The underbelly of the occupied Gelber Keep was a place of dripping stone and despair. Two shadows moved through it, their passage a study in contrasting mastery.
Sarah was a phantom. Her High-Grade stealth skill, refined to an art form, let her melt into the darkness between torch sconces. When a guard patrolled too close, she didn't need Auto-Battle. Her body moved on pure, honed instinct. A precise strike to a nerve cluster, a gentle catch of the collapsing body, a swift drag into an alcove. It was silent, efficient, and utterly humane. Her System provided a constant, silent stream of data—guard rotations, sightlines, the faint hum of magical wards—allowing her to plot a perfect, undetectable path. She was a scalpel, cutting through the fortress's defenses with minimal noise and no bloodshed.
Kenta was the storm contained. He moved with a predator's grace, the twin katanas on his back a promise of balanced ruin. When a magical alarm rune glowed in their path, he didn't avoid it. He drew Yami no Hikari. But instead of a raging inferno of darkness, he focused its power into a needle-thin point, touching the rune. The voracious energy didn't destroy it; it consumed the magic, leaving the rune inert, a dead sigil on the wall. He used the light blade, Hikari no Ha, for the guards themselves. A flash of silver, the flat of the blade impacting a helmet with a muted clang, and another sentry was down, unconscious but alive. He was no longer fighting the dark blade's nature; he was directing it, using its hunger as a tool for subterfuge.
They found their target in the war room, now a opulent den of conquest. The man was massive, clad in ornate, fire-tempered armor. He was not the Emperor, but his presence was a blight—General Valgus, the Second Commander of Hiragi's line, the man whose whim had once condemned a village to ash. He was polishing a magnificent sword wreathed in latent flame—the Flamengo, an S-Rank treasure meant to mimic the Flame Emperor's own style.
"You are the one," Kenta's voice cut through the silence, cold and flat. He and Sarah stepped from the shadows, no longer hiding.
General Valgus turned, his eyes, like smoldering coals, showing not fear, but annoyance. "Vermin from the cellar. I remember your kind. Scrabbling in the dirt. I thought we burned all of you." His gaze fell on Kenta, a flicker of vague recognition turning to a cruel smirk. "Ah. The boy from the embers. You should have stayed buried."
He stood, the Flamengo sword igniting in his hand, the air shimmering with intense heat. His aura erupted—USR Rank, a pressure that would have crushed them months ago. "I do not need this trinket to deal with trash, but I shall use it to give you a clean death."
The fight was not a brawl; it was a cataclysm contained within stone walls. Valgus was a tempest of fire and steel, his movements honed by decades of conquest. He was a nation-destroyer, and his every swing was meant to obliterate.
Kenta met him head-on. His new style was a revelation. He didn't choose between light and dark; he wove them. He used Hikari no Ha's impossible speed to parry the Flamengo's fiery arcs, the silver blade deflecting hellish heat. Then, in the opening created, Yami no Hikari would lash out, its dark energy not attacking Valgus directly, but eroding the fiery aura around him, sucking the heat and strength from his attacks. It was a relentless, draining dance.
Sarah was not a spectator. She was the battlefield controller. When Valgus tried to unleash a wide-area conflagration, she was already there, her hands moving in a complex pattern. A dome of compressed air, reinforced with her own ki, manifested around the explosion, containing the blast and turning it back on him. She used her High-Grade elemental magic not for offense, but for control—creating walls of ice to block his path, manipulating the stone floor to trip his footing, her every move a perfect counter that allowed Kenta to press the attack.
But Valgus was a monster. He adapted, his raw power beginning to overwhelm their precision. He broke through Sarah's defenses and landed a blow that sent Kenta flying back, his armor scorched.
"Now!" Kenta yelled, spitting blood.
"Activate Auto-Battle Mode!" Sarah commanded.
Her eyes went vacant silver. The shift was instantaneous and terrifying. The already-capable warrior became a paragon of war. The Infinity Calculation passive ignited, her mind becoming a universe of probabilities. She didn't just see Valgus's next move; she saw the next hundred, calculating the exact pressure point to strike to make his grip falter, the precise angle to deflect his blade to save Kenta a fraction of a second.
She moved, and it was like watching fate unfold. She caught the Flamengo's hilt alongside Kenta's, her grip perfectly augmenting his. Together, they held the blazing sword at bay, their combined strength and the System's flawless kinetics creating an immovable object.
Valgus's eyes widened in shock. The sheer, unadulterated skill in her swordplay, the cold, absolute efficiency—it was unlike anything he had ever seen. "What demon are you?! Your swordplay... it is comparable to the Emperor's own!"
His gaze snapped to Kenta, who was rising, his eyes now burning with a harmonious mix of silver light and crimson resolve. "And you... you are the most twisted thing I have ever witnessed! A soul dancing with its own damnation!"
With a coordinated shove, they forced Valgus back. The fight was over. Beaten, broken, and humiliated, the mighty general lay at their feet. Kenta stood over him, Yami no Hikari poised for the killing strike. The dark blade screamed in his mind, a chorus of vengeance for a stolen childhood.
KILL HIM! BURN HIM! MAKE HIM SUFFER!
Kenta looked from the terrified, defeated man to the grateful faces of the Gelber citizens who had begun to tentatively peer into the room. He saw the freedom they had just won. He saw a future beyond this moment of blood.
He slowly sheathed both his blades. The dark aura vanished, silenced by his will.
"Your life is not worth the stain on my soul," Kenta said, his voice echoing in the stunned silence. "You will return to Emperor Hiragi. You will tell him this: The world will not burn so easily. We are coming."
They interrogated the broken general, extracting every piece of intelligence about Hiragi's forces and plans, before letting him flee, a message and a warning sent back to his master.
In the throne room, Princess Alessia looked upon them not as the adventurers she once knew, but as saviors of a scale she could scarcely comprehend.
"The kingdom is yours again," Sarah said, her voice firm. "We offer you our services as its official guardians. A permanent home, a purpose, and the resources to never be threatened again."
It was a generous offer. A safe harbor. A life of comfort and purpose.
Kenta and Sarah looked at each other. In that glance, they saw the same truth. The path ahead was not within these walls. The shadow of Khazad, the tyranny of the Twelve Emperors, the cosmic war Kanji had warned of—it all lay beyond this kingdom's borders. Staying would mean accepting a limit, turning away from the greater fight.
"Your offer is a greater honor than we deserve," Kenta said, bowing respectfully. "But our path leads elsewhere."
"The world is bigger than one kingdom," Sarah added, her voice soft but resolute. "And it needs more than just guardians. It needs warriors."
With grateful farewells and the blessing of a princess, they walked out of Gelber's gates. They were not heroes returning home. They were a storm, purposefully heading for the horizon, ready to meet the darkness that awaited.