My eyes burned.
Not with pain.
With power.
The blue within them deepened, becoming something far beyond the ordinary glow of lightning.
The world sharpened around me.
Every blade of grass.
Every tremor in the earth.
Every subtle distortion in the space before me.
I could feel them all.
And somewhere within those distortions—
My opponent was moving.
I smiled.
"Found you."
BOOOOOOM!!
I planted my feet.
The ground fractured beneath me, cracks spreading outward in jagged patterns.
But it wasn't merely the force of my stance that shattered the earth.
It was the pressure.
The invisible weight of my existence pressed against the surrounding world.
The air tightened.
Space warped.
Reality itself seemed to hesitate.
I clenched my fist.
Blue lightning gathered around my knuckles.
It didn't explode.
It didn't lash wildly in every direction.
It coiled around my hand like a living serpent, its movements precise and controlled.
Obedient.
For the first time, I wasn't simply releasing energy.
I was commanding it.
Then—
I struck.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
A circular shockwave erupted from my fist.
The earth split beneath its passage, tearing through the field in a widening ring. Grass vanished. The ground buckled. The atmosphere trembled beneath the force.
Above me, the sky cracked.
Not like clouds parting.
Not like lightning tearing through the heavens.
Space itself fractured, thin fissures spreading across reality like cracks in a sheet of glass.
For one fleeting instant—
The world beneath the world became visible.
A depthless void lay beyond the shattered surface of reality.
Cold.
Endless.
Silent.
Then the fissures began to close.
Space repaired itself.
The sky returned to normal.
The void disappeared.
And silence settled over the ruined field.
I lowered my fist.
"...Interesting."
BOOM!!
A fist burst from the space behind me.
I tilted my head.
The strike grazed past my cheek.
Too slow.
My hand shot backward.
GRAB!!
I caught the attacker's wrist.
Firmly.
Completely.
For a fraction of a second, the unseen opponent remained trapped in my grasp.
I felt the resistance running through its arm.
The density of its muscles.
The energy compressed beneath its skin.
Then—
The arm dissolved.
Red mist spilled between my fingers as the limb disintegrated, retreating into the distorted space from which it had emerged.
I watched the particles vanish.
"...Still hiding?"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Portals tore open around me.
One appeared overhead.
Another erupted beneath my feet.
Three more formed to my left, right, and behind me.
Attacks surged through them.
Blades.
Fists.
Compressed energy.
Each strike arrived from a different direction, timed to eliminate every possible avenue of escape.
I didn't move.
CLANG!!
A blade shot from a portal beside my head.
Two fingers caught it.
The weapon trembled against my grip.
Blue lightning crawled across its surface, illuminating the distorted space around it.
I studied the blade.
Then the portal.
Then the empty space beyond it.
My expression cooled.
"You've been attacking from the void..."
The blade shattered between my fingers.
"...Using space as your hiding place."
The portals multiplied.
More attacks emerged.
I remained where I stood, intercepting each strike with minimal movement.
A fist approached my ribs.
I turned slightly.
A blade swept toward my neck.
I stopped it with the back of my hand.
A spear thrust through the portal behind me.
I caught it without looking.
Every attack revealed another fragment of the same truth.
My opponent wasn't simply moving too quickly for my senses.
It was concealing its presence within spatial distortions, emerging only when an attack was already underway.
The battlefield wasn't its hiding place.
Space itself was.
I released the broken spear.
My blue eyes narrowed.
"...You're not hiding in space."
The surrounding portals trembled.
My voice remained calm.
Cold.
"...You're hiding from me."
Something shifted within my blood.
Not rage.
Not hunger.
Recognition.
The word surfaced in my consciousness.
AUTHORITY.
It didn't echo through the battlefield.
It settled into existence.
Like a decree that had never needed to be spoken aloud.
The lightning around my body went still.
Then—
I raised my fist.
I wasn't going to attack my opponent.
Not directly.
