"『黒閃』: Kokusen."

The air crackled with the backlash, sparks of black dancing around them. Daybreaker's pained scream ended abruptly, replaced by rumbling and the deafening sound of thunder. She vomited blood as Yuta's fist dug deeper into her body. The ground beneath them trembled violently as a surge of cursed energy, amplified by the Black Flash, ripped through Daybreaker.

Yuta recoiled as her body convulsed in an explosion of gore. A crimson mist erupted from a gaping wound in her side, the torn flesh revealing glimpses of bone beneath. The force of the attack propelled her backwards with a sickening crack. The blow sent her spinning, her mangled shoulder slamming into a nearby building with a sickening thud that echoed through the devastated street.

With a sickening squelch and a flurry of movement, Daybreaker heaved herself out of the wreckage. Her mangled shoulder was already knitting itself back together, the grotesque process bubbling and warping the flesh in a display of unnatural regeneration.

Blood dripped from her muzzle, staining her coat as the light from her mane flickered from the intensity of the wound. Her eyes, however, were the more terrifying sight. Wide and unhinged, the pupils had shrunk to mere pinpricks, replaced by a burning yellow that glowed with a feral rage. A twisted smile split her face, revealing bloodied fangs. Her voice was a husky growl devoid of its former nobility when she spoke.

"Y-you brat..." Daybreaker rasped, each word a struggle. One hoof, the other presumably lost in the attack, scraped against the broken remains of a wall as she steadied herself. "You'll make a worthy kill..." She flared her horn, charging a condensed ball of cursed energy to the tip.

With a flick of his wrist, two orbs of condensed blood gathered in front of Yuta, one hovering slightly behind the other. Daybreaker's eyes narrowed, recognising the manoeuvre. She'd seen this attack before, and a smirk played on her mangled lips. "You think your pathetic blood can stop this?"

Under his breath, he muttered, "Blood Manipulation..."His arms snapped out, palms meeting with a loud...

Clap!

The effect was instantaneous and disorientating. Daybreaker vanished from where she stood, replaced by the crimson sphere of condensed blood. Simultaneously, she reappeared directly in front of Yuta, her eyes wide with surprise and confusion as she was inches away from his fingertips.

This swap wasn't flawless. The sudden release of Blood Manipulation to activate Boogie Woogie caused the Convergence both in Yuta's hand and the one taking place where Daybreaker once stood to expand prematurely, weakening its overall effectiveness. However, fueled by the lingering power of the Black Flash, Yuta had managed to pull off this complex manoeuvre with astonishing fluidity. Now, Daybreaker stood mere inches from him, her horn crackling with built-up energy aimed at… well, not him anymore.

"Piercing Blood!"

A deadly blood beam jets out from the charged-up Convergence in Yuta's hands, shooting at Daybreaker's face at blistering speeds. The arrowhead pierced her lower lip, but Daybreaker managed to tilt her head sideways just fast enough to avoid the blood from crushing her cranium. Instead of finding its mark on her skull, the blood continued its trajectory, carving a gruesome path through her flesh and muscle and forcing her to reel her head back as her entire lower jaw was sheared clean off.

She let out an inaudible gargle and lashed out her hoof towards Yuta's face. But before it could connect, another volley of blood arrows erupted from the Convergence that had taken her place behind her. The crimson projectiles ripped through her sides, the impact causing her to stagger and momentarily lose focus.

"Slicing Exorcism."

The blinding white light at the tip of her horn flickered erratically, the celestial energy attack on the verge of collapsing. Her pupil faded to white as she fell back, but then, a sudden crushing force on his left arm caused Yuta to wince. Daybreaker brought her head forward, headbutting Yuta. The dying light above her glowed brighter than ever, and so did her mane, causing her to release everything she had at point blank in a massive explosion.

The impact sent Yuta ragdolling back through the air. The Coiling Ouroboros on his left arm shattered into pieces from taking the brunt of the blast and exposing the engagement ring on his hand. He crashed against a half-collapsed building, bouncing off it before plummeting to the streets below. The sound of crumbling bricks was drowned out by the roar of Daybreaker, sadistically charging towards him.

A cloak of blood trailed behind Yuta like a macabre banner, using it to soften his landing considerably. Through the haze, Yuta saw the visage of the alicorn. The monstrous curse swallowed in a ball of fire, and a guttural laugh escaped her mangled jaw. The grotesque sounds more like the rasping of a dying beast.

