The air changes.
Not because of the Hollow King, because of Ren.
The crimson sky still churns with darkness, the Earth still bleeds beneath them, yet a different pressure quietly spreads through the battlefield.
It is warm, blinding, dangerous…
The violent winds suddenly begin circling Ren instead of his opponent. His torn haori drifts behind him. His long hair loosens from its tie, crimson, white and black strands dancing like flames.
He walks one step. Then another.
Each footstep melts shattered stone into glowing glass.
His voice is low, colder than before.
"A creature like you should never have existed."
Another step.
"You speak of ending the world..."
His grip tightens around his crimson blade. "Then I'll become the end of you."
For the first time… The Hollow King does not answer immediately. Then—
He vanishes.
A claw already tears toward Ren's throat.
Ren moves before the attack exists.
Steel flashes.
CLANG!
Their collision erupts like a newborn sun. The shockwave rips apart mountains already broken by the Hollow King's previous strike.
The Hollow King's expression remains emotionless.
"Fight me with hatred."
Another strike.
"Fight me with hope."
A kick.
A claw.
A punch.
Every movement twists reality around it.
"Fight me with love."
His crimson eyes remain fixed upon Ren.
"They all scream the same."
Ren disappears forward.
His body slips through the Hollow King's guard like flowing sunlight.
"SUN BREATHING… FIFTH FORM."
The Hollow King turns—
Too late.
"SETTING SUN TRANSFORMATION."
A single golden arc blossoms.
Then another.
Then another.
Hundreds. Thousands.
The sky itself resembles stained glass shattering beneath countless burning crescents.
The Hollow King's body explodes into ribbons of flesh. His punch disintegrates before reaching Ren.
His arms.
Shoulders.
Chest.
Legs.
Everything is carved apart before gravity even remembers to pull the blood downward.
His body stitches itself together. Not regeneration, only ruined flesh forcing itself back into place.
His crimson eyes narrow.
"...Interesting."
His leg snaps upward.
Ren catches it.
Silence.
For the first time, the Hollow King's balance is gone.
Ren twists. The earth disappears beneath them.
BOOM!
The Hollow King's body is driven through layers of stone.
Another impact.
Another.
Another.
Each slam digs deeper into the broken planet until rivers of magma erupt around them.
The Hollow King tears himself free.
He spins, throws Ren skyward.
Darkness swallows him. No body, no presence, only drifting black mist.
Ren closes his eyes. A single breath. Heat gathers around his blade.
Without looking—
He swings.
"SUN BREATHING... SIXTH FORM... SOLAR HEAT ABLAZE."
The slash races across the empty sky.
Nothing.
Then— Blood.
The Hollow King's invisible body is forced back into existence. Hundreds of burning wounds open simultaneously.
His pupils contract. "...Impossible…
Did I make any mistake…? This mortal is using the Sun God's power… But he's completely different from that scum."
Ren is already behind him. His kick lands, the sound resembles a collapsing continent.
The Hollow King's neck bends unnaturally. His entire body crashes through the battlefield.
Before he can rise—
Ren descends.
One hand upon the hilt. The blade glows brighter than the ruined heavens.
"SEVENTH FORM... BENEFICENT RADIANCE."
The sword falls.
Golden flames erupt in every direction. The Hollow King's body disappears beneath countless intersecting cuts.
"—I shouldn't have underestimated him."
The crater becomes an ocean of sunlight. Within those flames—
Past memories and everything flash before him—
His friends… Ai Hanako, Chikafusa, Miyuki, Kasumi, Nameless, Tsunenari, Kaito, Rinka, and many more.
People he admired… Kenzo, Michiko, Sato, mysterious women Tohru and Yoru, Tengen Uzui, Senjuro Rengoku, Zenitsu, Oyakata-Sama, and many more.
And his mother who died very long ago…
Everything the Hollow King would erase.
His grip tightens. His eyes burn white. Not from rage alone, but from purpose.
The Hollow King's kick tears through the inferno.
