"So that still wasn't your full power?"
Chaldo couldn't help clicking his tongue as he recalled that false daylight.
Even with his constitution, taking that head-on would have meant certain death.
If anything, now that Alfia had mastered mana compression, the spell she unleashed looked even more outrageous than what she'd used against Leviathan.
Chaldo knew Alfia better than anyone.
Was she really ever this strong before?
Before Shadow could say a word, Chaldo spoke first—half comfort, half common sense.
"If he's that strong, doesn't that just prove he's the one true hero?"
He genuinely didn't understand.
Shadow being overwhelmingly powerful was good news for them.
As for Alfia being weaker than Shadow… sure, that was unexpected, but Alfia of all people should've been prepared for it.
That said, Chaldo also understood her frustration.
He'd tasted that same humiliation once.
Alfia stayed silent, eyes still locked on Shadow like she wanted to drill a hole through him.
She had every reason to be angry.
She had cast aside her guilt toward her sister and used the skill she hated.
She had cast aside her longing for health and activated the cursed limit-breaker.
To force Shadow to take her seriously, she had truly pushed herself to the absolute peak.
The moment the Holy Bell Tower appeared, even Alfia believed it was the strongest strike she could possibly produce.
But when she looked at Shadow, she saw a flicker of hesitation.
At the time she couldn't make sense of it.
Only after the daylight faded did she understand what that hesitation meant.
Facing her ultimate blow, Shadow still hadn't used everything.
Alfia couldn't accept that.
Some nameless emotion tore straight through the last line of defense in her heart.
Shadow paused, thinking.
"…Your reason to keep living isn't to become my stepping stone. I've already enjoyed this fight."
As he spoke, he tossed a small vial toward her.
Alfia's expression twisted with complicated feelings, but she caught it anyway.
"Why didn't you use your full power? If you had… even if I lost, even if I died, I could've accepted it."
Their spell clash had ended with her on the losing side, but it wasn't a clean defeat.
This half-finished ending—she couldn't swallow it.
But in Shadow's mind, he had fought with everything he was willing to use.
That moment of hesitation had been him remembering the one skill he'd sealed away.
The one that made him lose hair.
After obtaining that skill, Cid once had a dream.
To protect everyone he wanted to protect, he activated the skill called Balance Breaker in a battle against the world-ending Black Dragon.
With that limiter-shattering power, he did defeat the Black Dragon—
…and became a shining, bald-headed lightbulb.
Even the universal hair-growth elixir he'd prepared ahead of time couldn't restore a single strand.
In the end, whether he was acting as a background extra or as Shadow, he could only appear in public wearing a wig.
Being bald as an extra? Fine.
But being forced into that indignity as the Eminence in Shadow?
Unforgivable.
Then, in that dream, he later met another powerful enemy as Shadow.
He used "I am Atomic" again, the enemy answered with an equally brutal spell—
and although he won the clash, the blast wave blew his wig clean off his head.
The enemy saw his smooth, gleaming scalp and tried to laugh.
What was he supposed to do then?
He could only throw away the pride of the Eminence in Shadow and scream in outrage:
"Why am I this handsome and still losing my hair, while you're that ugly and not losing any?!"
And then the dream ended.
Cid had already decided never to use that skill, but after that dream he was even more determined to seal it forever.
Balance Breaker was absurdly strong. It should come with a truly terrifying side effect.
Just like Alfia's own limit-breaking skill.
But if the only downside was "hair loss," wasn't that… strangely light?
Which meant the most reasonable conclusion was that the hair loss was permanent.
Permanent enough that even his universal hair-growth medicine wouldn't help.
Cid trusted his talent and his research.
But the cost of failure here was simply too high.
He couldn't gamble.
As for the world-ending Black Dragon, Cid believed he could grow strong enough to kill it outright.
No need for a skill with a price that horrific.
So when Alfia demanded an answer, Cid could only sigh.
"I do have one skill I didn't use. But I won't. Some prices are far more terrifying than death."
He wasn't going to let her question that.
He didn't believe Alfia would be willing to pay the price of going completely bald either.
Stamp your feet all you want—your legs will go numb too.
So: no objections allowed.
Alfia could understand his logic.
Her two skills were ones she normally refused to touch as well.
If she didn't have a burning conviction to win, she wouldn't have activated them.
But—
"That means you're strong enough… yet your conviction is still inferior to that boy from the Hearth Goddess's familia."
Alfia remembered Cid.
The young man who was bold and meticulous—reckless in the strangest ways.
He had sensed how terrifying she was, feared that terror, yet still devised that infuriatingly effective plan in an instant.
Alfia was furious—yet couldn't deny he was both brave and brilliant.
If it were that young man, he would never hesitate over a so-called price worse than death.
Realizing that, Alfia also realized what she needed to do next.
Without question, Shadow was the one true hero who could save the world.
But before becoming the final hero, he still had one last flaw in spirit.
If this vial could truly suppress her curse again, then as a senior… she could help Shadow polish away that final imperfection.
"…Huh?"
Cid froze.
"The boy from the Hearth Goddess's familia"…
How many Hearth Goddesses could there be in Orario?
He hadn't expected Alfia to remember his "extra" persona so clearly.
But "Extra Cid" didn't want to be bald either!
"Are you two finished? If you're done, it's my turn."
Chaldo drew his black greatsword.
"You can still move? That wound—did Ottar give it to you?"
Cid could see it: a fresh gash across Chaldo's chest.
It practically split his torso open.
A lethal wound—about as bad as what Chaldo had inflicted on "Extra Cid" before.
Cid could ignore that kind of injury because he had monstrous healing.
Chaldo did not.
"That boar made real progress. I'm satisfied."
There was no disappointment left on Chaldo's face.
"But this is still nowhere near enough to satisfy me!"
He raised his blade and pointed it at Shadow.
He knew that even if Shadow didn't use magic, he probably wasn't winning.
But in a duel, you fight the strongest opponent available.
"Fine. That move you taught me last time—I've gained a new insight. Let me test my blade."
"Now that's something I'm looking forward to!"
Chaldo stepped away from Alfia, focus sharpening to a needle point as he waited for Shadow to strike first.
Then he saw it.
The hero's light-blade.
But this time, it was wrapped in dense, heavy mana—turning it into a jet-black holy sword.
"Black Flash!"
....
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