Chapter 8 - Severing Dragon.

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[Adam POV]

I began to dodge Brain's attacks, one after the other as they grew in intensity and power, each one being faster and more lethal than the last. I however managed to avoid the worst of it, not letting my guard down, not even for a moment.

This was a game of endurance, and all I had to do was keep playing until Brain was satisfied.

If I survived that, I would live to train another day.

"Is that all you can do, run like a rat?" Brain taunted with a maddening cackle, sending blast after blast at me. "Yesterday, you cut one of my attacks in two! Where's that kind of strength now? Or is it that you really want to die?"

I gritted my teeth, barely ducking under one of his attacks as I was forced to block the next one, which sent me flying to one of the many walls around us with a loud boom that rattled my bones.

"If death is what you seek, I can happily provide!" Brain laughed, before sending several more attacks at me.

He was really trying to kill me.

There was no restraint, no modicum of control, nothing. He was simply expecting me to survive, or die.

"I refuse to die here!" I shouted, before steading myself to block the upcoming attacks with a series of poorly timed sword attacks. Each attack and each block would send a shiver of pain through my body, pain that years ago would've had me on my knees.

But I had grown strong.

However, if there was something that enraged me about myself right now, was my lack of finesse with the blade. I knew that each swing I was taking was wrong, I don't know how I knew it, but I did.

If only I knew how to use my katana, I had the feeling things would be much different.

After all, right now I was using my blade as I was swinging a fucking bat with a sharp side. And the fact I knew that, and it was the only thing I could do, save the few little things I learned from kendo, had me full of disgust with myself.

"You refuse to die?" Brain inquired, piercing one of my legs with a thin beam coming from his right index finger. "You breathe as long as I allow it. You don't have the right to refuse anything."

I dropped to my knees, my right leg bleeding from the wound of his latest attack. I had seen it, but I hadn't been able to move at all to dodge.

-Say my name! Call me!-

I blinked, that voice, the woman... I could hear her.

I could hear her voice, echoing inside my head, telling me to say her name.

"I have grown tired of this," Brain continued, looking at me with complete and utter disinterest. "You have such a large amount of Ethernano, yet your talent is not existent, you learn but your magic has yet to mature at all. Perhaps not all coals can be turned into diamonds."

I was going to die, after all, I had endured?

-Say my name!-

Her name.

"You are nothing but a disappointment, and a waste of my time," Brain continued, his eyes glowing red as his fingers started to glow green. "Not every horse can be trained to race."

Her name...

Zanry...

I...

Can you please tell me your name, one last time?

-My name is. Zanryuzuki. Severing Dragon Moon-

Zanryuzuki... What a beautiful name...

-You finally hear it, my voice finally reaches you. Now say my name, say the words deep within your soul, and call forth my power, shouting it to the heavens!-

Following what felt right I grabbed my sword, clutching the handle tightly as I could. And as Brain shot at me what would've been my end, I shouted. "Judge all things in this Universe. Zanryuzuki!"

As soon as I said that name an intense light burst from me, so powerful that it pushed Brain back, creating a ditch where his feet used to be. As this happened, I felt a sudden and overwhelming surge of power, like a tidal wave that could move mountains and tear them apart.

Everything came to an abrupt halt after that.

I felt my Ethernano surging like I hadn't felt it before, filling the air around me.

Brain's eyes widened as he felt it, and stepped away in shock, and I could swear... fear.

"What are you!" Brain growled.

I looked at Brain for a few moments, before raising my blade and slashing at him from the distance, sending a wave of energy that blasted him away with force even though he had tried to block it.

I now understood my dreams, this wasn't a normal blade I was holding, it was a Zanpakuto. I don't know why I had failed to realize that, perhaps I didn't want to humor the possibility of my powers, that like myself, my powers came from a different world.

I suppose it doesn't matter anymore. I had someone I needed to decapitate.

"I have to admit, brat," From the rubble and debris where I had sent Brain, a darker, and more malignant voice spoke. "It's been a while since someone has forced me to come out. Congratulations to you."

As the man continued to talk, the debris was blown away, revealing a now changed Brain, with a large gnashing wound across his chest where my attack had struck him.

I took a step back, my right leg threatening to give in to what Brain had done a few moments earlier.

However, I didn't pay much attention to my leg. The one that had my undivided attention was Brain... no, that wasn't Brain anymore, whoever that thing was, he was vastly more evil and dangerous than Brain.