But even in that state, the horrifying speed of her regeneration was already taking place. Her mouth beginning to knit itself back together, a pink, fleshy mess that pulsed with each heartbeat. Furthermore, the wounds inflicted by Slicing Exorcism were already closing at an alarming rate.

With a shaky hand, Yuta pulled out a gun from his jacket and aimed at the blitzing flier. He had hoped to use this much more favourable scenario, but there's a change of plans. It wouldn't be enough to stop her entirely, but they might slow her down and disrupt her momentum. He squeezed the trigger. Shot after shot, bang after bang, the cursed energy-imbued bullets soared through the sky. But never reached Daybreaker. The bubble of flames surrounding her, acting offensively and defensively, melted the metal mid-air before they reached her.

Like a shooting star, Daybreaker slammed into Yuta with hot fires that threatened to engulf him. Using the cloak of blood, Yuta creates a makeshift shield in front of him with both hands outstretched while Daybreaker drags him out of the sky and straight down to the streets, smearing him against the cobblestone and gravel as his feet try to hold him steady from the constantly moving ground.

But even empowered by cursed energy, the blood offered scant protection against the inferno surrounding Daybreaker. The further she dragged the human down the walkway, the stronger her flames got. Eventually, it reached temperatures where Yuta's blood in the shield began to boil and crust. The heat was blistering, searing Yuta's flesh and turning the protection into a crusty barrier, the edges bubbling and smoking under the relentless assault.

With a snarl, he abruptly deactivated the blood shield, letting it crumble onto the floor and jabbed a hand into the blistering fire. The heat was unimaginable. It felt like his very flesh was being incinerated, layers of skin peeling away in an instant. But Yuta ignored the pain, his focus locked on a single point – Daybreaker's body.

His fingertips, charred and blackened, brushed against the alicorn's neck. With a tap on her body, the torrent of flames around her vanished instantly, and her entire body transformed and replaced into a two-dimensional thin glass plain. Giving Yuta ample time to punish her with a strong punch.

The air crackled with backlash, sparks of black dancing around him like fireflies. Daybreaker, trapped within the shattered projection and unable to react, could only watch in horror as Yuta's fist slammed into her face. His knuckles connect with the glass, and the frame shatters into pieces as black and red streaks of light jutted from the origin point at his fist, sending her reeling off and returning her to her original form.

"『黒閃』: Kokusen."

Daybreaker falls back with a slam to the ground. Scrambling to her hooves, blood spewed from her mouth, trying to regain her posture. She was still flying back quite a distance from the momentum carried by Yuta's Black Flash. So, sliding and twisting around, she began to make a break for it. All the while, Yuta gave chase from the side.

The cityscape blurred around them as they tore through the devastated streets. Buildings whipped past, mere blurs of brick and steel. In the distance, the clash between Rika and the celestial threat raged on, a flicker of light and a firework-like display.

A stifling heat descended upon them as they neared the battle in the heavens. The humidity clung to them like a suffocating cloak, the air growing thick and heavy. The temperature soared, and an oppressive wave radiated outwards from the mare across from him. Wooden structures that had miraculously survived the initial devastation of the twin sisters began to ignite spontaneously. Flames adding to the chaotic inferno that engulfed them.

Jumping and weaving the stray magical shots fired from the curse opposite him, Yuta took it upon himself to reinitiate combat, pulling Daybreaker in close with Blue. However, it backfired when the alicorn threw a volley of fireballs at him, forcing his hand into putting his arms up to block them.

The Blue still had done its job, pulling her in and allowing her to get the jump on Yuta, shoving him back-first into the ground as she cast a binding spell of light around his limbs to secure them to the ground; she further pinned his arms under her hooves for extra measures, effectively immobilising him.

"Maximum Technique," she rasped. The alabaster fur that once adorned her magnificent body exploded with power, spontaneously erupting into flames. The heat intensified further, a wave of searing pain radiating outwards and reaching an all-time high. "Immolation Vortex."

"Dispel." On command, the light binding Yuta's limbs down dissipated. Reacting with lightning speed, Yuta lunged upwards with a powerful knee strike that connected solidly with Daybreaker's gut. The force of the impact lifted her clean off the ground for a moment before she slammed back down. Seizing the opportunity, Yuta followed through with a spinning kick that sent her sprawling to the side.

