Chapter 270 Merciless Darkness

"Asher…?!" Melisande called out, feeling a frightening shift in mana signature give off from the man.

"...Melisande!" Asher yelled out.

"Huh? What is it…?" Melisande responded from a distance, staying by the unconscious Dragonheart's side still.

Standing amidst the geyser of demonic energy, rippling and fuming with a burning power, Asher groaned in pain as the skewers within his armor continued penetrating his body.

"When Emilio wakes up, I need you to tell him something for me…when this is all over," Asher said, grunting through the agony.

"Why don't you tell him yourself?...Asher?" Melisande asked worriedly.

"I won't be able to…" Asher huffed, barely able to speak, "...There was no other choice."

"But–"

"Listen to me, Melisande!" Asher yelled out as his voice echoed, carried by the distortion of mana leaking from him.

There was no longer any room for doubt from the silver-haired girl, having to listen to what seemed to be the final request of the Devilheart. Melisande gave a slow nod, forcing herself to accept what was coming.

"...Good. Tell him to look for a man named 'Excelsor' in Ennage…He'll find the answers to his questions there," Asher told her, "Do you got that?"

Melisande nodded again, "Asher, please–"

"It's too late for bargaining. What's done is…done," Asher breathed out.

The clamping of the impalements within the armor sounded out again with a gut-wrenching mixture of bone crunching and flesh being ripped into, nearly causing Asher to collapse onto his knees before he caught himself in an unorthodox way.

"...I'll end this renewed life now…" Asher whispered to himself.

My second life here was more than I could've ever dreamed of…I am fulfilled. I couldn't ask for more–after all, I was supposed to die two decades ago. I got to experience more than I was ever going to. This time, I chose my own destiny. I forged my own path; there was no god in the sky dictating my life–I chose how to die, Asher thought, this was my own choice–I would make it again, each and every time.

Briefly, with his fading vision, Asher looked at the slumbering Dragonheart, feeling an unspoken bond that ran deep between two reincarnaters.

Emilio Dragonheart, you left a life behind to come here, too, Asher thought, I don't know your circumstances, however…I know that ahead of you is a life of both turmoil and glory. Happiness cannot be made in this world without obstacles.

"Fight on, Dragonheart."

–With those last words emitted from the lips of Asher, the armor plunged the final spikes into his body, finishing off the remaining life left within him.

"Beautiful. This is the kind of majestic sight I can appreciate–how lovely!" The Dread spread his arms.

The violent figure recognized immediately what the true nature of Asher's final gambit was, though Melisande didn't quite figure it out as she looked towards the skull-helmed armor, to which there wasn't so much as a groan left escaping Asher's lips.

["The final stage of the 'Deal With The Devil' armor is one that can only be used once, and cannot be returned from. In the face of an impossible wall of death, Asher Devilheart chose this option as a last resort; the devilish armor took hold of his body from within, killing him and housing his corpse within the armor. However–this sacrifice has awakened the latent power within the Devilheart, now piloted by the armor even after leaving the mortal plante."]

As the Dread raised his hands, arrays of invisible slashes cut through the land, sweeping forward as the ground was split apart, though to the surprise of the primordial entity, the silent, corpse-bearing armor moved faster than the cuts could move.

Before the horrific entity could respond to the mad dash from the silent Devilheart, a slash came from that dastardly claymore, cutting across the Dread's chest with viciousness.

"--Ungh?!" The Dread reacted in surprise.

There was a considerable amount of speed and strength gained from Asher's sacrifice to his own armor as the silent remnants of his will flipped back as the Dread went for a retaliatory propulsion of a dark shock wave. It emitted outward, eradicating the sediment around him and cracking the wind, but still missing the Devilheart armor.

Not a single breath was taken by the now sentient armor as it flipped onto its feet, seamlessly executing a dash forward again to confront the Dread.

"Back."

The Dread pointed his hand forward, emitting a crushing wave of shadows that propelled against the Devilheart armor, repelling the aggressive assault, but only for a moment–

"--What?" The Dread looked around.

