Tengen's red star started to steadily grow into a sun. As it was held aloft by his third arm, it shined brilliantly, illuminating the battlefield in an eerie crimson glow.
Suddenly, a giant sun materialized above him and launched itself straight at Techxin with devastating force.
But Techxin merely chuckled. "Is that all you've got? Bigger stars?"
Just as the massive celestial fireball was about to consume him,
Techxin swung his axe, and in a single effortless motion,
the sun split in half,
its twin halves dissolved into flickering embers.
Without slowing his pace, Techxin walked straight towards Tengen, completely unfazed, as if nothing had happened.
Tengen narrowed his eyes.
"Okay, I see how it is. Loyal squadrants, come forth, celestial swords of the Red Star Dynasty."
He raised his hands high, and the red star held by his third arm shone brightly as it grew slightly.
It then flashed a bright red light.
Ten massive stars appeared in the air, aligning themselves into the shape of a sword.
Two stars formed the grip.
Four stars became the guard, shaping a dimensional outline.
Four more stars made up the blade, their burning light shaping a sword unlike any other.
Then,
the stars ignited into a blazing inferno, their flames wrapping around the celestial structure as it fully formed a sword that could burn the cosmos.
With another greater flash of red light from the growing star,
five more of these celestial fire swords appeared, floating at Tengen's sides like the arms of a divine executioner waiting for their leader's command.
Tengen muttered in a raspy, choked voice, "Alright, you want more of a challenge? Then I will give you more challenge. Let me show you what five hundred years of experience looks like."
The red star in Tengen's third hand flashed a blue-white light as the growing star slowly turned blue. Its growth slowed, and the fire of the celestial swords seemed to have their luster dim slightly.
But suddenly, all gravity in the arena disappeared.
Techxin's feet left the ground involuntarily, his body floating into the air.
Tengen smirked. "Now let the real battle begin."
He slammed his hand into the ground, sending an enormous wave of debris hurtling toward Techxin like a meteor storm.
Techxin remained calm, with a small smile on his face.
With calculated precision, he swung his axe at the approaching rubble, cutting through it effortlessly.
But as he destroyed the debris in front of him, two of the celestial swords flanked him from his sides.
Techxin managed to block the one on his right, but the other one was a problem.
If he used his bare hands, he would burn them,
which would be fine if he was resistant to flames.
So he did the next best thing.
He kicked off a piece of debris on the side as he swung around the celestial blade on the right, going behind it as he forced both swords to clash.
This pattern then continued. Each time he destroyed debris, one or more of Tengen's fire swords would slash at him, forcing him to stay on the defensive.
Techxin's movements were perfect—almost supernatural—
but the endless barrage of attacks began to wear him down.
A slight miscalculation allowed one of the fire swords to graze his side. A fresh new burn mark was made across it.
Techxin's grin widened.
Finally, he had enough. He lunged forward and punched Tengen with all his might.
Tengen blocked the punch. His flaming sword clashed against Techxin's axe. But the moment he did, all the remaining fire swords struck at once.
Which forced Techxin to swing around, deflect, and bounce off each sword to avoid getting attacked.
But the way he dodged allowed for openings, especially in front of opponents.
And unfortunately, Tengen was an opponent.
Tengen motioned down with a grin.
The growing blue star shined.
The gravity in the arena became dense and heavy.
Techxin, while in the motion of swinging upward, was suddenly forced downward as he came crashing onto the ground.
Each one of the fire swords then dashed at Techxin as they slashed at his defenseless back.
Techxin gritted his teeth as the sensation of heat overwhelmed his senses, nearly making him delirious with pain.
Tengen laughed. He created a giant sun in his palm and threw it down at him.
The swords parted, allowing the sun to come crashing down on Techxin's body.
A resounding
BOOOOOOOM!!!
echoed across the battlefield.
A titanic ring of inferno exploded from the sun as it rose so high it encompassed the ceiling in an ocean of fire.
Tengen basked in the flames with arms spread out, enjoying the fire as his eyes reflected its glorious magnitude.
The crowd went silent.
Silenter than they already were before.
The tension was so dense you could almost cut it with a knife.
Even Tengen's student, who had been watching attentively while fighting against something, suddenly sat upright as if he had forgotten about the thing completely.
