"Ace..." The Fallen Luna muttered.

"Luna," Ace whispered her name as he looked at her current state.

All he could see was a ragged puppet unable to move, controlled by an unknown force. However, thanks to her previous power, her tomes fired several dark javelins at the evasive Ace, who was constantly dodging each attack. Each step brought Ace closer to the fallen Luna.

"Don't worry, I'll try to make this quick," Ace replied.

"AAAaaah..!" Seeing the fallen Luna struggling to fire her spells made Ace angry. He believed that Luna's will was still clinging to her body, despite a lack of power from Vumor or Luna's resistance. Ace didn't know the answer.

After closing in within a sword's reach, Ace used the offensive art [Quick Strike] to thrust his sword quickly in an attempt to catch the fallen Luna off guard. However, her tome jumped in and formed a magical barrier around her.

Darklin jumped from Ace's shoulder and breathed out a large dark fireball where Luna's other tome absorbed the attack, retaliating Darklin back with the same spell as if it was hers to begin with. Despite the counter-attack, it was futile, as Darklin was resistant to his own elemental affinities and burned the dragon.

Distracted with Darklin, Ace took the opportunity to use a revised dashing edge in an attempt to break through Luna's barrier.

"[Offensive Art: Dashing Edge: Eightfold]!"

At great speed, Ace dashed from one end to the other, slashing away at Luna's barrier in an attempt to break through for an opening, but the fallen Luna stood her ground, letting Ace chip away at her shield until the right moment.

When Darklin saw what she was doing, he wanted to stop her and fired a hail of flames towards her. The fallen Luna designated one of her tomes to block Darklin's flames, while using the other tome to strengthen her defense against Ace's attack.

At Ace's last dashing edge, he gathered his mana and imbued it into his weapons for a devastating blow. Rather than aiming for Luna, he aimed for the tome in hopes of weakening her combat capability.

"...sEekINg... lIgHt..." The fallen Luna muttered. The moment Ace heard her words, instead of firing from the tomes themselves, a light elemental projectile came out of her palms and followed Ace in pursuit.

"...?!" Ace gasped. He stopped his attack on the tome midway and propelled himself the other way, using a burst of flames coming out of his feet. He ran, grabbed one of the Paladin's shields, and braced himself for the seeking spell.

Clink! Clang! CLANG! CLANG!

Ace went on the offensive once more, joining Darklin's side, successfully blocking Luna's spell with the shield.

"We'll focus on one of the tomes together, Darklin. Even if I break her barrier, her tomes would just get in the way."

"I do not think it will be that easy," Darklin replied.

Luna did not give them time to plan in the midst of combat. She fired a high-pressure water blast directly at Ace, who attempted to hold his guard with his shield in hand.

"Tch...! I know...! We'll have to do something about them. If we can get one, we'll win for sure. Hold her attention to me!" Ace said.

With a quick nod from Darklin, he flew out of Ace's guard and charged a Dark Nova spell towards the channeling Luna. She noticed the coordinated attack and, holding her hand, she let out an electro spell towards Ace from her tome. From the other tome, she let out a barrage of wind slices in an attempt to stop Darklin from firing his spell.

Dodging the wind slices, Darklin eventually gathered enough magic to fire a Dark Nova spell towards Luna, causing her to use one of her tomes to absorb the spell once again.

"Damn it...! Her floating tomes are the problem, but I think I see a small opening," Ace said.

Ace saw this opportunity to approach from the other side, using one of the strongest spells he had made during his time in the dungeon.

"[Dark Hell Barrage]!" Ace quickly channeled a barrage of hell flame spears towards Luna, who held out her other hand to command the other tome to do the same and absorb Ace's spell.

The moment she had both her hands out to command her tomes, Ace dashed towards her once again, this time using his unique art.

"You're finally open, Luna! [Unique Art: Dark Fury]" Ace said.

Luna, who had finished commanding her tomes to absorb the consecutive spells, only had a small window to command her tomes to assist in strengthening her barrier. Ace let out a fury of dark elemental slashes from his sword. Luna had just recalled her tomes to help defend. She knew that her barrier wasn't going to last any longer and that she had to jump back to counter-attack.

