Sethrak's scythe, glowing blood red, swung at me, the most vulnerable target at that moment, without hesitation.

I wanted to retreat. I wanted to dodge, to turn into a shadow, to raise a wall of ice. But my body had not returned to normal yet.

I did not even get a chance to activate Storm Heart. The difference in power and speed between us was indescribably vast at that moment.

The scythe entered my body right below my stomach and mercilessly sliced me in half horizontally.

My intestines and blood spilled onto the floor with that nonsensical warm feeling. The upper half of my body separated from the lower, collapsing to the ground.

The pain was indescribable, burning every nerve, clouding my mind. My unique regeneration ability instantly kicked in. I used the small amount of mana I had just started collecting in my body for frantic healing. I also summoned Holy Mana.

I did not think my unique regeneration ability alone would be enough to close such a fatal wound. I was losing too much blood. My consciousness was about to fade, my vision darkening.

"CASSIAN!"

I heard Fredrinn's cry, filled with worry and rage. Zagna also let out a painful roar, witnessing the wound his master had sustained.

Both lunged forward to help me, full of concern. Zagna, with his colossal four-armed body, instantly threw himself between Sethrak and me. He began to shield me behind him, like an impenetrable, dark wall.

At that moment, Fredrinn was left alone. He had to fight that bloodthirsty, Berserker mode Sethrak by himself.

As if he understood my worry for him, he cast a brief glance over his shoulder at me. Then, he spoke in a reassuring, determined tone.

"Don't worry, partner."

An intense, dark mana suddenly began to envelop Fredrinn. The pure, dark power in the stone on his chest, which once belonged to the Black Knight, spread throughout Fredrinn's entire body. His veins glowed with dark energy. Afterward, a pitch black, smooth armor began to cover his whole body.

My eyes widened in shock when I saw the armor. This... this was impossible! That armor that once belonged to the Black Knight... was now on Fredrinn. Somehow, he had managed to control it, to use it.

The jet black armor covered Fredrinn's entire body like a glove. In his hand, an ominous sword appeared, looking as if it had been forged from darkness itself.

With a muffled voice coming from within his helmet, he spoke to me one last time. "I told you. I am not that weak Fredrinn you saw in your prophecies.

And you are not that Cassian who helplessly died in your prophecies. We are us. No one else."

Fredrinn pointed his dark sword at the ground and activated his skill.

"Dark Realm!"

In that instant, Fredrinn and Sethrak vanished before my eyes, as if swallowed by a shadow. They left Zagna and me behind in that ruined hall, utterly confused.

There was no information, no clue about such a thing in the dreams I had, or in the story of that cursed game.

Even if Fredrinn gained the power of the stones, he should never have been able to truly use them this way. And even if he did, to unleash the stones' true powers, the Black Knight's dimensional ability?

An uncomprehending smile appeared on my face, amidst the pain and shock. Fredrinn... he was truly intent on keeping his word.

Without me knowing, who knows how much he had suffered over these two months to control the power of those stones. He could have lost his own self, his own soul, by using that power. Despite that, he had managed to control them...

My wounds were very close to being completely healed. My severed body was miraculously about to rejoin with the combination of holy mana and my regeneration ability.

Inside the Dark Realm.

This was the Black Knight's personal dimension, his domain, where there was no sky, and everything was made of pale shadows and bottomless darkness.

Fredrinn and Sethrak stared at each other in this domain. Fredrinn took a deep breath from beneath his helmet. This was his territory.

Attacking from the shadows would be pointless. After all, both of them were currently using the same energy source, the mana of Nerath.

A face to face battle, a pure struggle of power, was enough. After all, in the Shadow Realm, Fredrinn was practically invincible.

Fredrinn lunged forward. His black armor moved in harmony with the shadows around him, making him almost invisible.

Sethrak instinctively used "Blood Howl." He sent a powerful shockwave toward Fredrinn. He expected this to stun his opponent.

But as soon as the shockwave contacted Fredrinn's jet black armor, it was absorbed and vanished. Fredrinn's new armor was almost completely resistant to spells and mental attacks.