Tengen smiled maliciously as he created three stars.
He threw the first star to the left.
The second to his right.
The last one to the ceiling.
Tengen slicked back his hair as he smiled. "Come on, Bloodheart. Don't be shy. Get up here. I got three whole presents for ya."
He then encompassed his fist in tiny stars as he made the gesture up.
The blue star shined.
As all gravity suddenly stopped being heavy and started being light.
Too light.
Instead of finding himself floating, Techxin instead found himself being rapidly pulled up to the sky,
with the same speed and velocity he had been pushed down with when gravity was heavy.
Techxin did not have time to grip onto anything. At this moment, he was helpless.
As soon as he passed Tengen, an attack rang out.
Tengen punched.
BOOOM!
Each star on Tengen's hand lit up and exploded like gunpowder as soon as they hit Techxin's chest.
The blue star shined as it made gravity slightly less light.
Techxin flew across the air until he finally crashed into the right wall of the battlefield.
Tengen's celestial swords didn't waste a beat as they met Techxin where he lay.
They then slashed at him in three quick sequences, making three different symbols.
X
A
Z
Each one of these symbols was burned into his chest.
Leaving Techxin's skin and button-up shirt in a burned, tattered state.
"Come on, old buddy, old pal. I got two more presents for you. Come on back," Tengen mocked.
He then coated his hand in stars again.
Snap.
Tengen snapped his uncoated hand.
Then,
BOOOOOM!!
The star Tengen had thrown to the right exploded, launching Techxin right to him.
Tengen smirked as he clenched his fist. "Nice to have you back."
BOOOM!
Like clockwork, it happened. Techxin slammed into the wall.
The swords soon followed as they rained down slashes on him.
Burning him even more.
Tengen coated his hands in stars as he called for Techxin to come.
Whether by will or not, he had no choice, as the star Tengen threw brought him to Tengen anyway.
"One more gift, pal. Come on, you got this."
Tengen didn't punch.
No.
No.
No.
That was too repetitive and basic.
No.
Tengen instead opened his palm and—
BOOOM!
SLAPPED TECHXIN BLOODHEART ON THE FACE as he launched him up to the sky.
Techxin hit the roof with a dull thud.
One of the Bloodhearts, most likely a young girl,
screamed, "You decrepit old man! How dare you do that to my brother!"
Tengen simply laughed mockingly.
"I don't think paying with his blood is going to be enough," a teenage Bloodheart said.
"His head then?" a young woman Bloodheart asked with a bubbly voice.
"No. Worse," another woman Bloodheart said.
"WELL, I WANT HIS HEAD! NOT ONLY DO I WANT IT, I DEMAND IT BE PUT ON A SPEAR WHILE IT SLOWLY GETS BURNT BY THE FLAMES HE USED TO HURT MY BROTHER!" the rambunctious young girl Bloodheart from before screamed,
as she stood up gripping the edge of her seat.
Her eyes blazed a murderous blood-red.
The commotion from the crowd of sibling Bloodhearts grew more and more,
as the stench of bloodlust grew simultaneously.
Until
two ice-cold voices cut through the commotion. One was a teenage boy, the other a young woman.
"Stop your nonsense. This is a fair battle, and we shall keep it fair until its end," the cold Bloodheart woman said.
"None of you will be doing anything under our direction," the cold Bloodheart boy said.
"So cool yourselves down, or else we will have to do it for you. And when we do, be warned, we tend not to stop at cool. We tend to stop at freeze," the woman and teenage Bloodheart said unanimously.
Then there was quiet.
But it was quickly broken by a laugh.
"Freeze who?" a teenage Bloodheart asked slyly.
"Us?" A devilish chuckle escaped the other teenage Bloodheart beside him. "You wish."
"Mōkō, Dallas, this is not the time for your tomfoolery," the cold teenage Bloodheart said.
"We don't want to start a fight. We are just saying, be careful who you say that to," the sly teenager said.
The arena physically became colder.
Even Tengen's stars dimmed slightly.
Tengen side-eyed the crowd as he scowled slightly.
He then turned his attention back to Techxin, who was beginning to weakly climb out of his crater on the ceiling.
Tengen smiled. "Sorry, your family distracted me. They are loud, very loud. But that's fine. I like loud. In fact, let's see how loud the sound of you hitting the floor will be."