"This is the final blow!" Ace said.

Ace tightened his grip onto his sword and broke through Luna's barrier. The moment his sword was about to slice Luna's neck, she commanded her tome to intercept the hit while quickly stepping back with only one tome to command. The tome Ace slashed was cut in half, falling onto the ground. The book itself slowly turned into mana particles with Ace gathering his breath.

"This is not good... I can feel my head feeling cloudy... but that's one tome down for Luna to control," Ace said.

"How troublesome... will one tome affect her now?" Darklin asked.

"Hopefully... she hasn't even run out of mana... if I use another Unique Art, I'll be making my way to mental fatigue."

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"Thundering Phoenix..." The Fallen Luna muttered as she channeled her spell. Ace imbued mana into his shield and began to run around Luna, while Darklin noticed how much mana she was inputting and attempted to warn Ace.

"Ace...! Run!" Darklin shouted.

Hearing his words, Ace ran as fast as he could. The moment Luna fired her spell, a giant elemental bird shaped like a phoenix flew towards Ace at an incredible speed. It shocked everything around it, forcing Ace to stand his ground, forming a dark veil around himself in an attempt to shield the incoming shockwave.

However, the phoenix fired a beam of lightning towards Ace while it continued to soar as if it was going to crash straight into Ace itself.

"Damn it...!"

As the lightning coursed through his body, his shield couldn't take any more damage and eventually broke right in front of him. Although he successfully fended off the beam, the phoenix flew straight into Ace and discharged, affecting both him and Darklin in the process.

"She's this strong?!" Ace screamed in pain and dropped on his face, close to unconsciousness. He looked beside him and saw Darklin struggling to fly up. He watched Luna, who tried to resist Vumor's commands, as her arms began shaking while she tried to chant another spell.

"AaaAAAAhh...! Ace...! No...!" The Fallen Luna screamed as she intentionally fired her spell in another direction. This gave enough time for Ace to get back on his feet and do one final attack. However, his body felt paralyzed by the electro spell Luna had just fired, feeling powerful static coursing through his legs and arms. It was so painful that Ace dropped his sword and struggled to pick it up again.

The Fallen Luna was struggling to control herself into finishing off Ace. Although Luna herself was dead, her will and feelings remained, trying to disobey Vumor's commands. The moment she was about to channel another spell, Darklin fired a fireball directly onto Luna's final tome, taking advantage of the Fallen's internal conflict.

"Sorry, Luna... and thank you... You're still fighting even until the end. I'll end Vumor's control over you right now..." Ace picked up his sword and took a stance, ready to end it with his final Art.

The Fallen Luna, who saw this, struggled to control herself. She cast a quick spell and created an elemental blade for one final showdown. This was interrupted again by Darklin, who fired one final Dark Nova, forcing Luna to put up another barrier.

"[Unique Art: Dark Fury!]"

He dashed towards her, cracking away at her barrier with attack after attack. The cracks kept increasing until her whole shield shattered. To counter-attack her lifeless body, she used the elemental sword to attack Ace the moment her barrier broke. She was too late.

"Goodbye..."

Ace let out a deep slash onto the Fallen Luna. The damage was enough to free her from Vumor's control. Her body was slowly disintegrating into dust, but she still attempted to move towards Ace.

There was no hostility in her movement, giving Ace a familiar feeling. She walked closer to Ace with her hand out. After a few seconds, her hand flicked Ace's forehead. Ace remembered this feeling, the way Luna would flick his forehead as a way to lecture him or snap him back to reality. He pictured her smiling towards him before turning to dust.

"Luna..." Ace quietly said, with sadness in his voice.

Her body had fully disintegrated, leaving only her robe and her magic bag. The moment Ace confirmed that she was finally defeated, his legs dropped, feeling the effects of the mental fatigue. His body could barely respond properly as he watched Darklin slowly fly towards him.

"Let's cremate the other bodies before something happens. Are you alright?" Ace said, beginning to breathe heavily.

"Quite so, just a simple shockwave. However, if Vumor had his full power, perhaps we would've died here."

