The exact same question spilled from two identical sets of lips. The frequency of the voices, the intonation, and even that trace of deeply hidden suspicion and coldness were as if cast from the same mold.
And the instant their voices fell, both plunged into absolute silence simultaneously.
Not because there was nothing to say, but because in that one-hundredth of a second, a massive amount of information had already completed its first silent collision through their eyes, their energy fields, and even the subtle tremors of their very existence—
The nature of their power, the trajectory of their pasts... overlapped almost completely?!
This overlap brought absolutely no sense of identification!
Instead, it triggered the most primal threat perception!
No precise system could tolerate the existence of an uncontrolled variable completely identical to itself.
Let alone Shu?
Almost without warning, both figures vanished from their spots simultaneously.
Moving vertically upwards at a speed that transcended the limits of conventional physical visual capture, they rushed into the high altitude.
Left behind were only two white sonic boom rings violently pushed aside, visible to the naked eye, and a delayed explosion sounding like giant cannons firing half a beat later.
Straight trajectories tore through the clouds in an instant, plowing two fleeting azure vacuum corridors across the night sky.
The city lights below shrank rapidly, turning into blurry spots of light. The freezing stratospheric winds and thin air instantly became the background.
The ascent reached its peak within seconds, until the curvature of the Earth below was faintly visible, and the light points of satellites in low Earth orbit flashed by not far away.
Here, it was empty enough.
The moment they stopped was the beginning of the clash!
Without any opening stance, during the ascent, Shu, who had deliberately lagged slightly behind, launched his right fist like an electromagnetic cannon shell out of the chamber, blasting straight at the opponent's face without evasion!
Where the fist passed, the thin air was violently compressed, displaying subtle, glass-like distorted refractions—a phenomenon of high-frequency distortion of the air medium in a small area under illumination.
And the other Shu's reaction speed was completely synchronized!
Facing that punch which was clearly an all-out effort, he didn't dodge but instead turned around without hesitation, delivering a heavy punch that was already primed.
THOOM—!!!!
The extremely muffled sound of impact seemed to explode directly in the depths of the soul!
Centered on the contact point of their fists, a spherical shockwave mixed with energy, visible to the naked eye, erupted violently, expanding exponentially!
Where the shockwave passed, the thin air was thoroughly ionized, bursting with large-scale electric arcs, like detonating a silent lightning ball in the night sky!
Debris from a few micro-satellites that happened to be passing by were swept by this invisible giant force, instantly turning into powder. Even the firelight of their explosion was swallowed completely by the ensuing energy turbulence.
Even in the city below, Kallen felt a slight breeze transmitted from above!
The first contact between the two sides was evenly matched.
Borrowing the force of the collision, both bounced away in opposite directions for several kilometers by coincidence. While leaning back, attacks were launched again!
Shu, who had initiated the punch, ultimately gained a sliver of an upper hand due to the long-distance acceleration. This allowed him to pull out the Judgment of Shamash—Shu's most handy attack method—an instant earlier.
A blazing sun appeared out of thin air in the night sky. The slash condensed from flames instantly crossed thousands of meters, the massive attack precisely aiming at the other Shu's neck.
The attacked Shu was slower by an instant, but only an instant. While creating distance, his choice was also the simplest and most brutal Judgment of Shamash.
The two, without any exchange of opinions, perfectly expressed the word "mirror image" as if they had synchronized their scripts in advance.
There cannot be two suns in the sky, but at this moment, what difference was there between night and day?
The eruption of intense light was only for an instant. Within the residual light of this blazing sun constructed jointly by both attacks, two figures brushed past the scattered intense light and brazenly collided in the center of the impact!
Fist! Foot! Elbow! Knee!
The simplest close-quarters combat techniques were infused with power great enough to shatter mountains and stars, colliding with a boom at speeds surpassing thought!
Shu swept a whip kick toward the opponent's waist and ribs. Where the leg passed, it brought a trail of burning, colorful energy; [Shu] ducked, his elbow striking like a poisonous dragon exiting its cave, accurately hitting the side of the main Shu's knee, the colorful light condensed at the elbow tip solid as a diamond.
Bang!
Attacks collided and intersected, exploding a ring-shaped shockwave that was also colorful.
Undecided.
Shu, whose attack was blocked, spun with the momentum, his other hand already turned into a knife-hand, slashing toward the opponent's crown with a shrill whistle; [Shu] still raised his hand to block, his forearm instantly covered with a layer of dense, crystal-like colorful shield.
Crack!
Cracks appeared on the shield, but it successfully blocked the attack.
Still undecided.
[Shu] finally began to counterattack. His left fist shot out like a cannonball, aiming straight for the main Shu's heart. The air in front of the fist was compressed to the extreme, forming a translucent shockwave cone; Shu didn't dodge or evade, meeting it with a punch of his own, the colorful light attached to his fist not weak in the slightest.
BOOM!!!!
The moment the two fists collided was still like two asteroids hitting head-on, and this time it was even more violent than the hasty exchange during the ascent!
An energy ball several times larger than before was suddenly born, then transformed into a destructive radiation of light and a torrent of particles sweeping in all directions!
The local gravitational field distorted briefly under this impact, but was barely reined in and suppressed by the subconscious indignation of the two, causing no further impact.
Even this move was undecided.
The light created by the collision of the Judgments of Shamash finally dissipated. The two, who had simultaneously controlled the field, flew backwards again.
This time, the clothes on both of them showed disturbances. This meant that the protection on the surface of their bodies had actually been pierced by the other, but the damage caused was merely tugging at the other's clothes.
In the repeated violent exchanges, their eyes became colder, more focused, and more...
Certain.
These moves seemed impressive, but in reality, both were still in the stage of probing the other.
And now, through these few exchanges, both had reached an alarming conclusion.
Power levels, completely equal.
Combat instincts, evenly matched.
Energy nature, echoing each other.
Even their combat styles were dominated by the most direct, efficient, and deadly killing techniques, without any flourishes.
What he knew, the other "he" also knew.
What he wanted to use, the other "he" seemed able to predict.
In extremely high-level combat, this "mirror-like" equality brought not mutual appreciation, but the utmost danger and killing intent.
Because both knew clearly that the other was the only existence capable of truly "killing" or "replacing" themselves.
A brief stagnation.
The two floated against the backdrop of cold deep space, staring at each other across the residual energy waves that had been forcibly suppressed but were still raging.
The next moment.
A more violent, more costly anticipation began to rise unreservedly from within both of them!
Colorful light, like two opposing suns, suddenly lit up in low Earth orbit!
The intensity of the light even temporarily outshone the twilight line of the Earth below.
No words, no roars.
This was the purest, most violent, and most direct collision of power!
In the very next instant!