Then he snapped his fingers as the star he had thrown on the ceiling—
BOOOOOM!!
Techxin, like a meteor, went flying down to the ground.
Tengen dodged out of his way as he watched him fall.
Then,
Tengen smirked.
The blue star shined.
Right as Techxin was about to hit the ground,
gravity became light again.
Too light.
He started to fly up again.
With both hands, Tengen clasped his fingers together, and a storm of tiny stars spiraled around his hands.
In an instant, the now slow-growing blue star flashed a blue light.
As the gravity of Tengen's attack seemed to be strengthened by an impossibly heavy and dense force which perfectly surrounded his hands.
He then slammed his clenched, starry fists into Techxin's back.
BOOOOOOOM!!!
The sound of crunching and breaking could be heard as an explosion of pure energy from the stars swiftly followed close behind.
Techxin was sent crashing into the ground. The impact tore the battlefield apart.
The arena was left in ruins. Thick smoke and debris clouded the air.
The King's voice rang through the chaos.
"Four minutes are up!"
Tengen laughed as his voice warped and wobbled due to the high gravity.
"Come on, Techxin. You're a BloodHeart, aren't ya? YOU HAVEN'T SHOWN ANYTHING TO TELL ME YOU ARE! DOES ALL YOUR STRENGTH COME FROM YOUR MAMA AND NOT YOUR NAME?
I THOUGHT IT RAN THROUGH THE FAMILY'S VEINS!
I THOUGHT IT CAME FROM THE FAMILY NAME!
DOES IT NOT?
IS IT NOT
BORN FROM
THE NAME
'BLOODHEART'."
Then there was a moment of silence that fell.
Tengen chuckled. "I guess it doesn't."
"What has the Bloodheart family come to? You know, I remember the days my grandpa used to tell me stories of your greatness.
I remember the times I used to get scared of the family name BloodHeart alone.
But it seems like those times are over, because right now I am standing over a person with the same family name I used to revere as a child."
Tengen chuckled.
"How the mighty have fal—"
Tengen was cut off.
A voice.
A young girl, the same one that shouted at Tengen for disrespecting her poor older brother.
She spoke a phrase.
A haunting one.
"Blood for the Blood God."
Clap. Clap.
"Blood for the Blood God!"
Clap. Clap!
"Probably a phrase for their precious Blood God. These poor, mind-controlled Sealils. Still pitiful. Under the control of their gods, they're nothing but tools," Tengen thought.
But even as he thought this, some of the Bloodheart siblings joined in.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"
Clap! Clap!!
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!"
CLAP! CLAP!!
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!"
CLAP!! CLAP!!!
Soon, all the siblings joined in, repeating it in a cheer or chant.
Tengen's student, still in his seat, saw Techxin's mother say the phrase, along with some of his stepmothers.
The chants grew louder and more synchronized, to the point that Tengen's student caught himself trying to say the phrase.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!"
CLAP!!! CLAP!!!
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!"
CLAP!!! CLAP!!!
Then—
A voice screamed in a beast-like roar.
So high-pitched, so loud, it sounded painful.
But those features only served to make the words it screamed more
terrifying.
More
blood-chilling.
The phrase that monstrous voice screamed was—
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!"
It was Techxin's voice.
It erupted from the rubble and echoed through the battlefield.
Techxin rose from the debris, his entire aura transformed. His eyes burned crimson, and his presence alone made the air feel thick as iron.
"BLESSING ENLIGHTEN."
A dreadful pressure filled the arena. Something ancient and horrific awakened.
Everyone in the audience, the Bloodheart siblings, the mothers of the Bloodheart, and even the King,
instinctively covered their ears, their bodies reacting to a fear they had long known.
Tengen's student looked around in confusion, unsure of why everyone was afraid. But then—he heard them.
The whispers.
A low, inhuman voice repeated the words, "Blood for the Blood God," over and over again, a sound that threatened to drive him insane.
The maid, Earin's favorite student, Daric's favorite experiment, and the boss's favorite golden child,
Angelina saw Tengen's student's face twist in terror and quickly shoved earplugs into his hands.
Tengen's student hastily shoved them into his ears.
