Finally! The Icon of Darkness; the one that rules over all evil beings and that threatens the existence of everything in the world showed itself. The appearance was exactly as described by Altheras; its destructive power unparalleled to everything I had ever seen; and the power of its presence was enough for even the battlefield to crumble under its weight.

But it wasn’t the only thing in this place that could defy it. I was here, and the Holy Gods were behind me as well. I’d prepared myself since the last time I faced it to not falter, to never give up, and to never run away. This time, the Icon of Darkness was going down, and I was going to make sure of it.

Holy Power surged from my body to my hands and a beam of the golden light traveled through the air and pushed the Icon of Darkness away from me. It wasn’t enough, but it should give me room to recruit some help and allow me to turn to look over at the enemies of this battlefield, the same people that I fought before.

It should be obvious by now who the real enemy should be, and so I appealed to them. However, they refused to move from their spots, choosing to simply look as the Icon of Darkness approached me once more.

How could they hesitate?! Couldn’t they clearly see that what we were facing was nothing more than a being of pure evil and destruction?

There was no more time. The Icon of Darkness approached once more. I blocked with my weapon and a Holy Barrier of my own. Its claws pierced the barrier like it was nothing, and my weapon boomed from the impact in a wave of both darkness and Holy Light.

The face on the Icon of Darkness… it wasn’t exactly what Altheras described. The God of Darkness and Hellfire should’ve been a horrifying demon, with the face to match it, but this one looked like a finely crafted statue with the face of a woman… Her eyes were a void of Hellfire, and her expression was as cold as the darkness that each of her swings made me feel at the edge of my blade.

It was nearly unstoppable. It wouldn’t stop attacking me, and I started fearing that its claws were going to destroy my own weapon. And yet, there was no hesitation on my part; no fear. I’d give everything that I had right now.

I summoned as much Holy Power as I could into my body. A blissful sensation spread through every corner, and I felt like I was doing the right thing. The darkness that was spreading with each swipe of that monster started being pushed back by the light coming out of my body.

The Icon of Darkness seemed to have noticed the power flowing through me and took a leap back in the air. If it could feel fear, it wasn’t showing it in its face, and I immediately knew why. It lifted one hand up to the sky and the dark clouds surrounding us immediately turned red.

The red clouds spread as far as I could see, and before I could rush over to stop whatever it was doing, it lowered its hand and the red clouds turned into a sea of red flames.

It all came down faster and heavier than any storm I’d seen before. I covered myself in a dome of Holy Power, and felt how the burning Hellfire surrounded me and kept going down beyond where I was.

Hellfire fell upon the land. I glanced down and saw the jungle being set on fire; soldiers, both allied and enemies, scrambling to find cover, only to be consumed by the fire if they weren’t already outside the range of the attack; and Knights, just like the soldiers, standing one next to another to protect themselves and as many people as they could.

The Hellfire passed, and I looked over to the enemies that, just like me, created their own defenses for this rain of Hellfire.

“Can you see now?!” I shouted, hoping to finally convince them to join me. “The Icon of Darkness cares not for the world or anyone in it! Join me! Together we can—”

I stopped myself when I saw their defenses crumble and their figures fleeing the battlefield—or rather, rush down to the battlefields. I felt great rage seeing that, but I quickly understood when they joined the Knights in trying to save as many people as they could from the destruction created by the Icon of Darkness.

The desire to demand they—or anyone else—join me in this fight passed as I realized that this was my fight and my fight alone. As the Holy Gods’ chosen one, it was my duty to defeat the Icon of Darkness, and asking others to do so for me would only bring shame upon Them.

The Icon of Darkness wouldn’t allow me to ask either anyway, as it disappeared from the spot that it was floating at and reappeared once more just a step away from me in a sudden mist of darkness. I urgently raised my defenses once more, and the Icon of Darkness slashed at them. It didn’t break them this time, as my Holy Power was shining brighter than ever, but I wasn’t sure if I could keep it up for long enough to survive this.

