Battle on the Throne of Darkness

Ayato stepped into the pitch-black throne room. At the far end, King Veyric sat on a black throne made of dark crystal, his eyes emitting an unnatural purple light.

"Welcome, child of man," Veyric greeted, his voice echoing. "I am preparing for the birth of a new world—a paradise untainted by humanity's greedy civilization."

Ayato listened with cynicism. Every word from Veyric reminded him of the bully's parents from his past—sanctimonious, full of nonsense, and arbitrarily deciding others' fates from their comfortable positions.

"Enough of your nonsense!" Ayato's shout cut through the room like an ice blade. "Someone like you, who only looks down on others' suffering from a luxurious throne, has no right to decide anyone's fate!"

Veyric sneered. "Then let us prove it."

He raised his hand, and the space around Ayato instantly distorted. Dimensional Magic, a legacy of Lys, but corrupted by Sanctuary's darkness. Dozens of black portals appeared, spewing dark energy in the form of shadow swords.

But Ayato stood firm. He used only ice. The ice sword in his hand gleamed coldly, and memories of Lys's lessons echoed strongly: "Magic is about how creative your imagination is and how strongly you believe in it! Add abundant mana, and anything can be realized!"

With full conviction, he touched the edge of the first portal. Ice crystals spread rapidly, freezing the dimensional distortion into a beautiful glass statue. The second, third, fourth portals—all were frozen before they could swallow him.

"Impossible!" shouted a panicking Veyric.

But Ayato was already moving. At high speed, he froze portal after portal, using the frozen ones as footholds to leap closer to Veyric. The King tried to create more portals, but they all just became fragile ice sculptures.

Time to end this!

Ayato threw his ice sword. Not to stab, but as a distraction. As Veyric dodged, Ayato was already in front of him. With a bare fist sheathed in ice, he struck.

THWACK! The first punch hit Veyric's stomach, freezing his royal robes.
CRACK! The following elbow struck his face, sending the King reeling.
SHATTER! An ice-encased kick shattered his black throne to pieces.

Veyric was thrown against the wall, his body covered in ice crystals, his breath ragged. "No... I... the King..."

But before Ayato could deliver the final blow, something dark crept from Veyric's shadow. Black flames ignited, burning Veyric alive.

"Wait... this wasn't part of..." Veyric screamed before his body was consumed by the dark flames.

From his ashes, a pitch-black entity formed. A faceless being, merely a silhouette with glowing dark purple eyes. Its energy made the entire Sanctuary rumble, its mental pressure so intense it felt like it was speaking directly into Ayato's mind.

...FINALLY... THE LIGHT-BRINGER...

Before Ayato could react, his body was split in two. But strangely, he didn't die. He felt every cut—every tear of flesh, every broken bone—mend back together, only to be severed again in more vicious ways. Dozens of times. Hundreds of times. An endless cycle of torture that nearly shattered his mind.

WHUUM!

A teleportation light suddenly blazed. Lys appeared with her hand still outstretched, remnants of teleportation energy glittering at her fingertips. Behind her, Aurellia, Irea, Fenrir, Cielle, and Ragna landed deftly.

As the blade meant to tear his soul apart descended, Aurellia's sword of light intercepted it!

CLANG!

"Touch him again, and I'll destroy you!" Aurellia snapped, her eyes blazing.

But the two dark purple dots merely blinked. From the darkness, perfect duplicates of the five Demon Kings were created. Ayato's team was forced to fight against themselves.

Lys was the first to move. She opened a portal under the duplicate Irea's feet, trapping the shadow. "Irea, now!" she yelled. But the duplicate Lys herself had already created thousands of ice needles raining down. Lys countered with a wall of fire, but her duplicate immediately switched to wind magic, extinguishing the fire and blowing Lys against a wall.

Ragna didn't stand idle. He leaped to catch the flung Lys while swinging his fire halberd at the duplicate Lys. "Don't mess with us, you trash!" But his own shadow duplicate intercepted him, the two fire halberds meeting in a tremendous explosion that shook the entire room.

As Ragna was thrown back by the shockwave, Irea and Fenrir took over. Irea created a wind tornado that swept away the remaining ice needles, while Fenrir charged at the duplicate Ragna with an icy bite. But the duplicate Irea was waiting with deadly wind blades, forcing the real Irea to dodge while using her own wind claws to slice through the attacks.

Cielle, usually silent, now moved nimbly with her shadow step, appearing and disappearing among the shadows. She created a thick water curtain to protect Irea from the wind blade attacks. But the duplicate Cielle was already lurking behind the water mist, her sickle slashing from the side.

Cielle spun quickly, her sickle clashing with her shadow's weapon, scattering sparks of water. When her duplicate tried to absorb her energy through weapon contact, Cielle instead allowed herself to be absorbed, then—BOOM!—detonated pure water energy from within her own body. A powerful water wave explosion slammed out, throwing both Cielle back.

Aurellia, seeing everyone falling, immediately took position. Her sword of light gleamed as she created an electrical network to protect the others and provide energy stimulation. But the duplicate Aurellia was waiting, attacking with inverted light that reflected and amplified Aurellia's own electrical attack back at her.

Aurellia was forced to cut her own contaminated energy flow, her left hand severely burned. "Lys, portal now! I'll give the marker!" she shouted, throwing a glowing electric ball into the air.

Lys, who had gotten up, immediately opened a large portal right under the electric ball. Ragna didn't need to be told twice—he was already gathering his greatest fire energy. Irea and Fenrir created a wind-ice vortex, while Cielle formed a giant water mirror to reflect and concentrate all the energy.

