As the nameless creature launched its attack, Raizo summoned a hand from the ground which rose up and enveloped it. The hand dragged the creature downward, forcing it into the earth, but it resisted.
"Bethryl!" Raizo shouted. "Get out of here now!"
Bethryl tried to look ahead, searching for a vision that might help him, but she saw nothing. For some reason, in this place, her sight had weakened. This was not the Higher Realm in which she met Ashar but this was also not a realm of the living. The nature of this place meant that her eyes had not yet adjusted.
"Do what I say, Bethryl!"
Bethryl stood in place, and slowly came to the conclusion that she would only hinder Raizo in this moment.
She moved quickly, retreating to give him space. She hid behind a cluster of red rocks at the base of a trail and watched from a distance. Again, she tried to see the outcome of the battle, but all she could perceive was a ruined land filled with death, and a lone figure moving through it.
She saw a vision of something terrible approaching. But what did it mean?
The creature tore itself free from the hand and erupted in blue flames that scorched the air around it.
"Was that supposed to work on me?" it hissed.
The fight resumed.
The creature lunged forward with wild, erratic slashes. Raizo stepped back, circling away, using Axiom Water to shift his movement and Axiom Flame to create bursts of explosions that disrupted the creature's path. With his vision impaired, his defence now relied less on reflex and more on spacing, timing, and instinct.
Again and again, he shifted angles, feinting one direction, then slipping into another, retreating into narrow openings at the creature's flank. But he could not maintain this for long. His leg had begun to lose feeling from the earlier strikes.
The creature adapted.
It no longer charged recklessly. It slowed its pace, hopping back and forth, disrupting its rhythm. It lulled the tempo, and then, without warning, it leapt.
"Sword of Michael!"
Raizo's counter struck.
A dark orange blade, streaked with droplets like rain, pierced through the creature's body. At once, it howled as burning energy flooded its form, dissolving it from within. Raizo's ability had unleashed an attack of pure uncompressed Axiom energy, burning anything it touched. He always chose to hide this behind his Hand of God ability, due to the overwhelming amount of energy that it used.
The creature staggered back.
Raizo stood, gasping for breath, exhaustion setting in. The creature dropped to one knee, then slowly lifted its head.
Its empty gaze fixed on him.
And then it attacked again.
"Hand of God!"
The creature raised its arm to block, but the strike severed it cleanly and tore through its chest. Raizo abandoned all defence. This was the moment, he would end it now.
He unleashed a relentless barrage.
Strike after strike, each infused with the full force of Hand of God, cutting into the creature again and again.
The creature responded with everything it had left.
It relied on Axiom Water and Drunken Rhythm, rolling with the blows, slipping just out of range, using Earth to intercept strikes, and releasing bursts of blue flame to threaten counters. It varied this defence of Earth, Water, and Rhythm just enough to make it unpredictable, and to give it time to survive.
Raizo cut through it multiple times, but still, no decisive blow.
He pressed harder.
He screamed, drawing out the last of his strength, pouring everything into the assault. In that moment, he fought as if willing to burn away his own life just to end the battle.
But it was not enough.
For a brief instant, his energy faltered. One strike lost its edge. That was all it took.
The creature blasted him back with flames, breaking his momentum. They both paused, breathing heavily.
Raizo narrowed his eyes.
The wounds on the creature's body were closing.
"It can regenerate," he muttered. "That's how it survived the Sword of Michael."
The creature surged forward again.
Raizo reacted, but too late, he realised the truth. It had been a feint.
"Saturn's Will!"
A bite tore through his side, ripping into his ribs and lower stomach. Pain surged through him, but he forced energy through his body, refusing to fall.
He moved again.
Flames erupted along the creature's path as he circled away, but now it understood him. It followed without hesitation, closing every escape.
There was no more room to retreat; they would end this here.
Both of them settled into position.
Then they clashed.
Blow after blow struck in rapid succession, over a hundred exchanges in a heartbeat, the air screaming with the force of their movements. Thought had vanished, strategy had dissolved, and only instinct remained, and only a clash of wills.
They drove each other to the brink, each building toward the final strike.
They collided, separated, and in that instant—
"Saturn's Will!"
"Sword of Michael!"
Raizo twisted past the bite and drove his blade straight through the creature's throat. Energy surged, burning it from within as it fell backward.
Raizo stepped forward, ready to finish it.
How is it not dead? he thought. Its body should be destroyed by now. Unless… unless something else was controlling it.
The creature's eyes were empty, lifeless, as though death had already claimed it long ago. And yet it still moved, still fought, still swung wildly, clinging to motion without purpose. These wild swings were enough to give it just a few extra moments to move back and dodge from fatal attacks. But still, Raizo used every opportunity to cut off space and to corner the creature towards a wall where he could finish it off.
One more push, Raizo thought. I have to end this now.
He drove it back toward a wall, forcing it into a confined space. He set it up with a sequence of lighter strikes, controlling its reactions.
A feint to the lower body. The creature shifted. Raizo struck upward—
"Sword of Michael!"
The blade cut through empty air.
The creature had already moved.
And in that instant—
It countered with Saturn's Will.