Even then, he covered his ears on top of them as he tried to block out the whispers before they could reach him again.
Tengen, however, had no such luxury.
He could hear them.
Blood for the Blood God.
Blood for the Blood God.
Blood for the Blood God.
Every thought he would have had was obstructed and eaten away, replaced by the phrase.
It filled his mind to the brim. He could no longer think.
But a revelation was forcefully given to him amidst the chant.
Tengen sensed this revelation would provide some kind of protection or a solution.
He dug in deep, pushing the phrase aside until he grasped it.
The revelation was a question.
They all clapped when they said that phrase. What exactly could the clapping be?
He already had the voices, but where was the clapping?
What could possibly make a similar rhythm to the one they were clapping?
His
heart.
His heart.
He had to focus on the beat of his heart to block out some of the maddening chanting.
Tengen didn't even think of an answer.
He couldn't.
He was instead
given it.
By who?
Well, the person who caused this in the first place.
Techxin.
Tengen then held his head as he gritted his teeth.
Tengen blinked.
And suddenly he wasn't on the battlefield.
He was in his mindscape.
He recognized it because of how many times he had been here before.
That bastard Lynch couldn't go one fight without dragging him here.
With how many times he got forced in here, it would be strange if he didn't recognize it.
Tengen wasn't a person of many thoughts, which didn't mean he was dumb. For him, it just represented how he acted on his thoughts instead of pondering them.
He did speak his mind nearly one hundred percent of the time.
So there was little for him to think about.
Except for a few things, and those few things were shown as
clouds of thought.
White clouds that flickered dark blue from time to time, showing figures or keywords he remembered.
The rest of his mindscape was like a desert wasteland, with cracks running through gray sandstone-like ground.
That was what he usually saw when he was dragged in here.
But that wasn't what he saw.
What he saw was a ravenous mist of phrases that consumed every thought cloud he had
and filled every bit of space it could fit in.
The only thing Tengen could see clearly was an ocean of blood beneath the destroyed and wrecked debris of his mind.
"What the fuck?" Tengen muttered as he waved away the misty phrases.
The blood ocean rippled.
And it trembled.
As it rose up
to form a giant Techxin made of blood.
The blood giant Techxin laughed amidst the echoed phrase:
"Blood for the Blood God."
He spoke above the mist of the phrase and said,
"Wow, there's barely a thought here, only memories."
He chuckled.
"And I couldn't even find a single one past the age of twenty that was happy. It all went downhill as soon as you left your gramps, huh?"
The blood Techxin smiled malevolently.
"Funny. With the type of person you portray yourself to be, I thought you would have had narcissistic internal monologues."
Blood Techxin shook his head.
"It's kinda pathetic that you actually thought you gave me a challenge.
No, let me bring you back to reality. This world is ruled by the nine Kingdoms, and the fact that you even think you could be a challenge for one of their family members is a dream none but your dear boss has dreamed of."
The Blood Techxin laughed as he covered his face.
"You don't even believe it yourself. If you can't even pose a challenge to me, how do you think you will fare against the PRINCE OF PEACE, the strongest of us all?"
Tengen scoffed. "Oh please, you enlightened your blessing—"
"And you fully enlightened yours. The difference between those two is night and day," the blood Techxin said as he cut him off.
"And plus, I didn't even use my blood magic once in this fight. The thing I'm most known for. Does that sound like a man taking you seriously?"
Tengen gritted his teeth.
The blood Techxin opened his mouth in a smile as he twisted its head to the side, looking at Tengen mockingly.
"Or does that sound like a brother dragging a fight out long enough for his little brother to have some form of entertainment in his life for once that doesn't involve him getting hurt?"
Techxin laughed mockingly.
"Ponder on that, but not for too long. Time is passing, and yours is nearly done. Five minutes, five conditions. Two are not going to be yours, and I will make sure of that.
And that's a promise I put upon my heart."
The blood Techxin laughed its final mocking laugh
as it evaporated into the mist of the phrase,
clouding, filling, and corrupting Tengen's mind again.
The battlefield changed.
All around, six blood pickaxes formed themselves from the blood of Techxin. They then flew up and shot themselves into six different directions before, like anvils, falling back down to the ground.
Techxin, in tandem with the pickaxes, raised his leg to its peak and brought it down.
