A tall, pitch-black figure walked through the sky, feeling the pressure bearing down on him from both directions. Around him stretched a vast "river" of debris, all manner of objects floating through the air under the effects of colliding magnetic fields and gravity.
Cid turned his head to the right.
Before him was a beautiful azure planet with a mass of one hundred thousand trillion trillion tons, spinning at no less than 107,306 kilometers per hour. Changes in its magnetic field had sent everything into a distorted, runaway state, concentrating all those forces onto a single point on the planet's surface and accelerating its rotation in a self-destructive spiral.
Cid raised his left hand, extended it toward the planet on his right, spread his fingers, and pressed against empty space.
A piercing crack erupted, like a crowbar slamming into a train hurtling along at full speed.
Terrifying pressure and air currents exploded outward with the black figure's hand at their center, scattering the countless objects drifting through the sky under the influence of gravity.
Cid turned his head to the left.
There was the planet where he had lived until now, peaceful, serene, and beautiful.
And this one was the true heavyweight.
Compared to the other celestial body, which had naturally developed through Magical Power until reaching a mass of one hundred thousand trillion trillion tons, this planet had somehow been hastily formed from the fusion of three worlds. Its tectonic plates and natural systems seemed to operate on the principle of "if it still works and nothing has died yet, don't touch it."
With a mass of at least two hundred thousand trillion trillion tons, it was essentially a planetary powder keg that could disintegrate and explode at any moment.
Cid raised his right hand and stretched it toward the planet on his left, crossing it over his left arm. He spread all five fingers and pressed down through empty space above his own world.
"BOOM!!!"
On the planet below, the already raging ocean suddenly buckled as though a celestial body had fallen onto it.
An expanse of ocean covering more than a hundred million square kilometers heaved violently. The center of the deep sea sank inward as waves more than ten thousand meters high curled upward beneath Cid's position.
Seen from space, the planet now resembled a water-filled balloon held in a gigantic hand, one spot on its surface being pressed inward.
"Whew..."
Cid exhaled as the howl of hurricane-force winds shrieked past his ears.
With one hand bracing against the rotational force of each planet, Cid felt that he had successfully stopped them from approaching one another.
"Rumble!"
Correction.
He had stopped them temporarily.
After all, he could not exactly spend the rest of his life standing motionless in the sky.
As for destroying both planets at once or forcing them back onto their original trajectories...
In his current state, that would be a little difficult.
Stopping two planets and destroying two planets were entirely different things.
At that moment, the terrifying currents and pressure generated where the two planets were colliding spread outward, only to strike the blood-red mist blanketing the sky and rebound at even greater speed.
The reflected force then merged with the pressure and currents still erupting from the collision point.
Centered on the boundary between the two planets, a force several times more powerful than before slammed into the depths of the ocean. Beneath countless tons of seawater, the tectonic plate at the very bottom suddenly fractured.
And at the center of this ever-amplifying pressure stood Cid, holding one planet on either side with his two hands and bearing the greatest share of the force.
All he felt was as if someone had suddenly slapped him hard on the back.
He frowned slightly.
"Just what kind of genius came up with something like this?"
Before, as long as Cid remained where he was, the two planets would continue trying to move toward one another but would never actually collide.
That was no longer possible.
Powerful pressure would continuously erupt from the collision point. Cid, standing at its center, absorbed most of it, but the remaining force would strike the surfaces of the two planets before dispersing outward into space.
Then...
It would hit the blood mist covering the entire sky.
The scattered energy would be gathered back into a single point, combine with the force erupting from the collision, and explode outward again.
Put simply, Cid was standing at the center and bearing the force of more than three hundred thousand trillion trillion tons, while the shockwaves escaping past him and slamming into the two planets amounted to a little over one hundred thousand trillion trillion tons.
Then, just as those shockwaves were about to dissipate after striking the planets, they would be gathered up again. As the planets tilted, that force would combine with the original three hundred thousand trillion trillion tons, producing an even greater shockwave.
The process would repeat endlessly.
Unless one of the three fulcrums involved, Cid or either of the two planets, finally gave out, the amplification would never stop.
Cid himself had no problem at all.
The weight of a mere two planets was nothing to him. Even if the force transmitted through them kept increasing, he could withstand it.
The problem was these two fragile little planets...
At this point, both had already begun a countdown toward self-destruction.
Whether they were allowed to collide outright or remained locked in this stalemate while the immense forces tore apart their interiors, the end result would be the same.
They would become cosmic dust, just like the moon nearby that had already been crushed into powder by the pressure generated between the two planets.
Amazing.