Ren is launched into the heavens. Clouds burst apart. The sun itself trembles. Ren thinks,
"He is rapidly approaching my level… I need to end him fast, even if it's impossible…"
The Hollow King follows.
Millions of black fists bloom around him. Each one carries enough force to level a city.
Millions. All at once.
Reality fractures beneath the assault. The sky becomes nothing but fists.
Ren's breathing steadies. His blade becomes an extension of sunlight itself.
Every strike is perfect. Every movement is absolute.
Steel sings.
Millions of impacts explode across the heavens. The entire sky becomes a constellation of sparks.
No wasted motion, only perfection.
Another memory hits—
Kokushibo.
Ren's eyes are filled with unshed tears.
Then—
His body erupts forward.
"SUN BREATHING... EIGHTH FORM... SUNFLOWER THRUST!"
He pierces straight through the Hollow King's forehead.
The momentum never stops. The thrust becomes a spin. The spin becomes a slash. The slash becomes an execution.
The Hollow King's body splits apart. Solar flames consume every wound.
Ren appears beneath him, his sandals crashing into the Hollow King's liver.
BOOM!
The impact folds the air itself.
The Hollow King plummets like a dying meteor, smashing into the Earth.
Silence. Dust rises. Then...
He stands. Broken. Burning. Still standing.
Ren begins walking again, slowly. His sword hangs beside him.
His hair has completely come undone, flowing through the burning wind like living fire. He no longer resembles the gentle swordsman, nor a saint, nor even a man.
He resembles the wrath that descends when every path to mercy has already been exhausted.
For the first time since awakening, the Hollow King's gaze lingers. His ruined lips part by a fraction.
Not in fear. In realization.
"...This is no ordinary mortal."
His ancient eyes remain fixed upon Ren.
"...He walks like the… the God of Death."
A thick, smoke-like darkness seeped from every wound across his body. It did not rise, it spread.
The earth blackened wherever it touched. Rivers of magma dimmed. The burning sky lost its color, swallowed beneath an ancient darkness older than night itself. The battlefield began to decay.
Ren's grip tightened. The veins along his arms bulged. His eyes blazed.
"SUN BREATHING..."
The atmosphere exploded.
"NINTH FORM... SUN HALO DRAGON HEAD DANCE!"
Boom!
Ren vanished.
The ground shattered behind him. A colossal dragon of blazing sunlight roared into existence, coiling around his body as he shot across the battlefield like a divine comet.
The Hollow King's eyes narrowed.
"...Death… You've crossed your line!"
The dragon opened its jaws.
Ren's blade descended—
CLINK.
Silence.
Ren's pupils shrank.
The Hollow King had caught the crimson blade… between his fangs. His jaws slowly closed. Cracks raced across the blazing dragon. Then—
CRACK!!
The entire dragon shattered into millions of burning fragments.
Ren immediately released the blade. He spun through the air. His body became a burning wheel.
"TENTH FORM... FIRE WHEEL!"
The spinning slash carved straight through the Hollow King's jaw.
Blood erupted. Bone split apart. Yet…
Nothing fell.
The Hollow King's head remained attached. As though his flesh refused to obey reality itself. Then—
His shadow moved.
From the darkness behind him… Dozens… Hundreds… Thousands of skeletal arms burst outward.
Each arm is longer than buildings, each finger ending in claws. Ancient chains screamed through the air.
Before Ren could escape—
Every chain wrapped around him.
His arms.
His legs.
His torso.
His sword.
The chains tightened. The sound of steel groaning echoed across the ruined world. Ren's muscles trembled.
"...Impossible..."
The Hollow King slowly walked toward him. Every step echoed like a funeral bell.
"You creatures worship freedom..."
Another step.
"Yet every soul eventually discovers..."
He stood directly before Ren.
"...that existence itself is a prison."
His hand slowly reached toward Ren's face. Then—
He disappeared. A blur.
Blood erupted.
His claws ripped straight through Ren's chest—
No. An illusion.
