, and his energy was fully replenished!
Now it was Shiro's turn to smirk cruelly. He stared at Unknown, who was struggling against the gravitational pressure in front of him.
"That hurt, you know. Now... feel this!" Shiro said with a cynical smile.
Shiro rounded the dense red Destroy energy in his right palm, compressing it into an energy sphere of extraordinary destructive pressure. Taking advantage of Unknown's inability to dodge, Shiro slammed the apocalyptic sphere squarely into Unknown's chest, fully repaying the deadly attack he had just received.
BOOM!!!
The explosion of the dense red destructive energy thundered fiercely, scorching the entire surrounding ruined area until it turned into a sea of fire and smoldering dust.
From behind that terrifying shockwave, Unknown's body was thrown hard and sprawled on the ground.
However, in just a matter of seconds, the severe wounds from the Destroy impact began to knit back together. Black smoke billowed from his body as his absolute regeneration ability worked automatically to restore every cell.
Unknown slowly got back up. He lightly dusted off his shoulder, then looked up at Shiro with red eyes that now fully radiated murderous intent.
"Enough playing around," Unknown muttered coldly.
The space around him suddenly distorted violently. The vortex of the void opened wide, and in an instant, the four legendary weapons from the Void manifested once again! The four weapons slowly orbited around his body.
In other parts of the world, hunters, killers, and people on Earth watched the broadcast.
Gampler, watching from afar, began to worry about her friend's condition. "Shiro," she said with a worried face.
At Tsuyoi Hito, Togil and Envy, who were eating, looked toward the TV showing the battle of the strongest.
"Hmmm, what kind of weapons are those?" Togil said curiously.
"Heh, focus here, Togil!" Envy snapped in annoyance.
Back to the battle, the atmosphere grew even more tense. The weapons, responding to their master's call the Scythe, Battle Axe, Sword, and Bow now shot out of the void vortex.
The four weapons now orbited around Unknown, radiating a Pure Darkness aura that rumbled like a cosmic storm ready to swallow everything.
Shiro wiped the remaining blood from the corner of his lips. He took a stance, condensing his World Shield to the maximum level, thinking Unknown would take one of those weapons to engage in a mechanical clash again.
However, Shiro's guess was completely wrong. The King of Kings instead casually put both his hands into his pants pockets, hovering in the air with a very condescending posture.
"You think I need to dirty my hands to destroy that toy shield of yours?" Unknown mocked coldly, his voice echoing throughout the ruined arena. His red eyes flashed from behind the mask. "Slaughter him."
That one absolute command became the trigger for the apocalypse.
Without being touched by anyone's hand, the four legendary weapons sprang to life! As if possessing their own consciousness, killing instinct, and combat intelligence, the four spread in four different directions with speed that tore through space.
Shiro widened his eyes. (They move on their own?!)
WHOOSH!
The first attack came from above. The Giant Battle Axe plummeted like a black meteor, carrying the momentum of absolute destruction, sucking energy from Shiro's World Shield, which was the world itself.
Shiro moved his eyes to predict the next attack, while withstanding the axe's impact using the World Shield, which was growing stronger by the second.
BOOOOM!!! The axe's impact was so insane that it caused the earth beneath Shiro's feet to cave in and shatter ten meters deep
before Shiro could even catch his breath, the Legendary Bow hovering in the distance had drawn its own string.
THWIP! THWIP! THWIP! A barrage of arrows made of dark energy shot out with a homing effect, curving in the air and aiming for the blind spots behind Shiro's neck and knees.
"Gravitation!" Shiro exclaimed. He hurriedly created a gravitational vortex to deflect the barrage of arrows until they pierced and detonated the surrounding ruined buildings.
But, this battle was now utterly illogical. It was no longer a one-on-one duel, but one versus four.
While Shiro was busy holding off the Axe above and deflecting the Arrows behind, the Legendary Scythe slashed from the blind spot below, aiming for Shiro's legs with an extremely deadly circular slash. Shiro was forced to jump into the air to dodge.
Unfortunately, the very second his feet left the ground, the Legendary Sword was already waiting for him in the air
CLANG! CLASH! BOOM!
The sword slashed repeatedly with lightning speed, forcing Shiro to use the Destroy energy in his palms to clash and parry every slash. A rain of red and black sparks colored the cloudy sky of the arena.
"Hah... hah..." Shiro's breathing grew heavy.
His World Shield vibrated violently, withstanding the relentless onslaught from four directions simultaneously.
The Scythe slashed brutally from the left, the Sword struck fiercely from the right, the Axe crushed his defenses from above, and the rain of Arrows locked his movements from afar. The four weapons coordinated perfectly, covering each other's blind spots like a squad of divine executioners.
Meanwhile, Unknown just stood hovering in the distance. He watched Shiro desperately defending against the continuous barrage of his weapons as if watching a street circus performance.
"What's wrong, the Strongest?" Unknown's laugh echoed, full of absolute arrogance. "You're only fighting my weapons... I haven't even moved a single centimeter from where I stand!"
Amidst the deadly four-way onslaught, Shiro's breathing grew heavy. His body was covered in scratches, but he suddenly laughed loudly. Blood flowed from his temple, but his eyes shone brightly.
"Inanimate objects think they can defeat me?!" Shiro shouted.
