The air in the subterranean passage froze. Not from cold, but from a pressure so intense it stilled the very dust motes in the air. Nox's words—"add two more legendary swords to my master's collection"—did not just land on Kenta's ears. They were a spark thrown into the sealed furnace of his soul, igniting the fuel of every loss he had ever endured.
The image of his master, Hikari, entrusting him with the blade of light with her dying breath. The memory of Yami, the previous wielder of the dark blade, being consumed by its rage. The sight of his village, reduced to ash and memory. And now, Sarah, broken and sleeping because of the chaos this creature served.
Something inside Kenta broke. Not his spirit, but the last of his restraint.
His silence, which had been a wall, now became a void. A vacuum that promised annihilation. The trembling in his arms from straining against her barrier ceased, replaced by an unnatural, absolute stillness.
Nox's seductive smirk finally wavered. The amusement in her starlit eyes flickered, replaced by a sliver of primal recognition. She was not looking at a determined warrior anymore. She was looking at a natural disaster given human form.
"You speak of my masters' blades as if they are trinkets," Kenta's voice was low, a gravelly rasp that seemed to grate against the stone itself. It was the first time he had spoken to her, and the sound was more threatening than any roar. "You speak of my home, my friend, as 'collateral damage'."
He took a step forward. The air around him began to warp, shimmering with two opposing energies.
"You know nothing of the price paid for this power."
A torrent of black and white energy erupted from him. Hikari no Ha blazed with the fury of a captured sun, while Yami no Hikari screamed, its devouring darkness so profound it seemed to suck the light from the world. The two auras didn't mix; they swirled around him in a violent, chaotic vortex, a maelstrom of creation and destruction.
The strain was immediate and catastrophic. Veins bulged on his forehead and neck. His muscles screamed in protest, fibers tearing under the impossible burden of housing two opposing cosmic forces. Blood began to seep from his nose, tracing a thin line down his lip. His body was a fragile vessel cracking under the pressure of a god's power.
But he did not stop. He embraced the pain. He used it as a focus.
"Twin Serpents' Ascent."
His form vanished. The concept of speed became meaningless. He did not move through space; he simply appeared at different points within it, a flickering phantom of light and shadow. The very reality around him, which Nox had so casually warped, now screamed in protest at his passage.
He was upon her. This time, his blades did not aim for her directly. Hikari no Ha cut a blazing arc through the stone ceiling above her head, while Yami no Hikari slashed through the ground beneath her feet. He wasn't trying to hit her shield; he was dismantling the very environment that supported her.
Nox's eyes widened. She flickered, teleporting a dozen meters back with a startled hiss. The section of the corridor where she had been standing ceased to exist—the ceiling vaporized by light, the foundation erased by darkness.
"You insect!" she shrieked, her melodic voice now sharp with genuine alarm. She thrust out a hand, and a wave of pure obliteration shot towards him, the same energy she had used to erase the city block.
Kenta didn't dodge. He crossed his blades. The opposing forces collided before him, creating a microscopic singularity that swallowed her attack whole before collapsing with a thunderclap that shook the entire castle foundation. Dust and debris rained down.
"I am not the one who is finished," Kenta stated, his voice eerily calm despite the blood now streaming from his ears. He flickered again.
He was behind her. A horizontal slash from Hikari no Ha forced her barrier to flare brightly, its holy energy sizzling against her demonic essence. Before she could react, he was above her, Yami no Hikari plunging down like a spear of midnight, its point focused on a single, microscopic point on her shield.
CRACK.
A hairline fracture, no larger than a needle, appeared in her shimmering defensive field.
A gasp, true and unfeigned, escaped Nox's lips. For the first time in centuries, she felt a sliver of genuine fear. This was not a battle of power levels; this was a battle of will, and the mortal before her was burning his very soul for the chance to end her.
He landed before her, the chaotic vortex of energy around him beginning to tear his own clothes to shreds. He looked at her, his eyes devoid of any emotion she could recognize. There was no anger, no hatred. There was only a cold, absolute certainty of her demise.
"You wanted to take my swords," he rasped, raising the twin katanas, their energies screaming in dissonant harmony. "You wanted to add me to your collection of tragedies."
He took a final, shuddering breath, his body pushed to its absolute limit.
"But you made one mistake. You threatened what is mine."
The finality in his voice was more terrifying than any battle cry.
"Now, you will learn the cost."
The two blades swung down in a unified, cross-shaped slash of absolute light and absolute dark. The attack did not travel through the air. It simply was, erasing the space between them, aimed directly at the tiny crack in her invincibility. It was a blow that carried the weight of two masters' legacies, a village's ghosts, and a single, unwavering vow to never lose anyone ever again.