The answer was already obvious, wasn't it?!
"I have to stop you!"
Cid looked up at the pink-haired girl high in the sky, holding up a pink heart that stretched across the atmosphere. She looked solemn and sacred, almost like a God, and his voice was more serious than it had ever been.
"Then try it, Shadow-sama!"
With a loud shout, the pink-haired girl moved. The dreamlike pink energy heart slowly tipped toward Earth like an enormous balloon.
"This is... my final strike. It's time for all of this to end!"
The pink radiance completely swallowed the icy wasteland at one of Earth's poles. Specks of pink light spilled from the edges of the heart and spread toward the world.
Amid that absolute radiance, a streak of darkness pierced through the pink-lit world. Bottomless darkness wrapped around the ground.
At the source of that boundless darkness, Cid raised both hands to the sky. His hollow, lifeless eyes seemed to look through the darkness and the pink heart, straight at the girl beyond.
Do you really want to turn this world into a beautiful place where everyone understands one another and loves one another?
Then let me tell you something, Son Goki!
"Don't even dream of it. This garbage world, full of schemes, filth, darkness, war, betrayal, pollution, and slaughter, will be protected by me!
So what if it's just Billionfold Sensitivity? Watch me endure it!"
A blue-purple glow erupted from his body, sealing away that absolute love that loomed above the planet. Not even the tiniest speck of the spreading pink light could descend to the ground and assimilate all living beings.
That absolute love, impossible to dispel, impossible to destroy, and impossible to defend against, had been stopped.
Deep within the blue-purple radiance, the light that represented Cid's spirit had become a conduit. The pink light of absolute love was firmly locked in place and could only charge toward the owner of that spirit.
"Mmh..."
Cold sweat beaded on Cid's forehead. The immense mental stimulation had already soaked his back in sweat, but because the slime battle suit did not absorb water, it was trapped in the seams of his clothes.
And yet, even as he endured such tremendous pain and impact, Cid could clearly feel it. The pressure was wonderful. The freezing cold of this polar land was wonderful. The desire stirred up inside him was wonderful. The mental oppression was even more wonderful.
If he could, Cid truly wanted to stop resisting right then and throw himself into the embrace of that absolute love. Unfortunately...
"I gave up desire and surrender a long time ago."
His calm voice rang out. Even with his mind being crushed by the terrifying Hundred-Thousandfold Sensitivity, even with his mental limit already filled to 99.9 percent, Cid barely managed to hold on.
As long as he could keep this up and stay conscious until the attack ended, then...
"How could it possibly end here!"
The voice was just as cold. The pink-haired girl stood behind her absolute love, her face twisted with madness. The massive pink heart that already blotted out the sky instantly swelled to twice its size.
"My love has no limits. Keep going... Two Billionfold Absolute Sensitivity!"
Cid's mental limit reached 99.99 percent.
His body began to sway. Against his will, Cid started imagining the entire world sinking into that absolute love. It would surely be... a very beautiful world.
No hatred. No pollution. No war. No hunger. Before absolute love, none of those things mattered at all. But... there would be no place for him alone.
"The power of love is great, and I will use my love to reshape this world. Why keep resisting, Shadow-sama?"
"Because in that beautiful world, there is no place for an Eminence in Shadow!"
Across the boundary of purple, blue, black, and pink, he looked up at the pink-haired girl. That kind of world did sound beautiful. Everyone would understand one another, and every hardship would be an expression of love.
But in that world, there was no place for him as an Eminence in Shadow. What did a world where everyone understood one another have to do with him, an Eminence in Shadow?
"Then cling to your Eminence in Shadow and drown in the new world of the future! Five Billionfold Absolute Sensitivity!"
Cid's mental limit reached 99.999 percent.
Hold on, Cid. If even you get corrupted by her, then who will protect this dirty, despicable world, this world full of betrayal and conspiracy, this powder keg that is perfect for you to be an Eminence in Shadow?
The dreamlike pink heart swelled again. Endless pink radiance tried to reach the outside world, only to be firmly locked down by black, purple, and blue.
"Super invincible I love you, Shadow-sama! Ten Billionfold Absolute Sensitivity!"
