The Village Disciples

Tanjo's gaze never faltered as he stared down absolute evil. His gray cloak was shredded, his skin was bruised, and his body was thrumming with intense magic. Tanjo knew that Regashi's abilities were capable of slipping between the cracks of possible and impossible, but so was Tanjo's Disruption of Reality—which happened to be the teenager's primary power throughout the duration of their battle. 

"What else do you have to throw at me, Brother?" Regashi taunted from afar, his green eyes shimmering. 

The boy with jet-black hair gritted his teeth and tilted his head downward. To have the Disruption of Reality coursing through the air and also repairing his body, all while having his thoughts hidden from Regashi, was intellectually hard since he had to think about all three commands at the same time for the blue rifts to act consistently. It was a temporary solution to his fight with Yuso, but Regashi was different—significantly different. He was not a man who could be easily worn down or overcome by sheer might.

All Tanjo needed was a plan that would circumvent Regashi's uncanny power, enabling him to tune his Disruption of Reality to a potency that could successfully subdue the man permanently. Regashi claimed that Tanjo's command was incorrect: 'Erase Regashi Ketsueki from existence!' What was wrong with it? It was clear and concise; no mishaps were possible—yet Tanjo made a mistake?

He just needed to keep going. Keep striking at Regashi until something clicks. 

'If I can make my Disruption of Reality appear from thin air in distant locations, then that means that I should be able to…' Tanjo reflected on his abilities for a moment, huffing heavily. 

*KRSHH!*

In a flash, Tanjo's body vanished from thin air, only to reappear inches from Regashi. 

"RAH!"

With a fist coated in red and blue Aura Sense, Tanjo swung at Regashi's face with unbridled anger, and missed entirely. Despite the teleportation, Regashi was able to read Tanjo's movements and block every strike. 

Regashi laughed and said, "Teleportation isn't fast enough!"

'Shit!'

*SMACK!*

Regashi proceeded to slap Tanjo across the face, dislocating the teenager's jaw and sending him flying back for the umpteenth time. Clenching his face as he landed, Tanjo held his jaw in place as the Aura Amalgamation flowing through his body healed it. It was incredible to have two sources of healing reserves. The Aura Amalgamation was fruitful for physical damage, while the Disruption of Reality mends its own drawbacks. It was a never-ending cycle of breaking and fixing. 

"You should thank me for everything you know, Brother. I did lead you to your place in life!" Regashi argued, jabbing his index finger at the boy in the distance. 

Tanjo clenched his healed jaw and replied, "Shut up."

"Oh?" Regashi raised a brow. "Did a failure of a father not teach you proper manners?"

*CACKLE!*

Blue lightning sparked between the fingers of Regashi's right hand, making Tanjo's eyes widen. It looked so much like Old Man Nozomu's lightning, causing a pang of pain to traverse through the teenager's body. 

"He's accomplished more than what you ever could!" Tanjo refuted, glowering at the lightning pulsing in his opponent's hand. 

*WHISHI!*

Without warning, a whip made of lightning shot itself toward Tanjo, wrapping around the boy's torso. The current of electricity invading Tanjo's system made him convulse, his heart beating at an inconsistent pace. 

"And his reward for everything was to be six feet under!" Regashi yelled with a mocking tone, increasing the voltage of the lightning whip and causing the amps to be more lethal. 

*SHING!*

Materializing from the sky, a crimson-red pentagram sliced through the lightning whip, setting Tanjo free from its electric grip. A shadow suddenly blocked out the moon's scattered light, prompting Tanjo and Regashi to glance upward and see a pair of black, feathery wings flapping mightily, with a particular redhead attached to them. 

"Yuso!" Tanjo called out to the incoming individual, shaking off the residual shocking sensation in his limbs. 

Yuso kept his Shirugeto eyes on Regashi, inhaling. "He's susceptible to abstract attacks—if it warps our world, it warps him."

"Now that you also know that, we need to figure out a way to make our attacks actually worth a damn! He heals after every strike I land!" Tanjo huffed, his blue eyes flitting between Yuso and Regashi. 

"Shall we obliterate his head entirely?" Yuso offered a suggestion, narrowing his eyes at the brown-haired man. 

Tanjo shook his head. "Doesn't work. I already split his head open and commanded my Disruption of Reality to erase him and he still snapped back."

"Unscathed?" The redhead questioned dubiously, surveying possible opportunities. 

The teenage boy flipped his hand up and down undecidedly. "He claims I would have done more if I didn't screw it up, meaning that I was on the right track."

"Then don't screw up again!"

*PRSHH!*

Regashi grinned as his left shoulder was erased from existence due to one of Yuso's invisible pentagrams, retaliating by raising his right hand toward the redhead—*FWOOSH!*—and discharging a wall of fire. Yuso teleported elsewhere and continued fighting the brown-haired man.

As Regashi and Yuso fought one another, an idea popped into Tanjo's head. Regashi's control over the world was his biggest advantage, but anytime Tanjo or Yuso managed to steal a bit of Regashi's dominance by warping the world with their own abilities, Regashi was slightly more vulnerable. That amount of information was already proven and known, but the answer was not to simply control the world more than Regashi but for Tanjo and Yuso to control themselves more. 

