Oritsu Ketsueki groaned as he lifted himself up from the rubble of toppled buildings, balancing himself. Even though the destruction was nowhere near enough to consider the entire village razed, a streak of damaged structures stretched through Furusato, the king's previously soaring body being the reason behind it.
"Is everyone okay?" Oritsu asked loudly, spinning around to scope out the area. "Anybody injured?"
The bearded king received a wave of affirmations, making Oritsu release a massive sigh of relief. Then, the moment relief had seeped into his heart, his mind became alert—incredibly so.
"My son!" Oritsu cried, shifting his entire body to face the direction Lord Phoenix had tossed him in.
As Oritsu attempted to take his first step forward, his body powered up by his Aura Sense, an explosion erupted from outside the village walls—*BOOM!*—and a beam of light touched the skies, only for it to dissipate immediately.
Oritsu's senses spiraled out of control.
"Everybody get down!"
Utilizing his impressive breakneck speeds, Oritsu Ketsueki hastily zoomed around the area and guided people to the ground as two people darted through the entire village, eventually crashing into the grass beyond Furusato.
The instant that the two individuals sped through the village, Oritsu had a brief moment to cling to their Aura Senses, detecting who they were.
"Son!" Oritsu exclaimed, mystified.
What had happened after he had been pushed out of the fight? Had Regashi truly endured the spikes that skewered him gruesomely? Was the boy Tanjo still unscathed? So many questions surged in the king's head, and all he could do was observe as both Regashi's and Lord Phoenix's Aura Sense vanished from his senses.
'My son,' The bearded king thought about the prince, 'come back alive.'
XXX
"RAH!" Regashi elicited a battle cry, reeling his arm back as he thrusted his hand onto the masked lord's face, dragging Lord Phoenix's head through the dirt.
The two were traveling much faster than before, creating dense winds that rattled the trees they flew past. By now, it was obvious that Regashi was less restrained, though the brown-haired prince was not exerting himself entirely. If he did so now, there was the possibility that Lord Phoenix would stand tall afterward, leaving Regashi all used up.
Lord Phoenix grabbed the prince's extended arm with a shout, "Enough!"
Promptly, the masked lord wrapped his gloved fingers around the collar of Regashi's black top, spinning them both. The two then switched sides, with Regashi being pushed into the earth forcefully.
In response, Regashi let go of Lord Phoenix completely and slammed both of his hands into his opponent's ears, stunning the masked lord. Then, with Lord Phoenix's ears bleeding profusely and an intense ringing sound in his ears, Regashi pumped his legs and kicked him to the sky, shattering the ground below.
Lord Phoenix was quick to correct himself in the sky, glaring down at the ground to find where his adversary had gone. To much of Lord Phoenix's shock, dozens of Genso-Kyu blasts had sprouted from the forest below, warranting several evasive maneuvers from the masked lord.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
Leaving no chance for rest, Regashi jumped into the sky, numerous kilometers into the air, and swung a large tree into Lord Phoenix's body, splitting the tree in two and knocking the masked lord away with a deafening roar.
Despite being greatly distanced from Furusato, Regashi's eyes broadened as he witnessed the entire land below him transform into a body of spikes lunging toward space, serrated with earthen material.
Of course, humans could not fly, but with the power of the Aura Sense, Regashi used red Genso-Kyu blasts to practically fly through the air at grandiose speeds, leaving a trail of light that resembled a constellation as the prince dodged the incoming spikes.
"Phoenix!" Regashi yelled with venomous intention, rushing toward the fox-masked man.
As though powered by rage, the two abandoned their use of light beams entirely, reverting to a simple hand-to-hand battle on a far larger scale. Fabrics of clothing were torn, blood was spilled, and screams of ire were tossed to the heavens. It was volatile, and they both knew it.
After some time passed, Regashi connected a solid blow downward, propelling Lord Phoenix toward the spiky ground. His impactful landing formed a crater that unfortunately wiped out more of the nation than desired. The crater had, without a doubt, destroyed hundreds of habitats and villages, horrifying Regashi to the fullest.
'So much… damage… I didn't mean to…' Regashi's conscience was stained with a morbid atrocity.
Imagining all of the animals and the people he had annihilated as a result of collateral damage was mind-boggling, and it tore Regashi to shreds. The prince was still holding back after all; he had not expected to cause so much harm. So much suffering, all in his own nation.
"Hrrng!"
Suddenly, tendrils made of red magic clung to Regashi's body, fastening around him tightly, pulling him down to the crater he created. Terror had successfully imbued itself into Regashi's mind, so he was currently vulnerable.
However, before his body could be reeled into the ground—*SWOOSH!*—the tendrils had been sliced, and Regashi was caught and safely landed onto the ravaged ground.
"Stay awake, Regashi!" Tanjo spoke to the prince; his presence was confounding.
Regashi inhaled, "Tanjo? What are you doing all the way out here? How did you find me?"
"I'm a sufficient warrior when I want to be!" Tanjo established, looking all around. "This is not a good sight…"
"No shit!" Regashi hollered hotly, standing on his feet.
Tanjo detected grief in Regashi's tone, his eyes softening. "This isn't your fault, Regashi. If you continued to hold back, Lord Phoenix would only destroy more of this nation!"
