Chapter 84: A conclusion

He flew through the air, courtesy of Mikoto, and a flurry of white engulfed Selwyn's vision as he looked at Mikoto. The boy was on the snowy ground still; he drew back his hand and gripped onto something that was not there, and in the next instance, a large chunk of the ground was ripped from the earth, approximately the size of a small house. He launched the colossal chunk of earth skyward. Reacting with lightning reflexes, Selwyn twisted his midsection, his red eyes locking onto the hurtling projectile. With a grin not befitting the situation, Selwyn raised his sword, aiming the tip of the blade at the oncoming projectile. He didn't deflect, he didn't dodge. He erased.

"Eviscerate." The air seemed to crackle with power as Selwyn slammed his blade forward. A wave of pure annihilation rippled outwards, disintegrating the earth chunk into a million shimmering motes of dust. The shockwave buffeted even him, sending a shower of snowflakes spiraling below him. But there was no respite. A flicker of movement caught his eye. Mikoto materialized behind him with a pop of displaced air. His fist, encased in a crackling aura of mana, connected with Selwyn's armored abdomen with a sickening thud as it broke through.

The impact drew a metallic taste that filled his mouth. A sonic boom erupted as his body rocketed forward, a streak against the endless white. The ground rushed to meet him, the impact registering as a bone-jarring tremor that traveled up his body. Snow exploded outwards, a monstrous crater forming around his point of impact. But Selwyn grinned, laughing deep in his throat. He didn't stay down. He was back on his feet in an instant.

("What a tenacious guy.") Mikoto thought, unamused.

Mikoto landed gracefully a few meters away. Kneeling, he slammed his hand onto the snow, and an eerie transformation began. The white flakes writhed and churned, a metallic sheen overtaking them. In mere seconds, a forest of razor-sharp spikes, as black and deadly as obsidian, erupted from the ground, lunging towards Selwyn with a collective hiss.

Selwyn merely smiled as if having the time of his life. He brought his blade around in a blur of speed, the red light of the blade tracing a deadly arc. The clang of metal on metal ripped through the air as Selwyn cleaved through the spikes, each swing sending showers of molten metal spraying outwards. The sonic boom from the shattering metal echoed across the frozen landscape, momentarily dwarfing the sound of the wind. With a final, earth-shaking swing, Selwyn shattered the last of the spikes, the shockwave flattening the surrounding snow into a glassy expanse.

He didn't pause to admire his handiwork. In a display of inhuman speed, he pivoted on his heel, the world blurring around him. He reappeared in front of Mikoto, so fast that the boy's eyes widened in surprise for the briefest of moments. Selwyn's blade moved too fast; not even the blur of the outline could be traced. His blade cut through the air as it whined in protest. Not even a second passed, and a thousand cuts littered Mikoto's body from head to toe.

Mikoto didn't flinch. His uniform snapped and billowed with each blow, but he remained unbothered. Finally, with a movement so fast it appeared Selwyn's blade had snagged on something unseen, Mikoto caught the edge of his sword with his bare hand. The metal seared his skin, a plume of acrid smoke rising, but his grip didn't falter. He retaliated with a simple punch, his fist connecting with Selwyn's stomach with a sickening crunch.

The impact sent a shockwave rolling outwards, pulverizing the glassy expanse of snow around them. Selwyn was thrown backward, crashing through a towering ice formation, shattering it into a million glittering shards. Trees, uprooted by the sheer force of the blow, went flying like matchsticks. The impact carved a new crater into the landscape, smoke and dust rising upwards as if a weapon had been used. Mikoto watched as he was blown away, and in a near instant, the thousands of cuts decorating his body mended themselves, closing, the crimson blood disappeared, and his uniform mended itself. And now it was back to the offensive, Mikoto locked onto Selwyn's raising form.

The air crackled with raw mana as Mikoto raised his hand. Five enormous spears, their tips glowing an ominous red and crackling with erratic energy, materialized above Selwyn. They plummeted downwards with earth-shattering speed. Selwyn threw himself to the side, barely avoiding the first spear that slammed into the ground with a force that split the earth open like a rotten melon. The remaining four spears followed in quick succession, each one detonating in a blinding flash and a deafening explosion. The ground trembled violently, cracks snaking outwards like angry veins. The snowscape was now nothing but a smoking crater.

Dust and smoke obscured the battlefield, momentarily shrouding Selwyn from view. Burns from the mana explosion decorated his body, and he had a gruesome stump where his left arm used to be. But Selwyn did not frown or even grow the least bit frustrated. From within the crater, that odd energy from before engulfed him. Then, with a sickening snap and tear, new flesh and bone knit themselves together. Selwyn emerged, his missing arm reformed, the burns on his body fading like bad symptoms.

