Dark: Wrong answer, motherfucker.
Sereon disappeared.
Dark had already begun moving when Suigōraku struck Kyuketsu from below.
The impact tore Dark's arm upward and opened the space beneath his ribs. Sereon's shoulder entered first, driving into the damaged section of Dark's chest with enough force to lift him from the broken surface. Dark's feet left the ground. Before his body could travel farther, Sereon's free hand caught his wrist and pulled him back into range.
A knee entered Dark's stomach.
Blood left his mouth.
Sereon released him.
Dark crossed several hundred metres before his boots struck what remained of Kakō Seishin Kyōiki. The surface split beneath him, but Dark stayed upright. Black material tightened around his damaged ribs. Kyuketsu lowered beside him.
Sereon was already walking toward him.
No false bodies surrounded him.
No altered horizon.
No voices behind Dark.
The remaining eyes across Soul Ryūgu watched him in complete silence.
Far beyond the ruined battlefield, another violent flash appeared where Archanos and True Ancient Sukojo had disappeared. The light reached them first. The force arrived several seconds later and passed harmlessly around the region Raiku had created.
Dark did not look.
Neither did Sereon.
Sereon: You wanted everything.
Dark wiped the blood from his mouth.
Sereon: You wanted the agreement.
Another step.
Sereon: My purpose.
Another.
Sereon: What waits above you.
Dark raised Kyuketsu.
Sereon stopped.
Sereon: You believed defeating me would purchase the explanation.
Dark: No.
Sereon's eyes narrowed slightly.
Dark: I believed you would tell me before I beat the shit out of you.
Dark shifted his grip.
Dark: Now I know I'm doing both.
Sereon moved.
Dark met him.
Black and silver collided.
The broken World beneath them vanished outward from the impact.
Dark forced Kyuketsu down.
Sereon turned Suigōraku sideways and allowed the heavier pressure to slide across the flat of his blade. Dark immediately changed direction and drove his elbow toward Sereon's face.
Sereon leaned inside the strike instead of away from it.
Dark's elbow passed behind his head.
Sereon's forehead struck Dark's mouth.
Dark's teeth cut through the inside of his lip.
Suigōraku came low.
Dark blocked.
Sereon twisted the blade around Kyuketsu's guard and stepped between Dark's feet.
Dark saw the position.
He knew what came next.
His hips moved before Sereon did.
Sereon stopped.
Dark's eyes sharpened.
Nothing happened.
Then Sereon's fist entered the side of his liver.
Dark's body folded.
The attack had come from the wrong side.
Not impossible.
Not deceptive.
Simply wrong compared to everything Sereon had taught him to expect.
Sereon caught Dark behind the neck and drove his face into the reflective surface.
The ground cratered.
Dark planted one hand.
Black material erupted beneath his palm and pushed.
He tore himself free before Suigōraku could descend through the back of his skull.
Dark rotated low.
His heel came for Sereon's knee.
Sereon raised the leg.
Dark expected that.
Black material rose behind Sereon.
A blade formed.
Sereon did not turn.
He stepped into Dark instead.
The black weapon missed his back because Sereon had closed the distance Dark intended to trap him inside.
Suigōraku entered Dark's shoulder.
The blade drove through.
Dark caught Sereon's wrist.
Sereon released the sword.
Dark's grip closed around the empty arm.
Suigōraku dissolved inside his shoulder.
Dark's eyes widened.
It reconstructed in Sereon's other hand.
The silver blade entered Dark's thigh.
Sereon pulled upward.
Muscle opened.
Dark's leg weakened immediately.
Black material rushed into the wound.
Sereon kicked it before it finished forming.
The reinforcement ruptured.
Dark's knee touched the ground.
Sereon looked down at him.
Sereon: You learned.
Dark's breathing remained controlled.
Sereon: That was your mistake.
Dark looked up.
Sereon: You believed learning me would remain useful after I learned what you had learned.
Dark stood.
The injured leg shook once.
Black material wrapped around the thigh and knee again.
Dark: That's a lot of learning for somebody still getting hit.
Sereon attacked.
Dark raised Kyuketsu.
The silver blade stopped before contact.
Dark did not move.
Sereon's knee came instead.
Dark blocked it.
The moment his forearm touched Sereon's leg, Suigōraku changed direction and cut through the black material stabilising Dark's ribs.
The support split.
Dark's damaged bones shifted.
One fractured rib drove deeper.
His breath stopped.
Sereon's elbow struck his jaw.
Dark stumbled.
A second elbow entered his throat.
Dark's head snapped backward.
Suigōraku came across his stomach.
Dark stepped away.
The edge still opened him.
Dark's black material moved.
Sereon watched it.
Dark saw him watching.
The material stopped halfway toward the wound.
Sereon's eyes narrowed.
Dark left himself bleeding.
Then he attacked.
Kyuketsu came high.
Sereon blocked.
Dark opened his free hand.
Sereon prepared for Ruler's Authority.
Dark used nothing.
His fist struck Sereon's ribs instead.
Soul Ryūgu cracked.
Sereon accepted the punch.
Dark expected the counter.
Nothing came.
Dark struck again.
Sereon's body moved backward.
Dark followed.
That was the mistake.
Suigōraku came through the space between their bodies.
The blade entered Dark beneath the sternum and passed out through his back.
Dark stopped.
Sereon looked into his eyes.
Sereon: You stopped trusting your senses.
Dark's fingers tightened around Kyuketsu.
Sereon: So I stopped lying to them.
Sereon drove the blade deeper.
Dark coughed blood.
Sereon: You stopped trusting the first opening.
Dark reached for Sereon's wrist.
Sereon moved it before Dark's hand arrived.
Sereon: So I began giving you real ones.
His foot struck Dark's damaged knee.
The leg collapsed.
Dark dropped lower along Suigōraku.
Sereon: You stopped chasing me.
Dark caught the silver blade with his bare hand.
Blood ran between his fingers.
Sereon: So now I know exactly when you will stay.
Dark's eyes hardened.
Sereon pulled Suigōraku free.
Dark moved.
Sereon's hand was already there.
His palm struck Dark's face.
Dark crossed the surface.
He hit once.
Rolled.
His broken leg failed beneath him.
Dark forced himself upright with black material.
Sereon did not pursue immediately.
That made Dark look at him.
Sereon stood where the exchange had begun.
Suigōraku hung beside his body.
Sereon: You believe adaptation is a staircase.
Dark said nothing.
Sereon: That once you understand something, you have climbed beyond it.
Sereon began walking.
Sereon: It is not.
His human eyes remained fixed on Dark.
Sereon: It is a conversation.
Sereon lifted Suigōraku.
Sereon: You answered me.
The eyes across Soul Ryūgu opened wider.
Sereon: I answered back.
Dark's expression hardened.
Sereon moved.
The distance disappeared.
Kyuketsu rose.
Suigōraku struck from above.
Dark blocked.
The impact drove him knee-deep into the surface.
Sereon changed grip.
Dark saw the shoulder rotate.
He moved his head.
The blade did not come.
Sereon's boot struck Dark's wrist instead.
Kyuketsu left his hand.
Black material caught the sword.
Sereon had expected that.
His free hand caught the black substance holding Kyuketsu and pulled.
Dark's arm moved with it.
For half a second, Dark's torso opened.
Sereon punched him in the chest.
The remaining support around Dark's ribs failed.
Bone shifted inward.
Dark's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Sereon grabbed his face and drove him backward through a tower.
The white structure exploded around them.
Dark caught Sereon's forearm.
Green electricity tore across his hand.
The current entered Soul Ryūgu.
Several pale eyes closed.
Sereon tightened his grip anyway.
Dark drove his knee upward.
Sereon caught it against his thigh.
Dark released a second current through the black material wrapped around Sereon's ankle.
Sereon's footing broke.
Dark used the opening.
His forehead smashed into Sereon's face.
Soul Ryūgu cracked.
Dark did it again.
A white plate split completely.
Sereon released him.
Dark caught Kyuketsu from the black material beside him and cut across Sereon's chest.
Suigōraku rose late.
The black blade entered.
Blood opened across the white armor.
Dark stepped in.
His fist struck the same wound.
Sereon was launched through the ruined tower.
Dark followed.
Sereon recovered before reaching the next structure.
Dark opened one hand.
The surrounding pressure changed.
Dark: Hunter Magic.
Sereon's eyes moved.
Dark: Ruler's Authority.
Gravity struck sideways.
Not downward.
Sereon's body was ripped across the Domain.
He changed posture immediately, turning into the force rather than resisting it.
Dark was already waiting at the end.
Kyuketsu came down.
Sereon blocked.
The gravity vanished.
Sereon's body compensated for force that no longer existed.
Dark's knee struck his stomach.
Soul Ryūgu bent inward.
Sereon coughed blood.
Dark caught his throat.
Black material closed around the white plates.
Dark: Conversation, right?
Sereon looked at him.
Dark tightened his grip.
Dark: My turn.
He threw him downward.
Sereon struck the surface hard enough for the remaining section of the World to buckle around him.
Dark followed.
Black flame covered his free hand.
Sereon looked upward.
Dark: Infernal Blackout.
Dark drove the flame down.
Sereon moved.
The black fire erased the place he had occupied.
Dark landed beside the absence.
Suigōraku entered his back.
