Momoshi, his body still scarred by recent injuries, slowly straightened. His flesh was visibly healing, the wounds closing with an almost disturbing crackling sound. His eyes shone for a moment, and a raspy breath escaped his lips.
Momoshi, in a troubled but amused tone:
"It's... strange. I no longer feel the heaviness that weighed on my movements."
Yamero, with a wry smile, his arms crossed behind his head as if this were all just a game:
"Normal. My technique only applies its effect once. When I strike again, everything returns to the way it was."
A dry laugh escaped Momoshi, almost ironic, but his gaze showed a hint of admiration mixed with a hint of worry.
Momoshi, laughing softly:
"Impressive... Even with your regeneration sealed and the flow of your internal energy stopped, you still manage to unleash so much power. You force my senses to remain on high alert."
Yamero stretched lazily, as if the intensity of the fight had no hold on him. But his eyes betrayed an icy concentration, a sharp clarity that contrasted with his nonchalant demeanor.
Yamero:
"You know, a true master of alchemical energy doesn't need to rely solely on his own reserves. He learns to drink in the surrounding energy, absorb it like a second breath, and twist it into a weapon. And since you've blocked my energy flow, preventing me from absorbing it, I can only rely on my remaining energy reserves."
His hands opened slightly, and around him, the air seemed to vibrate. Fine particles of light rose like bluish dust, mingling with his aura, which intensified with each passing second.
"But don't forget one thing," he added, his tone becoming more serious. "The amount of alchemical energy a being can wield depends on what they are, on what they have endured. A novice will always have a flickering flame... while a veteran, forged by experience and blood, becomes a bottomless pit."
Momoshi, silent, clenched his fists. An icy tension ran down the back of his neck, as if Yamero's words had sunk deep into his mind. Yet, instead of being intimidated, a carnivorous smile stretched across his lips.
Momoshi, with a hint of defiance in his voice:
"Then show me, Yamero. Show me how deep this pit can swallow you." Because I too… I haven't finished getting back up.
Yamero and Momoshi launched themselves at each other with blinding speed. Their fists and legs clashed in a frenetic rhythm, each impact echoing like the crash of thunder. The walls of buildings cracked beneath the sheer shockwave, and the surrounding streets disintegrated, swept away by the violence of their exchanges. The city, helpless, suffered irreversible scars with each contact.
With a sudden movement, Momoshi extended his hand forward, unleashing a shower of incandescent fireballs. Each one tore through the air, transforming the atmosphere into a blazing furnace. Yamero leaped aside, his calculated dodges allowing him to narrowly avoid the impact of these burning spheres. The ground behind him began to melt, the stone liquefying under the overwhelming heat.
But just as Yamero thought he'd freed himself, a figure appeared behind him. Momoshi, taking advantage of a moment of opening, had teleported or moved so fast that the human eye could not have followed him.
A light blow struck his foot, precise, barely perceptible, but enough to throw him off balance. Before Yamero could even react, a deadly knee came up with inhuman power, striking his face head-on. The impact produced a devastating wave, sending Yamero flying backward like a meteorite, tearing through the pavement and tearing through the walls in its path.
The burning breath of Momoshi's fire and the echo of the blow still echoed through the city, as if even the air refused to calm down.
Yamero slowly straightened, his face marked by the violence of the shock. With the back of his hand, he wiped away the blood that trickled from the corners of his lips. His eyes narrowed, focused, and a fleeting thought echoed in his mind:
"So... his flames also serve as a means of teleportation."
Momoshi, arms raised as if to embrace the burning air he commanded, sneered:
"You're a clever fighter, Yamero. You surely guessed how I managed to surprise you."
Yamero, a grimace playing on his lips, replied confidently:
"It was obvious."
But before he could even finish his sentence, an excruciating pain pierced his chest. His breath caught abruptly, his body bent slightly as if it had just been lacerated from the inside. His heart vibrated, compressed by an invisible force.
Momoshi, his gaze blazing, declared coldly:
"This is the third effect of my flames. Every time I touch my opponent, I drain a portion of their life force. And believe me, your energy tastes exquisite."
Yamero gritted his teeth, but suddenly, his body disappeared from Momoshi's vision. As if erased. The flame master frowned, his gaze scanning the space. Yet, his sense of perception did not deceive him: he felt Yamero's aura... but in two different places. Two presences, only ten meters apart. One more imposing, the other weaker.
He chose to attack the largest source of energy, certain he had his enemy. But when he struck, he encountered only emptiness. His face tightened, a split second of doubt crossed his mind. And that's when he felt his body suddenly become crushingly heavy. His muscles froze, his movements shattered as if under a monstrous weight.
Yamero then appeared behind him, his fist saturated with a blazing blue glow. The energy gushed forth like a contained torrent, vibrating with an almost divine intensity.
—Amplifying impact!
The blow struck Momoshi full on, sending him flying through the air and through several floors of a building. The impact echoed throughout the neighborhood before his body crashed to the ground, opening a gaping crater.
Yamero immediately teleported to the edge of the abyss. In the rubble, Momoshi slowly got up, his flames flickering around him.
—How is that possible…? he breathed incredulously.
Yamero raised his hand slightly, almost nonchalantly, and replied,
—I simply benefited from a fair play contract.
Momoshi, his eyes narrowed, asked suspiciously, "What contract?"
Yamero replied calmly, as if explaining an immutable rule:
"In alchemy, there is equivalent exchange. To obtain something, you must give something of equal value. Since you restricted two of my abilities, the rule granted me compensation. A bonus of my choosing. I chose to store my energy reserves in specific spaces, and whenever I touch those points, I can unleash my mass amplification attacks."
