"Ah, but first." Olya raised his arm up.
Before the battle could well and truly begin, Olya did take the opportunity to Materialize a robe for himself. Whilst his body had regenerated fully, his beard wasn't as long and majestic as would befit a warlock, so there was not much covering his front, after all. Thus, sporting a short yet chic trim in regards to facial hair, the old man went from evil wizard to evil mob boss just like that.
"Wouldn't want us accidentally bumping heads now, right?" He joked.
"Eugh, you made the right call." Lune agreed.
With that, the three men's Eyes all lit up, with Lem being the odd one out with his Yellow Iro. Still, being the exception can have its benefits.
"For the duration of this fight, you will not harm us." He Commanded.
"Eh? You can just do that!?" Lune stood baffled, "Hoho! Awesome!"
"You sure that's gonna be okay, tyke?" Olya chuckled deviously, "You've been using up your Focus to its absolute limits the entire day. Ain't this too much?"
"Tch... It'll do." Lem grunted.
In truth, he caught Lem's bluff in full. Lem was dead tired, and though this might have worked under different circumstances, he most probably couldn't Focus enough to maintain the Command for long, lest he himself sustained the side-effects. Still, it was enough to get them started.
"We'll just have to knock some sense into you before the counter runs out then!" Lune suggested, "Lem, let's go!"
"Got it!"
Splitting up to flank him from both sides, the duo had seemingly failed to go in. With each ram into the old man, Olya would just dodge and try to counterattack. Of course, this would also fail due to Lem's Command. Each and every one of the old man's punches and kicks would stop right before hitting them, and it didn't take long for Lune to stop flinching altogether. He was too sure nothing was gonna happen.
"Stalemates aren't exactly a fun way to go about a final battle to go, you two..." Olya complained.
"Hey, only I'm allowed to break the fourth wall!" Lune retorted, "But fine, let's wrap this up since you asked so nicely! Lem!"
"Gotcha!"
The two had been running circles around him for a while now, and though such a strategy failed to work on him, it seems the path they took wasn't exactly pointless. Lune had Materialized a thin, barely noticeable wire that was made of an elastic yet durable metal. The strength came from the fact these tinier strings had been woven together in a braid-like pattern, essentially creating a thicker yet still nigh-invisible coil.
"I learned this one from Japan!" He yanked one side as Lem yanked the other, "This might hurt a bit, they're awfully sharp!"
"Haugh, shiet!" Olya let out a scream of pain, "Bad idea..."
Realizing there was simply no way to kill the immortal man no matter how hard they hit him, the two changed plans to the next logical option—Immobilize him. Whether it was encasing him in stone or tying him up tightly in a durable wire, either option would suffice just so long as he couldn't escape. After all, an Olya that can't move is practically the same as a dead one.
"...Lem!" Lune yelled as soon as he saw the old man's Red hot glowing Eyes.
"Huh? A-Ack!" Lem was however too slow to react.
Spark is the Red Iro Ability that transforms rage into power. Excess power then gets transformed into heat, which leads to sparks, fire or even an entire fireball if the Wielder gets too emotionally unstable. The issue with using a metal wire to tie Olya up was that it allowed him to heat it up to an incredible degree, causing the thin wire to glow Red hot, and thus his opponents' palms to get burnt from holding onto their respective ends.
"H-How!?" Lem shouted, "My Command!"
"Hm? What about it?" Olya broke free of the sizzling wire trap, "You Commanded me to not harm you, but you did this to yourselves."
"Surprise surprise, the old man is wise." Lune smiled, Healing up his palm before thinking out loud, "Lem, we're gonna need to change the strategy up."
"What? Nah, we just gotta keep trying and...!"
"And what? Permanently burn our hands off?" He shot back, "For now, try and-"
"No chatting during independent fighting time!" Olya zoomed to the boy, "Hey, I wonder if you've enough Focus to stop my next attack?"
Lem couldn't even run away from him, 'cause Olya was already standing in front of him ready to strike. Fact of the matter is, the old man can Go Solipsistic whilst Lem cannot. Fighting a person who can slow down time to a halt if need be will always yield poor results, so in a way, this outcome was all but expected. That's of course why an adult should always be on standby.
"Unf!?" The old man's head got smashed by an anvil of all things mere moments before he could strike Lem.
"Saw that gag in a cartoon once." Lune mocked from afar, "And can you believe the coincidence? They even named the show after me!"
The old man was quick to get up, albeit with a comedically smushed noggin. The hilarity ended shortly when he contorted the skin and bones of his face in a grotesque matter until it was back to normal. By then, however, Lem had gotten away from him and safely ran back to Lune.
"Feeling better?" Lune kept smiling, his Eyes glowing a pure and innocent Green as he Healed him up to full health, "If so, best make use of this opportunity to its fullest."
Confused, the boy briefly stared at him with a tilted head before noticing the winking. His scorched palms were fully Healed, his body no longer felt fatigued from the excessively laborious day, and his head wasn't hurting at all.
"Wait, my head feels fine?" Lem grinned impishly as soon as he realized, "Hoho! Guess this means we're up for round 2!"
