Chapter 65: The Warning Beyond Reality
The future continued to burn.
Yet nothing moved.
To anyone standing within the ruins of Gregor Naught, Daito, Monday, and Cassian remained exactly where they had been moments before—silent, unmoving, their eyes fixed ahead like statues carved from stone.
Only the world around them betrayed the truth.
CRAAAASH!!
BRRRMMM!!
KABOOOOOOM!!
The earth groaned. Buildings collapsed without being touched. Steel beams twisted as though crushed by invisible giants. Windows shattered one after another in a chain that raced across the city.
BRRRMMMM!!
A roaring cyclone of compressed shockwaves spiraled around the three motionless figures, tearing apart everything unfortunate enough to drift into its path.
The battle was no longer taking place in the present.
It existed one step ahead of reality itself.
Every punch...
Every dodge...
Every decision...
Occurred in a future that continuously rewrote the present. Within that impossible battlefield, the exchange never ceased.
Daito shifted his footing.
Before Cassian could react, three hundred feints blossomed into a million real attacks.
Every angle was calculated. Every strike predicted the next.
Monday shattered those predictions.
SWOOSH!
He burst through the battlefield like a living storm, abandoning patterns altogether. His movements became beautifully chaotic, impossible to read because even he no longer knew where his next attack would originate.
Order.
Chaos.
Working together.
KA-POW!
THWACK!
FWOOSH!
Cassian stood between them. His body flowed effortlessly. One punch slid past his cheek. Another struck his shoulder. A kick skimmed across his ribs.
His counter arrived before the attacks had truly begun.
A palm strike folded Daito's stance. An elbow disrupted Monday's rhythm. A knee forced them apart.
Then they returned.
Again.
Again.
Again.
The future fractured beneath endless collisions.
Blood appeared.
Drip....
Tiny droplets escaped from Daito's nose.
Skrrt.....
Monday's lip split open.
Shhkk....
A bruise formed beneath Cassian's eye. Not because they had been struck in the present. Because the future had already decided those injuries belonged to them.
Reality simply hadn't finished catching up.
* * *
Cassian slowly closed his eyes.
Even while fighting. Even while exchanging millions of blows.
He sighed.
"...Enough."
The word echoed strangely, not through the air but through time itself.
The future battlefield trembled.
Every strike slowed.
Not because anyone had lost speed...because Cassian had forced the battlefield to listen.
His golden eyes opened once more. They carried no excitement now. Only gravity.
"You two..."
His voice resonated through both timelines simultaneously.
"...Do realize what we're doing..."
POW!
THWACK!
A punch collided with Daito's forearm.
A kick met Monday's shoulder.
None of it interrupted him.
"...don't you?"
The words settled heavily inside the endless battlefield.
Daito frowned.
Monday remained silent.
Cassian continued.
"If we continue climbing like this..."
His gaze shifted toward the ruined horizon.
"...we won't simply destroy Gregor Naught."
The wind stopped.
The tornado surrounding their motionless bodies became strangely quiet.
"...We'll destroy something far more important."
His eyes returned to them.
"...The natural law of existence itself."
Silence answered him.
Not disbelief.
Understanding.
Daito's mind processed the statement instantly. Countless calculations flashed across his consciousness.
Space.
Time.
Cause.
Effect.
Every law governing reality had already begun bending around their battle.
The buildings collapsing without being struck...The injuries appearing before the attacks landed... The future dictating the present...Those weren't side effects anymore.They were warning signs.
Reality itself was beginning to fail.
Monday swallowed slowly.
For the first time since the battle began...His confidence cracked.
Only slightly.
"...You're serious."
Cassian nodded.
"I wish I wasn't."
Another exchange exploded between them.
BOOOOOM!!
The future sky split open.
Fragments of light drifted downward like shattered mirrors.
Cassian's expression darkened.
"The only thing capable of stopping something like this..."
He paused.
"...is intervention."
Daito narrowed his eyes.
"Intervention?"
Cassian nodded once.
"Something beyond us."
His voice grew quieter.
"Higher."
"Stronger."
"A force that protects the balance of existence itself."
The implication chilled them both.
"...Or..."
Cassian smiled again.
The familiar grin returned.
"...we stop ourselves."
* * *
The battle resumed, harder, and even more sharper.
The future storm erupted once more.
Yet now...Every strike carried hesitation.
Not fear.
Responsibility.
Daito's thoughts reached Monday.
"...He's right."
Monday answered immediately.
"...I know."
BOOOOM!
Another collision. Another million exchanges. Another fracture spread across reality.
Neither of them wanted to admit it, but they had already crossed the point where victory alone mattered.
If this continued...there might not be a world left to protect.
Then Cassian spoke again.
Almost casually.
"My Savage Power..."
SWOOSH!
FWOOSH!
He ducked beneath Daito's elbow.
Redirected Monday's kick.
Countered both simultaneously.
"...still has two more forms."
Everything stopped.
Not physically but mentally.
Daito's thoughts froze. Monday's pupils shrank.
Even inside the accelerated battlefield... That single sentence became impossible to process.
Two...More forms?
Monday almost laughed.
Not because it was funny, but because it was absurd.
"...You're lying."
Cassian shrugged.
"I've never lied to either of you."
He smiled.
"...I simply never had a reason to show them."
BRRRRMMMM!!
TRRRRRTLLEE!!
The future battlefield resumed around them. Yet neither Daito nor Monday attacked immediately.
They couldn't.
The realization settled heavily inside them.
Everything they had accomplished... Everything they had sacrificed... Everything they had unleashed... Had forced Cassian to fight seriously.
Yet even now... He wasn't at his limit.
Daito slowly exhaled.
His thoughts became perfectly clear. There was no point extending this battle.
No point climbing even higher.
Because if Cassian truly released another form...reality might never recover.
He looked toward Monday, and no words were needed only intent.
Monday understood instantly.
A grin spread across his bruised face.
"...One hit."
Daito nodded.
"...One decisive blow."
Across from them...Cassian lowered his stance.
FRRRRSHHH!
The air around him compressed.
The future battlefield grew perfectly still.
"...Finally."
His voice carried quiet approval.
"...Now you're thinking like warriors."
Each of them closed their eyes.
For the first time since the battle began.
They gathered everything.
Not merely strength, not merely speed, but every lesson learned during the fight.
Every strike thrown. Every wound suffered. Every instinct sharpened. Every heartbeat endured. Every fragment of determination.
Compressed, refined and focused.
Into a single attack.
One chance, one answer.
The future itself seemed to stop breathing.
* * *
Far below...
Reality finally caught up.
Shinsei still stood exactly where she had been before everything began. Her fingers released the burning match Cassian had handed her long ago.
The tiny flame drifted lazily through the air.
Flick...
It rotated once.
Flick...
Descending impossibly slowly.
The entire world seemed frozen around that tiny ember.
High above Daito opened his eyes.
Monday inhaled deeply.
Cassian smiled.
Three hearts beat together.
One final time.
Then—
Fwoo....
They stepped forward.
And the future...Prepared to collide with the present.
To Be Continued...