Chapter 852: Deathwing and Boros Fall, Mercenary Tao Enters the Fray
Draconic blood erupted like a geyser, the scalding liquid instantly igniting the surrounding air. Kaito Shirogane's AT Field was uncharacteristically thin at this moment; the searing draconic blood sizzled against his Qilin Armor, sending wisps of blue smoke curling into the sky.
Yet Kaito remained utterly oblivious to it. Looking down at the headless, mangled torso of the black dragon that continued to thrash violently, he clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.
ROAR!
"HAH!"
Even without its head, the black dragon mobilized its Authorities to vibrate the atmosphere, unleashing a deafening draconic roar. As local space twisted under the sonic pressure, Kaito exhaled and countered in kind, detonating the Earth-Shattering Thunder Roar once more.
White-hot thermal energy, thunderous lightning, and concussive shockwaves collided at point-blank range. Kaito's physical frame shuddered under the kinetic impact, but Neltharion's hybrid dragon-man chassis suffered far worse. Scales splintered into airborne fragments, flesh and sinew tore apart, yet no matter how violently the dragon thrashed, it could not wrench itself free from Kaito's grip.
Those hands were like unyielding iron vices welded directly into its draconic flesh.
Kaito's eyes flickered continuously, his vision locked onto the trajectory of Saitama and Boros. Even though their clash had long since surpassed the tracking limits of mortal sight, through the synergistic focus of his Limit-Break Spiral and the Martial God's Ultimate Intent, Kaito could still perceive their movements across the horizon.
He spared only his peripheral vision for the black dragon beneath his hands. The creature possessed a formidable body, and its Authorities were reasonably functional.
Yet it lacked even a fraction of the suffocating pressure radiated by that ancient dragon slumbering on the moon.
The gulf between them was night and day.
Moreover, in terms of baseline combat affinity, Kaito was the ultimate mechanical hard-counter to this beast.
His hand-to-hand martial mastery thoroughly suppressed the dragon's kinetics; the Sixteen-Fold Kaio-Ken rendered him completely immune to its sovereign domain; and any devastating elemental damage was easily absorbed and neutralized by his layered immortality and instantaneous regeneration.
In every measurable parameter, Kaito was its absolute natural predator.
Kaito could even predict the creature's next tactical calculation. At this juncture, the only remaining play available to Neltharion was...
Dragon Form Unsealed!
Amidst the blinding white shockwaves, Neltharion's headless torso convulsed wildly, spewing gore across the crater. Stripped of alternatives, he unsealed his true draconic body.
Draconic language magic flared to life as the biological mass beneath Kaito's fingers shifted exponentially.
A gargantuan, terrifying form expanded outward once more. The physical anchor point where Kaito held the dragon distorted rapidly under the sudden change in scale. Finally, the severed cervical stump surged skyward, and an enormous, horned dragon skull coalesced within a wreath of golden magical runes.
A shattered head was never Neltharion's true fatal core.
A torrent of draconic flame surged from the newly formed maw, its searing heat and kinetic pressure instantly washing away the residual blast of the Earth-Shattering Thunder Roar. Kaito lowered his eyelids, raising his left arm before his chest.
Golden hexagons rippled into being. Because he felt mutual understanding and reverence toward warriors like Saitama and Boros, his AT Field had become thin and receptive; on that specific dimension, he was willing to devote his complete heart and soul to clashing against them.
This dragon, however, stirred not a shred of that reverence within him.
Golden lines of energy traced across his open palm, swiftly sketching out the contours of a celestial lance.
The Spear of Longinus resolved into physical existence.
The exact instant the dragon's regeneration completed, Kaito was already locked in a throwing stance.
The lance left his grip. Spacetime seemed to cease to exist along its vector; in a fraction of a microsecond, the spear struck the dragon's heart dead-center.
BANG!
Passing through without a hint of structural friction, the black armor that had easily repelled Tornado's telekinetic barrages shattered on impact. The Spear of Longinus caved through the dragon's chest, plunging clean through its back and vanishing into the edge of the sky. The titan let out an agonizing screech of mortal ruin.