What kind of expert could have created something this powerful?!
"Crack!"
Before Cid could figure out whether the red dome had formed naturally or been created by someone, two crisp snapping sounds rang out beside him.
Yes.
A snapping sound had somehow echoed through the very center of the planetary collision, a place filled with savage storms and enough pressure to instantly reduce anything below the level of a Dragon God to pulp.
So what could possibly break loudly enough for the sound to reach him here?
The answer was simple.
Continental plates.
Cid silently looked to both sides.
The same scene unfolded wherever he looked.
Magma poured toward the opposite planet, mixing with countless tons of seawater as it surged into the sky. Beneath the deep ocean, pitch-black land was exposed as the seabed split apart in both directions.
Surrounded by magma and seawater, Cid gave a relieved smile.
The last trace of hope he had been holding onto was finally dead.
His own planet was already a half-finished product hastily fused together from three worlds. Its internal natural systems were a complete mess, and its powder keg structure could collapse at any moment.
The fact that it had survived the gravitational pull of another planet and several impacts totaling over five hundred thousand trillion trillion tons of force was already a miracle.
As for this uninvited guest...
It was uninvited, right?
Well, he would just assume it was.
A planet weighing one hundred thousand trillion trillion tons had picked a fight with another planet more than twice its size and somehow managed to drag the battle all the way to mutual destruction.
He had to admit, that was an impressive miracle in its own right.
Cid lowered his crossed arms, folded them across his chest, and quietly watched the two enormous celestial bodies begin approaching each other once again.
Save them?
They were already beyond saving!
The interiors of both planets had completely blown apart.
He could finally let go and enjoy the fireworks!
"Good thing I never planned on saving this world in the first place."
The increasingly violent winds howled in his ears.
With his hearing fully opened, even from more than a hundred thousand meters above the surface, Cid could clearly hear the cries of people on both worlds as disaster consumed them.
High above the heavens, the corners of the black figure's mouth slowly curled upward.
Black light began to shine.
Even the faintest remnants of that immense power were enough to instantly replace the blood mist that had blanketed the sky.
"If this world has to be destroyed, then I'm the only one allowed to destroy it!"
The moment those words left his lips, enormous Magical Power surged outward.
The terrifying air currents it produced struck both worlds simultaneously, actually forcing the two planets, which had been steadily drawing closer, slightly apart.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds...
Within a few short seconds, the black Magical Power covering the entire world faded away.
The clear blue sky returned before everyone's eyes.
In its place, however, a colossal pitch-black sword spanning the entire horizon emerged from the narrow gap between the two colliding worlds.
It extended all the way into the starry heavens, revealing itself to the entire world.
"Time to cut the cake..."
Standing in the narrow space between the two worlds, the black figure gracefully wielded the enormous sword.
A gentle smile rested on his face as he spoke in an equally gentle, playful voice.
"BOOM!"
Simply swinging the sword was enough to generate a hurricane capable of destroying an island.
Yet in space, the colossal blade moved like a streak of black light.
From above, it swept down across the celestial body before him, the planet weighing one hundred thousand trillion trillion tons.
"Rumble!"
Countless tons of seawater were blasted aside by the terrifying impact.
Waves more than ten thousand meters high surged upward, revealing the beautiful seafloor beneath them.
The razor-sharp tip of the sword passed through the ocean and touched the land buried beneath the deep sea.
Then the colossal blade sank through it as easily as if it were cutting into soft cake.
The thick crust, which had endured the crushing weight of the ocean for hundreds of millions of years, offered no resistance at all.
The blade tore straight through it.
Then through the mantle.
Then the core.
A flash of light swept past.
A black line once again appeared across the heavens.
The azure sphere completely collapsed.
Magma erupted outward, and the enormous gap running through its center, wide enough to see the endless universe beyond, stood out with terrifying clarity.
The breathtaking sight combined the destruction of a planet, the extinction of life, and the endless starry sky.
It was engraved forever into the minds of everyone who witnessed it.
One sword cleaved the heavens.
The world was saved.
The powerful beings of the various worlds, who understood what had just happened yet had been completely powerless to interfere, saw the other planet being destroyed.
None of them spared any sympathy for the destruction of another inhabited world.
Instead, the same thought instinctively appeared in their minds.
If their world was only being destroyed because it was colliding with another planet, then now that the other planet had been split in two, their own world should return to normal.
Right?
Clinging to that desperate hope, they saw something in the very next instant that made their eyes bulge and their blood run cold.
"Stop!"
The dark sword spanning the starry sky had already cut through an entire planet, and its length now exceeded the combined diameters of both worlds.
