Trying his best not to make his situation worse, Vektor remains still as he tries to swallow the unbearable pain running through his left arm, unable to think of any solution to escape without taking even more damage...

"Yo, it's been a while, huh? I didn't expect to see you looking all different like this..."

"But I've been wanting to see you, Vektor Drenn. I really wanted to thank you personally for the haircut you gave me as a gift."

"Heh, you're welcome..."

Seeing the two confront each other before his eyes, Kder loses all remaining strength in his legs and falls to the ground sitting down.

"Vektor..."

"Sorry for taking so long, Kder... You did an excellent job of holding your ground so far. You can rest now, I'll take care of things from here!"

"R- Right..."

Maken then pulls the blade of his sword from inside Vektor's arm, who screams in agony:

"Hrgh-- AaaAAaAhhh!!!"

After removing his sword, now covered in blood, Maken returns to his original position while Vektor is forced to endure the agonizing sensation of having his blood gushing from within his left hand.

"There's nothing to worry about. My sword has been reinforced with purple flames, your arm will soon burn and heal from the inside out."

Vektor feels a mixture of relief and despair at having to anticipate even greater pain that will at least prevent him from having an invalid arm.

"Kder! It's dangerous here, run away now!"

As he says this, he looks towards Kder, but inexplicably sees no one there. The swordsman had simply disappeared.

Confused, he feels a little dizzy and numb, and then looks at his left arm, which is now in perfect condition. He then jumps to the side of the Dawn Plateau opposite to Maken.

The time has come for the rematch, a decisive final round for the inconclusive duel from a month ago. Each on their respective sides, the two once again talk before actually fighting, starting again with Vektor:

"Hey, earlier you said about having 2 allies... May I know who they are?"

"You expect me to answer all your questions for free? Well, there's no need to rush. You'll see them in person soon... Oh no, wait... You won't. Hahaha, what a shame!"

"Honestly, what's gotten into you? You were so serious last time, but now you seem to take everything as a joke."

"This is the pleasure of feeling my lord's power run through my veins. It's so refreshing... You pretend not to understand, but the truth is that you know this feeling well. Think you can fool me, you hypocrite?"

"You really lost your mind, didn't you...?

(It's not just that... I don't know how to explain it, but something seems to be emanating from him. A presence... A weight is emanating from this guy. What has he done to himself?)"

"Now that Lord Vak's power has freed me, I can act however I please! Missions and duties no longer matter to me! All I can think about... is eliminating anyone who dares to challenge me."

"I see... You've gone beyond the limits of madness... Well, I need to stay alive to save everyone, so... Sorry, I need to get you out of the way."

"Hahaha, such confidence! You really think you can defeat me this time?"

"Of course I can. I already defeated you while I was at a disadvantage, now that I have the advantage there's no way I'll lose now."

"You think you have the advantage? With my current power, I've reached a level above what you showed me in our last battle! Even now with your ancient power, you still don't come close to reaching me!"

"You think so? Do you even know how much power I have at my disposal now? Just letting you know that not even I know. If you're so confident in your own power, then I can use this chance to finally test my new power."

Vektor then closes his eyes and raises his right hand. Following the memories received along with his tattoo, he repeats the procedure done in the Ancient Castle, once again materializing the scarlet flame shaped by the movement of his hand.

However, this time, his body undergoes a slight change. His hair strangely becomes straighter and falls over his ears, as if his hair strands are succumbing to the heat and melting, as illogical as this description may seem.

Hidden within the eyelids, his eyes start burning slightly, as if his corneas are bursting and his pupils are dissolving within his eyeballs.

The blade of his sword is also different, this time it is much more detailed compared to before. The fact that this sword is not made of metal is much more apparent, with a white blade decorated with red details, these details being flames drawn as if they were a great dragon flying through the sky.

This is indeed the true form of the sword from ancient times. According to his inherited memories, the name of the sword is Senzoken.

With his hair reaching his neck, Vektor lowers his sword and then opens his eyes, now completely white and empty. However, his gaze still seems focused and sharp.

Even after contemplating this transformation, Maken is unable to feel intimidated:

"How interesting, so this is the ancient power... I'm curious to see the expansion of skills you've acquired. Show me!"