The body dissolved into scattered flames. The Hollow King's crimson eyes shifted. "...Hm?"
Behind him—
"ELEVENTH FORM... FAKE RAINBOW."
Ren emerged from a distortion of shimmering sunlight. The blade descended toward the Hollow King's neck—
The Hollow King turned instantly. Their attacks collided.
Steel. Claw. Sun. Darkness.
The impact split the clouds apart. Neither retreated.
Ren slashed.
The Hollow King leaned aside by mere millimeters, his claw answered.
Ren twisted beneath it.
Another slash.
Another counter.
Another clash.
Neither could gain even a finger's advantage.
Their movements accelerated. Soon… Even afterimages disappeared.
The battlefield became nothing more than endless explosions. Mountains collapsed. The exposed core of the planet surged. The heavens continuously fractured beneath every collision. Darkness and sunlight repeatedly devoured one another. Neither yielded.
Ren's breathing deepened.
He's adapted...
His eyes remained fixed.
He's reached my level.
Another collision.
The Hollow King's claws grazed his cheek. Ren's blade sliced across the Hollow King's ribs.
Blood scattered.
Neither acknowledged the wounds.
"If this continues…"
Ren inhaled. Once. Deeply.
His heartbeat slowed.
"TWELFTH FORM... FLAME DANCE."
Golden flames wrapped around his body. His voice carried across the dying world.
"I will never let you erase everything."
The Hollow King raised one hand. Reality bent. Darkness folded inward around his palm like a collapsing universe. The air screamed.
His voice remained utterly emotionless. "Everything?" A faint, almost amused stillness entered his words.
"Child..." The shadows behind him stretched infinitely. "I was ending worlds before your species learned to dream."
Another step.
"I watched gods invent hope..." Darkness consumed the horizon. "...only to hear them beg for oblivion."
They lunged simultaneously.
Sunlight. Darkness.
Two streaks raced toward one another. The world seemed to stop breathing. Ren's fingers tightened around his sword.
"It's my last chance… I'll use my full strength in this single attack… But if I fail, I am dead…"
The Hollow King's claws reached forward. Only inches remained. Then—
Ren disappeared.
The Hollow King's eyes shifted upward. Above him—
Ren floated against the burning heavens. His silhouette eclipsed the crimson sky itself.
The sword slowly rose over his shoulder. The flames surrounding him became unnaturally silent.
Even the Hollow King stopped moving.
———————————————————————
Meanwhile…
Far beyond the shattered Earth.
Beyond stars. Beyond time. Beyond even the battlefield where Ren and the Hollow King shook the world.
There is only...
Silence.
An endless ocean of black liquid stretches infinitely beneath an empty void.
At its center—
Jigen.
Countless divine chains pierce his arms, shoulders, chest and back, suspending him in an eagle-like crucifixion.
His head hangs forward. Long obsidian hair conceals his face. Ancient blood slowly drips into the black sea below...
Footsteps.
One. Then another. Ripples spread across the endless darkness.
The Hollow King approaches. He stops before Jigen.
The only difference between them… Jigen's eyes remain white. The Hollow King's are endless black, pierced only by crimson irises.
His voice echoes through the void, cold, ancient, absolute.
"So… You've finally awakened."
Silence answers him. Seconds pass. Then—
Jigen slowly raises his head. There is no hatred. No surprise. No fear. Only the same unreadable face he has always worn.
His voice is quiet. "...You're still talking. How disappointing…"
A faint smile almost seems ready to form on the Hollow King's ruined lips, yet never truly does.
"You call me disappointing… yet you're the disappointment."
He steps closer. His fingers seize Jigen's hair, forcing their eyes together. The void trembles.
"Look what you've become. You preserved insects. You protected a dying world. You allowed attachment. You allowed… that woman."
The darkness around them expands endlessly.
"Become what you were always meant to be… Look at me. I existed before kingdoms. Before gods. Before hope. Before morality poisoned existence.
