Chapter 57: The Match
For several long seconds...
No one spoke.
The transformed Traditional Blade rested quietly in Daito's hand, its golden edge emitting a faint, rhythmic glow that pulsed in time with his heartbeat. The battlefield remained frozen beneath an invisible weight, as if the ruins themselves had recognized that the next few moments would determine the outcome of everything.
Aerin slowly retreated, her breathing ragged after completing the ritual. Blood trickled from the corner of her lips, yet relief softened her exhausted expression.
"It worked..."
Her voice barely rose above a whisper.
Daito never looked away from Cassian.
His eyes had changed.
Not in color nor in shape, but in perception.
The battlefield no longer appeared as a collection of people and rubble. Instead, it unfolded before him as countless streams of information.
Every heartbeat, shift of weight, and current of air.
Every loose pebble waiting to roll beneath someone's foot.
He saw all of it. He understood all of it.
Cassian noticed immediately.
His grin widened.
"...So."
He slowly rolled one shoulder.
Crack...
Then the other.
KRRRK...
"You finally found your answer."
Daito lowered his stance.
His breathing remained perfectly steady.
"...No."
A faint smile crossed his face.
"I found your weakness."
For the first time...Monday laughed.
A genuine laugh.
"Ha..."
He wiped the blood from his mouth before sparks of blue lightning began dancing across his skin.
BZZZT...
"...You're either the bravest idiot I've ever met..."
Lightning burst violently around his body.
KRAK-KOOOOOM!!
"...or you're actually onto something."
Electricity exploded across the battlefield, illuminating the shattered ruins with flashes of blue-white light.
The hairs on everyone's arms stood upright. Tiny arcs leapt from broken stones. The air filled with the smell of ozone.
Cassian calmly watched the display.
"You figured it out?"
Daito nodded.
"I did."
He slowly looked at him.
"Your ability isn't invincible."
Cassian chuckled.
"Oh?"
"You don't create power."
"You don't erase it."
"You transfer it."
A brief pause.
"And when necessary..."
"...you multiply it."
Cassian's smile remained unchanged.
"Go on."
Daito pointed the blade toward him.
"You only become overwhelming because your multiplication exceeds what your opponent can process."
Monday's eyes widened.
He understood where Daito was going.
Daito continued.
"If I attack once..."
"You multiply it."
"If I resist once..."
"You multiply that too."
"If I move once..."
"You multiply the force acting upon me."
He tightened his grip.
"But if I process..."
"...react..."
"...and move faster than your multiplication can compound..."
His eyes sharpened.
"...then your advantage disappears."
Silence.
The wind stopped.
Cassian stared at him for several seconds.
Then...He laughed.
Not mockingly nor arrogantly but genuinely.
"Hahaha..."
His laughter echoed throughout the ruins before gradually fading.
When he looked back at Daito...His eyes were different.
There was excitement inside them.
Pure excitement.
"...Say it properly."
Daito inhaled slowly.
"The only way to defeat you..."
"...is overwhelming speed."
He shook his head.
"No..."
"...not speed."
"My body alone isn't enough."
His gaze remained fixed on Cassian.
"My thoughts."
"My perception."
"My reactions."
"My movements."
"They all have to become faster."
He planted one foot firmly against the fractured earth.
"I have to surpass..."
"...your multiplication."
A long silence followed.
Monday stepped beside him as electricity roared wildly around his body.
BZZZTLE!
"...He's right."
Blue lightning wrapped around his arms like living serpents.
"If Cassian multiplies an action a thousand times..."
Monday smiled.
"...then we simply force him to deal with more than a thousand."
Cassian slowly exhaled.
"...Finally."
He stretched both arms above his head. Muscles shifted beneath his clothes. Invisible pressure rolled across the battlefield.
The ground trembled.
GRRRRRR...
Cracks spread beneath his feet.
Loose stones floated briefly before crashing back to the earth.
