"Khh...KAAAH!!!"
Miyako cried out, taking her raison d'etre to its utmost limits. Even the incredibly high-speed battle between Setsuna and Oshiba was slowed as the gravity seemed to only increase more and more! The blast coming from Savior's Messiah form wasn't even safe from its force. Everything bowed to enough gravity, even light itself.
But even that great power of nature wasn't enough to save her. The blast, even through its downwardly curved path, was great enough in its intensity to blast the crazed girl. It completely overtook her, covering her in its bright light entirely. When the blast disappeared, there was nothing left of the girl who had been called Miyako.
In the end, her very reason for existence simply wasn't enough when it came to this battle. The lonely phantom had found those whom he would fight with, side by side, and Miyako's rejection of humanity could hold nothing to that.
As the Phantom collapsed and Miyako was destroyed, the fight between Setsuna and Oshiba picked up once more. Oshiba's fine katana clashed against Setsuna's dreadful looking Sword of Pecatti, almost making it hard to tell which one was fighting for good, and which for evil. But, in the midst of battle, it made no difference. The one with more power was the one who would come out on top, the one whose reason for existence contained more strength within it.
The battle was completely aerial, the two teens moving like sharp gusts of wind. But as Oshiba gripped his sword with both hands, Setsuna felt a different kind of power emanating from him.
Then with a single swing of his sword, the entire building behind Setsuna was erased. Setsuna himself would have fallen victim to that fate as well if he hadn't moved out of the way. He already knew about this attack from the last time he'd fought with him. Oshiba's raison d'etre was the future itself. Thus, his strikes erased the future of any target he chose, effectively removing them from existence in their entirety.
For what was something without its future?
And then there was the defensive half to his power. There was, quite literally, only one way to kill him. Any other future of his death would simply be rejected. A sword would have to pierce him through the chest. Fortunately, as one who wielded a sword, the task would be trivial so long as he could win the battle!
"Sah!"
Setsuna let out a battle cry as he flew forward towards Oshiba. He may have been a man of few emotions, but even he had to admit fright when fighting such a dangerous power with the ability to one shot his very existence. Fear in itself was useful. It allowed one to recognize when an attack was dangerous, or when one was in a bad position. However, too often humans felt far too much of it. Thus, he only shook off the fear that was unnecessary.
Using one of the Seven Deadly Sins, Setsuna appeared to split into five! Oshiba was, however familiar with the Sword of Pecatti. He knew it was a mere illusion. However, without the ability to use illusions himself, it was simply a guessing game to fight back. As the five Setsunas flew towards him from all directions, Oshiba raised his sword, whirled around, and took a large swing. After all, any competent fighter would have expected his opponent to come from behind. What would be the point of using illusions, only to attack from the front? Three Setsunas disappeared with that single stroke.
Not one of them was the real deal.
Setsuna had expected the experienced Oshiba to predict what most would consider the "correct" strategy. He was an experienced swordsman with a lifetime of experience piled onto a natural born genius at wielding the sword. So the fool's decision of using illusions to attack in a straightforward manner had been a risk he was willing to take. If that prediction had been off in the slightest, Oshiba's large, powerful swing would have simply erased him completely.
That was a risk he was willing to take in combat if he was to protect everyone dear to him. Raziel, Lilith, Sorami, even Samael. He wouldn't hold back and play it safe just because there was a chance he would be killed where he stood.
His sword stabbed right through Oshiba's chest. The battle had been brief, but intense. Indeed, even with the advantage Setsuna had of fighting him before, a fight against Oshiba was no easy task. But he had the fortune of knowing Oshiba's past, techniques, abilities, and fighting patterns without exchanging more than a few sentences with the boy. One might call it unfair, but were soldiers blamed for using more advanced weaponry than their opponents, or being more informed?
Still, the man who looked only to the future, who lived only for the future, had been a respectable opponent in this second multiverse as well. Sheathing the Sword of Pecatti in the pocket dimension he'd drawn it from, Setsuna stood over his fallen opponent.
"Hmph. You already understood how my raison d'etre worked, didn't you?"
"...Yes. I knew from the very beginning."
"Ah. My loss here was inevitable then."
"Perhaps so."
The practiced swordsman closed his eyes, his face still retaining the same stoic expression he'd worn the entire fight. With his power, he could have rejected any possible future in which he would die. If he wanted it so, one would have to rewrite time and the rules of the multiverse themselves to kill him.
But that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to finally die at the hands of another sword wielder. One who was even more adept than his lifetime of training and genius. Yet the one to beat him had been a complete novice, simply created more powerful than he. Life truly was a cruel mistress.
Yet he was still satisfied with this end. Just like the other him had been in his original multiverse. No matter where he came from or how his loss was handed to him, to be defeated was the ultimate release for him after a lifetime of easy victories. The body of the boy began to fade away, but one could see something that looked like a smile appear on the last vestiges of his face as he completely disappeared.
"Well then, let's move on," Setsuna said as he began to walk off. With the second stratum cleared, there were only five more to go. As everyone began to move on to find the portal to the next stratum, Samael picked up the unconscious Winslow onto her back with a chuckle.
"Heh, not bad~"
She knew he couldn't hear her, but it was just so interesting to see the weak phantom develop so quickly. It seemed perhaps this world of magical battle could suit him after all.
After a little while of searching around, they finally found the portal and stepped through it.
Only to step into a city bathed in flames.
"What the hell?! Don't tell me..." Lilith was the noisy one about it, but all of them were surprised about the state of the third stratum. The heat was intense, even more so than a desert at noon. It was like standing in the midst of an inferno that refused to allow you to die, peeling at your skin over and over again.
"Let's find Mr. Flame of God, then~"
@Chewy Rabbits
