Aleus was watching the fight from a distance not fearing for stray attacks, confident with his dream body he would not be harmed.

  (This is definitely beyond what I imagined, the second moon gone with not even its rubble left behind like it had never existed in the first place. Hiro, truly how many secrets and means do you hold.)

  He thought as he continued to watch, after separating with Hiro he collected the last of the squads and even put the royal battle ship inside the painting world. But he did not go in himself, his curiosity of this battle was too great that he used the rune of Dreams just to observe it.

  (But the fragment is also its own anomaly, what kind of creature grows strong at such a rate.)

  As an observer Aleus had of course also picked up on the fact that the fragment was growing during the fight, now going toe to toe with Hiro despite the latter using techniques. This information on its own wasn't much but factoring Hiro had the edge thanks to these techniques not long ago, anyone would be wary. However it hadn't grown so much that the situation had become hopeless.

  (The time isn't right yet, a technique to rebound its attacks is something that should be reserved for attacks I can't match.)

  Judged Hiro as he blocked another one of the fragment's attacks. As a veteran he knew many techniques and could use a relatively many as well, some of which redirected attacks right back at the attacker with at least fifty percent strength. They were good techniques but he did not utilise them when his own attacks exceeded how much he could reflect. Right now was such a case thus he either deflected, evaded and blocked all the attacks the fragment threw at him.

  As they continued to exchange blows Hiro found another opening, Epsilon and the fragment's lava blade arm collided. But this was no simple collision, the lava blade was deflected making way for Hiro to continue with his assault. A swift thrust with Spiriton while Epsilon kept the mussel hand at bay, he was aiming for the core.

  The fragment's body turned into lava around the core and its path allowing it to swim away, effectively avoiding the thrust but it did not end there. The area Hiro was stabbing parted, forming a hole for Spiriton to pass through.

  (Its tactics are improving.)

  Hiro acknowledged with regret, not only was it getting stronger but it was improving how much it could control its body mid clash, enabling it to evade even its dread, Spiriton, at close range.

  Hiro's thoughts began to churn, they were quick as he formulated tactics best suiting his situation.

  Hiro's greatest worry now wasn't its tactics improving, this had a limit influenced by how little experience the fragment had fighting someone who's an equal or stronger, having always been the stronger one. What was though was still its increasing power, eventually blocking wouldn't even be an option to Hiro.

  (The way of the class cannon, that is how I'll win this.)

  He had to either evade or deflect as many as he could if not all attacks thrown at him.

  Seeing the change in Hiro's attitude the fragment scoffed but it wouldn't dare look down on him, not when he still had that sword.

  The two continued to fight and the fragment started to feel pressured, it was stronger but wasn't having an edge over Hiro. He was faster and had come close to destroying the core several times. It was thanks to its greatest advantage, a sole vital point that could move around helping it narrowly evade death.

  (Oh no.)

  It thought, once more Spiriton was cleaving through space, its target the core. Hiro had used a feint, fooling it to think he was retreating only to strike when the fragment was drawn in. It was close, too close that with Hiro's slashing speed the core would at least be grazed. But the fragment wasn't so optimistic to expect the least amount of harm. With death close at hand its thoughts accelerated reaching several times more than it was normally capable of, information was processed as it came. This allowed the fragment to see Spiriton getting closer inch by inch but it could not do anything, this was merely perception it could not move as fast, even when it tried.

  (I, world dragon will die here? After spending over a century healing I was finally done, only to be killed soon after. How unjust, how very unjust... I reject this death.)

  Its degraded dragon will showed its nature once more, as it realised death was being forced upon it, the fragment came to the conclusion of leaving its fate to the World. The result would be grand and also the death of Hiro, it was sure. This would not have been possible before but as it was, it would only be a matter of whether it wanted to or not. And at worst it would be dying with him. It only took a thought and it happened.

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  Boom!

  The core and body exploded into a violent energy spreading outward. Everything within thousands of kilometers was bathed by this energy. Even Aleus was within its range but he had an illusion body thus unharmed nonetheless he had a grim and bitter expression. Even from a distance the events were clear to him, Hiro cornered the fragment and it self destructed.

  "It is dead but at what cost. Hiro, not even a hair remains not to mention body."

  This time he felt Hiro was dead for good, before he had a body for his soul and life force to return to but now...

