Chapter 76: I Put in More Effort! |
At the epicenter of this terrifying explosion, the air between Pain’s and Saitama’s fists warped, twisting into a violent vortex.
This was no longer a mere distortion of compressed air, but a bending of space itself!
Sufficiently immense force is capable of warping the very fabric of reality.
Despite striking nothing but empty air, the shockwaves from Saitama’s and Pain’s blows were cataclysmic; each punch carried enough power to pulverize the Earth. The entire continent shuddered under the strain.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the fractured space between them finally smoothed over.
"Oh, so this is your true power? You really are quite strong."
As Saitama slowly lowered his fist, a glimmer of excitement danced in his eyes.
His Serious Punch had been blocked!
Yes!
Yeruashi had been unable to withstand a Serious Punch back in his uncontrollable Ten-Tails form, but Pain’s current power was different. It wasn't just close to that primordial state; it was disciplined and focused. By concentrating all of Pain’s vast energy into a small, humanoid vessel and layering it with Armament Haki, Yeruashi could now fully harness its potential. In this state, his raw power was enough to halt Saitama’s Serious Punch in its tracks!
"I never thought I’d meet someone who could rival a person who underwent three years of grueling daily training..." Saitama said, thumping his chest confidently as he looked at Pain. "But you didn't gain this power through training, did you? That’s why you’ll never defeat someone who earned their strength through sheer willpower and relentless effort!"
Pain shook his head, his expression remaining calm and detached. "You’re mistaken. Every ounce of my power was forged through exhausting discipline. You mentioned three years of daily training? Hmph. That actually sounds quite difficult..."
As he spoke, Pain’s expression grew increasingly grim.
Silence fell over the battlefield.
In the blink of an eye, Pain closed the gap and unleashed a devastating strike.
"But I have put in... far more effort!!!"
Boom!!!
Saitama managed to cross his arms just in time to intercept the blow, but the ground beneath him groaned and disintegrated. A massive web of fissures erupted from beneath his feet, instantly spiderwebbing across nearly half of the uninhabited territory!
From high above, it looked as though that entire section of the continent was on the verge of crumbling into the sea.
Crash!
With the ground beneath him pulverized, Saitama lost his footing and was sent hurtling backward like a cannonball, propelled by an unimaginable surge of kinetic energy. His form blurred and vanished into the sky with such velocity that almost no one present could track his flight.
Boom!!!
Saitama’s back slammed into the Moon, shattering it into countless fragments, yet the impact barely slowed him down.
Whoosh!!!
He continued to rocket through the endless void of space until he eventually impacted Mars.
Boom!!!
Saitama pulled himself out of a massive crater on the Martian surface, his lip twitching in irritation. "He did it again..."
With an annoyed grunt, he kicked off the planet, leaving a vast network of deep cracks across Mars as he soared back toward Earth.
On Earth, Pain stood silently amidst the ruins, his gaze fixed on the infinite expanse of the cosmos.
Child Emperor, Bang, and the other S-Class heroes who had been blown away earlier—along with Psykos—all craned their necks toward the sky. They saw nothing but a vast, blue expanse.
'Unharmed, just as I expected...' Pain whispered to himself.
The moment he had delivered the blow, he knew Saitama would likely block it completely.
Yeruashi was beginning to realize that even fighting in person at full strength, he might not be able to actually defeat Saitama. Their clash would most likely end in a stalemate; he couldn't break through Saitama’s defense, and Saitama couldn't kill him.
But everything was about to change.
Once he fully merged with Pain, his power wouldn't just increase—it would transcend planetary destruction and approach the level of a star-killer!
However, it was still too early for the merger. Pain’s cells hadn't reached their absolute peak yet; there was still about ten percent more growth possible.
He would have to wait just a little longer.
"...Is he back?"
At that moment, a speck appeared in the sky. Saitama was moving far too fast for the human eye to track, but as he breached the atmosphere, he became a falling comet, trailing a massive tail of flame.
'Show me your limit, Saitama,' Pain thought, his excitement rising. He kicked off the ground, launching himself straight at the descending hero.
The earth beneath Pain’s feet groaned and shattered, deep cracks spreading across a radius of ten thousand kilometers as if signaling the apocalypse.
Whoosh!!!
Pain instantly pierced through several layers of the atmosphere, closing in on Saitama with an equally long tail of fire ignited by his sheer speed.
To the people on Earth, it looked as if two massive meteors were streaking across opposite ends of the sky, destined for a head-on collision.
Saitama, naturally, saw Pain coming.
By now, his cape and jumpsuit were almost entirely incinerated, but he didn't seem to care in the slightest.
He watched Pain approach and yelled with exhilaration as he pulled back his fist. "I trained so hard that I even went bald!!!"
Vroom!!
Visible distortions rippled around Saitama’s fist before he even threw it. The punch was so fast and carried such immense kinetic energy that it even warped the light around it!
If before Saitama had used a Serious Punch, this was now a Furious Punch!
This strike was even more powerful than his Serious Series!!
In the next heartbeat, the two brilliant meteors finally collided—or more accurately, the fists of Saitama and Pain met.
Silence.
As those terrifying blows struck, people all over the world witnessed the entire sky tremble and warp. This shocking, impossible scene occurred because the collision between Saitama and Pain sent shockwaves through the Earth's entire atmosphere, treating it like the thin skin of a balloon!!