Divinity

--- [Shin’s perspective]

He crossed the line…

He killed one of my dear friends…

He’s irredeemable; he’s just like all the other scum that deserves to be eradicated.

His existence is actively making the world a worse place, I can’t allow him to live any longer.

His story ends today.

An ice sword appears in each of my hands, I’m ready to fight…

“Ooh! So you duel wield… Interesting.” – Edward

I dash towards him and swing with both swords in the same direction, but he blocks them with his own.

I push as hard as I can, but he’s not budging.

His sword isn’t freezing either!

Why not?!

“Huh… Your swords aren’t withering away… Strange.” – Edward

Could it be that…?

“Could it be that your ice is counteracting my darkness?” – Edward

“And your darkness is counteracting my ice…” – Shin

“What a strange interaction… But no worries, this means our swords abilities won’t be the deciding factor of this battle. Strength, speed, and technique will. Good thing I’m quite confident in all those areas.” – Edward

As he finishes his sentence, he gives a good push and launches my attack away.

He immediately follows up with an attack of his own.

It’s fast!

Too fast to dodge.

I have no choice but to block.

I slam both of my swords into his as hard as I can, but it’s barely slowing down.

He follows through with his swing, and I get launched across the room.

Darkness traced his swing, leaving a streak of dark clouds behind.

That’s the stuff Alex absorbed when we first got to Phasma.

I should avoid it at all costs.

His sword is passively radiating small amounts of darkness too.

When our swords clashed, that small amount was enough to cancel out my freezing.

I don’t want to know what would happen if I were to touch the real deal…

Or…

Do I…?

I’m curious; how destructive is it really?

Of course, touching it would obviously be a bad idea, but…

What about my sword?

Creating ice swords drain a decent amount of my stamina, but I haven’t used them that much today.

It shouldn’t be an issue if I sacrifice one for the sake of information.

Information is the key to winning after all…

Without thinking about it for any longer, I chuck one of the swords at the cloudy darkness.

The part of the sword that touched the darkness is instantly disintegrated; it happened in an instant too…

The pieces of the sword that didn’t touch it fall to the ground and shortly after, disappear; I no longer had any reason to use my stamina to maintain them.

“Experimenting now, are we? Did you figure anything out?” – Edward

“Yes. Your specialty is as destructive as your influence on the world.” – Shin

“Ouch…” – Edward

So my initial assessment was correct…

Avoid the darkness at all costs.

“Well, experiment all you want. In the end, it won’t matter. I, the sin of wrath, will not lose to someone like you. Not when Alice’s life is on the line…” – Edward

They’re all so cocky…

Why does no one ever think they’re able to lose?

No one…

Not ever.

Well…

I guess I’m not much better myself.

Although there is a big difference between me and him.

I’m right.

If I use that, then he will lose.

There’s no doubt about that.

But…

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that…

“Well then, I guess it’s my time to go on the offensive.” – Edward

Without wasting any time, he immediately rushes towards me.

He thrusts his sword forward at maximum speed.

If it wasn’t for the distance between us, I might not have been able to get away from it in time.

I hurry up and make a new ice sword before he can continue his attack.

He swings his sword to the side, but I jump back just in the nick of time.

Instead of yet again rushing towards me, he slows down his pace.

He slowly walks towards me while wildly swinging his sword around.

The darkness is spreading to every corner of the corridor.

It’s impossible for me to get to Alex now, there’s a thick wall of darkness between us.

Edward himself seems to not be affected by it, he just walks through it like its air.

Is he trying to cut off my escape paths…?

If I have nowhere to go, it certainly won’t be easy to dodge…

He’s stronger than me too, so overpowering him won’t be an easy task either.

He’s not as dumb as he looks…

“You see? Do you finally understand why can’t beat me? If I hit you, you die. If you dodge, then there will only be more darkness for you to avoid in the future. I’m filling up the room, soon you’ll be forced to fight me head-on, and we both know that won’t end well for you… This will be my final time telling you this… Give up.” – Edward

“Fine…” – Shin

“Huh…? I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t expect you to actually give up… Well then, I gues-” – Edward

“I’m not giving up on the fight, you damn brute. I’m giving up on holding back…” – Shin

“Holding back? If you’ve got more to show me, then be my guest. It won’t make a difference.” – Edward

The first time I used my specialty was in my fight against Fei in the E-rank exam.

I subconsciously created an ice sword, just when I was about to lose…

Not long after, we started training to learn SDM for real.

During my training I figured something out…

I was wrong about my specialty; it is not creating ice swords…

It’s creating elemental swords…!

It happened one day when I was on the brink of passing out from exhaustion, just like what happened during the exam.

Instead of creating a regular ice sword, I created a fire sword…!

I was shocked, but the shock didn’t last long…

As soon as I made it, I passed out.

When I woke up, it was three days later…

Since then, I’ve been training hard to increase my stamina so that I can use it in real combat.

Right now, I’m at the point where I can stay awake after creating a fire sword, but that’s just if that’s the only thing I’ve done that day…

That is not the case right now…

I’ll be able to maintain it for maybe a minute at most, after that I will pass out.

That’s why I didn’t want to use it; I won’t be able to help the others anymore if I do.

But…

There doesn’t seem to be any other option.

This will be my final contribution in this battle!

I throw away my ice swords and before they hit the ground, they vanish into thin air.

“You’re not gonna use your swords? Hmm…” – Edward

Unlike my ice swords, it doesn’t instantly appear.

The fire sword slowly forms itself in my hands.

I’m barely able to make one of them, let alone two…

I guess I’ll wield it with both hands.

I can feel the heat on my skin, but it doesn’t hurt.

Just like Edward and his darkness, I seem to have natural immunity to my fire.

The same applies to my ice swords.

It would be very hard to use if I wasn’t…

“Interesting… You can make swords of different elements. Well then, let’s see if it makes a difference or not!” – Edward

I lift the fully formed fire sword high into air, and swing it down towards him at full speed.

He quickly tried to block with his own sword; a clash of strength is where he has the advantage after all.

But to his surprise, his efforts were futile.

The fire passed right through his sword, rendering his block completely useless.

“What the…!” – Edward

He didn’t have any time to get away, the sword was too close.

The fire passed through him, scorching his entire body.

His hair burned, his skin charred, and his insides melted.

After a fight between swordsmen, you would think the loser would be covered in cuts.

Yet, he had none…

Nevertheless, he was dead.

The fire passed through his body, instantly killing him.

One slash was all it took…

His darkness disappears, clearing the hallway.

I try to make it back to Alex, but…

But…

Ahh…

My head is spinning…

I guess I won’t make it…

It’s all up to you now, Alex!