Chapter 225: Too Late
Red didn’t hesitate for even a fraction of a second as his sword came down with full force. The motion was clean and decisive as it cut through the air toward Michael’s exposed body.
In that moment Michael didn’t raise his weapon fast enough because something inside him had already begun to collapse under the weight of everything pressing down on his mind and heart, leaving him staring upward with fading focus as the blade descended.
The impact landed across his chest with brutal force. The edge tearing through his flesh as his body jerked violently against the ground.
A thick mouthful of blood burst from his mouth as the pain finally broke through the haze and dragged him back into reality, but it came too late to matter.
His grip loosened further as the strength drained from his arms. The spear slipped slightly in his hold while his breathing turned shallow and uneven, each breath was heavier than the last as the sensation of his life slipping away became clearer with every passing second.
For the first time since the battle began he no longer felt the overwhelming rage that had consumed him earlier because it had already faded into hollowness and emptiness, leaving behind only the crushing weight of regret that filled the space it once occupied.
"I... failed..."
The thought surfaced weakly as his vision blurred and his eyes struggled to stay open. But even in that fading state his mind reached back to the one thing that had driven him this far, dragging the image of her into view once again with painful clarity as if the world itself forced him to face it one last time.
He saw her face.
The fear in her eyes.
The way she reached out toward him.
"I couldn’t save you..."
His chest tightened as more blood slipped from his lips. His body trembling faintly as reality settled deep into him, heavier than any wound Red had inflicted.
"I couldn’t protect you... I couldn’t avenge you... I brought them here... and now they’re dying because of me..."
The battlefield echoed faintly in his ears, distant and distorted, filled with the fading sounds of his own people dying one after another. That realization dug deeper than anything else as it twisted through his mind.
"If I didn’t chase this... if I didn’t drag them into this... they would still be alive..."
His eyes shifted upward again, locking onto the figure standing above him.
Red.
The man who destroyed everything.
And yet even now, at the end of it all, he couldn’t bring him down.
"I couldn’t even kill him..."
Regret flooded through him completely as his vision dimmed further. His body grew colder against the ground while the strength to move or resist slipped away entirely, leaving him staring helplessly at the one person he had sworn to kill.
Red raised his sword again.
At that moment, a black short sword cut through the air from the side with sudden and explosive speed.
The blade slammed into Red’s incoming strike at the last possible moment.
The collision erupted with a violent shockwave that blasted in all directions, tearing through the surrounding ground as dust and debris exploded into the air around them.
The impact forced Red’s arm to stop as his serrated purple short sword locked against the black blade, the two weapons grinding against each other with sparks of Ether bursting between them as the force of the clash pushed everything nearby away.
Red’s eyes snapped toward the source instantly. His expression twisting as the interruption broke the flow he had completely controlled just moments ago.
Myles stood there.
His teeth clenched tightly, his arm extended forward as he held the black short sword against Red’s weapon. The force of the clash still trembled through his body as the air around them distorted from the impact.
His eyes locked onto the scene in front of him.
Michael on the ground. Blood everywhere. That attack had already landed.
Myles’s jaw tightened further as the realization settled in. He was too late.
Red’s gaze locked onto Myles the moment the clash stabilized, and for a second his expression froze as if measuring the interruption that had just cut into his momentum.
But then something inside him changed again as the tension in his face loosened and slowly twisted into a grin that spread wider with each passing breath.
The earlier rage melted into a far more unhinged and excited state as his lips pulled back while his eyes gleamed with renewed interest.
"Hahaha..." The laughter came out rough and uneven at first before growing louder, echoing across the shattered ground around them as his shoulders shook slightly with the sound. "You came at the perfect time. I was just starting to run out of prey."
His grip tightened on the serrated purple short sword as he leaned forward a little, his gaze fixed entirely on Myles now.
The words carried a sharp edge of anticipation as if everything that had just happened with Michael had already been cast aside in favor of something new, something more engaging that stood right in front of him.
Myles didn’t respond.
His jaw remained clenched as his grip on the black blade tightened. The Fangblade vibrated faintly in his hand as if reacting to the surge of Ether around them. The moment stretched before both of them moved at the same time.
Their blades collided again.
The black edge of Fangblade met the jagged purple steel with explosive force as a burst of Ether sparks erupted from the point of impact, scattering into the air like fragments of light while the shockwave from the clash rippled through the ground beneath their feet. Cracking what remained of the already shattered surface.
Red twisted his wrist and shifted his angle immediately, dragging his blade along Myles’s weapon before snapping it back into another strike that came from a tighter angle aimed toward Myles’s side.
But Myles adjusted just as fast as he pivoted his body and brought Fangblade across to intercept.
The two weapons slamming together again with another violent burst of sparks that lit the space between them.
They didn’t slow down.
Each clash came faster than the last as Red pressed forward with aggressive and erratic strikes. His movements carried that same unstable intensity that defined him. While Myles met each attack with precise and controlled motions that cut through the chaos with sharp efficiency. His blade moved in clean arcs that deflected and redirected every incoming strike without wasting movement.
Blade met blade again and again. Sparks exploded in rapid succession.
The air between them filled with the sharp ringing of metal colliding as Ether surged with every impact, distorting the space around their weapons.
The pressure from their exchange spread in visible waves that pushed dust and debris away from the center of their clash.
Red grinned wider with every strike.
Myles’s eyes remained steady.
The battlefield around them faded into the background as the fight between them intensified. Their movement carried more force, more speed, and more intent than the last as the collision between the Fangblade and the serrated purple sword continued to erupt with violent bursts of Ether that lit the air with every clash.
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