Right when Louis, Saitama, and Genos left Saitama's house and started walking out of the city, everything looked calm…
But Genos didn't feel that way.
As they walked through the empty streets on the edge of Z-City, Genos spoke in a low voice, glancing around:
"Someone is following us."
' Huh? Did the Association send someone to track my movements? Or did the Monster Association send someone after me?' Louis thought.
If Genos wasn't there, Louis might not have noticed the tail so quickly.
But as " Emperor", he could not show any worry. He had to act like everything was under control.
He smiled lightly and said calmly:
"I know. Leave them. No need to worry about them."
Inside, as he glanced at Saitama, he added:
' We have the strongest person in the world with us. Why should I be worried?'
But Genos understood his words in a completely different way.
' As expected… Emperor already knows everything.'
' Even the people following us can't escape his eyes…'
*** *** ***
After walking for some time, they finally left the city behind.
Outside the outskirts of Z-City, there was a wide deserted area.
Mountains surrounded the place from almost every side. No buildings, no main roads, no people.
The three of them stopped at an open rocky field.
"Here."
Genos took a step forward and said seriously:
"I scanned the area. We are now 30 kilometers away from the city and 10 kilometers from the nearest village. Doing the challenge here will not affect any civilians."
Of course, Genos had already considered Saitama's power and the massive destruction even one punch could cause.
Even so, he still felt worried that things might get out of control.
Louis looked around quickly, then said:
"Good. This place is fine."
After Louis gave his approval, Genos moved back to a safe distance.
He then activated the recording systems in his eyes to save every moment of this fight.
In the middle of the field, Louis and Saitama stood facing each other, less than one meter apart.
Louis looked at Saitama with a calm smile:
"So, Saitama… show me what you can do."
Saitama stared at him for a moment and thought:
' Will a normal punch be enough…?'
Louis waved his hand and spoke in a half-serious tone, already guessing what Saitama was thinking:
"Saitama, don't hold back. Why do you think they gave me the title of the strongest in the world? If you don't get serious, don't blame me later if I don't give that recommendation for your promotion. In fact, as an S-class hero, I can also ask them to cancel your hero license and stop you from taking any future tests."
Saitama was a bit surprised by that.
But when he heard that this man could actually have his hero license taken away, something inside him became serious.
This was the first time in a while he felt a little… awake from his boredom.
"Alright then…"
His usually lazy face gained a hint of seriousness.
Louis smiled when he saw this change and said quietly:
" Let's begin."
As soon as he finished speaking, he casually moved his left hand as if he was just adjusting his stance.
At the same time, he secretly summoned the Power Stone from the system's storage and gripped it tightly, making sure no one could see that something was in his hand.
After a few seconds, a faint purple aura started leaking from his fist and spreading across his entire body.
From far away, it looked like his body was covered by a thin purple energy armor.
Saitama, who had been watching without much interest, tightened his fist a little.
*** *** ***
In the field, Saitama slowly raised his fist, then took a step forward.
Louis focused all his attention on his opponent's movements.
Inside, he was muttering:
' Alright… it's time to test what I discovered in these last two years.'
He raised his right hand in front of him as if preparing to block the punch—but the truth was much more complex.
Two years of experimenting with his teleportation skill had shown him something important:
He wasn't limited to moving just his own body or physical objects.
He could, in a certain way, move the force of an enemy's attack to another place.
Not the matter… but the impact.
However, this ability was unstable, and he had never tried it in a real fight before.
If this wasn't just a friendly "challenge", but a real fight to the death, he would never dare to gamble like this in front of Saitama.
' If I fail now… the strongest man on Earth will be torn to pieces by a beginner C-class hero.
What a stupid way to die… but still, this is necessary if I ever want to beat someone with such broken power.'
He also needed the Power Stone to boost his reaction speed and protect his body from any side damage if his gamble failed.
