Clang—Clang—Clang—Clang—Clang—
"Haaaahhhhh—"
Amidst frantic and desperate cries, the heavy blades clashed again and again. Flames and sparks scattered everywhere, re-igniting the frost-covered ground.
The battle between the two was exceptionally simple and brutal, so simple it was hard to believe it was a fight between Michael and Kevin—
Both seemed to have forgotten their own powers, simply swinging their person-high greatswords wildly like petulant children, madly hacking at each other.
If one blow was blocked, strike again. If that didn't work, strike again. There were no rational tactics, barely any fluctuation of Honkai energy, only indistinguishable roars of unclear meaning and the relentless clang of weapons echoing repeatedly through the dark, cramped ruins.
Clang—Clang—Clang—
In the melee, Kevin somehow found himself at a disadvantage. He held his greatsword horizontally before him, struggling to parry Michael's downward slashes again and again.
And Michael seemed completely mindless. He could clearly transition from a downward slash to a horizontal cut using his waist strength, yet he stubbornly swung the greatsword back over his head, stubbornly slamming the blade onto Kevin's sword, as if his enemy wasn't Kevin, but the Judgment of Shamash in the other's hand.
The same was true for Kevin. He had countless ways to respond. He could dodge, or advance instead of retreating while Michael twisted his waist, even take the opportunity to revert the Judgment of Shamash back to its dual pistol form and unthinkingly put a bullet in Michael's head and body.
But he didn't. He just stubbornly blocked Michael's attacks in the clumsiest way possible, until the relentless pressure forced him back continuously, until his spine slammed hard against a wall.
"Hngh!"
The Judgment of Shamash constructed by Michael struck down again. This time, Kevin had no way to retreat and absorb the force. He gripped the hilt with one hand, bracing the blade with the other, desperately holding against the blow. Michael did the same, his left hand pressed onto the blade near the base of his own Judgment of Shamash. As he continuously pressed down, the blade cut a deep gash into his palm. Pitch-black blood surged out, instantly dispersed by the high temperature of the blade, making a "hissing" sound.
The two were locked in a stalemate, like two bulls locking horns, foreheads pressed together, horns entangled, neither willing to yield even half a step.
Back and forth they went, the two locked greatswords pushing and shoving before them, yet remaining inseparable.
After a short while, it was Michael who spoke first.
His tone was much calmer than before. Perhaps the earlier arrogance and mockery were merely stress reactions stemming from his uncertainty about how to face Kevin.
Even so, his words still carried that air of superiority, after all, what he said was the truth:
"Give up, Kevin. You don't understand the truth of this world."
"Heh! Thinking you understand this world better, is that your reason for acting so recklessly!"
"I told you, you don't understand..."
"Then explain it to me clearly, traitor!"
Surging cold energy lifted Kevin's bangs, revealing a forehead bulging with veins. He pushed off the ruined wall behind him, his upper body leaning forward bit by bit, pushing the greatsword back towards Michael. The counterattack came too suddenly; Michael's upper body was already falling backward, unable to leverage any strength—
"Good chance!"
The greatsword in Kevin's hand suddenly vanished, reverting back to pistol form. But before he could aim and pull the trigger, Michael, as if anticipating it, landed a solid front kick square on his chest.
Kevin turned into a white streak, flying backward. Houses along the way were smashed into fine rubble, thrown into the air, then rained down like hail.
Crack—
Michael stood up straight, the ball of his grounded foot pressing down slightly, cracking the thin layer of ice beneath into a fine spiderweb pattern.
He took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. The Judgment of Shamash in his hand gradually turned translucent from solid, nearing dissipation.
He laughed self-deprecatingly, closed his eyes, and snorted softly:
"Heh, traitor..."
Traitor, so be it.
Misunderstood, so be it.
Anyway, in a sense, this could be considered getting what he asked for. And... deserved retribution.
He couldn't explain. He hadn't forgotten the possibility of higher-dimensional existence in this world. Just like how Otto, at most, only told Sushang he wanted to resurrect Kallen, but never revealed his true intentions to any other being, except perhaps the Will of the Honkai. But hadn't he seen through that too?
