On the red sands of Mars, Elric stood alone beneath a copper-tinted sky.
Mars was silent. No wind, no life, nothing to get in the way. The planet stretched endlessly in all directions—crimson dunes and ancient craters as far as he could see. Perfect. Here, there'd be no collateral damage. No people to worry about. No heroes showing up to ask questions. Just him and empty space.
He clenched his fist.
The atmosphere suddenly felt heavier, like the planet itself was holding its breath. Elric gathered chakra through his body, channeling it toward his left eye. The sensation was familiar now—like liquid energy flowing through his veins, building up, getting ready to make the impossible happen.
A strange warmth pulsed through his skull.
Elric exhaled slowly, his breath misting in the cold air.
"Daikokuten."
Snap.
The mountain in front of him shrank instantly—reduced to a pebble that clinked onto the ground at his feet. The air rippled with distortion, like heat shimmer without the heat. One moment, a mountain. The next, a stone no bigger than a marble resting on red sand.
He pushed his palm downward.
The pebble shot back up, expanding faster than his eyes could track. In seconds, the massive thing hovered overhead again—its weight making the ground beneath him crack. The red planet trembled. Dust rose in spiraling columns. The ground buckled under the sheer mass of the conjured object.
He let it fall.
BOOM.
A massive shockwave erupted, sending a huge plume of dust into space. The impact crater was enormous—miles wide, deeper than any canyon on Earth. Chunks of rock the size of buildings flew upward from the force, gravity temporarily forgotten.
Elric floated through the debris field, his eyes glowing with the black-and-gold pattern of Sukunahikona.
The dojutsu gave him control over scale—the ability to shrink or enlarge any non-living matter he focused on. A single glance made a boulder shrink to a grain of sand. With a snap of his fingers, it grew large enough to block out the horizon, casting a shadow over the devastated landscape.
He took a slow breath and placed his foot forward.
The moment it touched the surface, Mars buckled. Rings of force rolled outward like waves, radiating from the point of contact. The shockwave traveled for miles, flattening dunes and shattering rock formations that had stood for billions of years. The planet groaned—a deep, resonating sound that shouldn't be possible.
He stared at his hands. They were shaking slightly.
Not with fear. With excitement.
The tremor was pure anticipation, the physical sign of barely restrained power. Every cell in his body hummed with energy, with the knowledge that he'd transcended normal human limits.
He raised his gaze toward the distant blue planet floating in the void—that fragile marble of oceans and continents, billions of lives going about their day with no idea someone like him existed.
Now... time to test raw strength.
Elric cracked his knuckles, each pop echoing across the silent plains. Dust lifted from the ground as if responding to his presence, particles rising against the weak Martian gravity. He could feel his muscles coiling, dense with power that had nothing to do with their actual size.
He crouched low.
One punch.
He drove his fist straight into the Martian crust.
The ground didn't break—it evaporated. A crater bloomed outward like the petals of a massive flower, the impact so violent that rock simply ceased to exist in solid form. The shockwave traveled through the planet's crust like ripples on water. Mountains on the horizon shook and avalanched, unable to withstand the aftershock.
He launched upward.
The thin atmosphere shredded behind him, leaving a spiraling sonic boom of red dust. He shot toward a floating chunk of rock—an asteroid caught between Mars and its moon, Phobos. It was easily the size of a skyscraper, tumbling slowly through space.
He pulled his arm back.
And punched.
CRACK—KCHOOM!
The asteroid disintegrated into a glittering storm of debris, scattering into orbit like thrown diamonds. Fragments of ancient stone became nothing more than sparkles against the black void. The destruction was complete.
He landed on Phobos with a thunderclap.
The tiny moon trembled at the impact, its entire mass resonating from his arrival. Beneath his feet, the surface dented, bowing inward under the pressure. Cracks radiated outward in geometric patterns, spreading across kilometers of ancient cratered landscape.
His eyes narrowed.
"...Still not enough."
He wrapped his arms around the moon's crust—his fingers sinking into solid stone like it was wet sand. The material yielded to his grip, compressing and deforming. With a grunt, he lifted.
Phobos shook.
Groaned.
Ripped free of its orbit.
He was holding a moon. An entire celestial body with a mass of approximately 10.6 billion metric tons, and his muscles barely strained. The weight that should have been incomprehensible registered as simply... present. Heavy, sure, but manageable.
Elric smirked.
"This strength... it's really unimaginable."
With a flick of his arms—just a flick—he sent the moon spinning away. It careened through space, leaving a glittering trail of debris before crashing into the Martian surface with an apocalyptic explosion of dust. The impact was massive. Visible from space. A new scar on an already scarred world.
When the shockwave settled, he stood in the middle of the destruction, completely unbothered.
Dust settled on his shoulders but didn't diminish his presence. He inhaled deeply, drawing in the thin Martian air. His gaze lifted once more, fixing on that distant blue planet.