The battlefield had long since fallen into ruin.
Shattered earth stretched toward the horizon, forests burned in scattered patches, and fractured mountains stood like broken monuments to the war that had engulfed Kael'Ar. The air itself trembled from the countless battles raging across the planet.
Gene and Champ remained standing several dozen meters apart.
Neither spoke. A heavy silence settled between them, broken only by the distant rumble of collapsing cliffs.
Champ's expression gradually darkened. His fists clenched until his knuckles turned white, and anger flickered behind eyes that had once been composed.
Gene simply tilted his head, wearing the same relaxed smile that had irritated his opponent from the beginning. Without warning Champ disappeared. The ground beneath his feet exploded from the force of his acceleration as he shot toward Gene.
Anger burned in his eyes.
"Mirror World."
The instant the words left his mouth, reality fractured.
Crack. The sky shattered like glass.
The earth beneath Gene's feet splintered into countless reflective fragments before everything dissolved into an endless sea of mirrors.
Gene slowly looked around. Every direction reflected another. Above him, Below him, his left….his right.
An infinite labyrinth of polished mirrors stretched beyond sight, each one reflecting countless versions of himself into eternity.
Champ's voice echoed from everywhere at once.
"You are now in my territory."
Before Gene could react a violent, unseen force slammed into his chest.
BOOM! His body shot backward like a cannonball.
He crashed through a gigantic mirror, sending millions of glittering shards spinning through the endless realm before tumbling across another reflective floor.
Gene rolled onto one knee.
"…Interesting."
He immediately turned.
Another mirror stood directly before him. Within it Champ smiled. Without hesitation, Gene drove his fist straight through the reflection. The mirror exploded.
Only for the smile to disappear with it.
"…A fake."
His crimson eyes narrowed.
"So that's how it is."
Gene closed his eyes for a single moment. The Circuit of Dreams pulsed.
"I dream…of a time where the sun is exploding inside this world."
The dream became reality. At the very center of the Mirror World a miniature sun was born. At first it was no larger than a marble. Then it expanded. Ten meters. One hundred. A thousand.
Its light swallowed the endless mirrors as unimaginable heat surged through the dimension. Reflections began melting into liquid glass while the realm itself screamed beneath the impossible temperature. The growing star reached instability. Then it exploded. A blinding wave of stellar fire engulfed the Mirror World.
Entire continents of mirrors vaporized in an instant.
Champ's eyes widened.
"So that's your answer…"
He thrust both palms forward.
"Reflection!"
The expanding explosion suddenly bent. The impossible wave of destruction reflected upon itself.
The stellar inferno folded backward, crashing into its own source. Reality groaned beneath the contradiction. Then the entire Mirror World shattered. Millions upon millions of mirrors cracked simultaneously before collapsing into endless fragments.
The illusion disappeared. Reality returned. Champ landed on one knee. Gene was already behind him.
His voice was calm.
"Dream Domain."
Darkness swallowed everything. The battlefield vanished, the sky disappeared and the wind ceased. Champ blinked once then he looked upward, There was no sky. Only an endless universe.
Infinite stars stretched across the void while galaxies revolved silently around them. Nebulas drifted through eternity like oceans of light, and countless worlds floated in the endless cosmos.
The silence was overwhelming. Gene floated high above, his black coat gently swaying in the nonexistent wind.
Looking down upon Champ, he spoke with quiet certainty.
"This is your grave."
He slowly raised a single finger.
"Fall."
The ground beneath Champ vanished. His body dropped. Faster. Faster. Faster still. There was nothing to stop him.
No sky, no earth.
Only endless falling. Infinity itself became his prison. Seconds lost all meaning. Minutes no longer existed.
He continued falling until BOOM!! An enormous plain suddenly materialized beneath him.
Champ slammed into it with catastrophic force, the impact splitting the landscape apart for kilometers.
Dust rose into the endless heavens. Gene descended slowly through the stars until he hovered directly above the crater. His crimson eyes met Champ's.
"Mental Collapse."
Champ froze. His pupils shrank.
Then he screamed. His consciousness was invaded. Memories erupted before him like shattered films. His childhood, first smile, family and dreams.
Every aspiration he had ever carried…hope and treasured memory. They began cracking apart. Like fragile glass.
One by one, they crumbled into dust.
"No…"
Champ desperately reached for them.His mother's face dissolved. His father's voice vanished. The child he once was disappeared before his eyes.
"No…!"
His screams echoed across the endless cosmos.
Everything continued breaking. His identity unraveled and his memories faded. His dreams ceased to exist until nothing remained his eyes became empty…emotion, purpose or thought. Only an empty shell stood where Champ once existed.
Gene landed silently before him. Without hesitation his black sword traced a clean horizontal line. A flash of steel. Champ's head separated from his body. The Dream Domain dissolved.
The ruined battlefield returned. Gene stood alone. Champ's lifeless body collapsed onto the broken earth.
For several long seconds, Gene remained motionless before his knees finally gave slightly. He dropped onto one knee and let out a slow breath.
"…That took a lot of energy."
His dream abilities had consumed an enormous amount of mental strength.
Still smiling faintly, Gene rose back to his feet.
"I'm done here."
Without another glance at the battlefield, he turned and disappeared into the nearby forest, seeking a place where he could recover before another enemy found him.
Far away…Another battlefield erupted. Denma and Leo stood facing one another across a field scarred by previous clashes. Neither spoke or moved. For one brief moment…Silence reigned.
Then both of them vanished. BOOOOM!!
They reappeared in the exact center of the battlefield, their fists colliding with enough force to unleash a devastating shockwave.
The ground beneath them collapsed instantly, enormous cracks racing across the landscape as the surrounding earth was blasted apart.
Neither yielded.
Denma's grin widened. In one fluid motion, he pivoted on his rear foot and whipped a kick toward Leo's head.
At the very last instant, he altered the trajectory mid-strike, redirecting the attack toward Leo's left leg instead. Leo reacted instantly. He raised his own left leg and intercepted the kick with perfect timing.
The collision echoed like thunder.
Denma used the rebound to fire a sharp left jab toward Leo's face. Leo calmly lifted his right forearm, catching the punch before it landed. Without missing a beat, he countered by driving his left foot toward Denma's ribs.
Denma slid backward just enough for the kick to skim past him, boots carving long trenches through the fractured ground.
The two men separated. Several meters now lay between them. Dust drifted lazily through the air. Denma rolled his shoulders. Leo cracked his neck. Then, almost simultaneously both of them smirked.