In perfect coordination, they combined all their powers—Ragna's blazing fire, Irea's swirling wind, Fenrir's piercing ice, Cielle's reflecting water, and Lys's dimension magic focusing it—into one concentrated attack that destroyed all the duplicates simultaneously in a massive explosion.

But the sacrifice came at a high cost. They all fell, exhausted, breathing raggedly. From behind the smoke, the black entity stood firm, casually approaching the still helpless Ayato...

Its black sword aimed at Ayato's neck.

...THE END...

But just as the blade was about to touch his skin, Ayato grabbed the black blade! Blood poured from his hand, but in an instant, ice froze the wound—and from within the ice, white fire blazed brightly!

FWOOSH!

The white fire instantly annihilated the sword's darkness. Ayato's body transformed—cold and warmth merged perfectly in an unimaginable harmony. From his back, wings of ice crystal formed, yet at the tip of each feather blazed pure white fire emitting a holy light.

Lys smiled broadly, her eyes teary. "Such a perfectly balanced fusion..." she whispered in a hoarse, proud voice.

Ragna laughed heartily while leaning his bruised body against the rubble. "Look at that! That's the power of my greatest rival!"

Irea sighed in relief, her hand still pressed against a wound on her waist. "My, who would have thought that kid would come this far."

Cielle, still lying weak, reached out as if to touch the light, a faint smile spreading on her lips. Her blue eyes reflected the gleam of Ayato's white light.

Aurellia closed her eyes, her face relieved yet wary. "Now... show them, Ayato. The answer you've chosen!"

His entire body was enveloped in a shimmering white aura, his silver eyes now shining like two small suns.

This wasn't resonance with anyone. This was his true awakening—the perfect union of ice and fire within him, the answer to all the resolve and suffering he had endured.

The epic battle began!

Ayato shot forward like a meteor, leaving trails of ice crystals and white fire in the air. The sword of light in his hand—a blade of ice coated in white fire—clashed with the black entity's claws of darkness.

The black entity created thousands of shadow swords assaulting from all directions. Ayato didn't dodge. He stomped his foot, and an instant layer of ice spread, freezing all the shadow swords into glass statues which he immediately shattered with a breath of white fire.

The black entity opened a dark hole that sucked in everything. Ayato countered by creating an ice-fire tornado—a whirlwind containing ice crystals, each grain imbued with white fire. The tornado not only neutralized the dark hole but reversed the attack, sucking in the dark energy itself.

The black entity turned into an intangible dark mist. Ayato spread his arms. From his left palm, a super-cold ice mist spread, freezing every particle of darkness. From his right palm, white fire burned the frozen mist until only light remained.

Every impact created shockwaves that shook Sanctuary's foundations. Every move Ayato made was a perfect symphony of freezing and burning, of stillness and motion, of patience and fury.

"ENOUGH!" Ayato roared, his voice echoing like a combination of ice shattering and thunderous fire.

He raised both hands to the sky. A giant ice crystal formed above him, but inside every crystal pulsed pure white fire. With a pushing motion, he hurled it all at the black entity.

"HOLY FIRE, NEUTRALIZE EVERYTHING!"

The giant ice crystals containing white fire surged forward, and before the explosion occurred, Lys shouted, "Everyone, retreat—now!"

With her last bit of strength, she opened an emergency portal. Ragna immediately pulled the wounded Irea and Fenrir inside, while Cielle deftly grabbed the collapsing Lys.

Lys stretched her last hand towards Aurellia. "Aurel, hurry!"

But Aurellia instead took a step back, out of Lys's reach. A calm smile—yet full of meaning—was etched on her lips as she looked at Lys.

"Go," she whispered.

Lys's eyes widened, realizing the meaning behind that smile. "No—AUREL!"

But it was too late. The portal closed right in front of Lys's panicked face, separating them. The tremendous white explosion swept over everything.

BOOOOOOM!

Sanctuary shattered into pieces behind them, the dark sky torn asunder by blinding light. The black entity screamed—not with sound, but with pure vibration—before finally being torn apart and swallowed by the light.

...

As the dust and smoke began to settle, Ayato stood panting amidst the utterly destroyed ruins of Sanctuary. The portal in front of them was closed—Lys and the others were safe in the distance.

But something still felt wrong.

From within the rubble, Aurellia stood with difficulty, her body covered in serious wounds. But what made Ayato freeze was the dense black cloud beginning to seep from within her, forming terrifying shadows around her.

"A-Aurel...?" Ayato whispered.

With a face calm and full of acceptance, Aurellia looked at him. "The five of us... are actually the world's answer to humanity. Every negative emotion, every suffering you create... gives birth to us anew."

She gazed into the distance towards the Sanctuary ruins. "We exist because humanity needs reminders. But as long as I stand here, as the main conduit, this cycle will never end."

She offered her sword. "Decide. Sever this chain. Just like you made the decision to oppose me that day, do it again, consciously, this time. I... will not regret it."

Ayato's hand trembled as he gripped the sword.

I...

He took a breath, remembering all the memories with Aurellia—how she had shattered his beautiful dream that day―then came back to fix everything. Giving him a new purpose, new comrades, and even a warmth far greater than what he had felt the first time.

Now he was being forced to make a decision to destroy it all—with his own hands, once again.

With a still trembling hand, the sword slowly moved towards Aurel's chest—unprotected. Each breath slowly pushed the tip deeper through her skin.

Then, as he clenched his fist tightly—

The world turned white.