The king’s sword flashed like lightning before my eyes, his sun-like blade piercing through the air as if rays of gold falling from the sky.

I dodged rapidly, my feet appearing as no more than blurs from the alacrity of my motion. With every step that the king advanced, I retreated.

It wasn’t as if he was pushing me back. Not anymore, anyway. Rather, I was simply stalling for time as best I could.

Ever since the start of my journey, my [Darkness] had been limitless, and acquiring too much of it from any other source would cause me to go into some sort of “overdrive” mode that redistributed all the excess [Darkness], boosting the rest of my stats.

It was convenient, and I never really questioned how the whole thing worked. Hell, even when it came to using [Penumbric Conversion], I’ve just always assumed that my [Darkness] was infinite, and honestly, it sure as hell felt like it.

But there’s no way that was the case, right?

After all, if it really was infinite, there wouldn’t be a need to put that wackass formula in place of a real number. I doubted I’d ever manage to actually figure out the meaning behind the formula. Math really wasn’t my strong suit.

But if there was one thing that I knew, it was that the entire formula consisted purely of variables.

x(s+I) = D... “D” has gotta be “darkness,” right? Well, I’ve got no goddamn clue what the rest means, but I’ve gotta be in there somewhere, right?

I had a ton of baggage. That wasn’t something I needed to figure out. It was just something that I knew for a fact.

I was bitter, annoyed, and I hated myself. To some extent, I still do even now. Getting over a decade of suffering isn’t that easy, but I’ve been getting a lot better lately.

And it was all thanks to them.

The burden that I had been bearing was no longer mine to bear alone. In this world, I’d finally found friends who were willing to support my endeavors, no matter how crazy or stupid they might be.

That’s why compared to that baggage-filled me from before... Right now, there was no way that I’d have infinite Darkness.

Even so, I couldn’t keep going all in on defense, especially given the fact that the king’s latest blow would’ve taken my arm off had I not enhanced myself with [Demonic Enhancement] just before the moment of contact.

The impact of the strike had been jarring, but that was nothing compared to the searing pain of blocking that light-filled sword with this darkness-fueled arm of mine.

“Haaah!” The king uttered a shout as he raised his sword high above his head in a two-handed grip. 

I was tempted to dart in and aim a strike at his exposed chest, but seeing as we were standing several feet apart, I had a good idea of what was about to happen. 

Instead, I snuck a peek at my status screen. My [Darkness] stat still hadn’t changed.

My eyes flickered back to the king not a second too late. He brought his sword down toward me in a single vertical slash imbued with such power that it could have split a mountain.

As I expected, a wave of light shot forth from his sword in the shape of an arc that mirrored the path his blade had traced in the air.

It rocketed toward me with incredible speed, but just before I decided to dodge, it happened.

Right there on my status screen, my [Darkness] stat finally displayed a number which was dropping rapidly as a result of [Penumbric Conversion]. My lips widened into a smirk, viciously displaying my canines.

With a single swipe of my hand, I batted the crescent wave of light away, shattering it into prismatic pieces that soon dissipated into the air.

The king frowned, regarding me with newfound caution. “What...?”

I pushed off the ground, blasting forward before the king could react. Six wings burst from his back in an explosion of scintillating lights, attempting to shield him.

Useless.

I thrust my fist forward, shattering them all in a single strike as they desperately shielded their master. The king staggered backwards. In that moment, nothing in this world could’ve stopped my punch.

After all, this was the power that I had obtained together with the help of my friends. It wasn’t something that was given to me by the system, nor was it something that I’d achieved by myself.

At last, I’d overcome that infinite darkness plaguing my soul.

Priya, Lucrezia, Antenora... Thank you.

I exhaled deeply, my attention fully focused on my sole opponent.

My mana levels had reached insane heights after converting the enormity that was my [Darkness] stat using [Penumbric Conversion], but there wasn’t really anything flashy that I could use it on.

Most of the magic skills that I’d acquired were either simple or limited by my imagination. I could probably fire off an even bigger blast than the one that I’d shot earlier. With his wings now clipped, I doubted that the king could manage surviving another one of those attacks.

