"Anti-tenzen Art: Grave Axis"
As the words left Khalzheroth's lips, a dark aura descended.
"It's impossible... absolutely inevitable. Your death is unavoidable!"
Every word hit like thunder.
"Ohh... intriguing" Ken replied flatly.
Shwooooon!
He flung both swords outwards, their golden glow piercing the darkness.
"Let's get this over with!" Ken shouted.
"Oh oh, you asked for it!" Khalzheroth grinned, slowly raising his right hand towards Ken.
"My true power. Gravity and Domain manipulation."
The cubes started shifting behind Khalzheroth, stacking and merging.
Khalzheroth opened his mouth. The words cane slowly, like time had paused.
"Die!"
And in that instant, before anyone could think or blink...
Bam!!!
"Uuuhhhh..."
Time slowed. A cube rammed into Ken from the side, before he could react.
Fwoooosh!!
Both Ken and the cube blasted sideways, crashing into another cube in an explosive shockwave.
Khakzheroth turned, grinning.
"Eh eh eh, witness my true powers!"
"Aww..." came a long groan.
"Oi, that hurts," Ken said, stepping from the crushed ruins, and balancing on midair debris.
Blood dripped down from his face, soaking his hair. His grip on his blade were loose, but he stood.
"How did...how did he survive that?" Khalzheroth muttered.
"Guess it'll take more than this to end him," he whispered.
Then, in that instant...
Fwip.
Khalzheroth raised his palm again.
"This is the end for you. Everything within this domain is in my control. I weave the cubes, air, everything to my pleasure," Khalzheroth said.
Then silence.
"Haha." A low chuckle pierced the stillness.
"Hahaha."
Khalzheroth eyes twitched. That wasn't the response he expected.
"Hahahahahahaha..." Ken's laughter turned manic.
"What's funny?" Khalzheroth barked, stepping back slightly.
Then, Ken stopped, head bowed.
"Don't make me laugh," He muttered.
"Huh?"
"This is the end?"
A bead of sweat rolled down Khalzheroth's cheek.
"Who...?"
Ken snapped his head up.
"For who?!!!!" His voice boomed, the whole space trembled.
"What?!" Khalzheroth replied.
"You!"
Ken's gaze sharpened.
"I'll end you!" Khalzheroth roared, arm extending.
"So..."
"...die!"
As Khalzheroth said the words, two cubes launched at Ken at impossible speeds, but as they seemed to connect...
Krrrrr....Boooommm!!
The cubes pulverized into dust with a single swing of Ken's swords.
"Wha...?" Before Khalzheroth could blink-
Swishhh!!
Ken stood before him.
"Na-" Khalzheroth was about to talk, when...
Shiuuuun!!
His head erupted into blood.
"You talk too much!" Ken whispered, eyes black, steam hissing between his teeth.
As Khalzheroth's head flew into the air, his headless body suddenly twisted, and his headless form took a leap through the air, spinning towards the flying head, and...
Pop!
The head locked back into place. Whole again.
"Axis Barrage!"
Khalzheroth didn't give any time to rest.
Skrrrrr.... swoosh! Boom!
Cubes fired towards Ken like bullets, flying at unbelievable speeds.
Krrrr! Shiuuuun!
Ken swung...and four cubes exploded instantly, as more structures flew from every direction.
Boom! Slasshhh!!
Cubes the size of large auditoriums were shredded like paper, disappearing into a mist of dust.
"Oi, oi, oi! Is this all you've got?" Ken yelled, landing a gruelling slash into a cube, and dissecting it into perfectly equal halves.
But in that instant...
Through the spacing between the parting cube, something appeared.
Khalzheroth.
And before Ken could react...
Bam!!!
A large ripple, followed by a massive shockwave emanated, as Khalzheroth slammed Ken into a wall of cubes, crushing them into dust.
Bash! Blam!
Only memories were left of the cubes.
"I said that was painful!!" Ken shouted, emerging from the debris. In a blur, he closed a 500m gap in under a second.
Shiuuuuun!
Splurt!
Ken's slash split Khalzheroth's torso clean. Blood spurted, but-
"Pointless!" Khalzheroth regenerated instantly.
Ken appeared in front of him, and then...
Steam blew out of Khalzheroth's mouth, eyes hardening, as he gritted his teeth.
"Grave: Tidal thrust!"
Khalzheroth exclaimed, and in that instant, an invisible force burst from his palm.
Clang!
Force connected with metal.
Ken blocked, but the sheer pressure of the force hurled him through multiple cubes, disintegrating them on contact.
But Khalzheroth wasn't done.
He stretched both arms sideways.
Then Ken reemerged out of the cloud of dust, bloodied and airborne.
"Axis: slammer!"
Khalzheroth yelled, slamming both palms together, and in that instant, two cubes, three times larger than before appeared out of nowhere...
...and...
Bashhhhh!
It was an absolute sandwich! The two cubes rammed into each other with intense force. The force of impact was so great, that both buildings disintegrated instantly.
"Hehehe!" Khalzheroth cackled, but it was short-lived.
"Weak!"
"Too weak!"
Ken burst forth from the rubble.
"Why won't you die?!!" Khalzheroth screamed, then...
Flashh!
All he saw was a flash...
A blur of gold.
Skrablaaaammm!!
Khalzheroth's whole body shredded into rolls of meat, as his whole being exploded into gore.
Ken appeared behind him with a loud swoosh!
But Khalzheroth regenerated back.Whole and healed.
"Nah!" Khalzheroth said, as he spun.
Khalzheroth didn't just spin. He unleashed a massive outburst of destructive force that practically split the air open, and instantly obliterated numerous cubes, but as he reached Ken...
