Destined. We will always be opposites, like the sun and the moon—never present at the same time, never equal, opposites, yet lovers from afar, like the sun and the moon, fraternal.
— Argh... this feeling... horrible, argh... my Domain is already reaching its limit... this needs to end soon...
Creck... creck...
Feeling the weight of his body that seemed to bend again and again, Khaelis Kaiwen's knees screamed under the extreme pressure that his thighs, torso, and upper limbs were now exerting.
— I need to... kill him... he won't evolve any further...
And above all, what made his body—no, his spirit—want to crumble the most: the weight of that thin blade in his hands. ShadowStorm.
Tink...
Two drops of his crimson, pure blood fell simultaneously onto the ground, dripping from his nose and ears.
— Argh...
A terrible sensation washed over him.
Finck...
Driving the tip of ShadowStorm into the ground—into that beautiful, gleaming floor of luminous constructs within his domain, constructs forged from the brilliantly shining Purple Flame. His legs trembled, vibrating like the wings of an insect trying to hide its desperation, for it had been many years since Khaelis Kaiwen had leaned on and concentrated the entire weight of his body and heavy robes onto the thin tip of his blade planted in the dirt. And with eyes that seemed to grow heavier and more exhausted by the second:
— Argh... argh...
He watched that infernal monster, which, even after being destroyed over and over again, devoid of any awareness of what it once was, refused to fall and remained there, staring at him. An infernal monster that, despite never landing a direct hit on him even once, posed such a grave threat to his life.
— He is still going to evolve...
Khaelis's eyes met those of the demon. The pinnacles of the food chain—and there, Khaelis recognized that, for a fleeting moment, his survival instinct had tried to trick him, for he felt true fear of being killed right then and there. Yet, something far greater burned within him beyond everything else: a torrential rain of memories and resolve.
Evolving.
An infernal cold burned their skin, followed by an immeasurable chill that crept up their spines, as if their sins were slithering up their backs.
— Hah... hah...
And then, a babble, a distorted laugh escaped that abomination that had once been Igyris.
— You...
His voice was like a whirlwind of wailing souls, his open jaw—resembling that of an arachnid monster—overflowed with agony, a sight so painful to behold.
— It's incredible that you can still form sentences in that state...
FINCK!!!
Brusquely losing every last drop of elegance from his once-pristine movements, Khaelis tore the shining ShadowStorm from the ground.
— Argh...
Once again, the entirety of his body weight collapsed onto his knees and trembling legs. A grunt of agony escaped his lips, smeared with the blood from his nose, yet, trembling as he was, he was still in combat—and so he raised ShadowStorm once more.
— Yo-you... Khaelis Kaiwen...
That voice, sounding like a maelstrom of sins and screams of agony, echoed again. His multiple eyes, red as the very fires of hell, had pupils that danced like glowing embers in random directions. The instant his voice sounded, all of them fixed onto the exact same spot at once, like a predatory spider locking onto a minuscule fly trapped in its web to devour it; the abomination stared him down.
— We are... evolving, aren't we?
The freezing air slowly began to become unbreathable—a frigid atmosphere that was merely another byproduct of that presence in a world that had never belonged to it. An absolute void of pure chaos, pain, and agony that, simply by persisting, was gradually dismantling Khaelis Kaiwen's absolute control.
— I... see clearly now...
His limp, misshapen body at that moment looked as though it didn't even possess bones to maintain its structure; only indistinct layers of dark greenish epidermis were growing hard. His bones were being replaced by exposed, insect-like structures.
CRACK!!!
Exoskeletal bone structures coiled and expanded around themselves, splitting and fracturing in dry snaps of pain that filled Khaelis Kaiwen's damaged eardrums with agony.
— Infernal monster...
And from those massive fissures opening within those bone structures leaked a thick black fluid that reeked of death.
Crack... crack...
Amidst those sharp snaps, the abomination rose to its full height, all its eyes locked onto Khaelis Kaiwen's.
Vhon... vhon...
