His mana reserves, normally carefully regulated, suddenly began burning at ten times more than the normal consumption rate, every ability enhanced but at catastrophic energy cost.

His stamina, already halved from the five-hundred-mile sprint, began draining at accelerated rates as his body operated in emergency overdrive mode.

And the pain. The overwhelming, all-consuming pain of forcing a body past every natural limitation. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Satou screamed.

Not a battle cry. Not a roar of defiance. Just raw, primal agony vocalized as his body tore itself apart and rebuilt itself stronger in the same instant.

The crimson Berserk aura around him exploded outward with intensity that made his previous manifestation look like a candle compared to a bonfire. Dark red energy blazed around his form like actual flames, heat radiating outward in waves that turned nearby stone molten.

[BERSERK MODE: OVERDRIVE - ACTIVATED]

[WARNING: STAMINA DRAIN RATE: 500% NORMAL] [WARNING: MANA CONSUMPTION RATE: 1000% NORMAL] [WARNING: CANNOT CANCEL UNTIL COMPLETE EXHAUSTION] [WARNING: PHYSICAL DAMAGE ACCUMULATION: CRITICAL]

[ENHANCEMENT ACHIEVED:]

STRENGTH: +800%AGILITY: +750%ENDURANCE: +600%ALL ABILITIES: OVERDRIVE STATEREGENERATION: MAXIMUM OUTPUTPAIN SUPPRESSION: ACTIVE

The pain didn’t stop—just became manageable as his nervous system adapted to the overload, his Mind Fortress and Mental Fortitude letting him think through agony that would have incapacitated lesser beings.

Satou straightened slowly, his body still wreathed in crimson flames, his flame-like eyes blazing with intensity that made them almost white at the center.

The ground beneath his feet cracked from the pressure of his enhanced presence, small craters forming where his power pressed down on reality itself.

Khar’razoth’s thousands of eyes tracked the transformation, the Ancient God’s consciousness recognizing a threat level shift.

When the creature spoke, Elric’s voice was still audible beneath the dimensional harmonics:

"IMPRESSIVE. YOU FORCE YOUR MORTAL FORM BEYOND ITS LIMITS. BUT MORTAL ENHANCEMENT, HOWEVER EXTREME, CANNOT MATCH DIVINE POWER."

Satou didn’t respond. Didn’t waste breath on words.

He just moved.

[SHADOW ABSOLUTE MOVEMENT + TIME DILATION + OVERDRIVE ENHANCEMENT]

Satou’s teleportation, already nearly instantaneous, became literally impossible to track. One moment standing on the ground, the next moment appearing directly in front of Khar’razoth’s lion-skull face, two hundred feet in the air, his fist already in motion.

The punch carried every ounce of his Overdrive-enhanced strength, his 800% power increase channeled into a single strike aimed at the Ancient God’s massive skull.

The impact generated a shockwave that flattened everything within a quarter-mile radius. Trees were uprooted and turned to splinters. Stone was pulverized to dust. The air itself ignited from compression heating.

Khar’razoth’s head snapped backward, the two-hundred-foot creature actually staggering from the force, dozens of its tentacles flailing for balance.

First blood to Satou.

But the Ancient God’s regeneration was instantaneous. The impact point on its skull, where bone should have shattered, simply... reformed. Like the damage had never occurred.

"PATHETIC."

A hundred tentacles lashed out simultaneously, each one fifty feet thick and moving with speed that defied their massive size.

Satou’s enhanced perception, operating in overdrive state, tracked every single appendage. His Combat Transcendence analyzed their trajectories, predicted their impact points, calculated optimal evasion paths.

He didn’t try to block. Didn’t try to tank the strikes.

He just dodged.

[ENHANCED AGILITY + SERPENTINE GRACE + TIME DILATION]

His body moved with fluid precision that made the term "superhuman" seem inadequate. He flowed between the tentacles like water between stones, each massive appendage missing him by millimeters as he contorted through impossible angles.

One tentacle swept horizontally where his torso had been a microsecond earlier.

Another stabbed downward at his head—he twisted sideways, the appendage passing through space his skull had occupied an instant before.

Three more attacked from different angles simultaneously—he spun, ducked, jumped, his enhanced agility letting him move through three-dimensional space like it was a choreographed dance he’d practiced for years.

Fifty tentacles. A hundred tentacles. All missing their target by the smallest possible margins as Satou demonstrated combat mastery that went beyond mere speed into something approaching precognition.

But he couldn’t dodge everything forever.

One tentacle, moving with speed even his enhanced perception struggled to track, caught him across the ribs as he evaded three others.

The impact hit like being struck by a falling mountain. Satou felt ribs crack despite his Overdrive-enhanced durability, felt his body launched sideways through the air at supersonic speeds.

He crashed through a hillside, the impact carving a crater fifty feet deep, stone shattering around his form.

[REGENERATION - LEGENDARY + OVERDRIVE]

Before he’d even finished sliding to a stop, his body was already healing. Broken ribs knitted back together in seconds. Cracked scales reformed. Internal bleeding stopped and reversed.

The pain was still there—his overdrive regeneration couldn’t eliminate that—but the damage was gone.

Satou pulled himself from the crater and looked up to see Khar’razoth already repositioning for the next attack, the Ancient God’s massive form moving with impossible speed despite its size.

This wasn’t like fighting Valentine, where superior technique could create advantages. This wasn’t like battling the Heroes, where tactical thinking could exploit weaknesses.

This was fighting something that operated on fundamentally different rules. Something that had existed before mortality was defined. Something that couldn’t be defeated through conventional combat.

I need to end this fast. Before my stamina runs out. Before my mana depletes. Before the Overdrive burns me out completely.

He activated one of his most powerful offensive abilities.

[DEVOURING]

The SSS-Rank ability that had defined his entire journey activated, spatial consumption force extending outward toward Khar’razoth’s massive form, trying to analyze, deconstruct, absorb—

The Ancient God moved.

Not with its body. With reality itself.

Khar’razoth existed partially outside normal dimensional space. The moment Satou’s Devouring ability tried to latch onto it, the creature simply... shifted. Moved into dimensions the ability couldn’t reach.

And while Satou was committed to the Devouring attempt, unable to instantly cancel the activation—

Khar’razoth counterattacked.

Two hundred tentacles shot forward simultaneously, moving faster than before, the Ancient God having analyzed Satou’s combat patterns and adapted.

Satou tried to abort the Devouring, tried to activate Shadow Absolute Movement to teleport away.