Destined Battle Part 2

“Let’s do it!” I exclaimed.

When the great tree Mildfir’s consciousness heard my answer, it smiled and nodded, extending its hand toward me.

“Then I entrust it to you, hero.”

I shook its hand firmly, and suddenly the consciousness began to glow so intensely that I had to close my eyes so as not to go blind. All the darkness around me was replaced by a blinding light, and before I knew it, I was back in the throne room. I was still on the ground being trampled by Darkahia with Liz screaming in the background, but something was different. It didn’t hurt anymore.

A light started to wrap around me and then I grabbed the demon’s foot with force and pushed him, bewildering him and sending him flying. From the surprise, he couldn’t recover in midair and fell straight to the floor.

“What the hell!?” he exclaimed, confusion in his voice as he tried to get up.

The pain in my body had vanished; I felt much lighter, but also stronger. My body overflowed with so much energy that it radiated a brilliant white aura. So this was my true power, huh?

“That power… It’s the power of the great tree Mildfir!” the demon shouted.

Both Liz and Ena looked at me in surprise, but also with eyes full of hope. It was time to end this once and for all.

“Liz! Get ready!” I shouted.

“Eh!? Ah! Yes!” she replied, understanding what I meant.

Right at that moment, I propelled myself like before, but now my strength and speed were such that I reached Darkahia in barely a second, and when I finally had him face to face, I paid him back in kind and slammed his head into the ground after a heavy blow to the stomach, then hurled him against another wall in the room. Despite his size and weight, lifting him posed no problem; my current strength really was impressive.

“Bastard!” Darkahia roared. “Don’t think you’ve won!”

When he finished his declaration, Darkahia began to emit a sinister aura of red and dark tones, and in no time his body started to grow; he became somewhat taller, his muscles swelled and his horns grew bigger too. That thing was truly monstrous.

As soon as he had the chance, the demon ran toward me trying to charge. His speed had increased tremendously despite how large his body had become, but I managed to dodge with a jump and prepared a powerful strike which he met with another of his own. Our fists collided with such force that they generated an explosive wave of mana. We were evenly matched.

We then began to attack in bursts of repeated blows. Our fists met, some landed on him, and others landed on me, but we didn’t stop, and taking advantage of an opening I deflected one of his attacks and hit his face directly with all my strength. Darkahia lost his balance from the impact, so I kept punching him in the abdomen, the face, grabbed his head and jumped to strike him with my knee. My attacks were very effective, but I let my guard down and in the blink of an eye the demon trapped me with his arms.

“Let’s see if you can escape this, hero…”

The demon began to crush me with his arms in a lethal embrace that could have split anyone else in two with ease. I managed to resist, but it was incredibly painful. It was then that I heard the voice of the great tree’s consciousness.

“Channel mana through your whole body and expel it,” it advised.

Following its instructions, I guided part of the mana I had to every corner of my body. My temperature began to rise, which Darkahia also noticed, but it was too late.

“Take this!” I shouted as an explosion of mana engulfed me, wounding the demon and freeing me.

Under normal circumstances it would have been difficult to perform such an attack, but it proved easy thanks to the almost infinite mana coursing through my body.

Darkahia then roared and great claws shot from his hands which he used to attack as he charged, but I evaded and seized that moment to strike his arm with great force, breaking it on the spot.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The demon’s scream was so loud it made the whole room tremble. He tried to attack me with his other arm, but I struck him on the chin to destabilize him, and using all the strength I had, I grabbed him and launched him upward. Darkahia slammed into the ceiling, but he didn’t just stay there; I used every ounce of my strength in that throw because my aim was for him to break through the roof and be taken outside, to the other battlefield.

Once he left his throne room, I propelled myself with all my might toward the hole in the roof and kicked him through the air toward the rubble of what had been the building they used as a cover.

“My lord!” the demon lackey cried out upon seeing him.

