“Purging left leg,” Luxion said.
“You jerk! Now you’ve done it!”
Veins pulsed on the surface of Brave’s skin.
“Did Brave take some of that performance enhancer too?!” I asked, giving Luxion a brief, questioning glance.
“No,” he said. “But a Demonic Suit and its pilot are linked, so the effect bleeds over to him.”
The two really were pushing themselves to give this fight everything they had. Finn in particular was intensely focused on me, which gave me an idea. I glanced at the reactor.
“Well, that explains it, then,” I said, turning back to Finn. “I hate to break this to you, Finn, but you pushed yourself too far.”
He charged after me, blind to everything around him thanks to the drug he’d taken. “Leon, I’m ending this now!” His longsword shone, electricity shimmering along its sharp edges. It grew several times in length; it would be nearly impossible to avoid at this point. Brandishing it, Brave charged toward me.
“Fire whatever you’ve got at him!” I shouted at Luxion.
“Understood!”
As Finn gave chase, I darted through the air, firing lasers at him. We accelerated so quickly that everything around us was a blur of color. We were circling the reactor itself. If not for the performance enhancer, I never could’ve matched Finn’s current speed. Wherever I went, he followed me doggedly.
“Finn, I want you to know you were way stronger than me,” I told him.
Yes, were stronger—past tense. The ending of this was a foregone conclusion. His mistake had been ever turning to a drug to enhance his strength.
When Finn finally trapped me in a corner, I had my back to a particular structure in the room. Finn raised his electrically charged blade and swung without hesitation, intending to take my life with this last attack.
“This is the end for you!” he howled.
“Partner, you can’t!” Brave cried. He’d realized the truth before Finn could, but it was already too late.
Finn tried to stop himself but couldn’t halt his momentum. “No! Damn!” His blade pierced the structure behind me. He immediately tried to pull it free, but he couldn’t. I grabbed his arm and yanked him closer, forcing the sword deeper.
“Finn,” I said, “your mistake was not testing the drug beforehand to take stock of its effects on your body. It made you too shortsighted!”
The drug had strengthened him, to be sure. Still, if he’d tested it before this fight and realized its drawbacks, he’d either have given up on ever using it, or Brave would’ve stopped him. The enhancer had caused him to ignore the thing he was really trying to protect. He’d been so focused on me that he hadn’t spared a second thought for anything else around him. Worse, the effects had bled over to Brave, delaying his ability to realize what was happening.
The structure Finn had pierced was the very pillar housing the reactor, and heat from his sword had transferred into the reactor itself. Cracks appeared on its surface and rippled outward. A strange sound almost like a wail pierced the air.
“Master, we have not finished destroying the reactor,” said Luxion.
Finn was frozen in place, dumbfounded. I shoved him away, hefted my greatsword, and buried it deep in the reactor.
“Now do it!”
“Very well!”
A shock wave traveled from Arroganz’s hands through the sword and into the reactor itself, triggering a small explosion within.
“More!” I demanded.
“Your adamantius sword won’t be able to withstand it. I am not sure Arroganz can either,” he said.
“Do it anyway! If we destroy this blasted thing, I don’t care if it breaks us!”
“As you command!” Luxion answered, despite his obvious reluctance.
His fears weren’t unfounded. After the next shock wave, fire consumed Arroganz’s right arm, and the greatsword shattered to pieces.
But we succeeded.
The pillar’s interior expanded. The whole structure began to fissure, bleeding countless red particles into the atmosphere. The air surged around us, blasting us backward.
Then the reactor started to melt. There was so much crimson in the air that it blotted out our view.
“What’s going on?!” I asked.
“The reactor has been destroyed,” Luxion explained. “Its contents are now melting. It’s too dangerous to remain here!”
“Then we need to hurry up and get out of—ngh!” My hand flew to my mouth. I began coughing and sputtering, and blood gushed past my lips.
“Master! The neutralizer!”
Not even ten minutes had passed since I took the enhancer. I should still have several more minutes to go, but my body had already reached its limit.
“Ha ha,” I chuckled weakly. “I should’ve trained more before now.”
“I request permission to administer the neutralizer!” Luxion said.
