Conquest held her darkened sword at Sasaki's throat, or rather Death's throat. He had not yet transformed. He kept his eyes fixed on her, his posture showing no sign of fear, almost confident in his chances against her. Still, she held the upper hand in this moment, and she would not waste it.
Conquest swung her sword in a wide arc. The resulting wind cut through multiple trees, annihilating the vegetation completely and carving open a massive field. When the dust settled, there was nothing left but grass stretching for roughly seventy miles, the forest erased in a single stroke.
Conquest narrowed her eyes. Death now stood fully transformed in his original body, his skeletal head shaped like a plague doctor mask, his black robe formed from living ravens that writhed and shifted against one another, and his ruby pendant hung at the center of his chest.
Death raised his palm toward Conquest.
"Stop. There is no need to continue this pointless fight. We are not enemies. We stand on the same side, whether you wish to admit it or not."
Conquest could not help but laugh. She brought a hand to her mouth, trying to contain it, but it was useless. The sound slipped out anyway. Death watched her, confusion flickering through him as he summoned his dual scythes.
The reason for her laughter was simple. To her, this gesture of feigned surrender and the attempt to align with her by claiming common ground was nothing more than the instinct of a wounded lion, lowering its guard only to strike when its prey drew closer. It was Death's manipulation at work, laid bare and in full effect.
Conquest composed herself and let out a quiet sigh, a smile lingering on her face.
"You must take me for a fool, don't you?" she said. "We both know what you did four hundred and fifty years ago. This is nothing more than revenge."
In that same second, both Death and Conquest lifted their gaze to the sky as the sun began to rise. Yet neither of them was looking at the sun, but at something else entirely.
Conquest smiled.
"You feel it, don't you? All those eyes on us."
Death kept his composure, his expression unmoving beneath the skeletal visage.
"It seems everyone from the unseen realm is witnessing our battle."
While Death's attention drifted, Conquest snapped her fingers, drawing his focus back to her.
"Before I erase your very existence, answer me this. Why did you pit me and Azazel against one another? Was it all just so you could claim the mantle of Death?"
She found herself curious about his response, as it felt clear to her that taking the mantle of Death could not have been the only reason he had driven two Horsemen of the Apocalypse into fighting each other.
Death stood in silence for a long moment, then spoke.
"I live the way the Sovereign made me, as a demon, as the Sin of Greed, a mantle bestowed upon me without choice, and I move through existence according to that design."
He walked toward Conquest, his steps disintegrating the grass beneath him.
"Becoming Death was just a by-product of following my function as the Demon Sin of Greed. However, I would be lying if I did not admit that when I took both your ring and Azazel's ring, the choice between becoming Death or Conquest became easy once I understood this simple fact about Death."
Conquest answered before he could.
"True Immortality…"
"Exactly. Not even the Sovereign could eliminate the existence of the Horseman of Death. The best he could do was chain the previous Death within Purgatory, and even that lasted only four hundred and fifty years. With that in mind, my true immortality compared to yours and the other Horsemen leaves one simple truth. There is no way to defeat me."
Conquest wore a sly grin as she stood face to face with Death.
"However, you still feel pain like any other being, and to me that is more than enough. You will cry for it to stop, hoping the beating will end, but it will not. It will continue until every last bone in your skeletal body knows anguish and pain."
Death raised his hand toward Conquest's face as dark miasma poured from his palm, its disintegrating force manifesting inches from her. In response, a circular pale light bloomed across Conquest's face, eating away the dark miasma before it could touch her.
"Hmph. You still possess that same irritating ability to negate any and all projectiles directed at you."
Her sly grin remained as her sword came right up to his face.
"And you remain the same whining little Demon from back then, always making a fuss when things do not go your way."
***
Death rose into the sky as Riko and the others kept their eyes fixed on him. Sunlight struck his figure, illuminating him as he ascended. He took a long breath and looked down at Conquest, who remained on the ground. He knew her abilities, unchanged from before, aside from the Igarashi sword she had recently acquired.
One thing was certain. When he took Conquest's ring to bring her back, it was driven mostly by his greed to secure a powerful Horseman under his control, but there had been a second reason.
It was a way to defend himself after his rebellion against the Demon of Sin. The truth was simple. Even if true immortality ensured he would never die under any circumstance, he would still feel pain, and pain was the one thing he despised more than anything else.
Having someone else to take on that pain while he dealt with whoever dared challenge him had always been a valuable asset. However, this current Conquest carried a major flaw, one she did not yet recognize, at least not in this moment.