"Uh... he's gone?"
Then-
"Rip!" Ken yelled, and-
Shiuuuun!
Khalzheroth split in two vertical halves.
Swing!
Ken spun like a tornado, slamming his blade flat into Khalzheroth's face.
Swooom!
Khalzheroth's body exploded again, sending only a surviving finger ramming into a distant cube.
Twich!
Blood, muscles, sinew, and bones began to materialize from the finger, and Khalzheroth's whole body reformed.
"Hahahaha! I can't die!"
But Ken was already beside him.
Shiuuuun!
"Uh?"
A flash of gold...and-
Boom!
Khalzheroth's head disintegrated - the cubes behind him followed.
Pop.
"You can't stop me!" He screamed, blitzing towards Ken...
"Grave!"
Khalzheroth whispered, as he connected.
"Devastating slam!"
A punch connected.
Clang!
An air burst ripped from Ken's back, vaporizing the terrain.
A huge blinding spark emanated, followed by a destructive shockwave that sent Ken launched.
But almost immediately, he came back.
Swooooosh!
He spun, dicing Khalzheroth into ribbons. His blood lining the floor, his remains slamming into the wall far inside another cube.
Swaaannnng!!
Ken became a blur. Even his shadow was too fast to phantom.
In the same second Khalzheroth regenerated, Ken sliced through 84 more cubes, rippling Khalzheroth's upper half into memories.
"Axis!"
Fwooosh!
A cube rammed into Ken's side, smashing him into another in a mist of sand.
"Just die! Mere mortal!" Khalzheroth charged at Ken.
"Grave..."
But...
He felt a burn.
"Uh?" Khalzheroth shifted his gaze to the burn, and...
Splurt!
Ken cleaved his head off.
"This human..." Khalzheroth whispered. "Why-Why won't you die?!!!!!!" Khalzheroth screamed.
"Disorder!!!!"
All the cubes flew to Khalzheroth, the Rubik's cube clicked, and in that instant, all the cubes broke into blocks, forming a titanic brick arm
"Over and over - just. Die. Already!!!!!" He punched.
Booooooommm!!!!
Even the air bent.
It connected-
Fist. Met. Fist!
Ken countered, not with his swords, but barehanded.
"Ain't this exhilarating?" Ken said, grinning.
"Shut up!!"
"Aaahhhhhhhhh!"
A surge of yellow light from Ken, and dark red light from Khalzheroth flashed.
"Hahahaha!" Ken kept laughing loudly, and
Blooooh!! Twooosh!!
Ken's arm burst open, his veins rupturing from the sheer pressure.
"I love this!!!" Ken yelled.
"Playtime's...over!"
"Ugh?" Khalzheroth's gaze dropped, and ...
"Hehehehe, time to get serious!" Ken's eyes flared with gold.
"Aaaaaahhhhh!!!!" Khalzheroth shouted, putting all his strength into the punch.
"Pointless!" Ken whispered, and in that instant -
THWOOOOOMMPH! Splatter!
The cubes, bricks, and everything that made up Khalzheroth's being...
Exploded.
"Why? Why?"
"Why won't you die?!" Khalzheroth screamed, fear and exertion written all over his face.
"Because..."
Ken connected in a golden tornado.
"... I'm Ken."
...
"Ahh... ahh... ahh..." Ken wheezed, steam pouring from his mouth as he glanced around.
There were no cubes left.
Nothing.
Everything had been annihilated.
His breath trembled, his swords dangled at his sides, and blood clung to every inch of his face—but he still grinned.
"You're not tired yet, are you?!" he roared, laughter cracking through his exhaustion.
A blur pulsed in the void.
Fwoosh.
Khalzheroth rematerialized, his expression dark, voice dry with irritation.
"Good grief... you just won't die, will you?"
"Hahaha!!" Ken laughed, clutching his waist, body shaking.
"You think so?"
Fwip!
Khalzheroth raised a single arm, slow and deliberate, aiming it at Ken.
"I don't think so..." he said, voice low.
"So far..." he smirked, eyes glowing, "...I've not been serious. But now..."
A silence crawled into the space.
Ominous and stifling.
The air refused to move.
Then...
"Hehe."
Ken chuckled, lowering his stance, stretching both swords backward.
From Khalzheroth's lips, chants began to drip like venom.
"Zerukh'tal Veymorraneth..."
Ken grinned, body coiled like a spring. The very space trembled.
The domain began to quake violently, cracks running through invisible barriers, like reality itself was about to rupture.
"...Drahzil."
WHAMMMMM!!!
An explosion of black energy detonated from Khalzheroth's palm, expanding like a dome—swallowing space, air, everything.
A deep hum followed.
Reality bent.
The black energy twisted into a vortex—dense, churning, hungry.
"Superb!" Ken said, as he shot forward, swords gleaming through the darkness.
Khalzheroth's eye twitched, a smirk twitching on his lips, as Ken drew closer.
'Hehe... my third greatest technique... so dangerous Aidra himself forbade it. A power that grants me absolute dominion—gravitational and dimensional. Everything is devoured. Nothing remains. Not even that boy... Code... survived this.'
The black sphere pulsated once more.
It reached critical density.
And as Ken was about to connect -
Everything collapsed into it—light, dust, sound—even the silence.
And then...
Nothing remained.
No Ken.
No sound.
No cube, no debris, no air, no color.
Just void.
Khalzheroth stood in the stillness, chest rising slowly, face lit with cruel satisfaction.
"...Grave Axis Complex."
He raised his hand.
"...Black Hole."
The final shimmer of darkness faded.
Only he remained.
"...I win."
***
To be continued.