Facing Overhaul, Decade did not look even slightly worried. The man standing in front of him simply did not pose much of a threat to him, at least not in the way he was used to dealing with threats.
Overhaul could be dangerous, of course, but only if he managed to land a clean touch, and that was the one thing Decade had no intention of allowing. The enraged villain kept attacking him with wave after wave of stone spikes, trying to force him back and trap him in place, but Decade just avoided them with ease or destroyed them before they could get anywhere near him.
"Dismantle."
Overhaul was cut apart again in an instant, his body broken into pieces before he quickly used his Quirk to reconstruct himself and avoid dying from the damage.
He knew very well that if he stayed still for too long, this would become a one-sided fight, and the fact that Decade was not ending it immediately was the only reason he still had room to breathe.
That small opening gave him enough time to take one of his Quirk enhancement drugs, Trigger, and the moment it hit his system, the power of his Quirk grew stronger as he forced himself to keep fighting in a desperate bid for survival.
Now he was moving through the ruins of his own base while invisible slashes followed close behind him, cutting through the destroyed remains of the place and forcing him to keep adjusting his footing.
Several times, his leg or lower body was clipped by the unseen attacks, leaving him barely enough time to react before he would have lost even more of himself. Fortunately for him, the Trigger and his reconstructed Quirk gave him just enough power to keep up with the destructive force of Decade's Dismantles, even if it was only barely.
Overhaul ducked low, his hand shooting up to grab his own neck just before his head could be fully separated, and he reattached it before the damage could become fatal. His breathing had already grown heavier, and now fear, adrenaline, survival instinct, and the effect of Trigger all worked together to push him past his normal limit.
He was not fighting like a man in control anymore. He was fighting like someone who had realized too late that staying alive was the only thing he could still afford to care about.
Every time he lost too many parts of his body, he was forced to use his Quirk on his own defeated henchmen just to patch himself back together.
It was ugly, desperate, and far below the level of confidence he had shown earlier, but at this point he no longer had the luxury of caring. All that mattered now was that he kept moving, kept rebuilding, and kept trying to survive long enough to find some opening that might let him turn the situation around or escape.
Their fight tore through the underground facility, destroying walls, pillars, and entire sections of the base as they moved. The constant shockwaves and reconstruction from Overhaul's Quirk left the area looking less like a hideout and more like a disaster zone. Neither of them showed any sign of slowing down as they smashed through the final ceiling separating them from the surface.
Decade narrowed his gaze as he adjusted to the wider space, now seeing that they were surrounded by heroes, policemen, and the remaining yakuza members all at once. It was a mess, but it was the kind of mess he had already expected.
Decade narrowed his eyes slightly as he landed on the street. This was far more open than the underground corridors. There were people everywhere.
And unfortunately, Overhaul noticed it too. The moment his feet touched the ground, he rushed toward the nearest yakuza member without hesitation.
"Boss!?" the man shouted in confusion.
Overhaul grabbed him by the face.
The man's scream lasted less than a second before his body broke apart and merged into Overhaul's own. Cracks disappeared from his skin, broken bones repaired themselves, and fresh mass swelled across his damaged frame.
Several nearby officers immediately stepped back in horror.
"What the hell was that?!"
"He absorbed him!"
"Get away from him!"
Overhaul ignored all of them.
His eyes immediately shifted toward a nearby policeman who had been confronting the yakuza member moments earlier.
The officer froze in shock and fear, too afraid to react. Overhaul lunged toward him.
"Black Flash."
Black and crimson lightning exploded across the street. The impact struck the side of Overhaul's head before he could reach the officer. The force twisted his body sideways and launched him through the air like a rag doll.
Decade had suddenly appeared beside the shocked officer, keeping his attention on Overhaul while speaking in a flat tone.
"Oi, your fight is with me."
The officer looked between him and Overhaul.
"...Thanks." He muttered weakly.
Overhaul crashed through a nearby building, tore through a wall, bounced across the pavement, and rolled several more times before finally stopping.
His body was broken in multiple places. He immediately placed a hand against himself.
