'I was right! I'm not the only student of death here!' Rias thought, and he snapped towards the frightening pressure storming from a distance away – a mess of death and time, spiralling everywhere, unrefined but bountiful.

Funny, it mirrored his internal turmoil – what he felt Vali had done while in possession of Aimon.

…But there were no doubts in Grim's head. As soon as he decided to take on the risk, he bore himself as the King of Unforgiving Impermanence without restraint.

Taking on the form, he became a fierce creature with wild tendrils of white hair that took the shapes of animals snapping at each other. On his upper torso was a dark cuirass decked with twinkling stars, on either end of it, thick arms livid with astonishing physical might. His lower half was that of a shaggy feline beast corded with bulging muscle under the black furs.

In this form, Grim seemed inevitable – impossible. It was hard to believe that despite it all, he was a mere mortal.

…But perhaps that's why Yuyui's heart jumped. She meant to scream his name and tell him she was afraid this would be his last act, but she held herself back. She was also gambling with her life by surpassing the mortal limits, draining all she could out of the Inhuman Eye andEye of Moving's capabilities. If she survived, it would be a miracle.

For a moment, Grim and Yuyui locked eyes.

Rias sensed their intent before they moved. It was united hostility.

He would cut down Yuyui first. Whatever she was doing, he would stop it and stop her in her tracks. She streaked towards him, propping her fingers at him for another Aggrante. She was… slower? Slow enough for him to perceive? No, it had to be a trap.

…And it was. Rias propped his fingers at her as well and fired a concentrated jet of Undeath energy at her. It got Yuyui in the head, blasting her face off.

…But before the Undeathly throng had even finished spilling from his fingers, Yuyui was behind him, slamming her fist into his back – no – into his soul with a distinctly destructive force.

Rias cried in agony, but he didn't succumb. Yet Grim was upon him, cocking back his arm. The threat Rias saw didn't come from the sheer impossible strength in that muscle-corded arm. No. It was…

'Pure death!'

Rias' guard was insufficient. Crossing his arms and amassing two-thirds of his remaining Undeath energy in them for defense just wasn't enough.

His evolved brain didn't even register it when the blow struck him. He must have gone unconscious for a fraction of a microsecond. When he came to, his arms and chest were a mess.

…And yet Grim had galloped across the air, faster than Rias' eyes could see, and nailed him with yet another blow that blew off his shoulder and chest. Yuyui came striding along, as well, faster than Grim, and she smashed a lethal fist into his soul, and propelled him at the same speed she was moving into the distance with her Eye of Moving. She warped Grim to Rias' destination, where he received the necromancer with his signature move:

"Chrona Aggrante!"

The jet of concentrated death and time blasted Rias point-blank, but its intent was not only to deal damage. It did something even worse.

'THIS—!' Rias' face fell.

His most recent body augment was reversed – his brain was reverted to its normal state, where it was subject to…

"Charged Stroke!"

Savast didn't miss a beat.

"AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGHHHHHHH!" Rias screamed at the top of his lungs, and the unbearable agony reached for every one of his damning thoughts and apprehensions. It reeled in his doubts and filled him with fear.

His Undeath, pound for pound, was no match for the power of true death. This was already a universal truth of the Existential Parallel. Rias' skill with it was subpar when compared to what it could be. That was why he lost in a physical contest with a mortal. That was why he was stripped of his augment. That was why…

'Who am I then, if not a student of death?!'

…And then Yuyui came in, vengeful, worsening his doubts.

Rias was reeling, but his fury was growing. When Yuyui blasted him with one of her inexplicably powerful punches, she lost her whole arm, as though it'd suddenly be deemed a mistake by the world. Indeed, it was Rias using Kintar's Infinitesimal Division.

BAM!

'NRGH!'

…But a blow still came for Rias' soul from the side. He saw Yuyui there, her fist pounding against his soul – a fist that should have been lost.

CRACK!

…!

Rias reeled. Yet another portion of his soul cracked. He staggered, only to be bashed in the head by Grim's hands and sent plummeting to the sands.

His powers were stalling. Significant damage to his body not only affected Aimon, but it also reached his Broader Existence.

This wasn't good!

'That woman…!' Rias thought, gathering his wits and altering the nature of his brain and mind again. 'I see now! She's using the Eye of Moving to manipulate her future movements! That's why she always seems to get the better of me every time I best her! And worse yet… If she takes damage, she uses the eye to stride backwards through all of the times she's ever used the Inhuman Eye to restore herself! That's how she recovered even her armour just now, I wager!'

It was ridiculous – demented!

How could one move through different versions of themselves that they had regenerated from in the past? Did that even make sense?

Yuyui could only have discovered such an interpretation of moving because of the mental energy flooding through her from Savast.

There was a cost, of course. It was a dangerous game.

Rias had barely staggered to his feet when Grim and Yuyui caught him in a pincer. The latter was bleeding from the nose, looking paler than death. She would land even more blows to Rias' soul using the Eye of Moving. Micro-bursts of speed channeled through her arms generated exponential doses of force that caused singularities upon meeting anything material or immaterial. It was power beyond even the average Divine.

…But these two weren't Rias' only problem.

"Chrona Aggrante!"

Another Aggrante caught him point-blank, stronger than the last, and stripped him of two of his previous body augments, including the tampered brain. Right after it flared, Savast nailed Rias with yet another paralysing jolt of damage to the mind, while Yuyui landed a critical hit to the dome of the necromancer's soul.

…And that was when Rias heard it.

"[Null Life Aura]!" cried another Unlimited Star, while two discs hung over him, making selections.