— Before, I could not see... Kaiwen... Khaelis... but like this... yes... we are evolving, yes...
Vhon... vhon...
Slowly, the thick fluid stopped flowing. Soon the fissures were dry, for just as quickly as it had dripped out, the liquid had evaporated.
Vhon... vhon...
And higher and higher, the dreadful sensation swelled in Khaelis Kaiwen's chest.
— Like this, I can see... Khaelis Kaiwen... we are evolving alongside the chaos we provide... what holds us back... the only thing holding us back is the mindset...
Vhon... vhon...
The aberration's open jaw split entirely open at the sides, all the way to the top of its head, as if it were about to scream—yet it did not scream. Only a bright green, incandescent glow, clear as its own madness, flashed forth, hypnotizing Khaelis for a moment.
Vhon... vhon...
That green radiance bled from those fissures like...
— Mindset?... But all this time... you've been nothing more than an animal, acting on instinct, fleeing from death...
Ignoring the sensation of death, hypnotized by those lights that seemed to come from so far away, Khaelis questioned him:
— What is that... supposed to mean...
As if something beyond the abominable husk of the cursed Igyris were conversing with something beyond Khaelis himself—as if it were screaming more than once from within the maelstrom.
— It's as if... two signatures... possess you, roaring together against me... as if there's someone else dragging me down...
Something was forming above his head, at the crown of his skull. Formless, yet so terrifying, paralyzing.
— He wants to drag me down...
Vhon... vhon...
And there, standing before that damned hypnosis... he realized...
— What a ridiculous trap... cursed creature...
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
A colossal explosion erupted like a sudden embrace, filled with pure heat and endless destruction. Immense, born from that infamous, infernal green light, like a bite of razor-sharp teeth—that devouring energy born from the lights and the ceaseless sound bit off and tore away a full 500-meter radius within Khaelis Kaiwen's entire domain with destructive hunger.
"Rearrange the particles, again..."
Fshew...
Panting, trembling, his brain worn down to its absolute limit as it hadn't been in years, Khaelis Kaiwen materialized over 300 meters away from that wave of destruction in a flash of brilliant silver light. Every glowing particle said its farewell to that realm like shimmering flakes dissolving in the air.
— Argh!!!...
This act overheated him to the extreme.
— Glurp!!!...
Vomit surged along with blood from his throat, which bled continuously.
Tink... tink...
Blood dripped from his eyes, ears, and nose down toward the ground and the palm of his hand as he crouched low.
— Argh... argh... he is randomly destroying spots of the domain with these meaningless self-destructions... the radius this time was insignificant compared to previous losses... argh... taking into account the nature of the Green Flame, if he destroyed strategic points and specific numerical routes, he could completely compromise the movement of energy... but he hasn't done that once; thus, he can only overheat me... It's ridiculous! A being devoid of consciousness cannot defeat me!
Slowly, those brilliant stars, once so luminous and exuding life, found themselves snuffed out, burned by the sickly flame leaking from the cursed one. Like beautiful points of light consumed by the infamous chaos in the air, they gradually went dark, bidding farewell to that existence.
— That... was nothing!
Yet Khaelis, guided by his now blurry yet still analytical vision, saw something different: a destructive pattern, but one without any meaning. Nothing more than massive, ruinous shockwaves that, due to their nature originating from the anti-life of the Green Flame, consumed and burned the Purple Flame.
— Ridiculous!
And yet, despite that, they were still nothing more than meaningless waves of destruction. Even if the waves consumed small areas within his domain that spanned kilometers, creating immense imbalance and disorder in the numerical patterns and particles affected by the breath of ruin, Khaelis Kaiwen was sure of one thing—or at least, he wanted to be: with those waves of destruction consuming meters and scrambling his energetic structures, Khaelis Kaiwen convinced himself that, unless the cursed one calculated a route or consumed strategic points, he would merely disperse the particles away. In the end, the only effort required would be restructuring the domain—acceptable damage that would merely...
