“[Shield of Piety,]” Rakna intoned and his katana glowed with blue and red energy, generating a barrier in front of him, only to be instantly smashed by the scalding edge of Lilith’s blade.

He grunted and tilted his body to the side, the slash of fire grazing his arm that barely had finished regenerating after her first strike. The flames went on behind him and exploded in the distance.

“Truly… are you sure you want to do this?” The werewolf uttered as he mentally called the sword he had dropped earlier. It flew to his empty hand and he used it to parry another saber strike; each clash produced was enough to create shockwaves capable of dispersing the blizzard.

“I hold no such doubts,” Lilith replied, her eyes filled with golden flames that spread to her every limb. “Obsidian… I shall stop you and allow my men to live on.”

Rakna responded with silence and wordlessly transformed Sonata into a Guandao. He stood in the air with his six wings wide open; mirrored by Lilith’s wings which were big enough to dwarf his own in size due to their expanding flames.

The werewolf glanced to the side, his eyes glowing golden and piercing through the fog as easily as breathing. He spotted the demon mage and knight ordering their army to carry their wounded and unconscious to retreat. Rakna especially noted Norio’s gloomy expression and reluctance.

“Before we continue, Lilith Yamul,” he spoke and turned to his opponent, who gazed at him with frightening intensity. “You still have a chance to turn back. As long as you release that skill of yours now, your life force will be safe. Continue to fight me, and it will become unrecoverable. I will allow you to retreat in respect of your valor. The Oath I took only stipulates to defend this Kingdom. If I wish so, I can kill you to protect it. But I can also spare you to avoid wanton ruin.”

“…”

“You have no chance to defeat me. Give u--”

“I cannot,” she declared. “I will do all I can to rout you, even if it takes my life. I know this for sure, after battling you; you are the biggest threat to our Lord’s return.”

“Is that so…” Rakna mumbled and smiled lightly. He put Sonata at rest and used his other hand to grasp the air around him. He grunted and waved it as if he was trying to take down a veil. Right on cue, the blizzard ravaging the moon was dispersed.

The army of demons exclaimed in surprise and then spotted the Sentinel and their Commander facing each other in the sky, right below the only hole in the blanket of dark clouds.

“I could drag this on… fight fire with fire. Wear and tear would grant me victory,” Rakna said as he pondered using Obsidian Blood to neutralize Lilith’s threat. “But… I suppose that wouldn’t be fair to you. So, would you like to bet everything on one attack? If you want to kill me; this is the only chance I can give you.”

“…I see. Perhaps the stories about your cruelty were erroneous,” Lilith said and let go of her sabers. Her entire body became ablaze instead as if her flesh was nothing more than fuel. “I have met Sun Dwellers with less integrity than you. That is a feat in itself.”

“Hah,” Rakna snickered. “Don’t misunderstand me. I am cruel. If there is a goal I want and have to accomplish, I will find a way to do so no matter what it takes. I’m giving you this chance not so that you can defeat me, but so that you can be defeated fairly. Shall I had gone all out; your army would have been decimated by now. I have no intention of losing to you; this is your closure.”

The demoness didn’t say anything and slowly clasped her hands together. The flames surrounding her body were suddenly snuffed out before re-emerging behind her in the form of a magic avatar with two heads and four arms, wielding the same number of sabers.

“[Suvarna Zasana,]” she intoned and the avatar overlapped its four weapons.

Rakna let out a small smile and twirled Sonata before holding it with both hands like a staff, with the tip of the blade pointed upward. “I will take that as your acknowledgment,” he said and began channeling mana into Sonata to summon a magic formation. “This is a spell I’ve developed in the chains of my prison… You will be the first to experience it. I hope you appreciate it.”

“[Crystals of Frost Abide the Star’s Wrath,]” he sang the first verse of his Cōl Lāli and released his full aura; soul and element. “[Cataclysm of the Celeste. Spinning Untoward the Birth of Life,]” he intoned, and a spinning disc of hoarfrost energy resembling a miniature galaxy formed above his head.

“[Mamsa Bhaksaka Zura. Vartase Mahyam, Aham Bhavat,]” Lilith chanted and the avatar she had summoned roared and slashed at the air with its sabers. The cuts produced opened red gaping gashes in space itself, forming a lozenge, inside which an eye of golden and red flames appeared.

Rakna huffed at the display and poured even more mana into the disk hovering above him. Soon enough, the middle axis began to bloat up and the edges turned into something similar to toothed blades. “[In Silence, It Seethes, Thriving Entropy and Unleashing Destruction.]”