The atmosphere detonated. A circular, blinding white shockwave exploded mid-air, sweeping outward like a category-twelve hurricane across the ruins of the city.
Makima was blown backward in an instant, followed by Bang and the wounded S-Class heroes, who were too battered to anchor their footing against the concussive squall.
Only Tornado stood her ground, her brow furrowed as she anchored herself with psychic wards.
She watched clearly as the warrior bearing the moniker Mercenary Tao for Fun materialized a golden lance from thin air, pierced the dragon's heart in an eye-blink, and phased directly in front of the beast's horned snout like an instantaneous displacement.
"Aargh!"
Neltharion felt his defenses dissolve into nothingness. The AT Field that had felt fragile moments ago was now as dense and impenetrable as a celestial crystal barrier shielding an entire world. His scales, muscle fibers, and reinforced skeleton were entirely bypassed, pierced through without resistance.
That strike was imbued with the absolute Authorities of Inevitable Strike and Absolute Penetration.
Before his racing thoughts could resolve the danger, a sharp, searing pain tore through the reverse-scale on his throat.
His golden slit-pupils focused instantly. Standing between his eyes was a man enveloped in blazing golden Ki, every muscle across his frame coiling with lethal kinetic force.
Kaito drew his fist backward, arching his torso like a drawn longbow, concentrating cataclysmic Ki upon his knuckles.
The next second, accompanied by a resounding, sovereign draconic roar, that concentrated energy detonated.
Dragon Fist!
Behind Kaito, the radiant golden phantom of a Super Saiyan flared to life. As the strike drove forward, Kaito felt his circulation align in flawless harmony, every drop of flaring Ki venting through the blow without a shred of internal friction.
The draconic shockwave tore through physical space.
Neltharion's three hearts seized in unison, a freezing numbness washing through his limbs as the shadow of absolute mortality engulfed him.
The distant murmur of rushing waters whispered against his ears; absolute Senra Intent of Death flowed across the sky like a tangible river.
Crash...
Neltharion felt as though an illusion was gripping his dying mind: a set of colossal double doors was creaking open, severing the boundary between the Underworld and reality.
BOOM!
Before his cognitive synapses could process the transition, the draconic shockwave pulverized his reinforced scales into fine dust.
Kaito turned his back with cool detachment, walking toward the perimeter of City A. Behind him, the colossal black dragon that spanned nearly half the municipal area detonated into an apocalyptic shower of blood and gore.
Because its mass was gargantuan, the falling chunks of meat resembled collapsing skyscrapers, blotting out the sky. Torrents of arterial blood were carried by the concussive shockwave, resembling a fractured crimson sea pouring from the heavens.
Splatter!
A torrential downpour of blood cascaded across the craters.
Tornado swept a single hand across the air, parting the descending storm of gore and shattered bones around the cluster of survivors. Amidst the deafening rumble, the leveled metropolis was rapidly blanketed beneath a sprawling expanse of severed draconic remains.
Rivers of crimson blood carved deep channels through the pulverized concrete.
You have slain Deathwing: Neltharion.
You have obtained S-Rank Singularity Point x 2.
You have obtained Dimensional Points x 120,000.
You have obtained Bloodline Item: Blood of the Dragon Emperor (World's Rarity).
You have obtained Material: Wings of Darkness (World's Rarity: Extreme).
Kaito took a single step forward. The air cracked beneath his heel, and his form vanished from the cratered wasteland while chunks of draconic flesh continued to rain down around him.
"That guy..."
Tornado clenched her small fists tightly. For the first time in memory, she had tasted the bitter helplessness of her own weakness, only for this Mercenary Tao to resolve the crisis with casual, off-handed brutality.
It was as though he had never considered anyone present worthy of his gaze!
Unlike Tornado's smoldering frustration, the surviving heroes breathed collective sighs of profound relief. Today's apocalyptic ordeal seemed to have drawn to an end; aside from the silent dreadnought still hovering above the ruins of City A, the hostile forces had been eradicated.
