Drowned out were the words of the goliath as Tetsue remained laying still. Though he was not dead, his breathing being an obvious sign of his vitality, he seemingly teetered in and out of consciousness. The sound of the other Baron jogging over shook the ground slightly, vibrating Tetsue and his face with the pavement.

More words. More gloating, despite the apparent respect being given. None of his words were heard. Instead, slowly the Mokushian lazily, very lazily lifted himself up onto his hands and knees, his head hanging low. Every muscle in his body on the verge of simply giving up while his bones...well he didn't even know if had a single one left in tact. But still, he continued to rise until he was upon his feet, but nearly falling over as balance left him for a moment. Slowly he turned to face the two giants, his head remaining down with the strands of crimson hiding his face.

"Your conquest is mine no-" "You know...releasing such pent up anger...it really helps one...focus." the Lord rudely interrupted, swaying back and forth, his arms limp and slumped over. "It really...sharpens ones senses...and gives...true clarity. I recommend it..." he lastly whispered, raising his head so that a single eye could peer through his crimson curtains. The schelra had darkened to pure ebony while a subtle haze seemed to fall over the eye while the pupil was consumed entirely by the crimson iris. The Yuuseigan.

"You see...in your ignorance...you failed..." he said, his breathing uncontrollable, and yet still no emotions or sense of anything arose from him, "...to see something..." he said, slowly walking towards the Baron's. "I've been tricking you for a while, Baron." the Lord couldn't help but grin at this point. "For a while now I've been using my anger...to fool you and your apparent strength." he said softly, close enough to extend a finger and prod the mans chest. "Yes, you. And your strength." he then turned his gaze to the second, the one holding his God-Eater.

"For a while now...you've been fooled. Did you never stop and wonder why...although I can seemingly increase my strength...and force with ease...I could never over come you?" his eye wandered back and forth between the two as his grin grew even more. "It's because...I kept matching myself with your force, and then you would match mine. But yet...we have yet to be able to truly show who is more powerful."

The Lord then looked to the sky and broughtt his finger up to tap his chin thoughtfully. "You've...been in my bubble. For a while now. My Yuuseigan's Force Manipulative Bubble. The two of us. It passes kinetic force...and energy back and forth between whatever is within its grasp...never letting one get an advantage over the other..." The sounds of buildings crying as glass began shattering all around them. It seemed after some distance Tetsue's pressure was still going, still altering the physics around them. And yet, where they stood everything was unaffected.

"And now that I have your second Goliath within my bubble..." Tetsue then turned his gaze upon the one holding his sword. "There is nothing you can do to run. For I am able to control Kinetic Energy. I can lower my force so low that you will feel impotent while within my bubble. Your hits will feel like cheese stroking a cheek...your speed will become slower than an ants, so long as I stand still that is." He grinned even more deviously.

"So you have two options here...Baron. You give me back my God-Eater and I will let you live. Or I will show you what being powerless truly feels like, for as long as you are within range of my little play bubble..." his voice got as low as it could, his eyes narrowing in on the Baron's face. "...I am God."

He then extended his hand out towards the one with his sword, though locking eyes with the breaking Baron.

As he finished his speech, the man had begun speaking on his own. Not of surrender, but of continuing this little dance they have been spinning in the streets. With the crashing of falling buildings and rubble littering the ground as the only sound in their ears. Following his proposal, The Baron sneered once more. Baring only the left side of his teeth before drawing the blade off of his shoulders, it was alway touching when they drew out their final desperate throes before surrender. "Take your blade once more, boy. But you must remember what I told you before, lest you find yourself disposable."

The Baron handed his blade to his duplicate once more and turned away from Tetsue, marching a few paces away before the clone burst into the same cloud it had been formed from. The God-Eater sank point first into the ground before Tetsue, and The Baron weaved a weapon of his own design from the fog. A strange curved blade with a sword-breaker prong on the hilt, its length was that of a man, and the girth was much greater. "If you wish to demonstrate, so be it. For it has been far too long since I have shown one such as you what I am truly capable of."

