Marcus…
Of all the things he was expecting to deal with, and of all the people he was expecting to fight against at the end of this contest, Akio Takahashi was the one he wanted to encounter the least.
This man, likely the only person Marcus could ever claim to be his best friend, was now standing before him as a dead man.
Before he could think of something to say, Akio shouted, “Choetsu Shita-Tamashii (Transcendent Soul)!”
Marcus held his breath as he waited for him to announce the percentage of his soul that he intended to release, but to his surprise, Akio did not announce how much of his soul was released.
Instead, he felt Akio’s soul begin to gradually grow in size.
Unsure of what was about to happen next, Marcus said, “You say that you are going to beat some sense into me, but I still don’t understand what the problem is. What is it that you think I’m not understanding?”
Akio’s eyes narrowed as he replied, “I don’t think it will make any difference even if I were to spell it out to you. The only way you’ll ever understand is if I beat it into your thick skull.”
Marcus took in a deep breath, tightened his fists, and asked, “Do you really think its wise to fight me? From what I can sense, your soul is does not match up to mine. You won’t survive against me.”
In spite of that, he noticed that in the brief time they had exchanged words, Akio’s soul had not stopped growing in size.
Hearing that, Akio raised his head to look down on Marcus and laughed as he said, “Do not bother to worry for my sake. Worry about yourself, and the amount of broken bones I’m about to give you.”
“Tough talk for-,” Marcus tried to say, but to his shock, Akio’s fist slammed into his face faster than he could even perceive.
As he was sent flying back hundreds of feet, he was shocked to find that the impact from the blow wasn’t as great as he thought, but the speed of how it hit him didn’t make any sense.
Akio didn’t stop or speed up time, he didn’t teleport, he didn’t even warp the fabric of space to increase his speed in any way.
So how could he have moved that fast?
Marcus rubbed the side of his face and noticed that he had barely felt anything from the impact. There was no soreness or pain, nothing broken, yet he had been knocked back so easily.
Something about this isn’t making sense…
Marcus then met Akio’s eyes and tried to alter what he was seeing.
From what he could gather, it looked like it had worked as he didn’t try to resist and kept looking at the empty space from where he was before even after Marcus had moved away.
But then, just as Akio’s muscles began to twitch for just a moment, Marcus felt his fist slam into him once again.
What the fuck…?!
Just the same as before, he was knocked back hundreds of feet away, but this time, the punch felt far stronger than before.
As he got back on his feet, Akio looked around, puzzled as to how he ended up where he was, and then looked back at him with a shrug.
“How did you do that?!” Marcus asked him, absolutely flabbergasted as to how he was struck a second time, even while Akio was under his illusion.
“Oh I bet you would love to know the answer to that, wouldn’t you? Well that’s too damn bad!” Akio shouted with a grin as he appeared in front of Marcus once again.
His fist was only an inch away from connecting with him before Marcus increased the gravity upon his body, making himself several tons heavier, hoping it would make it harder for him to be blown away.
In spite of that, the result was the same, and he was knocked across the battlefield.
There is no way that this is just something simple like physical reinforcement. This has to be something conceptual in nature, because there should be no logical explanation as to how he could have hit me when I wasn’t even in the same place, Marcus thought to himself as he tried to make sense of what was happening.
Not wanting to get punched in the face again, he chased after Akio, traveling as a bolt of lighting to avoid getting struck.
There should be no way he can react to me in time…, he thought to himself optimistically.
Yet Akio saw it coming as his head turned to look at him directly.
Then, moving with speed that should have been impossible for the human body to replicate without tearing itself apart, he flipped through the air and forced Marcus back into his tangible body as he bicycle kicked him out of the air, knocking him to the ground.
Before Akio could recover, Marcus lunged towards him once again.
He pulled back his fist, pouring as much energy as he could in that brief moment, increasing the gravity around his fist, and slammed it into Akio’s chest...only for it to do absolutely nothing to him.
“What the hell…?” Marcus muttered in disbelief, switching to English in that moment, as Akio turned to look at him and laugh in his face.
“Your will is WEAK!” Akio roared as he drove his knee into Marcus’s chin, then, after rising up into the air, Akio grabbed him by the ankles and slammed him into the ground behind him.