— Argh... this way he'll only overheat me... it's ridiculous! Even though my physical exhaustion is nearing its limit due to the stress of actively restructuring the domain, without an active strategy to consume key points, it'll only give me a headache... Damn it...
Tink... tink...
— The bleeding is becoming continuous... my nose won't stop bleeding for a single moment... but that isn't a problem... in the end... this is all you were capable of giving me, isn't it? A disappointment...
Fwap...
Khaelis dragged the back of his fist across his nose, wiping his blood-stained lips once more. His trembling legs planted themselves firmly; once again, his eyes found the abomination as he raised his blade.
— If this pace keeps up, I'll have to restructure the domain a few more times... It's truly a nuisance, but this won't continue... this will be the last time... and... that presence from before... has completely vanished. It must have been just another type of influence from the horrific state he's in now... it was merely the irrational scream of a poor, uncalculating animal... Even if it damages me by forcing me to recompose the structures, it's still pathetic.
As the lights danced their farewell alongside the current of destruction, Khaelis's blurred vision—now growing clearer by the second—matched his increasingly steady legs, guiding his pure blade toward evil... He saw him, looking back, as if understanding nothing and everything at once. An alternate vision born of chaos. Khaelis pointed his blade as he bent his knees.
— How pathetic... enough! No more explanations...
The creature panted at the epicenter of the destruction caused by the explosion; its body twisted and throbbed. Its arms moved at impossible angles, in random ways as it stared at Khaelis. Its knees slowly bent as well, lowering until they touched the dirt; its heels never made contact with the ground. Propping its robust torso up on the tips of its fingers, the abomination held its upper body completely straight. Khaelis understood why.
— You intend to surge forward first... you won't gain a thing from this...
Khaelis's body began to glow again—a blinding, beautiful silver sheen, like a diamond beneath the sun.
— I'll cut you in two first!
And within that silver light, he became one with it.
Fshew...
The moment Khaelis charged every physical particle of his body with the energy generated by his own natural physiology, becoming unified with all that power, his mass moved like a beam of light across those hundreds of meters.
Fshew...
Guiding his silver light, he began moving in infinite pre-calculated directions, tracing his mass in standardized circles.
— Two hundred... seven... one million...
Pre-calculated routes spinning in perfect circles around the body of the cursed beast.
— What is your next move... abomination...
The cursed creature, possessing an anomalous perception of reality for the very first time, slowly began detecting a numerical pattern.
— Do you think... you see me?...
For at that moment, the nature of that abomination—that damned abomination—truly saw him, in his entirety. Seeing him as cold, shimmering trails of light. The cursed one calculated those spherical routes, every single one of them. Seeing him completely, every complex trajectory laid bare.
— He...
And in that same instant, Khaelis realized the truth.
— Is seeing me...
In that empty moment, with only the cold sound of silver light slicing through space, in a split second, they arrived at a consensus.
Fshew...
A consensus that would have been impossible just minutes prior; a consensus reached between Khaelis Kaiwen and a beast that could barely communicate.
Fshew...
A consensus to strike at the exact same time.
Fshew...
And with that absolute consensus:
— RAIN OF THE LIGHT FALL!!!
Khaelis executed a completely perilous numerical route—a move that was, on his part, entirely suicidal.
A long, completely straight path traversed on a flat plane by Khaelis Kaiwen, materializing him in full—not behind, not above, not at the sides, but full-bodied right in front of the abomination. He guided his blade in a flat, vertical slash, from top to bottom, aiming to split the creature outright: a slash he named the Rain of the Fallen Lightning. Risking everything on a large-scale named strike capable of killing the cursed one, though it would undoubtedly ruin the stability of his domain even further. Yet he chose to do it anyway. Their eyes met, at long last, in that final instant.
As for the cursed one:
— ARGH!!!
Supported only by the tips of his feet, his torso aligned horizontally for a leap, claws raised to the heavens—in that exact microsecond before the hit landed, he foresaw the lightning that would split him in half.