In unison, Techxin and the pickaxes struck.
Giant craters were created where their attacks landed,
further destroying the already broken battlefield.
The whole battleground began to shake.
Then Tengen's student found himself having to stop blocking his ears to hold onto his chair's armrests instead.
But none of the rest of his siblings did so. They just slowly lowered their hands from their ears.
Then enormous blood geysers erupted from the craters of the blood pickaxes, the crimson liquid shooting into the air, creating a rain of blood that ignored the zero gravity.
The entire arena floor became a pool of thin red liquid spreading across the battlefield.
The scene looked as if Techxin's pickaxes had actually managed to make the earth itself bleed.
Techxin stepped forward.
He emerged from one of the blood geysers he created,
his fingers clutching the top half of a mask—a boar's skull, its tusks curved and jagged, completely made of blood.
Techxin stared at the mask for a moment.
Then, with a slow, deliberate movement, he placed it over his face.
And at that moment, all the lights in the arena went out.
Darkness.
Only a few things remained visible in the void.
One: the blue star that was now only a few moments away from turning into a full sun.
Two: the five massive fire swords, their flames flickering in the suffocating darkness.
And three: Techxin's blood-red eyes.
The blood continued to fall, sizzling as it touched the fire swords, steam rising where the two forces met.
Tengen gritted his teeth as he used Techxin's revelation.
He timed his thoughts to the rhythm.
Blood for the Blood God.
Ba-bum. Ba-bum.
After gathering enough focus, Tengen commanded his fire swords to strike.
Seeing his gravity powers weren't working as intended,
"It seems like gravity is useless in affecting him now. I'd better switch between fire, sun, and gravity to maximize my damage from now on. He will fall. I'm sure all the shit he said was a bluff," Tengen muttered.
He then snapped his fingers.
The slow-growing blue star flashed a whitish-red light, turning red as it started to grow faster.
The cosmic fire swords regained their celestial luster as their flames roared with their former strength.
But before they could land an attack, a blood pickaxe shot out of a blood geyser and struck the ground in front of Techxin.
As one of Tengen's now stronger fire swords flew toward him,
the ground started to bleed as a blood geyser exploded beneath the sword, extinguishing its flames instantly.
Another sword attacked,
but a massive blood axe blocked its strike.
A third sword came for Techxin's feet,
but he merely raised his foot
and stepped on the blade, stopping it dead in its tracks.
Two gigantic blood hands rose from the ground and grabbed the sword, holding it completely still.
Techxin stepped forward, off the celestial fire sword and onto the rising blood geysers that burst from the ground exactly where he wanted to step.
His feet remained perfectly balanced on their surfaces as if they were solid platforms.
The zero gravity no longer affected him.
As he took each step, he seemed like an elegant butcher walking toward the slaughter of a rowdy lamb.
The rebellious young girl from before shouted at the top of her lungs,
"THAT'S IT! THAT'S WHAT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR! SHOW HIM WHAT YOU GOT, BIG BROTHER! SHOW HIM WHY YOU HAVE THAT NAME! SHOW HIM WHY IT'S SO RENOWNED! SHOW HIM THE TRUE POWER
OF
MY BIG BROTHER,
'TECHXIN BLOODHEART!'"
Tengen chuckled mockingly, though his expression was serious.
"Yeah. Show me, BloodHeart."
With a mighty roar, he grabbed the last two remaining fire swords.
They burned his hands, but his grip didn't loosen a bit.
He then charged Techxin head-on.
His blades swung in deadly arcs, ready to end this.
His growing red star flashed a white-blue light as it turned blue and increased the force of his attack and momentum, sending him forward at a nearly unperceivable speed.
Techxin didn't move, nor react with any emotion.
With a single, effortless swing of his blood axe, he slashed in Tengen's general direction.
And in an instant, over a thousand slashes appeared across Tengen's body.
Blood poured from his wounds, his body trembling from the sheer force of the attack.
But Tengen didn't fall.
He forced himself forward as the momentum carried him onward.
His slow-growing blue star flashed a whitish-red light as it turned red, increasing the power of the celestial swords.
As he swung his swords for one last mighty slash.
It was a great and powerful slash, so great that everything in its path was either reduced to dust or burned into ash.
