But in that case, Canus’s victory would be assured if he could withstand this attack.
“No way will this pathetic trick beat me!” Canus roared, firing himself up as he once again allowed his rage to take over.
He issued commands to the giant skeleton and assumed a defense stance against the heat sphere approaching from above. The surrounding creatures started to converge, forming a protective wall of flesh around Canus. His ultimate shield was complete in no time flat.
As the glowing sphere approached, its sheer size distorted their perceptions. The heat radiating from it was on an entirely different scale compared to Tsushima’s earlier attacks. Beneath the skeleton, Canus’s hair began to singe, and his eyes started drying out.
When the orb came close enough to fill Canus’s entire view, it collided with the skeleton.
The heavy impact sent cracks rippling across the ground, and the skeleton’s arms crumpled under the force. Faced with the immense energy of both heat and mass, the creature let out an agonized shriek.
However, Canus regenerated the skeleton’s crushed body as quickly as it was destroyed, proving once again why he was a member of the Six Imperial Swords. Struggling to breathe in the scorching air, Canus screamed so intensely it felt as though his throat might tear apart. His eyes glowed as he simultaneously regenerated not just the skeleton, but also the wall of flesh protecting him.
The landscape surrounding Tsushima and Canus was completely transformed. Everything that could be considered organic matter went up in flames, and the earth, stained black and gray, was showered with intense white heat waves.
However, the end was in sight. The heat sphere had started to shrink. Realizing this, Canus began to sense his victory was at hand.
Tsushima’s attack had peaked, yet even now, the heat sphere had failed to destroy or even dent Canus’s ultimate defense. In other words, triumph was in reach. Shielding his eyes from the light with a hand, Canus glared at Tsushima.
Even someone as well prepared as Tsushima wouldn’t escape unscathed from such immense heat. Watching white smoke rise from Tsushima’s clothes, Canus smirked tenaciously. It amused him to see Tsushima burning himself with his own reckless strategy.
Victory was now certain. Firmly convinced of this, Canus spread his arms wide to flaunt his composure.
“Ha-ha-ha! I’ll admit you’re an amazing Informationist! But I’m even more incredible. So just keep on kneeling and wallow in despair as you learn why I’m the strongest of the Six Imperial Swords!”
Canus was fully convinced he had won. Yet he should have known that Tsushima was not the type to give in here.
Amid the storm of light and heat, Canus thought he caught a glimpse of a faint yet ominous blue glow. It was Tsushima’s eyes, peeking out from behind his jacket as if quietly watching him.
That light looked different from the usual glow of Tsushima’s Code execution. Though his eyes shone blue, they seemed to have a heavy hue. Perhaps it was just because their surroundings were too bright, but his eyes appeared to be absorbing the light, their color resembling flames born from the depths of the abyss.
On top of this, Tsushima wore an expressionless face, devoid of any emotion. It only heightened the unease and fear that arose in Canus as he confronted this phenomenon beyond human comprehension.
“What’s happening?” Canus muttered to himself, sensing something indefinable. A few moments later, he realized that Tsushima had executed a Code.
It happened in an instant; a beam of light shone from above Canus’s head, bringing a wave of heat. Instinctively, he looked up.
His massive skeleton silently dissolved and disappeared like mist. The creature’s disappearance was clearly different from it being destroyed by heat or physical trauma. It was more like it was vanishing entirely.
Canus’s eyes widened. There was no doubt one of Tsushima’s Codes had caused this phenomenon.
However, the principles behind the phenomenon were completely incomprehensible to him, leaving him with no way to counteract it.
Having lost his strongest defense against Tsushima’s heat sphere, Canus was exposed to its overwhelmingly high temperature. His military uniform instantly caught fire, and his extremities boiled and burst apart. Engulfed in flames, Canus let out a scream of agony.
Even so, the boy made one last attempt to survive. He deconstructed the wall of flesh surrounding him and encased his body in a densely compressed shell. Curling up as small as he could, he assumed the only defensive stance available to him in the situation.
He wasn’t trying to dictate the outcome of the battle—he was simply making a last-ditch effort to cling to life. Without mustering effort on pointless resistance, he assumed a completely defensive posture.
The heat sphere collided with Canus’s shell, which was only a fraction of its size, crushing the boy and his creations like a meteor.
Then, at last, the mass of light violently exploded.
The ground was gouged out, and smoke from the blast rose so high overhead that it would be visible from even Balga Capital City. The detonation had been just that enormous.
Amid the violent tremors and rain of debris, Tsushima crouched low and waited for things to settle down. Once he felt that the storm had passed, he dusted himself off and stood up.
The entire area had been reduced to scorched earth, save for a small space around Tsushima that had escaped damage thanks to the Code he had executed to protect himself.
“Guess I might have gone a bit overboard,” Tsushima remarked casually as he looked up at the towering plume of smoke. It stretched so high in the dark gray sky that it seemed it might reach the clouds. His neck ached just looking up at it.
Relaxing his shoulders, Tsushima stared at the sky. He closed his eyes, which had been stained red, and pressed firmly against their inner corners, expelling a single streak of blood.
It was the price of repeatedly using Codes with high amounts of strain. He felt a pain in his brain that rivaled the agony racking his body. He had narrowly avoided frying his brain entirely. Reflecting on this, Tsushima adjusted the collar of his dirty jacket and trudged over to check if Canus had survived.