Evening, Guild Hall.
Darkness cloaked the hall, while threads of crystalline light spilled from the hanging torches, painting the walls with dancing shadows that resembled wandering spirits drifting through silence. From the heart of the chamber, a massive metallic door groaned open with a weight like the creak of time itself, revealing the colosseum… the Temporal Training Grounds, where not only powers were tested, but souls themselves were melted and reforged.
The cracked black stones beneath their feet bore the scars of countless battles, and the towering walls draped in hazy blue light radiated a sense of dread, as if the place itself judged whoever entered before they could confront themselves.
At the center of the arena stood Kojou, his body wreathed in a blazing aura of raw destruction, dancing around him like tongues of dark flame where black bled into crimson. He had spent every point he had gathered to reach this moment, to finally face the power that had always slipped from his grasp.
And before him, a figure manifested—unmistakable.
A tall man, hair black as the abyss, eyes glowing red like embers simmering beneath thin ash. His pristine white attire contrasted sharply with his overwhelming presence, and on his lips rested a confident smile—one untouched by doubt or hesitation.
Anos Voldigoad.
The Demon King of Destruction. The master before whom the very concept of power itself seemed to shrink.
Anos was more than a foe. To Kojou, he was a teacher, a mirror reflecting what he might become should he ever master the essence of his strength. For an immeasurable span within the temporal chamber, Anos had broken down Kojou's foundations and rebuilt them, step by step, until the latter now stood firm before him.
Anos raised his hand calmly, his quiet voice reverberating against the colosseum walls like a final verdict:
"The first step… is to make destruction an extension of your body. Let your fists, your kicks, even your very breath carry this power."
The next instant, both vanished from sight. A black-and-red flash ripped across the arena, and suddenly they met in the center, fists colliding.
BOOM!!
The explosion roared through the hall, like a cosmic bubble bursting at its core.
Kojou's right arm was torn off entirely, scattering as black sparks before dissolving into the air, the destructive force unleashed by Anos far deeper and purer than what Kojou had mustered.
Yet Kojou's expression didn't waver. Instead, he twisted his body, his other hand wrapped in undulating black-crimson light, and launched a sharp side punch toward Anos's face.
Anos's smile widened, his eyes glimmering with genuine interest.
Kojou's missing arm immediately began to regenerate—the bones first, glowing threads of white, then layers of flesh and skin knitting over until it was as though it had never been erased.
"Good…" Anos murmured, before countering with a backhand of destruction that hurled Kojou meters away.
Still, Kojou rose again, a strained smile tugging at his lips. He could feel it… every strike, every tear, every small death inside him birthed greater strength. The Source of Destruction did not retreat from pain—it fed upon it.
Their auras flared, waves of ruin surging outward, yet within that storm Kojou moved with sharp precision. He was no longer merely a brawler relying on raw force—he had honed his body through dozens of martial schools, fusing them into a lethal, unpredictable style.
He darted low, twisting into a sudden angle, his destruction-clad right hand shooting forward in a straight jab toward Anos's chest, followed by a rising roundhouse kick. Anos caught the jab with his palm, but the kick forced his frame to bend slightly, leaving a smoldering black trail in the air.
Kojou gave him no respite.
He spun halfway, driving his knee upward in a flying strike aimed straight for Anos's face, the black aura shrieking through the air before colliding with a wall of destruction conjured in defense.
BOOM!!
The impact rattled the colosseum, but Kojou pressed on. His hands blurred like lightning, a flurry of short strikes—Muay Thai clinch + elbows, interwoven with boxing hooks to the side of Anos's neck. Then, flowing downward, he slipped into a judo throw, using destructive force to anchor his opponent.
But Anos was no ordinary adversary.
That calm smile lingered as he stepped back half a pace, letting Kojou's power burst into the void. With a simple motion, he blocked a side kick, then returned it with crushing pressure that dragged Kojou backward, his feet scraping fissures across the cracked ground.
And yet Kojou did not falter—he used the recoil!
Dropping low, supporting himself on his left hand, he spun his body in a capoeira wheel kick, his right leg blazing in red-and-black destruction, slicing through the air like a grim reaper's scythe.
It struck Anos's shoulder, black sparks scattering, but the Demon King barely flinched.
"Good… you're adding technique to power." he said, his smile unchanged.
Kojou seized the moment to close the gap.
He leapt, unleashing taekwondo combinations—a double front kick, spinning into a scissor kick, finishing with a crushing axe kick, destruction coating his leg as it fell like a warhammer, shattering the ground beneath Anos's feet into a deep crater.
Dust surged like a storm cloud, but within it, a crimson glow flared—Anos raised his hand, as if untouched.
The two launched into a blinding exchange, fists and kicks moving faster than sight.
Hundreds of blows landed, each strike strong enough to demolish a building had it escaped their duel.
The air itself screamed with every clash, the towering walls quaking, the colosseum floor splitting apart until glowing fissures revealed molten veins pulsing below.
And with every heartbeat, Kojou's aura grew brighter.
Every wound, every fracture that healed, every brush with death—it all pushed his power to greater heights. It was as if he climbed an endless abyssal wall, while Anos observed with the eyes of a king testing a potential heir.
Amidst the storm, Anos's voice rang out:
"Show me, Kojou… how far you can go. Will you remain a student clinging to scraps of strength? Or will you shatter your limits… and become something greater?"
...
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