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"You asshole, that scared the crap outta me!" Olya chewed Lune out for the anvil drop, "And what kind of maniac drops an anvil of all things on a person!?"
"Eh, rabbits, coyotes, the likes." Lune shrugged, "So Lem, listen here..."
"Hey, no conspiring mid-battle!" The old man sprinted towards them, but he was already far too late to stop it.
"Mhm, I understand." Lem nodded, turning to Olya to place a Command once more, "Ahem, trip!"
In the very next moment, Olya's foot was caught on a stray piece of rubble from the previously exploded dome. Lune had to react quick to make full use of the moment, so he bought himself some room to think by Going Solipsistic, only to finally Materialize a bunch of razor sharp harpoon tips right on the spot where Olya was about to faceplant. The gruesome sight was worth celebrating however, since it succeeded in completely immobilizing the old man.
"Gah, what the shiet. Regular spikes weren't enough for ya'?" He complained as he laid there in front of them, impaled from head to toe.
"I got a feeling you'd just get up immediately from those, so I had to think like a fisherman." Lune stood in front of him, "The hooks prevent you from getting back up, they're all connected by a singular string, and since it's not made out of metal, you can't burn us with Spark."
"Ain't you just smart..." Olya clicked his tongue.
Though Olya wasn't praising Lune's ingenuity here, but rather the first half of their plan. Lune Beheld a Rainbow Iro, in other words, he could freely cast Heal on himself and others. The one thing Olya had failed to take into account was the fact that he could also restore Focus this way as well, meaning Lem is probably in tip top shape now, both physically and mentally. A Yellow Iro represents Olya's biggest weakness, since now Lem's previously short-lived Command for Olya to be unable to hurt them has now gotten its lifespan extended indefinitely so long as Lune can repeatedly Heal him. Olya cannot harm them until Lune's Focus runs out, but Lune can just infinitely keep Healing it back up to full. The one loophole that essentially makes this duo untouchable—An impenetrable shield being powered by a neverending battery.
"You said something about stalemates being boring?" Lune thought to tease him, "You're forgetting this is the final Volume! No boredom allowed, bud!"
"Cheh, well color me impressed." Olya cackled as his body sunk deeper into the pit of harpoons, "Hey, what's your goal here? Be honest."
"To kill you, duh." Lem shrugged, "Or at least incapacitate you so you stop causing havoc and killing a bunch of random civilians."
"Oh, so now you care about the islanders? Psht, hypocrite..." Olya rolled his Eyes at the heroic answer, "Seriously, are you doing this just 'cause the Gods told you to or is this like a personal vendetta?"
"Half and half. I mean, you did kidnap my daughter." Lune shrugged, "But now it's your turn to answer the same question."
Why did Olya do all this? Was it truly just to revive his dead friends? If so, then why did he have to make so much trouble for everyone just to get his way? Lune was furious at the man that stole his daughter away from him and even almost killed a bunch of his friends, but he also understood from talking to Shaid that Olya was definitely not the kind of man to be doing this for no apparent reason.
"We can offer you this much." Lune suggested, "I don't know about the other guy you two are friends with, but if you willfully allow yourself to get sealed away forever, the Gods have promised to let Shaid continue to live his life out peacefully."
"...They did, huh?" The old man didn't believe such a hopeful ending even for a second, "Of course they did. Same way the Sun God promised the three of us he'd protect us on our journey, when in the end he was the one to personally put a stop to it."
"...This is different." Lune choked on his own words.
"You're not a very convincing liar, y'know." Olya chuckled defeatedly, "Nor a comforting one, for that matter."
"Sorry." He lowered his head in shame, "Ah, but I'll definitely try and make it happen-!"
"Bud." Olya quite literally ripped his head off of the harpoon that was skewering it just to look Lune in the Eye, "Ask the boys personally if you want, but I wholeheartedly believe they wouldn't take the offer even if the Gods allowed them to. It's either we all live or we all die."
"Pity." Lem coldheartedly cut the conversation short, "I kinda liked the guy too. He had a funny accent."
"...Phaaaah!" Olya wheezed, "He did, didn't he?! Ahhh, that's Shaid for ya'."
"..."
"Hey, Lune." The old man pleaded with him with honest Eyes, "Mind calling him over for one last talk before the Gods wake up and send us all sky high?"
"S-Sure!" Lune nodded vigorously, immediately waving like crazy for his enemy's friend to come, "Shaid, quickly!"
"Amigo?" Shaid wasn't sure if he was actually getting called up.
"Well, what're you waiting for?" Ed was the one to give him the necessary push, "Get moving, very rarely do people get the chance to say goodbye to their friends."
"Goodbye..." Shaid looked down sorrowfully before shaking it off and nodding, "Yeah, thanks amigos!"
Running off to the trio that just finished fighting, Shaid's melancholy mixed in with feelings of raw joy touched the others immensely. As they saw him off from their safe spot, Nelly sat down on the piece of rubble they all used as a communal bench only to realize something dire.
"U-Uncle!?" She panicked, looking up down and all around before shouting, "Where're the Books!?"
Fear had set in like never before in the party as they all looked to Ed for a glimmer of hope. Alas, he wasn't the one carrying them, but rather the man that was running with all his might to reach Olyahim and the others.