FASH!!!
Lunging in a violent leap that tore through the air and ripped up the earth, something occurred within the abomination's mind during those split seconds: it had calculated far beyond the spherical trajectory, discerning the exact attack radius. The horizontal leap executed, claws raised—they struck simultaneously. However...
Tink... tink...
Having calculated the route and radius of an attack it had sustained before, by shifting its body thirteen centimeters to the side—just outside the straight cutting path—the abomination, like a demon that only grew stronger...
Tink... tink...
Completely dodged Khaelis Kaiwen's ultimate strike. And in return, with a precise leap of its own, its claws tore through Khaelis's convictions, confirming his momentary insecurity. As if grazing him at high speed—like a gunshot, a sonic boom—the left side of Khaelis Kaiwen's face was shredded in wild, feral patterns.
Tink... tink...
Blood ran down his face onto his attire, staining the ground. There, Khaelis Kaiwen remained motionless for a few seconds.
— GLURP!!!
Until, like a full-force blow hitting him dead-center, his knees nearly gave out.
— ARGH!!!
An excruciating pain struck him with full force. The impact and shockwave of the named slash spread in ripples across the domain; his lungs grew heavy, like bags stuffed with massive stones. Violent coughing fits followed immediately. His body went entirely limp, his vision gradually darkening—it was the end...
— I... I...
With his body on the verge of hitting the dirt, his hand almost slipping from the hilt of ShadowStorm—while behind him, the abomination stood tall, its claws stained with fresh, dripping blood that hadn't left Khaelis's body in ages—Khaelis Kaiwen was on the brink of losing consciousness...
TUCK!!!
Khaelis Kaiwen was seized once more by that infamous black glow that burned in his eyes and ignited his soul: his Dark Determination. In a sudden, brutal, and instinctive motion, Khaelis twisted his torso to the maximum, spinning three hundred and sixty degrees with his entire body. Like a beast—no, like a child who refuses to lose no matter what—the swordsman threw one more punch, now heavy with the taste of despair.
— Argh...
A punch that generated a brutal, gargantuan shockwave, rippling across kilometers and kilometers; distant areas felt the colossal impact in the form of howling winds and brief earthquakes that rattled slums and villages alike. A savage strike—Khaelis's fist slammed with all its force into the abomination's face, making it grunt in pain. Thick fluid oozed from the impact, dripping to the ground. Snarling, Khaelis kept driving his fist into the creature's face, which, using its own raw strength, refused to yield and pressed its head right back against Khaelis's fist. The quakes spread, swaying trees and shattering rocks. And then, as those extreme forces clashed in a brute contest between demons:
BANG!!! BANG!!!
Two deafening gunshots tore through the air, and for a fleeting moment, a heavy silence fell after the projectiles cut through the atmosphere. A brief pause in that battle of strength. Khaelis stopped.
— What...
Tink... tink...
Once more, continuous drops of blood kissed the fertile, life-glowing soil.
— You...
With his fist still pressed against the creature's skull, Khaelis slowly lowered his head, casting his eyes to the ground...
— Did...
Only to behold a massive, gaping wound torn open in an instant across his abdomen by a simple gunshot. A basic shot that, under normal circumstances, would never touch, let alone tear, Khaelis Kaiwen's skin. Steam rose from the blood leaking out of the exposed side of his torso. By sheer luck and the creature's instability, it hadn't proven fatal, grazing the side of his face and trunk, which bled and smoked together in sync with the flintlock—a single-handed, two-barreled weapon resting in the abomination's hand after having been drawn and fired with terrifying speed in that exact split second.
— Gurgh...
Trapped in that trance:
— You...
Khaelis Kaiwen felt his vision turn blurry, for even without a vital organ being struck, the accumulated internal trauma combined with that horrible open wound was too much.
— Bastard...
It caused him, for a moment, to lose consciousness.
— ARGH!!!
And even so, he never once let go of ShadowStorm's grip.
Creck... creck...