Without waiting any second, he advances with his super speed and tries to attack Vektor in his neck...

Vektor remains unharmed. Maken is confused until he hears the sound of his arm and sword falling to the ground. He then looks at what is left of his arm and screams in despair as his severed arm catches fire for a few seconds:

"AAAAHHH!!!"

"Hey look, so you can feel pain..."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

The two, who had their backs to each other, turn to face each other. Vektor sees Maken's severed arm, which instead of gushing blood, spills a thick and viscous purple blood, which seems to be coagulated in nature.

"Ew, gross..."

"Hehe, I felt that... And by the way, what happened to all that nonsense about not killing people? I didn't know that besides being a hypocrite, you had such weak ideals."

"Hey, how rude! I keep my word, I don't kill humans. But you're not even human anymore, I have no reason to not finish you off now."

"Haha, you're good with words, it almost seems like you care about that. But you're right, we don't have to hold back!"

With a disturbed expression and an uncontrollable smile on his face, Maken once again covers his body with an aura of purple flames and this time concentrates them on his severed arm, molding the dense and bright flames into the shape of an arm.

As the purple fire fist closes, the flames gather until they materialize a new arm. His fallen sword then returns to its flame state, returns to his hand, and materializes again.

Excited, Maken prepares to attack.

"Show me more... of your killer instinct!"

He charges towards Vektor, who simply slices through the air diagonally, from bottom to top. The slash leaves a long trail on the ground that continues all the way to the edge of the Dawn Plateau.

As Maken approaches Vektor, a wall of fire erupts from the ground between them, from the trail of Senzoken's slash.

Maken manages to dodge the wall of fire. He then takes advantage of the enemy's lack of visibility caused by the wall of fire, using his super speed to launch a powerful charge from Vektor's blind spot.

Initially caught off guard, Vektor retreats while trying to dodge or defend himself from the attacks, but ends up getting hit a few times.

Interestingly, he is not injured by the attacks, not even his clothes are damaged. However, the pain is almost the same as getting a normal cut.

When struck, Vektor's wound is marked by purple flames, which soon disappear. However, the more he is struck, the weaker and more unwell he feels.

Vektor interrupts Maken's charge by creating another wall of fire, and takes a huge leap backwards, returning to the ground with his back to the edge of the Dawn Plateau.

He then closes his eyes, whistles a mysterious tune, another one of his inherited memories, and throws himself off the cliff backwards. Seconds later, the wall of fire goes out and Maken finds himself disoriented.

It doesn't take long for Mythbird to suddenly appear, flying over the Dawn Plateau, carrying Vektor on his back. The giant bird begins to circle meters above the battlefield, until at one point he flies even higher and turns upside down. At that exact moment, Vektor jumps off his back.

Mythbird then swoops down near Maken, who thinks Vektor is still on his back. As the bird approaches the enemy from the side, the same enemy attacks him in the place where Vektor is supposed to be, but then realizes that all he did was cut off some of the bird's feathers.

"What?! He's not here...?!"

After spending a few moments distracted, Maken notices the presence of Vektor, who is behind him, with his back turned, crouched down. After that, his purple blood begins to come out of a cut that went through his entire head.

Motionless, he tries to turn his eyes towards Vektor.

"D- Damn you-!"

He is then interrupted by flames exploding from his head, causing him to scream in pain as his head catches fire:

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!"

Vektor stands up and jumps away from the enemy, who regenerates his head with purple flames after the normal flames are extinguished. Mythbird flies near Vektor to provide support.

Maken then expresses exhaustion and impatience:

"No matter what you do, it's all useless! As long as I can regenerate, I will never be killed!"

"Yeah, that's a problem... But as someone who's been in your position before, I can tell. This regeneration of yours has a limit. So that means all I have to do is push you to that limit, so that you won't be able to regenerate anymore."

"Heh, easier said than done. But let's see you try...!"

Vektor and Maken advance towards each other and clash their swords. The two then move away and begin an intense exchange of slashes. Little by little, Vektor begins to lose his energy, without knowing if this is a side effect of the ancient transformation or an anesthetic effect of Maken's sword.

