Shade's eyes lingered on Daknis's Red Gloves for a moment. He shook his head indifferently; he had no competitive spirit to speak of, and simply told the other man what he had done before:
"What Ring I am isn't important. But since you look down on me, I have nothing more to say. Let's just pretend we never met today."
"No, no, no. Pretending we never met won't do. Since you found me, I naturally can't let you leave."
As he spoke, Mr. Darkness had already tossed aside the umbrella in his hand and removed the Red Glove from his right hand. The right hand beneath the glove was clearly larger than his other hand. Beneath the dark, swollen skin, it seemed as though worms were writhing.
He gave Shade a strange smile, then used his left hand to raise his right arm. Shade instinctively felt uneasy, and what happened next proved that unease correct. A slit actually split open in Mr. Darkness's right palm, and then a tooth-filled mouth emerged from within his hand.
"Oh!"
The bizarre dizziness made Shade stagger, nearly losing his footing. That open mouth seemed directly connected to a bottomless abyss; he even felt as though his soul were about to be sucked inside.
Soul Separation was an illusion, but the immense suction was not. As the mouth squirmed, the falling rain above the empty rooftop space between Shade and Daknis actually changed course, flying in arcs toward that mouth.
The suction forced Shade to stagger forward again, so he immediately slashed forward with his right hand, sending out a streak of moonlight. The glow cleaved directly toward the gaping mouth, but as a patch of strange darkness appeared before Daknis, Silver Moon's Slash actually vanished.
It was neither Space Movement nor a strike that