Tanjo tapped his chest and shouted, "Blip!"

*KRSHH!*

Suddenly, Regashi perked up, shifting his gaze to where Tanjo once stood. "Huh?"

Tanjo's overall presence had vanished completely, ostensibly perplexing Regashi. It was as if the teenager had never existed, gone from the universe without a trace being left behind. 

*CRUNCH!*

A kick to the face was a welcomed surprise to Regashi as he felt half of his skull shatter under the pressure. It was Tanjo who kicked him, and the Disruption of Reality was connected to his foot as he kicked Regashi in the head. Now was the time for Tanjo to rectify the mistake he made earlier—to halt Regashi by giving a better command for his Disruption of Reality. 

"Erase the individual I have touched!"

Blue rifts stretched themselves across Regashi's form, restraining him once again. Regashi's eyes bulged from their sockets and the veins in his head were ready to burst from his head. 

Tanjo glanced at Yuso with pleading eyes. "Help me!"

Nodding, Yuso stretched both of his arms outward, aiming his palms at Regashi's twitching body. His Shirugto eyes swirled rapidly in both directions, having an unpredictable rotation once more. 

*PRSHHH!*

To add to the punishment of the blue rift's overwhelming Regashi, several holes were then punched into Regashi's form, slowly being erased from the universe one body part at a time. Eventually, Yuso's invisible pentagrams swallowed Regashi's head. 

"Yuso, look!"

As Regashi's beheaded body collapsed to the ground, his remains started to break apart, becoming transparent and dissipating into nothing. All of the blood that seeped onto the ground dried up, and the clothing that Regashi once wore shriveled into dust. 

"It… worked." Yuso mumbled, slowly floating to the ground as his wings stopped fluttering. 

With a labored breath, Tanjo gradually let his Disruption of Reality and Aura Amalgamation disappear, eyeing the spot where Regashi was erased. The Detrimental War was mostly over. The man who orchestrated the war was dead and most of the forces for Adonai and Shanti were in utter shambles. 

"Now what will we do?" Yuso inquired, turning his head toward Tanjo. 

Tanjo was frozen where he stood, stuck in a pensive stupor. Something did not feel right to the teenager—something in the universe was awry, and it was eating away at him. 

"Yuso, do you—!"

Yuso suddenly cut Tanjo off, his gaze pointed toward the sky. 

"Tanjo! Look at the moon!"

The floating celestial body that once had a hole pierced through it due to an earlier battle was now rotating up above, transitioning into an eyeball with a bright green iris. The moon, which was now a floating eye in the sky, peered down at Tanjo and Yuso, shimmering horrifically. It was Regashi Ketsueki's eye. 

"It's an illusion! It has to be!" Tanjo panicked, his eyes broadening. 

From every corner of the Earth, colossal fingers veiled the skies, wrapping around the planet in a tight grip. The ground quaked, and fissures stretched throughout the Three Great Nations, creating massive ravines and initiating violent tsunamis. 

"Are we still clinging to the notion that it is an illusion!?" Yuso barked, clenching the muscles in his jaw. 

Tanjo grunted, raising both of his hands over his head—*KRSSHH!*—and conjuring blue rifts that revolved around his arms. 

"We can't risk just blasting the moon haphazardly, so we need to repel him!" Tanjo declared, feeling the Disruption of Reality flow above him. 

Yuso hummed anxiously and asked, "By doing what!?"

"By warping the space around Earth!"

*KRSHHHHH!*

Releasing a blinding light, the Disruption of Reality took to the skies, diverging into every possible direction. Swiftly, the numerous blue rifts shielded the Earth, forcing the massive fingers to recoil and separate from the planet. Two thoughts brimmed in Tanjo's mind: expel the giant hand and heal the bodily damage that the Disruption of Reality caused as payment. 

"It appears that the fingers backed off." Yuso commented, looking at the red sky. 

Unfortunately, Yuso stared at the giant floating eye, becoming mentally lost. 

'What's… happening! I can't move!' Yuso thought to himself, his muscles refusing to move. 

Yuso's left hand twitched, spontaneously reaching out and clutching onto Tanjo's shoulder. The action forced Tanjo to quickly cast a glance in Yuso's direction, with confusion being an evident feature on the teenager's face. The Disruption of Reality in the sky wavered due to Tanjo's distracted state. 

"Yuso, what are you doing!?" Tanjo demanded, looking at the hand on his shoulder. 

Yuso struggled to look at the boy he was currently forced to hold onto. "I… can't… control…!"

The Shirugeto in Yuso's eyes started to whirl rampantly, going against the redhead's wishes. The sensation was similar to when Lord Phoenix grabbed Yuso by the head and forced him to spawn a pentagram. Yuso was no longer in control of his body or powers, as both he and Tanjo were teleported off the face of the Earth. 

It was only then when the blue rifts that secured the planet ceased, becoming nothing more than air. 

XXX

And that concludes this chapter! I hope you enjoyed reading and stay tuned for more!

Have a Great Day!

Peace - Cr1ticalz_