But despite
the greatness of the slash, it was fruitless, as it inevitably did not land
or meet its target.
It simply passed through him,
only tossing around his beautiful pink hair.
Techxin was expressionless as he raised his axe to Tengen's head.
A single slash.
A slash so great that it made Tengen's pale in comparison, cutting through him like butter.
And unlike Tengen's slash,
it met its mark.
The next moment, Tengen's head flew from his body.
No blood spilled.
Silence.
Techxin's red eyes never left where Tengen's head
once was.
As his red eyes pierced through the darkness,
Techxin said,
"I told you, I might have to kill you."
"FIVE MINUTES UP!" the King announced
The crowd stood in stunned silence. The battlefield was quiet and stagnant.
The King and Techxin looked at Tengen's head with a hint of suspicion.
And as Tengen's head flew down and locked eyes with Techxin,
a manic grin was plastered across the severed face.
It was a grin that suggested he was already the victor.
Techxin turned his head to the side to see Tengen's monstrous body throwing a left hook.
Techxin easily weaved out of the way.
In what seemed like a desperate last-ditch attack, Tengen's arm swung at Techxin.
Techxin easily weaved that attack as well.
But at the last second, Tengen's arm suddenly straightened with surprising strength.
"Take it from here, Dune. Make Papa proud. What am I kidding? No matter what you do, you've already made me prouder than everyone else in my life, especially among my squadron. So just do your best and go crazy."
Those were Tengen's last thoughts before he died.
Red stars appeared in Tengen's right arm.
But instead of being thrown,
these stars were pushed into the growing red star which, by now, had stopped growing.
The once insignificant small star had now grown completely into a giant, glorious
sun.
It should have taken minutes, but the fact that Tengen constantly switched to red shortened the time significantly,
making it possible for the sun to fully grow right on time.
Techxin didn't even bat an eye.
He merely raised his blood axe
and slashed.
But as he did, over ten giant suns were created in the way, blocking his slash.
Each sun made a giant fiery explosion after being cut in half.
The arena was now covered in both blood and fire.
At this point, the arm holding the now fully grown red sun was on its last legs.
But as its final action, it slowly lowered the sun to where Techxin's head once was.
The sun then roared to life as if finally alive.
The third arm then wistfully fell off Tengen's monstrous body.
It was clear now to everybody that this fight wasn't going to last much longer.
Despite the grand display, that red sun wasn't going to last for much longer.
It seemed so clear to everybody in the audience but Tengen's stupid student.
He knew the red sun, Dune, was dishing out way more power than it had stored up while it was growing.
So it seemed ultimately obvious that this was meant to be Tengen's last-ditch attack.
This would be the deciding factor.
This was going to show whether Techxin was going down with him or standing tall above him.
Techxin's red eyes shined with a smirk that refused to appear on his expressionless face.
He then made a "come on" gesture with his hand, asking the red sun to give it all it had.
The red sun, Dune, flashed a bright red light in response.
Two red stars appeared where Dune's eyes would have been if he were human.
As thousands of suns appeared, they all rushed forward toward Techxin.
Right before they did, each of the blood geysers manifested giant blood hands.
They all rose into the air to block the attacks.
And as all the suns flew toward Techxin, they were immediately extinguished by the blood hands.
But the red sun, Dune, seeing this wasn't working, decided it was time for its final act, as its flames had withered down considerably.
The red sun, Dune, roared with flames as it flashed a blue-white light.
And
nothing happened.
Nothing changed.
Techxin looked around to see what the red sun had done, but it seemed as if it had done nothing at all.
Techxin took the time to look around as the suns were being extinguished.
Seeing that there was truly nothing, he knew something.
Techxin, being the great fighter that he was, knew that nothing happening after what seemed like an attack only meant three things:
The attack was a feint.
The attack was delayed.
The attack had already landed.
Techxin chose the latter as he decided to look at himself.
Which was when he saw the red target Tengen had placed on him near the beginning of the battle.
To make up for its lacking power, the red sun Dune used Tengen's leftover attacks.
The target star shined with a whitish-blue light, similar to how the red sun did when it started affecting gravity.
The target star turned blue.
Tengen's stardust started to get forcibly sucked toward it, while larger and larger bits and pieces of the broken arena's debris began flying toward Techxin.