This didn't stop the flames on Daybreaker's body from spreading outward and circling her body. Gales swirled around her, quickly expanding into a gigantic tornado of fire. The ground around the flames begins to liquefy, and the numerous glasses in the windows of buildings surrounding them melt from the excessive heat.

Yuta scrambled to his feet, the heat scorching his skin. He knew he had no time to waste as he made a mad dash away from the eye of the storm, using Projection Sorcery to help boost his speed even further. Just then, he spots a shadow diving straight at him from above, probably to stop him from escaping the engulfing flames closing in from behind.

Nightmare Moon dove at increasing speeds towards the sorcerer, Rika tailing close behind her. Seeing no other way out, Yuta leapt up to a building top and towards the mare, arms already swinging into a clapping motion.

"I knew you'd use it!" Nightmare thought to herself, igniting her horn.

Clap!

Right as the sound hit her ears, Nightmare Moon activated her magic, and a blinding light of evening blue enveloped Yuta and herself, switching them back to their original location. However, she wasn't facing Yuta anymore.

Instead, she found herself standing at the precipice of the inferno. The churning maelstrom of celestial fire roared mere meters away, its heat washing over her like a furnace blast. Turning around, Nightmare locked eyes with Yuta, who was perched safely atop Rika's hand as he spoke.

"Clapping doesn't necessarily mean I'll activate my technique."

With a snarl, she shouts. "YOU-ARGAHHHHHHH!!!"

Her scream was cut short. With a deafening roar, the flames surged outwards, a ravenous beast consuming everything in its path. Nightmare Moon, positioned a hair's breadth too close, was engulfed in an instant. Yuta and Rika watched in silence as the inferno claimed its latest victim while they retreated further away from the spinning fires.

Everything in a one-hundred-meter radius got swallowed up by Daybreaker's flames. The spiralling vortex reached up high into the polluted clouds as the column of light illuminated the entirety of Canterlot as though it was the day, casting an eerie orange glow across the entire city. Stone buildings that weren't instantly melted were sent flying like mere pebbles by the inferno's ferocious winds. The roar of the flames drowned out all other sounds, creating a terrifying symphony of destruction.

The tornado twists and bends, a monstrous serpent of fire seemingly defying the laws of physics. But even the most destructive forces eventually falter. Perhaps drained by the sheer power of the technique, or maybe simply unable to sustain it any longer, Daybreker lost control. The vortex began to sputter.

The once smooth, swirling flames grew erratic, the inferno twisting and contorting like a dying engine as the fire sputtered and choked. The ground around them glowed from the singed embers in a spiralling pattern, heat waves radiating and distorting the air above. It looked like a warped, morbid sundial marking the minutes of Canterlot's devastation.

In the centre of destruction stood Daybreaker, and across a few meters from her was her sister. Nightmare Moon, caught in the inferno's maw, looked worse for wear. Half her body was burnt almost entirely to the bone, revealing the raw musculature beneath. Her saving grace was the bubble of protection surrounding her, born of her own energy. But even in that state, a faint, sickly blue glow emanated from the wounds, her rapid regeneration already beginning to knit her charred form back together.

Rika let Yuta drop from her palm and onto the two alicorns. As he descends upon them, the roaring sound of fighter jets sings above him. Looking up, he was greeted with the view of the Wonderbolts circling the general area. He thinks to himself, "Since the Wonderbolts are here, that giant display should have lead the evacuating ponies away from here. In that case, I don't have to hold back anymore."

Across the wasteland, Daybreaker huffed, the celestial flames around her hooves flickering like dying embers. Lifting her head to meet Yuta's gaze. A calculating, cold stiffened her expression as she clasped her hooves together. "If a Maximum Technique doesn't work... then..."

"I'LL KILL HIM!!!" Nightmare Moon screamed internally, her rage a palpable force in the devastated city. She crossed her forelegs in front of herself. The pain from her burns was a dull throb compared to the fiery hatred she felt for Yuta. "I'LL BUCKING KILL HIM!!!"

Yuta returned the favour. His hands rose, one open palm reaching towards the sky and the other a clenched fist. The hand signs of Dakini. With the peak of warfare at a record high, marking a turning point of the battle, they all yelled in unison, unleashing the pinnacle of Jujutsu Sorcery.

"『Domain Expansion』!!"

"『DOMAIN EXPANSION』!!"

"『領域展開』: Ryōiki Tenkai."

1 minute and 26 seconds are left for the sustained connection between Yuta and Rika