Chapter 59: God Speed V2
The instant their eyes met...
There was no need for words.
Daito understood Monday.
Monday understood Daito.
Hours of fighting together had long surpassed verbal communication. Their instincts synchronized naturally, allowing them to read one another's intentions before either of them had fully committed to a movement.
One heartbeat.
That was all it took.
Then—
Fwoo...
They vanished.
BOOOOOM!!
The district erupted beneath their acceleration.
Twin shockwaves raced across the city as gold and blue streaks split apart before curving inward from opposite directions.
A pincer attack.
Perfectly timed, perfectly calculated.
Daito approached from above.
His fist gleamed beneath the fractured sunlight, its edges humming with the lingering power of Aerin's ritual. Every calculation raced through his enhanced mind.
Distance, wind resistance, and Cassian's posture.
The tension in his shoulders, and the angle of his feet.
He had only one chance.
At the same moment—
BZZZTLE!
Monday burst upward from beneath the shattered streets, lightning exploding around him like a volcanic eruption.
KRAAAAAK-KOOOOOM!!
Blue bolts spiraled behind him, tearing open the asphalt as he rocketed skyward with enough force to pulverize an entire block.
Cassian stood between them.
Motionless, relaxed and smiling.
"...Good."
For the first time since the battle had begun...He moved first.
One step.
That was all.
Yet that single step transformed into something impossible.
The world fractured around him. Not because he had become faster. Because his movement...Multiplied.
One motion became ten, then ten became one hundred, then one hundred became one thousand.
To Daito and Monday, Cassian did not split into copies.
Instead...
His single action occupied countless positions at once.
The battlefield became a storm of overlapping possibilities.
Every angle, every direction and every opening.
Closed simultaneously.
Daito's punch descended.
Cassian's multiplied arm intercepted it.
Once.
Twice.
A hundred times, then a thousand.
KRRRRRRAAAANG!!
The blows screamed as countless invisible impacts hammered against its edge before Daito could even finish a single swing.
At the same instant—
KA-POW!
Monday's fist reached Cassian's blind spot or what should have been his blind spot.
Cassian's shoulder shifted.
Then shifted again.
And again.
One movement expanded into an endless sequence of perfectly layered reactions.
Monday's punch struck...
Nothing.
His momentum was redirected before he even realized contact had been made.
The force of his own attack folded back into him.
His body twisted violently.
"...What?!"
Then came the counterattack.
Cassian swung once, only once and to everyone else...That was all.
But to Daito's enhanced perception...the punch never ended.
It multiplied endlessly.
One fist became dozens then dozens became hundreds.
Hundreds became a relentless barrage erupting from every conceivable angle.
Not illusions, not even afterimages.
The same action...Repeated beyond reason.
BOOM!!
BOOM!!
BOOM!!
The impacts arrived faster than thought itself.
Daito blocked one but another slipped through.
Monday evaded three, but seven more found him.
Every successful defense merely delayed the inevitable.
There were simply... Too many.
The city shook beneath the assault. Buildings collapsed in synchronized waves. Glass exploded from skyscrapers before shockwaves even reached them. Roads peeled upward like paper.
The sky trembled under an endless chain of detonations.
KABOOOOOOOOOM!!
Daito's body was hurled downward.
He smashed through the roof of a hospital before tearing through every floor beneath it. Concrete collapsed around him in a deafening roar.
At nearly the same moment—
CRASSHHH!
Monday crashed into the side of a suspension bridge.
Steel cables snapped instantly. The bridge folded inward before collapsing into the river below. Water erupted hundreds of meters into the air.
For a brief moment...Silence.
Dust drifted through the ruined streets.
The city groaned beneath unbearable damage.
Then Cassian landed gracefully upon the remains of a shattered clock tower.
Not a scratch marked his body.
His breathing remained calm, measured and almost peaceful.
He looked toward the smoke rising from opposite ends of Gregor Naught.
"...You two..."
He stepped forward.
CRRRRRRKKK...
The stone beneath his foot shattered into powder.
"...are fast."
Another step.
The surrounding air distorted.
Hairline fractures spread through air itself.
"...Very fast."
His eyes reflected neither arrogance nor hatred.
Only disappointment.
"But speed..."
A faint smile returned.
"...means nothing..."
He looked toward Daito emerging from the collapsing ruins.