Bones shifted. Muscles reconstructed. Damaged organs repaired themselves. By the time he pushed himself back up, his body was already finished rebuilding.
Then he saw Decade already standing in front of him again. The black lightning coating his fist made Overhaul's eyes widen.
"Black Flash!"
The punch crashed directly into his stomach. The street beneath Overhaul shattered.
His body folded around the attack before being launched into the air.
The third Black Flash was noticeably stronger than the previous two.
With every Black Flash, the user entered the zone and pushed themselves beyond their normal limit, sharpening the user's understanding of cursed energy, placing them into a state where they could draw out far more of their potential, reaching around 120% of what they could normally do.
Overhaul's body was sent flying like a ragdoll, and a few people nearby could not help but stare at him in silence as he crashed back down and shattered the stone beneath him, kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
Before the dust could settle, stone spikes burst upward from the ground in every direction. Several yakuza members were impaled instantly. Police officers screamed as they jumped back. A few weaker heroes were caught as well, suffering injuries as the spikes erupted beneath them.
Overhaul didn't care, now bloody and visibly injured, dragged himself toward the bodies pinned on the spikes and reached out with shaking hands.
He started breaking their bodies apart and merging them with his own again, using them to repair himself and restore what Decade had destroyed.
When he had healed enough to keep going, he did it again, and then again, taking in more bodies to force himself further ahead.
His figure swelled and twisted, growing larger by the second until he became a massive humanoid monstrosity with six arms, sharp claws, and huge wings spread behind him. Only his enraged face remained clearly visible on the oversized body, small and warped against the rest of the mass.
Decade landed back in front of him without a trace of concern, his gaze still calm as it locked onto the monster standing before him.
"You really are something," Decade said plainly. "You spend all this time talking about curing the world, yet you didn't hesitate to kill and use all these people the moment things stopped going your way."
Overhaul's massive body trembled.
"You're a disgrace to even call yourself a doctor." Decade said, his voice plain and almost tired.
"SHUT UP!" Overhaul roared, his voice shaking with pure rage.
The roar shook nearby windows.
"AS LONG AS I KILL YOU, THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS!"
At this point, Overhaul barely sounded coherent anymore.
To survive, his body had been pushed too far, his mind was hanging on by a thread, Trigger continued flooding his system, multiple Quirks were now merged into one body, and Quirk had all been pushed beyond their limit by Decade.
Even so, he still lunged forward, driven by rage and the last bit of stubbornness he had left.
Decade simply raised two fingers toward the now monstrous Overhaul.
"Dismantle."
The invisible slash hit his body again, but this time it bounced off almost harmlessly.
Decade's eyes shifted slightly, and a small note of amusement appeared in his voice. "Oh? Your Quirk actually evolved."
He had not expected that messing around with Bird Face, constantly forcing him into a corner, he had accidentally pushed him into a Quirk Awakening.
Now, after merging with people, Overhaul could access portions of their Quirks as well. The effects were weaker than the originals, but they were still there, enough to force them into activation once they had been absorbed.
Overhaul's breathing had already become rough, and he was starting to sound less and less human with every word he screamed.
"I'M GOING TO RIP YOU APART LIMB BY LIMB!" Overhaul roared.
The massive creature took a step forward.
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
Another step.
"I'LL KILL EVERYONE YOU LOVE!"
The ground cracked beneath his feet.
"THEN I'LL RID THIS WORLD OF THIS DISEASE CALLED QUIRKS!"
Decade looked at him with a bored expression, almost like he had already heard enough.
"You really have nothing else to offer, huh?" Decade asked.
He sounded boring, ignoring Overhaul's expression.
"Even after being pushed this far, all you can do is cling to that same ideal."
Decade spun the card between his fingers once before looking back up at the gigantic monster standing before him.
"Then drown in your ideals and die."
He inserted the card into his Driver.
Form Ride: Priestess!
Light spread across his body.
His appearance began to change.
His body shifted, the form changing into one with long, straight dark hair that fell neatly around his face, framed by straight-cut bangs and a braided band of hair resting naturally across the top like a headband.