A moment of silence settled for a second, reflected in the empty, unseeing eyes of Khaelis Kaiwen. Who, even unconscious, kept his fist pressed against the abomination.
CRACK!!!
Realizing he had lost consciousness, the creature used the sheer, brute strength of its skull and body to finally overcome him in that terrible clash, hurling the self-proclaimed honorable man meters into the air.
— Vilos...
Looking, as if for the last time, at the face of that demon with eyes so vacant after losing every remaining spark of life within him:
— I made many promises in my life...
Eyes that, at that moment, could only perceive one thing.
— You... my father... Andra... to all of you... so many promises... and what did they even mean in the end?
Khaelis Kaiwen saw only people. Three people, so familiar yet so distant; no matter how hard he tried to focus his vision, their faces were blurred, as if a dark fog veiled them.
— In the end... she never came back, and I... dishonored all of it, didn't I? I hate her... just as I hate my father... and I hate you...
An old man with dark skin, a long beard, and braided gray hair; he was so tall, so intimidating...
"Father..."
A woman... so distant, unseen for years... her white hair stained red like blood on snow; her eyes were empty... no, consumed by fear, just as on the day she left. And, as always, wearing her old training armor, her pale skin as beautiful as her scarlet eyes.
"You never change a thing... do you? Andra, I remember you the exact same way since the day you departed..."
And lastly, even further away, with eyes so heavy... dark circles so deep, a body so thin... so distant, with eyes so melancholic, so deep... tears had always flowed from those eyes... his lament was forever reflected in the depths of his gaze.
"I... should have done more back then... brother... for all of you... I... never wanted this... Vilos... I just wanted everything to go back to the way it used to be..."
For, at the brink of death... Khaelis Kaiwen saw his life flash before his eyes.
— Selfishness...
However, before that creature could land its final, merciful strike, Khaelis's empty eyes, still perceiving those familiar figures:
— I remember taking an oath... before the possession of ShadowStorm was granted to me...
Before his mind completely shut down, for a brief second, his thoughts drifted elsewhere.
— I promised under oath... that for nothing in this world would I use it for personal crusades... or selfish reasons... but... that is all I've been doing since that day...
Khaelis Kaiwen held his own definition of the much-debated Dark Determination.
— Yes... that is all I ever did... chasing your ghosts...
"Khaelis... do you know what holds you back so much from evolving? Do you know why you really can't touch me?..."
— No... back then I didn't know yet...
"It's simple, it's purely the fault of your mindset, understand?... You don't believe in yourself, you only see the genetic gifts of others... hah, I bet you're the type who would stop attacking when cornered in battle."
— Andra... what the hell do you know about me?... You damned bitch... you abandoned me when I needed you most... you... Vilos... and my father... all of you turned your backs on me... left me here alone... YOU BASTARDS!!! I HATE YOU ALL!!!
That was the absolute definition of Dark Determination in the clouded mind of Khaelis Kaiwen.
— I AM NOT GOING TO DIE HERE, YOU BASTARDS!!! THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED, ISN'T IT??? FOR ME TO BECOME A DAMNED GHOST JUST LIKE YOU??? BASTARDS!!!
For there, with his nervous system at its limit, continuous bleeding from every facial orifice, severe overheating, a massive claw wound open on one side of his face, a gunshot tear on the other, a gaping slash leaking blood across his abdomen, and his fist and fingers crushed by the creature's skull... his eyes burned once more, directing his gaze back to the demon's face.
— You are going to die... bastard...
For even if Khaelis Kaiwen did not realize it, his complete definition of Dark Determination was not merely about selfishness, but also about distorted love; and because of that love, so twisted within his fragmented mind, Khaelis would not let go of ShadowStorm's hilt for anything. Because that was what he had always done: use that blade solely for his own selfishness—or so he thought. Khaelis, looking inward, saw himself only in that tragic light. And so... chasing his ghosts... he could never stop fighting until he was dead... never stop hunting them, never know peace until he reached them... but until then...
