—The shadows…
A pair of golden eyes narrowed silently.
BoooOooom—!
With an intense shockwave, the wall of the gigantic black spire broke through. A giant circular pillar shot out like a spear, stabbing into one of the many overlapping constructions that surrounded the dark stone structure.
Numerous cracks formed around the point of impact—the pale grey sand exploded outward.
Eden landed on that pillar, flipping through the air without losing his momentum. He raised his head and looked forward calmly.
In front of him, the figure of Karzio shot through the layers of dust and smoke. In his hands and mouth, several spears, swords, axes, and staves were held, having prior taken everything from the weapon racks inside one of the prison cells.
With a furious glare, Karzio rushed toward Eden and swung his arms.
Each of the weapons in his hands began to burn, eventually becoming engulfed in scarlet hellfire, emanating terrifying heat and energy.
Bang—!
Following the trajectory of his arms, two waves of scarlet flame burst forth along the surface of the pillar, melting the rocks, and forcing Eden to quickly side-stepped out of the way.
Then, with another swing of his right arm, a diagonal line of flame followed after Eden’s movements.
Running out of space to move, Eden jumped into the air and spun out of the way of the slashing flames, kicking off the nearby wall, and going up a layer.
Karzio continued to chase after him, dropping the spears that were held between his fingers into his palms before throwing them forward one by one.
Shik~! Shik~! Shik~!
The spears stabbed into the dark grey wall, missing their targets just barely. Karzio then used the thrown spears as makeshift steps and followed Eden up.
Jumping to an arch bridge above, Eden spun around to find Karzio in the process of throwing every sharp object in his hands toward him.
A sword spun like a boomerang. A pair of throwing axes curved through the air.
But as soon as those weapons reached their targets.
Clank~! Clank~ Clank~!
Eden simply spin-kicked them away with precision.
Eden rushed toward Karzio.
Karzio rushed toward Eden.
Spinning the only remaining staff in his right hand, Karzio increased his speed, transforming into a trail of blurry shadows.
Half a second later, the staff carrying all that energy was swung at Eden.
Eden stopped and dodged to the side. The bright red staff slammed into the ground, cracking the surface of the dark grey arch bridge.
Missing, Karzio then used the slammed-down staff as a vaulting pole, flipping into the air in an attempt to smoothly convert his momentum into a powerful downward slash.
But in the next moment, Eden lunged forward, throwing a low kick at the slammed-down staff, breaking it from the ground.
On the body of Karzio spinning the air, calmly, Eden landed a kick.
However….
Clank~!
Unlike with the angels…
Eden’s direct attack was unable to pierce his defenses…
Gritting his teeth, Karzio quickly recovered in mid-air and pulled out a knife from his black-furred coat.
Eden dodged the quick knife slash and increased his distance from Karzio again.
Their fighting continued to cut and destroyed all the surrounding structures.
A kick to the stomach that left no mark.
A blow to the neck that was easily brushed off.
—Again.
—Again.
—This really isn’t working.
Karzio jumped into the air and threw a punch.
Eden met Karzio’s punch with his foot.
Bang—!
The two clashed, breaking away violently, sending each other sliding back in the opposite direction.
Standing on one of the arch bridges overlooking the endless Abyss, Eden and Karzio stood facing each other…
Eden simply looked at Karzio with a face that didn’t reveal any emotions. Meanwhile, Karzio’s ferocious green eyes had also become a little more cautious.
The scarlet burn marks on the bridges continued to glow.
A part of a nearby prison cell fell into the endless darkness.
After taking the moment to reassess the situation, Karzio leaned forward, preparing to rush in for another round of attacks.
But then suddenly…
“Hmmmm… I’m trying to think of some interesting monologue.”
—A monotonous voice completely broke the built-up tension, reverberating in the wide open space.
…..
“What?”
Karzio stopped his movements and threw a baffled frown at the golden-haired figure.
Eden looked to his right, touched his chin, and started to say.
“On the way here, I heard all sorts of cool phrases people say when they fight."
His eyes narrowed contemplatively.
“You know, something like ‘In the name of the justice, I will—
“[Laser Beam]!”
“Your cheap trick isn’t going to work on me twice!”
As soon as the golden beam of energy shot out of Eden’s finger, Karzio jumped out of the way.
The golden straight line missed and hit the wall behind him. Karzio landed back down and looked back at his attacker.
And when he did.
“Huuuup~...”
“...?”
Eden suddenly took a deep breath, causing Karzio to stop his movements.