Conquest touched the black crown upon her head as it illuminated with a white glow. The earth began to shake, and even Riko, the cameraman, and her uncle stationed at the gate felt it. It was as if an earthquake had manifested.
No one could keep their footing under the sheer force of the tremors.
Then the severed trees from earlier began to rise and float into the air, followed by boulders and even sections of the mansion far from the battlefield, all lifting as they were drawn toward Conquest's position.
Moments later, Conquest levitated into the air and aimed her finger at Death. In that instant, all the debris suspended above, trees, boulders, shattered fencing, and torn fragments of earth, collided at once, slamming together around him and forming a massive compressed mass.
Conquest closed her hand in a crushing gesture, forcing the telekinetic pressure inward as she compressed everything she had hurled at him. She then drove the enormous sphere of debris straight into the ground, more boulders crashing into it from all sides, crushing Death into a single confined space with no room to escape.
Conquest, with a huge grin, yelled out.
"I'm not done!"
More boulders compressed together as she hurled them onto the mass she had already formed, causing the earth to shatter as a deep rupture split the ground open.
Once she ended her onslaught, the dust gradually settled across the area. Conquest's expression shifted, her face turning serious as she flew down toward the massive spherical mass she had formed to contain Death.
After assessing the area, Death disintegrated his confinement in under a second and stood upon the shattered ground, blood trickling from his lip.
"Pain… I hate it!"
Death surged toward Conquest at incredible speed, his scythe aimed straight for her head. Just as he was about to strike, Conquest raised the Igarashi Sword and blocked the blow. The clash unleashed a massive shockwave, sending the already sliced trees in the surrounding area blasting backward.
Both of them clashed their blades multiple times, each impact sending more splits tearing through the ground. Neither cared about the destruction they were causing. The thrill of the fight was clear on both of them, though it showed far more on Conquest, as Death's skeletal face betrayed nothing. Even so, his actions spoke louder than any expression ever could.
Conquest threw a kick that shattered Death's ribs, but within a few seconds they regenerated. She did not give him the chance to counterattack as she spoke.
"Let's see if you can handle this."
She brought her hands together as Death felt pressure close in around his body, a sensation he knew all too well. It was the feeling of being crushed by an invisible force. The ability of the Ruler of All, Conquest. Telekinesis paired with her passive power of projectile negation.
Death's bones cracked apart as he yelled in pain, his skeletal body and the ravens binding it collapsing inward, crushed into a dense ball made from his own shattered bones and feathers.
Conquest brought her hands together in a prayer-like gesture, then moved them up and down in a slow mincing motion. Death's skeletal form responded instantly, breaking down into dust, the ravens following as they were ground apart and erased alongside him.
***
She stared at Death's skeletal dust, fully aware that he would eventually return from nothing. Riko and the others teleported beside her as the cameraman raised his lens, focusing it on Conquest's face.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you have just witnessed an unbelievable battle, one where Death himself was defeated and crushed within his own skeletal body by none other than the self-proclaimed Ruler of All. With that being said, how about you tell us, and the viewers watching all across Japan, who you are?"
Self-proclaimed?! There was nothing self proclaimed about her title, but if she was honest with herself, she couldn't remember how she had gotten her title in the first place. Her memories were still not fully back. In any case, this disrespect would not be tolerated.
She took the mic from him and said.
"I am the fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, the youngest. I am known as the Horseman of Conquest. You may call me Conquest, or Ruler of All. If you refer to that title as self-proclaimed once more, you will lose the ability to speak. I suggest you do not test my patience."
She continued.
"The man, or rather the entity I have faced, is a true immortal, and our battle is far from over. I fear it may not end for a very long time. The earth itself cannot withstand much more punishment. However, I have no means to stop him permanently. What I am trying to say is this. I am not your savior, nor am I a hero. This battle will continue, and I see no way to en—"
Conquest's eyes and nose began to bleed as the microphone slipped from her hand and hit the ground.
What's happening to me? She thought.
She staggered. Riko lunged forward, grabbing Conquest by the shoulder before she could fall.
"Yuki, hey. Stay with me. What's happening to you?!"
Death stitched himself back together from the dust he had been reduced to, reforming into his human body. His black suit and tie settled neatly against his frame, his short black hair slicked back into place.
He brushed the remaining dust from his sleeves as he patted himself down, a sly grin spreading across his face.
"Well, that took longer than expected, but you finally reached your limit."
She watched him in her weakened state as she coughed up blood. Her eyes were completely bloodshot, her nose running freely with blood. Confusion spread across her face.