— A bolt of lightning shooting from hell to the sky: INVERTED THUNDER!!!
To relentlessly continue chasing these ghosts, Khaelis Kaiwen would keep fighting.
FEEEEESSSSH!!!!
An infinite series of possibilities. Variables, counter-attacks, defenses, and escape maneuvers. A complete prodigy in combat.
— ARGH!!!
A prodigy who, once again overtaken by his battle instincts—his scorching, murderous, Dark form—chose once more to unleash a named slash.
— DIE!!!
His fist, once so unsteady around the refined hilt of ShadowStorm, hardened like stone...
Teck...
As if letting go of the handle only to grip it again in the exact same second with his fingers.
"VOID."
The angle of his grip shifted in an imperceptible pause in time, like an instantaneous event.
Vush...
Khaelis Kaiwen's body performed a full spin in mid-air... from bottom to top... as if rotating on his own axis, his own orbit. In that brilliant spin, ShadowStorm sliced through the surrounding air and space... and with that exquisite movement...
TROVOSSH!!!
A thunderbolt, graceful in silver, sliced through the heavens, rising directly from hell.
"GRATITUDE."
A glimpse of freedom came alongside the blinding flash that erupted. A flash that completely consumed the physical form of evil and curse itself. Its hideous body was engulfed by an intense, freezing silver glare.
— Sometimes Lightning... is so cold...
The collapse spread alongside the thunderous shockwave of silver destruction. A brilliant revolution, like a snowfall made of light, dividing into wave after wave, consuming everything. The cursed one was bisected amid the glowing snow that had transformed the entire domain into a vast blizzard of collapsing, chaotic energy.
— Glurp...
This blizzard, which thoroughly collapsed that perfect order of numbers, as beautiful as the edge of his strike...
— Urgh...
Brought its price back to Khaelis once more: his blood, now viscous and boiling, began to flow again. His nose and mouth filled up... yet, for some reason...
— I AM NOT DONE YET!!!
Khaelis Kaiwen did not cease his attack... his blade still raised to the heavens. Glimpsing faces so... distant... Khaelis Kaiwen looked directly at the sun and the void consuming the sky. His eyes at that moment... perhaps for the first time in his life... were crystal clear in their intent.
"MURDERER."
Following the blade of ShadowStorm, the energy unleashed by the named slash followed a collapsing trail of scrambled numbers—cuts converted into silver light. Following the path of destruction, a raw energetic collapse... merging with the silver blizzard of light, generating an immense, unstable energy tornado at the far edge of the body he had just sliced.
"JUST AN EXCUSE TO BE A MONSTER."
The massive, spiraling energy mass expanded at the center of the chaos. Lightning bolts sparked from the massive tornado of slashes. But... Khaelis Kaiwen was still not finished, for his eyes had not strayed from the skies above.
Finsh...
Gliding the blade through the air toward that collapsing mass of destruction, feeling the agony, pressure, and exhaustion weighing down his whole body, his tired eyes fixated on the destructive wave. And then...
Thin...
Every point of light within the radius of that destruction, every particle, every number, every variable within that chaotic energy wave spreading before Khaelis—every particle of Purple Flame within the storm's radius began to glow simultaneously.
"OR PERHAPS... An excuse not to rest... You are..."
From that radiance, all those particles ceased to exist as numerical routes and variables. They assumed their purest form in the eyes of Khaelis Kaiwen and his predisposition; rising from the earth...
FASH!!!
Cutting entirely through the storm of destruction, from the ground that no longer shone, a rain of incandescent blades poured upward...
BOOM!!!
Dispersing the energy wave in mid-air—which, like the blades that died as quickly as they were born, dissolved into nothingness. Gracefully returning to nature as pure, living energy. Hundreds of blades scattered across thousands of shining points. Every pain tallied along their sharp edges. A supernova, brief, yet surpassing a star in sheer brilliance.
"You are... drowning..."
