Vega stands up and turns towards Quroe and Luna.
*!*
“Oi, oi, oi! What’s with your expression?” said Vega.
*FWOOOOOOOMMMMMM*
Vega quickly wipes the blood off his mouth and enters his battle stance. He emits a large amount of fire from his entire body as an act of intimidation.
“YOU WANNA GO, HUH? I AM IN PAIN RIGHT NOW, BUT IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A FIGHT, THEN I’D BE DELIGHTED TO TAKE YOU ON!! HAHAHAHHAHAHA!” said Vega in high spirits.
“You’re the one who killed her?” asked Quroe.
“HUUUUUUUUUUHHH?? CAN’T HEAR YA IN THIS DISTANCE IF YOU DON’T SPEAK LOUDER!!”
Vega raises his right fist, and fire burns brightly on it. He creates more flame and gathers them into the same right fist.
*FWOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM*
The flame quickly takes the shape of a male lion’s head with its fiery mane flowing in the air, and its temperature is reaching 6000 degrees Celsius, matching the heat of the surface of the sun.
“TELL ME!! HOW STRONG ARE YAAAAAA???” shouts Vega.
“. . .”
Quroe did not respond. He simply looks at Vega with a vengeful stare.
“NOT ANSWERING? THEN LET ME FIND OUT VIOLENTLY!!”
Vega prepares to swing the fiery lion’s head.
“PROMINENCE PRIDEEEE!!”
*FWOOOOOOOOMMMMMM*
He swings his right hand forward and sends the fiery lion’s head flying towards Quroe. The fiery lion’s head is flying at 250km/h, reaching Quroe within seconds.
*SLASH*
But Vega couldn’t believe what he just witnessed. His fiery lion’s head was cut into pieces the moment it was still two meters away from Quroe. The worst part of what just happened is that he didn’t see anything visible that would interfere with his attack. The fiery lion’s head looked like it just fallen apart on its own, even though Vega had no intention for it to happen.
“(W-What? What’s going on here?)”
*FWOOOOOOOOOOSSSHH*
Vega propels himself forward and flies towards Quroe. He stops and lands on the ground five meters in front of him to keep a safe distance.
“HEY! YOU! WHAT WAS THAT? MY ATTACK WAS SUPPOSED TO BURN YOU TO A CRISP! I WANTED TO SEE HOW YOU WOULD HANDLE THAT!! WHAT JUST HAPPENED? WAS THAT YOU? THAT WAS YOUR FAITH POWER OR SOMETHING?”
“. . . Tell me. Did you kill that girl?” said Quroe as he pointed toward Kasumi’s remains.
*!*
“What? You know her or something?”
As soon as he uttered those words, Vega saw Luna behind Quroe.
“Ah! You are, huh? Listen! I had no intention to kill her! I only wanted to fight her at her strongest, so I kept pushing her to her absolute limit, but she couldn’t break through her limit, so she ended up dying. I admit that I was so high in ecstasy that I couldn’t properly see her being burned alive. She was a wonderful fighter, and I respect her highly for the rest of my life.”
“. . .”
“I see.”
*GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*
*!!!!*
All of a sudden, Quroe was engulfed by a bright red light that took shape into a sphere. A red pillar of light is shooting from the top of the sphere towards the sky above.
“(W-Wait a minute! Isn’t that--?)” wonders Vega.
“Q-QUROE-SAN?” asked Luna in confusion behind him.
The red sphere cracks and slowly breaks apart. Quroe emerges from it, looking entirely different.
Quroe has grown taller. He is now two meters tall. His hair grows longer, reaching his lower back. His antennae hair also grows taller. His eyes are both red, and his X scar disappeared from his left eye. His skin turns pure white. He is not wearing anything on top, showing off his chest, which has now turned slightly muscular. He wears a golden skirt with red trims on every edge, draped around his waist, and flowing on the backside. He wears a red baggy pair of pants that covers down to his ankles. He is not wearing any shoes, and he stands barefoot. There is also nothing on both of his hands, though everything from his fingers up to both of his elbows is completely crimson red, as if they are deeply covered in blood. There are three pairs of crimson blood angelic wings growing from his back. Each of his wingspan is 1,5m in length. On his right shoulder, there is a golden shoulder guard with a red shoulder cape bound into it, 30cm in length.
