"So it was you."

  The humanoid clone spoke before self destructing while its life force returned to the moon. It wasn't the only one, one after another clone bodies were destroying themselves as all life force was recalled into the moon.

  (It seems it knows the core is now exposed.)

  Hiro guessed, his gaze still fixed on where the clone body was moments ago. The ground had risen to reach their level and there was no resistance between it and Hiro body. Apparently though not as he had envisioned it behaved like it was a liquid, going around any obstruction it faced and enabling movement within it in a similar fashion.

  "This much healing should be enough."

  Said Hiro stopping Epsilon's healing, he had to save his energy for the final fight. But as incomplete as his healing was what the squad had to worry about most was their exhaustion.

  Akarn's royal battle ship finally caught up and Aleus got off with the painting in hand, coming before Hiro. When the Rune King saw him, tension left his body, becoming relaxed and immensely relieved. Like Oldomus he was also exhausted only not as much but in his current state this release of tension caused him to immediately slip and fall unconscious.

  "Prince Aleus what are you..."

  The second rune master was about to ask something seeing Aleus's actions, when he and everyone else where sucked into the painting. As they got sucked into the painting world Aleus could see their expressions for himself. They looked shocked with clear traces of relief and hope. Its self destruction was all they needed to see to know it was their victory. And the shock, merely the effect of witnessing a rune they were not familiar with.

  "This dream rune is quite handy."

  Hiro acknowledged, having seen it at work doing things that varied greatly. It's effect was no less than interfering with what is real and wasn't, with the user setting the limitations to where an object stands between the two. Like now, those who had been sucked into the painting couldn't really be said that they weren't real anymore but just that they were reduced to being paintings.

  "Hearing you say that just makes me all the more regretful I didn't stay behind to inherit the entirety of its application."

  He spoke relaxed, right now though they were still on the 'moon' the battle against the fragment was silent all around. Until Hiro or it made a move things would remain this way, but with how much the moon was changing and due to its wariness, lack of information it wouldn't act first, especially with the now vulnerable core.

  "What's there to regret when you return you can visit that ruin at anytime, even inheriting the rest of the runes inside."

  "That is true. Do you plan on returning to ship?"

  Hiro shook his head, this was where he would make his last stand. Even the ground was ignored by him, now under it together with everyone else who couldn't sustain continues rise to stay out of it.

  "You focus on collecting everyone, after you are done I'll target the core. Diving straight down from here."

  He explained, the former did not linger and immediately left on the royal battle ship, it was actually safer that he wasn't with them in case the fight began while collecting the scattered subjugation army. Plus Aleus felt it would be best the fight start sooner rather than later, as such everyone had to be removed from the battlefield so Hiro could fight without restraint. A clash between two rune grandmaster power level individuals wasn't a fight they were qualified to even spectate.

  Time continued to pass in this calm, the moon hadn't stopped its expansion for even a moment. It had progressed so much that through its expansion it had become as sparse as gas. Even the core was now exposed to the naked eye, unlike the moon's life force as a pseudo physical object it could be seen with just normal eyes.

  "The moon is no more, even the earlier form of liquid likeness has been replaced."

  As he stood there he was within it, his surroundings like a red glowy mist and it was very hot, even a sauna would feel like a chilling breeze in comparison. This was actually the moon's core that had expanded beyond the moons original size. Hiro had no way to know but the moon had actually expanded to more than ten thousand times its original size.

  (Time to make my move.)

  He thought after feeling the last presence disappear, with his and the fragment's presence the only thing that remained in this unfamiliar battlefield.

  He adjusted his grip on both holy swordd. Like the fragment had felt his intentions, the moon's life force stirred as it began to be sucked into the core. While this was happening the red mist was also influenced, stopping its dissipation and moved back to the fragment's core. Hiro's eyes narrowed, while his pupils widened a sharp light flashing within them.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  (Do I attack?)

  With this question in mind Hiro thought of the basic ways to approach almost any fight to the death.

  The first, going all out from the beginning not holding back and finishing your opponent without wasting time, worked best for foes that had no defense against trump cards or weaker, winning in one strike was the essence of this.

  The second, fighting while reserving your trump cards and saving stamina while making the opponent do the opposite, best for cases of neither party knowing what the other party is capable of.

  Third going all out while reserving a means of escape.

  And from what he knew of the fragment the second wasn't an option, time was on its side. Don't forget it got strong as time continued to pass, Hiro was simply not clear of how much stronger it would be after each moment. Stalling when the fragments stamina was dependent on its life force and its strength on time, would be one way of securing his defeat if not death.