Dark's eyes widened.
The blade passed through him.
Sereon stood behind him.
No illusion had placed him there.
He had simply used the moment Dark committed to the flame.
Dark reached backward.
Sereon kicked his damaged leg.
The knee broke sideways.
Dark fell.
Sereon pulled Suigōraku free and struck Dark across the back with the flat.
Dark was launched through the surface.
He entered the lower layers of Kakō Seishin Kyōiki.
Sereon followed.
Dark rotated in the fall.
Kyuketsu met Suigōraku.
They passed through one silver pathway.
Then another.
Sereon kicked Dark in the chest.
Dark caught the leg.
Sereon allowed it.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Sereon twisted in his grip.
The movement pulled Dark's broken wrist into the wrong angle.
His fingers opened.
Sereon's heel struck the side of his head.
Dark spun through open darkness.
Black material caught a nearby pathway and pulled him toward it.
Sereon was already there.
Dark released the tendril before arriving.
His body fell past the path.
Sereon looked down.
Dark smiled faintly.
Dark: You expected me to save myself.
Sereon: Of course.
Dark: That's your problem.
Black material erupted from Dark's back and threw him upward from an entirely different direction.
Kyuketsu struck Suigōraku.
Their swords locked.
Dark pushed.
Sereon pushed back.
Dark's broken knee hung useless beneath him.
Black material held the joint where it belonged.
Blood continued flowing from the wound through his chest.
Sereon's Soul Ryūgu carried several deep openings.
Neither man gave the other distance.
Dark: You keep learning what I do.
Sereon: Yes.
Dark: Then learn this.
Sereon waited.
Dark's expression became colder.
Dark: I don't owe myself consistency.
For the first time, Sereon's eyes changed.
Not confusion.
Attention.
Dark released Kyuketsu.
Sereon immediately adjusted for the black material that had repeatedly caught the weapon.
Nothing caught it.
Kyuketsu fell.
Sereon's eyes moved down.
Dark punched him.
The fist entered his jaw.
Soul Ryūgu split.
Sereon moved backward.
Dark did not retrieve Kyuketsu.
He attacked barehanded.
Sereon blocked the first punch.
Dark's second came from the same side.
Sereon caught it.
Dark headbutted him.
The damaged plate across Sereon's face broke farther.
Sereon brought Suigōraku up.
Dark stepped into the cut.
The blade opened his shoulder.
Dark's elbow struck Sereon's throat.
Sereon moved back.
Dark followed.
His damaged leg should not have supported the movement.
Black material changed the angle of his hip and carried the weight somewhere else.
Sereon's smaller eyes moved toward it.
Dark saw them.
He changed the support again.
Sereon attacked the new position.
Dark removed the support completely.
His own leg collapsed.
The sword passed above him.
Dark fell beneath Suigōraku and caught Sereon's ankle.
Sereon's eyes widened.
Dark pulled.
Sereon lost balance.
Dark used his falling body to rotate.
His heel struck Sereon's mouth.
Both men hit the pathway.
Dark rolled first.
Kyuketsu remained far below them.
Sereon stood.
Dark stood slower.
Sereon watched him.
Dark: What's wrong?
Sereon: Nothing.
Dark: Bullshit.
Sereon lowered Suigōraku.
Dark's breathing remained heavy.
Dark: You figured out how I fight after learning you.
Dark moved his damaged wrist once.
Dark: So I'm done fighting like the guy who learned you.
Sereon: That is not profound.
Dark: Wasn't trying to be.
Sereon: Abandoning experience does not make you difficult to understand.
Dark: I'm not abandoning it.
Dark took one step forward.
The damaged knee nearly failed.
He let it.
His body dipped.
Black material pulled him sideways instead of upright.
Dark crossed the distance at an ugly angle.
Sereon moved to meet the path.
Dark changed it halfway through.
His shoulder struck Sereon's chest.
Sereon staggered.
Dark: I'm letting myself disagree with it.
Dark punched.
Sereon blocked.
Dark used the blocked fist as leverage and kicked from the broken leg.
The strike should have been weak.
Black material tightened through the entire limb at the moment of impact.
The heel struck Sereon's ribs.
White plates shattered.
Sereon moved backward.
Dark followed.
Sereon: You are making yourself inefficient.
Dark: Only if I'm trying to look good.
Suigōraku cut across Dark's chest.
Dark accepted the wound.
Sereon stepped inside for the follow-up.
Dark stepped away.
Sereon stopped.
Dark smiled through the blood.
Dark: See?
Sereon remained still.
Dark: Even I thought I'd stay.
Sereon's eyes narrowed.
Dark raised his empty hands.
Dark: You can't read a decision I haven't agreed with yet.
Sereon: Every decision requires intent.
Dark: Yeah.
Dark's smile disappeared.
Dark: Intent doesn't require permission.
Sereon attacked.
Dark moved.
Suigōraku crossed his throat.
Dark leaned away.
Sereon changed direction.
Dark stepped inside.
Sereon's knee rose.
Dark caught it.
Sereon expected him to release early.
Dark held.
The knee remained trapped.
Sereon's eyes sharpened.
Dark: Wrong Dark.
His fist entered Sereon's stomach.
The impact folded Soul Ryūgu inward.
Sereon coughed blood.
Dark released the leg.
Sereon expected the immediate follow-up.
Dark turned away from him.
Sereon's eyes widened.
Dark reached downward.
Black material shot through several layers beneath them.
Far below, it found Kyuketsu.
Sereon moved.
Dark did not retrieve the sword.
The black material pulled Dark instead.
His body disappeared downward.
Sereon's Suigōraku cut through empty space.
Dark passed several pathways and caught Kyuketsu himself.
The moment his fingers touched the hilt, Sereon arrived.
Their swords collided.
Dark's grin was gone.
Sereon's expression had become completely serious.
Dark: There.
Sereon: What?
Dark pushed Kyuketsu against him.
Dark: That's the face.
Sereon's eyes narrowed.
Dark: You finally stopped looking at me like an answer.
Dark leaned closer.
Dark: Now you're looking at me like a problem.
Sereon: You misunderstand.
Dark: Probably.
The word caught Sereon for less than a fraction of a second.
Dark's black material erupted from beneath Sereon's feet.
Not as a weapon.
As a platform.
It lifted him.
Suigōraku moved automatically to cut through it.
Dark had expected that reaction.
Kyuketsu entered the opening beneath his arm.
The black blade passed through Soul Ryūgu and out Sereon's back.
Sereon's body tightened.
Dark stepped forward.
Dark: That's useful too.
Sereon caught Dark's wrist.
His expression changed.
Dark felt it.
The grip became different.
No manipulation.
No trick.
Sereon twisted.
Dark's wrist broke completely.
Kyuketsu remained embedded in Sereon's body.
Dark's hand opened.
Sereon's elbow struck his throat.
Dark stumbled.
Sereon pulled himself off Kyuketsu.
Blood followed.
His knee struck Dark's stomach.
Dark folded.
Sereon's hand caught the back of his head.
Dark looked up.
Sereon: You are correct.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Sereon: I was treating you as an answer.
Sereon drove Dark's face into his knee.
Blood erupted.
Dark's body rose from the impact.
Sereon caught his throat before he could leave range.
Sereon: That was my mistake.
Dark grabbed his arm.
Sereon: You are not the answer.
His fingers tightened.
Dark's feet left the pathway.
Sereon looked directly into the white beneath Dark's shadowed eyes.
Sereon: You are the question.
Dark stared back at him.
Blood ran from his nose and mouth.
Then Dark's expression hardened.
Dark: Good.
Sereon's eyes narrowed.
Dark: Questions are harder to kill.
Black material burst from Dark's chest.
Sereon moved.
Too late.
Not because the material attacked him.
It wrapped around Dark.
Across his ribs.
His shoulder.
His destroyed wrist.
His ruined knee.
His spine.
Not armor.
Structure.
The black substance pulled different parts of Dark's body in directions his muscles were no longer capable of producing themselves.
Sereon released his throat and stepped back.
Dark landed.
Wrong.
His weight sat too far forward.
His right shoulder hung lower.
His injured leg barely touched the ground.
Kyuketsu remained several metres away.
Sereon watched every detail.
Dark rolled his neck.
The black material tightened.
Dark: You learned how I move.
Sereon: Yes.
Dark looked at him.
Dark: Then I guess I should stop moving like me.
Sereon attacked.
Dark stepped to the wrong side.
Suigōraku came down.
Dark's shoulder should not have been able to rotate far enough.
The black material rotated it for him.
His forearm caught Sereon's wrist.
Dark's fist came from an angle with no proper mechanical foundation.
It struck Sereon's cheek.
Soul Ryūgu cracked.
Sereon immediately adjusted.
Dark's next punch came normally.
Sereon blocked the wrong angle.
The fist entered his ribs.
Dark changed footing.
Then changed it again halfway through the step.
Sereon's eyes began moving faster.
Dark ducked before there was an attack.
Sereon stopped the attack he had been about to make.
Dark rose into him.
His head struck Sereon's jaw.
Sereon moved back.
Dark followed with a broken rhythm that no trained fighter would willingly use.
He overstepped.
Corrected with black material.
Allowed his damaged knee to fold.
Used the collapse to enter beneath Suigōraku.