Sedahashi Quroe has awakened and entered his Second State.
*FLAP*
*BWOOOOOOOOOOSSSSHHHH*
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He flaps all of his wings and creates a massive shockwave in all directions.
“URGHH!!”
Vega braces himself to not get blown by this powerful blow. He was surprised by how strong the wind pressure was from mere wing flaps. He had to cross his arms in front and rooted both of his feet to the ground to stand his ground.
*?*
Luna sees how Vega is struggling just to stay in place. She is confused as to why she is not affected in the slightest, given that she is standing a lot closer to Quroe than Vega. Luna couldn’t have known, but Quroe actually uses his invisible slashes around Luna to cut and deflect any incoming wind pressure towards her. After a few seconds, the strong push of wind stops.
“Don’t worry, Luna. I will never hurt you.” said Quroe without turning his head towards her.
“Is this your Second State, Quroe-san? I never knew you had Second State!”
“No. I never had this. This is a new experience for me, too.”
“I see.”
“Please stay put, Luna. I’ll end this quickly.”
“O-Okay.”
“KH KH KH KH!! HUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”
Vega could not help but laugh at Quroe’s words.
“I AM SORRY, BUT UNLESS YOU ARE MARTIN, THE NUMBER ONE STRONGEST BELIEVER, NOBODY CAN DEFEAT ME IN A SHORT TIME!!”
“. . .”
Quroe did not answer him. He simply looks at Vega with a pair of empty eyes. There is no determination nor emotion in his eyes. He simply wants to end Vega as quickly as possible.
*FWOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM*
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”
Vega is emitting a large amount of flame, trapping himself inside, erecting a massive pillar of fire towards the sky, reaching 200m in height, and three meters in diameter, as he’s laughing hysterically in excitement. The pillar of flame soon subsides and fades away.
Vega has donned his Flaming Lion armor made of fire. His chest is covered by a chest piece that has the shape of a lion’s head, complete with its fiery mane. His forearms are covered by a pair of bracelets of fire. He wears a short hunting skirt that looks like fiery fur all around his waist. His feet are still bare, but now there are a fiery pair of ankle bracelets on his ankles.
“LET’S BEGIN!! I’LL USE THIS BEFORE I REVEAL MY SECOND STATE!”
Vega enters his battle stance.
“My name is Vega! I am the Ei—Thirteenth Strongest Believer in the world. STATE YOUR NAME, KASUMI’S COMRADE!! I BET YOU’RE FAR STRONGER THAN HER SINCE YOU’RE ACTING LIKE YOU’RE HIS GUARDIAN OR SOMETHING!! Though I must say, I didn’t sense any strength from you, unlike when I sensed Kasumi’s.”
“. . .”
Quroe did not respond. He shows no reaction to Vega at all ever since entering Second State.
*FWOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM*
“HERE GOES!!”
Vega raises his right hand above his head. He creates a large amount of flame all around him, and flows them all towards a single point above him.
*FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM*
He created a giant fireball 10 meters in diameter with a temperature reaching 6000 Degrees Celsius.
“MINIATURE SOLAR!!”
*FWOOOSSHHHH*
Vega swings his hand down and launches the giant fireball towards Quroe, moving at 300km/h, reaching him instantly from such a short distance.
*Fwm*
*!!!*
But instead of exploding into a gigantic burst of flame that would swallow everything in a 200m radius, the giant fireball was cut into millions of pieces, losing its stability and immediately vanishing from Quroe’s sight.
“W-What? That again? You! What is your Faith power? That is the second time you completely deleted my attack as if they’re nothing.” said Vega.
“. . .”
Quroe is still not responding to Vega at all.
“This silent treatment has been going on for far too long, hasn’t it? TALK LIKE AN ACTUAL HUMAN BEING, ASSHOLE!!”
Vega’s anger rises at being ignored by Quroe. Veins are becoming visible on his face and neck.
