Leo blitzed forward, and so did Tektite.

  When they met in the middle, the world shattered.

  It wasn’t just a clash. It was as if the air itself was torn apart. The impact birthed a rolling storm of pressure, a wall of invisible force that spread outward for miles. Dust and dirt erupted skyward, trees in the far distance bent nearly double, and the grass around them flattened in rings that spread wider and wider like the ripples of an ocean wave. The noise wasn’t steel meeting flesh but something above that. Even the nearby farmland was damaged.

  The shockwave hit our lines like a hammer. Archers stumbled on the walls, some nearly thrown off their feet. Even soldiers who had braced themselves were driven back. It felt less like watching men fight, and more like watching the world itself recoil from their existence.

  Leo... for some reason... was faster. So much faster. His figure blurred, crossing distance in a time my eyes couldn’t even comprehend. He was already beyond transcended speed, beyond the natural, but now he surged even further. And Tektite, who had dominated with blinding flashes of his own, was suddenly lagging behind.

  That should have been impossible. He had just taken a hole to his gut. He should have been slowing, struggling. My instincts screamed the truth.

  Tektite stumbled. His left arm was gone.

  Blood sprayed in violent arcs, splashing across the dead grass. For a breathless instant I thought he might collapse, but he clamped his remaining hand onto the stump. His face twisted, veins bulged, and with a grotesque crunch, he crushed the wound shut with Reinforced Fist. The sound was horrible. Bones snapping, flesh tearing, but the bleeding stopped.

  Everyone froze.

  The reaction was the same across both armies. Obsidian and Sun alike, men who had sworn to kill each other minutes ago, now in awe. We had all seen countless battles, watched prodigies rise and fall, but this was different. This wasn’t martial arts. This wasn’t even war.

  This was something else.

  Borschmack stepped forward, his massive frame trembling. His instinct was to rush in. Yaro followed beside him, fury burning in his eyes at the sight of his leader torn apart. They both looked ready to die in that instant.

  It was natural. Their pillar was breaking. Their commander, the one who had shouldered Toda’s legacy, had been cut down in a moment no one could even see.

  And yet, for all that, I didn’t understand. I had thought Leo might struggle. I had thought this duel might end with him wounded, perhaps even defeated. But this... this complete reversal? This decisive end? I couldn’t make sense of it.

  Leo looked to Finn, but Finn was frozen. Finn wouldn't be able to finish it.

  Leo tilted his head back, his eyes fixed on the burning sky. His voice rang out calm and measured. “I was wrong. You can’t kill me, and you certainly can’t rule the world.”

  Tektite, panting, blood dripping onto the ground, stared with fury and disbelief. His voice cracked as he demanded. “How are you alive?”

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  Leo exhaled, not triumphant but weary, almost bored. “Does that really matter? I’d worry about yourself.”

  The words seemed to break something in Tektite. His knees buckled. He sank to the ground, still trying to stare at the sun as Leo had, as if mimicking him would restore some fragment of dignity. But he couldn’t hold the gaze for more than a heartbeat. His eyes dropped, his head hung low. His voice was a whisper, broken and small. “What did I do wrong...”

  Leo vanished.

  His sword sang once. “Nothing.”

  Tektite’s head toppled from his shoulders. His body slumped. Dust drank the blood as silence claimed the battlefield.

  It should have ended there. But it didn’t.

  Hematite’s voice cut the silence like glass. He was pointing at Leo, his wires trembling in his hands, his voice cracked with rage and maybe some semblance of grief. “You bastard! You went easy on him the entire time!”

  Leo didn’t even turn. He simply swung his blade in a casual arc. Air split. The mere pressure of the motion cleaved Yaro in half where he stood. There was no scream, no defense. Just death. It was stronger than any slice I've seen from him yet. “Can’t have animosity.”

  I staggered back. My breath caught. My body felt weightless, weak, unable to process what I was seeing. I wasn’t the only one. Finn collapsed to the dirt, curling into himself like a terrified child. I wanted to laugh, to cry, to scream, but nothing came out.

  Leo dropped his sword. The sound of it striking the earth was dull, anticlimactic. His voice was quiet, level, as though he hadn’t just shattered our worldviews. “Alright. Let’s discuss surrender terms.”

  Hematite snapped. He flung his wire out, looping it around Leo’s neck in coils upon coils. The strands tightened, biting into skin, a web woven in desperation. His voice was shrill, his body trembling. “What even are you?!”

  The wires bit deep, and then stopped. Leo simply raised his hands, gripped them, and peeled them off as if they were no stronger than twine.

  Caleb clapped. Too loud. His grin spread wide, manic with relief. “This is a new high for Sun! Word will spread far and wide of this victory. I was scared there for a second.”

  He bent down, picked Finn up like a doll, and hurled him toward the city walls. Finn slammed into the stone with a dull crack, sliding down, but as transcended, he wasn’t harmed. Caleb spread his arms wide to the army. “Accept your loss, Obsidian!”

  Hematite’s wires twitched, his voice cracking as he turned to their last pillar of strength. “Borschmack! What do you want to do here?!”

  But Borschmack, the giant, larger even than Caleb, a man built like a fortress, loyal beyond reason to Toda and his heir, turned and ran. His steps thundered, kicking up clouds of dust. He didn’t look back.

  It said everything.

  Tektite, the monster who had copied dozens of martial arts perfectly, whose speed and strength eclipsed ours, who had used terrifying methods to force himself even further, had fallen. Even after dealing Leo a wound through the gut. Even after drinking that vial. He still lost.

  I felt ice in my veins. Could I ever beat Leo? Could I even stand against him? Even Tektite had failed utterly. To challenge him, I might need to use Unconscious God. And even then... I wasn’t sure it would matter. If I would last another second.

  Hematite’s shoulders sagged. His wires fell limp to the dirt. His arms hung heavy at his sides. He was done.

  Leo’s voice came, steady and cold, like law being passed. “Obsidian as it is now, will disband. Every soldier and officer will have to find other means of employment. All of its coin and records will be sent to us. Every city, other than Ebon, which shall be returned to the Lawham noble family, will be ours. Do you accept these terms?”

  Hematite’s reply was a hollow whisper. “I’ll work on it right away.”

  He walked back toward the stunned Obsidian ranks. Their faces were blank, stunned, hollow. They weren’t finished as people, but as an army, they were nothing now. They would scatter as mercenaries for hire. But never again Obsidian. Never having a higher purpose. Leo returned to us. Caleb embraced him tightly, relief pouring out of him in laughter and tears.

  As Leo’s face was squashed against Caleb’s chest, I forced myself to ask, my voice trembling. “Was that really sixty percent of your power back then?”

  Leo’s muffled voice came back, almost amused. “I’ve never used more than thirty percent of my power before this moment.”

  This isn’t a man. This isn’t a transcended. This isn't even something above that.

  If who I really am is ever revealed...

  I’ll be erased from history.