Caught Sereon's wrist with his broken hand because black material closed the fingers for him.
Sereon twisted free.
Dark let the wrist twist farther.
The rotation turned his entire body.
His elbow struck Sereon's throat.
Sereon stumbled.
Dark's knee rose.
Sereon blocked.
Dark had never intended to kick.
The black material around his other leg pulled him sideways instead.
His shoulder slammed into Sereon.
They crossed the pathway.
Sereon recovered first.
Suigōraku opened Dark's back.
Dark used the impact to accelerate.
Sereon's eyes widened.
Dark turned the forced movement into another strike.
His fist hit Sereon's face.
Dark: Stop trying to make sense of me.
Sereon blocked the next punch.
Sereon: You are deliberately degrading your own technique.
Dark: No.
Dark released the fist Sereon held.
His entire arm went loose.
Sereon's grip moved with it.
Dark stepped closer.
Dark: I'm degrading your version of it.
Sereon stared at him.
Dark: Mine still works.
Dark's forehead struck him.
The remaining face plate across Soul Ryūgu split.
Sereon moved backward.
Dark did not pursue.
That decision stopped Sereon again.
Dark stood breathing heavily.
Black material continued holding his body in a shape it could no longer maintain alone.
Dark looked down at his own broken hand.
Then toward Sereon.
Dark: You know what your problem is?
Sereon: Enlighten me.
Dark: You think understanding something puts you ahead of it.
Sereon said nothing.
Dark: Sometimes understanding just tells you exactly how fucked you are.
Sereon's expression remained calm.
Dark: You understand me better now.
Dark raised his ruined hand.
Black material closed the fingers.
Dark: Congratulations.
Kyuketsu flew back into it.
Dark: Now survive it.
The broken World disappeared beneath both of them.
They collided.
For several seconds there was no Influence.
No illusion.
No false death.
No distortion.
Only violence.
Kyuketsu struck Suigōraku.
Sereon changed grip.
Dark changed his entire posture.
Sereon's elbow cut across Dark's cheek.
Dark's fist struck Sereon's ribs.
Suigōraku opened Dark's thigh.
Kyuketsu cut through Soul Ryūgu's shoulder.
Sereon kicked Dark's knee.
The black material prevented the leg from folding.
Dark headbutted him.
Sereon caught Dark behind the neck.
Dark caught Sereon's elbow.
Both rotated.
Both attacked.
Black and silver passed within inches of each other's throats.
Dark stepped inside.
Sereon did the same.
Their shoulders collided.
The World beneath them broke.
They entered the empty structure below it still fighting.
Dark blocked high.
Sereon cut low.
Dark accepted the wound.
Sereon expected the counter.
Dark gave him none.
Sereon hesitated.
Dark punched him.
Sereon recovered.
Dark had already moved.
Suigōraku passed through the space he left.
Kyuketsu struck Sereon's side.
Soul Ryūgu opened.
Dark pulled the sword free.
Sereon's elbow struck his temple.
Dark's vision flashed white.
Sereon kicked him away.
Dark crossed a distant World.
He hit the surface.
Sereon appeared above him.
Dark raised Kyuketsu.
The sword met Suigōraku.
Sereon pressed.
Dark's body sank into the World beneath him.
Sereon: You cannot remain inconsistent forever.
Dark: Don't need to.
The surface cracked around Dark's back.
Sereon: Your body is already failing.
Dark: Also don't need that forever.
Sereon's eyes narrowed.
Dark pushed.
Sereon: Then what exactly do you need?
Dark looked up at him.
For a moment, there was nothing playful in his face.
Nothing reckless.
Nothing uncertain.
Dark: One mistake.
Sereon went still.
Dark smiled faintly.
Dark: Yours.
Ruler's Authority exploded outward.
Not toward Sereon.
Toward the entire World.
The planet beneath them compressed.
Sereon's footing changed with it.
Dark released the pressure.
The World rebounded.
Sereon rose several inches.
Only several.
Dark moved.
Kyuketsu came for his throat.
Suigōraku caught it.
Sereon had recovered.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Sereon: Not yet.
Dark's smile disappeared.
Sereon struck.
The silver blade tore Kyuketsu from Dark's hand.
Sereon's fist entered Dark's chest.
Black material burst across his back.
Dark was launched from the World.
Sereon followed.
The next strike opened Dark's side.
The next broke his remaining stable leg.
The next entered his shoulder.
Dark tried to turn.
Sereon's knee struck his stomach.
Dark folded.
Sereon caught him by the face.
For the first time since Dark had changed his rhythm, Sereon was ahead again.
Dark felt it immediately.
Sereon's eyes had stopped chasing the irregular movements.
He was no longer trying to understand every contradiction.
He had changed too.
Again.
Sereon: I do not need you consistent.
Dark's eyes narrowed behind Sereon's hand.
Sereon: I only need you damaged.
Sereon threw him.
Dark crossed the void between Worlds.
He struck one.
Passed through it.
Entered another.
Passed through that too.
Sereon followed him across the destruction.
Dark tried to raise Kyuketsu.
His wrist failed.
Suigōraku struck the weapon away.
Sereon's fist hit Dark's mouth.
Dark's head snapped back.
Another punch entered his ribs.
Another struck the side of his throat.
Sereon caught his shoulder.
The joint dislocated.
Dark's arm dropped.
Sereon drove his knee into Dark's chest.
The sternum cracked.
Dark disappeared downward through the World.
Sereon followed.
They tore through the crust.
Mantle.
Core.
Dark emerged from the opposite side first.
Sereon came behind him.
Suigōraku entered Dark's back.
The blade appeared through his chest.
Dark's body stopped.
Sereon held him there.
The ruined World broke behind them.
Dark looked down at the silver point protruding from him.
Black material moved toward the wound.
Sereon cut through it with his free hand before it could reinforce him.
Dark coughed blood.
Sereon leaned closer.
Sereon: You wanted me to make a mistake.
Dark's hand tightened weakly around empty space.
Sereon: You forgot something.
Dark's eyes shifted toward him.
Sereon: I can wait too.
Suigōraku tore free.
Dark fell.
For several seconds, he did not move.
His body rotated slowly through the open distance beyond the ruined World.
Blood followed him.
Kyuketsu drifted far away.
The black material across his body weakened.
One section detached.
Then another.
Dark's damaged leg hung at an angle it should not have held.
His left arm barely moved.
His chest no longer rose properly.
Far beyond the fight, Tier's displays changed.
The lines moving across his visor multiplied.
Leona stared at Dark's distant body.
Igor's hand tightened around God Killer.
One stopped moving completely.
Biru's expression hardened.
Cosmic watched without blinking.
Raiku remained seated.
The True Emperors remained still.
Dantero did not.
His mouth had closed.
The usual insult already waiting behind his teeth never came.
Tier continued reading.
Tier: His left lung has collapsed.
Dantero said nothing.
Tier: His right knee is no longer functional.
Silence.
Tier: The wrist is broken in several places. The shoulder is dislocated. Multiple ribs are penetrating internally.
Leona looked at him.
Tier's expression did not change.
Tier: Cardiac function is unstable.
Dantero finally looked toward Tier.
Dantero: How unstable?
Tier's visor changed again.
His eyes moved across the data.
Tier: Enough.
Dantero's jaw tightened.
Far away, Dark stopped falling.
One finger moved.
Then another.
Black material crawled slowly over his hand.
Kyuketsu changed direction in the distance.
It began returning.
Sereon watched.
He did not attack.
Not yet.
Dark's fingers finally closed around the hilt.
His body straightened by force rather than recovery.
Black material pulled the ruined leg beneath him.
Wrapped around the collapsed chest.
Dragged the dislocated shoulder back into place.
The joint entered with a violent snap.
Dark's eyes opened.
White remained beneath them.
Sereon raised Suigōraku.
Dark looked at him.
Sereon: Stand.
Dark said nothing.
Sereon: You have done it every other time.
Dark's breathing returned in one broken pull.
Blood left his mouth.
Sereon: Stand.
Dark forced one foot beneath him.
Then the other.
Nothing existed for either of them to stand upon.
Dark stood anyway.
Sereon watched him.
Dark lifted Kyuketsu.
The sword shook in his damaged hand.
Sereon: Again.
Dark stared at him.
Sereon: Show me what you become this time.
Dark's expression slowly hardened.
Dark: You're starting to sound excited.
Sereon: I am interested.
Dark: Bad habit.
Sereon: Why?
Dark shifted Kyuketsu into his other hand when the first could no longer hold it properly.
Dark: Interest makes people stay longer than they should.
Sereon's eyes narrowed.
Dark raised the sword.
Dark: Ask Sukojo.
Far away, another impact from Archanos and True Ancient Sukojo illuminated the Absolute Sphere.
Sereon looked toward it.
Barely.
Less than a fraction.
Dark disappeared.
Sereon's eyes widened.
Kyuketsu struck Suigōraku beside his neck.
The impact sent both men across the empty distance.
Dark remained attached.
Sereon turned.
Dark changed direction with him.
Their weapons collided again.
Dark headbutted Sereon.
Soul Ryūgu cracked.
Sereon struck back.
Dark's face opened.
Dark punched.
Sereon blocked.
Suigōraku came through the centre.
Dark moved aside.
The blade opened his ribs.