I am the silence before creation. The hunger after its end. Accept oblivion… Accept the truth."
The void falls silent again.
…
Jigen simply looks at him. Then quietly exhales, almost tired.
"What are you even trying to say…? You overestimate your importance…"
Dark claws suddenly bury themselves into Jigen's skull. The Hollow King's thumb crushes into his eye. Blood pours across half his face.
He tightens his grip.
"Still pretending? The world you insisted on preserving… is already dying. Everything failed—"
Jigen answers before he finishes. "I never said I cared about the world… Destroy it. Leave it. It makes no difference to me."
A cracking sound echoes.
One chain trembles. Another. Then another.
The Hollow King's eyes slowly shift downward. The divine restraints… are breaking. Not from power, from movement alone.
Jigen calmly takes one step. The chains groan. Another. Another. Each movement tears steel older than the universe itself.
The Hollow King's voice hardens.
"Still struggling? How extraordinary. You stand before inevitability itself, and you call it courage... No matter. Courage dies too."
Without warning—
His claws rip downward.
Half of Jigen's face is torn away.
Bone. Muscle. Blood. His chest follows. Ribs scatter into the void. Any ordinary existence would already be gone. But Jigen… keeps walking.
He stops directly before him, half his face missing. Blood running endlessly. His expression… never changes.
"It doesn't work." Jigen continues.
"You're trying far too hard." His white eyes meet the Hollow King's black gaze.
Another step.
"I know… Even evil needs an audience. You won't find one here."
CLINK.
One divine chain snaps. The sound echoes forever. Then another. Then dozens. They explode apart.
The Hollow King's pupils contract. For the first time, Jigen moves first. Then—
He throws his hand forward.
His arm passes effortlessly through the Hollow King's chest.
Silence.
The Hollow King looks downward. Jigen's hand already grips his heart. His voice is colder than death.
"If all you can create is suffering..." His fingers tighten.
"...you've already admitted you can't create anything else…"
The heart shatters.
The Hollow King's eyes widened.
Jigen leans closer. "You'll never become the original me."
Then— Everything explodes.
Slash.
Slash.
Slash.
Slash.
The void fills with torrents of black blood. The Hollow King's body is shredded faster than thought itself.
His limbs separate. His torso bursts apart. His flesh is scattered across the endless sea.
Yet throughout it all… Jigen's expression never changes.
———————————————————————
Back on Earth…
The ruined planet still burns.
Ren remains suspended high above the battlefield. His sword points toward the heavens. The flames around him become impossibly bright.
His breathing steadies one final time.
"SUN BREATHING... THIRTEENTH FORM!"
The world flashes white.
Then—
SSSSLLLLLAAAAAAASSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
The strike descends. Not once. Not twice. Thousands.
Millions of blazing arcs engulf the Hollow King from every direction. Every path of escape is erased. Every shadow consumed. The inferno swallows him whole.
The battlefield shakes beneath an endless rain of burning steel.
When the light finally fades—
Silence.
The Hollow King stands… barely.
His body is no longer whole. Fragments of flesh crumble from him like dying ash.
Cracks spread across every inch of his form. His arms tremble. His torso twists unnaturally. His legs begin collapsing beneath him. Piece by piece…
He starts to disintegrate.
Ren slowly lands. His grip remains firm, yet his mind refuses to settle.
"Something's wrong..." His eyes remain locked on the Hollow King.
"That last attack… Why… Why didn't he move? He could have blocked it..."
The Hollow King's crumbling body sways gently in the burning wind. A single fragment falls into the ruined earth. Then another. Then another.
Silence.
For the first time since the battle began… The battlefield breathes.
Ash drifts through the crimson sky. The exposed core of the Earth glows faintly beneath the broken lands, its molten light painting the ruined world in scarlet.
The figure standing within that silence… Is no longer the Hollow King. It is—
Jigen.
His breathing is shallow. Every breath rattles against lungs that should no longer exist.
