The body of Hachiman creaked and clicked in the darkness, its hollow grin shining as it regarded Muzazi. Those long, skeletal fingers seemed to dance through the air as it pondered which weapon to use – before finally settling on the massive bow clutched in two of its four hands. In an instant that felt agonisingly long, it took an arrow from between its ribs and drew back the string.

Muzazi's heart hammered in his chest as he saw that arrow pointed at him. It was coming. Some animal instinct, deep inside his body, told him that this would be the most dangerous attack yet. He had to dodge it. If he couldn't dodge it, he had to block it.

Sweat poured down his body as he waited for the fatal moment – the moment Hachiman would commit to the attack and Muzazi could respond.

It came. Hachiman released the string –

Pain.

– and the arrow vanished.

Muzazi's pupils shuddered as he grasped for understanding of what had just happened. The arrow had not gone flying out of the bow. He was certain of that. It wasn't an illusion of speed that had made the arrow disappear. It had literally vanished.

Vanished to where, though? Muzazi already suspected that. Slowly, blood already dribbling from the sides of his mouth, he looked down.

The tip of the arrow was protruding from his chest.

Despite everything, as he fell to one knee, he couldn't help but smile bitterly. He'd been shot in the back. Of course. It seemed even an enemy standing in front of him was capable of such a feat.

He gasped out the words: “How… did you…?”

As Hachiman had taken over combat for the time being, Nael Manron had taken the opportunity to recover his strength. He stood up straight as he looked down at Muzazi, his eyes cold. The mocking smirk he had worn previously had vanished. When it came to the killing blow, this man abandoned emotion.

“Hachiman,” he said by way of explanation. “Some people have started calling this guy the God of Murder, thanks to me. Its ability… is to launch unblockable and unavoidable attacks.”

Muzazi's eyes widened, and his jaw nearly fell agape. That couldn't be right, could it? Such an ability would be absurd. This had to be another bluff from the King of Killers.

Only… his eyes seemed honest right now.

“Would you like a second demonstration?” Nael asked.

Hachiman raised up its sword. Immediately, Muzazi ignited a Radiant to defend. He poured nearly all his Aether into his hands, ready to parry with all his might.

The effort was fruitless.

As Hachiman brought the wooden sword down, the space between the blade and Muzazi's body seemed to contract and compress – as if the whole world had become a distorted lens, just for a moment. In that instant, the sword that had been meters away now directly slashed Muzazi's chest – and cut viciously, spraying blood onto the ground. Before he could even feel the pain, space snapped back to coherency, restoring the distance between Muzazi and the Guardian Entity.

“You see?” Nael continued, as Muzazi collapsed to the ground. “It doesn't matter what you try and block with or how far you run away. Hachiman manipulates space itself to reach you. Every arrow it fires is a point blank shot. Every swing of its sword is right in your face. As for the spear…”

He raised a hand, and Hachiman tossed him the wooden polearm. Nael spun it in his grip, a cold smile returning to his lips.

“Well…” he said. “You won't need to see that one today.”

IONIR YGGDRASSIL slapped an enemy out of the air with a mighty branch-arm, reducing them to a smear on the wall. The familiar they'd summoned, a bizarre creature like a flayed kangaroo, vanished with them. They hadn't even gotten the chance to use their ability.

As expected, those working for NaelManron had come to try and assist him in his battle. ATOY MUZAZI had been prudent to post guards. IONIR YGGDRASSIL, MorganNacht and MarcusGrace fought with vigor to keep any of these assassins from breaching the constructed dome. The young man slashed a metallic owl clean in half, and the Cogitant fired three perfect shots to shatter a shield of carbon. Like IONIR YGGDRASSIL, they would not condone interference – this victory belonged to ATOY MUZAZI alone.

Even so…

Things were not going well for ATOY MUZAZI inside the dome. While IONIR YGGDRASSIL was controlling a humanoid body like this, it lost much access to the senses from its other forms, but the scent and taste of ATOY MUZAZI’s blood was familiar. It littered the floor of the battlefield.

More than anything else, IONIR YGGDRASSIL wished to break its promise and assist ATOY MUZAZI in this fight. But even if it wasn't bound by promises…

…some things still were just not done.

Nael and Hachiman swooped in from either side, catching Muzazi in a pincer attack between them. Muzazi weaved and dodged as Nael swung and stabbed with the wooden spear, all the while keeping track of the Guardian Entity looming menacingly behind him.

Why wasn't it attacking? Nael was clearly running interference for his Guardian Entity, but that didn't make sense. If the attacks Hachiman unleashed truly were unblockable and undodgeable, then there would be no need to make sure Muzazi was distracted. Even if he wasn't distracted, what could he do?