Dark caught Sereon's wrist.
Sereon moved to punish the grip.
Dark released.
Sereon expected the release.
Dark grabbed him again.
Sereon's eyes sharpened.
Dark: Told you.
Dark drove his knee into Sereon's stomach.
Dark: I'm allowed to change my fucking mind.
Sereon folded slightly.
Dark caught the back of his neck.
Kyuketsu rose.
Sereon twisted free.
The blade cut Soul Ryūgu across his shoulder.
Blood spread.
Sereon struck Dark's broken wrist.
The hand opened.
Kyuketsu dropped.
Dark kicked the weapon upward.
Sereon blocked it.
Dark punched him.
Sereon's head snapped back.
Dark caught Kyuketsu as it fell.
Their swords met again.
For several seconds, Dark looked as though he had found him.
Then Sereon changed.
No illusion.
No Influence.
No hidden body.
His stance simply became smaller.
His movements shortened.
He stopped responding to Dark's irregular rhythm and began striking the damaged body beneath it.
Dark moved unpredictably.
Sereon attacked the knee that remained broken regardless of the movement.
Dark changed grip.
Sereon attacked the wrist that remained fractured regardless of the grip.
Dark changed posture.
Sereon cut the ribs that remained damaged regardless of the posture.
Dark stepped wrong deliberately.
Sereon stopped caring whether it was deliberate.
His foot struck Dark's chest.
Dark moved backward.
Suigōraku entered the injured shoulder.
Dark's arm failed.
Sereon struck the knee.
Dark dropped.
Dark tried to change rhythm.
Sereon punched him in the throat.
Dark staggered.
The realization reached him.
Sereon had stopped reading the decisions.
He had begun reading what the decisions could not change.
Damage.
Sereon: You were correct.
Dark's eyes hardened.
Sereon: I understood too much.
Suigōraku cut across Dark's stomach.
Dark blocked late.
The blade still entered.
Sereon: So I simplified.
His elbow struck Dark's face.
Dark stumbled.
Sereon: Broken is broken.
Another strike.
Sereon: Open is open.
Another.
Sereon: Weak is weak.
Dark caught the next fist.
Blood ran between his fingers.
Sereon looked at him.
Sereon: No matter how intelligently you rename it.
Dark stared at him.
His grip tightened.
Dark: That's where you're wrong.
Sereon: About what?
Dark's breathing shook.
Dark: Broken is only broken if I needed it whole.
Sereon's eyes narrowed.
Dark pulled him closer.
Dark: I don't.
Dark released his ruined arm completely.
Black material detached from it.
The entire limb dropped uselessly beside his body.
Sereon's attention moved toward it.
Dark drove his forehead into Sereon's face.
Soul Ryūgu split.
Dark did it again.
Blood opened across Sereon's nose.
Dark: I need enough.
Another headbutt.
Dark: Enough hand to hold a sword.
Dark shifted Kyuketsu into the black material itself.
The substance wrapped around the hilt.
Dark's broken hand was no longer holding it.
Dark: Enough leg to stand once.
Black material drove through the damaged knee and locked it straight.
Dark: Enough heart to beat when I tell it.
The black material across his chest contracted.
His ruined heart answered.
One heavy beat.
Dark looked directly at Sereon.
Dark: Enough of me to finish you.
The next heartbeat struck harder.
Sereon moved.
Dark moved too.
And far behind them, Dantero finally stopped watching like a soldier obeying an order.
He started watching like a man deciding how much that order was worth.
For several seconds, Dantero remained exactly where Dark had left him. Both weapons hung at his sides, his shoulders loose enough to suggest obedience, but his eyes had changed. The distant violence reflected across them in fractured flashes as Sereon drove Dark through another collapsing section of the dead World. Dark recovered in open space, forced his ruined leg into alignment with black material, and swung Kyuketsu before his breathing had properly returned. Sereon intercepted the blade, turned his wrist, and struck the damaged joint beneath Dark's ribs with such precision that the black reinforcement holding his chest together burst apart.
Dark folded.
Sereon did not give him the space to recover.
Suigōraku crossed Dark's abdomen, withdrew, and returned through his shoulder before the first wound had finished opening. Dark answered with a short hook that broke part of Soul Ryūgu across Sereon's jaw, but the hit did not interrupt the sequence. Sereon stepped around Dark's failing leg, caught the back of his head, and drove his knee upward. The impact snapped Dark's face back hard enough for blood to scatter through open space.
Dark still swung.
Sereon ducked.
His elbow entered Dark's sternum.
The bone beneath it gave.
Dark left the exchange backwards.
He travelled through the remains of one World, passed through a dead atmosphere, and struck the fragment of another planetary structure several million kilometres farther away. The planet split beneath his back. Dark disappeared into it.
Tier's visor filled with new warnings.
He said nothing at first.
Leona watched the readings appear across his face.
Leona: Tier.
Tier's eyes remained fixed forward.
Tier: His sternum is fractured again.
Dantero did not move.
Tier: The reinforcement around his left lung has failed.
Still nothing.
Tier: His right wrist is no longer carrying normal load.
Dantero's jaw shifted.
Tier finally looked toward him.
Tier: Do not.
Dantero: Didn't say anything.
Tier: You did not need to.
Another planetary fragment erupted in the distance.
Dark emerged from it first.
He was not flying cleanly anymore. His body rose at an angle, one shoulder lower than the other, black material carrying more of his weight than his own damaged muscles. Kyuketsu remained in his hand. Sereon followed from below and appeared directly inside Dark's climb.
Their blades met.
Dark released Ruler's Authority across Sereon's left side, attempting to crush the route around him rather than Sereon himself. Sereon allowed the pressure to pull his body half a step from alignment, then used the forced movement to rotate around Kyuketsu.
Dark saw it too late.
Suigōraku opened his back.
Dark turned.
Sereon was already in front of him again.
Sereon: Your body has reached the point where your decisions no longer matter equally.
Dark's breathing came raggedly through the blood inside his mouth.
Dark: That sentence sounded smarter before you said it.
Sereon's human eyes remained cold.
Sereon: Your left side responds slower.
Dark moved.
Sereon blocked Kyuketsu.
Sereon: Your damaged leg cannot correct backward flight without assistance.
Dark's black material reached for the joint.
Suigōraku cut through it before it tightened.
Sereon: Your right hand is failing.
Dark changed Kyuketsu into his left.
Sereon's foot struck that shoulder.
The joint slipped partially out of place.
Sereon: And now the other one is compensating.
Dark's expression darkened.
Sereon: You may contradict your habits.
Their swords struck again.
Sereon forced Kyuketsu away.
Sereon: Damage does not care about philosophy.
Dark drove his forehead into Sereon's face.
Soul Ryūgu cracked.
Sereon's head moved backward.
Dark: Good thing I don't argue with my bones.
He attacked again.
For a few seconds, Dark looked better.
Kyuketsu came horizontally. Sereon raised Suigōraku. Dark stopped before the blades met and let black material continue the sword's path without his hand. Sereon's attention moved toward the weapon. Dark closed the distance barehanded and struck his ribs.
Soul Ryūgu split.
Sereon moved backward.
Dark used his poor flight instead of correcting it, allowing his body to fall slightly beneath Sereon's expected line before black material snapped him upward from the waist. His shoulder struck Sereon's chest. Both men rotated through open space.
Dark caught Sereon's arm.
Sereon released Suigōraku.
Dark anticipated reconstruction behind himself and turned.
Nothing appeared there.
The weapon reconstructed beneath him instead.
Suigōraku entered Dark's thigh.
Sereon pulled.
The leg opened almost to the bone.
Dark's expression changed.
Sereon: You are still answering what you learned.
Dark's black material forced the wound closed.
Sereon kicked directly through the reinforcement.
The material ruptured.
Dark's leg folded completely.
Sereon caught him by the throat.
Sereon: I learned what you learned too.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Sereon threw him.
The movement was simple.
The result was not.
Dark crossed the dead World behind them so quickly that his body did not break the surface upon contact. The World broke around him first. A line passed through its mantle, crossed the core, and exited from the opposite hemisphere before Dark's body followed through the same route.
Sereon flew after him.
Dantero's fingers moved.
Tier saw it.
Tier: Dantero.
Dantero: I know.
Tier: Then stop.
Dantero looked at him now.
The usual rough amusement was gone from his face.
Dantero: He's had his fight.
Tier: It is still his fight.
Dantero: No.
Leona turned.
Dantero pointed toward the destruction in the distance.
Dantero: That's Sereon testing how many pieces of Dark can stop working before the stubborn bastard notices.
Tier: Dark gave us an order.
Dantero: And I'm about to break it.
Igor's helmet turned.
God Killer remained lowered beside him.
Igor: Dantero.
Dantero met the narrow crimson visor.
Igor: He commanded us to remain.
Dantero: You can.
Igor: And you?
Dantero: I'm a disappointment.
Igor: That is not an answer.
Dantero: It's the one you're getting.
A second later, space beside him tore open.
The route was ugly compared to Sereon's pathways. It carried none of Suigōraku's deceptive elegance and none of Dark's shadowed smoothness. Dantero forced two distant locations into contact by tearing a narrow corridor between them, its edges burning blue-black as incompatible spaces ground against one another.
Tier looked through it.
His expression changed.
