This conceptual battle had now continued for nine years. From the very beginning, it had been fought in complete silence. Neither side had spoken a single word since the moment they first met, and nothing had broken that silence except the clash of sword against twin sickles.
Sophia had no need for words to express her intent. Her blade translated every thought into streaks of crimson slaughter. The same was true for the Lone Death Wolf. His twin sickles whispered in the silent language of death itself, every movement carrying the same declaration: this encounter would end only when one of them had been erased forever.
For that reason, Sophia had been the first to draw the Lone Death Wolf toward the outer edges of the Outer Continent. She had no desire for their devastating battle to affect the living beings of this world, especially humanity. She knew that any single strike from either of them possessed enough power to erase an entire planet. Thus, she chose the desolate lands surrounding the Forbidden Region as their battlefield, hoping that the destruction would remain confined to those barren territories where no life dwelled.
Even so, she knew such a wish could never be fully realized. As for the Lone Death Wolf, he despised life itself and cared nothing if every living creature upon the continent perished. On the contrary, the supreme purpose of his Path was to bring death to all that lived. Yet despite that, he had no objection to following her choice. Still, no matter how determined Sophia was to protect the innocent, she understood with absolute certainty that casualties would inevitably result from a battle of this scale.
Then, after nine years since the beginning of their confrontation, the scene that dominated the skies of the Inner World suddenly changed. The crimson aura that had ruled much of the heavens began to fade, allowing the black aura to spread and swell ever further.
As for Sophia, she stood at that decisive moment within the remnants of her eroding crimson aura, facing the Lone Death Wolf as he hovered before her. Slowly, her crimson aura began collapsing inward upon itself. Worse still, the opposing black aura continued to expand and advance toward her, as though death itself were stretching out its arms to embrace her.
In that scene, where crimson dissolved while the tide of black darkness advanced relentlessly, Sophia slowly closed her eyes. She tightened her grip around the hilt of her katana until the veins stood out across her pale hands. And for the very first time since this long battle had begun, signs of weakness and collapse began to appear on one side of the conflict.
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