Will…? What does he mean by ‘will’? Is he manifesting his will into reality?
Although he was knocked flat on his back, Marcus looked up at him and went still as he could feel the pressure of Akio’s endlessly growing soul surging through his flesh.
Its still growing! Is the well of power within his soul bottomless? Will it just keep growing the longer the fight goes on?
Akio then put his knee on Marcus’s chest and put all of his weight into it as he pinned him to the ground.
He then asked, “Maybe like this, you might finally be ready to listen to what I have to say.”
Gritting his teeth and struggling against his weight that threatened to crush his ribs, Marcus replied, “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the family that you left behind in Kyoto. For the sake of keeping this conversation going...lets leave Moyako out of it. You remember Yukino, don’t you?”
Hearing her name made his heart skip a beat and with a quiet tone of voice, he answered, “Of course I haven’t forgotten her…”
“That’s good, because if you had forgotten about the woman you were going to marry, I would have been incredibly disappointed with you,” he said as he nodded before raising his head to think for a moment.
“Oh...wait a moment. I think I remember another woman coming to your room after you had died in one of your earlier fights. Selene was her name? Looks like she’s really fond of you… Is she your new girlfriend?” he asked and Marcus felt too ashamed to answer him.
Noticing his reluctance to respond, Akio leaned forward to meet his eyes and asked, “Did you really abandon your Bride-to-be for her? Did you even bother looking for a way home before giving up on Yukino for another woman?”
“I tried to ask for information on how to get back, but it lead no where! I asked the smartest and oldest person on the planet if there was a way to return home and came up with nothing! What more could I have done?” Marcus pleaded.
“But did you try looking for a way on your own? How much time passed before you decided to give up on her? A month? A week?”
“When I came to this world, I had a responsibility to take care of my sister. I couldn’t just focus on myself or Yukino, I had to take care of her first!”
Akio frowned as it seemed understandable to him, yet he continued as he asked, “What will you do once you’ve reached a point where her safety is no longer a concern? Will you go looking for a way to return to her, or will you remain in this world and pretend that she doesn’t still exist?”
Marcus turned away from him as he said, “She will be better off without me. After all, I’m the one who murdered her father.”
Upon hearing that, Akio roared as he punched him in the face before lifting him up off the ground by palming the top of his head.
“You might be able to lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me Sora. Hiroshi died because of his own mistakes, but right now, you are making the biggest mistake of your life by letting her go.”
Marcus remained quiet for a moment as he thought over Akio’s words before he said, “Sora is dead and gone.”
He then released a small burst of his Wrath as he kicked both of his feet out at Akio’s chest and knocked him to the ground.
Marcus landed on his feet as he locked eyes with him and said, “My life is here now, on Erebus. I won’t risk losing what I’ve built here over a world that I may never return to.”
Akio then brushed himself off as he stood up and said, “You can say that all you want, but I know your future Marcus. You’ll find your way back eventually… I just have to beat some sense into you until you do.”
In the time that had passed during their exchange, Akio’s soul had grown to such a scale that with every step he took, the ground shattered and gusts of wind as a result of the pressure released from his footsteps swept over the battlefield.
“By all means, give it your best shot. I won’t yield to you, or Moyako. I’m going to give this world everything I have,” Marcus said as he clenched his fists, took a fighting stance, and readied himself for battle once more.
“Do you really think you’ll be able to match me blow for blow? Everything you know, you-” Akio tried to say, but Marcus cut him off.
“You didn’t teach me everything I know. I still have some cards tucked away that not even you know about,” he replied confidently.
Akio snorted before the muscles in his upper body visibly tensed up, indicating that he was about to attack.
Marcus knew that, for some reason, the universe was being warped to suit Akio’s needs.
“I wonder about something…,” Marcus said to try and probe him for answers about his powers, “How is it that, despite not being a god, your strength of will is so strong that you are able to exert your influence to make the universe warp reality in your favor. How is that possible?”
Akio then showed him a cheeky grin as he said, “I guess she just can’t get enough of this fine ass that she’s willing to do anything for me so long as she gets a piece of it.”
“If you say so…,” Marcus muttered as he moved to strike first.
With speed like lightning, he lunged towards Akio and raised his right leg up into the air to kick the side of his head.