Unbeknownst to him, because of the attack from Eden, a part of the structure directly above him began to show a large crack.
—An entire bridge fell on top of him.
KroaaoooOOoomm~!
“AaaaAaaaaAAaaaah~!”
The rather pathetic screaming voice of Karzio rang out until it eventually got drowned by the sounds of falling rubbles.
“Oops.”
Eden tilted his head and looked at the miserable figure being buried in the piles of debris, before turning around and running in the opposite direction.
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Due to the impacts of their fight, the other parts of the black spire were also breaking off.
Lucianna, who was watching everything from afar, peeking from inside the door of the spire, suddenly felt a quake.
She looked up to find a crack in the wall growing upward rapidly, sending a few pieces of the ceiling falling down.
“Watch out.”
—Eden appeared and pulled her out of the way of the falling rubbles.
Then, the golden-haired figure and the black-haired girl once again ran into the darkness of the Abyssal Prison, ignoring the rumbling and loud screaming following them from behind.
“W-why are we running away again?” looking forward with widened eyes, Lucianna asked Eden.
“The shadows… are protecting him,” with a calm voice, Eden said to her.
Their feet continued to move, into the dark corridor in front of them that seemed unending.
Turning a corner, multiple branching paths laid out before them, and they simply chose the one in the middle.
“If we can’t figure out why… we’re not going to be able to scratch him… either.”
“That...” while her hand was being pulled along by Eden, Lucianna’s sudden voice rang out weakly. “Is it really not because... the angels who held onto my authority got controlled?”
“If that was the case, then how are you still unable to regain your consciousness?”
“…”
Silently, Lucianna looked away.
Frowning slightly, Eden continued to think.
—Unless there’s something else. Something I’m missing.
He needed to rethink.
Everything about the current situation.
The dark stone walls stretched on. Eventually, their footsteps became one of the only sounds echoing within this space, accompanied by their breathing.
Pat~ Pat~ Pat~
Their shadows cast themselves on the walls, creating terrifying, elongated silhouettes on the dark stone surfaces.
The winding interiors of the gigantic black spire.
The stairs, steps, pathways, doors, and prison cells.
The set of rooms and features rearranged themselves into different combinations in front of them.
But always…
—Shadows.
Everpresent.
Inescapable.
—Shadows.
An increasing tension.
A sense of ominous weight.
A human-shaped dark spot cast itself onto the walls. The handle of a door formed a head. The shadows of the metal bars divided the floors into slices.
Suddenly.
“...?”
—Feeling a resistance from the hand he was holding, Eden was forced to slow down his steps.
The feeling of resistance increased, subtly, until the fingers that were latched onto each other slowly came apart.
Due to the inertia of his movements, Eden ended up running a little further ahead than he intended.
When he turned around, Lucianna stood far away from him.
Surrounded by the darkness of the Abyssal Prison.
“Why are we stopping?”
…..
There was no reply.
“...”
In the middle of the pathway, there was nothing aside from the dark cold stones. The walls on either side were the same structures as the rest of the spire. And due to the lack of lights, the path that they came from was no longer visible.
Lucianna simply stood there with her face turned toward that darkness... staring at something.
Then suddenly, without any warning, like someone possessed, she began to walk into that darkness.
Her face lost all expression.
In the reflections of her scarlet irises, a dark figure stood, raising its finger to point at her.
…..
Silence.
And in the next moment.
—The outline of that shadow shifted.
“Tch—!”
—Of course.
Eden stepped forward.
Boom—!
Instantly, the shadows seeped from the cracks of the surrounding walls, floors, and ceiling, transforming into countless hands and arms, reaching toward Lucianna!
—It was OBVIOUS, wasn’t it?
There was only ever one type of dream that tried to harm its owner.
Eden took another step forward. Tens, hundreds, thousands, reaching out from the darkness, filling up every corner of his vision, contorting, twisting—the sea of shadowy hands was unrelenting in trying to pull him away!
This place wasn’t just a dream.
—This was a nightmare.
As his hair, face, legs, and arms were being pulled in all directions, Eden finally pushed through to the center of the shadowy masses of hands.
He reached out and grabbed her hand.
Their eyes met.
—A being with the level of a god, does it even make sense for her to fall for this sort of trick?
Ever since the beginning, there were a lot of things that didn’t add up.
Even if Karzio’s [parasite] had somehow found a way to manipulate parts of this dream, it was still Lucianna who was its creator.
So how was it even possible for the situation to devolve to this state? When the conditions were much more even, shouldn’t it have been easy for her to fight off his influence?
