"Ascension?" Sphairos was startled, but pulled himself together.

  He felt an orb regenerate around his head, he quickly grabbed it and threw it, hoping it would hit Yamikuro.

  However, Yamikuro's ascension activated fast.

  The orb disappeared as the area around them turned dark and purple shadowy arms in different sizes started growing out of the ground, resembling trees and pnts. The moon turned purple, casting an eerie purple light, making it hard to see into the distance.

  The buildings, now covered in dead foliage, stood tilted. Hunters gone from the rooftops.

  As Sphairos experienced the ascension, his body got shakier and shakier. He couldn't get rid of this strange feeling, one he has never felt before.

  Was this fear?

  For the first time in Sphairos' existence, he was losing a battle. He wanted to run, run away from Yamikuro, who stood tall, appearing as a demon in his eyes.

  His body was stuck. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move, forced to experience whatever was coming for him.

  "Impossible..." He whispered.

  Yamikuro remained quiet and serious, reaching out his hand toward Sphairos, small purple hands, appearing from the ground, flowed towards him like waves.

  Trying to force himself to move, Sphairos felt a drop of sweat fall from his forehead.

  He froze.

  Yamikuro hadn't properly made a move on him, yet Sphairos was already sweating, something he hadn't experienced either. With his widened eyes, he slowly raised his head towards Yamikuro, almost as if he had accepted defeat.

  "Is this really it for me?"

  Before closing his eyes, ready to die, a memory came back to him, about his little brother.

  "Promise me. When you get back from your mission, you will train me." His brother said, holding out his hand.

  Sphairos ughed, "Really?"

  "But if you're serious about this, then sure. I'll help you out, you want to be up there with the great ones, don't you, Swayde"

  "Nah, it's nothing like that. I mean, I wouldn't mind that. It's just that I don't want to stay weak forever, and die knowing I couldn't do anything." Swayde replied, looking down.

  Sphairos' eyes widened once again. "Die knowing I couldn't do anything..."

  Sudden strength grew within him, and he could feel himself move his legs, his hands, and his body. Sphairos broke free, jumping high into the sky.

  Yamikuro's eyes followed him.

  "The power of the darkness truly is admirable," Sphairos thought to himself, as he was in the air, "I need to think my moves through carefully, one wrong move and I'm dead."

  When Sphairos nded on the ground, Yamikuro moved both of his arms to his head's level, spreading them apart. Doing that, two big arms grew out of the ground, each on both sides of Sphairos.

  "Die." Yamikuro said, his tone dull. He cpped his hands together, and the big arms followed the movements.

  Sphairos held the two hands apart, trying not to be crushed. Due to the ascension's ability, Sphairos' power was being sucked out of him.

  About to be crushed, and barely having any strength left, he let go of the arms. But that's when Yamikuro grabbed onto his chest, falling on his knees, blood spilling out his mouth.

  The hands disappeared, and Sphairos noticed an opening, attacking Yamikuro when he's weakened.

  "It seems that the side effects of using an ascension are catching up to you. Don't worry I'll make your death painless, suffering from these effects can be eversting." Sphairos said as he started running.

  Yamikuro struggling to breathe, still holding onto his chest, raised his left arm and created a wall of shadowy arms in front of him.

  "I... I can't let you-" Yamikuro started to cough up blood, the pain grew even stronger but he forced himself to keep using the ascension, "I can't let you live... I'll kill you right here."

  "So you're set on killing me."

  Sphairos sighed, "It's fine by me. My mission was to only take the Darkness, but I don't mind this ending with either of us dying, I'm not going back empty handed!"

  Yamikuro raised both of his hands yet again, still on his knees, and multiple arms grew out of the ground around Sphairos, ready to attack.

  Moving his hands around, the shadowy arms followed.

  Sphairos jumped, dodged and ran, as the arms attacked from all sorts of directions.

  Getting hit again and again, Sphairos had enough.

  "Damn it!" He yelled, "How am I losing to a human?! I'm a god! A pathetic one, but still a god!"

  "I promised I'd come back. I won't let this... human toy with me anymore."

  Sphairos sprinted towards Yamikuro, trying to grab an orb out of instinct, but nothing was there.

  Yamikuro, being in an unstable condition, got kicked down by Sphairos.

  The area of the ascension started to slightly fade in and out of existence. Sphairos towered over Yamikuro, with a feeling of victory.

  Trying not to celebrate too early, he kicked around Yamikuro even more, waiting for the ascension to fade.

  As Yamikuro was being kicked, he had enough, raising his hand, an arm, made of multiple smaller shadowy hands, punched him away.

  Sphairos was starting to feel exhaustion, but he couldn't stop. He let out a scream from anger, and lunged at Yamikuro again.

  Neither of them were in battle condition, their movements slow and sloppy.

  Both of them had colpsed from exhaustion, but the area created by the ascension remained.

  Instead of giving up again, Sphairos started crawling towards Yamikuro. He was set on getting the Darkness out of him.

  Raising his head, Yamikuro saw Sphairos. He pointed his finger towards him.

  His thoughts were messy, as multiple voices were talking gibberish to him.

  But one thing was for sure, he wanted to kill Sphairos. Was this his own thought, or pnted by the hatred within him? That he wasn't sure of.

  Sphairos' energy was still being taken away from him. And he stopped.

  Yamikuro didn't. A purple orb appeared in front of his index finger, and it shot out.

  Sphairos in his st moments didn't feel fear, like he did before, he felt pride in going all out for his mission.

  In his eyes, he died as a hero who challenged the Darkness wielder, but this ending wasn't what he had hoped for. He was more like a failure of a hero.

  With Sphairos' head blowing off, Yamikuro passed out, the ascension completely fading, and Sphairos' body slowly crumbled into dust.