"Ahh"
Father, Mother...
Did you ever imagine your son would end up coughing up this much blood?
If you were here right now,
I wonder ... what kind of expressions would you show me?
Would you grieve for me?
Would you cry for me?
I was suffering.
I was terrified.
"I'm afraid.."
The fact I could still laugh even after all the beating I'd taken ..
it revealed just how much I had changed from the person I once was.
Father, Mother, if you could see me now...
Would you even recognize me as your son?
Even I no longer clearly remember the man I was two years ago.
What I had become wasn't that foolish writer who once penned some dumb novel,
nor was I truly Frey Starlight.
I was merely a third existence, lost on a path with no return.
I stood once more, stepping toward Snow,
leaving bloody footprints behind me.
There were too many things weighing on my mind.
Far too many.
But the one thing I knew for certain ..
was that I missed them.
So much that it felt like my soul was being torn apart, every single day.
"Snow Lionheart... you have no idea how much I envy you."
My perfect self ...
The version of me that could fight no matter the circumstances,
stand back up no matter how hard life crushed him.
You ..
The hero who embodied everything I once wished to become.
"I can never be like you."
I had already made a vow to myself.
If I lost here, I would kill myself immediately.
Suicide sounded almost too easy for the person I was now.
There was no turning back anymore.
That bridge had long been burned—
It was victory or death.
Snow didn't understand a single word I said.
"What the hell are you rambling about?"
Maybe he thought I'd gone mad from all the beating.
But my mind was sharper than ever,
with Ascension forcing me to maintain my sanity, to endure.
I lunged at Snow Lionheart with my sword, shrouded in darkness aura.
I couldn't win like this.
I didn't have enough.
I didn't even know what exactly I was trying to do anymore.
But I decided to throw everything aside ...
to focus solely on that one piece of advice the system had given me.
To attempt reaching a strength I didn't yet understand.
"Look into the mirror, and understand the reflection."
"You are my reflection, Snow."
I looked at him.
Our swords clashed instantly, locking us into a fierce, relentless exchange,
the sound of steel clashing filling the air.
Every blow pushed my battered body further beyond its limits.
But I had made my decision.
I would solve this mystery ...
The enigma called Snow Lionheart ..
or I would die trying !!
Boom!
Boom!
BOOM!
From every clash of swords, blood spilled.
Snow Lionheart frowned in confusion as he saw his opponent completely change his fighting style.
He flung me away once.
Then twice.
Then three times.
Yet I still swung my sword again, my eyes wide open, locked solely onto him.
"Snow…"
Snow Lionheart…
"I can't see anything in this world."
Everything was swallowed in blackness.
"In all that darkness… you're the only thing I see."
You are everything I see.
Snow...
"Snow!!!"
Snow Lionheart's eyes widened as his opponent revealed a completely different style of combat while fending him off.
My defense had grown fragile.
My attacks became utterly chaotic.
Blow after blow landed harder, and harder.
Snow continued to spill my blood.
"What are you trying to achieve with this?! Frey Starlight?!"
Slash!!
With a swift strike, I felt his sword pierce deep into my abdomen, causing my intestines to spill out.
With my right hand, I grabbed those guts, forcing them back into place, clutching the wound tight, while swinging my sword with my left.
"Get back inside, damn it!"
The pain was on a level of its own.
My bloodied vision…
That searing agony…
Even with Ascension activated, it barely kept me sane.
In that miserable state, I continued attacking, staring at Snow with wild, unblinking eyes, making me look like a madman.
At some point, I could no longer hear anything.
There was only Snow, dancing with me in the darkness.
I wondered .. how was I still conscious?
One hand holding my gut, the other wielding my blade.
Still trapped in a whirlwind of swords against Snow.
So many emotions flooded through me.
Among them... nostalgia.
And a familiar feeling.
Something kept me from falling.
Something pushed me forward.
I remembered those moments when the statues dragged me deep inside the Shadows sect .
How I stayed conscious even when all I wished for was death.
I felt submerged .. my body moved on its own.
Maybe it was because my opponent was Snow Lionheart.
That extension of myself, the one I knew everything about.
Every movement.
Every breath.
Every glance.
I knew it all about that man.
The more I focused on him, the farther away my body drifted...
BOOOM!
BOOOOM!!!
Our swords clashed, faster and faster.
Snow Lionheart unleashed his full strength, desperate not to remain trapped in such a maddening battle.
But I endured.
Everyone watched, disbelieving what was unfolding before their eyes.
Shrouded in swirling darkness, I felt my head burning.
We were still there—Snow and I, locked in the abyss.
But his strikes…
His patterns…
Somehow… they became crystal clear to me.
Everyone saw it ..
When I no longer merely blocked Snow's attacks, but began to counter them too.
Wielding my sword with just a single hand…
In that thick darkness, I barely caught a glimpse ..
I barely heard it ...
The laughter, the screaming, the roaring cries ..
Seven dark figures danced wildly around us.
They shrieked with abandon, they laughed uncontrollably, they spun around me in pure joy.
Perhaps it was because my opponent was Snow, of all people, that I was able to achieve something I had never reached against anyone else.
Because I knew everything about that young man who was, in a way, an extension of myself...
I was able to reach it ...the level required for it.
My sword became faster, stronger.
With a bloody smile, I howled along with them as my body danced .
Above the system screen, the display flickered, burning in new letters, engraving something unprecedented:
Shadow Adaptation: 1/7
Core Attribute: Darkness ››› Shadow
Darkness slowly engulfed all the elements my opponent had unleashed.
My body launched counterattacks against his abilities as my shadow vanished from the ground.
I felt my strength double, with my own shadow reinforcing my battered body.
My senses sharpened to an unbelievable degree.
I could see it now ...so clearly.
I laughed maniacally.
"I can see it, you bastards!!!"
The black flame atop my sword dimmed, transforming into something closer to a shadow ... just a faint, dark sheen on the blade's surface.
It looked simple... yet it held overwhelming strength and speed.
"Faster!"
I had to strike faster!
The crowd watched in awe as I fought Snow amidst the swirling flames, both of us moving so closely it was as if we were fused together.
Snow Lionheart stared at me in disbelief.
And who could blame him?
His opponent .. who had been utterly overwhelmed just moments ago .. was now fighting him evenly.
Every move he made, it was as if I had foreseen it, responding with perfect counters.
We exchanged thousands of blows ..every single one parried perfectly.
Logic had long since abandoned the battlefield.
And after countless exchanges of blood and steel..
For the first time, blood splattered.
Real blood.
Snow retreated with a void Step, his hand instinctively reaching for the shallow wound on his shoulder.
A simple cut... but I had hit him.
Though the Vermithor within him had already begun healing the injury, but the blood staining his palm was undeniable.
With an unmatched smile, Snow's aura exploded in dazzling colors as he looked at me.
"You really did it, Frey Starlight!"
Even I didn't fully understand what was happening anymore.
Caught up in a wave of pure hysteria, I screamed at him:
"Come at me, Snow Lionheart! Let's keep fighting!"