Tier: You cannot be serious.
Dantero: About him?
Dantero looked into the opening.
Dantero: Unfortunately.
Heat came through first.
Dry heat.
Then the smell of iron, stone, and old military grounds.
The corridor opened into an immense circular court.
Black stone stretched across kilometres beneath a copper-coloured sky. Monumental walls surrounded the area, each one built from layered materials that appeared designed to survive repeated impacts from things nobody outside Edrassan would willingly call soldiers. Hundreds of figures stood along raised sections of the court.
Only one man occupied the centre.
Varek Tharos Mordane stood with his back toward the portal.
Another Edrassari fighter was kneeling several metres in front of him.
Varek Tharos Mordane did not resemble the kind of ruler who needed a throne to establish where authority belonged. He stood a little over two metres tall, broad enough through the shoulders that the dark military coat hanging from them seemed cut around the shape of a fortress rather than a man. The coat reached below his knees, severe in design and almost entirely black except for narrow lines of muted Edrassan gold at the collar, cuffs, and fastening points. Beneath it, a fitted charcoal tunic followed a torso built with unsettling density. His waist was comparatively narrow, but everything above it thickened into a chest, back, neck, and arms developed far beyond the proportions of an ordinary soldier. There was nothing ornamental about the muscle. It looked functional, every part positioned to transfer force from the ground, through the hips and spine, and into his hands without losing anything on the way.
His iron-black hair had been swept straight backward from his forehead and kept there without decoration, exposing a hard face with a wide jaw, prominent cheekbones, and a brow that made his resting expression appear permanently displeased. Pale-gold eyes sat beneath it, clear enough to catch the copper light of the Edrassan sky but too cold to mistake for warmth. There was no aura surrounding him. No magical pressure rolled from his body. No Reiki rested at his side. No weapon hung across his back or hip, and no armor covered his chest. Even his hands were bare.
That absence was the point.
Everything Varek carried into battle was standing inside his skin.
The kneeling fighter in front of him was enormous by most standards, nearly matching Varek in height and wearing the stripped-down training uniform of an Edrassari high guard. Blood ran from his mouth. His right forearm had begun swelling beneath torn fabric, while three knuckles on the opposite hand had split so deeply that fragments of white bone showed between the blood.
Varek looked down at both injuries before looking at the man himself.
Varek: Stand.
The fighter obeyed. He pushed himself upright without using the damaged arm, steadied his breathing, then forced both feet beneath him.
Varek watched the adjustment.
Varek: Again.
The soldier hesitated.
It lasted less than a second.
Varek's expression changed anyway.
Varek: If pain has convinced you the answer changed, say so.
Fighter: It hasn't, Grand Regent.
Varek: Then why are you wasting my time?
The fighter clenched his remaining usable fist.
Fighter: Because the last two strikes broke me.
Varek: Yes.
Varek stepped closer until there was barely an arm's length between them.
Varek: You learned something.
The fighter looked at him.
Varek: Your body cannot transmit the force you are attempting to produce.
Varek's pale-gold eyes lowered briefly toward the man's ruined hands.
Varek: That is not my durability defeating you.
Varek looked back into his face.
Varek: That is your own strength discovering you are too weak to carry it.
The fighter swallowed.
Varek: Strength is not the amount of violence you can create before your bones object.
Varek reached down and took the man's swollen wrist. His grip was careful enough not to worsen the injury.
Varek: Your fist reaches the enemy through this.
His fingers moved slightly higher.
Varek: This reaches through your forearm.
Then the elbow.
Varek: Your shoulder.
The chest.
Varek: Spine.
Finally, Varek released him.
Varek: Legs.
Varek: Ground.
The fighter listened without looking away.
Varek: Everything must survive the answer to the strike.
Varek's voice remained low and absolute.
Varek: Otherwise you did not possess the attack.
Varek: You borrowed it from the moment before your body failed.
The fighter lowered his eyes toward his hands.
Varek: Heal.
Fighter: Grand Regent—
Varek: That was not permission to argue.
The man straightened immediately.
Fighter: Yes, Grand Regent.
Varek: Return when both arms can survive you.
The fighter bowed his head once and turned away. Two medics waiting near the edge of the training court began approaching, but Varek had already stopped paying attention to him.
That was when Dantero's corridor finished opening.
The portal did not arrive quietly. Blue-black edges ground against the Edrassan air and produced a deep metallic distortion that rolled across the immense court. Soldiers along the surrounding terraces turned as one. Several hands moved toward weapons before their owners recognised the figure standing on the opposite side.
Varek did not reach for anything.
He simply looked.
Dantero stared through the opening at him.
Dantero: Oi.
Varek's expression flattened.
Dantero: Big man.
Varek started walking toward the portal.
Every Edrassari soldier between him and it moved aside.
Dantero watched him approach.
Dantero: Christ, still walkin' about like somebody nicked yer fuckin' breakfast.
Varek stopped approximately six metres from the corridor.
Silence spread through the court.
Tier looked at Dantero.
Leona looked at Dantero.
Even Igor's helmet moved slightly.
Varek stared through the opening.
Varek: Speak properly.
Dantero blinked.
Dantero: I am speakin' properly.
Varek: Then your language has deteriorated since we last met.
Dantero: Nah, mate. Just don't speak miserable cunt fluently.
Varek's pale-gold eyes hardened.
That was the last joke Dantero made.
Varek looked past him.
The battle beyond the corridor reflected faintly across his eyes.
Dark had just been driven through another World.
Sereon entered behind him.
Varek said nothing.
Dantero's expression became serious again.
Dantero: Need summat.
Varek: You opened a route into my Empire without permission.
Dantero: Yeah.
Varek: Interrupted a military trial.
Dantero: Yeah.
Varek: And your first useful sentence is that you require something from me.
Dantero: Pretty much.
Varek walked another step toward the corridor.
Varek: Pathetic.
Dantero's jaw tightened.
Varek: Your Emperor gives you an order, and the first time obeying it becomes difficult, you cross into another Empire searching for a stronger man to solve your problem.
Dantero: Ain't askin' you to solve shit.
Varek: You are standing in my court.
Dantero: Because he's gettin' fuckin' butchered.
Varek: Then he should fight better.
Dantero stopped.
Leona's eyes narrowed.
Igor's hand tightened once around God Killer.
Dantero looked through the portal toward Dark, then back at Varek.
Dantero: Y'know what, yeah. Call me pathetic. Call me weak. Tell me I've got no spine, no honour, no bollocks, whatever gets your ancient rocks off.
Varek's expression became dangerous.
Dantero did not stop.
Dantero: But I've buried enough people while some stubborn cunt told me it was noble to stand there and watch.
The last of the humor left his voice.
Dantero: Ain't doin' that again.
Varek studied him.
Dantero: Dark can break my jaw after.
Dantero glanced toward Igor.
Dantero: You can have a go too, if yer still sulkin'.
Igor: I am not sulking.
Dantero: Sound like it.
Igor took one step forward.
Leona: Both of you.
Igor stopped.
Dantero looked back toward Varek.
Dantero: Point is, I know I'm breakin' the order.
Varek: Then you understand the consequence.
Dantero: Better than most.
Varek's eyes remained on him for another few seconds.
Then they shifted beyond him again.
Dark emerged from a collapsing World.
One leg failed immediately.
Black material wrapped around the joint and forced it back into line.
Sereon arrived before the repair completed.
Suigōraku cut through the reinforcement.
Dark's knee folded.
Sereon struck him once across the jaw.
Dark still raised Kyuketsu.
Varek's eyes sharpened.
Sereon twisted around the blade, drove his elbow into Dark's throat, then buried Suigōraku beneath the damaged ribs.
Dark pulled himself farther onto the weapon to reach him.
Varek watched that too.
Dantero noticed.
He lowered his voice.
Dantero: That's why I'm here.
Varek: Explain.
Dantero: Heard you've still been lookin'.
Varek's attention remained on the fight.
Dantero: Someone who can take one from you without becoming a historical fuckin' stain.
Varek said nothing.
Dantero: And somebody who can hit you without their own arm turning into decorative gravel.
Varek's eyes moved back to him.
Dantero: Those two are still breathin'.
Varek: That proves very little.
Dantero: Better than what you've got here.
Several Edrassari soldiers visibly disliked that.
Varek did not care.
Dantero pointed through the portal.
Dantero: Black-haired bastard's had his heart stopped, chest opened, bones snapped, and half his body held together by that black shit for longer than I care to count.
Another impact flickered in the distance.
Dantero: White-haired prick keeps takin' Dark's hits and coming back cleverer.
Varek looked toward Sereon.
Dantero: Help me keep him off Dark long enough to stop him turnin' the Emperor into mince.
Varek: And in return?
Dantero: You ask Dark yourself.
Varek: Ask him what?
Dantero: Fight you.
Varek's face remained motionless.
Dantero: Properly.
Varek: You possess no authority to promise me his agreement.
Dantero: Didn't promise it.
Varek: Then your bargain contains nothing.
Dantero: Contains a chance.
Varek: A chance is not payment.
Dantero: No.
Dantero folded his arms.
Dantero: It's all you're gettin'.
The Edrassari court remained silent.
Varek's gaze stayed on him.
Dantero: I ain't sellin' Dark to you.
Varek: Sensible.
