Chapter 80: Those Who Are Superior

In a world where strength is everything, the title of “the strongest” is nothing more than a mirage blown by the wind. Every summit conquered reveals another even higher, and those once feared as monsters soon become mere steps on someone else’s ladder.
Some are born with power, and some pursue it until they break. Some are shaped by pain, others by ambition… but only a few achieve something more. Only a few understand that being superior isn’t a matter of power, but of unbreakable will.

Legends don’t begin as legends. First they are defeated. Humiliated. Tired of being second, third, or simply invisible. And it is there, in defeat, that the purest seed of the human spirit germinates: the silent promise not to fall again. The decision to rise, even if there’s nothing left to lift.

This chapter is not about those chosen from the start. It’s not about gods, nor lineages. It’s about those who, knowing they cannot win, give everything. It’s about those who look at the true monsters… and instead of fleeing, step forward.

Because in the darkest moment, even a man without fate can shine like a star.
And in a world of giants, only he who refuses to surrender… becomes legend.
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A solar crash tore the sky like a burning fissure.
A beam of heat, as dense as the sun’s core, descended violently upon Zipacna, trapping his body in a column of purifying fire.

Takahashi narrowed his eyes, impressed by what he saw.
“Zipacna…”

The flames did not consume him. They transformed him.
From his brow a crown of fire rose, floating like a divine halo. On his back a gigantic, blazing sun appeared as if his soul had ignited. From that sun sprouted wings of fire — majestic, immense, alive.

The earth trembled. The air warped.
The energy pouring from Zipacna did not merely illuminate… it burned.

“Lack: Helios,” he declared, voice steady and radiant.

The aura that enveloped him altered the landscape, melting rock and evaporating dew.

Takahashi smiled. Not with mockery — with pride.
“This is the result of five years of training, Takahashi… are you seeing this?”

Zipacna’s heart spoke louder than his words.
“Seems there’s no reason to hold back anymore, right?” Yohei said, walking toward the epicenter.
“No,” Zipacna replied. “It’s time to give everything here, Yohei.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” the other said, smiling.

With no more ceremony, they hurled themselves at one another.
Fists wrapped in fire and electricity collided with brutal force. The ground split beneath their feet.
Each blow was a roar. Each block, an explosion.
They seemed to dance on the edge of a star about to detonate.

Zipacna stepped back, raised his arms toward the sun on his back and shouted:
“Solar Judgment.”

A flaming circle formed behind him, with apertures that began to condense pure energy.
A moment later, a rain of solar beams fell mercilessly upon Yohei.

“Plasma Wall!” Yohei shouted, raising both hands.
An electric dome wrapped his body, absorbing part of the assault… but the siege did not cease.
“This won’t hold for long… I have to use it now.”

“Prism of Sparks.”
From the ground and sky, electric fragments sprang forth, gleaming like diamonds.
When the barrier fell, Zipacna’s solar attack fragmented and was deflected, redirected by the prisms.
Explosions scattered across the field, leaving burning craters.

“What…?” Zipacna said, bewildered.
“Damn… with this, none of them will be able to use another technique for quite a while.”
“It’s time to bring this to my terrain.”

Yohei appeared before him like lightning.
CRACK!
The punch landed… but Zipacna blocked it.
He grabbed Yohei’s hand with force, pulled him close, and drove a knee into his stomach. Then a straight kick to the chest sent him flying, slamming him violently into the ground.

“You won’t beat me, I assure you.”
Yohei spat blood. He coughed. But he stood up.
“I have to… keep going.”

Zipacna charged him with a barrage of strikes.
The fists were so fast that the air ignited with each one.

One of the impacts sent Yohei flying until he crashed against a mountain.

A mountain where someone else lay motionless.

Amid the rubble, Yohei opened his eyes.
“Still haven’t moved… damn coward?”

He turned his gaze toward Edén, who remained on his knees, eyes clouded and distant.
“I don’t know what you’re afraid of, but if you stay like this… you’ll never be able to face him.”

