"Hey! Let's quit it with the 'testing out each other's Faith power'. I'm tired of the boring warm-ups. Let's go at it as if we're trying to kill each other!"

  "(That's what I said but what I aim is a mistake someone makes when they're being put under pressure.)" said Quroe in his head.

  "*sigh* That's such a weak threat! As if you haven't already done that from the very beginning."

  "Surprising! I thought you were the type of person who is easily swayed by the situation."

  "You guessed wrong!"

  Light gathers the fabric of space in his blackened right hand.

  "That's more like it!" said Quroe.

  Quroe flies towards Light at the speed of sound.

  "(He's fast!)"

  Light throws his punch towards the incoming Quroe. The space in front of Light gets distorted; however, the distortion in space was cut in two, returning the fabric of space to normal. Quroe extends the aura on his right palm and slashes Light vertically. Light blocked the slash crossing his transformed hands. Both Light's transformation and Quroe's aura on his hand broke apart at the same time. Quroe then lifts his right leg and kicks Light. Light re-transforms his right hand and catches the kick right on Quroe's foot. Strangely, his kick that is covered by his black and red aura didn't cut him. The aura on Quroe's foot and Light's transformed right hand breaks apart once again.

  The aura on Quroe's whole body disappears, and he uses his invisible slashes on Light. Light immediately undoes all of his transformation. Quroe grazed Light's right shoulder, right cheek, and left wrist, but the rest of his body was protected because of his automatic transformation. Quroe's invisible slashes and Light's transformation immediately broke apart upon impact. Light immediately transforms his foot afterwards and gathers the fabric of space. He warps away and reappears quite far from Quroe. Quroe was slowly descending when his aura was turned off, but then his aura reappeared on his body as he regained his altitude in the sky.

  "You purposely undo all your transformation and let your automatic transformation mechanism protect you? You basically had an answer to something that you couldn't properly react to. You are an impressive Transformation type Believer. Most other Believers of the same type would just be shocked and in disbelief when I cut their limbs off, even after they transformed."

  "Tell me. . ."

  "Ha?"

  "How many people have you killed since you first became a Judge?"

  "I became a Judge about 6 months ago. Since then, I've killed every crazy scumbag I came across. If I killed approximately 15 people in a day, how many people have I killed in total until today?"

  "Are you for real?"

  "Probably, around 2700 scumbags killed! And that’s being generous!"

  "How did you find so many cases in a day?"

  "Well, since I just killed them, I never prayed for them, nor do I ever use the Sword of Purification. It saves so much time that way. I've seen so many dead bodies every day that I became immune to seeing someone lose their life. Hence why people called me a serial killer!"

  "Do you even understand the concept of the Judge?"

  "What? Are you saying I've been doing it wrong?"

  "OF COURSE! We were chosen to save the bad guys! That's the whole point of having the Sword of Purification after all. So, we can judge the bad guys from a neutral standpoint."

  ". . . . Did you forget? Or did you pretend that you forgot?"

  "What are you trying to say?"

  "Our task was simply a choice between whether we save or kill the person we judged. Every person that we kill will count as the result of our Judgment. Therefore, they don’t count as sins."

  Quroe's words do ring a bell in Light's ear. He did remember something along those lines.

  "However, even if those kills count as sins, I still would have done it anyway."

  ". . ."

  "It doesn't matter either way to me at all. All I ever want is to rid this world of all kinds of trash in society. A nonfunctioning member of society would be better to be rid of."

  "(I disagree. . .)"

  "Besides, every person I've killed so far was corrupt politicians, rich people who think they own the whole world, scumbags who commit crimes, and lots more. I never touched anyone who doesn't belong to the mentioned category."

  "(I disagree!)"

  "What I have done so far is to silently cut off corrupt people in the world. We seriously don't need any trash that thinks and places their own selfish needs and wants above others. Because after all, a truly genuine person would neve—"

  "I DISAGREE!" Light shouts.

  Quroe stops talking.

  "No matter the situation, killing is wrong. There may be some truths in your reasoning, but no matter what kind of justification you come up with, taking away someone else's life is the most selfish act of all."

  As Light utters those words, he is reminded of himself.

  "(Those words. . . really came out of my mouth. I am the worst possible person to ever say that line.)"

  "Then there's really no point for us to talk! You with your ideal, me with my own!"

  Quroe raises his right hand above. He straightens his palm and stretches the aura on his hand extremely long upwards towards the sky. The blade aura on his hand is approximately 100m in length. Quroe swings the 100m long aura blade down so that it reaches Light. Light transforms his right hand and catches the blade, and their Faith power cancels each other's. Quroe readies his left hand and stretches another 100m aura blade right towards Light. Light punches it with his blackened left hand, and their Faith power cancels each other's. Quroe readies his regular-sized aura blade with his right hand to stab Light again. Light transforms his right hand and throws another punch towards the incoming blade; however, Quroe's blade suddenly branches out at the very last second, avoiding direct contact.