As he spoke, his cloud had clung tightly to his body for a moment. Pressing against his skin in various places, before pushing outwards once more. Though his wounds were not healed, they were pressed closed. Though he could weave weapons through it, he was not capable of patching himself with it. It was a shortcoming that he rarely had to overcome.

With a new blade in hand, and a few feet between them. The Baron readied himself mentally and physically, prepared to match whatever he demonstrated. With as much force and speed as he could muster, because no matter how much he could change the force recieved and taken. He could not change how adept The Baron was in single combat.

Born to bring war.

Born to bring pain.

Born to bring death.

Born to bring balance.

A creed of The Divine, created through eons of meditation.

The voice returned to his thick gravelly tone, no longer his own, but the voice of The Baron. "Come, boy. Face me as a god or as a man."

He paused.

"It makes no difference."

The Lord listened intently, taking in every word the Baron had to say. It was clear to the Lord that the beast understood the situation, that he understood that powers and strength were no longer relevent. At least, so long as Tetsue willed it so. And yet, the beast still wished to fight. It was admirable, at minimum and if it weren't for the fact that Tetsue had every intention of killing and claiming him as a collection with the rest of his beings within his sword, he might go as far as to opt out of the fight out of sheer respect.

But he wanted him. More than ever now.

The second goliath disappeared in a cloud of smoke, letting his blade drop and sink several feet into the ground due to its massive weight. The Lord eyed his blade before casually walking over to it, wrapping his fingers around the handle like a lovers caress. But he did not pull it up. Instead, he rose his other hand to unclip the Metashi vest around his upper chest and removed the armor, tossing it away to expose his naked upper body, revealing all the patches of ripped flesh from their fight where trickles of blood then released from the wounds. It was as if the vest was keeping his wounds in tact. But he wasn't going to need it anymore.

His hand then tightened around the handle, but instead of just pulling it up, he unlocked the seal and drew forth the crimson double edged long sword from within the God-Eater. For a moment the vortex of the God-Eaters mouth erupted hungrily, but was quickly soothed by a glare from the God-Killer. Turning his back to the giant sheath he sauntered away a few feet before letting his arms go limp by his side while his neck craned back, his ebony and crimson gaze peering up at the distorted sky, his energy still running rampant through the city.

"I am going to remove our power entirely. Neither shall have an advantage over the other. Until, that is...one of us is dead. And only then." he whispered to himself, though loud enough for the Baron to pick up.

His gaze then shifted over, staring down the beast whom had called forth a massive blade. Though Tetsue held no fear for the weapon. He knew what his own was capable of. There was a reason he shared the name with the sword.

"Do you understand now? Do you see why I am called the God-Killer? What is a God when I have taken its power away, or absorbed it's strength to my own? I am the slayer of God's because I can walk amongst them at will." he muttered, distaste filling his mouth at the thought of even being on par with a God.

"You are no different." he whispered, his gaze falling onto the beast before the Lord took off towards it. His sword, drawn behind him as he gathered speed until he was within range and slashed out diagonally from his right side to his upper left, aiming to sear through the creatures flesh.

What Gods had Tetsue faced to think that this meager form was comparable? Had his power grown so much that just one extension of his will alone was god-like? No. The frame of reference is different, something was off abut Tetsue's perspective of gods.

It didn't matter, he might press the question at a later date. For right now, the battle had truly begun. What Tetsue believed balanced their odds, equalizing the amount of force they give and take, was just another trick to be dealt with just like any other trick used against him.

The divine's mind couldn't help but bounce back and forth between the battle and his musings. How weak have gods gotten in his time away from them?

He boasted more and more, claiming his title's legitimacy by explaining his ability in detail. Resistance to an ability is built on the foundation of understanding how it works. So giving him an entire speech about how it works would ultimately contribute to his downfall. "You remove only your power, what you don't understand is that I hold far more than strength!" Most notable among these traits that the Baron was concealing was the blade hidden behind his heel.