The Will of the Honkai compared to the Imaginary itself was like a shallow bay in a vast ocean, and the true Finality compared to the Imaginary was similarly so.
Perhaps Otto's inherent disdain for others' understanding played a part, but he himself had repeatedly claimed to have "deceived God." He hadn't hidden anything from the Will of the Honkai; he sought answers from it, and it gave him answers. He claimed his thoughts were completely exposed before the Will of the Honkai. Then, could the God he claimed to deceive possibly refer to the Will of the Honkai?
Clearly impossible. Michael believed the one he deceived was likely the Imaginary or some higher-dimensional existence, even though he himself had spent fifty thousand years, even visiting many worlds on the Tree, searching without finding any trace.
It was also normal. Lower-dimensional beings couldn't perceive higher dimensions; that was the rule of the world. But there was still one piece of evidence that could concretely prove the existence of a higher dimension—the entity that played chess with Su's consciousness after his death.
"Heh, speaking of which, my luck is really quite bad. If that fellow who got entangled with the Cocoon of Finality back then could have seen the complete ending of this story, I wouldn't need to go through so much trouble... At least I could have avoided much wasted effort."
Michael pressed his temples, looking somewhat weary.
Complaining was one thing, but facts were facts. Complaining couldn't change past results, nor could it influence the future that had to be measured out step by step.
Yes, the result was what mattered most. As long as the result was good, even if the process was filled with pain, as long as the result could reverse all the pain... As long as the result was good, that was enough.
When he opened his eyes again, the world, previously identical to pitch-black night under the eclipse, was now burning in raging flames. Fire surged high like giant waves, instantly connecting with the fires burning throughout the streets of Kolosten.
Yes, connected. The towering flames were naturally not some natural phenomenon. The already burning fires, upon contact, seemed to gain life, beginning to flow towards the direction Michael faced, ultimately coalescing under the unadorned black curtain into a Judgment of Shamash that reached the heavens.
"Heh, this trick again?"
The dissipating trend of the Judgment of Shamash in Michael's hand abruptly stopped. The few light particles that had already scattered reversed along their original trajectory as if time flowed backward.
"I almost forgot, I'm actually still the Herrscher of Flame."
The next moment, scorching flames also erupted from his hand. As he held the greatsword vertically before him, the fire eagerly climbed upwards, as if there were a fast-burning fuse in the empty void, guiding all the flames into the sky until they pierced the dark clouds, gazing back at the distant fire sword.
In the next instant, two resounding shouts erupted simultaneously:
"Judgment of Shamash—Unsheathed!"
"Judgment of Shamash—Unsheathed!"
Across the endless ruins and smoke, the two swung the greatswords in their hands as frantically as before. But the swords were simply too massive for Kolosten, for the entire world. Even though both were straining their power as "humans" to the limit, from Su's perspective further away, the two greatswords moved with excruciating slowness, until they finally, irrevocably, crashed together.
Boom—
The instant the greatswords collided, boundless flames rained down from the thick clouds like a meteor shower. Fire rained down across a hundred-mile radius, momentarily reminding people that it was still daytime. But within those short minutes, everything visible to the eye, including the brightly lit Vienna further away, turned into an ocean of fire.
And at the center of the flames, the small city of Kolosten simply couldn't withstand such a massive energy collision. The buildings throughout the city crumbled like hand-flattened building blocks. Looking down, deep cracks spread across the city's foundation in all directions. Then, the entire city center caved inwards as if struck by a giant fist.
"Old Coot! What the fuck is going on! Is... is this fucking human combat? The whole of Kolosten is fucking destroyed!"
Eleanor's terrified shouts came through the mental communication network.
Su didn't answer, nor did he correct her improper address as before, simply letting the communication fill with Eleanor's neurotic curses and the sound of shifting rubble, suggesting she and her companions were buried under the ruins—her mental state was so agitated it even projected the surrounding noise into the mental link.
Firstly, he was somewhat dazed. After all, their original plan was simply to rescue Kallen. But the battle that just occurred, one side was clearly Kevin, and the other, he knew without needing to be told. In this world, only the two of them could wield the Judgment of Shamash with such power. Because of this, he didn't know what to say now; perhaps any answer would be pale and powerless.