The debris crashed straight through the blood hands and rushed toward him.
Techxin raised his axe as the pieces of debris were slashed down into dust.
But the red sun Dune didn't care that the debris didn't do damage.
It only cared that Techxin was distracted.
And seeing that he was indeed distracted due to the sheer number of broken debris pieces flying toward him,
the red sun Dune shined bright.
Then brighter.
And brighter.
And brighter.
With glee and power.
As not only did thousands of red suns appear,
but billions of small stars appeared as well.
So many, in fact, that they filled the entire arena.
All the stars and suns then started to get sucked toward Techxin.
Even though the majority were extinguished by the blood hands, some stars and suns managed to get through.
Some went through the holes the giant debris made when they crashed through the blood hands.
Some evaded the blood hands completely.
Most got through by pure luck as they slipped past unnoticed.
But no matter how they got to Techxin, the result was the same.
Techxin either slashed them into two halves and deflected them toward other stars or suns,
or they were rarely deflected into incoming debris.
But Techxin would turn the debris into dust before it had the chance to hit him.
The red sun Dune then flashed its weakening light as it summoned a spectator of the battle.
It summoned a great celestial being that had been waiting,
forgotten on the sidelines for far too long.
The red sun Dune summoned and called upon
the Red Universe.
The Red Universe flashed with a brilliant light as it heeded the red sun's call.
The Red Universe then orbited around the red sun Dune, creating a ring around it—
the equivalent of a king's crown to celestial bodies alike.
The red sun Dune then launched itself at Techxin.
As the first star of the Red Universe hit a blood hand,
like a chain reaction, a rippling wave spread through the formation.
Each one of the red stars shined a brilliant light.
Each star shined a blue-white light, a red-white light, a purple-white light, and finally a radiant, pure white light.
As they all shined with the true uniqueness, brilliance, and cosmic beauty of a radiant universe.
The star touching the blood hand started to thermally disintegrate the blood as the universe pushed through it.
Another blood hand tried to stop the universe.
The same thing happened.
It disintegrated.
Realizing this, Techxin made the blood move out of the way as he prepared to take the full brunt of the attack.
As soon as the universe got in range,
Techxin kicked it.
Stopping it dead in its tracks.
His boot rested upon the stars unharmed.
His body started steaming from the heat of the universe alone.
Techxin was unbothered as he simply raised his axe.
At an inconceivable speed, he slashed apart and deflected all the stars into the debris and suns that managed to pass through the blood hands.
At the speed Techxin was doing this, it seemed almost like a lawn mower casually cutting down grass.
But right before Techxin could get halfway through the universe,
all the stars shined with a blinding light.
Especially the red sun Dune.
As they all
shined
in a great wave of light,
they exploded
into a magnificent symphony of supernovas.
It was a beautiful sight.
It was the first time in Tengen's stupid student's life that he had seen a universe of supernovas.
Techxin saw that the universe of supernovas would be quite the trouble to deal with.
So he decided to take the full brunt of it.
Then all six blood hands slammed into the ground beneath Techxin as a giant blood geyser exploded upward around him.
It formed a giant boar head with jagged teeth and crazed, wild, untamed eyes that glowed with the same eerie light as Techxin's.
The giant boar's teeth clamped down,
encircling him and the universe within its blood-soaked, jagged-tusked cage.
Bright light shot out of the boar's mouth, eyes, and tusks as its blood visibly disintegrated.
Its head shook violently.
Steam burst from its nostrils and covered the battlefield fogged.
The six blood hands surrounding the giant blood geyser then dissolved back into blood geysers.
They rained blood down across the battlefield.
As the blood rain fell,
it transformed into miscellaneous weapons that destroyed all the debris still being sucked in by the blue star on Techxin's chest.
Seconds passed like eternities.
The moment of truth was sealed behind the jagged jaws of the boar.
And after a few breaths,
all the blood geysers stopped shooting blood.
The blood boar collapsed to the battlefield below, becoming nothing more than blood rain.
Revealing the steaming and smoking silhouette of
Techxin.
His red eyes stared indifferently at Tengen's body.
The King, realizing this was the true end, raised his hand, his voice echoing through the arena.
"THE WINNER IS TECHXIN BLOODHEART!!!"