Naturally, City A itself had been wiped clean from the face of the Earth.
A streak of magenta-white light shrieked through the upper atmosphere. Spacetime and physical distance had ceased to hold meaning. Boros had once again breached that transcendent state he had reached just before kicking Mercenary Tao into lunar orbit.
He felt entirely omnipotent. With astronomical energy flooding his cells, his baseline velocity and explosive output reached their theoretical limits; paired with mimicking the unique kinetic mechanics of that human martial artist, he sustained this apex state effortlessly.
The moment a thought formed, the physical execution was already achieved.
If he willed himself to manifest on his opponent's left flank, his body was already standing there. If he willed his right fist to smash into his foe's jaw, the blow had already landed.
There was practically zero temporal interval separating intent from impact.
Thus, within Boros's tactical comprehension, this form of attack possessed zero structural flaws.
This was absolute invincibility!
Boros's life-burning roars detonated across cities and desolate badlands alike, the crust beneath his path caving inward under the pressure of his displacement.
Absolute velocity paired with absolute kinetic mass yielded unadulterated, absolute destruction.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!"
"Unleash your true might, human!"
"Show me! Show me what kind of power Mercenary Tao was anticipating all along!"
"Show me what lies beyond the summit where he and I stand!"
Boros's manic roars echoed from the left, from the right, from the horizon, and from directly overhead; at this velocity, sound waves could no longer track their trajectory.
Listening to the disorienting, erratic roars, Saitama furrowed his brow in mild irritation.
He could not deny that this alien marauder was displaying power he had never witnessed before. It was fundamentally distinct from that bizarre, hollow dreamscape on the moon.
That dreamscape had seemed vast, but it was empty, devoid of visceral weight.
Here, however, Saitama was feeling the genuine, dying radiance of a formidable warrior burning through his very soul.
Saitama respected that unyielding resolve, but he refused to let the collateral shockwaves inflict further devastation upon the world.
Amidst Boros's howling declarations, Saitama suddenly raised a hand. His acceleration was so blinding that Boros held zero time to react; the second Boros crossed the spatial coordinate, he was intercepted clean by that red-gloved hand, which seemed to have been resting there all along.
"Ugh!"
Boros's forward momentum ground to an abrupt halt, violently knocked out of his luminescent state.
He had failed to perceive, let alone comprehend, how Saitama had plucked him from the void. And the grip of that ridiculous red glove was terrifyingly, immovably stable!
"Hey. You're making way too much noise."
Saitama muttered. The next fraction of a second, his knees bent slightly, and the dense, compressed air shattered like brittle stone.
Boros felt his vision blur into static. Countless prismatic bands of light cascaded across his retinas as physical reality vanished, replaced by an incomprehensible, kaleidoscopic transit corridor.
BOOM!
Plunging deep into the ocean depths, it took several long seconds for Boros's senses to reconstitute. He swiveled his gaze across the horizon; the spatial coordinates here were staggering leagues away from where he had been intercepted.
Just what kind of power was this...?
The massive laceration carved into his back by the aquatic impact closed rapidly. He looked toward the shoreline, where the bald man stood calmly upon the sandy beach, finally grasping the true lethality and supremacy of his opponent.
It was not merely an absurd, impenetrable durability that had shrugged off his complete barrage without a scratch.
This man possessed velocity that outstripped him even in his ultimate state!
Boros shivered as though struck by an electric current. Though he still could not decipher the mechanism behind that strength, he had finally caught sight of the realm that stood above both himself and Mercenary Tao.
At the very least, during their duel earlier, Mercenary Tao had been entirely incapable of mounting a counter-attack against his Meteoric Burst.
Boros straightened his posture above the ocean waves, taking a heavy stride forward.
Hum!
Like a dropped animation frame, a single step sent magenta-white luminescence trailing across the sea. Boros phased directly to Saitama's flank, a hand-blade severing spacetime as it descended toward Saitama's neck.
The luminescent blade struck, yet Saitama raised his forearm once more, manifesting at an even higher velocity to block the path.
CLANG!
