Smack!
Sonic leaped onto a patch of blood-red grass. Before him stood Sonic.EXE's projected form within his mind.
Flames burned throughout his mind, and Sonic's inner world was collapsing.
One of them would cease to exist today.
"You think you can beat me?!"
Sonic.EXE laughed, then charged straight at Sonic, accelerating as he went.
As a hedgehog, Sonic knew exactly how powerful that move could be. His soul was no more stable than Sonic.EXE's, even though the demon was an intruder. He couldn't meet that attack head-on.
Whoosh-
The supersonic hedgehog was just as fast within his own mind. If their speed was measured on equal mental footing, Sonic was confident he was no slower than that impostor.
Since the impostor wasn't the master of this mental world, Sonic's battle with the demon's soul here involved no fancy tricks, only a pure contest of speed and strength.
A contest to see whose soul would be weakened to its limit first.
Boom!!!!!
Satsujin brought his blade down, unleashing a terrifying sonic boom.
By now, even he realized something was wrong.
The demon's urge to attack had become very... weak. Satsujin had landed several hits in a row already. It was as though...
"...Something is distracting him."
Satsujin had a rough idea of what was happening.
According to the backstory Metal had told him earlier, this creature had originally been a hedgehog.
After being possessed by a demon, he had tried to slaughter everyone in this world.
He had later been sealed away, but the slaughter during this chaotic period had awakened him again.
And now, with the demon so distracted, he was probably fighting that hedgehog inside his mind!
At that thought, Satsujin guessed he might have a chance to finish the battle before he fully fused with the others.