Yet it did not disappear after completing its task.
At the far end, the black figure gripping its hilt turned his body.
The enormous sword followed his movement.
And its blade was aimed directly at the planet that was already falling apart.
For the record, although Cid's own calculations told him that destroying two planets at once would be a little difficult in his current state, he preferred another way of putting it.
It was just right.
"What a beautiful world."
"What a shame."
With that lament, the colossal sword stretching across the stars descended.
"RUMBLE!"
The barriers maintained by various factions to protect their territories had been strained to their limits.
Against a power capable of severing a planet, however, they vanished as though someone had merely blown on them without mercy.
Nearly every deeply buried node was ripped from the earth and crushed to pieces.
Against a force that swept across the entire world, it did not matter how deeply anything had been hidden.
The giant sword plunged into the planet.
Then it sliced straight through from top to bottom.
Under this world-overturning force, the land buried deep within the planet could do nothing but churn in the blade's wake.
Across the sky, through the oceans, and beneath the earth, a massive wound was carved across the planet itself.
High above, Cid held the enormous sword and gazed at the breathtaking sight.
Even after splitting both planets with his blade, he did not stop.
He raised the sword formed from his Magical Power once again.
"Time to divide up the cake."
He raised it.
Then brought it down.
Within little more than ten seconds, two more strikes fell.
Both planets were divided into six pieces.
Perhaps Cid was playing favorites.
Most of the damage caused by the sword cuts fell across the territories belonging to Worlds One and Two.
World Three's territory, aside from what could not possibly be avoided, suffered only a single massive rift running through it.
Once the three sword strikes were finished, the colossal blade that had, in a sense, destroyed two worlds began to dissipate.
The black figure who had coldly carved apart two planets while standing amid the stars was likewise caught by gravity and began falling toward the ground.
It was over.
Watching the dramatic changes in the sky and feeling the forces pulling at him from all directions, Cid was certain that everything was finished.
"Hehe. That was so cool!"
He could not help letting out a foolish chuckle.
Destroying a world and cleaving the heavens with a single sword.
He had wanted to do both for a very long time.
Unfortunately, until now, he had only ever had one planet available, so he could not exactly destroy his only planet just to satisfy a passing whim.
This opportunity was incredibly rare.
He had enjoyed himself immensely.
He had even emptied all the Magical Power in his body in one go.
That felt amazing!
Next, the two planets he had torn apart would instinctively fuse together in order to survive rather than turn into a pair of fireworks.
The damaged sections of each world would replace the destroyed portions of the other. Once the damage was repaired, their natural systems would restart.
That was the solution Cid had come up with after confirming that the interiors of both planets were completely ruined.
As for what would happen if, after he finished cutting them apart, everything failed to proceed according to his plan...
Well, he had already done the hardest part for them by breaking up the planetary plates.
If the planets still could not manage to fuse and repair themselves after that, then he supposed he would simply enjoy watching two fireworks.
Still...
What exactly had happened here?
Cid ignored the wind roaring past him as he fell.
It was only a little over a hundred thousand meters.
What was there for him to worry about?
The people who might get crushed beneath him were the ones who should be worried.
Using the few minutes of free fall to think, Cid crossed his arms and frowned.
To be fair, playing the mysterious powerhouse who appeared to destroy the world with one sword while secretly saving it had felt incredible.
But even now, he still had absolutely no idea what was going on.
He had simply been eating dinner.
Then, for reasons he could not understand, he had suddenly been hit by a one hundred thousand trillion trillion ton truck.
He had slipped away to the bathroom, changed clothes, and while he was at it, pretended to be a ghost and scared Kanade, who had followed him, so badly that she ran back crying.
Then he had hurried into the sky to stop the world from being destroyed.
As for what had happened in between...
He had no clue.
Who in their right mind would drag a planet from another world over here just to ram it into this one?!
"BOOM!"
While Cid was still thinking, he crashed spread-eagle into a forest, producing a deafening impact.
Oh well.
He would just treat it as some unexpected exercise before dinner.
Hopefully something like this happened a few more times.
He had really enjoyed himself.
Smiling happily, Cid climbed to his feet and looked around at the walls of the crater surrounding him.
With a light jump, he leaped straight out.
Then...
He saw Zeta and Beta struggling to their feet.
And beside them stood a white-haired boy who looked like bad news at a glance.
"What are you doing here?"
Beta turned a resentful gaze toward Zeta.
Cid sighed.
He really did not like friends who held parties without inviting him.
And he liked friends who got into fights without inviting him even less.
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