"...Now..."
He lowered his arms.
"...this feels like a real fight."
Shinsei stepped quietly beside him.
Without speaking, she reached into her pocket and produced a small matchbox.
She struck one match.
Chhk...
A tiny orange flame flickered to life.
Fragile, gentle, and completely ordinary.
Yet every warrior present instinctively focused on it.
Cassian leaned forward.
She placed the burning match between his lips.
He inhaled once.
The tip glowed brighter before he calmly removed it and held it between two fingers.
"...Should I intervene?"
Shinsei asked.
Cassian answered without taking his eyes off Daito.
"No."
A slow smile spread across his face.
"I've waited too long for something like this."
He raised the burning match. The tiny flame danced in the breeze. Then he looked directly at Daito.
"Before this reaches the ground..."
His voice became deathly calm.
"...our fight ends."
He released it. The burning match drifted downward.
Slowly, painfully slowly.
Time itself seemed to stretch. The tiny ember rotated gently through the air. A single speck of ash broke away.
Floating beside it.
The world became silent.
No...The world became slow.
Inside Daito's perception...The falling match resembled a leaf descending through still water.
Every grain of dust surrounding it remained visible. Every ripple in the air unfolded clearly before his eyes. His heartbeat echoed inside his ears.
Thump.
His muscles tightened.
Thump.
His breathing disappeared.
Thump.
His pupils narrowed.
Monday lowered his body beside him. Lightning gathered beneath his feet.
BZZZZZZZT!!
The stone beneath him blackened instantly.
Across the battlefield...Cassian did the same.
His smile never faded as the invisible force condensed around him, and the ground caved inward.
KRRRRRKKK!!
The pressure alone shattered nearby pillars into clouds of debris.
Aerin watched while focused on the Traditional Blade, Wei-Wan unconsciously held his breath, Wasabi gripped her broken tablet until her knuckles turned white, and Zachia's fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword.
No one blinked because they knew.
If they did...They might miss everything.
The match fell.
A single glowing ember detached from its tip.
Then—
SWOOSH!
Daito vanished.
BOOOOOOM!!
The explosion beneath his feet tore the battlefield apart.
A crater erupted where he had been standing. Stone blasted skyward. A hurricane of dust exploded outward in every direction.
Almost simultaneously—
ZZAAAPP!
Monday disappeared.
KRAAAAAAASH!!
Blue lightning carved a jagged path through the ruins, vaporizing everything it touched.
And at that exact same instant, Cassian smiled.
"...Good."
He vanished too.
THOOOOOM!!
The air itself folded inward as an invisible shockwave detonated from his position.
Three blurs. Three monsters. Three trajectories.
Colliding.
The falling match hadn't even reached the ground.
The battlefield erupted into a storm of sonic booms.
BOOM!!
BOOM!!
BOOM!!
The sky shattered beneath overlapping shockwaves.
Mountains of rubble exploded apart before anyone had even seen the first exchange.
All that remained visible were expanding rings of compressed air ripping across the Iron Bastion.
KRRRRRRRRRRR!!
Walls collapsed.
Ancient pillars snapped in half.
The earth split open in jagged lines stretching hundreds of meters. The Outsiders instinctively shielded their faces as hurricane-force winds slammed into the spectators.
"...I can't see them!"
Wasabi shouted over the roaring chaos.
"I can't even track their movements!"
Wei-Wan narrowed his eyes until they hurt.
Nothing.
There was nothing to follow.
Only destruction, sound, and the impossible.
Far above the battlefield, clouds burst apart as another invisible collision shook the heavens.
KABOOOOOOOOOM!!
A shockwave rolled across the sky, scattering sunlight through the swirling dust.
The burning match...continued falling.
Still untouched, and suspended between heaven and earth.
And somewhere beyond the reach of ordinary sight...The fastest battle of Daito Greyhell's life...
Had finally begun.
To Be Continued...