  Light instinctively dodges the branching aura blades, trapping him in the middle of them. His cheek, his neck, his armpit, his arms, his legs, his feet, and his thighs were only 10mm away from the branching aura blades. Light touches the aura blade, and the branching aura blades break apart along with his transformation.

  "Your reflex, you seem to fight a lot. Aren't cases of lust usually means dealing with scumbags with no Faith power whatsoever?"

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  "Sometimes, these scums do have Faith power. The most frustrating one was when I judged a rapist with a somewhat strong Faith power."

  "Is that so? I must say, I'm surprised."

  Quroe readies his right palm and thrusts it diagonally downwards. The aura blade from his arm stretches and branches out immediately in all directions.

  "(That again! I dodged them out of luck earlier! Gotta keep my distance!)"

  Light flew away from Quroe. The branching blades keep stretching and bend towards Light's direction. The blade was stretching faster than Light's flight speed. He is now being chased by a lot of Quroe's branching aura blades that keep branching out and bend towards Light's direction.

  An aura blade is reaching Light from behind; he rolls around in midair to avoid the blade. Two aura blades are coming from the sides, and he turns downwards sharply to avoid them. Light kept dodging and maneuvering his flight to avoid every single blade that kept coming at him. After dodging for almost 30 seconds, Light realizes that the branching blades have now formed a giant cage in the sky.

  "Surprising. I didn't take you as someone who sets up traps and obstacles as you fight." said Light.

  "I'm tired of chasing you around. Let's just fight close combat head-on, First Judge!"

  Quroe is flying towards Light at high speed. Light also flies towards Quroe. Light throws a punch while Quroe aims to stab Light with his straightened palm. Their strikes clashed, and their Faith power canceled each other. Light and Quroe immediately fly past each other. They increase their flight speed, and they both do a U-turn and charge towards each other again. Light and Quroe both throw a kick towards each other. Their kick clashes and their Faith break apart. Light immediately throws a left jab. Quroe follows up with a right chop. Their attack clashes again. Light spins and does another follow-up with an elbow with his right. Quroe stops his elbow with a knee strike. Quroe does another chop. Light repels Quroe's chop backhandedly with his right. Quroe immediately follows up with another stab with his left. The aura on his left hand was stretching towards Light. Light notices and moves his right hand towards the aura, and their Faith power breaks apart yet again. Light and Quroe fly away from each other, keeping their distance.

  "By the way, where's your Support?" asks Light.

  "I don't have one."

  "I see."

  "I don't need one to be honest."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I never took someone else's memories and transferred them to me. I don't see the point of doing that. I just kill everyone as I've told you. There's no need for a Support."

  ". . . ."

  "Besides, asking a random stranger or even people who are close to you to suddenly bear the burdens of the Judge is pretty irresponsible and selfish!"

  Those words hit Light a little. He felt guilty out of nowhere towards Lily.

  "(That's right. . . I. . . forced her to be my Support. After freeing her from that awful nightmare, I put on another binding chain and locked her up as my Support. . .)"

  The event that has been happening recently is rushing back to Light. That time when Lily witnesses his true self, that day when Lily stands against him for the first time, that moment when Lily uses his own words against him.

  Light felt hurt. His heart aches, and it stings his chest a bit.

  "Why are you suddenly so quiet?"

  *!!!*

  Quroe was suddenly in front of Light as he was lost in thought. Quroe stabs Light's left waist with his hand. His waist transformed automatically. Their faith power canceled each other's, but then Quroe immediately follows up with another stab towards the same spot, but with a different arm.

  "(I WON'T MAKE IT!)"

  Quroe pierces through Light's left waist with his aura blade. There is a slight delay after the Judge’s Faith power cancels each other for a Transformation type, so that it can be used again on the same body part, and that small window is what Quroe after based on his own assumptions. He himself felt that he couldn’t immediately stretch his Aura blade on the same hand that had been cancelled, based on their earlier exchanges.

  "URGH!"

  Quroe immediately kicks Light downwards, and he is launched downwards towards the cage below. Light transforms all his limbs and gathers whirlwind in his feet. He stops himself in midair, where his back is only 5cm away from the cage.

  "What kind of dumbass daydreams in a fight?"

  Quroe is flying downwards towards Light. He had already prepared an aura blade in his right hand, and thrusts it downwards towards Light. Light gathers the fabric of space on his transformed feet and warps away, avoiding Quroe’s attack.

  "Tch! Annoying!"

  Light reappears just outside the cage. He touches the cage with his transformed hand, and the entire cage Quroe made disappears into thin air.

  "(Those blades stretch out pretty quickly. Not to mention his invisible slashes. Although I should be okay, since I fought Lily, someone who's infinitely faster than him. But then again, my Faith power completely shuts down Lily's. I can't do the same against this guy. . .)"