If the theory they had about how it was the angels that tilted the conditions of this dream against her favor was true, then after defeating them something should’ve changed.
But that wasn’t the case.
Therefore, it could only mean one thing.
The environment of this Abyssal Prison could not have been something that was created by the Abyss Prince, Karzio.
The cause of everything that happened. The shadows. Karzio’s strength. The reason why she couldn’t wake up.
—It was all because of her.
So, the thing that needed to be said right now.
“Let go.”
“...”
Lucianna’s eyes widened.
The meaning of those words, how could she not understand it?
However…
“I… can’t.”
Then…
—The hands pulled her deeper, until her figure was entirely hidden from sight.
…..
Just as suddenly as they appeared, the shadows dispersed.
The dark walls and floors of the spire returned to their original, run-down appearances.
As though it had always been this way.
“...”
Suddenly being released, Eden fell to his knees.
He sat there, staring down, surrounded by nothing but darkness.
But not long after.
—A voice.
“Awwww, would you look at that?”
A casual, cheerful voice. It belonged to none other than Karzio, nonchalantly walking around a corner. His hands were raised above his shoulders in an exaggerated gesture of disappointment.
“The Lady of Darkness consumed by her own darkness. It’s almost poetic.”
“...”
Karzio chuckled, letting his laughter reverberate and echo in the cramped, dark space.
“It’s not really my fault, you know?” Walking toward Eden, Karzio continued to speak. ”I barely touched her repressed memories and years and years of it just poured out like the rain—slowing her down, leaving her vulnerable.”
Finally arriving behind Eden, Karzio looked around the barren walls surrounding them, before saying with a face that expressed no emotion.
“She’s doing this to herself.”
“...”
…..
As soon as those words fell.
“Shut up.”
—The golden-haired figure flew toward the blond-haired Abyss Prince, ready to deliver a swift roundhouse kick.
However…
Bang—!
Karzio kicked the flying figure of Eden into the other side of the wall.
Eden’s body smashed through the wall, breaking through it and continuing to travel backward in a straight line, blasting smoke and debris in all directions.
When the dust cleared, Karzio tilted his head and said casually.
“Like I said, it’s not gonna work on me twice.”
—————……….
Boom—!
With a thunderous sonic boom, an entire wooden ship broke through the sound barrier and flew into the air above the Golden Catfish Restaurant.
In the next moment, the pitch-black sky lit up in a bright scarlet explosion.
Among the scattered pieces of the ship, the figure of the blonde-haired Abyss Prince spread his arms wide and laughed maniacally.
Altarin fired his bullets, raining countless shots that sped up and curved along their paths toward their targets. When they touched the falling debris, the trajectories of their falls reversed, turning back up toward Karzio. Vena manifested countless ice javelins, shooting them toward her airborne opponent.
But despite the fact that the assaults of the twins were only growing fiercer.
—The longer the fight went on, the more powerful he became.
With every bullet flying at him from all directions, Karzio dodged. His body bent and twisted unnaturally.
Continuing to fall through the air, Karzio was suddenly met with the flying figure of Vena, slashing toward him with her ice-formed blade. He blocked it with the arms that had grown so tough Vena’s sword was no longer able to pierce them.
Landing on the frozen canal’s surface, surrounded by the debris of the broken ships.
Karzio turned around quickly and punched through Vena’s sword swing, letting the heat that emanated from his skin burn the aura of cold that surrounded her to a crisp.
—Faster.
—More refined.
—More decisive and precise at exploiting weaknesses.
Eventually…
Shhkk—!
“Vena!”
Karzio’s fist tore a hole right through Vena’s stomach.
Bang—!
A powerful kick sent Karzio flying back at an incredible speed.
Altarin quickly held his wounded sister in his arms, lowering her blood-soaked body down to the ground.
Vena coughed up blood. The red liquid splattered from her lips, painting the transparent crystal surface of the frozen waters below.
“It seems like… we were too careless again… Altarin.”
“Ah.”
Slowly, Vena closed her eyes.
Gently placing his hand on his sister’s cheek, Altarin also closed his eyes.
Seeing them letting their guards down, Karzio, who had quickly recovered from the kick, immediately tried to rush in and take the opportunity to finish off his opponents.
But in the next moment…
A burst of cold mist instantly enveloped everything. The ships, the restaurant, and the Chaos Angels all felt the same freezing chill.
Karzio stopped in his tracks.
In the distance, the figures of the twins began to glow, melting into a pool of pale blue lights.
[So in the end, it has to come down to this.]
—————……….