At first, the whole area went quiet.
The dust cloud was still slowly fading, and the air was full of the shock from the first clash.
Louis lowered his hand calmly, while his heart was slowly calming down after his risky move.
Saitama was still standing in the same spot, his head tilted slightly, his eyes looking at his right hand as if trying to understand what just happened.
"That was… different." he thought.
He didn't know how the Emperor blocked that punch.
He didn't understand what that purple aura was, or how most of his punch's power suddenly disappeared.
But he understood one thing:
The person in front of him… was strong.
Strong in a way he hadn't felt in a long time.
Not like any monster, not like any enemy he had faced before.
Slowly, Saitama's usual bored expression changed.
A small spark of excitement appeared in his eyes.
He raised his head and stared at Louis, and something inside him started to wake up from a long sleep:
"Finally… a different opponent!!"
From far away, Genos was still stuck in shock, trying to analyze everything.
Tatsumaki was whispering to herself, and Golden Sun couldn't even swallow properly.
In front of them, only two people were moving:
Emperor… and the bald hero from Class C.
Louis felt a small change in Saitama's aura.
He smiled to himself.
' Hooh… looks like he's going to get more serious now.'
One minute passed quickly. The cooldown time of the Power Stone was almost over.
Louis felt the heavy tiredness in his body and mind slowly getting lighter.
' Good… just a bit more, then I can use the Power Stone again.'
He knew very well that Saitama's power was mainly offensive.
If he let Saitama attack freely all the time, things could go out of control.
If he wanted to keep his image as "the strongest man on Earth," he had to show his own attack power, not just defense.
He closed his eyes for one second, took a deep breath, then opened them with a sharp look. "It's my turn now."
"If what we saw was only the beginning… what will come next?" That was what all the watchers were thinking.
*** *** ***
On the ground, in the middle of the battlefield, Louis finally moved.
He raised his left hand a little, and in his heart he called out the Power Stone from the system storage.
In the next moment, the stone appeared in his grip, hidden from sight as before.
The purple aura began to leak out from between his fingers again.
But this time… he didn't want to defend.
This time… it was time to attack.
One of the secrets of the Power Stone, which he discovered over the last two years, was simple:
The longer he held it…
The more power he could release in a single hit.
But since the maximum time he could use it was six seconds, playing near the limit was very dangerous.
' Five seconds… that's enough.'
'One second as safety… then I return it to the storage right away.'
He tightened his grip on the stone and started counting inside:
One…
Two…
Three…
Four…
Five…
In those five short seconds, the pressure of power inside his body rose sharply.
Cold sweat appeared on his forehead, not from fear… but from the intense focus needed to control the power and not pass the limit.
In the last second, he opened his eyes fully—
and to the watchers, his body almost vanished from where he stood.
Saitama didn't move.
He didn't even take a true defensive stance. He just stood there, almost casually, watching Louis move.
But at the moment Louis appeared in front of him, he felt a direct attack he couldn't ignore.
In a fraction of a second, Louis was now very close to Saitama, his right arm pulled back.
His fist was tight.
The purple aura completely covered his arm.
Without saying a word…
Louis threw a straight punch toward Saitama's stomach.
A focused, fast hit, from almost zero distance.
And in the same instant his fist moved, he sent the Power Stone back into the system storage, in less than a second—before reaching the six-second limit.
Then—
DOOOOOOM!!!
The sound of the explosion this time was different.
Saitama's body, which took the punch directly to the stomach, did not break, and he did not bleed…
But he flew.
In one instant, he turned into a small yellow streak, shot through the air at incredible speed.
His body flew for several kilometers, passing over earth and rocks, before crashing into a line of mountains far away.
The mountains… did not endure it.
Stone layers exploded, peaks shattered, huge rock masses collapsed with Saitama in the middle of them.
Rock explosions followed one after another, wave after wave, until it looked like the land itself was being dug up and reshaped by force.
The ground shook under Louis' and Genos' feet.
From a distance, Tatsumaki raised her hand in front of her face to block the strong wind.
Her eyes widened sharply:
' Was that Emperor's power? …That… was not just a normal punch.'
She could feel how much power came out of Louis' fist.
It didn't reach the level of Saitama's previous punch…
But it was refined, controlled, and close enough to make her heart beat faster.
"This Emperor… he's not just a show-off with an empty title."
Next to her, Golden Sun had completely lost control of his facial expression.
Down below, Genos was staring toward the distant mountains that were still collapsing.
The analysis systems in his body could no longer give a logical report.
" That punch from Emperor…
Energy level… path… impact…"
Even his inner voice seemed to be breaking.
"He made Master retreat for several kilometers…"
A small sigh inside him led to a thought:
"Looks like Master isn't the only one with broken power!!"
Heavy seconds passed.
The dust on the horizon slowly began to settle.
The broken cliffs stopped falling.
The land slowly returned to a twisted, ruined calm.
But in the middle of this silence…
There was no movement.
Golden Sun, who was chasing dreams of glory not long ago, felt a strange, unreal thought:
'Could it be… that he's really finished?'
'Did even that bald guy fail to endure the Emperor's punch? '
Louis himself stood firmly, saying nothing.
But he was counting time inside.
One second…
Two…
Three…
Then suddenly—
DOOM!!
A single heavy impact sound, this time from the sky.
Everyone lifted their heads at the same moment.
From the highest point in the distance, a small shadow appeared…
Then it grew… and grew… and grew…
Until it was completely clear:
A bald man in a yellow suit and white cape.
With just one jump from where he had crashed into the mountains…
Saitama returned from the sky, landing almost in the exact same spot where he had been standing before.
He lifted his head and looked straight at Louis.
His face was almost expressionless as usual…
But in his eyes, something clear was burning this time:
Excitement.
"Ooooh… that punch was… not bad at all," Saitama said in a slightly interested tone.
At that moment, everyone watching understood that things had officially gone beyond anything that could be called a "simple challenge."
This was no longer just a fight between a Class C hero and an S-Class hero…
It was a clash between powers that had already stepped outside the normal limits of this world.