The Baron rushed forward, crushing rubble beneath his feet as he stampeded towards Tetsue. The distance between them closed rather quickly, the matching of their swords was in short order. It would become quite evident why he had created such an enormous blade as the two clashed.

The Baron bent his arm at an unnatural angle, turning his left elbow downwards to allow for a much smoother crescent swing from his left hip all the way upwards to his head. To catch his foe's blade and drag it up with the sudden movement. How? Normally a blade wouldn't simply catch hold of another blade.

But these aren't normal blades.

Tetsue's blade cut cleanly into the Baron's blade as it made contact, and buried itself into the bulk of the sword. Though it would inevitably pass through, for a scarce moment it would still be trapped within.

The Baron would immediately follow up by delivering a kick with his right foot into Tetsue's left kneecap. To strike at him as harshly as he could, with as swift a blow as possible while he was exposed.

Truly the fight had begun between the two Meta's with a swing from both parties. However the Lord's focus had grown to prove his mastery of close quarters combat. But what he had not anticipated was his blade catching momentarily within the others, dragging his blade away before finally cutting through and only to have his knee kicked in once more. How much damage would his leg endure at this rate?

Although the powers had been drawn from them both, the strike was still enough to drop Tetsue to one knee while the other extending outwards, stretching out a cramp that had formed under his bruised flesh. But not all was lost for the skilled warrior, for while he had but a second to rest and adjust, he rolled to the side, extending his sword out to scath the side of the monsters extended knee as it pulled back.

Though due to Tetsue rolling, he was unable to cut through the entire limb, meaning only a fragment of his blade was able to seep through the hard flesh of the beast, only delving a couple inches into the massive limb. Quickly he climbed back up to his feet, though bending his left leg slightly in place, relieving the pressure upon the ever wounding muscle within, trying to preserve his movements as to not further damage it.

It is here that he stood, drawing his sword to rest upon his back with the handle protruding over his right shoulder. His legs bent low with his right extended forwards and his shoulders hunched over, staring darkly at the beast in preperation.

"You will need more than cheap tricks to kill me...fowl beast." he spat, his left eye fully closed now due to some swelling as a trickle of blood from his scalp overlapped it.

With their trade complete, and him coming out on top because of the previous injury to The Baron leaned slightly onto his left leg and turned to face Tetsue as he rose once more. Drawing his blade down from above his head, he didn't betray his composure by glancing down at his leg. The pain was enough to remind him of just how much damage he had received, a solemn warning that Tetsue's words hadn't been simply a bluff.

Though he had been taking them to heart, analyzing every detail, and reading every possible meaning. Seeking every potential way out of his method of energy manipulation, when it dawned on him.

How much? How much can he take? Rather. How much can he manipulate before being overwhelmed? What are the depths? An ability such as his always leaves gaps of logic. As mortals don't always cover every single angle, there was always something to be exploited with their more tricky magic.

As Tetsue rolled away, The Baron took two incredibly fast leaps backwards. Lifting his body with his mind to increase the length of his jumps, he put a considerable distance between he and Tetsue. This was just part one of an incredibly ingenious plan that had finally clicked.

With enough distance between them, his cloud drifted away from his body to the left and right. The cloud slowly came into shape as much smaller shades of The Baron. The lips of the goliath peeled all the way back once more, revealing the grey gums that held in his black teeth to Tetsue. This was the farthest The Baron has pulled his lips back in a long time. It was a smile, if one defines a smile as simply exposing one's teeth to the air. "Warlord. You told me that within your bubble, you are God." Four shades, two on each side, materialized slowly around him. As they formed, each of them weaved a weapon from the air beside them. A dagger, a spear, a claymore and an axe were formed in their hands.

Each of the shades as only six feet in height, about the size of a normal man. They were much smaller than the previous doppelganger because they were made of much smaller portions of his fog.

