The golden-haired youth extended his hand toward the void and, from nothingness itself, materialized a sword of light so pure its reflection seemed capable of restoring the fractured reality. In a blink, two trails of light detached from Arthur, taking strategic positions just meters from Neura. They were exact replicas, wielding the same incandescent blade.
— Reflection of light? — Neura murmured, barely surprised by the technique.
Both Arthurs attacked in unison, performing a transverse cut that split Neura's body into two perfect halves. It was a smooth, almost ethereal, yet devastating impalement: his organs and spinal column were exposed to the fouled air of the wasteland. However, in a fraction of a second, Neura's flesh interlaced once more. With a simple scratch that tore the fabric of space, Neura disintegrated both replicas, leaving only a trail of dripping blood on the ground. But before he could counterattack, hundreds of thousands of golden chains pierced him, subjecting him to the radiation of a burning sun that seemed to descend upon him.
— This is not the boy's... it belongs to the Progenitor — Neura recognized, struggling against the divine metal.
— Don't think for a second you'd have it that easy, tin man — Phaedra declared from the shadows.
The true Arthur emerged, imbued with a golden light so intense his figure blurred into the sun itself. Neura, with a feat of raw strength, shattered the chains, but before he could lunge at the youth, a spear struck his head. It was no common physical attack; the spear projected thousands of the Progenitor's memories. They were images of creation, love, and sacrifice—concepts totally opposite to Neura's nihilistic nature—leaving him completely disoriented. Arthur seized the moment to unleash a massive beam of light. The resulting explosion was immense, a deflagration on the level of the most advanced atomic weapons that turned the wasteland into an absolute radiance.
Arthur watched from the distance, his golden hair waving in the shockwave.
— Destroying the world... then he...
Like a grim premonition, the glow of the explosion was devoured by an atmosphere of total darkness. Nothing was visible; no sound escaped that black vacuum. When the light finally returned, half of the Earth had collapsed: infinite craters, earthquakes splitting continents, and a flood of blood and mud covered what remained of the world. Amidst the rubble lay the inert body of Arthur; the warrior of light was lifeless, barely moving from the inertia of the devastation.
Neura rose impassively, like a God who has just completed a day's work, carrying the weight of others' regrets.
— A worthy opponent. A pity that a single star is not enough to illuminate the darkness of the universe... Will we ever see the opposite? It truly pains me to speak of nihilism.
His thoughts were interrupted by a fierce retaliation. Charlotte, Noah, and Hiroshi lunged simultaneously in a flurry of infinite speed. The world began to look like a damaged film reel; black flashes devoured the scenery as the three warriors unleashed an abrupt beating upon Neura. Noah, driven by heroic fervor, charged with his halberd. In a nearly invisible movement, Neura split Noah's body horizontally. The giant was bleeding out, his body destroyed, but even after death, his hand gripped Neura. With the will of the Lord of the 14 Destinies, he unleashed the greatest strike of his existence. A monumental clash that made the entire planet tremble in a devastating earthquake, tearing Neura's flesh and pulverizing his own halberd in the process.
In that moment of vulnerability, Hiroshi emerged from the flashes. Neura tried to break his katana with his remaining hand, but the metal slipped as if it were soap, severing half of the villain's arm and tearing open his side in a rain of blood. Hiroshi launched a storm of precise cuts, but Neura, with a single finger, pointed at the master's head. A circular wave swept the area, erasing nearly all of Hiroshi's body. The master's corpse fell beside Noah's, forming a bloody tableau of sacrifice.
The atmosphere grew gelid—an unnatural stillness where only the dripping of blood on the scorched earth could be heard. Neura, the silhouette of absolute vacuum, observed the girl lying at his feet, a being who had surrendered her very identity for a moment of strength.
— I truly wish to know your "why" — Neura said, his voice echoing like metal striking ice in a void.
Charlotte, her gaze penetrating yet clouded by extreme fatigue, gripped her spear with a determination that defied her own fragility.
— Do you really want a "why"? Even if I'm naive... the why is you — she replied, with a mixture of profound sadness and an unshakable will.
— Neura: I do not deny that I may be the motive, but I am not the logic.
Neura showed no mercy. He simply clenched his hand in the air. In that instant, a dull, multiple sound raced through Charlotte's body: every bone, vertebra, and organ was crushed simultaneously by an invisible pressure. The girl fell; the pain was so immense her consciousness began to fade, but Neura continued to speak.
— Because hatred is not forever... — he declared, looking at the broken body.
— What do you think happens when someone like me dies? — Charlotte Dorn Fagratha whispered, her voice broken —. Someone without memories, or a clear personality...
— Including this experience, you will surely be a soul in torment — Neura replied with absolute coldness.
— You guessed right — she stated.
Neura, for a brief second, felt an anomaly and began to pull back from the near-corpse, but the girl, driven by a remnant of energy that shouldn't exist in such a damaged body, lunged forward. It wasn't a thrust; it was a final embrace. Charlotte clung to Neura with all her might.
— (I knew it just now...) — Charlotte thought in the depths of her being —. (I lack my own self, my hobbies, my traumas, and my experiences. If I died now, I would be a restless soul in torment... but for me, that is the easy path, the one that brings nothing. I prefer to depart through the darkest gloom just to see the little light emerging).
In that embrace, a final connection was established.
— (I know it was the best-case scenario, but you were afraid to tell me... heh, you are so considerate...) — Charlotte added toward the presence of the Progenitor —. (I left the preparations for them... Mother).
Neura tried to disintegrate her instantly, but Phaedra, using most of her power, undid Neura's attack structure long enough. The brown-haired girl's gentle embrace was the last thing Neura felt before Charlotte's heart released its final beat, vanishing at last among the ashes of the wasteland.
— Even this is too much! — Neura roared, infuriated by the girl's act —. Progenitor! I am going to kill you!
Neura lunged at Phaedra in a duel of cosmic forces that ended by devastating what remained of the planet. Lightning, earthquakes, and explosions collapsed every possible stratum. The wasteland turned to absolute darkness, save for a small spark struggling not to go out. Finally, that light collapsed. In the middle of the somber landscape, Phaedra lay blind, deaf, and mute, her body crumbling in blood.
Neura approached, carrying a spear, ready to finish his work.
— I must admit, you were what I expected... but this ends now.
As the spear was about to sever its target, a young man with golden hair and royal armor appeared with a countenance of terrifying seriousness behind the Progenitor. Neura, by pure instinct, backed away.
— You already know what to do, Arthur — Phaedra whispered in the youth's mind.
Arthur sank his arm into the Progenitor's body and tore out her heart. As her body vanished into crystals that clustered around the organ, a sword began to forge in the boy's hand. It was a blade more luminous than any other, with a bluish glow and a jet-black hilt. Arthur was alive once more by his own will; his being shone with a devastating courage and a gaze weighted with the duty of aeons.
— But... why? — Neura let out a bitter laugh —. I see now. You have no mercy for the future. It's the only thing possible... however, I too have something to do in this space-time.
— Can you see the small star in the darkness now? — Arthur asked in a firm voice.
— Yes, I can see it, and it is blinding, boy — Neura replied, wielding his weapon —. After reviving by anchoring your own soul, you force yourself to be better out of responsibility or conviction, knowing what you lose in the end. We are alike.
— I hate to admit it, but it's the truth. And since we are alike... you know how this will continue, don't you?
— No one knows that. No one except us.
Both warriors took their guard, with an overwhelming tension that seemed to halt the flow of time itself as they prepared for the final clash.