“If that is the case, I’LL SCREAM SO LOUDLY INTO YOUR EARS!! LET’S SEE HOW YOU’RE GONNA IGNORE THAT!!”
Vega’s entire body starts glowing orange. He created a thin layer of flame under his skin across his entire body to boost his physical capabilities.
*BWOOOOOOOSSSHHHHH*
He jumped forward, approaching Quroe with his right fist ready to punch him in the face.
“YOU WON’T IGNORE THIS NOW!! SOLAR FIST!!”
Vega appeared right in front of Quroe’s face, already swinging his right fist, which is burning now at 8500 Degrees Celcius, in front of his nose. Even at this close range, Quroe still doesn’t react to Vega’s insane temperature.
*ZRAASSHHHH*
Vega did not swing his right fist forward because it just flew off his shoulder.
*THUD*
It lands on the ground three meters behind him.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!”
He starts screaming in pain as he hovers his left hand over the stump on his right shoulder.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!”
*thud*
He falls to his knees right in front of Quroe.
*FWOOOOOOOOOMMMMM*
Vega realized that it wasn’t actually that painful; his screams were merely an act. The cut didn’t actually hurt at all, and the only pain he felt was because his exposed flesh was brushing against the outside air. But blood still gushes out of the stump on his right shoulder, spilling to the ground.
He continues to attack. He emits flame and burns his entire left hand. He raises his left hand to the side, creating a blade of fire that extends all the way from his elbow to two meters past his fingers.
“SOLAR BLADE!!”
*FWOOOOOOSSHHHH*
Vega quickly stands up and swings his fire arm-blade diagonally upwards at Quroe’s torso.
*SLASH SLASH SLASH SLASH*
*!*
His entire arm blade was suddenly cut into millions of smaller pieces once again by something invisible.
“AAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHH!!”
His entire left hand was also cut into millions of smaller pieces, and it doesn’t hurt him at all once again. Blood spills from the stump on his left shoulder.
“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!”
Quroe slowly raises his right hand above his head. His entire right hand is engulfed by his black and red aura blade.
In Second State, Quroe can use all of his abilities at once without the need to switch between them. He can even combo them all together to create deadly attacks that cannot be blocked. In addition, he gained a fourth ability. He is able to summon a sword made of his black and red aura, with only a hilt and handle, without a blade, a bladeless sword, called the One Blade.
Quroe summons the One Blade in his right hand.
“You are going to be forgotten from this world. That’s your punishment for taking Kasumi’s life.”
*?*
“The fuck you’re talking about?”
*SLASH*
Quroe swings his One Blade down without moving any other part of his body. He cuts Vega perfectly in two, right in the center of his body from a distance.
“W-Wha--?”
“(My consciousness is fading away rapidly. Dammit! Is this how I die? It’s so quick and painless. Fuck. . . Have I become strong after all these years? Are you proud of me now, mother?)”
His cut body quickly cracks and breaks apart into dust and disintegrates into nothing within seconds.
Quroe’s One Blade is a bladeless sword that can cut down any target that he wishes to. It doesn’t matter how far away his target is, as long as Quroe knows who or what he is targeting, he can cut them down no matter what. He also doesn’t need to actually touch his target, as long as he swings his sword down, the target will be cut, and there is nothing his target can do about it. Something or someone can only be marked as a target for him if he has used any of his abilities, no matter which ones, on the target previously.
“Huh? Quroe-san? Why are you in that form? Who are you fighting?” asks Luna.
Quroe understood what happened because he knew exactly what the One Blade does. Anything the One Blade strikes will perish completely from existence. Any memories of his presence will be wiped out along with his existence. Though it doesn’t erase what Vega has done in the past. His physical imprints in the world stays though no one would know what caused them in the first place, as everyone who remembers him has now completely forgotten him.
Quroe himself is unaffected by this due to his position as a Judge with the passive blessing, God’s Holy Grace. He still remembers Vega clearly.
“It’s over. . .”
Quroe’s Second State appearance falls apart quickly, and he returns to his normal appearance. He has exited his Second State.