One eye is gone completely. The other barely remains open, drowned beneath blood. His heart is no longer inside his chest, only an empty cavity remains where it once beat. His organs hang beneath torn flesh.
Yet… He remains standing. His thoughts are strangely quiet.
"My body can barely feel anything anymore… Has she found out…?"
Footsteps echoed through the ruined world.
Ren approached slowly. His sword remained lowered, his eyes never left Jigen.
"So… No wonder… It wasn't you."
A long silence settled between them.
"I still have many questions to ask you."
Jigen slowly raised what remained of his face. Blood rolled from his chin. Inside him, the Hollow King still stirred. Not gone, merely buried.
"He's still here… I couldn't erase him completely… But..."
His fingers twitched. Darkness briefly gathered around them before disappearing.
"His strength remains… Only for a little longer."
He quietly looked at Ren. His voice was broken by blood.
"...Your enemy..." He coughs.
"...still lives… Why… aren't you killing me?"
Ren slowly lifted his crimson blade high. Perfectly steady. His expression no longer burned with rage, only resolve.
"I know I can't kill you. And I'll never forgive what you've done."
Jigen closed his remaining eye. "...I see."
A faint breath escaped him.
"...Then… I'll finish Yoriichi myself."
He forced himself upright. Muscles tore. Bones shifted beneath ruined flesh. His torn uniform slipped from his shoulders. He discarded it without a word.
His entire body was exposed to the cold wind. A body sculpted by impossible discipline, now reduced to little more than blood, torn muscle and shattered bone.
He instinctively placed his hand upon his chest.
Nothing. His heart was gone.
For the briefest moment… He simply looked at the empty space, then lowered his hand. No reaction, no complaint, only acceptance.
Ren vanished.
The ground burst apart beneath his feet. A streak of sunlight rushed across the battlefield.
Jigen remained still. "His movements..."
His instincts whispered inside him. Not words, but patterns—
Every step.
Every shift of weight.
Every breath.
The battlefield unfolded before Jigen's eye like an immense design. Invisible trajectories crossed through the air.
Fibonacci Sequence.
Quantum Physics.
Advanced mathematics. All at once…
Possibilities narrowed—
Thousands became hundreds. Hundreds became dozens. Dozens became one.
"His sword… Always choose the perfect path. Perfection… still follows rules."
His fingers twitched. A memory surfaced before him—
———————————————————————
Around 150 years earlier...
There was no moon. Only darkness.
A village stood trembling beneath torchlight.
Men. Women. Children. Their hands shook around crude weapons, axes, pitchforks, old swords.
Before them… stood a blood-covered figure.
Jigen. No...
No, not him. It's... The Hollow King.
Weapons already pierced through his body. His breathing sounded less like a man… And more like some wounded beast refusing to die.
Black eyes, crimson irises.
An inhuman growl escaped deep within his throat.
No one moved. Fear rooted every foot to the earth. Then someone shouted.
"You monster!"
Another.
"We knew that you're not a human. You're a devil in disguise!"
"You mother-killing maniac."
"This devil killed my son and daughter-in-law. Please kill him!"
Two villagers charged first. They never reached him.
A single movement—
Their blades split apart. So did they.
Blood painted the frozen ground.
The screams that followed echoed far longer than the attack itself.
———————————————————————
Present.
The battlefield returned.
Ren was already upon him. Flames roared around the descending blade.
Jigen's remaining eye narrowed. Then, something changed.
Among the endless possibilities… One line, one opening, barely visible.
Jigen sees a light ahead.
"I can finally see it… the opening to kill Yoriichi… the Legendary Slayer."
Ren's sword descended.
At the final possible instant— Jigen didn't retreat. He stepped into the attack.
Ren's pupils contracted. "What?!"
The slash that should have cleaved Jigen apart instead passed harmlessly across the empty space his body had abandoned.
Before Ren could recover—
Jigen's ruined body twisted with impossible precision. His claws crossed once.
Swoosh—
SLASH!!
Blood scattered across the burning sky.
Ren's eyes widened.