He brought both his hands together. The red aura of Destroy and the blue pull of Gravitation merged into one in the vortex of his World Shield, condensing to its absolute limit.
"VOID!!!"
BOOOOMMM!!! A giant energy explosion swept the arena! Unknown's four legendary weapons were blown far into the air, their spin chaotic, and their deadly auras dimming for a moment. Shiro stood panting.
Seeing that, Unknown, who was previously just hovering casually, now clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Heh. NOW THIS IS WHAT YOU CALL A STRONG OPPONENT!!!" Unknown shouted. In an instant, he shot forward through the remnants of the explosion.
Responding to their master who was now taking action, the Scythe, Axe, Sword, and Bow lit up brightly again.
The four orbited closely around Unknown, ready to pounce. Now, the situation had turned into a leaking hell for Shiro. 5 vs 1! Unknown led the direct attack from the front, assisted by the deadly maneuvers of his four weapons from all directions.
Unknown slammed his Pure Darkness fist, clashing brutally with Shiro's World Shield. At the same time, the Scythe struck from below, the Axe crushed from above, and arrows rained down from blind spots.
Shiro countered with equally fierce close-range Destroy punches. The two exchanged hundreds of light-speed blows until the arena was pulverized into cosmic dust.
"Die, the Pinnacle of Humanity!" Unknown held his sword, preparing to unleash his Dimensional Slash.
"Don't underestimate me, Monster!" Shiro fired a blue gravity sphere into the sky.
Unknown, realizing Shiro was about to use his strongest technique, immediately darted toward Shiro to stop him.
Shiro advanced at the speed of light, thwarting Unknown's attack using White Splash.
However, Unknown managed to block it using his sword, causing him to be pushed backward.
This thrilling sensation made the energy inside Shiro's body overflow, increasing his potential to become 200% stronger.
Shiro aimed his hand at Unknown; slowly but surely, the red energy condensed denser and denser. But before it could explode toward Unknown, Shiro instead released it upward.
Shiro released the reinforcement chant: "In a world filled with life, there is an overwhelming emptiness, the el of the void, explosion of heaven 'KUSHO!!!'"
The two massive energies merged, creating a massive energy that exploded.
BOOMMMM!!!
The giant explosion shook the sky.
The two colliding energies exploded into a wave of destruction that swept across the continent.
Storm winds shot in all directions, destroying mountains, shaking oceans, and turning the sky deep purple as if the world were cracking from within.
The entire battle area was drowned in thick smoke.
Dust and fire swirled in the air like a doomsday storm.
Slowly... slowly...
The smoke began to thin.
In the midst of the ruins, which now resembled a giant crater, Shiro was still standing.
His body was charred. His skin was torn in various places. His flesh was even visible in some parts. Blood dripped from his fingertips onto the cracked earth.
"Hah... hah..."
His breathing was heavy.
Every breath felt like a knife piercing his lungs.
"I... have no strength left..."
On the other side of the crater, Unknown's figure lay on the ground.
His body was much more destroyed.
One of his legs was missing. His arm was torn off. His mask was cracked, revealing part of a face covered in dark aura.
Unknown laughed.
"Hahaha..."
His laugh was soft... but filled with madness.
He slowly lifted his head and looked at Shiro, who was still standing in the distance.
"Hahaha!!!"
Unknown laughed even louder.
He forced his body to stand up with his remaining destroyed body.
"Amazing..."
His voice was filled with genuine awe.
"I acknowledge you, Shiro!"
Unknown lifted his sword, which was embedded in the ground, with his remaining hand.
"You are truly one of the STRONGEST opponents I have ever faced!"
Around the world, millions of people stared at the broadcast screens with bated breath.
At the hunter headquarters, Gampler clenched her fists with a pale face.
"Shiro..."
Unknown's body began to tremble.
Thick black smoke poured out from his wounds.
The destroyed flesh began to knit back together forcefully.
That brutal regeneration caused his bones, muscles, and skin to reform... although it looked unstable.
Unknown stood tall once again.
His glowing red eyes stared at Shiro.
Then he raised his sword.
The space around the sword's blade began to crack.
Thin cracks spread like shattered glass in the air.
Shiro stared at him.
He tried to move his body.
But his body didn't respond.
His energy was completely depleted.
Shiro chuckled.
"Heh..."
Blood flowed from his lips.
"So... I lost this time, huh..."
Unknown took a deep breath.
Pure Darkness aura gathered in his sword.
The space around him began to split apart.
"Dimensional Slash."
One simple swing.
No explosion.
No massive light.
Just one thin line cleaving space itself.
Shiro didn't move.
He only stared straight ahead.
A split second later...
Shiro's body was cleaved perfectly into two pieces.
Time seemed to stop.
All over the world...
No one spoke.
The broadcast screens displayed the body of the Rank 1 Hunter falling to the ground.
The icon of humanity.
The symbol of human strength.
The hero who stood at the pinnacle.
Now...
Dead.
Fallen at the hands of a creature whose origin was not even known.
Unknown stood in the middle of the crater of destruction.
His sword still emitted an aura of darkness.
He stared at Shiro's body lying on the ground with a cold gaze.
Then he spoke softly.
"Humans..."
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"We shall meet again."
And the world fell silent.