Dantero: Ain't sellin' Sereon either.
Varek: You could not.
Dantero: Right.
Dantero gestured toward the battlefield.
Dantero: So come have a look or don't. But make your bloody mind up before I go back there and do something even stupider.
Varek looked beyond him once more.
Dark caught Sereon's wrist.
Sereon broke it.
Dark struck him with the broken arm anyway.
Black material closed Dark's fingers around Sereon's throat.
Dark drove his forehead into Soul Ryūgu.
The white plate across Sereon's face split.
Sereon responded by opening Dark from hip to ribs.
Neither moved away.
Varek watched.
Not the blood.
Not the spectacle.
The mechanics.
Dark's body had already lost the structural integrity required for most of what he was still attempting, yet he kept redistributing the load. Every time his flesh failed, the black material replaced function rather than injury. It did not erase the damage. It simply allowed him to remain useful through it.
Varek's eyes shifted toward Sereon.
Different.
Sereon was not surviving by enduring damage.
He was reducing how much damage ever became meaningful in the first place. Angles. Timing. anticipation. manipulation. Each exchange was designed so that the opponent carried more consequence than he did.
Varek understood enough.
Varek: Which is Sereon?
Dantero stared at him.
Dantero: The white one.
Varek: I can see that.
Dantero: Then why'd you bloody ask?
Varek looked at him.
Dantero: Right. Fine.
Varek: Sereon Vaize.
Dantero nodded.
Dantero: Heard of him?
Varek: I have read reports.
Tier's eyes moved toward Varek.
Varek continued.
Varek: Kōseikan Captain of Influence. Suigōraku. High-level perceptual interference. Unusual capacity to alter accepted information without relying upon direct domination. Repeated political destabilisation. Exceptional close-range discipline.
Dantero: Fuck me, you memorise bedtime stories too?
Varek ignored him.
Varek: The reports disagree about how dangerous he is.
Tier: They would.
Varek looked toward Tier for the first time.
Tier's visor remained active.
Tier: Anyone collecting data on Sereon is collecting data Sereon knows can be collected.
Varek regarded him for a moment.
Varek: Better.
Tier: Better than what?
Varek: Him.
Dantero stared.
Dantero: Oh, piss off.
Varek looked back toward the battle.
Varek: And Dark.
Dantero: What about him?
Varek: He is the one you expect me not to kill.
Dantero's expression hardened.
Dantero: Yeah.
Varek: Then understand this before I enter.
Varek stepped closer to the portal.
Varek: If your Emperor attacks me while I am preventing his death, I will respond.
Dantero: He probably will.
Varek: Then he should choose intelligently.
Dantero: That's not exactly his thing when somebody tells him what to do.
Varek: Another weakness.
Igor's visor narrowed.
Varek noticed.
The two men stared across the opening.
Igor: You speak freely of someone you have never met.
Varek: I speak freely of everyone.
Igor: That does not make the assessment correct.
Varek: Then he may correct it himself.
Igor took another step.
Varek did not move.
The air between them became heavier without either releasing a visible aura.
Leona watched both.
Tier watched their bodies rather than their faces.
Dantero quietly muttered something under his breath.
Leona: What?
Dantero: Said this is goin' brilliantly.
Varek looked through the corridor one final time.
Then he stepped across.
The transition itself produced nothing dramatic. One boot left Edrassan stone and touched the pale remains of Raiku's battlefield. The second followed. Varek stood among strangers from another Empire without bowing, announcing himself, or looking around as though he needed permission to occupy the space.
He did, however, notice everyone.
Leona first, because she had already placed herself between the portal and the wounded fighters farther away.
Tier next, because the artificial lenses inside his eyes were adjusting faster than his visible gaze.
Igor because God Killer did not resemble a weapon Varek intended to test carelessly.
Then Cosmic.
Varek's eyes stopped.
Cosmic looked back.
Neither man spoke.
Cosmic's expression remained calm, almost human in its stillness, but nothing about the quiet between them resembled ignorance. Varek did not know every truth surrounding the being standing there. He knew enough to understand that Cosmic belonged in a different category from the wounded Sereon he had come to examine.
Cosmic's eyes moved over Varek once.
Cosmic: Edrassan.
Varek: Yes.
That was all.
No challenge passed between them.
There were more immediate matters.
Varek looked toward the distant battle.
He removed the long coat.
Dantero blinked.
Varek handed it backward without looking.
No one reached for it.
The coat fell.
Dantero caught it awkwardly.
Dantero: The fuck am I meant to do with this?
Varek: Do not damage it.
Dantero stared at the garment in his hands.
Varek stepped toward the edge of the broken surface.
Without the coat, the true proportions of his body became clearer. His dark tunic covered most of his torso, but nothing hid the width of his back or the brutal thickness of his arms. His forearms were larger than the upper arms of many soldiers. Veins crossed the backs of his hands without swelling dramatically. He looked less like a bodybuilder than something engineered around impact, every joint seated deeply, every muscle carrying the dense structure required to strike something vastly harder than himself and remain intact.
Tier's visor changed.
Tier: No external amplification.
Varek looked at him.
Tier continued reading.
Tier: No energy accumulation.
Another scan.
Tier: No magical reinforcement that I can identify.
Varek: You will not.
Tier: Biological enhancement?
Varek: No.
Tier's expression tightened.
Varek turned away.
Dantero: Told you.
Tier: You told me nothing useful.
Varek bent one knee.
The movement looked ordinary.
Then he pushed off.
The atmosphere reacted before most of the observers understood he had moved.
A white cone formed around Varek's departing body. The first sonic boom cracked across the dead sky hard enough to flatten the nearest clouds into widening rings. A second followed when his acceleration increased again before clearing the upper atmosphere, its pressure rolling across the broken surface and throwing loose debris for kilometres.
Dantero's coat snapped violently in the wind left behind.
He stared after Varek.
Dantero: Every bloody time.
Tier's visor filled with tracking errors.
Tier: That was his initial acceleration?
Dantero: Aye.
Tier: He restrained it.
Dantero looked toward him.
Dantero: Obviously.
Beyond the atmosphere, the sound vanished.
Varek did not.
In vacuum there was nothing for a sonic boom to travel through, so his movement became visually quieter and physically worse. He crossed the distance without flame, exhaust, magical propulsion, or gravitational distortion. His body simply accelerated through open space with the same control a trained fighter used to step across a floor.
Sereon sensed the approach.
Dark did not.
Not immediately.
Sereon's remaining eyes shifted away from Dark.
That alone warned him.
Dark twisted.
Varek was already there.
For one impossible instant, the three men occupied almost the same space.
Varek stood directly in front of Sereon.
Close.
Far too close.
His right fist was raised beside his own ribs, not yet moving, while his left hand hung open at his side.
Sereon's human eyes widened.
Only slightly.
But Dark saw it.
Sereon moved first.
Suigōraku travelled upward from Varek's hip toward his throat.
Varek disappeared.
Sereon's sword crossed empty space.
His eyes moved.
Varek stood behind him.
Sereon turned.
Varek was gone again before the rotation completed.
The eyes across Soul Ryūgu opened wider.
Above.
Varek stood upside down relative to Sereon's current orientation, both feet positioned as naturally as though an invisible ceiling supported him.
Suigōraku cut upward.
Nothing.
Varek appeared below.
Sereon looked down.
Gone.
Dark watched.
Not one movement had been teleportation.
The distinction was visible in the smallest details. Every time Varek changed position, his clothing followed the transition physically. His hair moved under acceleration. His shoulders turned into the new direction. His hips aligned. There was always motion.
There was simply not enough time between its beginning and completion for Sereon's ordinary perception to use it.
Varek appeared in front again.
This time closer.
Sereon's eyes contracted.
Varek's fist moved.
Suigōraku reached the line first.
The silver blade crossed between them.
Varek's knuckles struck its flat.
The impact produced no light.
No expanding energy.
Nothing magical acknowledged what had happened.
Suigōraku bent.
Sereon's arms collapsed toward his chest.
Soul Ryūgu cracked across both shoulders.
Then Sereon vanished.
Dark's head turned.
A World far behind them deformed before Sereon's body reached it. The atmosphere compressed toward the approaching mass. A basin formed across an entire hemisphere.
Sereon struck.
The World broke.
He passed through the crust, mantle, core, and opposite side without losing enough speed to matter.
Another World waited farther behind it.
Sereon entered that one too.
Varek lowered his fist.
Dark stared in the direction Sereon had disappeared.
Then at Varek.
Dark: Who the fuck are you?
Varek looked toward him.
His pale-gold eyes moved across Dark's condition with immediate disapproval.
Varek: Varek Tharos Mordane.
Dark: Doesn't answer why you're here.
Varek: One of your men became frightened.
Dark understood instantly.
His eyes moved toward the distant observers.
Dark: Dantero.
Very far away, Dantero winced.
Dantero: Ah, fuck.
Dark looked back at Varek.
Dark: I told them not to interfere.
Varek: Then choose better subordinates.
Dark's expression darkened.
Varek: Or become strong enough that their disobedience is unnecessary.
Dark stared at him.
Varek stared back.
Neither smiled.
Dark: You always talk like that?
Varek: When the truth is short.
Dark's jaw tightened.
Varek looked down at Dark's leg.