I shook my head. “Sorry to break it to you, Luxion…but that’s off the table.” I reached for the controls, dodging just in time to avoid a swipe of Brave’s longsword.
Liquid almost like tears poured from Brave’s eyes. “How dare you?” Finn’s scratchy voice rang out. “How dare you…? How dare you steal Mia’s future?!”
“I’ve won,” I told him plainly, without malice or ill intent.
“Graaah!” Screaming at the top of his lungs, he charged at me. I sped away from him, guiding Arroganz upward.
“Arroganz’s right arm is immobile,” Luxion reported. “Its left is usable, but the device used to produce the shock wave attack was burned too severely to remain functional. We cannot continue fighting, Master. Please give me permission to administer the neutralizer!”
“Not yet!”
Schwert shot forth lasers to carve a hole in the ceiling, which we quickly burst through.
“Are we outside now?!”
“Yes, and Arcadia’s energy output is decreasing. The fortress is beginning to sink!”
Fire exploded through the hole behind us, Brave’s charred form rushing out to follow us.
“Thank you for everything, Schwert,” I said.
Luxion instantly realized what I was planning. He released Schwert from Arroganz, sending it toward Finn. “I have purged Schwert and am controlling it remotely,” he reported.
Schwert accelerated straight toward Brave, puncturing his abdomen. The force propelled Brave through the air with an echoing scream. “Damn yoooou!” Schwert had sunk deep into his chest; there was no way the pilot could’ve survived. Finn must have died instantly upon impact.
Brave collapsed onto Arcadia’s deck, rolling a few times before coming to a stop. He didn’t move after that. I guided Arroganz close to him, although it was difficult to pilot with one leg missing.
“Master, we have already exceeded ten minutes,” Luxion reminded me. “We must administer the neutralizer!”
My hand flew to my mouth. Blood burst past my lips before I could stop it, gushing out in a seemingly endless stream.
“Master!” Luxion cried.
“D-don’t panic. Just hurry up…with the neutralizer…”
✦ ✦ ✦
We approached Brave, but Finn didn’t say anything. Tears poured from Brave’s crimson eyes.
“Are you going to continue fighting?” Luxion asked on my behalf.
“There’s no point. Not without my partner,” Brave said. His body was starting to crumble. “Leon, I’ve got a message for you from my partner. He told me…that he wouldn’t resent you for killing him. Said he’d have done the same.”
“Did he…really?” I rasped, finding it difficult to speak at all. “Sounds…like him.” Luxion had administered the neutralizer already, but none of the pain had subsided.
Brave could no longer sustain his form. Pieces of him began to dissolve into dust.
“It’s a little too soon to act relieved,” he said. “You’ve still got Arcadia’s core left to beat. I hate his guts, to be honest. But that aside…”
He pointed at his longsword; it protruded from the deck, its blade having sunk into the fortress’s outer plating. As I reached for it and ripped it free, Brave watched me and smiled.
“Sorry, Partner,” he mumbled. The pitch-black color drained from his body, giving him an ashen hue before his frame disintegrated and was carried away by the wind. Nothing was left behind, not even Finn’s corpse.
“Finn…” My eyes burned with tears as I spoke the name of the very friend I had personally killed.
“Master, it’s not over yet,” Luxion said. “If what Brave said was true, we will have to contend with Arcadia’s core. He should not be able to restore the fortress itself, but we still ought to prioritize dispatching him. We also need to alert our allies to our success.”
He was right. If we got rid of Arcadia’s core, victory would be ours.
I wiped bloody tears from my face and took a deep breath, preparing myself for the fight that remained. “You’re right,” I told Luxion. “Let’s get this over with quickly.”
While I was preoccupied with my own thoughts, the crimson particles that leaked out of the hole behind me seemed to flow off in a particular direction, as if something was attracting them. It wasn’t the wind carrying them away, as I might’ve expected.
Luxion noticed it too. “Something is absorbing all the demonic essence with alarming speed.”
Arroganz’s fingers squeezed tightly around the hilt of the longsword I had taken from Finn.
“Looks like our enemy doesn’t know when to give up,” I said.
The battle wasn’t over yet.