Altheras felt my need for power, and like She’d been doing over the past few years, She passed more power on to me. The blissful feeling of Her Holy Light filled me, and with a powerful blast of Holy Power, I forced the Icon of Darkness to step back.

But it wouldn’t give up, as even with the light shining brightly on its face, it would close the gap that I briefly made once more, and continue its unrelenting assault on me. I blocked, parried, created Holy Barriers, increased my Holy Aura, and went as far as to even use kicks, but it all failed one after the other as the Icon of Darkness broke everything down and ignored my attacks as if they didn’t carry any power in them.

How could this be? The feeling of uncertainty started taking hold of me the longer this fight went. So far, I hadn’t been able to do anything to it, and it had been pushing me back further and further with every attack. The thought that perhaps I should flee this place and try again passed through my mind, but I didn’t have time to even consider it when a large lance made of darkness appeared to the side of the demon.

Just like every attack, it swiped its claw-like hand and the lance immediately fell upon me. With widened eyes, I raised as many protections as I could, before the lance touched me and an explosion of darkness surrounded me. I felt my body fly down through the air under this pillar of darkness and quickly crash with the land below us, sending rocks, red burning trees, and dirt in every direction.

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My protections were enough to keep me alive, but I was forced to raise them once more when from the deep darkness surrounding me, the Icon of Darkness suddenly appeared, its feet pointed straight at my chest.

Yet another explosion of darkness and holy light spread in every direction, and my defenses cracked.

It wasn’t enough! I wasn’t able to fight at the same power levels as the Icon of Darkness! I needed—I needed something more!

In my desperate thoughts, the barrier on top of me widely cracked, and after a couple of seconds, completely shattered. I had my blade raised up and ready to block, but this time, the Icon of Darkness didn’t slash, and instead used its pointy tail to pierce my leg.

“Agh!” I exclaimed as the pain traveled through my body, but I couldn’t allow myself to be distracted by it, as such a thing would mean death.

In one quick motion, I swiped my weapon at the tail, coating it with as much Holy Power as I could. The strike landed, sending Holy Light in every direction, but my blade didn’t cut anything, nor did it wound it, only managing to get the tail out of my body.

An extreme burning sensation followed from the pierced wound, but I didn’t need to look down to know that there was more to that pierce than just the stab. Once more, I raised my Holy Aura, and the Healing Power from Altheras quickly expelled the darkness that had been trying to burrow its way into my body.

The Icon of Darkness lagged in its movement after directly hitting it with Holy Power, which was what allowed me to heal what it had done to me, but the short fraction of a second that I used to heal myself also gave it time to follow up, by doing a full body turn and hitting me with the back of its claw-like hand.

A Holy Barrier activated right next to my face, shattered from the impact and allowed its hand to hit me directly in my cheek. I was sent flying out of the hole it dug me into and back into the sky, where I quickly activated my flying magic and tried to make some distance from the monster.

A grave mistake on my part, as I forgot the speed with which it moved when it appeared right behind me, its hand already stretched and ready to grab me. There was no time for me to move, and I wasn’t fast enough to get away from it as it grabbed the same leg that it stabbed just now, and tried to crush it. Yet another Holy Barrer formed on top of my armor and skin, but it wasn’t enough to withstand the strength of the demon.

The barrier broke, and my leg followed soon after. This time, there wasn’t as much pain as before, since the healing magic also helped with that, but I couldn’t allow it to continue holding on to me as a dark shadow started spreading up my leg.

I raised my weapon with one hand and gathered Holy Power with the other. The expressionless Icon of Darkness simply looked back at me without letting go of my darkening leg, and while its red eyes were set on me, I released the Holy Power I had in my hand and swung the weapon with the other with just as much Holy Power as I could gather.