"...if you don't understand it."
Daito staggered forward, forcing himself upright with the Traditional Blade.
Every muscle screamed.
His vision blurred momentarily before the ritual's enhancement forced his senses back into focus.
He's not faster...The thought echoed through his mind.
He's moving once and only once.
Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Then why can't I stop him?
Across the district—
Bzztle.....
Monday climbed from twisted steel and broken concrete.
Electricity flickered violently around his body.
Not with controlled precision but with instability.
The blue arcs sputtered erratically, bursting outward before collapsing back against his skin.
"...Damn..."
He clenched his fist.
The lightning answered weakly.
"...Even this speed..."
His breathing grew heavier.
"...isn't enough."
Both of them had crossed into territory no ordinary Savage could survive.
Their nervous systems operated beyond natural limits. Their muscles contracted faster than biology should allow. Their minds processed information at impossible speeds.
Yet every additional burst of acceleration threatened to tear their own bodies apart.
Meanwhile Cassian looked as comfortable as though he were taking an evening stroll.
The difference was terrifying.
To him...They were merely keeping him entertained nothing more.
Daito lowered his head, his thoughts accelerated, calculations overlapped and possibilities formed.
They collapsed and reformed.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Every strategy ended the same way.
Failure.
There had to be something.
A flaw, a weakness or some hidden limit inside "Give or Take."
There had to be.
Cassian disappeared.
FWOOSH!
No warning nor buildup.
One instant he stood atop the clock tower.
The next—
SOOM!
He was directly in front of Daito.
Daito's eyes widened.
Too close Cassian's hand wrapped around his face.
Firm and effortless.
"...You're thinking too slowly."
Then—
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
He drove Daito into the earth.
The city exploded beneath them.
The impact multiplied before the first collision even finished.
Once, ten times, a hundred, a thousand.
The ground continuously shattered under Daito's body as though he were being slammed into the planet over and over without pause.
The crater widened, deepened, collapsed, and expanded again.
The earth itself seemed incapable of surviving the repeated force.
Far above—
BZTLE!
Monday roared.
Blue lightning engulfed the heavens.
He descended like a thunderbolt aimed directly at Cassian's back.
Cassian never looked.
He casually swung his arm behind him.
A simple backhand.
Nothing more.
THOOOOOOOOOM!!
Monday vanished into the horizon.
His body became a blue comet streaking across the sky before disappearing beyond the buildings surrounding Gregor Naught.
Silence returned.
The dust slowly settled.
At the bottom of the crater...Daito lay motionless.
Blood covered his face. His vision faded in and out. His body refused to obey him. Every bone ached. Every breath burned.
Yet inside his mind...Everything continued moving.
Faster.
Faster.
Faster.
Think.
Again.
Again.
Again.
He's not stronger. He's not faster.
So why...?
Somewhere beneath the overwhelming pain...
A tiny thought surfaced, a single inconsistency.
Small almost invisible.
He reached toward it but before he could grasp it—
WHOOM!
A surge of power erupted far above Gregor Naught.
Daito's eyes slowly lifted.
The sky had changed.
Monday floated high above the shattered city.
Completely still.
For the first time since the battle began...
He wasn't running. He wasn't attacking. He wasn't moving at all. Blue lightning crawled across his body.
BZZTLE!
Not wildly nor violently but smoothly.
Every arc followed perfect pathways along his muscles.
His breathing slowed. His heartbeat stabilized.
The unstable electricity condensed into a brilliant azure aura that wrapped around him like flowing water.
WHOOOSH!
The atmosphere bent around his presence. Clouds spiraled inward. The wind ceased, and even the falling debris seemed reluctant to approach him.
Monday slowly opened his eyes.
They burned with an electric blue light.
"...Alright..."
His voice echoed across the heavens.
Not through sound but through presence alone.
"...Let's stop playing."
The sky answered.
KRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAK!!
Lightning descended from the heavens in dozens of colossal pillars, surrounding him in a cathedral of blue fire.
The pressure spread across Gregor Naught like an approaching storm.
Then Monday quietly spoke the words that made even Cassian's smile grow wider.
"...Speed God..."
A pause.
Blue light engulfed his body completely.
BZZZTLE!
The city disappeared beneath its brilliance.
Then—
"...Version Two."
To Be Continued...