Teo held up his sword, drew it back, and channeled prana into its blade.
"He's condensing a phenomenal amount of power," Tensai noted, still standing in place.
"You talk too much," Teo growled as he thrust his sword toward Tensai, releasing a swirling blast of darkness.
Just a second before impact, Tensai calmly lifted his hand.
"Ririsu Prana: Black Ash!"
Tensai countered Teo's attack with a blast of his own, releasing a beam of darkened ash that turned Teo's technique to dust.
"You can do better than that," Tensai sneered. "I went out of my way to meet you two. Do not disappoint me."
Raijah and Teo tensed up. Having never encountered someone that could reduce their attacks to dust, they waited for Tensai to make his move, but instead of attacking, Tensai met them with words.
"I've been meaning to ask you guys something," he said. "You're both higher beings, so I suppose you'd be the most reliable sources. Having lived for over a millennium, you'd think I'd have found my answer, but it has always eluded me.
"My question is: Why did beings like you two create beings like me? Surely there was a reason behind humanity being born into The Flow. What is that reason? What is our purpose?"
A blinding flash of lightning rippled across the sky.
"I'm not in the mood for semantics," Raijah dashed forward, leaving mile-long skid marks on the terrain.
Teo followed soon after, syncing his movements with Raijah's.
"No answer?" Tensai braced himself. "Thought so."
To the average eye, their clash would've looked like a sequence of colliding blurs, only traceable by the seemingly random shockwaves caused by their attacks.
Raijah and Teo took turns, attacking in a series of bursts to preserve energy, but Tensai skillfully warded them off.
Raijah punched and kicked, combining different martial arts to keep Tensai guessing.
"I should've known that you wouldn't have an answer," Tensai said as he dodged to the left. "This world truly has failed me. But all is well. Once I assemble the artifacts, I'll be able to venture out into a new world to continue my search for purpose."
Raijah sped up his striking combinations, mixing in various jabs, hooks, and kicks.
"A new world?" Raijah said midswing, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Doragonken: Twin Dragon Fists!"
Tensai's gray dragon fist crashed into Raijah's chest, bending his ribs inward.
Before Tensai could follow up, using his spatial abilities, Teo teleported Raijah into the distance, forcibly tagging himself into the fight.
Teo handled his blade with surgical precision. He cut and stabbed at Tensai's most vital spots, from his brainstem to his heart and brachial artery.
But despite Teo's efforts, Tensai parried each slice with his dragon fists. Tensai then cocked his fist back, preparing to deal a devastating blow to Teo's chest, but Raijah appeared in front of Teo and intercepted the attack.
Anticipating Raijah's attack, Tensai retracted his fist and took a giant leap back, slithering behind a series of mountains.
"Divine Lightning: Rakurai!"
Raijah thrust his right hand forward, releasing a massive concentrated beam of lightning that obliterated an entire chain of mountains on its way to Tensai.
"Haven't I already shown you?" Tensai lifted his hand just before impact, "It's useless."
"Ririsu Prana: Black Ash!"
Once again, Tensai nullified the attack, reducing it to a pile of dust.
With a sudden gust of wind, Teo warped behind Tensai, moving at speeds that created the illusion of teleportation.
Attempting to blindside Tensai, Teo attacked in a single swift motion, lunging his blade at Tensai's neck.
Tensai dipped and weaved. He turned to Teo and parried with one of his dragon fists.
Teo's blade clashed against the fist, creating a disk-like shockwave that tore into the ground, blowing away everything in the vicinity.
Smoke caused by the mass destruction coated the land in thick sheets of debris.
When it cleared, they were back where they started. Raijah and Teo stood side by side, glaring angrily at Tensai, who returned their looks with an almost uninterested gaze.
"What do you mean by a 'new world'?" Raijah asked, keeping his stern expression.
Tensai replied, "I assume you're familiar with Isaac and Rosa?"
Raijah and Teo nodded.
"Well then, you know they discovered true devil prana. They achieved this groundbreaking discovery because true devil prana, originating from devils in hell, is energy so potent that its aura leaked into The Flow. Isaac and Rosa 'discovered' this energy because they were the first to identify its traces.
