In this moment, Cloud was no longer the irreverent, wise-cracking young man.
He had become something lofty and detached—an existence of absolute divinity that regarded all life with cold indifference!
[Ding! Final Protection Protocol—"Ragnarök" Mode—activated!]
[Forcibly unsealing and fusing all Orochi power...]
[Forcibly fusing all Host skills and bloodlines...]
[Host... temporarily entering... Demigod Form!]
[Warning! This form can only be maintained for 1 second! Exceeding 1 second will cause your body and soul to completely collapse at the genetic level, dissolving into nothingness!]
[Countdown beginning... 1.00 seconds!]
Cloud slowly raised his right hand.
His movement was languid, elegant—as if he weren't launching an attack but conducting a grand symphony.
In his palm, no energy sphere coalesced. No flames erupted.
Only... light.
In that instant, a voice—ethereal, majestic, devoid of emotion, like divine judgment—resonated in the souls of everyone present.
[Taiyō wo Fuku Hikari (Sunlight's Blessing): Let all things... return to nothing.]
A beam of light—so holy and warm it seemed capable of melting everything in existence.
That light was so gentle, so beautiful, that all who beheld it felt every thought of resistance fade away. They only wanted to bask in its warmth and find eternal peace.
0.90 seconds.
The entire world seemed to lose all color, leaving only black and white.
0.80 seconds.
A small sphere radiating ultimate light and heat—like a newborn sun—slowly coalesced in Cloud's palm.
0.70 seconds.
An option appeared in Cloud's mind.
[Sunlight's Blessing: Attack Range Selection]
A. Full-screen indiscriminate attack (Will destroy everything including the cruise ship)
B. Lock onto single target (Concentrate all energy on one point)
"Lock onto... Rugal."
Cloud (or rather, the will inhabiting his body) made his choice.
0.60 seconds.
The "sun" in his palm instantly compressed and condensed to its absolute limit!
All light, all heat, all destructive force was compressed into a point nearly invisible to the naked eye—a singularity radiating pure essence of "nothingness."
0.50 seconds.
He gently... pushed the singularity forward.
No sound.
No flash of light.
No earth-shaking explosion.
That tiny "singularity," radiating blinding luminance, passed effortlessly through Rugal's incredibly powerful body—a body capable of withstanding artillery fire.
Then it pierced through the carrier's deck, through the unfathomable depths of the Pacific Ocean, continuing downward until no one could know where its light finally ended.
0.40 seconds.
Everything appeared as though nothing had happened.
0.30 seconds.
Rugal's body remained frozen in its charging posture. His expression was locked in that moment of shock and terror.
0.20 seconds.
A hairline crack, fine as spider silk, slowly materialized from the point where the "sunlight" had pierced his chest.
0.10 seconds.
The crack spread across his entire body like a virus—instantaneous!
0.00 seconds.
Pop.
A soft sound.
Rugal's body—those muscles tough as steel, capable of withstanding artillery bombardment—began to melt away rapidly and silently under that beam of light, like snow beneath the sun!
His 40% Absolute Domain, that violent, destruction-laden dark crimson energy, couldn't even create a single ripple before this light. It was completely purified and vaporized!
His bones, his organs, his body that had been modified by "Orochi power"—the body he believed had transcended mortal limits...
All of it, under that beam of light, was thoroughly, cleanly decomposed and erased at the fundamental particle level!
That wasn't destruction. It was something of a higher order—"returning to the void."
Rugal Bernstein, this man who had stood like an invincible demon god, everything below his chest along with his mad ambitions and soul—before everyone's eyes—silently crumbled into golden dust like a sand sculpture blown apart by the wind.
Not even a trace of blood remained.
True and utter annihilation.
Simultaneously, the godlike figure suspended in mid-air rapidly shed all divinity and radiance.
Silver hair reverted to black. Platinum pupils returned to normal dark eyes. The black sun sigil on his chest faded into nothingness.
Cloud's body fell limply from the sky.
[Ding! "Ragnarök" Mode terminated.]
[Host's body suffering Law Backlash... System energy injection initiated... forcibly preserving life...]
"Cloud!"
A cry rang out!
It was Mai Shiranui! Drawing strength from somewhere unknown, she was the first to scramble up from the ground, rushing forward without hesitation.
In that critical moment, she caught the unconscious body falling from the sky, holding him steady.
"Cloud! Cloud! Wake up! Don't scare me like this!"
She clutched the man in her arms—his body ice-cold, his breath so faint it seemed ready to extinguish at any moment—as tears cascaded down her face like a broken string of pearls.
Following her, Terry, Ryo, Kyo... all the fighters who'd recovered even a sliver of strength staggered over.
They gazed at the man cradled in Mai Shiranui's arms, his face white as paper, looking as though he had already died. Their eyes held indescribably complex emotions.
Shock. Horror. Gratitude. But above all... reverence born from the depths of their souls!
Just now...
What just happened?!
All they saw was Cloud transforming into something like a god at the final moment.
Then he used just one move.
No—it couldn't even be called a move.
And Rugal, that nightmare-inducing monster who had toyed with all of them like playthings—more than half his body simply ceased to exist?
What... what the hell kind of power was that?!
"He... he saved us all..." Yuri covered her mouth, sobbing uncontrollably.
One thing they could say for certain—
It was Cloud who, in the most desperate moment, using a method they couldn't begin to comprehend, had saved everyone present.
He was an undeniable hero!
The true King of Fighters!
...
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