Edén didn’t move. Voices from the past whispered inside his mind.

“They believe in you,” Yohei said, his voice heavy with pain and truth. “They’ve bet everything on you. They trust that you can do it. They’d… stake their lives for you.”

Edén trembled. His memory dragged him back to that night.
To Kai. To Ryu.
To his grandfather’s face before the end.

“I don’t know what happened to you before you came here… but I’m sure you lost too much. And that’s why only you can make the choice now.”

“Will you stay there, waiting for defeat… or will you fight with everything you have?”

Yohei released every last ounce of energy he had left.
His eyes glowed with fierce determination.

“I’ve made my choice. I’ll fight until my very last second of life.”

“Zipacna!”

The name echoed like a war drum.
Zipacna heard it. Felt it. And answered.

“Yohei!”

Both began gathering every remaining spark of energy within their bodies.
The skies ignited. The earth braced itself to witness a new cataclysm.

The heavens split in two.
From above, a blazing sphere grew — a second sun.
Zipacna, wrapped in a scorching aura, held it aloft with both arms.

“Supernova,” he declared, voice firm as the solar power condensed to an impossible point.

At that moment, Yohei’s heart stopped.
All sound vanished.
The world froze for a second — as if time itself waited for his decision.

His trembling hands rose to his chest.
They formed a circle.

And then—
The first heartbeat.
Another.
And another.

His body began to glow.
His energy stirred like a storm waking from silence.

“Lightning Resonance,” he whispered.

The sky roared.

Both techniques — colossal, charged with the essence of their souls — were unleashed at once.
Fire against electricity.
Sun against storm.
Past against present.

The impact was so brutal that the world itself trembled.
Mountains groaned.
Trees bent.
The air turned razor-sharp.

A shockwave burst forth, expanding like a destructive halo that annihilated everything in its path.

Takahashi watched. Silent. Unmoving.
Only his eyes betrayed the intensity of his focus.

Dust swallowed everything.
Light vanished behind the gray cloud.

A deathly silence took the field.
Only uncertainty remained… until the smoke began to clear.

And there they were.
Zipacna and Yohei, lying on the ground.
Their bodies covered in blood and dirt.
Not a single spark of energy left.

Yohei, his voice broken, whispered:
“Damn it… I wasn’t able… to… win…”
And then he collapsed, unconscious.

Zipacna, unable to move, let out a curse between his teeth.
“Damn it… I can’t move…”

Beside him, the sound of footsteps broke the silence.
Takahashi approached, calm, and looked down at him quietly.

Zipacna averted his gaze, ashamed.
“I’m pathetic, aren’t I?”

A hand reached out to him.
“Huh?”

“You’ve truly become strong, Zipacna,” Takahashi said with a serene expression.

Zipacna’s eyes widened in surprise.
“You both impressed me. I never thought you’d be capable of such a performance… Thank you.”

Zipacna gave a faint smile.
“Sorry you didn’t get to enjoy your own fight…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Takahashi replied. “Now we have to head back… and see how the others are doing.”

“Yeah…”

Zipacna leaned on his shoulder with difficulty. Both began to walk… but then, the ground trembled.
A chill ran down their spines.

“W-What…?” murmured Zipacna.

Takahashi frowned, his expression hardening.
“This has to be a joke…”

Before them, on the horizon, a shadow rose.
Gigantic.
Dark.
Overflowing with energy.

A monster wrapped in a tide of shadowy power — as if every inch of its being were condensed hatred.

From another area of the battlefield, Shun and Puppet watched.

“That damn idiot…” Shun growled, gritting his teeth. “This isn’t the time to play around…”

Beside him, Yogen smiled.
“It’s beautiful…”

All fights stopped.
The screams, the impacts, the clashes… all ceased, as if the universe itself had held its breath.

At the center of it all, atop a silent hill, someone slowly opened his eyes.

Edén.

His gaze was no longer trembling.
Nor clouded.
Nor lost.
It was steady.
It was his own.

“My turn now,” he whispered.

And with that, the stage shifted.
The story moved forward.