A beam of golden light covered the demon, surrounding it completely for a few seconds, but… the grip in my leg wasn’t lessened at all, and the darkness growing up through it showed no sign of stopping. It was already reaching my thighs, and with how intense the Icon of Darkness was trying to kill me, allowing it to continue would mean my death.

There was no choice. If it wasn’t going to let go, I was the one that was going to have to let go.

Once more, I gathered my Holy Power to my weapon, raised it, and without thinking about it, swung it down. Blood poured out for the first time in our encounter, and a powerful pang of pain ran through my body. The distance between the demon and me grew, but… my leg was gone in exchange.

The darkness continued to grow from the Icon of Darkness’ hand up to the cut limb it was holding until it covered it completely. Without looking at it, the demon threw my completely blackened leg to the side, where it flew for a short distance, before the darkness compacted into a small ball of darkness. I watched with a pained expression how said ball of darkness suddenly moved, going straight for me.

I ignored the pain and, again, covered myself. A sphere of Holy Power surrounded me, and the ball of darkness suddenly expanded when it touched my defenses. I saw my hair fly forward into the large ball, and felt my body being pulled into it. I resisted the pull of the darkness, and used my own barrier to push it away. There was resistance, and the Holy Barrier started cracking under the ball’s pressure, but with one final push, I managed to throw the ball away.

Like a golden arrow with a black tip, our powers flew through the sky and into a mountain, where it exploded in a mix of both darkness and golden light.

There was no time to look at it, however, as I was now heavily wounded and needed to heal. Both my magic and Holy Power were gathered in my body, and I felt the blissful feeling of Altheras’ Holy Power and Healing Power run through it. The moment was immediately interrupted when the Icon of Darkness appeared once more a short distance away from me.

Again and again, I raised my defenses to prepare for its next assault, but this time, it didn’t immediately attack, so I just looked with a heaving breath back at it. It was giving me an opportunity that so far hadn’t been there, so I turned all the Holy Power I just raised to defend and launched it back at the demon.

The Golden Light showered the Icon of Darkness, and I saw it being pushed back slightly… only for it to turn its hand to the side, summon a large dark blade to its hand, and swing it upwards. My defenses were gone, and I’d foolishly attacked with everything I had prepared, thinking that it was enough to do some damage to it, and from that mistake, the demon managed to claim yet another piece of my body.

My left arm was cut from right below my elbow, flying into the sky. I didn’t have time to look at it as the darkness from the blade followed the limb, turned it into another ball of darkness and threw it on top of me.

This time, my Holy Aura managed to protect me, but I could feel a terrible burning sensation all over my body, quite unlike anything I’d felt before. It was as if I was being burned alive, so I couldn’t help a pained scream from coming out of me as I was sent flying.

The Icon of Darkness followed soon after, slashing and swiping with its claw-like hands non-stop as I tried my best to keep up with it, my face full of sweat and blood. Eventually, the demon launched a sudden beam of darkness which I wasn’t able to block, sending me flying through the air and into a mountain.

From the hole, I looked up at the Icon of Darkness as a ball formed once more between its hands. I was far away, so I used the distance to prepare myself for what was coming.

“A-Altheras, please, grant me strength,” I whispered, and Holy Power gathered in my body.

“This is as…” She said, Her voice fading slightly, like a radio losing signal; something that happened whenever She sent me too much power. “… You must defeat it…!”

I felt my body reinvigorated, and I raised several Holy Barriers in front of me. The ball of darkness between the Icon of Darkness was fired soon after, and from it, beams of darkness fell all over the land. I braced myself, and the ball crashed with my barriers.

The first one shattered immediately. The second cracked, stood for a few seconds, and then shattered as well. And the last one stood trembling under the darkness’ power, but shattered when the ball of darkness exploded and pushed me deeper into the mountain.

I wanted to take a breath, but I knew that the Icon of Darkness wouldn’t allow it, so I stood once more to face it; to see its expressionless face right in front of mine… only that this time… it wasn’t moving. It was standing still in the air, its face turned into a completely different direction.

What could that possibly mean?