Impatient, Vektor cuts off Maken's arms, who just rebuilds them with purple flames. The process of dismemberment and reconstruction repeats five more times, each cycle being faster than the last, proof that the two adapt better to their own powers with each passing second.

Vektor slashes the air several times, reaching the ground and creating several walls of fire, then takes advantage of the enemy's distraction to jump onto Mythbird's back.

He starts delivering several slashes from above that extend across the surface of the Dawn Plateau, creating countless walls of fire in sequence, generating an intense light to the point of illuminating the entire Netern Island in the late afternoon.

Mythbird flies to the battlefield, and Vektor then cuts off Maken's arms before he can react. As the enemy regenerates his arms, Vektor jumps to the surface and cuts off his legs. Immediately after regenerating his legs, Maken tries to get away.

Vektor runs across the Dawn Plateau, slashing the air several times along the way, marking several places on the ground, and then lightly slashes Maken's belly, thus starting a sequence of walls of fire appearing. In addition to having his belly slightly burned, Maken also gets burned repeatedly when touching the walls.

While regenerating, he loses control and begins a one-sided attack at extremely high speed, ignoring Vektor's defense and making his sword pierce the enemy's body several times.

Vektor manages to escape the attack after a while, but ends up losing all his energy in the process. Regenerated, Maken also moves away.

Both are at their limits. If this battle continues, one of them will succumb to exhaustion. Faced with the situation, both reach the same resolution:

"I'll settle this with the next attack!"

The two prepare to deliver the final attack as the wind blows through their hair. Vektor's empty eyes stare into Maken's glowing purple ones, until the wind stops blowing.

At that exact moment, the two of them run towards each other, holding their swords with all their remaining strength. As the two approach each other, they make the blades of their swords pierce the opponent's chest completely. In a single instant.

...

Vektor and Maken stand back to back. Little by little, Maken's purple blood spreads across his abdomen, and then his entire body catches fire. His body is no longer able to regenerate. Vektor has won the duel.

Maken screams intensely until his body turns to ash:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!"

After the flames die down, Maken's ashes fall to the ground, and his sword dissolves into thin air in the form of bright purple flames.

Maken did not die as a human, but neither as a mere monster. Without even knowing what was going on inside his enemy, Vektor cannot tell if he had just defeated the most powerful evil creature he had faced so far, or if he had just committed murder.

Considering that Maken's official status was considered unknown, this battle will not bring him any legal consequences, which means according to the law he is definitely innocent.

He tries to ignore the moral implications behind this feat however, it seems to be the healthiest and safest course of action at the moment. Besides...

"Khhh-!!"

He feels a sharp pain shooting through his heart and lungs, the pain of a fatal blow, which gradually fades as the purple flames over the cut die down.

As the pain subsides, he feels increasingly dizzy. His transformation is undone, causing his hair and eyes to return to normal. Senzoken disappears into thin air, in the form of bright red flames.

Vektor loses all of his body's energy, and then passes out. Maken's ashes are carried away by the wind that once again blows across the Dawn Plateau.

With this conclusion, Vak-Oh's plan reaches its next stage, and it is time for the third condition, the last one for the release of his hostages...

...

Two hooded men suddenly appear before Vektor's unconscious body.

"Things took a different route than planned. Without Mr. Hiroshi as our guide, we'll need to take him to the tower manually."

"Can't we use the Shadow Crystals that Mr. Hiroshi didn't use?"

"No, his remains left nothing behind. He must have come here intending to be the last."

"Then we have no choice... What about the swordsman? What will we do about him?"

"I received a report from Mr. Kards that he himself took the swordsman to the tower as extra insurance."

"Extra insurance?"

"Don't ask me, I don't understand Mr. Kards' logic either. Our job is to just take this body to the tower and leave. Let's get this over with."

The two men then descend from the Dawn Plateau carrying Vektor's body, taking him to an airship, which immediately flies away from Netern Island.

The sky darkens as the minutes pass until the night stars illuminate the sky. Lying inside the airship, Vektor remains unconscious as he approaches his next destination...