The other battlefield was in trouble. Although there were several demons dead around the place, the demon lackey still stood fighting while the group of adventurers, knights and what looked to be elves seemed quite depleted. I needed to help them, but I couldn’t neglect Darkahia for a moment.

The demon lackey, seeing his leader struggling to rise, flew quickly toward him to come to his aid, but that was his mistake. As soon as he set foot on the ground, and taking advantage of the fact that his entire attention was on his lord, a knight—who appeared to be the leader by his uniform similar to Captain Edran’s—stabbed him in the back, right in the heart.

“Never… turn your back on your enemies,” he murmured with anger and marked fatigue.

“M-maldi…to…” the demon lackey cursed, finally collapsing dead.

When his servant fell, Darkahia rose in fury and shouted again, but this time his roar caused everyone in the area to kneel. It must have been some kind of attack of his, but luckily, or perhaps because of the power released, it didn’t affect me beyond a slight headache.

The captain of the knights was about to be crushed by the demon’s fist, but I ran and sent him flying with a kick, sending him crashing into another building.

“Everyone, run!” I shouted. “This is between you and me, Darkahia!”

The cloud of dust kicked up by the impact against the building made visibility difficult, and just as I thought to get closer, a huge piece of debris shot toward me. It wasn’t a problem for my great strength, so I destroyed it with a single blow as soon as it was within reach, but when I did so, Darkahia was right behind it, and he took advantage of that moment of confusion to slam me back to the ground.

Once down, the demon proceeded to beat me again and again. His enormous size made it hard for me to try to get him off me, plus his blows were fast and strong, which made it even more difficult.

I had to finish this now. Time was running out.

I gathered mana in my body again and generated another mana explosion, which was enough to push the demon away. We were both already at our limit. Darkahia was exhausted and had a broken arm, and I also felt tired with my whole body aching. If we were going to end this, it had to be now.

Ignoring the pain, I ran toward the demon, which he reciprocated by doing the same. As we drew closer, everyone’s gazes grew increasingly tense over the outcome of the fight. The demon versus the hero, Darkahia against me—this final confrontation would decide everything.

When we finally entered each other’s range, Darkahia attacked with a blow using all his strength, but I barely managed to deflect it and seized the moment to strike. I hit his face, and when he became disoriented I went for his abdomen, a move I repeated over and over, and when Darkahia tried to hit me one last time, I managed to stop his arm; it was already very weakened. Finally, I grabbed his head and struck it with mine. A headbutt so strong it made my head bleed profusely as well as the demon’s, who fell to his knees after all the damage sustained.

Just one more hit, I was only one strike away from finishing him, but something happened. The time limit of my power had ended, and suddenly I felt my body explode. My muscles tore and blood began to pour from them, all while I felt the mana burning me from within.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!”

I screamed like I never had before. It was, without a doubt, the most painful experience I had ever endured. I couldn’t even stay standing, and instead I fell to the ground, completely motionless and barely conscious.

“Ha… Ha, ha…”

Darkahia’s face twisted into a contorted smile as he looked at me, he rose with the remaining strength he had left and crushed me again with his foot.

“You were close, hero… But this is where you end,” he declared.

Drawing the claws from his hand, he prepared to stab me while I lay motionless on the floor. Everything seemed over, but I still had a plan.

“Any last words?”

“Yes… Now!” I shouted.

“Spiritual Spear!”

Darkahia looked very confused, but when he realized what I had in mind, it was already too late; an emerald lance of mana had pierced his chest.

The time I had to use all my power was sufficient, but limited; I had to think of a backup plan in case things got complicated. Maybe Liz would not have had a chance against Darkahia before, but now, completely worn by our fight, even he was vulnerable to her strongest attack.

“Son… of a—”

The demon remained standing for a few moments, clinging to life as much as he could, but with a hole in his chest it was impossible, and a few seconds later he collapsed to the ground, where he returned to his original form while his eyes lost every trace of life they once held.

Darkahia, the leader of the New Order, had fallen. We had won, and with the adrenaline quickly leaving my body I began to feel drowsy. I think I deserve a good rest after this.