Saitama's boots skidded across the shoreline, yet his biomechanical posture remained completely rigid.
Boros registered the nuance instantly: this was not because the blow had overpowered Saitama, but simply because the loose sand lacked the structural mass to anchor his footing. Nothing more.
"You truly are formidable. State your name, human."
"Saitama."
Saitama replied calmly. He looked upon the alien warrior enveloped in blinding magenta-white light; the velocity, mass, and kinetic cadence this adversary commanded had shattered the ceilings of every Mysterious Being he had faced to date.
"Very well, Saitama!"
"Come! Strike with everything you have, and let me witness authentic might!"
Without awaiting a reply, Boros snapped both hands together. He could sense that his life was rapidly burning down to its final ember.
His biological cells were nearing complete exhaustion; this Super Meteoric Burst state imposed a catastrophic metabolic tax upon his anatomy.
Yet he harbored not a shred of regret. To witness true supremacy at the end of his journey across a dull, stagnant cosmos was the singular prize he had crossed the stars to claim.
Sizzle!
Cataclysmic reserves of energy concentrated within his core through the violent, desperate burning of his remaining life force. Channeling every erg through the glowing conduits lacing his chassis, the Dominator of the Universe gathered all that he was into a singular focus.
This ultimate technique would permanently destroy his biological functions and cellular regeneration, yet it would unleash the most radiant strike of his life.
Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon!
The volume of energy converging within Boros was horrifying. Even Saitama's expression shifted, his gaze turning serious. If he failed to intercept this blow, the entire crust of the planet would be obliterated.
This was a strike capable of cleansing all civilization from the Earth in a single stroke.
Hum!
Across the ocean, a silhouette tore through the atmosphere, yet neither Saitama nor Boros turned to look toward Mercenary Tao.
Kaito Shirogane hovered in mid-air, his pupils shifting into a kaleidoscopic, gemstone-like spectrum.
The Unknown Art was fully engaged, while his Limit-Break Spiral churned furiously across the upper sky.
Kaito intended to burn every detail of Boros's ultimate strike into his memory!
Saitama perceived Boros's absolute resolve. This was the first time he had sensed such a pure, unadorned intent from a Mysterious Being.
The purpose behind this strike was not to slaughter mortals, but to force him to draw upon his true might.
This was an adversary who was terrifyingly formidable, and completely pure in his pursuit.
Saitama settled his resolve. He took a heavy stride forward, pulling his right elbow back to his hip as an overwhelming, unshakeable will materialized around his fist.
Boros was blind to the phenomenon, but Kaito Shirogane's eyes instantly ruptured, streams of fresh blood trickling down his temples.
You have made contact with Concept: Absolute Destruction. You have made contact with Concept: Absolute Strike. You have made contact with...
Kaito's dark bangs whipped wildly backward in the wind, his eyes and the corners of his mouth curving into pure, manic ecstasy.
Boros unleashed his dying, all-out strike, and Saitama drove his fist forward in the exact same microsecond.
"Killer Move: Serious Series... Serious Punch!"
BOOM!
The atmosphere lost all sanity. The Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon—radiant enough to cleanse the continental crust—was shattered clean down the middle, alongside the vast majority of Boros's physical body, the ocean and atmosphere trailing behind him, and the shattered lunar debris drifting beyond the stratosphere.
All of it was disintegrated under the concussive wake of that singular fist.
Whoosh...
Boros's remaining form became as light and brittle as charred paper. Having burnt through virtually all of his cellular mass, his life force spent, he tumbled helplessly from the sky.
A hand caught him before he touched the ground.
Saitama looked down upon Boros, murmuring softly:
"You were really strong, Boros."
"Yeah... and then there's you..."
Saitama raised his head, meeting a pair of gemstone-like, bleeding eyes, and the golden Ki burning with escalating fury across that human's frame.
Kaito Shirogane's heart thumped at its absolute operational limit, the rapid, concussive beats merging into an unbroken hum before dropping into absolute silence.
"Mr. Saitama... I too... challenge you!"
The next second, the Crimson Great Sin erupted in full. The King of Wrath descended!
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