Akos grits his teeth, and his breath comes heavy and sharp. He grabs the iron that is driven into him and pulls with all his strength to remove it from his body.
"You are forcing me to use it," says Sakoura. "I rarely use this, but you are on another level compared to everyone who has entered battle."
"You know you have admitted more than ten times that I am powerful," says Akos. "You have no other choice but to activate your UNIVERSE. You have reached such a state that you will throw whatever you have left, bahabahaba!"
Sakoura smiles. "I like you, you little fucker." He opens his hand toward the air. "Let's see how much you will truly have. Your energy is endless; it never runs dry, and your will never fades. Every time you step into battle, every time you take a hit, this will tear you apart. This world has a counter for every technique. This is yours."
Out of nowhere, a black circle opens in the air. Sakoura reaches his hand inside and pulls out a black weapon. The circle vanishes the instant his hand withdraws. He runs his tongue along the blade, an ironic smile curling on his lips. "I missed you, beautiful. It's been years since I last used you.
At blinding speed, Akos rips the iron rod from his body and hurls it toward Sakoura. Sakoura swats it aside with his weapon, sending it clattering away. Akos's flesh knits back together, the missing pieces of his body regenerating in an instant. He looks at Sakoura and says, "Understand this. You just made a deal with the Abracadabra of Nature, handing over that weapon. In the end, it doesn't matter who you beg, Devil or nature itself. It's the same thing asking for help to beat me. You had about five seconds to kill me. Now, I think you're the one who's finished.
Sakoura holds the weapon steady, a long, vertical blade, thick and tapered to a point at the top. On its left side, a small grip holds it in place. "This is Dark Dash," he says. "Did you really think this was just some ordinary weapon? It pulls every last drop of light out of the entire area."
The area begins to glow, and both of them look up. "Wait a minute," Sakoura says. "What is the Devil Angel doing here?" The Devil Angel drops down abruptly, crashing into their space, intruding on their battle. He opens his hand, and from dozens of meters away, the Katana Totsugeki Field flies straight into his palm. He looks at Sakoura, then slams the katana down on top of him, sending him flying back several meters.
Akos calls out his name. "Blue, what exactly are you doing here?" Blue answers, an embarrassed look on his face. "Uh... I thought you were still stuck in the fake world. I came to pull you out, but it looks like you got out on your own and fast. I've been searching for you for days. I came here to help you," Akos replies with an ironic look. "Blue, who exactly do you think you're talking to?" He places his hand on Blue's hair, long and falling well past his shoulders, and Blue's cheeks flush red. Akos says, with a warm smile, "No matter how strong my enemies are, they have limits in the end. But I have no limits, neither in strength nor in imagination."
Blue, his voice embarrassed, says, "When will you finish already? I'm begging you, hurry up. This chaos needs to end. Too many of us have already died."
"Bahabahaba, you've gotten used to me winning fast," Akos says. "Well, if that's what you want, then I'll make it quick. I've balanced my mind and my memories now. I want you to go help the civilians. Yes, Blue, we have a lot of work to do after this battle."
He answers, "Yes, Sir. Good luck." He spreads his wings and flies up into the sky. Sakoura arrives back in the area, seething with rage. "Where is that fucking creature? Are you telling me I'm the one asking for help? You brought in a creature that's lived for thousands of years."
"What did you say before that your little game would destroy me?" Akos says. "Save the theatrics. I have more than enough energy to destroy you."
Sakoura activates his nature energy across his entire body, unleashing a powerful wave of yellow energy that floods the whole area. Akos answers with the same, activating his Resonance Pulse, a blue energy that spreads outward and slams into Sakoura's yellow wave. The two collide with tremendous force.
"I love this," Sakoura roars. "I've never lived through a battle like this before." The pressure crushing the area is immense. The two waves of energy erupt in blinding flashes, and lightning bolts tear out from the point of collision.
