As the blue light emanating from the stone in Fredrinn's chest formed an ethereal armor over his skin...

...each drop of Rose's blood that fell upon the cathedral's stone floor created an irreparable fracture in his soul.

Before his eyes was the black sword embedded in the lungs of the woman who was one of his most trusted subordinates.

And at the other end of the room, the blood-soaked body of Cassian, tossed aside like a rag doll.

Grief gave way to a volcanic rage in a matter of seconds.

Fredrinn did not hesitate for a single moment.

He closed the distance between them in a single lunge.

His sword, an extension of pure power and a thirst for vengeance, swung towards the Black Knight, leaving a bluish trail in the air.

The Black Knight's arm, shattered by Cassian's lightning, dangled almost uselessly at his side. He tried to parry the blow with his other arm.

The two swords met with a deafening screech.

A blow that would normally have sent Fredrinn reeling was different this time. The Black Knight's arm shuddered; he exerted a superhuman effort not to drop his sword.

The only things he could rely on now were the difference in their sheer size and his armor's capacity to absorb the damage.

But that capacity was rapidly dwindling.

Fredrinn didn't lessen the pressure for even an instant.

He drew his sword back and thrust it forward like a spear.

The Black Knight, with an instinctual move, used his sword as a shield again.

But Fredrinn had anticipated this.

With a last-second twist of his wrist, he expertly deflected the Black Knight's blade.

Exploiting the fleeting opening, he plunged the dagger from his left hand into the Knight's torso.

The dagger's tip found one of the cracks in the armor.

A screech of metal was heard.

Fredrinn put his full weight behind it. The dagger barely pierced the armor; as it pushed inward, cracks formed on its surface from the pressure until it finally shattered with a metallic clang.

But it had done its job. It had managed to open another wound in the dark essence within the Black Knight.

Ignoring the broken dagger, Fredrinn recoiled with the same speed. He unleashed a tremendous punch with his gauntleted fist into the Black Knight's torso.

The Knight staggered back several steps from the impact.

Fredrinn instantly closed the distance that had opened between them.

His sword, this time aimed at the Knight's now-defenseless abdomen—the very spot Cassian had weakened earlier—descended in a horizontal arc.

The moment the blade's sharp edge met metal, it carved a deep, ominous gash in the armor.

The Black Knight was thrown off his feet by the pure kinetic energy of the blow, hurtling backward into the cathedral wall.

He slumped to the ground.

The moment he moved to collect himself, to get back on his feet, Fredrinn was upon him again like a phantom.

This time, he brought his sword down from above, aiming for the center of the Knight's back.

Cassian's weakening spells were now showing their full effect; the Knight's reflexes had slowed.

He managed to roll aside at the last second but couldn't completely evade the blade. The steel carved another deep gash in his backplate.

The Black Knight's armor now resembled less a shield of protection and more a shattered shell.

Cornered, weakened, and facing a warrior at the peak of his fury, the Black Knight realized he had to play his final card.

As he slowly rose from the floor, all the light within the cathedral suddenly began to fade.

"The Shadow Realm."

The battlefield changed.

The stone walls, stained-glass windows, and high ceiling of the cathedral melted away into a pitch-black darkness.

Fredrinn suddenly found himself in the middle of an absolute nothingness. There was neither sky nor ground.

It was as if he were standing in an endless void, in a zero-gravity environment.

This sudden shift made him dizzy, causing him to lose all sense of direction.

Sounds were muffled. His senses of smell and touch blurred.

But that was not what worried Fredrinn most.

His real fear was that he was now on his opponent's hunting ground, in a dimension where his rules applied.

He had no advantage here. He was completely at a disadvantage.

The blue light from the stone in his chest was like a flickering candle flame in the infinite darkness. Even it did not seem sufficient to save him.

Rose and Cassian were out of the fight.

He was now forced to fight completely alone against a foe he never wanted to face.

Every muscle tensed, he waited, on high alert, prepared for the deadly attacks that could come from the darkness at any moment.

The silence was shattered by the sound of a sword cleaving the air.

Hearing it at the last second, Fredrinn instinctively swung his sword and parried the blow. The shockwave from the impact jolted his arm all the way to the elbow.

The Black Knight vanished back into the shadows.

In that brief moment, he reappeared behind Fredrinn and swung his sword once more.

Gritting his teeth, Fredrinn barely managed to parry this attack as well. But this pattern began to repeat itself over and over.

With each blow, Fredrinn's joints and wrist took damage against the Black Knight's superior physical strength. His own power was draining.

Before long, his sword hand began to tremble uncontrollably.

