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Prologue: The Weight of Eternity
The battlefield had long since ceased to exist in any recognizable form.
What once was a city had been twisted beyond reality itself.
Past and future overlapped like shattered glass, forming a warped liminal space where events contradicted themselves.
In one corner of the battlefield, buildings stood pristine, untouched by war.
In another, they were reduced to ruins, charred by a fire that hadn't even happened yet.
And at the center of it all—
Minh and Akira stood facing each other.
One, a god of time who bent reality with the flick of his wrist.
The other, a man who refused to break, standing against an impossible power.
Cetz whistled as he sat atop a pile of frozen debris, watching like a spectator at a play. "You're really dragging this out, Minh. Are you actually struggling?"
Minh didn't answer.
But the look in his golden eyes had changed.
For the first time—
There was something in them other than calm certainty.
---
Phase One: The Unstoppable March of Time
Minh took a step forward.
And the entire world moved with him.
Akira didn't react in time.
He couldn't.
Because—
His body had already moved before he decided to.
Or rather—
Minh had pulled him into a future where he had already reacted.
Akira barely managed to comprehend what was happening before Minh appeared behind him in an instant.
A whisper in his ear.
"You were too slow."
Akira's entire torso exploded.
A shockwave rippled through time itself, sending distorted echoes of his body in every direction—
In one moment, his arm hadn't been destroyed yet.
In another, he was already on the ground.
Blood sprayed, but it didn't fall normally—
It froze midair, then reversed its flow, seeping back into his body against the laws of reality.
Because Minh was undoing his injuries even as he inflicted them.
Not out of mercy.
But because he was trapping Akira in an endless cycle of pain.
A battle that could never be won.
---
Phase Two: The Sound That Defies Time
Akira staggered back.
His brain couldn't process what had just happened.
His body was moving, but it felt out of sync with itself.
Like he was both before and after the moment of impact.
Minh stood before him, untouched.
"Do you understand yet?" Minh said softly.
Akira gritted his teeth, his breathing ragged.
"Yeah."
He forced himself upright.
And Echo Chamber vibrated violently.
Minh raised an eyebrow.
Akira wiped the blood from his lips and smirked.
"I understand that you talk too damn much."
Minh's eyes narrowed—
And in the next second, Echo Chamber released a deafening pulse.
Sound waves erupted, crashing against the very fabric of time.
And—
For the first time—
Minh flinched.
---
Phase Three: Breaking the Unbreakable
Minh stepped back.
It was barely noticeable.
Just a slight shift of his weight.
But Akira saw it.
And so did Cetz.
"Oh-ho," Cetz mused. "He actually made you move."
Minh's expression remained neutral. But his eyes…
His eyes were filled with calculations.
The battlefield rippled.
Minh had created a perfect timeline, where every outcome resulted in his victory.
And yet—
Akira was still standing.
More than that—
He had forced Minh to react.
Minh exhaled slowly.
His voice was quiet.
"You're interfering with causality."
Akira grinned, panting. "Damn right I am."
Minh lifted a hand.
"Then I'll remove the cause entirely."
And with that—
He erased Akira's past.
---
Phase Four: The Death of a History
Akira's entire existence shuddered.
Memories fractured.
His childhood, his friends, his battles—
They all unraveled.
Akira felt himself being pulled apart at a fundamental level.
As if he had never been born.
He saw echoes of a world where he had never existed.
Where his mother had never died.
Where his friends had never met him.
Where the battle he was fighting had never even begun.
"No."
Akira gritted his teeth.
His grip on existence was slipping.
His body was fading—
His Stand was vanishing.
This was beyond death.
This was non-existence.
And Minh simply watched.
Not out of cruelty.
But because this was inevitable.
But then—
Through the chaos—
A sound rang out.
Not just any sound.
A heartbeat.
Ba-dump.
Ba-dump.
Minh's eyes widened slightly.
The air vibrated.
And then—
From the fading fragments of time—
Akira pulled himself back.
He should not exist.
He should have been erased.
But—
He was still here.
And Minh, for the first time, felt something resembling disbelief.
"That's impossible."
Akira grinned, his form stabilizing.
"You really don't get it, do you?"
His Stand—
Echo Chamber—
Roared to life.
"I don't care what's supposed to happen."
The battlefield shook.
"I don't care about inevitability."
Time itself cracked.
"I don't care if I'm supposed to disappear!"
His voice boomed through every fragment of reality.
"I MAKE MY OWN FUTURE!"
The world exploded in sound.
And Minh—
Was forced to take another step back.
---
Phase Five: The Final Warning
The battlefield stilled.
Time itself trembled.
Cetz let out a low whistle. "Now this… this is what I like to see."
Minh stared at Akira.
There was no emotion on his face.
But his fingers twitched.
A sign of something he had never felt before.
For the first time, uncertainty.
Minh slowly exhaled.
"I understand now."
Akira raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? And what's that?"
Minh's golden eyes gleamed.
"You are a deviation. A variable outside of all calculations."
Akira smirked. "Damn right I am."
Minh raised his hand.
"And that means…"
The air shattered.
The entire battlefield collapsed.
And suddenly—
The fight was no longer a battle.
It was a war for reality itself.
---