The bones on Sebastian's right leg were riddled with jagged cracks, each movement sending a sickening crunch through the air whenever he shifted from place to place in his desperate attempt to evade Diego's relentless assault. Realizing the damage was worsening, Sebastian forced himself to halt the reckless strain, letting the leg rest and limiting the load and strikes he used it to deflect. Yet with his posture now compromised and his mobility sharply reduced, Diego's attacks rained down from every angle, faster and more unpredictable than before. Unable to dart away with his usual agility, Sebastian crouched low, raising his hands and crossing his swords, relying solely on his skill to parry and deflect the furious barrage of blows Diego unleashed, each strike testing the limits of his endurance and resolve.
That went on for a while, but when one of Sebastian's hands faltered, its joint stiffening and trembling until it finally limped uselessly, unable to move with the speed, precision, and strength it once commanded, the strain became unbearable. His grip weakened, his defenses crumbled, and the relentless rhythm of battle pressed harder against him. Overwhelmed by pain and desperation, Sebastian was forced to cry out with a hoarse, pleading voice, his words breaking through the clash of steel:
[Stop!]
However, Diego refused to relent simply because his adversary struggled to deflect his ferocious onslaught or stood on the precipice of total annihilation. Even as a broken Sebastian cried out, desperately pleading for mercy and offering his unconditional surrender, Diego remained an immovable force of vengeance. He neither paused his relentless assault nor paid the slightest heed to Sebastian's frantic words, driven instead by a dark, singular focus that saw only the necessity of his enemy's absolute destruction.
Diego observed the unfolding chaos with an aloof detachment; his features betrayed no hint of satisfaction now that he finally held the upper hand against Sebastian. Instead, his gaze remained impassively bland as he looked toward his rival, his mind already drifting far beyond this immediate and irritating obstacle. To Diego, Sebastian was merely a tedious distraction—a final, lingering loose end that needed to be severed before he could focus his true fury on the objective that actually mattered. He craved the swift finality of Sebastian's downfall, not for the sake of triumph, but so he could finally turn his attention toward the deep-seated vengeance that had driven him to storm Maru's castle in the first place.
Sebastian lingered, crouching low in the dirt as he desperately tried to parry the relentless strikes aimed at his chest. He fought to deter the reach of every incoming blow with the now seemingly heavy sword he struggled to grip firmly in only remaining hand, his knuckles white and his breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps as the sheer vibration of brute force on steel began to numb his tiring arms. Diego noted the fatigue with a predatory grin, launching yet another barrage of blows. "It would be over soon," he hissed. True to his word, Sebastian's remaining strength finally buckled; his hand stopped moving and hung limply at his side, no longer able to contend with the crushing force of Diego's final strike.
Sebastian was finally wide open before him, with neither hands nor blades to counter any of Diego's impending blows. Diego paused for a brief moment to exhale a soft breath, savoring the anticipation of reaping the life of such a worthy contender. This hesitation lasted only a heartbeat before he raised a single limb from the many he wielded. In a display of cold, calculated restraint, he refrained from igniting his ethereal limbs of raw energy or positioning his original hands for a deceptive feint, choosing instead a singular, honest strike to end the struggle. He sought not the flair of a strategist, but the visceral satisfaction of a direct, final contact against his defenseless foe.
Instead, as he glanced at the beaten and weakened figure before him, certain Sebastian had no surprises left in his wake and knowing the weakened death knight could not counter or evade the strike, Diego aimed his raised palm straight at Sebastian's defeated form. With a roar of predatory triumph, his hand surged forward, brimming with chaotic, volatile energy and propelled by incredible speed, as he sought to extinguish the last flickering embers of Sebastian's life by driving the force directly into his opponent's chest.
Though soul beings like Sebastian, as well as the majority of Skeleton Knights and Death Knights, possessed no physical hearts or anatomical vulnerabilities concealed behind their ribs and bony visages, Diego still aimed for his sternum. He did so not out of a naive hope to end Sebastian instantly, but to systematically dismantle him; by striking the nodes which the energy coursing through his body formed, he intended to shatter the spectral nodes of energy, severing the ethereal energy pathways that tethered the soul to the limbs and scattering the structured mental control the death knight commanded. He wanted to subject Sebastian to such unbearable, soul-searing agony that the knight would eventually crave nothing more than the cold embrace of the void, praying for his own absolute annihilation long before Diego finally saw fit to grant that fervent, desperate wish.
However, as Diego's hand streaked coldly forward, a blue radiance encircled the pale skin of his palm. His strike moved with increasing, lethal speed toward Sebastian's weakened posture, aiming true to its mark. Yet, before Diego could crush his opponent and shatter his ribs—an act intended to sever Sebastian's energy pathways and turn them into conduits leading toward a closed void, wasting the vital essence within them—Sebastian's bleak eyes suddenly brimmed with life once again.
He looked like a battered zombie that refused to die, his face contorting into the jagged grin of a clown who found his own impending doom quite amusing. Even as the air crackled with the proximity of Diego's killing blow, Sebastian leaned into the shimmering cold, his voice trembling with a chilling, desperate levity as he said with a wistful expression:
[Please, spare me and I would take you to Maru.]
Hearing that didn't stop Diego from bashing his fists straight into his target; instead, he relentlessly crushed, shattered, dismembered, and mangled every inch of Sebastian's frame. He rained down a localized storm of violence, fueled by a primal, rhythmic fury that refused to abate even as his knuckles split and his breathing turned into a jagged snarl. He channeled every ounce of his boiling resentment into each strike, aiming countless heavy blows into Sebastian's torso until the man's already weakened condition reached a critical breaking point. Diego only finally ceased his assault after delivering ten more punishing, bone-deep strikes, leaving Sebastian suspended in the unique, hazy state of fluttering consciousness.