For a second, I debated actually doing that as I generated a sphere of compressed umbral energy in my palm, but I quickly formed a fist instead, returning it to the ambient mana that lingered in the air.

In the end, it just wouldn’t feel right. If I was going to finish this, I wanted to do it with my own hands.

“I don’t understand... Were you just holding back this entire time?”

I shook my head. “No. I just hadn’t realized the power that we had.”

“‘We’?” The king paused for a moment, furrowing his brow. My response was nothing but silence and a smile.

His eyes shifted, peering over my shoulder and capturing my allies and dearest friends in his gaze. Slowly, his expression relaxed as he nodded in understanding.

“I see. So that’s what it was,” he sighed. “I’m impressed.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“People like you and I tend to find strength in one unshakeable foundation. To give that up would be nothing short of an anathema to our own existence. Yet, you did so without a second thought, and you even hinged your entire strategy on such a ludicrous idea.”

“‘People like you and I’? Sorry, but I don’t think we’re similar at all.”

King Alexei laughed. “No, I suppose you’re right. You managed to change in the blink of an eye, throwing away the thing that was once your foundation of strength whereas I... I still haven’t changed a bit. Even now, I still wish for Alesia to say that she was simply toying with me and that she still wishes to see the plan through.”

“You’re wrong, King Alexei. I didn’t throw away my foundation. I just didn’t realize what it really was until now. I’ve always been strong since I arrived, and I was proud of the strength that I possessed... But in the end, that strength had a purpose. I only needed to realize it, and it sure as hell sounds like that’s where you’re stuck too.”

The king stared at me, confused.

“It’s not that you want Alesia to see the plan through, is it? Everything that you’ve done so far has been in an attempt to save your people, even if you had to bloody your hands for it. What you’re afraid of is that blood going to waste now that Alesia’s dropped that plan of yours.”

We stood silently for a few moments before the king nodded.

“...It’s true. What I did was unforgivable... The blood that was shed, the lives that I took even if indirectly... I did it all for the greater good, but... Suddenly, Alesia shows up with you and tells me that the plan is irrelevant!?” His voice rose with fervent pitch as he continued speaking, his glare now fully focused on Alesia.

“Alesia! You...! Are you telling me that all the lives that were lost because of your ambitions are irrelevant!? Just because you found that damned Hero of yours, you’ve already put all their deaths behind you!? They believed in you, and now you’ve forsaken them! 

"So what if you’ve found the Hero!? So what if the Catalysts no longer need to be sacrificed!? You promised to lead us to victory! You promised to save this world! So why!? Why are you standing on that side, Alesia!?”

I grimaced. Yikes. What the hell did I just trigger?

I glanced back to look at Alesia, only to find her facing the ground. Antenora had a hand placed against her shoulder in a feeble attempt to comfort the former Demon King, but my keen eyes noticed several transparent droplets on the ground beneath her.

The light shone through them, forcing them to hold colorful rainbows that were the antithesis of what they represented.

I couldn’t help but sigh.

“...Anyway, I think it’s about time we ended this,” I said as I turned back to the king.

“Yeah. I think so too.” King Alexei closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before allowing his breath to flow outwards, centering himself once more. 

He raised his still-bright sword toward me.

My heartbeat slowed. My muscles tensed.

I could feel that he was getting ready to make his decisive blow. I tightened my fists, doing the same.

Plip. Plip.

Two more crystal teardrops fell from Alesia’s eyes, the sound of their splashes against the floor inaudible.

The king dashed forward just as I did.

Rubble trailed behind us in the wake of our acceleration, and flesh met steel as my knuckles slammed against his sword.

A massive boom rocked the room, sending vibrations throughout the air. Then, the high-pitched sound of splintering steel interrupted the low thrum of our impact, and King Alexei fell to his knees.

I stepped away from the unconscious king, shaking my head in exasperation at the thought of having to deal with whatever emotional meltdowns were guaranteed to happen after the king woke up. Even so, I was satisfied. With this, we’d have the Ardene Kingdom in the bag.

Though, there was still one regret left.

In the end, I never did get to show him that my darkness could overcome his light, huh? 

...Eh. Maybe that’s for the better.