"Isn't that obvious..."

Ace's body felt delayed as he walked closer to the bodies. He dropped to his knees again, still under the effects of Luna's spell. He leaned against the wall, waiting for his wounds to heal.

"Should we cremate them now?" Darklin asked.

"Sure... let's do that," Ace said, agreeing to Darklin's suggestion to cremate the bodies. He knelt down to pay his respects, collecting David's ashes and placing them in a sack for Olivia.

However, soon after that, Ace passed out. Darklin stayed by his side, patiently waiting for him to wake up. The electroshock he received had caused more damage than he anticipated, but luckily his regeneration would kick in and heal the wounds he suffered.

"Hey..." a voice called out to Ace.

"Huh...?" Ace stirred awake to find Luna standing in front of him.

"Ace, wake up!" Luna flicked him on the forehead.

"Ow..." Ace groaned and looked around, realizing he and Luna were in one of the study rooms at the library they often visited. He was confused and asked, "Why am I here...?"

"Because you asked me to tutor you, dummy," Luna replied, her hands on her hips.

Ace scratched his head and tried to pinch himself to wake up from the dream. However, he barely felt any pain at all, as if he was pulling on a tough rubber.

"Earlier, I was in the dungeon and I killed you, well... the Fallen version of you," Ace said, still dazed.

Luna went back to her seat and crossed her legs. "I know that. You're dreaming right now, if you haven't noticed already."

"Figures... I guess I'm making Darklin wait too long. I must've missed Luna that bad that I started dreaming of her once I passed out."

"Hehe, I'm honored. But Ace, you should already know I'm dead now. But you're not quite yourself yet, huh?" Luna pointed to Ace's forehead and poked it repeatedly.

"Taking the pokes, he grabbed her hand to make her stop."

Ace took the pokes and grabbed Luna's hand to make her stop.

"Ah sorry, I'm sure you've already noticed your key to get out of here. Yet, Vumor is going to get in your way from now on."

"Sorry, I'm sure you've already noticed your key to get out of here. However, Vumor is going to get in your way from now on," Luna said.

"Even in my dreams somehow you're still just as normal. The same old logical girl. I guess you can never break out of character," Ace said with a small chuckle.

"Hmph, of course. But you, on the other hand, had better start remembering your friends," Luna replied.

"What do you mean?" Ace asked.

"So you haven't realized...you'll find out what I mean once you wake up," Luna said as she stood up and walked closer to Ace.

"Huh...? I'm still confused."

"Hehe, even if I do tell you, you might forget everything once I wake you up," Luna said, flicking his forehead.

"If this is the last interaction with you, please...don't leave me," Ace said, his expression loosening and holding a saddened expression.

"Seeing you again, I'm sure you don't need me, not anymore. There's more life to your expressions now. I'm glad I've done something for you," Luna said, laying her hand on Ace's shoulder with a faint smile.

"Huh...? Even so... You were supposed to..." Ace's voice began to shiver.

"I know, but I've already passed on."

"No... Luna, don't go...! I don't have anyone else left...! I can't...!" he cried out, reaching his hand towards Luna but when he thought his hand connected, it only phased through.

"Don't worry, you do. Your mind still hasn't recovered properly yet. And when it does, you'll remember," Luna said with a smile.

"It doesn't matter! You're finally here and-" Tears began to fall from Ace's eyes as his voice began to hesitate in his words.

"Hehe, crying in a dream like this. You should know by now you're in a dream. Right now I'm just a fragment of your memories. So please Ace, it's time for you to wake up."

"Luna, wait-!"

Before Ace could say anything else, light engulfed Luna, and he saw her smile for the last time.

The moment Ace's senses came back to reality, his body's first instinct was to reach out his hand.

"LUNA...!" He desperately called out. Darklin snapped up, woken up by Ace's sudden shout.

"Welcome back. Hm?" Darklin woke up to the sensation of Ace's movement. His eyes focused on Ace's current expression.

"What is it...? You're looking at me strangely after hearing me shout her name," Ace said to him.

"You're crying."

"Ah... I must've dreamt something painful," Ace said in a despondent tone.