Secondly, he understood that for the people of this era, a single clash pulverizing nearly everything within a hundred-mile radius represented a level of combat power simply unimaginable to them.
Even the gods they painstakingly imagined weren't capable of such feats. Yet for Su, this was nothing out of the ordinary... Thinking carefully, it had indeed been a long time since he witnessed such destructive power. Or perhaps the blow that nearly shattered the moon fifty thousand years ago had significantly raised his perception threshold.
After a moment, he sighed deeply:
"Eleanor, you Valkyries must absolutely not interfere in this battle. This is fundamentally beyond the level you can handle. You just need to do your best to rescue the citizens."
"I... I'll fuck your grandma!"
Eleanor cursed viciously first, then the mental communication network fell silent for a long time.
Su shook his head helplessly.
"After this battle, who knows how many people in Kolosten will survive."
He closed his eyes, preventing the sorrow and pity from showing. But that didn't mean those emotions weren't present.
He was a doctor, after all. His lifelong dream was to heal the world. Yet watching so many people fall into danger, he was utterly powerless.
No, things might be even more serious. If this battle was the so-called final showdown, perhaps the world itself might end today.
"Forget it, no point dwelling on these problems. I can't just stand here either. Find Hua first."
Hua wasn't connected to the mental communication network he established. He didn't know Hua's current situation. However, judging from the battle just now, it was clearly a duel between Kevin and Michael. Hua, for some reason, hadn't appeared...
"Was she held up by other people or matters?"
Su didn't know. But if that were the case, then the situation was truly dire—they certainly hadn't expected to run into Michael, but even if they hadn't today, they would eventually... because Michael had long predicted he would wait for them in Kolosten, and they happened to be preparing to meet the challenge.
But ultimately, the reason they dared to fight was merely their conjecture based on existing intelligence. Basically, they believed Michael's strength was far from its peak, roughly equivalent to Kevin and Su combined. Therefore, they only needed to add one more fighting force to gain an advantage.
And that added fighting force was Hua. If Hua was unexpectedly delayed and couldn't participate, then all plans were ruined.
Thinking of this, Su's eyes began searching the distant ruins. He remembered Hua's original position, but couldn't immediately match it to the current wreckage.
Just then, Eleanor's voice suddenly sounded in his mind again:
"Hey! Old Coot, are you... afraid? And... sad?"
Her voice interrupted Su's efforts to locate Hua's position. Su initially didn't want to respond immediately, but after thinking for a moment, he still asked:
"What is it now?"
"Nothing. It just seems like this communication can sense a bit of your emotions... So, shouldn't you be the one asked if something's wrong!"
Mental communication networks were, after all, direct connections of consciousness. Entanglement phenomena weren't surprising at all. Hearing this, Su merely guarded his own mind, reducing his emotional overflow.
Seeing Su fall silent, Eleanor pressed further, getting to the root of the matter:
"Hey! The battle just now, that move was Judgment of Shamash, right? As a Schariac, I still recognize Judgment of Shamash. One was definitely Kevin, who was the other? There shouldn't possibly be a second Judgment of Shamash."
"That's your ancestor..."
Su wanted to answer honestly like this, but while honesty might be a virtue, it wasn't necessary. Weaving a seamless lie certainly required great effort and cost, but honesty likewise required even greater effort to patiently explain everything.
Su had patience, but he didn't have time. So he decided to remain silent.
But he also knew that silence wouldn't satisfy Eleanor. So, while moving towards Hua's general direction, he awkwardly steered the conversation away:
"Alright Eleanor, you should evacuate the citizens as quickly as possible. Based on my understanding of their destructive power, the time you have left is limited."
"Tch! Don't leave this kind of work to me... I've already told the other Valkyries to do it."
"Then what about you?"
"Me? I'm going to find Kallen! And O... F**k! What is this thing!"
"Eleanor? Eleanor? What..."
Su didn't ask further, because he already saw what was happening—
It was a giant serpent, its entire body covered in pitch-black sludge and crackling emerald electricity. Its massive body crushed everything in its path, its coiling torso causing its tail to whip around violently, sending fine rubble and stones flying everywhere.
Of course, none of that mattered. What mattered most was that Su knew instantly, without even thinking, what had happened:
"Mobius!"