I was going to attack the very thing allowing it to remain hidden.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
My fist drove forward.
The target wasn't flesh.
It wasn't energy.
It wasn't even the portal before me.
It was space itself.
CRAAAAACK!!
Reality shattered.
A vast fracture ripped through the air, spreading outward like a wound torn into the fabric of existence.
The hidden portals convulsed.
Their edges twisted.
Their openings collapsed and reformed, struggling to maintain their connection to the void.
Then my Authority pressed against the fracture.
And space was forced open.
Something on the other side resisted.
I felt it.
A powerful presence pushing back against my attempt to expose it.
For a brief instant, the fracture trembled.
Then—
I pulled.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
The void ruptured.
And the hidden opponent was dragged into reality.
There he stood.
Vorgrath.
Massive.
Armored.
Burning.
His enormous frame emerged from the fractured space, dark armor covering his body as abyssal flames crawled across its surface.
He hadn't stepped out willingly.
He had been pulled out.
His expression hardened as the fracture sealed behind him.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then his aura erupted.
FWOOSSHHH!!
Abyssal flames surged from his body, spreading across the ruined battlefield.
The ground melted beneath their passage.
The remaining grass turned to ash.
The air screamed as his energy consumed everything it touched.
His presence pressed against the world with the weight of a burning abyss.
Yet I remained still.
The flames reached toward me.
And stopped short of swallowing my body.
Not because they lacked power.
Not because my defense was necessarily stronger.
But because something within my existence refused to yield.
His power was overwhelming.
Mine was different.
His aura sought to dominate everything around him.
Mine didn't need to spread.
It imposed a rule.
A Law.
Authority.
I looked directly at him.
"...So you finally show yourself."
Vorgrath's eyes narrowed.
Then—
BOOM!!
He vanished.
Space exploded behind his movement.
In the next instant, he appeared directly before me.
Too fast.
Too close.
His fist was already moving.
BAMMMMM!!
The blow struck my chest.
The impact thundered across the battlefield.
My body shot backward, carving two deep trenches through the earth as I struggled to absorb the force.
The surrounding space shuddered.
A wave of abyssal flames followed the punch, swallowing the ground beneath my feet.
I finally stopped.
Blood rose into my throat.
I swallowed most of it, though a thin trace escaped the corner of my mouth.
Then I looked down.
A dark burn mark spread across my chest.
The flesh beneath it had been damaged.
I tried to regenerate.
Nothing happened.
The wound remained.
My eyes narrowed.
"...Interesting."
Vorgrath's flames weren't merely burning my body.
Something within their power was interfering with my ability to recover.
I touched the mark.
A faint sting traveled beneath my skin.
So that was the difference.
His attacks carried something that my ordinary regeneration couldn't immediately overcome.
I raised my head.
Vorgrath stood across the ruined field, abyssal flames twisting around his armor.
He didn't look surprised.
If anything, he seemed satisfied.
Perhaps he had expected that blow to land.
Perhaps he had expected me to fall.
I slowly straightened.
Then I smiled.
"...Now this is a proper fight."
The blue in my eyes deepened.
The air around me began to change.
Not brighter.
Not louder.
Deeper.
Blue flames ignited across my body.
They didn't burst outward like ordinary fire.
Instead, they curled inward, wrapping tightly around my frame.
It was as though a star were collapsing within me, compressing its radiance into an increasingly dense core.
Lightning moved through the flames.
The two forces intertwined without resisting each other.
No violent clash.
No unstable fluctuations.
Only controlled power.
I stepped forward.
The ground split beneath my foot.
"If you want to burn..."
Another step.
The pressure increased.
"...Then burn properly."
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
I vanished.
The distance between us disappeared.
My fist was already moving when I reappeared before Vorgrath.
He reacted instantly.
His own fist surged forward, wrapped in abyssal flames.
CLAAAAANG!!
Our attacks collided.
Lightning against abyssal fire.
Blue against red-black.
Two overwhelming forces crashed together.