"Don't listen to him, Regashi…" Lord Phoenix emerged from the depths of the debris, staring them down. "This… is all your fault. You just killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of people and animals. Blame nobody but yourself!"
The jet-black-haired boy bit his tongue. Lord Phoenix was patronizing Regashi, blaming all of the chaos on the prince as if he had not previously reconstructed the ground into a biome of spikes.
"Regashi, we cannot hold back, including you. Our best bet is to fight him in the air and keep it that way until we can win. If we do not give it our all, either everybody on this planet dies and we win, or we lose and the same thing still happens!" Tanjo urged the prince, gripping his shoulder.
The prince shook his head. "He won't destroy the world, Tanjo—just me and everyone I know."
"Maybe I wouldn't before our fight," Lord Phoenix interrupted, his deep voice penetrating their ears. "But with these new powers, I could certainly modify certain parts of this squalor of a planet."
The realization clicked in Regashi's brain: Lord Phoenix would destroy Earth if he had to.
"Listen to me! Furusato still stands; you didn't wipe it out! You still have loved ones! Do not lose this fight and leave them in the hands of this masked freak!" Tanjo continued to encourage Regashi, clenching his teeth as he hoped for an answer.
"A masked freak, am I?" Lord Phoenix queried rhetorically, scowling under his mask. "I'll show you what a freak does, then!"
Stretching his arm toward the night sky, his palm pointed at the moon up above, he balled his hand into a fist and gradually yanked downward, as if he were pulling on a rope.
"To hell with this world! I will rebuild it! Become reborn!"
At first, neither Tanjo nor Regashi noticed what Lord Phoenix had just done, but at the exact moment that the two had glanced upward at the moon, their eyes nearly flew out of their sockets.
'No way…' Tanjo was bewildered, scared, horrified, and everything else related.
The moon, the entire moon, was torn apart, falling toward the Earth at rapid speeds. Giant shards that endangered the whole surface of the planet grew closer with an inclining velocity.
"Tanjo!" Regashi called out to the boy, breaking him out of his stupor.
The jet-black-haired boy blinked and gazed at Regashi, his mouth agape. "What?"
"I need to create a barrier big enough to push the moon back and hold it still. You're still just a trainee, but I—!"
Tanjo cut the prince off, "No! Leave the moon to me! You deal with Lord Phoenix!"
"Are you crazy!? You're sixteen and plan to take on the moon!?" Regashi bickered, his heart pumping.
"Please!" Tanjo pleaded, his blue eyes were unwavering.
Lord Phoenix hummed. "All the more interesting… work your magic boy!"
Without hesitation, Lord Phoenix split the ground in half and engaged in combat with Regashi, forcing the two away from each other.
The moon was now in Tanjo's hands, almost literally.
"I don't have much time… the tides of the Earth are probably already altered… not to mention a whole bunch of other consequences…"
He only had so much time, and Tanjo needed to be strong enough to wield the weight of the falling moon. This should be easy, right? If he could lift the weight of the Earth, surely he could stop the moon from crashing into the planet…
"Here goes nothing!"
Tanjo hastily stored a tremendous amount of magic into his entire body, strengthening the teenager in mere seconds by distancing his legs and bending his knees. Tanjo had to be strong. He had to be strong. He had to be strong. The same mantra played endlessly in his thoughts like a broken record, his blue eyes locked on the falling moon, staring at the embodiment of Armageddon.
*BRRRRMMM!*
With all of his willpower and persistence, Tanjo erected a red barrier into the night sky, widening by the second. Tanjo needed the barrier to be red for proper efficacy—it did not drain the boy the fastest, and it was not the weakest, able to withstand a hefty toll. After a short period of time had lingered, the erected barrier left the planet and traversed far into space, closing the empty space between it and the moon fragments raging toward Earth.
Tanjo's barrier illuminated the entire night sky, ultimately reaching the falling moon fragments, the magic steadily stretching around it all. After a few minutes, all of the moon shards had clustered together to form a sphere, identical to its initial shape.
"Yes!" Tanjo cheered, flexing every muscle in his body in order to prevent the barrier from dispelling.
Now, all Tanjo needed to do was hold the moon in place and maintain its shape. He had done it; he managed to save the surface of the planet, if not more. Regashi could have undoubtedly pulled off the same stunt, but he was the one who needed to confront Lord Phoenix, a lord who was still stronger than Tanjo as of now.
Lowering his arms, Tanjo kept looking at his hard work up in space, exhaling a relieving breath.
"I need to help Regashi defeat Lord Phoenix… it'll take too long otherwise!"
And, with that, Tanjo scurried off to help Regashi finish off his rival.
XXX
The finale of this fight is almost here! Now, the ending will most likely not be in the next chapter, but in chapter 200. I still plan to have a few things happen and I want it to be right. But we just saw Tanjo stop an entire moon from falling onto Earth! Depending on how you look at it, that is his biggest feat so far during the heat of battle! Don't steer away for too long as it won't be the most impressive for long… Who will win the fight? How much land in Adonai or anywhere else will be razed? Stay tuned for more!
Have a Great Day!
Peace - Cr1ticalz_