Even after being blasted back by the skin-melting darkness wielded by the entity, the Devilheart armor flipped around to regain momentum, using a fallen tree as footing before leaping back towards its enemy.

–

Amidst the clash, Melisande watched with her lips parted and trembling, knowing what the sight before her eyes meant, seeing the Devilheart, or more aptly, the remnants of the Devilheart's resolve, managing to push the Dread.

…He's gone. Asher is dead…Why? Melisande thought, This was the last day of the trial–just one more day, and he could've moved on. His entire life was ahead of him…so why?

"...Koff…!"

Causing the disheveled girl to jump slightly, she looked down at the young man whose hand she held, hearing him cough out for the first time. By the way Emilio's closed eyes seemed to move beneath his eyelids and his wincing, it appeared he was coming closer to waking up.

"Emilio…! Please, get up!" Melisande said.

Like a relentless bat out of hell, the Devilheart armor flung itself towards the Dread with a contortion of wind, wildly slashing the claymore around without any form or grace–simply seeking to annihilate the enemy before it.

Even as the Dread unleashed an array of thrashing tendrils of darkness that battered the armor, it pushed forth even as its material cracked, lunging through the broken soil and swiping its claymore forth–

"--You!" The Dread let out.

The edge of the Devilheart's claymore reached the shoulder of its enemy, digging in and leaving a bleeding gash.

Still, such attacks were only a small distance gained in a journey in the battle against the unstoppable Dread, who repelled the Devilheart armor with a barrage of shadowy slashes that slammed against its durable form.

"...How futile! Even after death, you choose to be a nuisance?!" The Dread boomed out, summoning a valley-shaking reservoir of darkness around itself.

It was like an immutable fortress of death that encompassed the Dread, surrounding its torn vessel as even in its wounded state, the malevolent entity remained as terrifying as ever.

["There was one truth that each combatant began to realize about the Dread. A factor that changed the entire tide of the battle, for better or worse: the power wielded by the Dread was heavily restrained, all in order to keep its vessel from breaking down any further."]

However–

In a fit of flaming rage, burning like the everlasting embers at the lowest depths of hell, the Dread howled out before beams of darkness condensed, shooting out into nefarious arrays across the valley. Sputtering out, they wiped through the land, sweeping by in an attempt to catch the nimble Devilheart, who used a propulsion of the devil force at his feet to move forth.

"Ghh…!" Melisande kept her head down, leaning over Emilio to shield him as the dark beams swept overhead.

Yuna did the same, dropping down beside the knocked-out bumpkin as the colossal rays of destruction flung around the air.

The armor, moving as the last resolve of Asher, embodied the memories and skills used by the man, even borrowing skills witnessed before as it flew forward, soon reaching the Dread before–

BOOM

A movement of the Dread's finger summoned a massive slice of darkness born from the threads of nothingness in the space in front of it, combatting the sword strike unleashed by the Devilheart armor.

Darkness clashed against darkness in an everlasting collision of violence.

Even though the battle seemed to be of equally cataclysmic powers, it was clear that the Dread held the advantage as the more and more they clashed, the Dread gained the upper hand on the Devilheart armor, repelling it with massive unleashings of darkness.

"...It won't last much longer!" Melisande witnessed before looking down at the young Dragonheart, "Emilio, please…I know it's asking a lot, but you have to wake up!"

Everything was crumbling away; the valley was shattered again and again by the reckless displays of power, mostly stemming from the Dread itself as it howled out, lobbing spheres of darkness into looming mountains, decimating them and causing avalanches of stone.

"You're through."

–After managing to hold the entity at bay for a commendable amount of time, the bleak moment came to pass as the Dread shattered the Devilheart armor's defenses, catching it off-guard as he sliced through the demonic exterior.

"No–!!!" Melisande screamed.

Though the death of Asher had already long since come as what was within the armor was nothing more than a hole-ridden corpse, cut through brutally by the Dread's sword of the void.

A single exhale left the Dread's lips as the blood-soaked entity looked down at the split armor of the Devilheart, watching as a hand reached out for the claymore before–

"Die."