The black sword and the twin blood scythes violently clashed in the darkness. Sparks momentarily illuminated the surrounding shadows.

Sethrak slightly staggered from the pure power difference coming from Fredrinn. Fredrinn seized this momentary stumble, drove his armored helmet forward, and headbutted Sethrak's large, dog nose hard.

Sethrak recoiled in pain but instantly regained his balance. He swung his scythe to impale Fredrinn's armor. But Fredrinn caught the scythe with his bare, armored hand before it could reach full speed.

He immediately tried to slice Sethrak's arm with his sword, but Sethrak blocked the sword with his other scythe.

The two fell into a grapple of strength. Fredrinn tried to him with all his might. Sethrak's legs began to bend under the relentless pressure, his arms trembling.

Sethrak took a risk and lifted one leg, kicking Fredrinn hard in the stomach. But it did not work. Fredrinn remained fixed in place like a mountain.

Fredrinn tripped Sethrak's other grounded foot and brought him crashing down. He quickly plunged his sword to impale the fallen Sethrak.

Sethrak escaped by rolling to the side at the last moment as a reflex, but the sword managed to cut and pierce his flesh. Sethrak tried to get up and flee.

But Fredrinn swung his sword again. Right into the middle of his waist. Sethrak desperately tried to defend himself with his scythes before he could even stand up.

He barely created distance between himself and Fredrinn and retreated. He joined his scythes in front of him in a defensive position.

But just then, a sword pierced his abdomen from behind and exited through his front.

Fredrinn also had the ability to summon weaker Black Knights from the shadows in this domain.

Sethrak was caught off guard. Angrily, he swung his scythe at the Black Knight who had wounded him from behind and shattered it with a single blow. He waited for his wound to heal with the life essence of the knight he had cut. But his wound did not heal.

Fredrinn spoke with a mocking voice from beneath his helmet. "What you killed was not alive. If you expect to regenerate here, in my realm... unfortunately, you lose."

Sethrak was trapped. He could not pierce Fredrinn's armor, and he could not regenerate himself with ordinary black knights.

Fredrinn stepped forward and sent a powerful aura wave toward Sethrak with his sword. Sethrak met the blow, his arms trembling.

But at that moment, Fredrinn had already closed the distance. He swung his sword to thrust it into Sethrak's heart. Sethrak frantically joined his scythes in front of his heart.

But instead of striking his heart, Fredrinn suddenly dropped his sword. He clenched his hand into a fist and struck Sethrak with all his might under his chin.

He used the Black Knight's special ability, reflecting the damage he had taken from Sethrak since they entered the ruin back to Sethrak as a single blow.

Sethrak's teeth shattered and scattered into the air. He had not expected such a blow.

His head spun under the impact of the blow. He could not recover. He tried to stand up, but his limbs no longer obeyed him. "Berserker Rage" was about to end, and Cassian's "Void Rot" had finally done its work. He was weakening from within.

The battle was already over for Sethrak.

Fredrinn picked up his sword from the ground and, in a single move, cut both of Sethrak's arms off at the shoulders as he tried to stand. Sethrak collapsed to the floor with a final groan of pain.

Fredrinn grabbed him by his dog head and canceled the Dark Realm.

The two returned to the ruined hall of the ruin. Fredrinn held Sethrak by the head, dragging him like a lifeless body toward me. It was impossible to tell what expression he wore beneath his helmet, but in his eyes, there was the bright glow of victory.

Then, he threw Sethrak's pathetic body in front of me.

"Do you want to gain an ability, partner?"

There was the playful, victorious tone of a commander in his voice.

But I said nothing. With my healed body, I stood up. I fixed my eyes on Sethrak, who was now lying on the ground, having lost all his power. Sethrak also fixed his trembling, bloodshot eyes on me. There was pure hatred in his eyes. But this hatred was not directed at me or Fredrinn. Perhaps... perhaps he no longer even remembered who he hated.

"Cassian?"

Fredrinn called out to me, who was doing nothing. He was waiting for me to finish the job on Sethrak, to deliver that final blow. But I... I just stood there.

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