"Dead pervert."
Ryuuto didn't shout it. He just muttered it with that flat, unimpressed tone that somehow burned worse than any insult, and then he blurred forward, charging straight at the old devil without hesitation.
Thor and Quicksilver tensed up like overeager gamblers watching someone else's money hit the table. If Mephistopheles could crush this kid, their problems would evaporate with him.
The devil stretched lazily, digging a finger in his ear as if dusting off centuries of boredom. Even Thor edged away from him, a god of thunder instinctively avoiding whatever cosmic nightmare Mephisto counted as personal space.
"Young man," Mephistopheles drawled, pupils glowing like dying stars, "no one has dared provoke me in… well… longer than you've been alive."
His grin widened, sharp enough to bleed shadows.
"But before I bother lifting a finger… let him deal with you. Blackheart. Go."
A cold voice echoed from nowhere.
"Yes."
A monstrous silhouette peeled itself out of the darkness like a bad omen and pounced straight at Ryuuto.
Ryuuto vanished, reappearing with a spinning kick like a collapsing cyclone.
Leaf Great Whirlwind.
The impact cracked the air. Blackheart's claws caught nothing but a blur, and his stomach folded around Ryuuto's heel.
"You're strong!" Blackheart snarled, unfazed. "But I'll still tear you apart."
"Bold words from a guy who looks like a discount Halloween prop," Ryuuto said, smirking behind his sand armor. "Respect, though. Takes guts to be that ugly in public."
Blackheart roared and slammed a massive tail across the ground, whipping up a vortex of dust as he lunged.
Ryuuto casually hooked a finger at him. "Come on, try biting me. I dare you."
Lightning flared.
Lightning Style. Raikiri.
Thunder gathered in Ryuuto's palm, a blinding beam piercing toward Blackheart's chest. The Mutants watching squealed, scrambling away to avoid being anywhere near the fallout.
Hovering above them, Morpheus floated with eerie patience, while Thor bit down his instinct to intervene and forced himself to watch.
"Thunder won't hurt me!" Blackheart roared. His claws clamped down on Ryuuto's wrist with brutal force, trying to drag the lightning away from his heart.
"Who said I was trying to fry you?" Ryuuto's grin sharpened. "Look at me properly."
Blackheart locked eyes with him.
And froze.
Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Oh no—"
Too late.
Ryuuto's eyes spun like collapsing galaxies.
"Dream Lock."
The world snapped shut around Blackheart. He collapsed into an illusion so suffocating that even Mephistopheles paused.
"Tch."
Mephisto's snort cracked like thunder. The shockwave punched straight through Blackheart's mind, ripping him out of the genjutsu and leaving him bleeding from the mouth, trembling, barely upright.
Ryuuto rolled his shoulders. "You're awake? Good. Saves me the effort of shaking you."
Chakra compressed in his palms, spiraling into a roaring sphere.
Big Ball Rasengan.
He slammed forward, the attack howling as it crushed into Blackheart's skull.
Quicksilver turned pale. Even Morpheus flinched.
Blackheart screamed, trying desperately to catch the Rasengan with both claws—
—and one arm liquefied into pulp instantly.
"STOP—STOP—STOP—!!"
The forest shook with the sound of his agony.
Mephistopheles finally smiled. "Good. You're qualified for me to kill you personally."
His hands gathered a five-colored vortex of hellfire and annihilation, the kind of power that made reality flinch.
Ryuuto didn't back down.
"Move."
He kicked Blackheart's mangled body aside like a broken toy and hurled the Rasengan upward with all his strength, meeting Mephisto's attack head-on.
Thor and Quicksilver froze.
The collision detonated the sky.
A blinding aurora ripped open the world, a storm of color shredding the forest as if the apocalypse had shown up early. Trees vaporized. Ground buckled. A mushroom cloud blossomed like a cruel flower.
"Those two psychos are going to kill us all!" Quicksilver yelped before sprinting away so fast the wind called him a coward.
When the storm finally died, the earth had been scoured flat. Ash drifted where a forest used to be.
Only two figures remained standing.
Ryuuto.
And Mephistopheles.
Both dust-covered. Both unbroken. Both staring straight into the other's soul.
"You survived," Mephistopheles chuckled. "How wonderful."
Ryuuto wiped blood from his lip. His Mangekyō flared, burning hot and defiant.
"I'm not afraid of you."
A flame blacker than night surged in his vision.
Mangekyō Sharingan. Amaterasu.
But right before the flames reached him—
Mephistopheles vanished.
Instantly. Completely. Like he cut himself out of the world.
Ryuuto felt the temperature drop.
This fight had only just begun.