  Of course he did not know for a fact what Hiro's fate was, but it would not take a genius to know that the self destruct had power beyond what the fragment could muster for its attacks and Hiro who was starting to be overwhelmed definitely had no hope of surviving. A few breaths later the explosion and its blinding light were nearly gone, and Aleus could finally see the aftermath.

  "Good God, how's this possible?"

  He stared in disbelief, pleasantly shocked at what he was seeing, Hiro was alive and fully intact.

  Rewinding to the moment before the fragment's self destruction.

  Hiro's perception of the world around him was normal, when suddenly his perception was pushed to the max. It wasn't his doing but Epsilon, as a sword with a will of its own it could control its own abilities to assist Hiro and one of those powers was the ability to sense danger moments before, something inherit to it as holy sword of protection. At times like these it would maximise his perception like it did against the demon lord but of course like with the demon lord, it did not always result in Hiro avoiding the danger. However this time was different, the explosion was fast and Hiro was close to the fragment but the demon lord was leagues above this speed and Hiro could even see him in slow motion.

  (It's choosing mutual destruction?)

  He thought observing the core begin to break and a bright blue light escaped through the cracks. Everything was happening so slow to him that what he was seeing might as well have been a static image, himself included.

  "You are so relaxed, don't tell me you have a way around this."

  Hearing this voice Hiro was shocked but perhaps not, B One had a deep mystery to him and he wasn't a spirit body which should have been impossible. For many other reasons Hiro did not think much of B One's ability of matching his current perception through action.

  (Weren't you going to remain a silent spectator until the subjugation ended?)

  "I was but doesn't this atmosphere allow me to act as I please without disturbing you. But never mind that, I just wanted to let you know I made a mistake."

  Hiro was perplexed, a mistake from B One what could it possibly be.

  "What I said before about fragments is the truth but not complete truth. More specifically how they go about growing their definition of world, devouring the will less world to become complete. Whether you noticed or not doesn't really matter, but it is a fact it doesn't literally devour it. Instead it's closer to fusing itself with the World, or rather fusing its will with the World.

  Normally it is instinctive thus it takes time but done with awareness it can be as quick as an instant for a fragment to become one with the universe. As for the former case you don't need me to tell you it varies depending on the will, you of all people should know the nature of wills and dragons."

  (Wills are ever changing while dragons are world order defying beings.)

  Hiro thought of the basic aspects of the two, then continued to form a guess based on them.

  (If the fragment's dragon will changes favourably then its assimilation with the World would be faster.)

  "Exactly."

  Hiro heard this and was disappointed that he was right. There was no way B One would say this unless the fragment wouldn't die from its self destruction, even worse the returning fragment would be a greater threat.

  (I also have a way to make it through this, Spiriton. It may be new to me and I might not compare to my predecessors in using it but there's one ability I wouldn't fall short on, sealing or rather subspace.)

  For generations the holy sword was used to seal the demon lord in disconnected spaces. But the truth was Spiriton was simply cutting a region of space and isolating it from the rest of the World, this didn't have to be a seal, it could be used protect one's self too. The most astounding part, Spiriton lived in such a space. All Hiro had to do was request for Spiriton to let him enter this space and he would be gone from the World's space thus escaping most manner of calamity.

  Of course this worked because there was an already made subspace, if not he could not move Spiriton to cut space and make a subspace in time thus dying. And Hiro didn't have to move just a thought and he would be teleported into it like Spiriton could enter and exit.

  Fast forward, after confirming with B One that it was safe to exit Hiro left Spiriton's subspace. He looked at his two holy swords, they were a truly terrifying combo in their own right. What he just did would've been impossible without either one of them.

  "This feels like a cheat."

  He said as he started to slash his surroundings, every inch of it was covered in life force. Hiro could slash at random and destroy it but it was too spread out, there was no way he would kill it this way.

  Life force unlike the physical body did not have any vitals or weak points, slashing at it caused harm but it was closer to a just a reduction in the total amount.

  (The fragment's life force is self replenishing though thanks to growing stronger. What's worse, it's increasing more than I can reduce it.)

  Regardless of this Hiro kept hacking away, it was best to weaken it before it could come back together and form an entity.

  Swish swish swish!

  The life force moved quickly gathering in one point, like a tornado slowly forming. The fusion was not harmless, Hiro did not dare approach only attacking with ranged slashes.

  "The World speaks and I listen, for I am its child who seeks its peace. Decrystalise, recrytsale, all done at will. Through rebirth I am enlightened."

  A gentler voice resounded from within the swirl of life force before a streams of lightning shot out from it, crackling towards Hiro.