The Baron hoisted his blade upwards, aiming its bulk down his arm towards Tetsue of the Xenom. His four clones rushed forward at his command, spreading outwards in twin V-formations. Passing by Tetsue with a fair distance between them and him. "And you have so easily forgotten what I said earlier!" The Baron's voice boomed across the battlefield, shaking windows and disturbing rubble. "That I am far greater than a God!"

With his four smaller duplicates fanning out, the Baron moved directly towards Tetsue. This was to keep Tetsue's focus on the most dangerous of his forms, by providing a sufficient threat in and of himself, the smaller threats that were his duplicates would prove to be much more dangerous in the long run.

That is not to say that The Baron does not intend to bring further harm to Tetsue personally, but the most effective distraction is a deadly one.

The Lords eye opened wide at the appearance of lesser clones forming from the beasts smoke, out numbering him entirely. Immediately he felt his wrath grow exponentially at the disrespect being displayed. The entire concept of his Yuuseigan was to level the playing field and still this monster chose not honor, but through cheats. The distorted air around the large bubble they resided in grew in pressure, entire buildings beginning to bend inwards to Tetsue's reaction.

How much longer could this city withstand their bout? How much longer until it would be flattened by their power?

Perhaps not much longer.

The God-Killer, in response to this threat immediately drew his left foot back and leaned into his forward right before bringing his God-Killer down to his left side, as if within an invisible sheath. His left hand took hold upon the blades surface, coiling his digits around the surface while hunching his shoulders down. "So be it..." he whispered to himself.

His body, while on fire from his injuries, tensed up in preperation though his eye never left the Baron, even with the advancement of its minions. They prepared to surround the Lord and he could anticipate it with sheer knowledge of battle strategy. He understood that with reacting to the Baron's attack his minions would be there to fill in the gaps to his attack. He understood that now he was going to have to stop playing with the goliath and reveal his true skill and nature.

The minions advanced, two on either side of the path to the Lord but again, his eye did not shift. Each step they took was responded to with a deep inhale, and every meter of distance they gained was a soothing exhale. His emotions began to drain away, evaporating until nothing but cool serenity filled his mind and heart, leaving his emotions to be restless in wanting anticipation outside of the Doujutsu's ability.

"That I am far greater than a God!" the bellowing voice of the Baron unphasing to the master of the Sands and was simply met with hihs shoulders lowering even more. He was ready.

"Battoujutsu..." he whispered. The minions had now passed him and it was the Baron who charged forth now, stampeding its way right towards the Lord.

"Rising Sun..." he followed up.

Closer.

"Of..."

Closer.

"Falling..."

Just a little closer.

"Moon." The Goliath was perhaps 10 feet away from Tetsue at the point he leapt forwards, clearing a good six feet with ease before whipping his bladed arm upwards in a diagonal slash to his upper right. With ease of both his arm span and the additional five feet of his double edged long sword it would slice through steel and flesh if the monster did not react well enough. Without the added effect of momentum or force, however, it would have made this far more difficult to avoid.

But it's what Tetsue did throughout the slash that would be a defining moment in this battle; in mid-air as he began his Battoujutsu he actually allowed his body to spin with the slash so that he landed with his back towards the beast. Normally this would have been a fatal mistake. But then they weren't doing a Battoujutsu, a technique built on drawing and resheathing, meaning his blade immediately returned down to his lower left side, only to have the Lord crouch and bend over, using the open hole he made with his hand for the blade to slide back into to alter its path. The blade shifted immediately straight out at an upwards angle, rather than down, potentially impaling the goliaths stomach.

Normally this would have meant immediate death to those of normal stature, but the goliath was a monster, almost twice the size of Tetsue, so for his blade to kill, even at that short of a distance, he would require the entire blade to penetrate through, not just a foot or so worth. But that was not all.

With his eye now on the minions that had moved to surround him at one point, he lunged forward, away from the collosal, preparing yet another Battoujuts slash mid flight.