Black material held the destroyed knee in alignment.
Then the chest.
Then the wrist.
Varek: Your body is failing.
Dark: I noticed.
Varek: Then stop wasting breath on me.
Dark raised Kyuketsu.
Varek's eyes moved to the blade.
Dark: My fight.
Varek: Then keep up.
Dark almost answered.
The broken World behind them erupted.
Sereon returned.
He came through its remains surrounded by fragments of Soul Ryūgu that were still repairing themselves. The plates across both shoulders had opened deeply. Blood ran from beneath one collarbone. Suigōraku had returned to its proper shape, although the silver weapon continued producing a faint metallic vibration from where Varek had struck it.
Sereon's human eyes settled on the newcomer.
Recognition came gradually.
Not memory.
Classification.
Sereon: Varek Tharos Mordane.
Varek turned.
Sereon: Grand Regent of the Edrassan Empire.
Varek: Correct.
Sereon looked at his empty hands.
Sereon: Dominance.
Dark glanced toward Varek.
Varek's expression did not move.
Sereon: No conventional magic. No Domain. No Reiki. No technological amplification.
Sereon's smaller eyes opened farther.
Sereon: Physical force and nothing else.
Varek: You read reports.
Sereon: I read everything that survives long enough to become useful.
Varek: Then you know what happens if I touch you.
Sereon's grip tightened around Suigōraku.
Sereon: Reports exaggerate.
Varek's eyes became colder.
Varek: Reports are written by survivors.
Dark went quiet.
Sereon did too.
Varek stepped forward in open space.
Varek: Use the advantage while you have it.
Sereon: Which advantage?
Varek: You know what I am.
Varek stopped.
Varek: I do not know you.
Something faint shifted in Sereon's expression.
Varek: Do not waste that.
Sereon disappeared.
Varek's head turned.
Suigōraku struck from behind.
The blade opened Varek's upper back.
Not deeply.
But it cut.
A narrow line of blood appeared through the tunic.
Varek turned.
Sereon was already gone.
A second cut crossed his ribs.
Varek pivoted.
Nothing.
A third strike entered the back of his thigh.
Dark watched Sereon's technique immediately change around the new opponent. He was not trying to overpower Varek. He was not even attempting the long combinations he used against Dark. Every strike was a measurement delivered from an angle designed to disappear before Varek could physically answer it.
Varek stopped moving.
Sereon appeared several hundred metres away.
Varek looked down at the blood on his side.
He touched it with two fingers.
Inspected them.
Then raised his eyes.
Varek: Better.
Sereon: You expected less.
Varek: I expected paperwork.
Sereon's expression cooled.
Varek moved.
This time Sereon anticipated the direct entry.
Suigōraku turned before Varek arrived.
The blade reached Varek's face.
Varek leaned aside by less than an inch.
His fist passed beside Sereon's jaw.
The missed strike continued beyond him.
A distant World split along the path.
Sereon's eyes widened.
Not because of the destruction.
Because Varek had missed and lost nothing.
His body was already turning.
His left hand reached for Sereon's wrist.
Sereon distorted the accepted distance.
Varek's fingers closed too early.
Empty space.
Suigōraku entered beneath his ribs.
The blade pushed several inches into Varek's torso.
Sereon's eyes sharpened.
Varek looked down at it.
Then at Sereon.
Varek: Again.
Sereon's jaw tightened.
He twisted.
The cut widened.
Blood ran across the silver edge.
Varek's left hand closed around the blade.
Sereon pulled.
It did not move.
Varek's fingers tightened.
Suigōraku groaned.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Sereon released the weapon instantly.
Varek expected the sword to dissolve.
It did.
The silver spirit reconstructed behind his neck.
Sereon caught it.
Suigōraku came horizontally.
Varek lowered his head.
The edge passed above him.
Varek stepped into Sereon's body.
Not fast.
Not by his standards.
Just correctly.
His shoulder struck Sereon's chest.
The plate across Soul Ryūgu folded inward.
Sereon coughed blood.
Varek's left hand caught him by the throat.
Sereon's smaller eyes widened.
Varek: I have you.
Sereon raised Suigōraku.
Varek struck first.
The punch landed beneath the ribs.
Sereon's torso folded around the fist.
Every white plate across his back opened.
Blood erupted from his mouth.
Varek did not release him.
Sereon's body tried to leave.
Varek's grip prevented it.
Varek punched him again.
The sound reached the nearest atmosphere several moments later.
A pressure front spread through it.
The second punch broke more of Soul Ryūgu.
Sereon stabbed Varek through the shoulder.
The silver blade entered deeply enough to expose blood around the wound.
Varek looked at it.
Then punched him again.
Sereon's jaw shifted beneath the white plating.
Varek: You were given an opening.
Another punch.
Varek: You used it well.
Another.
Varek: It is gone.
Sereon drove one knee upward.
Varek absorbed it against his abdomen.
Nothing changed.
Varek: Adapt.
Sereon's human eyes narrowed.
Varek drew his fist back again.
Dark appeared between them.
Kyuketsu struck Varek's forearm.
The black blade stopped.
Varek turned his head.
Dark pushed.
Nothing happened.
Varek looked at him.
Dark: I said don't kill him.
Varek: I was not.
Dark's eyes moved toward Sereon.
Half his torso had disappeared beneath shattered Soul Ryūgu and blood.
Dark looked back.
Dark: Bullshit.
Varek released Sereon's throat.
Sereon immediately moved away.
Varek: If I intended to kill him, there would be nothing for you to interrupt.
Dark stared at him.
The statement had no boast in it.
That bothered Dark considerably more than if Varek had smiled.
Dark: Keep telling yourself that.
Varek's eyes hardened.
Dark moved first.
Not toward Varek.
Toward Sereon.
Kyuketsu came down.
Sereon blocked.
The impact drove him lower.
Dark turned the sword into another angle.
Sereon caught it again.
Dark's damaged knee gave.
Black material reinforced it.
Sereon noticed.
His heel struck the same joint.
The support broke.
Dark dropped.
Sereon moved for his throat.
Varek appeared beside them.
Sereon's human eyes widened again.
There was no warning.
No magical disturbance.
Nothing to feel before Varek occupied the distance.
One instant, Sereon and Dark were alone.
The next, Varek's face filled Sereon's peripheral vision.
Suigōraku changed direction immediately.
Varek disappeared.
Sereon's blade missed.
He turned.
Nothing.
Soul Ryūgu's eyes opened in every direction.
Dark rose beside him.
Dark: Looking for him?
Sereon blocked Kyuketsu.
Varek appeared behind Sereon.
Sereon reacted.
Varek disappeared again.
The delayed atmospheric shock from his earlier movement finally crossed the nearby planetary shell, a sharp double crack rolling through the clouds far beneath them.
Sereon's jaw tightened.
Varek appeared above.
Gone.
To the right.
Gone.
Directly in front.
Varek did not attack.
Sereon's eyes widened.
Suigōraku came up.
Varek vanished before the blade moved halfway.
He appeared several kilometres away.
Sereon stopped.
Dark looked toward him.
The insult was obvious.
Varek had entered lethal distance four times.
He had chosen not to strike once.
Sereon's face changed.
Varek watched him.
Varek: Slow.
Sereon's hand tightened around Suigōraku.
Dark: Oh.
Sereon's eyes moved toward him.
Dark: That actually pissed you off.
Sereon: Be quiet.
Dark's brow rose.
Dark: Definitely pissed you off.
Sereon attacked him.
Dark blocked.
Varek entered at the same moment.
For the next several seconds, Sereon's fight became a problem with two incompatible answers.
Dark was damaged, unpredictable, versatile, and increasingly comfortable making decisions that contradicted his own previous behavior. He attacked through black material, frost, gravity, electricity, Infernal Blackout, Kyuketsu, and his own broken body without allowing any one method to become the centre of his rhythm.
Varek was the opposite.
There was nothing to decode.
His violence was offensively simple.
He moved where he needed to move.
He placed his body correctly.
He hit.
Sereon slipped outside Kyuketsu and created a false opening to Dark's left.
Dark refused it.
Varek did not care whether it was false.
He arrived from above.
Sereon altered the accepted distance.
Varek's fist missed by centimetres.
The missed punch ruptured the World beneath them.
Sereon moved into Varek's blind side.
Suigōraku opened his back.
Dark cut the punishment route.
Sereon withdrew.
Varek followed him.
Not with greater speed alone.
With better flight.
Sereon rolled around one axis and descended.
Varek inverted instantly and descended beside him without losing acceleration.
Sereon changed direction laterally.
Varek's hips turned, shoulders followed, and his entire body entered the new vector without drifting a single unnecessary degree.
Dark attempted the same correction behind them.
His damaged leg pulled his balance sideways.
Black material tightened around his waist and forced him straight.
Sereon noticed the difference.
So did Dark.
Varek flew as though open space had been the first battlefield he ever learned.
Dark flew like a man powerful enough to force the sky to tolerate him.
Varek caught Sereon during the next turn.
His hand closed around Soul Ryūgu at the shoulder.
Sereon twisted.
Varek's fingers tightened.
The white plate cracked beneath them.
Sereon cut the arm.
Suigōraku entered Varek's forearm.
Varek did not release him.
Sereon's eyes widened.
Varek rotated in flight.
