With the seventh round about to start, Heimdall began to announce again.

"Once again, both the humans and the gods are tied! This next round will be another tiebreaker! Ragnarok Round 7! Who will come out on top!? Both sides are definitely going to be giving it their all!

And now… introducing the seventh representative for humanity! Originally, he was assigned to the Gods roster! But true to his nature, only he alone can govern himself!

He has abandoned royalty! Abandoned his family! Abandoned worldly desire! Like the horn of the rhinoceros, he walks all alone!"

Carrying his weapon, Buddha walks onto the arena. The demigods began shouting at him in anger. But that did nothing to faze him.

Heimdall continues. "In just a short six years, he has attained enlightenment!

Born alone! Living alone! And fighting alone! 'Throughout all of Heaven and Earth, I alone am the honored one!'

'Throughout all of Heaven and Earth, I alone am the mighty one!'

Entering this world as the Prince of the Shakya and departing it as the enlightened one! Out of respect for the strongest profiligate son in history…

The humans call him… THE BUDDHA!"

Looking down, Maya comments. "So that's Buddha. Hmm… If he's going to go up against an otherworldly fighter… I'm not sure what to think."

Brumhilde looks at her. "If there's anybody who I can trust to take out anybody appointed by Zeus, it'll be him. Just watch."

"And now… introducing the seventh representative for the gods!" Heimdall points in the air.

"This is a man who knows how to bring the whole world to his feet! From a young age, he's done everything he could do with the power that's been given to him by unknown means!

He doesn't fight for justice… or chaos… or even for attention! He fights because he believes the world revolves itself around him! Nothing had been done to prove him wrong! And now with the potential to become a demigod-hood in his sight, only he alone could tell you what's gonna come next!"

It was then that purple fireworks began bursting in the sky. Zeus leans forward. "Here he comes."

"He lurks in the shadows… So he can fight in the shadows!" Heimdall continues. "The world that he lives in will one day know of his achievements, but for now, he has kept himself a secret!

Appointed by Lord Zeus himself… Please welcome…"

Suddenly, a man wearing all black appears in the arena. Everything about this guy just screams edgy. Buddha raises an eyebrow. Now intrigued.

"SHADOW!" The man manifests a black sword. Ready to fight.

Goll is starting to look uneasy. "Sis? What do you know about this… Shadow?"

Brunhilde crosses her arms. "Not much, I'm afraid. I know that he's a selfish prick. He commits heroic acts… I'll never acknowledge him as a hero or even an antihero. He sees everybody around him as nothing more like simple characters in a story and less like people. He has nothing but excuses."

Maya looks at her. "I feel kinda funny saying this, but I don't feel threatened by him at all. What would Zeus want with him?"

"Everything's a game to this man… Maybe that's what caught his attention." Brunhilde shook her head. "Look… I don't like him. I had an opportunity to invite him to fight on our side, but I didn't take it. He'd have probably turned it down anyway."

Maya looks down at Shadow. She can only conclude that he's every bit if not more as dangerous as Keyarga. Whatever Buddha's capable of, she can only hope it'll be enough.

Heimdall continues. "This is gonna be quite the fight, folks! One who walked away from everything… against one who has everything! The two cannot be anymore different from each other!

Here we go! Buddha… and Shadow! Let's see who comes out on top!"

He then blows the Ghallarhorn. Officially starting the fight.

Shadow began to smirk, which hasn't gone unnoticed by Buddha.

Finally, he spoke. "Before I fight you, Buddha… I just wanna say something… I completely disagree with the announcer!"

Buddha tilts his head while Heimdall blinks twice. "Eh?"

Shadow continues. "You see, I see the two of us having a lot more in common than one might think.

Born alone… Fighting alone… Living alone… That describes me. 'In all of Heaven and Earth, I alone am the mighty one.' I really could not have said it better myself."

He points at himself with his thumb. "Everything I am… I kinda have you to thank for."

Now it's Buddha's turn to smirk. "Well that's just swell. And here I thought I'd have to give you a lecture in loving yourself. But it seems that you've taught yourself already."

His expression then changes to a more serious one. "However… I won't go so far as to say you have nothing left to learn from me… how about I show you?"

Shadow nods at him. "Please do."

Buddha's staff began to light up. The wheel on the end began to rotate. Shadow had to admit, he had never seen a weapon that looked as cool as this one.

His weapon now transformed, Buddha exclaimed.

"Six Realms Staff, Second Realm: Akshaya, the Indestructable Vajra Sword!"

Shadow's eyes began to light up. "That's… so cool."

Buddha then points at him. "Today… Shadow, was it? You will learn that wherever shadow may be… There's always light that isn't far away!"

Hearing that, Shadow put on a smile. It's one of those kinds of smiles that he never really got a chance to show to anyone. He's not being smug, or putting on a fake face. He is genuinely happy.

"You're… not like all the others who have said that to me, Buddha. I can't remember the last time I felt this excited!"

"Hmm…" Brunhilde looks at Shadow. "It looks like I may have… slightly misjudged him. I expected him to start fighting by now."

Tightening his grip on his weapon, Shadow raises it in front of him. "Alright then… here I come!"

He took half a step forward before seemingly vanishing into thin air. Buddha, however, wasn't fazed. In fact, he saw it coming.

Shadow reappeared from behind him and tried attacking, but his sword missed due to Buddha moving out of the way.

"I can't believe it folks!" Heimdall shouted. "Shadow may be quick, but Buddha is proven to be quicker! Just how is Shadow gonna catch up now!?"

Shadow gives Buddha a look of admiration. "You dodged it… Heh… Show me more!"

He went on to attack Buddha again. Being every bit as fast as he was before. But Buddha had no difficulty dodging every attack.

Goll looks at Brunhilde. "He must have crazy good reflexes. Dodging like that."

"Buddha already knows how Shadow is going to attack. That future vision of his can be pretty useful against opponents like him." Said Brunhilde.

"Future… vision…" Maya looks down at Buddha. "What I would give to have something like that?"

Shadow then stopped attacking. Buddha could see his smile so he decided there was no harm in smiling back. "So… are you… giving up now?"

"Are you kidding me!?" Shadow laughed. "I'm having way too much fun to give up now! I'll have to properly thank Lord Zeus later. You, Buddha, are hands down the best one that I've ever had the privilege of fighting!

I'm definitely going to miss you after you're dead!"

Buddha scratches his neck. "Uhh… You've yet to hit me even once so far. Just how do you plan to kill me?"

Shadow then raises his left hand. Within a second, a small amount of purple colored light started to manifest itself.

"You were able to see into my soul earlier, right?" Said Shadow. "I have a theory… If I just darken my own soul to the point where you can't see any light…"

Buddha's expression changed. Now he's more concerned.

Shadow just smirked. "Well would you look at that. It looks like my theory was right after all. Of course I'm not surprised. The world does revolve around me after all!"

Goll looks down at Shadow with her mouth hanging open. "That's… That's cheating!"

Shadow moves to attack again. Buddha raised his sword, but he was just too fast. He endes up cutting his upper right arm. Blood began pouring out of the new wound. "AAAHH!"

"Buddha!" Goll yells.

"At last Shadow finally manages to land a successful hit on Buddha!" Yells Heimdall. "It looks like he did have something up his sleeve after all!"

Still smiling in admiration, Shadow points his sword at the wounded Buddha.

"You better prepare yourself, my friend! Because THIS is where we're going to start fighting for real!"

I've only seen bits and pieces of the Eminence in Shadow. So my depiction of the character may not exactly be accurate. Anyway, look forward to the next chapter.