Like most mortals, Tetsue's bag of tricks had run out in too short of time. And he had redoubled his efforts on the slash that had previously stumped the giant, returning to the same posture as before. Inferrence was pretty simple in a scenario like this. With The Baron moving towards Tetsue, and Tetsue ready to unleash that slash that had decimated his blade on a molecular level, the result would be catastrophic.

If the Divine were stupid.

Just as Tetsue lunged forward, The Baron's mind reached out to his legs and core. Yanking them sharply to the right, moving his entire body with as much speed and might as he could muster. Tetsue was fast, yes, but The Baron too was swift. So long as he was flying, he had shown that he was outpacing Tetsue.

Even sound breaks before my movements in flight. To avoid something that is moving in a straight line would be easier th-

His internal boasting was cut off shortly as Tetsue's blade dug itself into the left side of his abdominal muscles. Cleanly slicing through his metallic flesh as it passed forwards, slicing through him and shearing his cells in half. The weight of his flesh snapped the wound closed behind the blade, but not without a grunt of protest from The Baron's throat.

Though normally, The Divine doesn't show any acknowledgement of pain in any way shape or form, it had been caught off guard. Though his movements were fast, he hadn't broken the sound barrier. The Baron had simply jumped, he hadn't actually flown.

Somehow.

He had made a mistake.

Mistake? Yes. Ignorance? No. Misjudged how much force this body can exert now. A jump would normally have allowed him to kickstart flight with a bit of extra momentum, but without as much force in his legs he had severely misjudged the amount of force that would be necessary for him to leave the ground normally.

Though the Baron was not just some beast to be slain by method of disembowelment. Tetsue's blade entered his body, but met with not but more and more flesh. Until a hole was torn in the stomach of The Baron. Not a normal stomach like a mortal's stomach, but a specific organ. The organ where every single black fog cell is stored. As Tetsue pulled his blade free, the messiest possible outcome occurred.

Even with clones already formed, The Baron's gut still held much more.

With a hole now opened in his midriff, a massive expulsion of black fog erupts from the wound. So thick and dark that almost everything about The Baron is quickly concealed in a veil of blackness over a foot deep. Pressurized fog spewed from the hole in his gut before being sealed by the weight of his own body. Though even with the quick seal, so much fog had emerged from his body that he was entirely concealed behind it.

Black waves washed outwards from the central cloud across the battlefield, licking at the ankles of Tetseue and the clones.

Tetsue's attention had turned to the nearest clone, who happened to be the Spear wielding clone. The clone rushed towards him with the edge of his spear outstretched, running with the sharp of the blade towards the ground. Aiming to shove the blade into his gut and impale him on the spot. If the force was truly equalized, then this would be the perfect test. If his clone was felled naturally, it would be false. If it was was felled in a different way.

Yes.

Experiment with this mortal power, see the limits. Test the boundaries.

The result of his weapon was more than the Lord had anticipated, slicing clean through the goliath's stomach only to have a wave of dark cloud spew forth. Though he did not let the surprise halt his movements, he continued his leap away from the beast as originally planned, not wanting to get caught up in the fog's grasp. He imagined, quite easily, that it still was not enough to kill the beast and so he would still have to deal with his nasty little clones.

The first to come forward was a spearman, who charged forth to meet Tetsue as he landed upon the ground, keeping his blade to his lower left while crouching. His eye watched carefully upon the spear that ached to pierce him and with very simple and light movements he adjusted his torso so that the spear would slide just past him, going through the loop his arm had created while holding the handle of his God-Killer. And that was i. The clone was then cleanly sliced in half from its lower right all the way up through its shoulders.

The Lord's swordsmanship skills now coming into light as something to not quite take lightly. His eye then traced over the remaining three clones before glancing behind him at the fog covered goliath. Tetsue was running out of options.

