Competition

Only an instant.

When his eyes opened again, the light within them was no longer the calm, appraising deep blue from before. It had become a darkness so deep it seemed ready to swallow the entire space whole.

The dark-red sky dimmed abruptly in that moment, not because the clouds had thickened, but because the strange energy surging from Pluto King was so vast that even the light was being distorted.

That power was like a tangible tide, roiling outward from his chest. Dark-purple energy carried a heart-stopping devouring force as it wound around the Black Iron battle armor covering his entire body.

The armor gave off a low hum under the infusion of that strange energy. The once-dim patterns lit up one by one, deep blue and dark purple intertwining like venomous snakes coiling over the armor and slowly slithering.

His right hand hung casually at his side, five fingers slightly spread. A pitch-black sphere of light was condensing in his palm. The sphere gave off no light, no heat; instead, it was like a miniature black hole, greedily absorbing all light and warmth around it.

Then he moved.

Without any warning, without any gathering of force, Pluto King's figure vanished from in front of that throne. It was not the sort of disappearance where speed was so fast the trajectory could not be seen, but a true, complete vanishing, as if he had never stood there at all. In the next instant, Situ Xuan's pupils contracted sharply.

A fist covered in Black Iron battle armor had already appeared before him.

Before the fist arrived, the gale of the punch had.

Situ Xuan's pupils shrank to pinpoints in that instant.

There was nothing fancy about that punch, no technique at all. It was simply a straight punch, plain and