The shockwave came first, a brutal invisible wall that tore across the broken plains and blasted ash high into the red sky. John planted both feet against the cracked ground as Satan appeared inside the pressure wave, his fist already wrapped in red-black hellfire.
Ken formed over John's skin in a dense, almost invisible layer of aura just as Satan’s punch crashed into his ribs with a deep BOOM that rolled across the Sepulcher. 'What power...!!!' The impact still launched John through three shattered cliffs, his body punching through black stone while every collision sent molten debris spinning into the air.
Satan didn’t let him breathe.
He appeared above the falling rubble, drove both fists together, and brought them down toward John’s chest. John twisted at the last possible second, but Satan’s strike still hit the mountainside beneath him and split it apart. The entire ridge collapsed into a blazing landslide. John placed a mark on a chunk.
'Fucking hell! No wonder he fought Lucifer and survived. This is fun. I can push myself to my limits. Let's amp up to... 20%'
Before the stone could bury him, golden lightning flashed through the dust.
Godspeed flooded John’s nerves.
His body moved before thought could catch up. Every muscle, every tendon, and sparks of divine energy accelerated together as he burst from the collapsing mountain in a streak of gold. Satan’s next punch cut through empty air, and John reappeared at his side through a Flying Thunder God mark he had placed on a chunk of floating obsidian.
John drove his heel into Satan’s spine.
The kick landed with a sharp KRAK, bending Satan forward and launching him across the valley. The First of the Fallen tore through the remains of Abaddon’s abandoned siege engines, smashed through a jagged ridge, and vanished into a wall of red smoke.
John didn’t chase him immediately.
He joined both hands as blue-white ki gathered between his palms. The light grew brighter with every second, casting long shadows across the battlefield and turning the drifting ash into glowing silver dust.
Satan burst from the smoke just as John’s arms pulled back.
“20X-Kamehameha, rip him apart!”
The beam erupted from John’s palms in a roaring column of blue-white force. It crossed the battlefield in an instant, tearing a burning trench through the black plains before swallowing Satan whole.
For half a second, the First of the Fallen vanished beneath the blast.
Then reality bent.
The sky above Satan cracked open like broken glass, revealing a dark void behind the clouds. The Kamehameha beam curved upward against its own path and disappeared into the tear before John’s attack could consume him.
Satan stepped out of the fading light without a scratch. 'That was dangerous. What the hell was that energy beam?'
His eyes burned brighter as he lifted one hand.
The battlefield rose.
Mountains, ruined towers, rivers of blood, thousands of discarded weapons, and the broken corpses of war beasts ripped free from the ground. Everything hung above John for one terrible second while Satan’s telekinesis gathered enough force to crush an entire army into dust.
Then his fingers closed.
The world came down.
John raised his hand and used wandless magic.
“Protego Maxima!”
A massive translucent barrier formed around him. Ancient magical symbols flashed through the air as the shield expanded into a glowing dome, catching the first wave of falling debris. Mountains crashed against it. Siege engines shattered against it. Rivers of blood slammed across it in thick crimson sheets.
The pressure pushed him down on the ground.
The barrier bent inward with every impact.
Cracks spread across the glowing surface while John dug his boots into the ground. His aura thickened. Golden lightning burst from his shoulders. Black-gold Infernal Judgment curled around his arms like living chains.
'30%'
Through that mess, he managed to flick up a marked stone and control it using his ki to move behind the demon.
The shield finally broke.
John vanished before the ruins could crush him, appearing behind Satan through that mark. Satan reacted, turning back. But John's fist drove forward, coated in concentrated aura as he used Ryu to gather everything into one devastating strike.
The punch landed against Satan’s jaw.
The shockwave blew the clouds apart.
Satan’s head snapped sideways, but he caught John’s wrist before John could pull back. His fingers closed around John’s arm with crushing strength, and red-black rot crawled from Satan’s hand into John’s skin.
'Diseases?!' John thought.
The fatal touch spread fast.
Black veins raced up John’s forearm. "Damn it!" Pain ripped through his shoulder as the corruption tried to invade his heart, infecting his body with rage, despair, and every sickness that exists in the world.
"This is the end, human," Satan's voice echoed in John's ears.
John’s vision blurred.
The battlefield vanished.
He stood inside the mining prison in Kahndaq again.
Dust filled the air. Chains rattled against stone walls. He could hear guards laughing somewhere beyond the tunnel, and blood soaked the floor beneath his boots.
Luna stood in front of him.
She looked exactly as she had before the attack. Her face was pale, her clothes were torn, and grief filled her eyes as she reached toward him.
“You can stop now,” she whispered. “You’ve fought enough for everyone.”
John stared at her hand.
"Come with me," She said with a painful smile. "We can finally be together forever. No one will ever separate us again. Take my hand, John. Please..." Her eyes got teary. "I miss you. Don't leave me again."
For one dangerous moment, he wanted to take it.
Then he felt Satan’s presence inside the illusion, cold and ancient, digging through his memories like a thief searching through a grave.
John’s eyes sparked with the divine lightning.
"Get out of my head, motherfucker!" He screamed as he pushed back with wandless Legilimency.