At the exact moment Saitama's fist cut through the air toward him, Louis focused all his mental energy on the teleportation skill—but this time, he didn't target his own body.
He targeted the contact point where Saitama's fist would meet his right palm.
The instant Saitama's fist touched Louis' open hand—
He activated the ability.
BOOOOM!!
Rumble!!
In that same instant, the power of Saitama's punch was teleported to the safest place Louis could think of…
The sky.
From the outside, the scene looked like this:
Louis stood in place, his right hand raised, meeting Saitama's punch directly.
Saitama's fist hit his palm—
But instead of Louis being blown away or his arm being destroyed, most of the punch's force simply vanished from that spot and reappeared high above, in the sky.
Even so, Saitama's power was not something that could be fully "controlled".
The side effects alone… were terrifying.
Everything behind Louis—ground, rocks, and the tall mountain in the distance—was crushed and turned to dust in a moment.
The ground on both sides of them cracked and burst apart like a silent nuclear explosion without light.
As for Louis…
He stood in a small, mostly intact circle in the center of the destruction, as if the punch had carefully avoided him.
Almost all the remaining force went upward into the sky and toward the mountain behind him.
In the sky…
A deep, rolling thunder echoed, tearing through the air even though the weather was perfectly sunny.
Any small cloud that was floating in the distance… vanished without a trace.
It was like someone had erased the sky itself.
Quickly, before the six seconds limit was over, Louis returned the Power Stone to the system storage.
He felt some heaviness in his body and mind, but it was still within what he could endure.
I did it…!
Man… that was way too close.
The cooldown for using the Power Stone started, so he had to wait before using it again.
For now, he stayed calm and prepared for his next move.
*** *** ***
As the dust slowly cleared… the scene became clear.
Shattered ground.
Crushed rocks.
A whole mountain gone.
And in the middle of it all—
Louis was standing, his right hand still slightly raised.
Saitama's arm was dropping back down slowly, his expression holding a bit of seriousness, as if he hadn't fully expected this result.
From a distance, Genos had recorded everything—then he froze.
His mechanical eyes widened to their limit.
Analysis systems inside his body started flashing wildly.
"The power that Sensei just showed…
It's stronger than last time…
And Emperor managed to stop it without taking any visible damage…?"
"Master Saitama…
And the Emperor who blocked him…"
He couldn't find words to explain this impossible combination.
In the sky, behind a psychic barrier she had put up right after seeing the explosion, Tatsumaki stared at the scene with her mouth half open.
She watched the tall mountain in the distance crumble into dust in a heartbeat.
She had seen cities destroyed by Dragon-level monsters before…
But this was different.
' That one punch… from that bald man…?
And that guy… the Emperor… what did he do exactly? Did he block that punch? Did he absorb the impact…?'
Her mind refused to accept what her eyes were telling her.
She, who had always believed her power was almost unmatched, found herself—maybe for the first time in a long while—unable to clearly judge the level of these two.
As for Golden Sun, he had completely lost the ability to think clearly for several seconds.
His eyes followed the lines of destruction, the missing mountain, and then the sound of thunder still echoing faintly in the sky.
'This…
This isn't player power…
It's not S-rank power…
It's not even Dragon-level…
What the hell is this…?'
Sweat began to run down his face, even though the air was cool.
Just moments ago, he had been planning to defeat Genos, join the Monster side, and make Tatsumaki regret rejecting him…
Now, all those plans looked like a bad joke.
' Am I… just an insect in this world?
If this is just "one punch" from a C-class hero… and the Emperor can handle it like this…
Then where does my power stand…?'
On the battlefield, silence ruled after the explosion.
Louis took a deep breath, then slowly lowered his hand, doing his best to keep his balance and calm expression.
He turned to Saitama with a light smile and said:
"Well… I can say the report about your strength was not exaggerated."
Inside his mind, however, one thought spun in circles without stopping:
*If this was just one punch… what could he do if he got serious for real?*