The shockwave tore across the battlefield, flattening the remaining grass and splitting the earth beneath us.
Above, the sky fractured again.
Vorgrath pushed forward.
His flames roared, pouring around his arm as he forced more power into the collision.
The ground sank beneath our feet.
Space bent around our fists.
For an instant, I felt the pressure of his strength threatening to drive me backward.
But I refused to yield.
I pushed harder.
Blue lightning screamed through my arm.
My flames compressed further.
The collision intensified.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
A second shockwave erupted.
Then a third.
The earth collapsed beneath us, forming a vast crater.
Neither of us gave ground.
Vorgrath's expression darkened.
He increased the pressure.
I answered.
His abyssal flames devoured the lightning crawling across our arms.
My blue flames burned through the energy surrounding his fist.
Neither force could completely overwhelm the other.
We were locked in a contest of power.
Two forces.
Two paths.
Two Laws.
Then—
Something changed.
Not in my body.
Not in my energy.
In the world itself.
The lightning around me suddenly became still.
Every flicker stopped.
Every spark froze.
Even the flames coiling around my body seemed to pause.
For one impossible instant, the battlefield held its breath.
Then—
The lightning bowed.
Not physically.
Not like a creature lowering its head.
Its very nature seemed to acknowledge something greater.
The air grew heavy.
Space trembled.
The surrounding flames faltered.
Vorgrath's expression changed.
His abyssal fire flickered violently, its once-raging currents becoming unstable.
He tried to reinforce it.
The flames responded.
Then weakened again.
His eyes widened.
"...Impossible."
I slowly withdrew my fist.
The collision ended.
Yet the pressure remained.
I raised one hand.
No dramatic gesture.
No explosive surge of energy.
Just a simple movement.
My gaze settled on Vorgrath.
And I spoke.
"Kneel."
The word was quiet.
Almost casual.
But it carried something far more terrifying than a roar.
Authority.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
Reality obeyed.
The ground beneath Vorgrath collapsed.
An invisible force descended upon his massive body, driving him downward.
His knees buckled.
His armor groaned.
Abyssal flames erupted around him, desperately attempting to resist the pressure.
He fought back.
Every muscle tightened.
Every trace of energy surged through his body.
The battlefield shook as he struggled against the force pressing down upon him.
But the more he resisted—
The heavier it became.
His flames roared.
They clawed at the air.
They consumed the ground.
They burned with the fury of a power that refused to submit.
Yet they could not overturn the command.
Because this was no ordinary contest of strength.
I wasn't trying to overpower his flames with more flames.
I wasn't trying to crush his body with greater physical force.
I had imposed a command upon the space he occupied.
And reality itself was enforcing it.
Vorgrath's knees struck the ground.
BOOM!!
The impact shattered the earth beneath him.
His head lowered slightly.
His massive frame trembled under the invisible weight.
For one fleeting moment, the abyssal flames around him seemed to lose their purpose.
They still burned.
They still possessed power.
But they could no longer move with the same freedom.
It was as though something had placed a hand around their throat.
I watched him struggle.
My expression remained calm.
I could feel the Authority working.
Not perfectly.
Not effortlessly.
Each passing moment demanded more concentration than I wanted to admit.
But the command held.
Vorgrath tried to lift his head.
His flames surged again.
The ground cracked beneath his hands.
He was still resisting.
Still fighting.
Still refusing to accept the impossible.
Yet his body remained forced downward.
And then—
I saw it.
The change in his eyes.
The disbelief.
The realization that his strength alone might not be enough to escape what was happening.
And beneath both—
Fear.
For the first time since he had emerged from the void, Vorgrath looked at me as though he had finally understood the danger standing before him.
I lowered my hand slightly.
The pressure remained.
My blue flames continued to coil around my body, silent and controlled.
I stared down at him.
"...Now."
My voice carried across the fractured battlefield.
"Let's see how you fight when the world itself refuses to let you stand."