Yet as swift and brief as a birth... the inverted lightning that traversed all of hell toward the heavens, in all its beauty and magnitude, vanished... an event akin to a cosmic beauty that manifested only for an instant, serving a single purpose before dissolving away. A brief, luminous thunderclap. And then... the wind blew. For there, as those flakes of light drifted down to mark the end of that vivid, deadly, and tempestuous beauty, the wind was the only thing left. Besides that, two figures remained as the luminous dust scattered like specks of life... and when Khaelis opened his eyes again, all the destruction lay before his unfocused, pain-filled vision: blood-red eyes locked onto a lifeless, shattered creature amid the wreckage.
Fush...
The wind continued to sweep away those glowing flakes... along with his brilliant shine. His flame, which had burned so fiercely moments ago, was completely extinguished, just like the light in his eyes. The pattern held: after shining brighter than he had ever dreamed, after a small star converted itself into a magnificent supernova, Khaelis Kaiwen's Flame grew weaker than it had ever been. Standing, trembling, and unmoving, watching that beautiful wave of light dissipate into the breeze. After giving everything he had to kill or be killed, his spark was exhausted.
Finck...
The wind blew... pushing massive waves of condensed oxygen polluted by energy waves from the Purple Flame. And after burning himself to his limit, for the first time, his palm let go of ShadowStorm, which fell toward the glowing ground.
Teck...
Only smoke and pain remained... and that became painfully obvious when his knees crashed against the earth.
— Argh... argh...
His lungs were finally filled with the heavy stones he had picked up from the ground himself.
Trick... trick...
His trembling arms clutched the once-luminous soil, his open palms giving in to the weight of his own body.
— GLURP!!!
The vomit that followed made it even clearer: his physical limits had been surpassed long ago.
— Hurph... hurph...
Feeling, at last, the tolling bells of his body, pleading for him to finally stop. Pain, agony, the weight of his torso crushing his arms while his hands cut into the glowing ground; an excruciating ache in his bones, his head, every single limb. The touch of blood cascading like a small waterfall from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose down to the dirt. And finally...
— Argh... argh...
ShadowStorm rested on the ground, now out of the Noble's palm. Khaelis Kaiwen.
"The price."
— Argh...
THUMP!!!
"The Lightning that split the sky, coming from hell..."
As he tried to reach for the blade once more, his body collapsed onto the dirt.
Fwash...
And as the wind blew, his dust-covered robes bearing those faint points of light slowly fading away...
"Took too high a toll."
Khaelis Kaiwen, for the first time, found himself immobile, incapable of making the slightest effort, lying helpless on the ground.
TUM! TUM! TUM!
His body begged to perish right then and there... but...
TUM! TUM! TUM!
Unlike before, ever since the cursed Igyris had been reduced to a shattered abomination at the center of destruction, his heart had stopped beating.
TUM! TUM!...
Yet once again, within the tornado of glowing dust that was once a pure accumulation of destruction, a heart beat. Another heart in that place, besides Khaelis Kaiwen's, was thumping steadily.
— Argh... no... it can't be...
Nearly drowning in the pool of blood he himself had created beneath his face:
Clinck...
Khaelis Kaiwen gripped ShadowStorm once more with his palm and his soul.
— You...
Raising his guard, he forced himself up.
— Igyris...
His reddish, blurry, dizzy vision, clouded by the blood in his eyes, caught sight of something at the center of that cloud of dust and light.
CRACK!!!
Ceramic...
CRACK!!! CRACK!!!
Ceramic fell toward the ground, fully enclosing a body like a cocoon.
Crack... crack...
Shattering in cycles, undoing itself, lost in its own shards. And inside those shards:
TUM!!! TUM!!! TUM!!!
A heart was beating. At the center of that ceramic cocoon, something was being born... again.
TRECK!!!
An arm ruptured the ceramic from the inside out. Tension gripped the air, and then:
CRACK!!!
Everything shattered into glass... and then, dust...
Fshu...