It was beginning to dawn on him that despite putting them on equal ground this creature had little combat skill and was relying on his own bag of tricks to squirm his way out of the situation. With only two viable options left, releasing the Yuuseigan's ability to allow their power to flow back to normal...or to put everything into this one last atta-

Then it hit him.

His eye followed the smoke before going over to his God-Eater, which still remained sticking out of the pavement. He grinned. "Feast..." he whispered, staring upon the hollow entrance of his sheath and immediately the vortex kicked up once more, pulling forth loose debris, broken metal and furniture from the buildings...and the goliaths fog, like a constant vacuum cleaner. Due to the distance the vortex was not strong enough to pull the goliath, his clones or Tetsue in, but his fog at this point was now rendered entirely useless. Disallowing its existense within his bubble for now.

Slowly, he straightened himself and glanced back at the clones, bringing his sword up to rest upon his shoulder before inhaling deeply. "You and your clones...are nothing more than proof of how much of a skill-less coward you are. I bring opportunity for you to fight me one on one...and you create clones. I bring you opportunity to utilize your skill as a combatant and yet you result to light trickery." he muttered, much distaste filling his mouth, so much so that he had to spit upon the ground.

"You are no soldier. You are a conjuror of cheap tricks and are not worthy of my fight." That is when he turned his back upon the clones and the beast and casually began to walk towards his sheath, eyeing down the vortex to an utter stillness once more before delving his God-Killer into the God-Eater's mouth, sheathing it once more. He then pulled free the giant blade and rested it against his shoulder before casually walking away down the street, following the path of destruction from their fight earlier.

"Find me again, Beast, when you are more than just an illusion. Find me again and fight me when you can actually fight." he bellowed through his pace, waving his free hand behind himself lazily.

Honor? Honor. A mortal concept to limit one's self and judge others based on their actions. It happened on every planet where power had grown, even in the smallest degree. It's conjured by weak people who fear the strength of others, so they attempt to put a limiter on the abilities of others.

The ability demonstrated by this warlord. This Tetsue. Was honor given form.

As the smoke cleared, and Tetsue had turned away from The Baron, the divine had half a mind to obliterate him with a crushing blast of sound. To humiliate him in death by killing him for daring to turn his back to the great beast.

Because honor is stupid to someone who actually has power.

Food?

Food.

Food!

It was smarter to just take the upstart's behavior at face value, The Baron had felt an intense hatred inside of him. That was really all he had wanted in the first place. That hatred would linger, the sick excitement from earlier had faded and was replaced with a disappointed anger. Honor tends to give people an exaggerated sense of how the world works, and Tetsue was no different from any other mortal.

A whirling and violent ball of crimson energy spun itself inside of his mouth, the light emitted by it was illuminating the insides of his mouth. The Baron closed its mouth and let the sound dissipate slowly through his pores, it was so compressed that it left him like steam from a kettle. Leaving him alive was the smartest solution, that lingering hatred would be fresh for days. Maybe weeks. Perhaps years.

A storm was coming, and The Baron had stirred in a small seed of distaste. That's all that he needed, a smidgen of uncertainty, a dash of hatred, and a shake of sadness. Whatever it took to leave lingering emotion.

The Baron turned away from Tetsue, the four clones dissipating and drifting towards the Goliath as he left the battlefield. So too did the crescent on his ankle break apart, he had kept it safe, just for one move that never came. The Divine had not won this battle, but he had served the purpose he was designed for.

So too would the fear linger in the Earthling's hearts, from their city being destroyed to the rift that had opened up and unleashed a wave of terrifying beasts.

The great beast that had carried The Baron down to the Earth's surface extended its foreleg, a long claw-like appendage, and allowed The Baron to grab hold. It pulled the giant towards its head and placed it behind the horn, then took off like a rocket into the sky above. The sonic cone that formed around its head broke just a moment before it accelerated to atmospheric exit speeds. The Sky parted in its wake as it left the Earth to re-enter the portal, where the thousands of other Wanderers had already begun to pour into the portal.

The Divine was far from done here, but he was drawing his hand back for now.