[The Shattered Sky]
The mid-air dance of gods reached its boiling point. Gudmaro lunged, his fist cutting through the atmosphere with enough force to ignite the air, but Yoru was no longer where the space bent.
She teleported, appearing above him like a vengeful star. She didn't use a blade or a kick this time. She raised her palm, and a sphere of concentrated, cerulean energy materialized—vibrating with the sound of a dying sun.
"Annihilation Volt!"
The blue sphere didn't just strike; it erased. The resulting explosion was silent for a microsecond before a roar of thunder shook the entire Northern Mountain range. The Space-Warping Barrier turned opaque from the sheer intensity of the light.
When the acrid smoke finally cleared, the sight was horrific.
Gudmaro was still suspended in the air, but the "Perfect" image was gone. His left arm, shoulder, and half of his torso had been completely vaporized, leaving behind a jagged, glowing cauterized edge.
"Look... look what you did to me..." Gudmaro whispered, his voice cracking like breaking glass. He stared at the empty space where his body should be. "What happened to my perfection?! This... this was supposed to be impossible! NO! NOOOOO!"
He began to scream—a high-pitched, glitching sound that echoed through the minds of everyone watching.
"Now! Finish him, Yoru!" Techyon yelled, pumping his fist. A wave of relief washed over Lapis and Alya; they were already starting to cheer, the weight of the apocalypse finally lifting from their shoulders.
But Cynthia didn't move. Her neutron-star eyes remained fixed on the screaming God, her white-hot aura flaring defensively.
"Don't be happy," she commanded, her voice cutting through their cheers like a blade. "This duel is not over yet. Look at his mana... it's not fading. It's compressing."
Yoru stood in the air, her eyes cold as she watched the smoke drift away from Gudmaro's mangled form. "Stop acting like a coward," she said, her voice echoing through the barrier. "I know you can regenerate. A 'Perfect Being' doesn't die from a single burst of electricity."
The screaming stopped. With a sound like shifting obsidian, Gudmaro's missing flesh began to knit together, violet veins weaving into new muscle in a matter of seconds. He straightened his spine, his body once again unblemished.
"I was just giving you a moment of relief," Gudmaro said, his smile returning, though it was sharper now. "I wanted you to taste victory before I took it away."
Yoru didn't wait for him to finish. She blurred forward, a golden streak against the dark sky. Gudmaro warped, but Yoru was already reading the "space-bruise." She twisted mid-air and slammed a kick directly into his jaw, the shockwave shattering the clouds below them.
Gudmaro skidded back, wiping a speck of violet blood from his lip. "Fine. Let's see how you like your own medicine. Annihilation Volt!"
He fired a replica of her blue sphere. Yoru didn't dodge; she manifested a Split Blade of golden energy and sliced the sphere in half with a flick of her wrist, letting the energy dissipate harmlessly. "My own attacks don't work on me, Gudmaro. I know their frequency better than you ever will."
"But it's my attack now," Gudmaro countered. He raised his left hand, and the swirling Antimatter: Orange appeared. Then, he raised his right hand, manifesting a glowing sphere of Matter: Magenta.
He began to press the two orbs together, the friction between matter and antimatter creating a terrifying, high-pitched screech that made the Space-Warping barrier groan.
Lapis felt his heart stop. "He's... he's going to use my move! Annihilation Technique: Universal Vermilion! If that thing touches the atmosphere, the explosion will be visible from the moon!"
The light between Gudmaro's hands began to turn a deep, murderous red. "Behold, the end of—"
SHINK.
Before the orbs could merge, Yoru was there. She hadn't teleported—she had moved with such raw, physical speed that the "lag" didn't even have time to form. Her golden blades flashed twice.
The Orange and Magenta spheres were severed from Gudmaro's hands before they could touch.
"The time you need to charge a move like that," Yoru said, her blades hovering inches from his throat, "is time I can use to cut you into millions of pieces. Your 'Perfection' is too slow, Gudmaro."
[The Boundary of Space and Earth]
The barrier was no longer enough to contain them. In the span of a single nanosecond, the sky above the Northern Mountain tore open. A trail of gold and violet light streaked upward, piercing the stratosphere and exiting the Earth's atmosphere entirely. For a heartbeat, they were clashing against the backdrop of the cold, silent stars.
In the next nanosecond—before the vacuum of space could even chill their skin—they slammed back down into the obsidian arena with the force of a twin meteor strike.
To the observers, it didn't look like flying. It looked like the universe was glitching. One moment they were gone; the next, a shockwave leveled the surrounding peaks.
Despite the blinding speed, the momentum was shifting. Yoru was a blur of golden efficiency, her strikes landing three times for every one of Gudmaro's. She was "Water" in a hurricane—unpredictable, relentless, and flowing through every crack in his "Perfect" defense.
They both skidded across the cratered obsidian, their boots throwing up sparks as they prepared for another head-on charge.
"This is crazy..." Techyon whispered, his eyes wide as he tried to track the ripples in the air. "Look at that speed. They're rewriting the laws of motion."
"Don't ask me," Alya said, shielding her eyes from the mana-flashes. "I can't even see them anymore. I'm just hearing the world break apart."
"This battle is just—" Lapis started, his voice trembling with awe.
Before he could finish, Cynthia cut him off. Her arms were still crossed, but a small, confident smirk played on her lips. She could see the "lag" that Yoru was exploiting. She could see the bruises forming on the God's skin.
"Yoru is winning," Cynthia stated firmly.