Shiki's smirk widened across his face, an easy, almost reckless confidence that seemed to cut through the tension like a blade through silk. His eyes glimmered with an almost unnerving calm as he responded to Nine's caution, unfazed by the apparent gravity of their situation.
"Your arrogance might be the death of you," Nine said, his voice laced with frustration, "but I suppose it doesn't matter to you."
Shiki's laughter rang out in the night air, the sound rich and unbothered. His demeanor was so eerily calm, it almost seemed as if he were enjoying himself in the face of danger.
"Well," Shiki drawled, his voice smooth like honey, "if I'm the strongest, I'd say there are worse ways to go. Don't you think?"
Nine's lips tightened, and a flash of irritation flickered across his face. He had been through countless battles, faced foes that could obliterate entire cities with a glance, but Shiki's casual arrogance always seemed to get under his skin.
Before Nine could retort, the air seemed to shift with unnatural speed. Without warning, a surge of yellow energy in the shape of a piercing arrow shot through the night, streaking across the balcony and missing the two of them by mere inches. The force of the projectile left a wake of crackling energy, and the ground beneath their feet trembled from the sheer power of the blast.
"Are they attacking us right now?" Nine muttered under his breath, a rare hint of panic creeping into his voice. "I might die of a heart attack before anything else."
Shiki's expression never wavered. He barely moved, his eyes narrowing only slightly as he watched the smoke rising from the damage. His voice was as composed as ever.
"It's not that surprising," he said, his calmness a stark contrast to Nine's growing agitation.
Nine glanced at him, his brow furrowing in disbelief. "Why are you still so calm?" he demanded, his frustration giving way to genuine confusion. He had seen Shiki take on impossibly powerful foes without breaking a sweat, but this... this was different. The energy that had been unleashed was on another level entirely.
Shiki didn't answer at first. Instead, he stood there, eyes locked on the horizon, already calculating, already sensing the movements of the enemy. After a pause that stretched on just a moment too long, he spoke, his voice steady, detached.
"Regardless, the attacker should be located to the east, about 24 kilometers away. Judging by the speed of the projectile—around 0.0002 seconds—its velocity must be approximately Mach 349,854."
Nine blinked. The precision of Shiki's analysis was chilling, and for the first time, he felt a twinge of doubt in his mind. "That's actually quite slow for someone who possesses the power to 'engulf infinity.' Could they have been testing us?" he mused aloud.
Shiki's gaze hardened slightly, though his expression remained unchanged. "I don't care if they're testing us. What matters is that I sense a growing aura. Another attack is coming, and it's going to be stronger this time."
The air seemed to grow thicker with tension, the weight of Shiki's words sinking into Nine's chest. The stakes had just escalated beyond anything either of them had anticipated.
"If that happens," Nine said, the words coming out in a low growl, "it could obliterate a part of the UK. But I won't let that happen—not on my watch!"
In an instant, Nine was on the move. He walked to the edge of the building as if the immense height didn't even faze him. Then, with a fluid motion that made the very air around him bend and crackle, he took to the sky. His feet hovered above the balcony, and he shot off in the direction from which the attack had come, his body a blur as he cut through the atmosphere with terrifying speed.
As he moved, his energy surged, the familiar hum of power radiating off him like heat from a flame. He began charging his own attack, preparing to counter the assault with one of his own.
Shiki didn't follow. He remained standing on the balcony, his gaze distant as he observed Nine's departure. For a moment, there was no sound but the whisper of the wind against the building, and the far-off hum of energy gathering. Then, Nine's voice broke the silence.
"Monochromic Distort: Harmonic Green!"
The sky seemed to crack open with the force of Nine's unleashed power. The energy shot out in a rippling wave, the air bending and warping around the attack as if reality itself were being torn apart by the force. But Shiki knew that somewhere, far off in the distance, the assailant was not sitting idly by.
At that moment, the other force was unleashed. Stella, the mysterious assailant, activated her own devastating technique: Starshatterer. The power that emanated from the attack was incomprehensible, and yet, Stella unleashed it with a mere flick of her wrist, at only 1% output.
The two attacks met in the middle of the vast sky, and in that instant, space itself seemed to fracture. A blinding flash of light consumed everything, and the shockwave from the explosion spread outwards with a force so immense that it could have shattered the Earth. Time seemed to stop. The very fabric of reality trembled under the weight of the collision. The earth itself felt like it was about to be torn asunder.
Shiki flared with intensity. He barely had time to think before he moved. His left hand shot out, and before the explosion could reach them, a transparent sphere materialized in front of him. The energy of the explosion collided with the barrier, but instead of obliterating everything, the sphere absorbed the force, compressing it into a minuscule point.
Shiki's eyes blazed with quiet determination as he held the sphere of compressed energy in place, his form unmoving amidst the chaos. The explosion's pulse reverberated around him, but he remained steadfast, his mind working in perfect harmony with his surroundings. The energy, contained within his sphere, writhed like a beast caged in a tiny, translucent prison—straining against its limits, its power begging for release.
Four nanoseconds. Four eternal moments stretched out into infinity as the world trembled under the weight of the collision. Shiki's focus narrowed to a pinpoint, the glow of his outstretched hand casting a dim light in the night air, illuminating only the spherical seal he held in his grip.
Time itself seemed to pause, holding its breath.
Then, like the snap of a thread pulled too tight, Shiki's voice sliced through the stillness, sharp and unwavering. "Hurry up and go! I'll continue suppressing this sphere seal."
Nine's form flashed past him in a streak of brilliant speed, so fast that even the faintest whisper of his departure lingered in the air like a faint gust. His figure blurred into the night, his presence evaporating into the horizon. His focus was singular, his will a burning fire driving him forward.
"Go where?" Nine's voice had barely reached Shiki's ears, but it carried a certain resigned finality. He knew the answer before the words had even left his mouth.
Shiki didn't flinch. He didn't even turn his head. His focus never wavered from the task at hand. The air crackled around him with the growing energy of the impending storm, but his response was simple, cold as steel. "Straight to the source. Literally jump on that clown and put an end to this."
Nine didn't need another word. His lips parted in a grin—fierce and wild as a hunter's. The chaos around him seemed to fade, the screams of the world drowned out by the thunder of his own power. He propelled himself forward, past the limits of mere speed, tearing through the air with a force that fractured the very atmosphere in his wake. He was gone in an instant, leaving only the faintest trace of a shadow behind.
As he sped toward the unknown, Shiki allowed himself a fleeting moment of satisfaction. The game was set in motion. The threads of fate had begun to unravel, but he—they—were no mere pawns in this twisted game. They were the players.
Shiki's hand remained steady, his concentration unbroken, even as the weight of the world pressed against him. The sphere in his grasp pulsed and churned, the very essence of the explosion contained within it—a storm held at bay by nothing more than his will.
The world trembled, and Shiki allowed himself the faintest of smirks. He had made his choice. He had made their choice. Now, it was time to see how the pieces would fall.
The storm had only just begun, and Shiki's mind raced with possibilities. What lay ahead was still shrouded in the mists of uncertainty, but one thing was clear—they would shape the course of the storm, or perhaps, even become it.
The future loomed, dark and unfathomable, but Shiki and Nine were no strangers to such shadows. They had seen the darkness before. They had embraced it.
And now? Now, it was theirs to command.