No. Behaviour like this meant there was a weakness being compensated for. It wasn't the only oddity.

For one, why wasn't he dead yet? It would have been easy for that unavoidable arrow to pierce his brain, rather than his back. Even his heart had been missed. The second slash had failed to finish him off, too. Why?

The arrow was still protruding from Muzazi's chest, each movement bringing forth burning pain, but he didn't dare remove it. As things stood, it was the only thing stopping him from bleeding out.

He ducked under a winding branch near the border of the dome and into an underbrush below – small enough to house Nael and Muzazi, but not Hachiman. Right now, he needed to probe for weaknesses. How did Hachiman acquire the target for its unavoidable attacks? Did it have to see the enemy? Was there a general range they had to be within?

If it was the latter, that would be bad news indeed, given the cramped battlefield – but if it was the former, he may still have a chance.

As Muzazi fell backwards into the undergrowth, he saw Hachiman suddenly freeze in the air and raise the sword once more. The next second, the reaper was no longer visible – concealed behind countless branches and trunks. Muzazi wasn't relaxed, per se – he was still dodging for his life against Nael's spear – but he allowed himself to hope for a moment.

Then he was hit by Hachiman’s second sword-strike.

This time, it struck him in the back again, near his hip. Muzazi gasped in pain – but that was quickly cut short as Nael, taking advantage of the distraction, slammed the butt of his spear into Muzazi's face. There was a sickening crunch as Muzazi was sent crashing through the branches back into the open, his nose gruesomely broken.

He had no time to recover. As Muzazi flew out, Hachiman appeared in his path, raising its sword to cut him down mid-flight. On instinct, Muzazi used his thrusters to flip into a ready position – and this time, blocked that sword-strike with his own Radiant. His eyes widened.

Huh?

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Nael caught up, slamming his foot into Muzazi's side and sending him crashing down to the floor. Even as he slid across the ground, though – leaving a slick trail of blood as he went – Muzazi's mind was racing. He'd just seen something important.

That last one had been an ordinary attack. It had been strong, sure, but not unavoidable. Why hadn't Hachiman used its ability there?

As Muzazi threw himself up off the ground, dodging a spear-strike aimed at his head from Nael, an answer swam into focus. Between Hachiman's first and second attacks, there had been several seconds of time. But the third attack, avoidable as it was, had taken place almost immediately after the second. Was it that simple? Was there a charging time to those unavoidable strikes?

Slowly but surely, he was investigating this ability. No power was absolute. Conditions existed for every glory.

The sword swung through empty air for a third time – and Muzazi tensed up, ready to receive the blow. White-hot pain pulsed next to his head, and sickly blood began to crawl down his chin. A single glance to what had just fallen told Muzazi all he needed to know. This time, his right ear had been cut off.

That was another matter he needed to clarify. What determined where Hachiman's attacks hit? There seemed to be little rhyme or reason to them, but Muzazi doubted they were truly random.

Nael and Hachiman attacked at the same time.

The spear stabbed deep into Muzazi's right arm, nearly impaling the limb – and the King of Killers used the resultant leverage to hurl Muzazi up into the air. As he flew, Hachiman fired off another arrow at him – not an unavoidable one, but still one so strong and so fast that it took all he had left to dodge it. It blasted a hole in the wooden dome, citylight and battlecries oozing in through the gap.

He didn't have long. He had to figure this out now.

As Muzazi landed, focusing nearly all his Aether into his legs to keep himself steady, Hachiman raised its blade once more – and with that, the Full Moon…

…understood.

This was all but over.

Nael watched grimly as Muzazi fell out of the air, ready to receive Hachiman's absolute arrow. He was the first to stay alive against the God of Murder for so long, but in a way that was even worse. The injuries he was accruing had long since robbed him of the ability to move under his own power – he was using thrusters for all of that now. By the time he finally dropped, it'd have to be a closed casket funeral – or a closed casket niain, perhaps.

“Hachiman,” Nael muttered. “Finish him off.”

The arrow vanished from the string, and Nael waited for the man before him to drop dead like so many others. Only… he didn't. He remained there, legs quivering beneath him, black-and-white hair hanging over his face. Had he died on his feet?

No. Muzazi looked up.

Nael furrowed his brow. “...what?”

The Full Moon was grinning, almost giggling, even as his own blood dripped from his face. Slowly, he raised his left hand, extending a middle finger – or at least, he would have, if that finger wasn't now missing from the hand. The stump spat blood all over.

“I knew it,” Muzazi gasped, delirious from blood loss. “That thing's attacks can't be dodged… and they can't be blocked… but they can be mitigated.”

Shit. He'd figured it out.