But Mikoto waited, contemplating with a frown hidden behind his mask.

("Regenerating a limb like it's nothing.") He heaved a sigh. ("On top of that, his natural strength and speed far surpass my own base stats. I have to use mana to enhance myself just to deal any physical damage. Even so, I feel like he's holding something back, a trump card maybe? It would be a pain to deal with, but I'll try not to draw this out.")

"You're a tenacious one," Mikoto said with some annoyance. Selwyn let out a humorless bark of a laugh. Mikoto was not sure how to take that.

Then Selwyn blinked, and Mikoto was no longer there. One moment he was standing across the crater, the next he was a blur, appearing behind Selwyn. His fist, wreathed in crackling mana, slammed into Selwyn's back with a bone-shattering crack.

The impact sent Selwyn rocketing forward, though before he could properly be flung away, he felt a vice-like grip on his arm. And in the next instance, his body was flung upwards. He breached the atmosphere in a heartbeat, the thin air whipping at his ragged armor. The world below grew smaller, swirling into a mass of white and black, the curvature of the planet becoming more evident. He soared higher, past the wispy clouds, until the black of the sky deepened into the inky blackness of space. Stars, pinpricks of light against this odd endless void, winked into existence. Selwyn, for a fleeting moment, was suspended in an eerie silence, the only sound gasps escaping his lungs. But the respite was once more short-lived.

A streak of black rocketed towards him from the distance, growing larger with each passing moment. It was Mikoto. Selwyn raised his blade towards the boy, but it was too late.

 With another pop of displaced reality, Mikoto appeared behind Selwyn. His fist, a battering ram of pure magical energy, connected with Selwyn's back, sending him hurtling back towards the planet. The acceleration was brutal, the thin air screaming in protest as Selwyn re-entered the atmosphere. He became a burning meteor, a streak of fire against the night sky.

The impact with the ground was nothing short of a cataclysmic event. The force of the blow triggered a shockwave that leveled entire forests, carved canyons into the earth, and sent tremors rolling across continents. A colossal crater, miles wide and deep, formed at the point of impact, the earth itself buckling under the sheer force.

Selwyn, however, was far from finished. Deep within the crater, amidst the smoldering debris and superheated rock, Selwyn emerged from the molten rock, his body battered but unbroken. He coughed, a plume of smoke and ash billowing from his lips, but his red eyes burned with an eerie excitement still.

He looked up, his gaze scanning the horizon. In the distance, a figure descended from the sky. Mikoto landed gracefully on the rim of the crater, his expression hidden behind his mask. The silence stretched.

"I can feel it through your ferocious attacks, you know?" The prince spoke, his tone calm despite being a human falling star moments ago.

"What are you spouting?" Mikoto spat out, annoyed. Their fight had not been going on for that long, maybe thirty minutes or more. Even so, Mikoto was not used to having this much trouble with anything since coming here. No matter how much punishment Selwyn took, he would stand back up, eerie grin and all.

"You feel it too." The prince stated. "That rush of exhilaration."

"You think I'm deriving fun from beating your ass?" Mikoto scoffed. "Like I told you, don't go comparing me to you. This is nothing but a necessity."

"So you say, Mikoto." Selwyn seemed unconvinced. He gestured to the destruction all around them, the collapsed mountains, the enormous fissures, and craters. "Such destruction with such little regard, an odd village or town was no doubt destroyed."

"Yeah, about five." Mikoto replied blankly. "Luckily your cultist buddies attacked, and the knights back at Emberreach deemed it too dangerous to leave undefended villagers or townsfolk behind."

"Even so, you were lost in the moment, were you not?" Selwyn smiled on. "Your mask mirrors your expression, no doubt. You are not like all these prey; I've met all the kinds of prey this boring star has to offer. The prey who lack power and resolve. The insignificant prey. Then there is the prey with power at their disposal but lack the motivation for a truly grueling battle." Selwyn chuckled, laughing deep in his throat as he shook his head.

"There really a point to this?" Mikoto raised a hand and pointed it at Selwyn. "Fighting is a waste of time, do you know what I derive enjoyment from?" Selwyn said nothing, merely awaiting an answer. "Seeing filthy animals like you being put down, like the trash you are."

"I would ask that you two stop that." And just then a voice cut in, halting Mikoto's attack. "Any more, and all of Verdantis may suffer."

A third party enters the battle?