His skin turned pale, almost ethereal, and his dark eyes gained a soft but unsettling glow. His clothes changed with the same smooth motion into an elegant black and light-white outfit that blended futuristic laboratory wear with formal design, complete with a long white overcoat, dark inner lining, sharp paneling, and broad shoulders.
Beneath that, a high-collared sweater and a dark ribbon tie sat neatly against his neck, while the rest of the outfit settled into a layered, structured look with dark translucent stockings and white futuristic ankle boots accented with black straps.
Using this new form for the first time, Decade simply raised his right hand forward. In response, black Originium crystals erupted from the ground around him, rising like jagged pillars before breaking apart into countless sharp fragments. The crystals hovered in the air for a brief moment before launching themselves toward Overhaul from every direction.
Now possessing a far larger and stronger body than before, Overhaul raised his massive arms in front of himself and blocked the incoming barrage. The Originium crystals shattered against his thick skin one after another, scattering black fragments across the street without leaving any visible damage. Seeing this, Overhaul let out a growl and continued his charge, convinced the attack had accomplished nothing.
Decade, meanwhile, simply lowered his hand and slipped both hands into his pockets.
The shattered Originium crystals floating around Overhaul suddenly broke apart even further, crumbling into countless grains of black dust. Carried by the wind and the force of his own movements, the dust drifted around him and entered his body through every exposed wound, cut, and opening without him noticing.
Still completely unaware of what had just happened, Overhaul continued rushing toward Decade. His enormous feet shook the ground with every step, cracking the pavement beneath him as he rapidly closed the distance. His six massive arms flexed and tensed, ready to tear Decade apart the moment he got within reach.
Yet Decade remained exactly where he was. He neither stepped back nor prepared to defend himself. His calm gaze simply remained fixed on Overhaul's approaching figure.
Then small black crystals began to emerge from Overhaul's body. At first, they were barely noticeable. Tiny black specks appeared across his arms and shoulders, resembling little more than dirt or debris left behind from the battle.
A second later, those specks became crystals. Overhaul's charge slowed as the crystals spread.
They crawled across his skin, expanded through his flesh, and erupted from beneath his body. Black Originium rapidly consumed him from the inside out, spreading faster and faster as Decade exercised his absolute authority over Originium itself.
"What...?" Overhaul muttered, finally noticing something was wrong.
His massive body stumbled. He tried to move. Tried to use his Quirk. Tried to reconstruct himself. But none of it mattered.
The Originium continued spreading relentlessly, swallowing his arms, torso, legs, wings, and finally his face. For a brief moment, a colossal black crystal statue stood where Overhaul had been.
Then it shattered.
The wind swept through the battlefield, carrying countless black crystal fragments away into the air like dust.
And just like that, Overhaul was gone.
The entire process happened so quickly that most of the people present failed to fully understand what they had just witnessed. One moment the massive monster was charging forward, and the next he had completely disappeared.
The heroes, police officers, and surviving yakuza members could only stare at the empty space where he had stood.
What had seemed like a desperate battle that might cost countless lives had ended in mere seconds.
Decade returned to his base form and calmly walked toward the spot where Overhaul had vanished. Reaching down, he picked up a card lying on the ground among the rubble and dust.
He examined it briefly before slipping it into his pocket.
What none of them noticed was that tiny black Originium crystals had quietly begun forming on the surface of his Form Ride: Priestess card.
The crystals spread slowly across its surface before fading from sight. Then, standing directly behind Decade, a faint spectral figure appeared.
Long dark hair flowed gently behind her. Her pale form seemed almost translucent, as though she existed somewhere between reality and a dream.
Invisible to the world. Unseen by everyone and even Decade himself.
Priestess smiled. A warmth entered her eyes as she looked at the young man standing before her.
Slowly, she stepped closer and wrapped her slender ghostly arms around him from behind, resting her head lightly against his back.
The gesture was gentle. Familiar.
As though she had been searching for him for a very long time. A soft smile appeared on her lips.
"I finally found you again..." Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
But no one reacted, no one could hear her. No one even knew she was there. Her eyes remained fixed on him as if afraid he might disappear if she looked away again.
"Ryo."