Gods Universe: Chain Ruler

The amount of power in both was enormous. The freeze lasted only a few seconds. Just long enough for a single breath—just long enough for Kujima to strike.

The moment the ice broke, he lunged, driving his sword toward Judd's throat.

Judd had half a second to react.

The cold responded instantly to his will. With a sharp, powerful movement, he raised his own sword and parried the attack. Steel clashed against steel, sending a pulse of ice through the air.

Kujima grinned. "Judd, you do know this isn't my real body, right? I exist now because of the energy I drained from you—and it's stronger than anything I've ever felt. I should've gone to that cathedral first."

Judd's eyes narrowed. "The cathedral? How do you know about it?"

"You think I came here by accident? I was searching for it. That place was my goal from the start. But you got there first. Lucky bastard."

Judd tightened his grip on his sword.

"You can't kill me like this," Kujima continued. "You can't win this war. There's only one victor, and it's me. Once I fully take over your body, there's no getting rid of me."

Judd's voice was cold. "What if I kill my own body?"

For the first time, Kujima hesitated.

His smirk faltered.

"…You don't have the will to do that," he said after a pause. "And even if you did, we'd both die."

Their blades clashed again, a violent storm of steel and ice. Judd slashed with all his might, his sword radiating frost.

"Freeze."

A deep blue cut appeared across Kujima's chest. He stumbled back, examining the wound.

"Cheyra really has made you stronger," he admitted. Then, with a sickening shimmer, the wound healed before Judd's eyes.

Judd staggered, coughing hard. A sharp pain spread through his body.

Kujima smiled. "Impressive. But since my power comes from you, every blow you land on me hurts you just as much."

Judd wiped blood from his lips. "Then I'll end this in one strike."

Kujima crossed his arms. A black magic circle spread beneath him.

"Talking like you can," he mocked.

Slowly, he reached into the circle with his left hand—then pulled out a second sword. Black as night. Weightless as shadow.

Judd's eyes flickered with recognition. "Dual swords… I've never seen you use that before."

"No advantage to it, right?" Kujima twirled the magic sword effortlessly. "That's what you think. But this one has no weight."

Judd didn't hesitate. He lunged.

Steel met steel. Kujima blocked with his right-hand sword and countered with the black blade in his left.

A sharp pain.

Judd barely had time to register what had happened before he saw it—his left arm, severed again, lying on the ground.

His vision blurred. His breath caught.

"FUCK YOUR MOTHER, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

His shoulder gushed blood. Without hesitation, he pressed the tip of his sword to the wound.

"Great Hexa Variant: Absolute Zero."

Frost consumed his shoulder, sealing the wound in an instant. The pain was unbearable, but he grit his teeth and endured.

Kujima chuckled. "Don't bother. You'll have your arm back soon enough."

Then, without warning, he drove the black sword straight into Judd's chest.

Judd gasped.

His body trembled as he sank to his knees.

Kujima leaned in close, his lips brushing against Judd's ear. "You won't die here," he whispered. "You'll live… somewhere in the recesses of your mind."

With a slow, deliberate movement, he pushed the sword deeper.

Judd's heart twisted in agony. Black veins spread from the wound, creeping across his skin.

His vision distorted.

Kujima's face blurred, shifting in and out of focus. His severed arm flickered in his sight—there, then gone, then there again.

"I saw my own intestines once, Judd," Kujima murmured. "Don't worry. That was my first and last time. From now on, we live together. In your body."

Judd's grip tightened around his sword.

I won't let this happen.

With his last shred of willpower, he drove his own blade into his stomach.

"NAME SET: ACTIVATE FROSTIE—GREAT HEXA VARIANT MERGER."

A surge of ice roared through his body.

Judd stood.

Calm.

Silent.

Blood ran freely from his stomach wound, coating his fingers in crimson. Kujima took two steps back, eyes wide in disbelief.

"What…?"

Judd moved.

Faster than light.

The world slowed around him. The veins in his legs swelled, his muscles tensed, his heart pumped with impossible force.

Kujima's mouth moved, but Judd couldn't hear the words.

He didn't care.

In the next instant, Kujima's head was gone.

A clean, perfect cut.

His severed head hit the ground. His body collapsed.

But he didn't die.

From his severed lips, he spoke. "Now we are united, Judd. Fully united—but as a sword."

Judd looked down at his hands.

They were disappearing.

Vaporizing.

He glanced at Kujima's body—it was already gone. His head, too, was dissolving into nothingness.

Frostie slipped from Judd's grip.

He no longer had hands.

He no longer had a body.

They were still here. But in a different form.

For the first time in millions of years, ICEGO had been reborn.

But it lasted only moments.

Then it, too, was gone.

The power of Cheyra vanished.

The island no longer pulsed with energy.

Instead, the snow melted. The frost that had coated the world for centuries disappeared. Green spread across the land. Plants flourished where ice had once ruled. Across distant continents, fields that had thrived under the cold now withered and died.

The climate of the Hexa Universe had changed forever.

And Earth had yet to react.

This story before the original story.

Cheyra is now a frozen land again.