The prison walls tore apart as John forced his own mind into Satan’s. For an instant, both of them saw flashes of each other’s past. John saw the First of the Fallen cast from Heaven, burning as his angelic nature twisted into something monstrous.
Satan saw Luna dying in John’s arms before John brought her back to life using the Pit, but she lost her memories as a result. To keep her safe, John decided to stay away from her. He saw Harley laughing and playing pranks, which brought joy to his life again. He saw Maureen standing alone in the snow before John gave her a home.
The connection shattered when John forced Satan out of his mind.
“You picked the wrong memory,” John said as golden lightning burned through the corruption in his veins. “Luna never taught me how to quit."
John twisted his trapped arm and drove his free hand into Satan’s chest.
A Rasengan formed in his palm.
The spinning sphere of blue chakra drilled into Satan’s body with brutal force, tearing through his cloak and launching him backward. Satan flew across the plains, but John stayed attached through his grip and drove the Rasengan deeper until the attack exploded.
The blast carved a crater into the battlefield.
Satan hit the ground, rolled through burning stone, and rose with black smoke pouring from his chest. The wound sealed immediately, flesh reforming around the spinning damage as his healing power fought back against John’s chakra.
Then Satan changed.
His body expanded.
Red-black fire erupted from his back as six enormous skeletal wings tore into existence. The wings had no feathers, only jagged bones, torn membranes, and rivers of crimson flame running through every ruined vein. A broken halo appeared behind his head, turning slowly as red fractures spread across its surface.
Thousands of voices began whispering from the darkness around him.
The ground split open.
Souls rose from the cracks.
They came in waves. Damned kings, murderers, soldiers, tyrants, cultists, and monsters long forgotten by the mortal world surged from beneath the battlefield. Their bodies were made from smoke and screaming faces. Their hands stretched toward John while Satan stood behind them like the center of a living storm.
John used Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Hundreds of shadow clones burst into existence across the broken plains.
Each clone carried golden lightning, black-gold judgment, Nen, and enough chakra to make the battlefield shake beneath their feet. They charged into the soul horde at once.
The first collision turned the sky red.
John’s clones moved through the screaming dead with Rasengan attacks spinning in their palms. Others formed hand seals and released walls of fire, cutting winds, and exploding waves of lightning. Several clones flashed through the battlefield using Hiraishin marks, appearing behind clusters of souls before driving black-gold blades through their cores.
Satan lifted both hands.
The souls fused together.
The entire horde became one massive creature, a towering shape made from thousands of faces, claws, and broken bodies. It swung an arm toward John, and the force of the strike erased dozens of clones at once.
John’s eyes narrowed.
He formed a Rasenshuriken.
Wind chakra screamed around the spinning disc as black-gold lightning wrapped around its outer edge. The attack grew larger and larger until it became a destructive sphere wider than a fortress wall.
Satan sent the soul giant forward.
John threw the Rasenshuriken.
The two forces collided in the center of the battlefield.
The blast tore through the lower sky.
Wind blades shredded the soul giant from within while Infernal Judgment raced through every bound spirit trapped inside it. The attack didn’t merely destroy the construct. It found the contracts binding each soul to Satan and cut them apart.
Thousands of spirits broke free.
Some screamed in relief. Others screamed in terror. Most vanished into the distant darkness of Hell, freed from the First of the Fallen’s control as the giant body collapsed into ash.
Satan’s expression finally changed.
The surprise lasted less than a second.
Then he vanished.
John felt the attack before he saw it.
Godspeed pushed his body aside just as Satan appeared behind him, but the First of the Fallen’s fist still clipped his shoulder and sent him skidding through the ground. Satan followed with a barrage of strikes too fast for ordinary sight.
John blocked the first punch with Ken.
He blocked the second with a wandless shield.
The third shattered his jaw.
The fourth drove him through a broken mountain.
The fifth came from above, sending him crashing into the battlefield hard enough to create another crater beneath the ruins.
Satan landed beside him and grabbed John by the throat.
His fingers tightened.
Red-black infection flooded through John’s body again, this time far worse than before. The First of the Fallen poured centuries of corruption into him, trying to break his divine power, poison his heart, and turn every fear John carried into a weapon.
John’s body began to smoke.
His muscles tore apart beneath the strain. His healing struggled to keep up as black veins crawled over his chest and throat.
Satan leaned closer.
“In the end, you’re still human under all that power,” he said, his voice carrying the weight of ancient hatred. “After I devour your soul, I'll kill everyone you love and torture their souls for eternity.”
John stopped resisting and grinned through all that pain and damage.
"Did you finally lose your mind?" Satan asked, confused.
"You arrogant bastard," John grabbed Satan's throat. "I haven't used my Hell power yet."
He tore out Satan's adam's-apple before ripping out his right arm, which was holding his throat in less than a second.
Satan teleported back, creating a safe distance between them as his body began to heal again. His ripped throat healed as a new arm appeared. "What in the hell are you?"
John took a deep breath, expelling all the corruption as black-gold lightning began to crackle around his body. His body was healed instantly.
"Me?" He took a step forward and instantly appeared before Satan. "Just a human."