Akio raised his left arm to block, but just before Marcus made contact, he roared, “Shatter!”
The sound of bones breaking would go unheard as the speed of their battle was too fast for it to register, yet Akio’s arm shattered all the same.
He was knocked aside, with his eyes widening in shock and confusion at the fact that his strength of will had been overpowered some how.
Taking the initiative, Marcus slammed his right foot into the ground as he shouted, “Fall!”
Yet in spite of his command, Akio stood firm as he dug his feet into the ground and resisted Marcus’s Wrath.
Gritting his teeth, Akio clenched his left hand into a fist and flexed his muscles as willed the broken arm to repair itself.
With a sickening snapping sound, his shattered arms mended together in seconds and he put up both hands to fight once more.
“My turn.”
Akio then materialized in his blind spot as he threw a punch at his ribs, but Marcus spun around his arm as it passed by him and elbowed Akio in the back.
He then launched a barrage of punches as he shouted words layered with his Wrath, “Break! Fracture! Crack!”
Akio coughed up blood but fought through the pain as he spun around and grabbed Marcus’s wrist, pulling him in close as he slammed his fist into his solar plexus.
The blow knocked the wind out of Marcus and his vision became blurry, yet he bit the inside of his cheeks to keep himself alert.
With red lightning coursing through his right leg, he drove his knee into Akio’s lower jaw with enough impact to knock two of his teeth out.
Marcus then pulled back his head and slammed his forehead into his nose, shattering it.
Akio stumbled back from the impact, but before he could recover, Marcus kicked at the side of his knee and shouted, “Shatter and fall to your knees!”
In the next moment, Akio’s left leg became bent at an abnormal angle as his knee was shattered.
He fell to his other knee from the shock of the pain just as Marcus pulled back his right arm and struck him in the face.
He then grabbed Akio’s hair to hold him in place as he slammed his fist into his face over and over and over and over again until he barely looked recognizable anymore.
Marcus was breathing heavily as he was exhausted from expending so much energy to beat up his best friend.
He swallowed and took up a deep breath as he explained himself, “You might have found a way to charm the universe to bend to your will, but you’re not the only one with that power. During my time in Hell, I found that I have the ability to enslave reality to my will for fear of suffering my Wrath if it did not comply. The universe might want to do your bidding, but its forced to do mine.”
Hearing this, Akio choked out a laugh as he said, “If you can force the universe to obey you, why don’t you order it to open a portal back to Yukino?”
For a moment, Marcus’s mind blanked when he heard those words, and as he locked eyes with him once again, he noticed that Akio’s expression changed from amusement to dread.
“I see…”
Marcus blinked in confusion as he asked, “What did you just ask me?”
Akio gave him a sad smile as he replied, “It doesn’t matter...just get it over with.”
Marcus frowned in disappointment that Akio would give up so easily as he raised his fist and brought it down upon his skull.
Marcus hadn’t bothered to pay attention to Moyako’s battle against Malthael, but it must have been so devastating that it fell into a lower layer below so that it wouldn’t spill out into his own battle with Akio.
He decided to carry Akio’s body and bring it with him, using Arcanence to keep him together so that he didn’t fall apart under Moyako’s power.
He wanted to show her his caved in skull to drive home the message that he had no reservations about killing everything in his path to defeat her.
When he came across a large chasm separating the layers of the battlefield from each other, he noticed that they only went down, so he jumped back down into the fray.
As he fell through the air, it felt as if the descent would last for quite some time as five minutes passed and he still didn’t see the chasm close up to show where the two of them had ended up.
Then, when a closing revealed itself, he crashed upon the ground in front of Moyako just as she had finished relieving Malthael of his head.
She jerked her head to look at him in surprise as he tossed Akio’s corpse in her direction and her eyes fell on it with a look of dread flashing across her face.
It took a moment for Moyako to take her eyes off of Akio’s corpse as she was very clearly disturbed by the sight of his caved in skull, but shook her head as she readied herself.
He looked at Light Taker as she was still holding it in her hands, reached out his left hand, and ordered, “Return my sword.”
Before she could muster up a response, Light Taker flew out of her hand and returned to his iron grip.
“Let’s continue from where we left off…”
“Agreed.