  *!*

  "(Wait a minute! I remember seeing the aura on his body disappear for a bit right before he hit me with his invisible slashes, but then the aura on his body reappeared afterward. And during those close combat exchanges earlier, he didn't even use it at all. I see now, his invisible slashes and those auras that can stretch at high speed are two separate abilities and cannot be used at the same time. A Faith power with its own rules and limitations, a Special type! That's it! That's his Faith power type! Maybe now I ca--)"

  "Urgh!" Light suddenly grunts in pain.

  He holds his waist, which was stabbed before. Light transforms his wounded waist.

  "(This way, I can stop both the pain and the bleeding, but this means that I used up a little percentage of my transformation limit for this one wound for the rest of the fight.)"

  "For some reason, I didn't think the entire cage would be destroyed." said Quroe.

  "So, you knew about the Judge's Faith power canceling each other's?"

  "I didn't. I just figured it out as we kept fighting. You talked as if you knew it beforehand. You fought another Judge before?"

  "It was an accident rather than a fight."

  "Alright, enough small talk! I'm gonna be a bit serious here. I'm tired of long fights. To be frank, I'm a murderer, not a fighter."

  Quroe raises his right hand upwards, and the aura on his body goes wild. Slowly but surely, the aura on his body grows larger to a size so big that his body looks like an ant in comparison. His Aura extends and stretches upwards from his palm. A gigantic aura blade is erected towards the sky.

  *!*

  Light even has to lean his head upwards to see the very top of the blade. The blade even reaches the height of the clouds. From the looks of it, the blade can even slash an entire city if positioned horizontally and swung in a full circle. The blade is as wide as the average width of tall buildings in big cities.

  "What are you doing?" asks Light.

  "Ending this farce!" said Quroe in a deeper tone.

  Quroe swings his right hand down vertically with the gigantic aura blade, at Light and the neighborhood. Light opens his right palm and points it towards the incoming gigantic aura blade. The gigantic blade is now fully horizontal, but it breaks apart entirely. Light's transformation on his right hand also breaks apart.

  Light took a glance behind and saw that the blade that was breaking apart seemed to go past the edge of the town. Although there's no damage being done, the sheer visual of something that huge is a spectacle in itself.

  "What were you thinking? Didn't you agree that we should not involve civilians?"

  "But I didn't harm any. What's your point?" said Quroe as he smirked.

  Quroe's aura on his body began to go wild again, but this time, Quroe points his hand towards Light.

  "(He's gonna do that giant sword again? And horizontally?!)"

  Quroe pulls back his hand a bit, then he thrusts it forward as the gigantic aura blade is now stretching towards Light. Light points his open palm towards the gigantic aura blade. The gigantic aura blade and his transformation break apart.

  "What's the point of doing the same thing after knowing it didn't succeed the first time?"

  "Because that was just the tutorial!"

  Behind the gigantic sword that broke apart, two gigantic swords are coming towards Light diagonally from the side.

  "So, that's your aim!"

  Light re-transforms his right hand and points both of his transformed hands towards the two swords. The two giant swords break apart, as well as his transformation. The next three giant swords are coming from three different angles. Light blocks each one of them with his transformed limbs. Five giant swords are coming from different directions. Light gathers the fabric of space and warps away, and the five giant swords miss. Light reappears slightly above Quroe's front. He increases the mass on his blackened right hand.

  "Car Mass, REJECTION!!" said Light.

  Light punches Quroe. Quroe raises his arm to block the punch by using the aura on his arm to cancel his Faith power, but before his fist went into contact with Quroe's hand, he was already hit by a powerful gravitational force.

  *BAM*

  "(WHAT?!)"

  "(It connects?! I see. His aura blade isn't exactly a defensive ability. His aura only cuts when it stretches. That's why my Rejection didn't get cut. CHANCE!!)"

  Quroe was launched downwards towards the ground. They were around 1,5km above the sky.

  "HRGH!"

  Quroe stops himself in midair. His head is only five centimeters away from the ground, and he lands safely.

  *pant pant*

  "You really are dangerous. You almost killed me!" said Quroe as he smiled mockingly.

  Light descends towards where Quroe is and lands in front of him. Upon landing, he cracks the ground and even some walls of the houses in the area. He increased the mass on his blackened feet and arms for landing.

  "You said that we should fight as if we're trying to kill each other. Chickening out?" Light mocks Quroe.

  "Arrogant. Just because you landed one hit on me since we first fought, you get it to your head. Too bad the Judge of Pride isn't here with us."

  The aura surrounding Quroe disappears.

  "What's this? You surrender?"

  *!!!*

  Suddenly, Light was grazed all over his body. As usual, his automatic transformation protects him, but since every single one of those transformations broke apart immediately upon contact, he never reached his limit. His invisible slashes don't stop coming, and Light got grazed by a few more slashes.