Zeke sensed his sword growing sharper. It was something he’d felt in the battle against Johann—a huge experience gain that came from going up against a truly strong opponent. Endless power surged through him, a power so great he felt he could slice through the stars above, yet with it came a rising panic—a worry that spread like a drop of ink seeping through white paper.
Where… Where does it end?!
Their battle swung like a pendulum between attack and defense. Zeke was not inferior to Leo, yet Zeke had the impression he was waving his blade around in darkness. Noel’s words passed through his mind:
“I’ve never met Leo in person… But if I were to go by his battle record, I would say he’s stronger than you. As far as brute strength goes, Leo is definitely superior.”
A sudden terror gripped Zeke. Even though it was no more than a flash of white noise, the tiny fragment of impurity was enough to bring a god back down to the world of men.
Zeke spat as Leo pounded him in the guts with the perfect punch. He’d left the tiniest of openings, and Leo capitalized on it. Zeke was on the verge of blacking out completely from the sheer destructive power of the strike. He thrust his sword into the ground to slow himself and barely managed to escape a ring out. Still, the feedback from the Megalith—the inescapable pain—nearly made him collapse in agony. The pain was so sharp, so excruciating, that if he made even the slightest misstep, he would pass out.
Even then, the Megalith had not reached its limit. The fight was not lost; the battle wasn’t over. It was a simple moment of carelessness. Zeke could still turn things around. These reassurances raced through his head, but at the same time, another thought had taken root in his heart.
If this had been a real fight, that strike would have killed me.
Zeke’s eyesight wavered. The damage to his body was dissipating, and his breath was steady, but he was filled with doubt down to his soul. Leo read his hesitation and thus waited to follow up on his attack. The Lion Slayer stood in place, staring at him with an ice-cold gaze.
“Ha…ha ha… Ha ha ha…”
Laughter bubbled up inside of Zeke as he finally understood the truth: he was far, far weaker than Leo. He knew then that he couldn’t use his full power in this ring.
“Guess I’ll just have to apologize to Noel later,” he muttered. Then he glanced at his cornerman and barked a single order: “Get out of here and find cover, now.”
“Huh? Find cover?”
“I am not in the mood. I won’t repeat myself.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
Zeke’s cornerman turned on his heel and disappeared in an instant.
“Glad I picked a cornerman who knows how to follow orders,” Zeke said with a chuckle. “I had a feeling it might come to this.”
Zeke swung his sword, but the strike was aimed in the complete opposite direction of Leo. A split second later, the Megalith he was linked to collapsed with a crash, severing his connection to it.
“These towers make me weak,” he said, pointing his blade back at Leo. “They give me the safety cushion of a second chance. But there are no second chances in true battle. Real battles are not about winning and losing—they’re about life and death!”
Zeke’s shout roused his confidence in himself.
“Now we can start the real finals, Leo. If it takes everything I have to defeat you, then that’s what you’ll get!”
The man’s fighting spirit was completely renewed, and he settled into a fighting stance. Leo glanced at his own cornerman and sent him away, then destroyed his own Megalith with a kick.
“Fine. If that is what you desire, then you’ll get your deathmatch.”
Leo settled into his own fighting stance as the crowd screamed from their seats.
“I-Is this it?! Is this a true battle to the death?!” Luna screeched, as thrilled as she was terrified. “Both fighters have made it clear that they’re staking their lives on this! B-but this is way beyond the rules of the tournament! Big sis Finocchio, what does the tournament management make of the situation?”
“Officially, we don’t permit deathmatches,” replied Finocchio, “but who can possibly stop those two?”
The gods had cut the chains that bound them, granting themselves the freedom to run rampant. It seemed nobody could stop them. If management even tried, they would be killed where they stood.
As if to prove Finocchio’s fears, the two unchained gods shouted in ferocious harmony, “You’re dead!”
Thus they clashed. Zeke used the Sword Saint skill, World’s End. It was the ultimate sword skill, acquired through his battle with Johann. No god, no demon, no world could stop it. The slash sped at almost light speed, heading toward Leo with a blue glow.
“In heaven as it is in hell. Salvation for the vestiges of wandering souls—The Six Paths.”
Golden light pulsed from Leo’s fist, enveloping the blue glow of Zeke’s blade. The golden light represented salvation through destruction, and it returned everything to nothing. On impact, Zeke’s physical attack vanished from reality. The clash with World’s End came at a huge cost to Leo’s power, but Zeke was covered in deep wounds from having received it head-on.
Zeke collapsed and, though he was still conscious, he couldn’t even move if he’d wanted to. He lay on the brink of life and death as the footsteps marking his defeat approached him. Leo’s red eyes flashed at the edges of his hazy vision, as did the horrifying glimmer of insanity that lay in their depths.
“You are dead, weakling.”
With that, Leo sent a fist flying down toward Zeke. The barely conscious Zeke was prepared for death, but right then two figures appeared in the sky above.
“X Invincible!”
Leon dropped to the ring, engaging his skill the moment he landed. X Invincible created an unbreakable barrier against all attacks—even Leo’s.
“Your interruption only means that you die too,” Leo growled.
Leon had reflected his attack right back at him, yet Leo didn’t even flinch as he turned to punch the interloper. That instant, the unbelievable occurred: Noel leaped out in a surprise attack to defend Leon.
“I’ve analyzed your entire moveset,” said the buffer.
Noel launched into a spinning kick to intercept Leo’s punch. Leo’s strike was so powerful that Zeke was the only living person in the empire who could take it head-on, but Noel weaved past it by a hair’s breadth and closed in on Leo without losing speed.
Zeke watched it all happen right before his eyes, and that was when it clicked. All of this had been part of Noel’s plan. The entire Seven Star Cup had been built around this very moment.