Zarin slowly raised his sword.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
Yet Xavier's heart tightened.
His instincts screamed.
Don't let him swing.
Not once.
Throughout the entire battle...
Zarin had never initiated an attack.
Every clash.
Every exchange.
Every wound.
Had been born from Xavier's relentless assault.
Zarin had simply answered.
Simply defended.
If he had finally chosen to strike...
Then whatever came next...
...would be the end.
Dark crimson droplets began sliding from the edge of his blade.
One after another.
Like blood escaping from an open wound.
Each drop drifted silently toward the earth—
Only to dissolve into black mist before touching the ground.
The valley fell silent.
The wind ceased.
The birds had long since fled.
Even the mountains seemed to hold their breath.
Far below, the Guardians watched in stunned silence.
Hunter clenched his grip until his knuckles turned white.
"...Master..."
Xavier slowly closed his eyes.
His breathing steadied.
This was it.
There would not be another opportunity.
If he failed here...
Everything behind him—
The town.
The Guardians.
The future he had sworn to protect—
Would disappear.
His fingers tightened around Aurelion's hilt.
The dragon engraved upon the crossguard shimmered with ancient light.
"...Do not fail me."
Golden energy surged across the blade.
The valley trembled in response.
Xavier raised Aurelion before him.
His voice echoed—not loudly...
But with impossible authority.
"Speak through your chosen..."
The words resonated across the heavens.
The clouds churned.
The earth groaned.
Invisible pressure spread in every direction.
Hunter suddenly gasped.
His knees buckled.
"W-What...?"
One after another, the Guardians dropped to a knee.
Even standing hundreds of meters away, they could barely withstand the crushing weight pressing upon their bodies.
Tyra's amber eyes widened.
"...Dragon Speech..."
Xavier's eyes opened.
They shone with ancient gold.
His voice was no longer merely his own.
It carried something vast.
Something sovereign.
"Cause your enemies..."
The pressure multiplied.
The ground surrounding Zarin fractured beneath his feet.
Massive cracks raced across the valley floor.
Then—
Xavier pointed Aurelion toward him.
"KNEEL!"
The command exploded across the battlefield.
The world itself obeyed.
Trees bowed.
Mountains trembled.
The clouds split apart.
For the first time since, the battle had begun.
—
Zarin's body moved against his will.
His knees lowered.
Only slightly.
But they lowered.
The earth beneath him collapsed under the unbearable authority.
Veins bulged across his neck.
His muscles trembled.
His sword shook violently.
Yet...
His knees never touched the ground.
A slow grin spread across his face.
"...Magnificent."
Darkness burst from within him like an endless tide.
The crushing authority began to crack.
Not because it had weakened...
But because Zarin refused to submit.
His sheer will clawed against the dragon's decree.
Hunter stared in utter disbelief.
"...He's resisting it..."
The impossible...
Was happening.
Xavier's breathing became ragged.
Dragon Speech consumed an enormous amount of energy and aura.
He couldn't sustain it much longer.
He had one chance.
One final strike.
He lifted Aurelion high.
Golden light engulfed the blade until it resembled a fragment of the sun itself.
"...Return to your splendid glory..."
The dragon carved into the hilt roared.
Its cry echoed through the valley.
"...And put an end to your foes!"
Across the battlefield...
Zarin finally spoke.
Softly.
Almost gently.
"O' depths of despair..."
The skull upon his sword's guard began to bleed from its hollow eye sockets.
Dark crimson streamed down the black metal.
The valley darkened.
"Answer..."
His voice deepened.
"...the Lord of Darkness..."
The blood dripping from his blade floated upward instead of falling.
The sky itself took on a crimson hue.
"...and rain..."
The mist surrounding him twisted into countless distorted faces.
Each one wore an expression of endless suffering.
"...blood..."
The screams began.
Thousands.
No—
Millions.
As though every soul ever consumed by despair cried out at once.
"...and misery."
The skull's jaw slowly opened.
A deafening shriek erupted from within it.
The sound alone split the earth.
The Guardians instinctively covered their ears.
Even the air seemed to tear apart beneath that horrifying chorus.
Xavier moved.
So did Zarin.
Not a heartbeat separated them.
Neither chose to defend.
Neither intended to survive the exchange.
Aurelion blazed like a newborn star.
The Blade of Despair advanced like the embodiment of oblivion, dragging the screams of countless souls behind it.
One carried hope.
The other...
Despair.
The distance between them disappeared.
Twenty meters.
Ten.
Five.
One.
Their blades met.
For the briefest instant...
Everything stopped.
No sound.
No wind.
No light.
Only two unwavering wills colliding at the center of the world.
Then—
The heavens shattered.
A pillar of golden radiance collided with an ocean of crimson darkness.
The impact tore across the valley, splitting the earth for miles as mountains crumbled beneath the force of the collision.
The shockwave raced outward like the wrath of creation itself.
Hunter's eyes widened.
"COVER!"
The Guardians threw themselves behind whatever remained standing as the blast swallowed the battlefield whole.
Stone.
Trees.
Light.
Darkness.
Everything vanished within the explosion.
The valley disappeared beneath a blinding radiance.
No one could see.
No one could hear.
No one knew...
Who was still standing.
----
The explosion swallowed everything.
Light.
Darkness.
Even sound itself seemed to vanish beneath the force of their final clash.
I could only stare.
My mind refused to process what I'd just witnessed.
...Was this what it truly meant to be a Guardian? Or something much more?
If this was the summit...
How far beneath it was I?
A thought crept into my mind.
Father...
Would he have stood beside Master Xavier?
Or...
Was he even stronger?
My fists clenched.
Master Xavier had fought with everything he possessed.
He had invoked the authority of dragons.
He had wounded Zarin.
And only then...
Only after drawing blood...
Had Zarin decided it was finally his turn to attack.
The realization made my chest tighten.
A monster...
That's what he was.
Not simply powerful.
Not merely gifted.
A monster standing so far above us that our greatest teacher had been forced to stake everything just to earn his acknowledgment.
All we could do...
Was watch.
Watch as the man who had protected us for years stood alone against an enemy none of us could even hope to challenge.
The feeling was suffocating.
If only...
If only we were stronger.