My Regalia freed me from the chains of all laws, while the mark within me burned.
It burned with relentless will, the raw force that kept me standing against impossible odds.
Together, they forged a path to victory against any foe.
Yet, as our blades met again and again, I no longer cared for anything beyond the clash itself.
The world fell away; only the battle remained.
Our inner worlds collided in tandem with steel, chaos meeting chaos in a fury beyond understanding.
My heart faltered with each strike, weak and failing, but Uhana clung to me like a lifeline.
Her Regalia pulsed desperately against my chest, beating life into my broken form with every frantic pulse.
She poured her very essence into me, a sacred river of energy sustaining the dying ember of my spirit.
In return, I fed what little remained of my life force into my sword, imbuing it with every shred of power I could summon.
Now, the fight was no longer about strength or magic, it was a battle of will, skill, and the sheer force of survival.
His power lay shattered, his realm torn apart by my hand.
I was but a hollow shell, fragile and fading, yet like a wounded bird stubbornly beating its wings against the storm, I refused to fall.
Even as the battle slipped from my grasp, I sought meaning in the unyielding clash of our powers, a fragile hope amid the chaos.
His blade swung with deadly precision, aimed to pierce my heart.
However at the last moment, towering pillars of wood erupted from the ground, shielding me with a divine resilience.
I leapt backward, laying Uhana gently across my legs, the cold bite of his blade grazing my chest.
Sliding back on the ice, I kicked upward, and Uhana spun around me with fierce grace.
Her arms steady on my shoulders as our blades met once more in a deadly dance.
I was thrown back violently, but she caught me, our bond the fragile thread keeping us tethered in this desperate struggle.
Then, defying all limits of space and time, I lunged forward, pushing beyond every boundary my body and soul could bear.
My blade pierced his chest, a sudden surge of life energy bursting forth like a dying star's last blaze.
It unraveled the very fabric of his being until his chest became hollow and translucent, nearly nothing but a fragile echo of what was once there.
In that moment of fragile triumph, clarity struck me, the barrier he wielded nullified all that was bound by space and time.
But it was not absolute.
I could erase the barrier itself. I could shatter the laws that held us, though it would cost everything I had left.
A sudden, searing pain tore through my gut, sharp and unforgiving. Uhana gripped me tighter, her presence a faint anchor.
He moved faster than thought, beyond the grasp of time itself, a cruel smile twisting his face. "Nothing lasts forever."
Over and over, his blade pierced me, simultaneous and eternal, a torment with no beginning, no end.
Uhana's grip faltered, her strength waning as the relentless assault drained us both.
I could not risk losing the precious memories I carried, the last vestiges of my life and purpose.
With all the strength I had left, I poured my memories into her, silent words, unspoken prayers, while dodging became slower, clumsier.
Yet, through the haze of pain and fading light, I smiled when I felt her finally release me.
"Don't fail, my queen," I whispered, my voice barely audible.
Zehliah's blade shattered mine like glass and slashed across my chest, tearing soul and flesh as one.
Uhana's teeth clenched in fierce determination. "I won't."
He lunged at her next, but that was his final mistake.
This world, this cruel, unyielding world, was bound by laws and rules, ancient truths.
I had studied in silence, hidden knowledge whispered through the shadows of the Silent Court.
I had clung to those secrets for so long, hoping they would save me, hoping they would grant me freedom.
But now, none of it mattered. I had transcended knowledge. I had transcended fear.
All that remained was a raw, burning resolve, a desperate willingness to give everything, to sacrifice everything, for a single, final act of defiance.
I poured every ounce of my being into that moment.
Every fragment of my power, my life, my very nature poured out like a river rushing toward the end.
"I'm sorry, Ormuth," I whispered, my voice trembling. "I could not free you in the end."
Uhana's eyes met mine, wide and filled with a desperate plea.
Her scream tore through the silence like a shard of broken glass. "Rosen, don't!"
I met her scream not with fear, but with a serene smile, the calm acceptance of a man who has given all he can, who is finally ready to surrender to fate.
Time itself seemed to shatter.
Every motion froze. Every breath hung suspended.
Every heartbeat stopped, trapped in an endless, agonizing stillness as the world slipped into a void so silent it screamed.
From that infinite silence, an unbreakable prison of pure infons exploded into being, cold, eternal chains binding Zehliah and me alike.
Within that prison, I unleashed a destruction beyond reckoning, a complete, utter annihilation that erased everything.
Body, soul, and even the faintest whisper of memory.
And in that final, hollow moment, I became nothing but a fading echo in the endless dark.
***
[Uhana Vernasta.]
Tears began to fall involuntarily, endless, impossibly endless, as if my soul itself had cracked open and spilled forth everything it had held inside.
I could not see. Not his face, not the arrogance mingled with an almost strange modesty in his smile. Not even the color of his eyes.
No, it was far worse than blindness.
It was as if I could no longer remember him at all.
That was it. He had erased the last memory I held of him.
That bastard, in all his pitiful, shattered glory, had stolen the one thing I clung to, the only fragment that tethered him to my heart.
Was it mercy? Or pride? Or perhaps he was too greedy, too selfish, wanting to be mourned alone, leaving me nothing to hold onto.
It was utterly disgusting, this final, cruel act, wiping away even the faintest trace of him from my mind, erasing his existence like a whisper fading into silence.
In my hands, his sword appeared suddenly, polished and refined, glowing with a sorrowful, almost sacred light.
Then, from deep within me, wings erupted, a fierce and aching burst of pain and longing.
They screamed and cried, heavy with the weight of his soul and my own shattered hope.
His thoughts, his memories, his emotions flooded into me like a tidal wave.
I understood the world he believed in, the truth he fought to protect.
All I could do was weep, bitter, helpless tears for what was lost and what could never be again.
"This was your plan?" I whispered, voice trembling, "To try and live on by giving me your power?"
My lips moved, though I fought against them as if my own body had betrayed me.
Ancient words spilled out, words that seemed to have waited for this moment through endless time.
"Rosen… you're dead."
The truth exploded inside me, shaking every fiber of my body, mind, and soul. It crashed through denial and grief until I finally accepted it.
And with that acceptance, the cries stopped, fell silent like a dying storm.
How cruel, how terrible of me, it seemed I could not even mourn his death.
Perhaps I was less than human after all.
I rose slowly to my feet as the wings that had torn from my back began to fade away, their cries dimming into quiet embers.
From the ashes of that loss, something new was born, something both powerful and unwelcome.
How annoying.