"Shut up and let me be an Eminence in Shadow!"
Cid's mental limit reached 99.9999 percent.
Four ultimate colors, pink, purple, blue, and black, erupted at once. A dazzling rainbow light illuminated the entire star system. The sheer emotional impact alone covered the entire polar region in white mist from the melting ice, while the powerful mental fluctuations rendered the whole area impossible to detect.
"Boom!"
A long while later, a heavy impact rang out. The pink-haired girl lay in an ice pit and lifted her head. Following her senses, she saw that black figure still standing tall in the endless white.
"Damn it. He still hasn't fallen!"
She slammed her fist hard into the ice, struggled to her feet, and charged at Cid.
She had called it her final strike, but there was no way she could accept giving up like this. If he was not dead, then the fight would continue.
She could tell that Shadow had reached the end of his strength. She had to seize this chance and bring down this invincible man.
The distance between them was only a few hundred meters through the air, yet the pink-haired girl took a full two seconds to cross it. Her punch came flying at Cid, full of openings.
"Bam!"
Cid's pitch-black eyes were perfectly clear. He swept his gaze around, twisted his waist back with force, and dragged the weakened girl along with him. After tracing a graceful arc through the air, he smashed her heavily into the snow, blasting open a huge crater.
As if he had just woken up, Cid stretched his body. His shoulders crackled as the bones shifted, and he looked down at Son Goki, who lay in the pit with her mouth open and eyes shut.
"Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. You really were just a hair away from defeating me!"
Breathing slightly harder, Cid looked at the woman on the ground and could not help admiring her. That absolute, unwavering will born from her love for him had almost blown him apart.
His body might have looked completely unharmed, but his spirit had also reached its limit. She had knocked away 99.99999 percent of his health. If it had lasted even a little longer, he might truly have lost. Fortunately, he had been just that bit better.
"Too bad there are no ifs..."
Cid looked at her coldly, then felt as though he might have said a little too much.
"Sometimes I wonder. If you had been born a little earlier and had more time, could you have given me an even more satisfying battle? Could you even have beaten me fair and square in the end?
Well, I'm not saying that fight just now was bad. But compared to those moves that could only be called crooked and heretical, I'd rather you recognize your own nature more clearly."
"Ha. I suggest you just kill me."
She turned over and looked up at that face she knew so well. With regret and relief on her face, the pink-haired girl stretched out her neck.
"...One who has lost their way is not worthy of being my opponent."
"Hahahaha..."
She suddenly burst into wild laughter for no clear reason. Staring at Cid, the pink-haired girl's eyes were filled with anger.
"Is it really necessary to keep walking that path alone?"
"Maybe. But... living alone isn't so bad either, is it?"
Sitting cross-legged in the snow, Cid spoke calmly to her as she lay on the ground.
"You may not be able to feel it, but I can. Your heart is very transparent. Because of that, anything at all can cover it up. Don't let the surface of your instincts fool you. See your true heart clearly, and stop thinking about things like sensitivity all the time."
The pink-haired girl gave a mocking laugh and tried to stand, wanting to punch the guy in front of her. In the end, her drained body failed her, and all she could do was sigh helplessly.
"This is what's in my heart. I just want you and this world to be filled with love. No matter what you say, I won't change."
"Then there's nothing I can do."
With a sigh, Cid stood up. He glanced once more at the girl in the pit, then turned and walked away, his black leather shoes scraping against the snow.
Well, it's not that I don't want to finish her off. The main problem is that there's something inside her body.
Thinking back to what he had seen in that brief glance, Cid could only pray that thing would hurry up and go back. If anyone discovered it, things would be a real pain in the ass.
As for Son Goki's body... there was no need to worry about that. She had already been beaten half to death, and as time passed, she would eventually dissipate on her own.
Once she died, that thing inside her, the thing she had stolen through the Genki Dama, would destroy itself. It had not been long, and after the world-ending crisis they had just gone through, not many people had noticed yet. Even if they did, they would think it was their own problem, so my reputation...
"Hmm..."
A strange fluctuation came from the horizon. Cid looked up and saw that the sky, which had just been covered in dark clouds, qi energy, and the Slaaneshi aurora, was once again shrouded in black-and-white light.