"There can only be one absolute here," Akos says. The electric currents spread outward in a massive radius around the two fighters.
Sakoura swings his weapon through the air, and a giant black electric shape tears out—[DASH LOCK]. It rockets toward Akos at insane speed, devouring every trace of light in its path, swallowing Akos's own wave whole until nothing remains of it. But Akos slaps the attack aside with his bare hand, knocking it off course. He dashes back, grabs Sakoura by the hair, and hurls him meters back onto the ground.
Sakoura thinks to himself, I don't have that much time left. I gave my heart for thirty minutes under the contract, the Abracadabra of Nature, for this weapon. I didn't expect it could control even light itself.
Sakoura raises his weapon high, charging it with energy that churns wildly around him as it devours every last trace of light from the area. He has formed a circle of energy around himself; it swallows even the moonlight, that faint reflection of sunlight on the moon's surface. He screams, "RED STAR!"
A powerful star descends from the sky, dropping toward the ground. It doesn't explode on impact; instead, it releases a blinding flash that spreads outward in a 540-meter radius. In an instant, the flash erases over four thousand civilians, reducing them to blackened, lightless husks, dried-out shells of what they were. Then the flash fades away.
Sakoura stares ahead, stunned. "What the fuck?" Akos simply stands there, upright, as if nothing had touched him at all.
"How did you survive that?" Sakoura says. "This weapon belongs to the category of sacred weapons; it belongs to the Moon King. He was transformed into this weapon. His soul lives inside it."
Akos answers him, an ironic look on his face. "It's hard for you to understand, I'm sure. But I don't depend on oxygen, or fear, or nature; I'm beyond that. Those are just... secondary things that happen to exist. My dependence, when it comes to raising my power, comes from my determination."
Akos vanishes from his spot, dashing forward, and reappears right in front of Sakoura. With the Martial Arts Cut Slaughter, he drives it straight into his heart. He pulls his hand back, frozen in shock. "Where's your heart?"
Sakoura smiles at him. "It's in your mother." He swings his weapon toward Akos's head, aiming to drive it straight through, but Akos stops it with his bare hand and fires a kick into his stomach, sending him staggering back a few steps. But Akos gives him no chance to recover; he drives hard punches into his stomach, sending him flying even further back.
Sakoura's voice is calm but laced with something venomous. "Well, that's all you've got, Tasaku. I have nothing to lose; I only live to devour humans, devils, and whatever comes. My power doesn't grow through nature, and it doesn't grow through oxygen. It grows every time I devour my opponents."
Akos answers him, "I was wondering too, this whole time, how he doesn't depend on anything. Turns out, he eats people. Just wow."
"Hahaha!" Sakoura laughs loudly, talking to himself. "What makes me reach this point? I should believe what my mind is saying."
Then he looks at Akos. "Do you think what I'm thinking? I think it's time to activate it."
Akos stares at him with boredom. "Seriously now, get out of that sad end mode. That your end has come, blah, blah."
Sakoura replies to him, "Bah, no. I just want to eat. I only need a little time to charge the energy in my hand." He thrusts his hand into the hole in his chest. In the blink of an eye, a new heart regenerates. He looks at Akos and says, "Understand this, Akos. You keep saying you break the laws of nature, but look at us now. We both understand how nature works. I just broke its laws myself."
Akos takes his stance, readying himself to conclude the battle. He makes a hand gesture, and a spherical red energy appears at the tip of his finger [RAGE]. The area around his fingertip glows red.
At the same time, Sakoura raises his finger, and a small spherical energy manifests. Yellow, purple, and red all swirling together [JOKON NUKE LEVEL MAX]
"FOR ONE MORE TIME, I WILL LIVE," Sakoura says, and Akos answers him, "I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS DAY." Both of them smile.
The entire area erupts with energy, spreading outward in waves of red, purple, and yellow light. The ground shifts color beneath their feet, transforming. The sky above distorts, and a single red word appears: END