Bara stood in the skies above the ruined city, laughing maniacally.
"Hey, demon boy, where are you?!" he shouted with excitement. "I told you I was coming back for you!"
Below him, the city was unrecognizable. Craters, collapsed buildings, and blazing wreckage stretched for miles. Raquel lowered the crystal dome she'd created to shield herself, Mori, and a group of terrified civilians. Her eyes widened at the scale of the destruction.
Nearby, Serena and Sukuna crawled out from under the rubble, bloodied and bruised. They were both stunned silent by the horrifying sight of the city reduced to ash and ruin.
In the forest outside the city, Kazui shivered.
"...I just felt something," he said quietly. "And it's not good."
Elsewhere, Son and Deo stood amid flames as Son's protective wall kept the inferno at bay. They were speechless, watching medical teams and Soliders scramble to help injured civilians—many of them children—some trapped beneath collapsed buildings, others too hurt to move.
Above, Bara grinned as he saw the suffering below. His laughter echoed across the broken city.
"Hey Alex," he sneered, "I've come for you. I'm going to take your demonic powers—and kill everyone in this damn city!"
Suddenly, a bolt of electricity, a fireball, and a green plasma shot through the air and crashed into him with explosive force. Smoke filled the sky.
As it cleared, Bara stood unharmed. He turned to see Serena, Sukuna, and Son—battle-ready and glaring up at him.
Serena shouted, "Guys, this man..... he's incredibly dangerous. Having enough power to turn the city to ashes. He's clearly powerful."
Bara looked down at them with contempt.
"I have no need for you," he said coldly.
He fired a massive beam at them.
But Deo appeared in an instant, transforming his leg into reinforced robotic metal. With a powerful kick, he deflected the attack—sending it flying into a distant mountain, obliterating it completely.
"You guys have to go," Deo said, landing in front of them. "I'll handle it from here."
Son snarled. "The hell are you talking about?! This guy just nuked the entire city! He'll kill you!"
Sukuna growled, "You can't take this guy on your own! What are you, some anime main character?!"
Deo's tone stayed calm. "Kojin's not here. Neither is Levi or my big bro Sughi. And let's be honest—among the soldiers and assassins in this city, I'm the strongest so far. Just go."
Bara charged up another beam and growled, "Get lost."
He fired.
Deo raised his arm, which transformed into a massive cannon, and fired back. The two attacks collided in the sky and exploded in a thunderous blast that shook the clouds.
"You guys need to help the medics," Deo said firmly. "Raquel and Mori are helping the civilians. Go support them. I'll hold him off."
With hesitation, Son, Serena, and Sukuna finally ran off toward the wreckage to aid the rescue efforts.
Bara floated down, observing Deo closely. "You're that nano-tech brat who defeated one of my disciples three years ago, aren't you? The missile guy. You killed him."
Deo nodded. "If that guy was trained by you, then credit where it's due—you're a good teacher. He gave me one hell of a fight."
He clenched his fists as green energy surged through his body. Plates of cybernetic armor unfolded over his limbs, and his entire body transformed into a powerful, battle-ready suit. Green energy roared out from every joint.
"It's a shame you're evil," Deo said. "You could've been something good. But hey, it is what it is."
"Pity? I dont need it from you," Bara snarled with a smirk before flying toward him at impossible speed.
Deo matched him, and the two clashed mid-air—shockwaves ripping through the sky.
Beams of energy, fists, and missiles lit the sky at lightning speeds.
While Deo and Bara kept blasting themselves with a powerful amount of energy all over the sky, they were throwing powerful blows with incredible strength and skills, as well as blasting insane beams of energy at each other. "You're fast," Bara admitted mid-fight. "Tough too. Maybe that demon boy isn't the only monster in this city."
"Thanks for the compliment," Deo grunted. "But yeah—Alex isn't the only one who can do crazy shit!."
Deo launched dozens of homing missiles from his shoulders. Bara fired his own set to counter them. The sky erupted in a chain of massive explosions, but the two kept fighting, exchanging blow after devastating blow.
But cracks started forming in Deo's armor. Smoke poured out of his suit.
Bara laughed. "Your body can't keep up with the tech, can it? Still learning how to use it?"
Deo summoned blasters across his limbs and fired relentlessly. "Doesn't matter," he snapped. "As long as I can last long enough to beat you."
Bara darted through the blasts and fired a massive laser directly into Deo's chest. The impact shattered part of the armor and sent Deo plummeting from the sky. Deo was able to get his balance and chatted towards Bara at incredible levels of speeds. Bara seeing Deo flying towards him, couldn't help but to smirk "Ready for another round I see.". Bara and Deo charged towards each other and clashed blows. The impact of their blows was enough to cause a huge and violent burst of wind in the sky. Bara and Deo were flying around and going blow for blow, not just that, but they were sending powerful beams of energy flying at each other. While the fight kept up this pace for a while, Deo muttered to himself "This guy and I should easily be on the same rank, but he seems to have a better advantage than I do. I can hack into his body, but that only works effectively when the opponent or tech is weaker than I am." Deo kept his distance for a bit and was just firing beams continuously with a mildly deranged smirk on his face. He he continued to have his internal monologue "If I hack into Bara's robotic armour, I can stall him for a while, but right now, I'm not too confident it would work." Bara with a devious smirk on his face exclaimed while flying through Deo's beams of energy while preparing a beam of energy of his own "PAY ATTENTION YOU CHILD!", and proceeds to punch Deo so hard that he was falling towards the ground
Before he could recover, Bara shot him again and again at rapid fire, laughing as Deo as he blocked and coughed up blood while crashing into the ground.
Lying battered, burned and broken, Deo muttered to himself:
"His punches... his beams... They're insane. Did I just lose? I didn't expect to win outright, but I shouldn't have gone down like this..."
Bara descended slowly, stepping on Deo's chest.
"You're strong," he said. "The Dark Sign could use someone like you. But I doubt Ukina will allow it."
He began charging a massive laser—the same one he used to level the city.
"I'm going to obliterate you with the same attack that i used to wipe out your city." Bara said. "Think of this as me taking you seriously."
Deo's eyes narrowed with blood and a small smirk on his face. "Damn... I'm really about to die? Well, at least I'm not going out like a bitch... Sorry, Runo. Guess this is it for me."
Just as Bara unleashed the attack—
A brilliant blue beam of light shot down from the sky and deflected it, redirecting it into a mountain—which exploded into nothing.
Another beam followed, which Bara caught mid-air—but even as he held it, it pushed him backward violently, his grin fading as he struggled to control it.
He finally managed to throw the beam away—but it was too late.
A blade of death came flying at light speed, striking him dead-on and triggering an enormous explosion.
As the smoke cleared...
Alex hovered in the air.
Wearing red armor and a flowing cape, his blue hair glowed with energy. His eyes sparked with furious power.
He looked down at Deo. "Take a rest, Deo. You did a good job."
Deo blinked in disbelief. Serena, Sukuna, Mori, Son, Runo, Baraka—and even Bara—stared in complete awe.
Raquel's eyes lit up with joy from a distance.
Bara's lips curled into a wicked grin.
"Just the monster I was looking for," he said.
END OF CHAPTER.