The Black Knight increased his speed even more.

He was no longer attacking from a single direction. As if he were in three different places at once, he delivered blows from every angle.

One moment he was in front, the next he was behind.

In the brief instant that Fredrinn parried a sword strike from the front, a leg emerged from the shadow and delivered a brutal kick to his stomach.

A mouthful of blood sprayed from Fredrinn's lips. He doubled over in pain and was thrown backward.

The moment he tried to get to his feet again, a second kick to the middle of his back pinned him face down on the ground.

The savage blow emptied all the air from his lungs. He felt his consciousness fading, his vision darkening.

He desperately swung his sword around, trying to get up.

Just as he managed to get to one knee, an armored fist exploded upward from beneath his chin.

He heard the crack of his own teeth inside his skull.

Blood filled his vision; he felt as if his brain was disintegrating.

Fredrinn tried to stand, but the Black Knight stomped his foot down on his sword hand. The bones shattered in agony.

Fredrinn groaned in pain.

Before his weakened body could recover, the Black Knight grabbed him by the head and smashed his face into his knee, breaking his nose.

Then he threw his body to the ground like a sack.

Fredrinn writhed on the ground in a pool of his own blood.

The Black Knight was like a predator toying with its pained prey.

For them to have harmed him so, to have coveted the treasure he had protected for centuries... he had no intention of granting these humans an easy death.

He began to walk toward Fredrinn. Every step he took echoed in the silence of the shadow realm like the melody of death, dragging Fredrinn deeper into despair.

He stood over Fredrinn and raised his sword for the final blow.

With a last ounce of effort, Fredrinn parried the attack, but his strength was gone. The sword was knocked from his hand by the force of the blow, clattering to the ground.

He was unarmed, wounded, and helpless.

The Black Knight raised his sword a second time, this time to kill, and began to bring it down.

In that moment, time slowed in Fredrinn's mind.

Where had I gone wrong? he thought. Was I so weak as to fall into this state?

No, he was not. He had survived hundreds of difficult battles.

Was he going to give up now, just because he was facing the toughest opponent of his life?

Was he going to abandon all his dreams, the hope of saving his friends, the people who trusted him?

No. He would not.

He focused on the stone in his chest.

He shared the same power source as this dark being before him. Why were they so different?

There could be only one explanation: he did not fully know the true potential of his stone, how to use it.

In that moment, more desperate than he had ever been, he desired the true power of that ancient stone.

Not just to survive, but to win.

As if in answer to this plea, to this pure and unadulterated desire, the flickering blue light of the stone in his chest suddenly changed.

The color shifted to a deep, royal purple.

The stone shone like a supernova, and this purple light began to spread through his veins like a flood.

The veins beneath his skin now glowed not blue, but an ominous purple.

He felt his body overflow with an overwhelming power he had never known.

He caught the descending black sword with his bare hands.

The blade's sharp edge cut through his flesh, blood seeping from his palms, but Fredrinn didn't so much as flinch.

He looked at the Black Knight with nothing but pure hatred in his eyes.

The Knight, stunned by this unexpected resistance, paused for a moment in astonishment, then kicked Fredrinn in the chest.

Fredrinn blocked the kick but was still thrown backward by the force of the blow.

This time, however, he did not collapse. He controlled his body in mid-air and landed gracefully on his feet.

His eyes, glowing with a purple light, searched the darkness for his lost sword.

The sword rematerialized in his hand.

He took a battle stance.

He was still in the Black Knight's domain. He was still at a disadvantage.

But he was no longer the prey.

He would not accept defeat without a fight.

With this new power, Fredrinn began to feel things differently.

He and the Black Knight shared the same source of power. This bond, this shared essence, now served as a compass for him.

Even though the Black Knight was hidden in the darkness, Fredrinn could clearly sense his position, his very presence, in his mind.

He met a sword strike from his side with unexpected speed and precision. The clang of steel on steel was more balanced this time, more powerful.

The Black Knight vanished into the shadows again, this time sweeping low from beneath his feet, aiming to cut his legs.

But Fredrinn had sensed this as well. He brought his sword down, blocking the attack with perfect timing.

He began to parry the Black Knight's incoming attacks again and again, with growing mastery.

It was as if his opponent's movements had slowed, becoming clear and predictable.

Realizing this sudden change, the Black Knight understood that hiding in the shadows was no longer of any use.

He slowly emerged from the darkness, smoke seeping from the cracks in his armor, and stood before Fredrinn.

He was done playing hide-and-seek.

The Black Knight began to circle Fredrinn slowly, like a predator sizing up its prey.

The second act of the battle was about to begin

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