Now that it has come to this, I have no other choice but to fight that guy.

Yeah, I already did that, but it seems like I won't get around going close and personal.

The worst is this aura of his sword that by now burns so intensely in white light that none of my weaker creations can approach.

This brings me again to how I have to deal with this personally.

With a mere thought of mine, a tendril of incredible width pierces at him from the side.

Yet he takes this only as a sign to get started and dodges with his new flight ability, which for some reason works without any actual flapping of those light wings, rushing straight at me.

Of course, I'm not gonna let him just approach me, and so obscure the path with many more tendrils, growing from every side into the direct flight line he was taking towards me.

However, this guy expertly maneuvers around them, slashes his way through, and is just generally unavoidable.

I need to do something!

With growing alarm, I prepare more mass around me and create a protective hull of flesh and miasma that doesn't leave any openings.

"Light Salvation!"

"Whoosh"

Which apparently only served to give him a target to obliterate!

Piercing light cuts through the solid flesh I used to protect me so inefficiently.

With incredible force it burns straight through the miasma, reaching my flesh and biting into it.

I feel the searing sensation, yet no real pain, as it's apparently still nothing I'd be subjected to.

However, once I assess myself, I'm a bit stunned at the damage this attack caused.

This wave just slashed off my leg and arm!

Worse, there's this burning sensation of bright light, as I'm used to it from Chiaki.

However, this only disrupts my control a tiny bit and is by no means anything else but a nuisance to me.

With only a bit of refocusing, I control my body to regrow.

I drop the shell, as it didn't work and will only hinder my capability to dodge the next attack.

How to go about this?

The big tentacles obviously don't work, as he's so frickin fast.

Not to forget that he effortlessly cut them off like scrubs in a garden.

I need to pressure him with attacks that he hopefully won't be able to see coming as he did until now.

In this regard, it seems my distance attacks are just too slow.

This leaves close combat.

I think I can boost my direct speed to the sufficient degree I need.

I'll still use the tentacles for support, but the main part has to come from me.

However, I can't approach him recklessly.

This sword cuts straight through all of my defenses, as I learned too well in this fight.

So how am I supposed to fight him if I can't even clash with his attacks?

I noticed that my darkness can push against the force of the attacks, but the light of the sword is just so damn concentrated.

I'd have to concentrate it in a similar way to be able to press against it.

.

.

.

I'm so dumb!

With this, I make my darkness gather above my palm.

I take as much as I have available, concentrating it to the max.

Then, according to my desire, it elongates, forms a sharp edge, and thus I have successfully conjured a sword of pure darkness.

Seems like this is going to be a swordfight.

Ramping up this body's capabilities to its absolute limits, increasing perception and reaction time so high that constantly something in my brain ruptures from the overload in processing strain, I head into the fight.

Just now I notice that my opponent let me do so.

Probably that damned hero courtesy.

The kind where you for some reason don't shoot while the enemy powers up.

I certainly won't give them the same and attack with reckless abandon.

The first clash tells me that my assumptions were correct.

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Just as I thought, the concentrated miasma I used to forge this sword, which surely would be an SSS-rank item in any possible game, is so opposed to the concentrated light magic that it repels it.

This makes for far heavier strikes, as it's like hitting exploding magnets against each other, but my point stands.

They can't cut through it.

A fierce fight begins.

While my body is stronger, my hits harder, my speed greater, as I go beyond all limits of a human, healing every damage that ensues while doing so, my opponent is just so damn good.

They're obviously the more accomplished duelist, while I only happen to have picked up this thing and use it like a savage swinging a club.

Although, every so often, I have another tentacle flying to pierce him.

Of course, he dodges and deflects those as well, but it helps me maintain this tiny bit of an edge I need here.

It's just me and him.

Blows get exchanged at ridiculous speed, and I'm all too grateful for my disability to grow tired as the fight goes on and on.

We fly through all the length of the hall, strike at each other with a force that makes the world shudder, and get faster and faster.

Then I see my moment.

The opening I was waiting for!

I let go of the sword with one hand and single-handedly deflect the next strike.

Then I gather as much miasma as I can in the other hand and release it all at once at the savior's face.

Without even checking the effect, I dash away and let the space between us grow full of tentacles before speeding up, right towards the entrance!

Hah!

Did you think I would fight this to the end?

I couldn't care less for this!

There's just one thing I cared for, right from the start.

My friend!

And she's right there!

So why would I insist on this life-or-death battle if I can just grab her and say goodbye to this stupid world?!

Chiaki, in her saint garb, tries to erect another barrier, but different from my tentacles, her power isn't enough to keep the actual me out.

It fizzles a bit at my skin, but certainly not to a concerning degree.

"I'm sorry, Chiaki. For everything. I'll just take you with me and make this right. I promise." (I)

"Demon king!" (Chiaki)

Still that tune.

It doesn't matter.

I only need to take her with me.

That is all there is to it.

I grab onto her, and as I always do, let my growth form a cocoon around her that will allow me to transport her soul out of this.

Then I'll quickly make her a new body, fix whatever was done to her mind and there we go.

All I have to do is absorb her now.

Absorb... her...

H-how?

It's empty!

Where is her soul?!

Why isn't Chiaki's soul in there?!

What the fuck is wrong here!?!?

Wrath threatens to consume me, confusion riddles my mind.

I was so close only to have it all pulled away from me!

"Whoosh"

Seems like the Savior just broke through.

"You won't get away with what you did!" (Savior)

Does it look to him like I just killed the saint?

In any case, this wing enchantment seems to last even after the "saint" is gone.

I barely have time to react before he's already at me, and I have to block a flurry of consecutive hits.

The issue is, after what just happened, I'm a little off in the mental department.

It's hard to focus on something that ultimately seems so pointless, as I still don't know how to get my best friend back.

Yet there's another problem with this.

The more I'm fighting that guy, the stronger he seems to get.

He's hitting hard, fast, and relentlessly.

Furthermore, he just doesn't seem to get tired!

Just why is he so damn strong?!

"Your swings are off, Demon King! Getting tired?" (Savior)

Is he mocking me?!

"I don't have to stand by and listen to someone like you who doesn't even know what they're fighting for!" (I)

"Oh, I perfectly know what I'm fighting for, and this is giving me the strength to carry on. You, on the other hand, are at your last breaths, as uncoordinated as you're moving." (Savior)

What is wrong with this guy?

Shouldn't he be upset about his defeated comrades?

Instead, he's just casually mocking me.

"But well, sports were never your favorite, Iori!" (savior?!?)

Huh?

"Surprise!" (Chiaki/savior)

From one moment to the other, his voice turns into that of my friend.

During my confusion, he, she, or whatever, plunges the sword right through my chest.

"Ch-Chiaki?" (I)

"Sorry!" (Chiaki)

And then I feel light.

Overwhelming, all-encompassing light.

It scorches my insides, burns away all the darkness that makes up my very being, and I feel how it sears away all of me.

I vanish.

.

.

.

Huh?

Shouldn't I just have vanished?

I was completely obliterated.

Why can I still form thoughts?

I'm still here.

I can think, and if I'm correct...

Yes, there is a feedback to my actions.

I do have an actual presence.

I, I'm still alive or... something else?

Well, was I ever alive to begin with since my transformation?

But my body got destroyed.

My body is...

Shit.

I guess I know what this means.

After all the effort to ignore this fact.

So it's like this...

I'm a fucking tentacle monster!!!