"Is that... the Light Crystals with my backdoor?"
Following the glow, Cid could clearly see several crystals buried deep within the "Core" of the world's light, gradually contaminating the Authority of Light as they tried to transform the world in one fell swoop.
Cid swallowed. He had never expected that thing to actually be launched.
Let's get one thing straight: Cid had spent his whole life building himself into the ultimate all-rounder, but even he had no easy answer for a full-blown imbalance between light and darkness.
There was no helping it. The complexity of a single human cell was already beyond imagination, let alone the light-dark templates essential to the world itself.
Once something went wrong and light and darkness became tangled together around the "Core," the level of trouble it would bring would be unimaginable.
He might be able to repair a few "Cores," but in a broken Light-Dark template, the number of "Cores" that needed repair would be as countless as the stars in the sky. Even if he burned out his brain's CPU, he would never finish.
Rather than repairing a Light-Dark template, he might as well cut it out directly. At least that would not contaminate the entire world in reverse, and it would be faster for the human world to rebuild a new Light-Dark target on its own.
The good news was that, because he always left a backdoor in anything he made, he could still repair it even now that the contamination had begun.
The bad news was that even with a backdoor, he had to be fast. Otherwise, once the Authority of Light was completely affected and began automatically converting into darkness, the part that converted on its own would no longer have a backdoor.
Cid stopped, turned around, and walked back toward the huge crater.
"What? Do you still have something to say to me?"
Sensing movement, the girl, who had been lying quietly on the ground waiting for her body to dissipate, lifted her head and looked at Cid in confusion.
"I..."
Cid did not answer her. He simply raised his arm and, under the girl's gaze, softly spoke a single word.
Purple lines shot out from beneath Cid's feet as he spoke, tracing square, regulated runes across the ice.
"What? So you still wanted to fight me after all, Shadow-sama? If you'd said so earlier, I definitely would've tried punching you in the face."
Through the purple barrier rising from the lines at the edge, the girl saw the light and darkness rippling across the sky. Understanding everything, she smiled as she spoke.
"Am..."
Cid said nothing more. Meeting the girl's eager gaze, he merely whispered the next word.
He was not one of those idiotic cartoon villains who talked too much and failed to finish the job. When it was time to act, he would absolutely deliver the finishing blow.
The important thing inside her body did not matter anymore. In any case, after a few years, the world would let them grow back again. If it was destroyed, then it was destroyed. He would just treat it as a little Easter egg he was leaving for everyone.
It was just a bit of a shame. In the end, you never broke through to a new realm.
Looking at the girl, countless thoughts passed through Cid's mind, though only a second or two passed in the outside world before he spoke again.
"Atomic!"
A blue-purple torrent of sacred light swallowed the girl's body, and a pillar of Magical Power rose from the snow into the heavens.
The snowfield, the sky, everything was pierced through and consumed, racing toward the far side of the distant starry sky until, at the very end... it exploded.
Sacred patterns of light were carved into the starry sky, pushing aside the chaotic light and darkness and dyeing the entire polar region blue-purple.
At last, when the blue-purple light faded, only a beautiful starry sky remained. The black figure that had stood on the snow was nowhere to be seen.
...
On a rooftop whose top had been blown open, now empty of people and stripped of everything valuable, a black figure appeared before a circular machine that seemed to have been pierced through from above.
Let me see. How far along is it now... Hmm, not bad. It should still take a few minutes before things reach the point of no return.
Watching the swirling sky of light and darkness, Cid observed it for a while with that thought in mind before reaching his conclusion.
In that case, he would test his hand at it first.
To be honest, although he could understand the Core, this was still Cid's first time correcting the world. Since there was still some room for error, he might as well be bold and see whether he could solve it all at once. If it really came down to the final step, he could spend a full day grinding it out carefully.
"Guh... Is this the aftereffect of that move?"
After working for a while, Cid suddenly clutched his chest. A careless mistake accelerated the imbalance between light and darkness, but it was not a serious problem yet. It had not reached the worst-case scenario.
"Shadow, what are you trying to do?!"