Momoshi clenched his fists. "I should have sensed your energy residue."
Yamero sneered and raised a finger as if correcting a student.
"I set another condition in this contract: apart from the space I used to trap you, all other points are undetectable to you."
Momoshi, stunned, retorted:
"But I sensed two distinct signals!"
Yamero smirked, his eyes shining with intelligence.
"Exactly. The weaker one was me. The stronger one was the space I chose to expose to you. I deliberately amplified its aura, knowing you would fall for it. You believed the greatest source of energy was the real one... but you forgot that I could manipulate mass and balance, even in perception."
The silence hung for a second, broken only by the crackle of Momoshi's flames. Then Yamero concluded implacably:
"And now you're the one in my sphere of equivalence."
Momoshi, consumed by rage, lost all lucidity. His body vibrated with a brilliant red aura that made the ground tremble, as if the city itself shuddered under the violence of his fury. His eyes blazed, filled with burning hatred.
With a bestial howl, he propelled himself towards Yamero, each of his strides tearing cracks into the concrete. But just as he was about to reach his target, an invisible detail escaped him: he was walking straight into a carefully prepared trap. Yamero teleported to the roof of a building.
Yamero, already perched on the roof of a gutted building, clapped his hands. A sharp sound resonated, then the air distorted under a supernatural force. Before him appeared a black sphere, small but dense, emanating a monstrous gravity.
In a split second, Momoshi felt his body being sucked in. Its flames roared, but nothing could resist the relentless force of that ball. His feet left the ground despite his resistance, his fists punched the air in vain. His figure was inexorably sucked towards this dark mass.
Yamero explained sharply:
"Since you are unable to perceive the other points where I have stored my energy, I scattered them strategically. And you, by charging headlong, fell into the center of their intersection. This allowed me to connect everything... and trigger one of my abilities: [The Ball of Attraction].
He raised his hand, pointing at the black sphere as a judge would render a verdict.
"It's a sphere that attracts anything possessing a source of alchemical energy. But I set it so that it only targets you. You are the only prisoner of its gravitational field."
Momoshi struggled, his muscles tense, his anger gnawing at him. His red aura blazed, but every spark was devoured by the inexorable force of attraction.
In the distance, Daru narrowed his eyes, a smile of admiration on his lips:
"Yamero... he truly is a genius."
Maki, her fists clenched, nodded:
"Certainly. He's reading this fight like a strategist."
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Yamero teleported into the sphere's field and appeared in front of Momoshi, now completely immobilized. His blue eyes blazed, his fist clenched, and colossal energy gathered around his arm.
"Now you have no escape."
He struck. A hail of blows at dizzying speed rained down on Momoshi. Each one resonated like a detonation, shattering his defenses, scarring his flesh, and making the entire air tremble. The black ball prevented Momoshi from moving; each impact resonated through his body, leaving him unable to dodge or parry.
A final blow, charged with crushing energy, violently threw him to the ground within the gravitational field. The crater grew even larger, and the already battered city was shaken by the force of the assault.
Momoshi, consumed by uncontrollable rage, released an aura of monstrous intensity. The sky turned red, the buildings vibrated, and then a gigantic explosion tore through the surrounding space. Yamero's black sphere, once implacable, was reduced to dust under the pressure of this unleashed power.
Through the veil of smoke, Momoshi charged forward like lightning. Before Yamero could even react, his incandescent fist pierced his guard and struck straight into his heart.
The world seemed to stop.
Yamero's blue aura abruptly extinguished, his eyes became glassy, white as death, and his breath stopped. His body, deprived of life, remained standing for a moment, frozen like a statue.
On the roof, Maki stood up abruptly, tears in her eyes:
"No... it's not possible..."
Daru, his fists clenched, replied in a somber voice:
"With the effect of his flames... Momoshi absorbed all his vitality in a single blow. It was fatal."
Momoshi, breathless but triumphant, looked at the lifeless body.
"You fought well, Yamero. But you forgot the important thing: by dispersing your energy reserves, you were exhausting yourself again and again. All I had to do was devour your vitality in a single attack... and be done with it."
He turned away, ready to declare victory. But suddenly, there was a sharp noise. A heartbeat.
Yamero's lifeless body shuddered. His eyes lit up with a brilliant glow, and his breath came back suddenly. At the same moment, he appeared and struck Momoshi with a devastating blow to the lower abdomen, throwing him several meters, shattering walls and stones.
Momoshi, stunned, struggled to his feet, his hand on his abdomen.
—How… is this possible?!
Yamero, panting but smiling despite the blood staining his lips, explained:
—You were mistaken. I still had a hidden reserve of energy. I used it to restart my heart and transform a portion of alchemical energy into life energy. That's what brought me back.
On the roof, Daru smiled proudly:
—The clever fellow… he played his trick well.
Maki, still trembling, asked, "That means..."
Daru interrupted her, her eyes shining with admiration: "Yamero was dead in a few seconds, and by restarting his heart, he fulfilled the condition for breaking the restriction. Yamero is now free. He can finally use his full power."
At that moment, Momoshi let out a muffled cry. His body slowly cracked, like a stone statue about to burst. Each crack echoed in the air like an inescapable sentence. Then, with a sharp blow, he exploded in a blinding blast.
Yamero, standing in the midst of the chaos, his aura blazing and his eyes determined, had stretched Momoshi's energy reserves to the limit, amplifying them beyond all limits. His final assault had been enough: Momoshi had just been defeated.