I could feel it in the air.

Never before had I regretted so much not seeing an episode of anime like I'm doing right now.

"Allow me to introduce myself, scum. My name is Zero, and today, I will be your executioner," Brain... no, Zero said with a sadistic smile.

Zero... I remembered that name.

I guess maybe I did see that episode, but I hadn't had the time to actually think of anything else other than surviving.

"Are you ready to die?" Zero inquired, tilting his head.

I gritted my teeth, swinging my blade at hand, generating the same effect it had last time, only that this time, my attack didn't blow him away, it pushed him back, but before it could do a thing, Zero shattered it away.

"Impressive, your attacks hold enough power to drag the likes of me back," Zero cackled in delight. "Such a shame. Oh well." Having said that, Zero vanished out of sight, and the next thing I know, something is colliding with my head, sending me through several walls.

Giving no time to rest, I turned around to see Zero smiling at him, his red eyes looking at me like I was nothing.

I cursed inwardly at this development. I had managed to overcome Brain, and this was the result? Another battle that I can't win?!

I refused to die, not after all I have endured. Taking a step forward, I swung my blade, or tried to, because Zero had stopped my hand mid-swing, gripping my wrist so tight that I could feel my bones cracking.

"You have power, but you lack everything else," Zero muttered, before kneeing in the gut, bringing me to my knees, throwing up. "You will never be able to beat me, brat. Accept your fate."

"No!" I shouted as I managed to get on my feet, swinging my blade at Zero, ignoring the immense pain radiating from my upper body.

I wouldn't die like this, I refused, I wouldn't let my body give up on me! I had come too far for things to end here.

Zero jumped back, dodging my attack before slowly walking towards me, his eyes wide as he looked at me like he couldn't believe this piece of shit was still standing.

"You are like a roach, hard to fucking kill; how can you stand to be so resilient?" Zero inquired, tilting his head. "I expected you to have given up long ago. You have no chance against me, against Brain, you would've won, even with your pathetic lack of skill, that much I will admit, but against me? You have a bigger chance of drying the ocean out with a lightbulb."

-An attack without a name, is like a sword without an edge.-

I know.

-Swing my blade, and say. Uchuryu no Kiba.-

Cosmic Dragon Fang? I like that name.

Taking a deep breath, I grabbed my blade tight, as I placed one foot forward, bending my knees, before bringing my blade down at Zero, saying. "Uchuryu no Kiba!" A bout of energy flowed through me, from deep within his chest. It traveled down my arms and ended in my blade, what followed next was an ear-piercing sound as translucent slash energy flowed from it, shooting forward at Zero at a blinding speed.

Zero tried to move, but by the time he had realized what was happening, he hadn't been able to react in time.

"You... LITTLE BASTARD!" Zero screamed, bleeding heavily from his right side, as I had cut clean his arm. "ENOUGH GAMES, NO MORE PLAYING AROUND! DIE!" Having said that, Zero blasted at me with all he had.

I tried to move my sword to block it, but my body was shutting down, having reached its limit. And before I knew it, the attack Zero had unleashed, engulfed me.

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[Zero POV]

That little bastard had managed to harm me! ME! At least I can take pleasure in knowing he's nothing but ashes now.

"Lord Brain! We came as soon as we heard the explosion." Many of the cultists entered what remained of the training room, which was nothing, my last attack had blown the entire floor down for the most part.

"Bring the medics, immediately!" I roared. That little bastard had cut my right arm. I had no idea how he had done it, I had put more than enough power into blocking his attack, it shouldn't have harmed me as it did, but it went through my body like FUCKING butter.

I hope that brat rots in hell for what he did. I hope his suffering never ends!

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[A few hundred miles away in the middle of the sea to the south of the Tower of Heaven.]

A body floated adrift with the currents of the sea, his clothes in tatters, his body full of wounds, bleeding into the unforgiving sea, but despite all of that, he held onto life just as tightly as he held to the blade in his hands.

He was barely breathing, his body wanting to give up. Any other person would've died under the same circumstances, but he wasn't any other person, was he?

"Captain, I see a body!" In the distance, the cry of a sailor coming from a fishing boat was heard through the silent sea and the waves that rocked the body it had welcomed. "He's breathing!"

And as the fishing boat approached the body, there was only one thing certain. Zero would come to lament this day, the day he allowed a monster to leave his castle alive out of ignorance.