?


    -----


    As Maria was shocked by what Julio had revealed to him, her powers and the fusion with Kuro started to destabilize, giving the corrupted Hero of Darkness the best chance to strike her down.


    "Hahaha! Are you shocked?! Angry? Sad, perhaps?!"


    His dark de reached Kuro with the immense power of the Evil God Fragment merged into it! A gigantic, overwhelming aura of chaos surged from within, too fast for the shocked Maria to react in time.


    CLAAAAAAASH!!!


    An explosion of darkness and chaos echoed everywhere, shattering the floor below Maria and Kuro, and letting out countless ck lightning strikes.


    "Hahaha- Eh?"


    FLAAAAASSHHH!


    However, a ray of light surged from the skies, suddenly guarding Maria, and Kuro, as a knight wearing golden and white armor emerged, his eyes ring with golden, holy mes.


    It was nobody else than the Hero of Sunlight himself, who had suddenly disappeared for a brief moment, only to reemerge once more, now with the intent to help Maria, his enemy.


    "YOU?!" Julio roared with fury, his eyes beginning to glow redder as the power of the Evil God Fragment started flowing across his body.


    "Julio, that''s enough!" Jonathan roared, his eyes shining.


    His words only made the Hero of Darkness madder.


    "Jonathan… What are you doing?!" Julio cried furiously. "You dare… You dare ally with these monsters?!"


    Jonathan squinted his eyes to the word "monsters", growing furious.


    "Monsters?" Asked Jonathan. "Just as she said. You are the real monster, Julio! I never knew about this! I never knew you were behind my beloved Maria''s family death! You… I won''t forgive you."


    "J-Jonathan?" Maria asked, suddenly beginning to remember him.


    The appearance of this person emerged within her ever-growing memories. A knight wearing bright armor, that slowly became famous as he defended the Kingdom of Albraun from many threats, she was always at his side, childhood friends that quickly became lovers.


    The man that screamed in agony and despair as he was unable to stop her death, the one she saw crying at the beginning of her life as a ghost… She always wondered where he was, and what was happening with him. And of course, why he cried that time.


    It was him… Someone unable to fight against her fate.


    However, now, he was siding with her, no longer caring about "honor" or "loyalty" anymore.


    After losing her once, he realized all those things meant nothing if he would lose the most precious person in his entire life.


    "You''re… You''re here?" Maria asked.


    "It seems you''ve recovered some of your memories." Jonathan sighed. "Maria, this time… I will amend for my sins! I won''t tolerate their tyranny anymore! I will protect you and everything you love!"


    Jonathan''s eyes pierced through Maria''s heart. Her personality of both her life as Maria, the noble, and her life as Maria, the ghost slowly melded together.


    There were many things she wondered, many things she doubted, yet… she couldn''t help but feel relieved, and happy to have him with her.


    Julio, however, couldn''t simply ept such treason… especially from Jonathan, whom he nned to slowly torture, forcing him to kill his loved one''s allies one by one.


    "You damn TRAITOR!!!" Julio roared, his entire body beginning to shapeshift into a horrendous monster.


    His entire body started growing several timesrger. His armor instantly shattered into pieces as his giant body continued growing much bigger, and muscr. Julio''s body was wrapped around hundreds of ck tentacles, as red eyes emerged all across his body.


    The angered face he had slowly transformed, fusing with the miasma and chaos of the Evil God''s Fragment Powers, his face suddenly growing several red eyes and demonic horns… The Hero of Darkness, a "champion of humanity" became an aberrant monster.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    The de of Darkness he held mutated, bing bigger and more sinister as it channeled the powers their wielder held. Julio''s powerful aura spread out further, growing much stronger.


    "J-Julio… What have you be?!" Jonathan asked, terrified that his old friend, and his disciple, turned into an aberrant monster, a host of a parasite.


    "What? Do you not like my new, stronger form, Jonathan~?" Laughed Julio, his voice bing sinister and monstrous. "This is my truest form! This is what I''ve be to finally match your strength! With this, I am invincible!" Heughed.


    "Invincible?" Asked Maria with a giggle. "You know I''ve defeated several people that thought that when they held that same power, right?"


    "But were they Heroes of Darkness?! Huh, WITCH?!" Laughed Julio, his Darkness Skills and Powers, which came from his Hero of Darkness ss fused perfectly well with the power of the Evil God Fragment, converging into an overwhelming shockwave of power. "[Abyssal Wave]!"


    TRUUUUUUMMMMMM…!


    A wave of pure darkness spread everywhere around, shaking the ground and about to arrive over the city far away.


    However…


    "[Sunlight''s Grace]!" Jonathan roared, unleashing the very power of the sunlight itself into his surroundings, spreading it further and slightly overpowering the darkness!


    FLAAAAAAAASH!


    However, it wasn''t enough. The abyss continued spreading further and further, Jonathan seemed incapable of protecting everything at this point, the attack covered too wide of a range, and if he utilized all his powers, he might risk destroying the city as well.


    "You''ve always been a man that would jump in front of others to sacrifice yourself…" Maria said as her spectral form surged from within Kuro''s body, still fused with him, but showing her appearance while riding over his back. "However, I am not the same weak Maria I once was… [Eternal Moon Mirror]! [Mystical Moon Phase Circle]!"


    FLUOOOSH!


    Maria''s Moonlight Essence merged with her grand quantities of Mana into a single, gigantic mirror made in the shape of a giant moon, which then divide itself into hundreds of smaller mirrors, all reflecting the darknessing to the city, and then… reversing it back to their owner!


    FLAAAAAAAASH!


    "W-What?!" Julio was bbergasted.


    The darkness transformed, suddenly gaining moonlight attribute, and bing a lethal beam of gray and purple light, striking Julio down with a thunderous explosion!


    BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!


    -----