  This left the first and third approaches, he wasn't confident securing victory in the shortest time, even with Spiriton's abilities. This left him with the third and it variations and some variations of the first.

  Hiro made his decision, he slashed space to get closer to it faster than he could dive. He went through the space tear emerging from the other side, as soon as he got out he felt gravity pushing him down but it wasn't something of concern. But something shocking had happened.

  (Hmm?)

  He looked around him, the exit space tear wasn't near his target, a boulder sized lava sphere, the concentrated essence of the red mist that had disappeared completely from their surroundings, forming a vacuum.

  (Could it really have moved away? But that wouldn't match the speed it has shown so far. And that.)

  He thought glancing at his entry space tear, the distance between the tears had increased. But the distance between the entry space tear and the fragment was the same as before. One conclusion could be drawn from this, the space tear was the one to move, in fact it had brought him farther from the fragment than he initially was.

  (But how?)

  Suspicion filled his eyes as he continued to charge directly. The fragment unbeknownst to Hiro was also shocked at this development and did not waste the opportunity. Lava bullets were shot out from the surface of the lava sphere, its body. While Hiro was dealing with the lava bullets it finished its transformation. Man dragon hybrid, that was its assumed form. It stood three to four meters tall, a robust body with claws for hands and feet, a pair of wings, a tail and finally two horns on its dragonic head. On its chest the core could be seen, at a glance an ice blue crystal.

  "After all that resistance this is I managed to gather."

  It said flatly, it wasn't the least disappointed at failing to stop the rest of moon from scattering into thin air. Against Hiro it knew a large body wouldn't be an advantage. It flexed its arms before turning them into a blade and mussel respectively then stared at Hiro, while its body cooled becoming part rock, part lava. The lava bullets stopped shooting out from every part of its body then it charged towards Hiro.

  "Otherworlder, you shall learn how much of a mistake it was to confront me."

  Hiro was quite shocked at its tone, it did not speak kindly but not as arrogantly as it did with every other person.

  (As expected of a being with the will of a dragon, only the strong are acknowledged.)

  Hiro thought remembering the dragons he had faced until now.

  Slash.

  The last lava bullet was cut down effortlessly, they were not a threat just a nuisance to Hiro. The fragment also knew this as such it did not resort to a long range fight, Hiro would have an advantage in this case.

  Clink! Clink!

  His swords and its weaponized arms collided, their strength was roughly the same but the fragment had a slight edge. Hiro's eyes became even sharper, despite weakening from the numerous losses of life force it had greater raw strength. This spoke volumes to how much its strength had increased, causing Hiro's wariness of its growth to rise especially since on their first fight he viewed himself as stronger, granted it wasn't fully invested in the fight at the time.

  Blows continued to be exchanged, with Hiro having the upper hand thanks to speed and techniques.

  Bang!

  Hiro was hit with a lava attack at point blank range, he pushed through the pain and followed with a counter of his own.

  (It could shoot at this range...)

  He had just deflected its stab when it shot out a cannon ball sized lava blast from its mussel hand. Even though he was wary of this kind of attack he didn't have expected it to be used at this close of a range, the blast wasn't an explosion per se but it wasn't different from attacking someone with a grenade right beside yourself.

  Caught off guard by Hiro's indifference it revealed an opening, Hiro stabbed at it with Spiriton. The space around the stabbed area's was torn, the fragment retreated while reshaping its body so these stabbed regions were on the surface. Any injury sustained from a space slash or stab it couldn't heal from hence it used this method to retain its form.

  Hiro stared with helplessness, not at its efforts to recover but that once more he had missed the core. He had a slight advantage in speed but the core on its body wasn't fixed on one spot but swam on the body fast enough to evade his strikes.

  "Let me see if you really can deal with this."

  He said wielding Spiriton except this time he was attacking with a space slash.

  Swish swish swish!

  Several space slashes shot out but when they reached a certain distance towards the fragment, they were dragged down.

  (Just as I feared, both space tears and space slashes are pulled down within a certain distance from it. And just so happens to be where its gravity is most concentrated, a coincidence?)

  Next Hiro tried ranged slashes the same thing as did not happen to them. But the fragment wouldn't just give Hiro this advantage, shortly after it closed the distance between them and they were once more fighting at close range.

  The fight went on Hiro losing ground with each exchange of blows. It became clear to Hiro, its raw power had grown to such a degree that it was equal to him even while he was using techniques to further elevate his strength.

  (This isn't good, how long do I have before I fall behind.)

  Hiro was alert, utilising everything at his disposal ensuring the fight didn't progress for even half the time it took before he finally clashed with the fragment's real body after the subjugation started.