Muzazi threw himself forward with thrusters, that mad grin still on his face, a Radiant igniting from the palm of his other hand.

“Your Hachiman has three weaknesses!” he screamed – and as he did, he swung his blade in an attempt at decapitation that Nael only narrowly avoided.

He's lost his mind.

“One!” Muzazi roared. Hachiman and Nael lunged at him at the same time – but the Full Moon blocked both with twin Radiants from his palms. “Your Guardian Entity can't unleash those unavoidable attacks continuously, right?! There's a charge time of five seconds!”

Hachiman broke free of their blade clash, seizing Muzazi by the head and hurling him towards the other side of the dome. As Muzazi flew, Hachiman and Nael swapped weapons – Nael tossing the spear back to its owner and catching the bow in his own hands.

The God of Murder thrust the spear forward, space crushed between itself and Atoy Muzazi for just an instant to accommodate the killing blow – but another of Muzazi's remaining fingers burst into gore instead.

“Two!” Muzazi cried, twisting in the air. He pressed his feet against the side of the dome as he made contact and kicked back off, zooming like a bullet towards Nael and Hachiman. “Those attacks! They can't be dodged! They can't be blocked! But! They can be mitigated!”

Nael clicked his tongue as he threw the bow up, blocking a Radiant-strike intended to slice him in half.

This bastard really had figured it out. It was true – there was no way to dodge or block Hachiman's ability. No matter what, the attack would hit the target. However, whether the attack would kill the target was another story entirely.

Hachiman took the path of least resistance – the attack would strike the part of the target's body that was the least protected. Even if they covered their entire body in absurd armour, some spot would be slightly less durable than the rest – and that was where the blow would land. Muzazi was taking advantage of that to buy himself time.

At the very instant Hachiman unleashed its absolute attack, Muzazi was releasing the infusion on one of his fingers, so that it would take the blow rather than a vital spot. Nael supposed Muzazi didn't need fingers to swing those light-swords of his, but still… what a crazy bastard

It wouldn't save him.

As Muzazi pushed against Nael, trying to overpower him with all he had left, Hachiman loomed over the Full Moon from behind. Five seconds had passed…

“Three,” Muzazi gasped. “Whenever Hachiman uses an absolute attack, it has to stop all other movement!”

…but just because five seconds had passed didn't mean Hachiman had to use an absolute attack.

Muzazi kicked Nael away and spun around, swinging his Radiant at the immobilised Hachiman. Only, it wasn't immobilised. With languid ease, Hachiman swooped out of the way of Muzazi's strike -- and lunged in, thrusting the spear forward.

Before the Full Moon could blink, he had been impaled on the weapon, held up on high by the Guardian Entity. The tip of the spear bloomed forth from just underneath Muzazi's collar. He tried to take a breath, but all he managed was a dry gasp.

Nael stood up straight, brushing some of the blood and dust from his coat.

“And that's game,” he growled.

So… Muzazi thought, his mind a shadow. This is the world as you see it, Nael Manron? I see. I see what you mean. This truly is intolerable.

An endless sequence of blows, unavoidable, always aimed for the part of you most vulnerable. No matter how far you ran, or how hard you tried to defend yourself, new pain would find you. Any happiness was just the world bluffing. Any peace was just the instant between attacks.

There was no hope. There was nothing.

But was that really true? Muzazi reached up, seized the spear that had run him through with what fingers he had left -- and grinned his bloody grin once more. The moment Hachiman had impaled him, Nael had lost this battle.

It must be humiliating for the King of Killers, Muzazi supposed. He'd been fooled… exactly the same way… twice in one night. White specks of light flowed into Muzazi's shaking hand.

In these cramped quarters, there would have been no way for Muzazi to charge up Radiant Almighty. Nael or Hachiman would have destroyed the pillars instantly. But the Guardian Entity really shouldn't have fired off that arrow… it really shouldn't have opened that hole in the dome…

…because, right now, six massive blades of light were blazing on the outside of the structure.

Nael realised, too late. His eyes widened and he jumped back. He opened his mouth and screamed:

“HACHIMAN! GET HIM AWAY!”

Hachiman followed the command it was given. It dropped the spear and Muzazi with it, leaving them to fall out of the air. But still… too late, too late, too late.

As Muzazi turned mid-fall, he saw Hachiman's inhuman face and smiled. It was an ugly, wretched thing, all bone and blood and snarling tongue. All it could do was kill. All it could do was hurt.

There is more to life than you, Muzazi thought, looking at the God of Murder.

“Atoy,” Marie said. “█ ████ ███.”

I love you too, Marie.

Atoy Muzazi swung the sword up…

Radiant… Almighty.

…and everything went white.