As my declaration rang through the air, Rosen moved without a word.
His form vanished, then reappeared at my right.
He lunged. I arched my sword just in time.
His blade skidded across the cloth wrapped around mine, sparks bursting into black fire as it narrowly missed my head.
The impact forced him forward.
His sword cracked, then disintegrated completely as the flames devoured it.
He hurled the ruined hilt aside before it finished collapsing into ash.
Rosen turned back toward me, confusion flickering across his face.
Horia did not react.
He simply walked past Rosen with slow, tranquil steps, as though the exchange had never occurred.
Rosen clicked his tongue and drew his bow, knocking another arrow. "Annoying."
Cradella is a Great Beast.
An ancient existence, older than the stars themselves.
The black rose that marks my family is her symbol, and all her children inherit a fragment of her will.
She was one of the original beings who aided Lucifer in rejecting God, though since then, he has remained silent.
It is assumed that all Great Old Ones are bound to Hell, the place where all things go to hide.
Hell is devoid of goodness and warmth.
It is cold, yet it has no sea. It is burning, yet offers no comfort. It holds both extremes.
The blackness of an icy heart, and the blackness of fiery redemption.
Thus, hellfire exists.
And hellbreeze.
Cradella granted me the power and ability to wield hellfire, not as a blessing, but as recognition.
She hears all thoughts spoken of her, even those unvoiced. I could feel it. My words had pleased her.
As Rosen released his next arrow, my power surged again.
The runes thickened, and the air hardened instantly.
The arrow stopped mid-flight, suspended for a heartbeat, before a pillar of darkness erupted and shattered it completely.
I moved.
I ran forward, planted my foot against the forming pillar, and used it to pivot.
My heel crashed into Rosen's jaw, snapping his head aside as he staggered back.
Hellfire surged after him, close enough to scorch the space he occupied.
But then the laws broke.
He vanished again, reappearing behind me, not by speed, but by rejection. This world simply accepted his will.
I ducked as his leg swept overhead.
He tried to bring it down, but I coated my body in hellfire.
The heat distorted the air, and he hesitated for the briefest instant.
It was enough.
I slipped past him and swung upward. My blade should have taken his arm.
Instead, the laws broke again.
My sword passed through him as if he were mist, then struck hardened air with a jarring impact.
Rosen had severed the concepts of connection and solidity themselves.
The rules embedded into existence yielded to his intent without resistance.
That told me everything.
To defeat him, power alone would not be enough.
I would need something that transcended law.
And the most unsettling truth was this. The World System did nothing to stop him.
No correction. No suppression. No imposed limit.
It allowed him to grow stronger in response to defiance rather than restraint.
It was as though the world itself favored contradiction, as though his only true limit was not the system.
His own weakness was the only thing preventing him from becoming the strongest, how ordinary.
I lifted my sword to my chest and flicked my hair back. "This is the annoying thing."
He took a few steps back, watching me carefully.
"Really? If I recall, the method they used to stop me was quite simple."
He was likely referring to Nicole and Jennifer, but it did not matter.
"I will use another method, a more personal one."
[Nicholas, in all his training, had gained a memory, one that linked him to the great place beyond.]
I recalled it perfectly.
It showed me floating, nearly drowned in a vast and endless sea, yet smiling as flames spread across the waters.
The sea itself was swallowed by dense black fire, collapsing inward until it poured entirely into me.
Within that collapse, something was born. A monster. A true monster.
"Rosen, the monster, it was me."
His eyes lit with interest as black holes the size of a human head formed around him.
The magicae required was immense, and infusing it with sadness demanded even more, though that aspect came naturally.
I always used excessive animae when shaping my spells, and even reinforced by runes my vision blurred slightly.
This was not the end. He tried to move, but a wave of water manifested above us, followed by pillars of darkness enclosing the area.
It was a partial reconstruction of my Inner World. He glanced around with a faint smile.
"This must have taken a great deal of power. Are you feeling alright?"
My fingers trembled as hellfire coated my blade, and I fought to pull the blood back, keeping it from spilling from my nose.
"I am me. That is enough."
I moved.
He attempted to evade my lunge, but raindrops fell, and together with the black holes they warped toward him like bent rays of light.
He dodged swiftly, yet the rain thickened into a storm, forcing him to block with his bow again and again as he narrowly avoided my strikes.
It was impressive.
He chose not to use his Regalia, which made sense, as I was not fully using mine either.
The application I relied on was water, the affinity I inherited from my mother.
Yet this water came from an infinite sea within my heart, meaning even a single drop carried my full power.
Rosen felt all of this and still knew he could win without relying on his Regalia, a thought difficult to comprehend.
Walls were not simple transcendence, nor inherent power increases. One could, though rarely, be weaker than someone with no walls at all.
Walls were shackles placed upon existence by the World System.
To break a wall was to break the world's restraints.
That was why resisting my power was easy for him, and why negating his Regalia would be meaningless.
What use was my negation when weighed against the world itself, against the force wielded by someone bound by shackles.
And yet vastly beyond me?
It made perfect sense to this reality, because reality itself was nothing more than the will of God, His perfect dream.
It was a chaotic display of my power; the battle moved without hesitation, and for a fleeting moment, I felt hope.
I allowed myself the dangerous thought that this fight might yet tip in my favor, even if he was holding back.
And yet, in an instant, that hope shattered, infinitesimally small and yet infinitely absolute.
His blade appeared, thrashing through my armor, piercing flesh and bone alike.
Blood dripped onto the grass, staining it red with the unmistakable symbol of death, and Rosen smiled.
"Die. Become the lamb that is to be slaughtered. Become the lamb that you already are. You are nothing."
The words clawed at my mind, sharp and precise, invoking some hidden knowledge I had not consciously realized.
From that terror, one thing became horrifyingly clear.
My lips trembled as they parted, barely able to form the words under the threat of obliteration.
"Rosen… you surely must know of their treachery."
For a moment, his calm, unshakable facade cracked, a flicker of something almost human in his eyes.
"Yes," he said, low and direct. "I know it all… and it changes nothing."