The wind blew the dust far away. At the center stood a black-haired man, his hair fluttering in the cold breeze, his clothes completely pristine: jacket, trousers, even his footwear. From afar, the newly born man stared back at him.
— Khaelis Kaiwen...
He stared at Khaelis...
with a smile...
— Gulp...
Nothing more than a smile...
— You...
With trembling legs and swallowing hard, his vision red and hazy, Khaelis questioned him:
— Are you... Igyris?...
Tap... tap...
Taking steps forward toward the trembling Khaelis, the newborn answered him:
— You could say that... hahah... What an... experience, huh?...
A dark fog accompanied him; following his steady steps, guided by his smile, that fog grew denser and denser...
Tap... tap...
With every step, until it condensed into a solid accumulation of shadows, darkness, and agony shrouding the newborn. A blanket for a infant straight from the other side.
— What is...
Khaelis asked, trembling.
— An accumulation... life... It can't be... You...
Tap... tap...
The fog kept growing...
— You went through a Schrir metamorphosis...
And finally...
TAP!!!
The newborn Igyris's steps ceased, along with the black fog, screaming in agony and charged with a bizarre energy. A... presence...
— I won't lie, I have no idea what this is... Khaelis Kaiwen... but it feels so... familiar...
Slowly, his palm rose over the mist, and then... life emerged... a horrific pressure crushed everything, terror screamed in every soul—Khaelis's, and those of every living and dead being present... and finally, the fog took shape.
— Truly... familiar. It's as if I know...
Converting from a mass of darkness into a true living form, far off in the distance... a massive, four-meter-long animalistic skull materialized from the shadows. Reeking sickeningly of blood, covered in flesh that melted away to its bones, six horns set in pairs side by side, four eyes with blood-red pupils, and a massive jaw with teeth so huge it couldn't even open.
— It's as if I know what I have to do...
There, Igyris brought forth life.
"A true..."
DO YOU WANT ME TO KILL HIM???
"Natural Enemy."
Everyone heard that horrific voice; it didn't echo through the air, it simply appeared inside their heads.
— You want me to kill him, huh?... How polite...
Igyris slid his palm over the thick, spiky surface of the skull. It was as if every kind of calamity were breathing at the same time, continuously.
— Igyris... What kind of threat... are you?...
Witnessing the birth of chaos incarnate, Khaelis Kaiwen's heart tightened in agony.
— Perhaps... the Grand Advisor simply wants... to get rid of you! From the demon and threat that you are! Perhaps... there is no...
And in the end, he decided to keep fighting.
— Conspiracy... What am I saying...
And finally, a snap...
— Perhaps...
At the threshold of his weakness, so close to his downfall... his blade rose once more...
— Hahah... What determination, Khaelis Kaiwen... I don't know what it is... but I feel something different now... As if... we aren't so different after all. Something changed in both of us, and I'd like to know what it is...
Khaelis Kaiwen's agony and pain intersected with the satisfaction of the newborn, cursed Igyris as their eyes locked. And finally, the cursed one's palm rose...
— Three weak points, Khaelis Kaiwen... That's what I managed to decipher in your domain...
Fshu...
The wind blew in agony and tension... a pillar about to collapse and a demon freshly born. And from afar, watching from a simple window on the top floor of the grand residence belonging to the Reixys, with his black hair blowing in the wind and arms crossed, Rodalight—Anexzander Rodalight—looked on with satisfaction.
— So...
— This really made you evolve a lot, Khaelis. Wilhelm was, as always, more than right... He truly is a piece worth keeping... After all, without realizing it, you've stopped using that excuse.
Feeling tears fill his eyes, overtaken by melancholy and sadness for an era that would never return, a happy smile formed on his face.
— As for you... Is this your beautiful, grand tribute to Liza?... I'm so happy... You are remembering us, my brother... I miss you so much... But for now, this path is necessary...
A tear ran down his cheek to the floor, and finally, he pressed his palm against the window, his heavy breath fogging up the glass.
— I can't wait to have you back... my brother... Igyris.