Perfectly.
He used his own momentum, Sereon's momentum, and the direction of the attempted escape in the same movement.
Then he threw him.
Sereon crossed a World.
Dark entered after him.
Varek followed.
The first sonic boom erupted when they entered atmosphere.
Clouds flattened into concentric rings.
A second followed lower down.
The surface of an empty ocean depressed beneath the pressure before any of them touched it.
Sereon corrected above the water.
Dark reached him.
Kyuketsu struck Suigōraku.
Varek entered from the left.
Sereon moved.
The fist missed.
The ocean beneath the missed strike divided for thousands of kilometres.
Water rose on both sides into walls reaching the upper atmosphere.
Dark looked down for half a second.
Dark: Jesus Christ.
Varek: Focus.
Sereon kicked Dark across the jaw.
Dark's head snapped around.
Varek: He is correct.
Dark wiped blood from his mouth.
Dark: Don't start.
Sereon moved.
Suigōraku struck Varek.
Varek caught the flat.
Dark attacked from behind Sereon.
Sereon rotated.
Kyuketsu passed across his ribs.
Soul Ryūgu opened.
Varek pulled Suigōraku.
Sereon allowed the weapon to dissolve rather than fight the strength.
The silver spirit rebuilt inside his opposite hand.
He cut Varek's throat.
A line of blood appeared.
Varek's eyes lowered.
Sereon stepped backward immediately.
Varek touched the wound.
Varek: Better.
Sereon: You keep saying that.
Varek: Because you keep beginning beneath expectation.
Sereon's expression hardened.
Varek: Do you require encouragement?
Sereon: No.
Varek: Then stop behaving like it.
Dark stopped for half a second.
Even he did not say anything.
Sereon attacked.
Harder.
Suigōraku reached Varek's chest.
The first cut entered.
A second appeared before Varek could close his hand.
Then a third.
Sereon stopped testing isolated points and began chaining physical swordsmanship with the perceptual misalignment of Suigōraku. Varek blocked one blade and received another from the side he had accepted as empty. He turned into a thrust that arrived lower than his eyes had registered. Silver entered flesh beneath the sternum.
Dark attacked simultaneously.
Sereon slipped behind Varek.
Kyuketsu came toward Varek's ribs.
Dark stopped it.
Barely.
Varek looked down at the black blade hovering inches from him.
Then at Dark.
Varek: You almost struck me.
Dark: Almost means I didn't.
Varek: Improve the margin.
Sereon cut both of them.
Dark cursed and turned.
Varek did not.
The blade opened his back.
He remained facing forward for another second.
Then Varek slowly looked over one shoulder.
Sereon stood several metres behind him.
Varek: You hide well.
Sereon: That is not the insult you think it is.
Varek: It was not an insult.
Varek turned fully.
Varek: It was permission to stop.
Sereon's eyes narrowed.
Varek: Come here.
Sereon did not move.
Varek: Put the sword in me.
Dark glanced toward him.
Varek: Properly.
Sereon's grip tightened.
Varek spread both arms slightly away from his body.
No defense.
No stance.
Varek: I will not move.
Dark: What the fuck are you doing?
Varek ignored him.
Sereon's Soul Ryūgu eyes tracked every piece of the exposed torso.
Varek: You know the reports.
Sereon: Yes.
Varek: Test them.
Dark: Varek.
Varek: Stay out of it.
Dark's expression turned cold.
Dark: You don't give me orders.
Varek finally looked at him.
Varek: Then consider it advice you are currently too injured to ignore.
Dark started forward.
Sereon moved first.
The attack was not casual.
Suigōraku vanished from ordinary sight.
The air around Varek divided across several accepted positions at once.
Sereon crossed the distance.
The blade entered Varek beneath the ribs.
Deep.
Far deeper than the previous cuts.
Suigōraku passed through muscle, forced between structures that had resisted almost everything before it, and emerged from Varek's back covered in blood.
Dark stopped.
Sereon remained directly in front of Varek.
Varek looked down.
The silver blade stood through his torso.
Sereon's human eyes watched his face.
Varek lifted one hand.
He wrapped it around Suigōraku's exposed edge.
Then pulled the weapon farther through himself.
Sereon's eyes widened.
The movement dragged Sereon closer.
Varek's blood ran across both their hands.
Varek: Better.
Sereon: You asked.
Varek: I did.
Varek pulled him another inch closer.
Varek: Now understand why.
His fist struck Sereon.
Soul Ryūgu collapsed across the chest.
The impact lifted Sereon's feet from the waterless trench beneath them.
Varek held Suigōraku inside his own body so Sereon could not escape with the weapon.
He struck again.
Sereon's jaw broke beneath the white plate.
A third punch entered his abdomen.
Blood erupted from Sereon's mouth across Varek's face.
Varek did not blink.
Varek: You possess an excellent weapon.
Another strike.
Varek: Excellent perception.
Another.
Varek: Excellent discipline.
Sereon tried to dissolve Suigōraku.
Varek released the sword and caught Sereon's wrist instead.
Varek: None of them make your body stronger than mine.
He drove Sereon's face into his knee.
The central Soul Ryūgu eye ruptured.
Varek caught him by the throat.
Sereon reached for Varek's eyes.
Varek headbutted him.
The white armor across Sereon's face split nearly to the ears.
Varek: That is your problem.
Sereon coughed blood.
Varek: You have spent so long defeating stronger men by ensuring they never touch you...
Varek's grip tightened.
Varek: ...that you began mistaking untouchable for durable.
Sereon's human eyes changed.
Varek drew his fist backward.
Sereon vanished.
The punch travelled through the position he had occupied.
The atmosphere split.
The empty ocean below was struck by the pressure.
Its remaining water left the planet.
Varek watched Sereon reappear several thousand kilometres away.
Sereon's breathing had become audible.
Soul Ryūgu repaired itself.
Slowly.
Dark flew beside Varek.
Less smoothly.
Black material continued handling the damaged leg.
Dark looked at the wound still open through Varek's torso.
Dark: You gonna do something about that?
Varek looked down.
Varek: No.
Dark: You're bleeding through your stomach.
Varek: I know.
Dark: Normal people usually consider that a problem.
Varek looked toward him.
Varek: You currently have black material performing the work of several organs.
Dark glanced down at himself.
Dark: Fair.
Varek looked back at Sereon.
Varek: Do not compare me to normal people again.
Dark: Definitely doing it again.
Varek ignored him.
Far away, Sereon lowered his head.
The metallic resonance inside Soul Ryūgu changed.
Dark heard it.
His expression tightened.
Varek noticed.
Varek: What?
Dark: He's got more.
Varek: Obviously.
Dark looked toward him.
Varek: A man with that much arrogance does not reveal everything while losing.
Sereon raised Suigōraku.
The white armor across his body contracted.
Several damaged eyes closed.
Others opened wider.
The silver weapon's presence deepened until the space around its edge began reflecting things that did not currently exist.
Dark saw himself dead in the water below.
Varek saw his own arm missing.
Neither image lasted.
Sereon's voice reached them.
Sereon: I was attempting to determine whether the reports about you were exaggerated.
Varek: And?
Sereon lifted his eyes.
Sereon: They were incomplete.
Varek's expression remained unchanged.
Sereon: You are stronger than the surviving records suggest.
Varek: Good.
Sereon: That was not praise.
Varek: I did not require it.
Dark raised Kyuketsu.
Sereon looked toward both of them.
The white plates across Soul Ryūgu shifted tighter around his body.
Sereon: Dark.
Dark: What?
Sereon: You wanted the truth.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Sereon: Keep surviving.
The first metallic note sounded.
It came from Suigōraku.
Then another answered from inside Sereon's chest.
Millions of unfinished voices began moving beneath them.
Dark's black material tightened instinctively around his wounds.
Varek lowered his arms.
For the first time since entering the battle, his posture became completely serious.
Feet separated in open air.
Shoulders settled.
Hands relaxed at his sides.
His pale-gold eyes remained on Sereon.
No excitement appeared.
No smile.
Only readiness.
Sereon slowly drew Suigōraku across the front of his body.
Sereon: Reiki.
The ocean beneath them reflected a sky that no longer existed.
Sereon: Suigōraku.
Varek watched.
Sereon: Kaihō.
Silver spread.
The first release entered the surrounding World.
Dark saw the ocean return beneath them despite knowing most of it had already been thrown into space. Mountains rebuilt along the horizon. Clouds returned. Varek stood in five positions at once.
Sereon lifted the blade.
The metallic resonance became unbearable.
Sereon: Shinkai.
The reflections stopped moving.
Every Soul Ryūgu eye opened.
Sereon: Full Release.
The planet went white.
Not from an explosion.
From information.
Every visible surface became capable of presenting an answer.
Dark raised Kyuketsu.
Varek remained still.
Sereon's voice came from everywhere.
Sereon: You wanted me to stop hiding.
Varek looked forward.
Sereon appeared directly ahead.
Perhaps.
Varek's fists closed.
Sereon: Fine.
The millions of unfinished voices beneath Soul Ryūgu rose together.
Sereon: Come find me.
Varek vanished.
The atmosphere detonated behind him.
And for the first time since the Grand Regent entered the battle, Sereon did not wait for him to arrive.
To Be Continued.
End Of Arc 4 Chapter 15.