“[Atah… Yavad Aham Nama… Hanti,]” Lilith continued her incantation in parallel and the blazing eye slowly opened, revealing pupils circled by several layers of light.

“Are you ready? Lilith Yamul?” Rakna uttered and used one of his hands to pierce the disc he had made. He then grabbed its pivotal center and readied it as if he was going to throw it.

The demoness only showed a determined expression at his question and the rakshasa incarnation placed his four palms around the ominous eyeball. Lilith extended her hand toward it and at the same time, Rakna lifted the disk over his shoulder.

Then, they both unleashed their spells at the same time.

“[Netra Ravana!]”

“[Hoarfrost Nova!]”

A swirling torrent of golden and purple flames was shot from the Rakshasa’s eye right into the disc thrown by the werewolf. When it hit, Hoarfrost Nova turned into a terrifyingly cold burst of energies ranging across all possible shades of blue.

As the two attacks clashed, the entire moon began to shake, perhaps even veering out of its orbit from the force of the impact. One side of the sky was invaded by flames and the other welcomed its very antithesis; infernos that burned cold beyond reason.

The two energies spread vertically, half of it escaping into the void of space and the other striking the ground and waging a second war between raging fire and crystalline ice. The city of the Moon Dwellers quaked, its walls barely resisting. But they were spared from further damage thanks to the enchantments carved by the Moon God himself thousands of years ago.

The demon army, despite having run away from the source, similarly were affected, but nothing worse than just being flung farther. Norio and Ramil planted their feet in the ground, watching the clash of those forces of nature.

“Norio… can you tell which one is winning?” The living armor asked.

The mage gritted his teeth, his expression twisted in both anger and desperation. “Even if I wished it wasn’t true, the Sentinel is winning… It’s only a matter of time before--”

His words were interrupted by a wave of cold that traversed hundreds of miles. Even the demons almost felt like their hearts stopped from the sheer lack of heat. Then, in the distance, the battle of energies tilted severely. The blue half first shrunk then suddenly expanded, swallowing the flames and forming a shape resembling a chrysanthemum flower.

Lilith, who was overwhelmed by the frost, smiled bitterly, her golden avatar being impaled on all sides by the merciless strands of blue energy. ‘So… this is how I go… I wish I could have seen… the Lord alive…’ She thought and closed her eyes, waiting for the last golden flames around her to be extinguished and her along with it.

It took barely a few seconds and her arm was eaten away by the energy. Then, a part of her torso and leg. The invasive cold was such that her pain receptors had already ceased functioning long before she could even notice her body crumbling.

‘But it is an honor… to have battled the Sentinel… thank you--’

“Is that gratitude, I smell? As always, you warrior types always think so lightly of life.”

‘--?!’

A voice startled her and before she could react, something soft wrapped around her. The warmth it gave her amidst the mayhem of frost jolted her out of her stupor and when she opened her eyes again, she was already lying on the ground.

Her view was overtaken by the settling flower of frost energy in the sky, bringing about a rain of microscopic crystals glinting with the light of the sun that had started to enter the perceivable sky of the moon.

She bent her neck to look at herself and saw her lost body parts recovering; some sort of silverish metal seemingly constructing new limbs and organs for her. Then, her gaze wandered to the azure tail wrapped around her waist. She tracked it to its owner and saw Obsidian smiling at her. He was unscathed, she noted. And… he had a scarf around his neck?

“Sentinel…” She rasped out. “What are you… doing…?”

“Isn’t that obvious? Healing you,” Rakna replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“…” Lilith was speechless. How was she supposed to react?

“You’re lucky. That sacrificial skill of yours could have killed you. But since you expended all your strength at once, it was disengaged without taking away the source of your life force,” she heard him say, and for a moment, she swore she saw the nature of his smile shift into something playful.

“You… it was on… purpose…” She realized. “You made me use up all my strength… So that I would not die… why?”

“Don’t you think it would be a shame?” Rakna snorted and looked at the aftermath of their spells fighting for dominance. “You have convinced me, Lilith Yamul. I apologize for the losses I caused your army,” he said surprisingly sincerely.

He then proceeded to reduce his size to something closer to her stature, his tail leaving her body and returning to the eight others, and presented one hand to her as if offering help to stand.

“Now, let’s resurrect those Gods, shall we?”

Lilith blanked at the statement for a good minute or two before opening her mouth, “…eh?”