As Kenshiro walks toward Cassandra, Rei is fighting against Ken-Oh. But as Rei jumps towards his opponent, he seems to hit a barrier and is met with an assault of punches and strikes! He realises that Ken-Oh's touki is so strong it lets him attack without making any physical contact.



As Ken-Oh smirks, Rei gets back up and has to attack in a different way if he is going to win this fight. He goes into a stance and waves his arms in a series of different motions as Bat and Lin watch, not sure in what is happening.



Rei once again jumps forward, but this time his technique has allowed him to pass through Ken-Oh's touki! It seems that he is going to kill Ken-Oh, but Lin suddenly screams out Ken's name and Kenshiro hears her cry. He starts to run towards Cassandra.



Ken-Oh has seen through Rei's attack and quickly removes his cape and throws it over his opponent. This breaks Rei's concentration and it is too late for him to do anything about it, as Ken-Oh critically injures him with a single finger stab to his chest.



Kenshiro arrives, but he sees that he is too late. He also sees Yuria tied to the cross, but Raoh starts to laugh and throws Rei back to him. It seems that Rei has died from his wound, and as Ken sees Raoh he calls him by name.



Raoh interrupts him and says that he has a new name -he is now Ken-Oh, the legendary supreme ruler. And if Kenshiro wants to save Yuria, then he will have to kill him. Ken decides to take him up on that offer and starts to walk towards him, but Rei suddenly gets up -he isn't dead! He tells Kenshiro not to fight with Ken-Oh yet as it is not the time, they will end up killing each other.



Rei says that Ken must not die and he must live on for Lin, for Bat, for Yuria...for everyone in the next generation. He must not fight now just for his sake. Rei then passes away, but Kenshiro has already made up his mind and runs towards Ken-Oh with the intention of fighting him, but as he does, Ken-Oh uses a move to blast him back.



This was a demonstration of Ken-Oh's touki, and a clear signal of how strong he has become. But Ken-Oh has another little secret for Kenshiro -he reveals that he was the one who killed their master, Ryuken! This really sets Kenshiro into a frenzy and he charges up...



... his own touki. This scares Kokuoh-Go and Ken-Oh has to calm his horse down, this is the first time the touki of another man has frightened his steed. After getting Kokuoh-Go to calm down Ken-Oh also begins to charge up his touki.



The tremendous amount of energy begins to tear Cassandra apart and Ken-Oh's troops flee in terror. Yuria's cross breaks apart and it falls to the ground, although Yuria thankfully escapes any harm. Bat and Lin rescue her, but as they return to the fight they see that Kenshiro and Ken-Oh are floating up in the air!



The strikes the two try to hit each other with are so powerful that they reduce buildings to rubble. As they dodge each other's moves a tornado like effect is generated and Yuria, Bat and Lin are too close, getting picked up by the wind and moved away from the battlefield. Kenshiro kicks Raoh, making him leave his horse for a brief moment, as both fighters then return to the ground.



Ken-Oh sees that he has been injured, and decides that Kenshiro is worthy to fight against as an equal, so he gets off his horse so he can stand on the same ground as him. He sees that Kenshiro has become strong so he needs to destroy him now, he doesn't want him to be able to get in his way. The two exchange attacks and as they are both master of Hokuto Shinken...



...they are hitting each other's pressure points, heavily injuring one another. But they still keep fighting and Kenshiro hits Ken-Oh's face so hard he gets his helmet to fly off.



As Ken-Oh recovers from that, he elbows Kenshiro in his neck with such force it makes him crash into the ground. Ken-Oh gets up and hopes Kenshiro is finished, but as he moves towards him Ken suddenly gets up, surrounded by his blue aura.



The two resume fighting and as they battle the ground around them crumbles and more buildings are destroyed due to the huge amount of energy being released. Kenshiro stabs Ken-Oh in his chest, but Ken-Oh does exactly the same thing to Kenshiro.



They both fall down, but Kenshiro gets up again and punches Ken-Oh in the face...but again Ken-Oh does the same thing to him.



They fall down again and after a few seconds Ken-Oh gets back up...however, Kenshiro does not. This is finally his chance to finish the battle and take Kenshiro's life, so Ken-Oh is about to stomp on his opponent's head when he hears someone cry out for him to stop...



...it's Lin! She walks towards Raoh and asks him to stop fighting. Ken-Oh sees that it is the little girl he saw earlier and believes that she has been following him for a reason. She has stopped this fight.



He tells her that Kenshiro will not die and neither will he as it is not time yet, their final battle was not meant to happen today. She is also too young and he tells her that she must hurry and grow up. As he walks away he says that he was prepared to die, and that if Lin hadn't have interrupted then they probably would have destroyed each other. He then rides out of Cassandra on Kokuoh-Go.



Later on Bat has found Lin and asks where Ken is. Kenshiro went off to look for Yuria, as she has gone missing yet again. As the two walk on they see something amazing: flowers are growing in the ground! It seems that the Earth is reviving and is capable of supporting plant life again! Maybe there is hope for the future after all.



Kenshiro walks across a desert alone. The successor to Hokuto Shinken moves on to his next challenge.



(The End)