"I discovered this 'new world' I speak of through a similar means. Over the last millennium, I've strengthened a certain technique that allows me to call upon the spirits of the deceased. Consequently, through this training and becoming familiar with the aura of souls, I gained a heightened awareness of prana, allowing me to sense one's sheer spirit.
"After obtaining and honing this ability, I began sensing a large mass of spirits. An entire world full of them. Not within The Flow but outside of it. Then it came to me.
"The way I see it, this 'new world'. . . It is a world where I can finally find purpose in my life — a world where I'll be freed from the apathy caused by this meaningless one.
"And the only way to reach that world is by assembling the artifacts. All I need now, is Ame-no-Ohabari."
"What makes you think these artifacts can lead you to that world?" Teo asked with his blade in hand.
"Well, I can't tell you everything," Tensai smiled slyly.
"Then we'll force it out of you." Raijah and Teo darted toward Tensai, leaving black and crimson trails in their path.
"Ash Prana: Great Ash Eruptions!"
The land rumbled violently as several gray pillars of burning hot ash erupted from the ground around Raijah and Teo.
"He seems to possess complementary ririsu," Raijah thought as he maneuvered around the pillars. "His signature prana lets him create and manipulate burning hot ash. And his ririsu turns his ashes black and seems to elevate them to the point where they can reduce anything to dust."
"So, just don't let his black ashes hit," Teo added, "got it."
As Raijah and Teo sped up, they avoided the ash pillars, moving in a manner that resembled zigzag patterns.
Raijah struck first.
He and Tensai threw a punch simultaneously, striking one another squarely on each other's fists.
The resulting shockwave sent both parties flying back.
Upon landing, Raijah looked up at Tensai to see what damage he'd done.
No damage.
Raijah looked down at his own hand. Unlike Tensai's hand, which was practically unaffected, Raijah noticed that his fingers and knuckle joints had dislocated.
"Interesting," Raijah thought. "Those dragon fists of his. He's fusing prana coating with doragonken to reinforce his attacks. Casually combining high-level prana manipulation with high-level martial arts like that. That's out of my league."
"Teo," Raijah popped his joints back in place, "You're up."
Teo sped past Raijah, causing a gust of wind that whipped through Raijah's clothes and tossed his dreadlocks into the air.
Raijah simply continued relocating his finger joints.
Teo threw his sword forward, sending Teiden carving through the air, spinning tip-first toward Tensai.
"When will you learn," Tensai aimed his hand at the flying blade.
"Ririsu Prana: Black Ash!"
Teiden seemed unphased, despite Tensai's black ash passing right through it.
"Oh?" Tensai raised an eyebrow, "Black ash doesn't work on your blade?"
He ducked under the blade, but Teo warped and appeared behind him, grabbing Teiden out of the air.
"Of course, it doesn't. Teiden is invulnerable." Teo took a long step and thrust his blade at the back of Tensai's neck.
"Same trick as before?" Tensai weaved under the sword.
"Nah," Teo whispered, "Just a decoy."
Using his spatial abilities, Raijah swapped positions with Teo, attacking before Tensai could respond.
"Divine Lightning: Blitz Bolt!"
Raijah turned into a lightning bolt, propelling himself toward Tensai at tremendous speed.
Tensai sidestepped and attempted to dodge but only managed to partly evade as Raijah pierced through and amputated his forearm, filling the air with blood splatters and forcing him to fall back and retreat.
"Nice one," Tensai said calmly, hardly showing signs of pain.
"I've been dealt worse, though." Ash swirled around Tensai's residual arm, which leaked blood like a crimson waterfall. The ash hardened, forming an artificial hand and forearm to replace his severed ones.
Raijah landed beside Teo.
Keeping his eyes locked on Tensai, Teo said to Raijah, "You remember what we practiced?"
Raijah and Teo stood side by side, glaring at Tensai as they conjoined their crimson and black auras.
"Yeah," Raijah nodded. "Let's do it."