"Linia, Esmeralda, take Mina and evacuate! I'll deal with this guy!" Harold summoned out his Artifact and started slashing at Stephen right away. His Artifact clashed with Stephen's Artifact, which seemed to be just as impactful. Both creating distance between each other, Harold watched as Linia and Esmeralda took a different route to the evacuation point. Mina tried to stay behind and help, but squealed as Esmeralda forcibly picked her up and ran off with her.
Harold glanced down at Ryan and Yue. "So you're Stephen Lyhorn. I never knew you were so heartless to your own brother."
"I also heard about you, Harold Etton, or I should say—Ark."
Harold's eyes widened. "You know that I'm Ark!?"
"A fool would figure that out. With what you've done in the past, it's clear that we would look into your background."
Harold pointed his blade at Stephen. "And? Why would my identity matter to you?"
"That's because the reason you fight for is all for naught. For example, your failure with Kasca."
A name from the past that he tried to forget. The biggest regret of his life and he was being reminded of her once again. "Y-You can't say her name!" His voice growled in frustration as he gave him a rabid glare.
"You're angry at the world, right? Is that why you go around being some shoddy vigilante? Your life always encountered misfortune, yet you proceed to make yourself struggle for no good reason. Maybe if you sat back and realized that working for a change was pointless, you'd be happier."
Harold snapped back to his statement. "And is that why you're trying to use the Stone of Eternity?!" Stephen's glare sharpened upon his words. What he said stabbed him like a dagger.
Harold's hand trembled as he gripped his palm harder. "Using the Stone of Eternity requires the Rysen of hundreds of people to grant you your wish! Was that why you summoned Nevality into the city? To sacrifice innocents for your crappy stone?!"
Anger seeped into Stephen's words as the morality of his plans was set in front of him. "Innocent? You call them innocent!? Out of everyone, I'm surprised YOU are defending trash like them. Slavery, corruption, trafficking, murder, those are a few common cases here in Argon City. Yet, no matter how hard I try, things never change. That's because it's human nature. And if humans weren't like this, she wouldn't have died either." His face turned grim for a moment, which Harold noticed, but Stephen immediately locked in seconds later.
"So that involves killing the people who aren't bad? Not everyone is horrible! I've seen countless people strive to do good every day, so does that mean you should include them in your massacre as well?!"
"Yes. I'm selfish, and I am no different from the trash out there. It's a human desire, and I desire to bring back someone important to me. If it cost the lives of many, I wouldn't hesitate. Humans will do anything to be satisfied, even if it requires the most heinous acts. You are no different, are you?"
Baffled at his outrageous logic, Harold spoke in a shocked tone. "So you're happy killing off so many for a reason like that...?"
"Happy? Do you feel happy right now? With your circumstances?" Stephen added, which put Harold at a standstill.
Was he happy? He couldn't tell. He fought crime in the hope of making a change, he prayed every day that his mother would return, and he gave it his all to everything he did, as that's what he was told as a kid. But in the end, none of those gave him a sense of happiness.
Taking a deep gulp, he looked at Stephen, who awaited a response. "Do you understand now? In the end, life is unfair and will always try to kick you down. So what's wrong with my trying to change it with my own hands?"
For a moment, he couldn't come up with an answer. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come up with a proper conclusion. Yet, he still saw a vision etched into his mind. It was Mina's smile of joy toward him. And that's when it clicked. "I don't need to have a fancy reason to live how I want to live. I just want to make the world a brighter place for the people I care about!" Bolstering his resolve, his blade lights up with Divine Light.
Stephen clasped his eyes shut before widening them again. "I see. That's enough chatting; I have my curiosity answered. I always wanted to see things from the perspective of someone like you, but it appears it changes nothing for me."
Both of them came in with a heavy strike. With their blades momentarily making contact, Stephen stepped back before making a wide horizontal slash in the air. Trailing his blade came a purple particle that turned into a crescent slash. Directing itself at Harold, it began to accelerate at top speed. "Kiddo, dodge that!" Konge warned.
With basic movement, Harold wouldn't be able to avoid the trajectory of the slash projectile. Seeing how fast it came, he decided the best bet was to blast himself away. Pointing his blade to the floor, he charged up Divine Light in a mass before releasing it at once, allowing him to boost over the projectile.
Turning his head back, he saw the slash violently rip apart the academy walls like paper, making a clear view to the outside. Planting his feet on the ground, Harold broke a sweat. "Glad I didn't block with Tavas or else I would've been toast!"
Konge fell onto Harold's shoulder. "I'll be having to help you in this fight personally. This guy... he's on another level than all of your other opponents." Stephen went in with an aggressive assault, unrelenting from his previous attack. Seeing his agile movements, Harold's senses sharpened. "He's coming in again!" Stephen started with a thrust of his blade towards Harold's chest. Harold stepped aside while bringing up his sword to parry it away, but Stephen's Artifact released a small purple pulse that pulled Harold back in place.
The powerful gravitational pull disoriented him for a moment, but Konge's voice flickered in his mind. "Just swipe your blade up, trust me!" Harold heard this and instinctually yanked his arm up. With him yanking his arm up, his blade parried away Stephen's. Countering from his position would leave him vulnerable to being slashed at his stomach, so he decided to keep his blade steady on Stephen's and go in with a leaping knee.
As he went for the leap, a purple ring created by Stephen's palm suddenly struck him. The ring's impact caused Harold to float slowly in the air uncontrollably. "What? Why am I floating?" In the middle of trying to understand the aftereffects of the ability, Stephen released another purple pulse from his palm, blasting him into the academy's courtyard. Smashing through the window, he rolled onto the grass floor. Petals scattered everywhere as the night wind gently breezed through the floral field.
Harold stood up, recomposing himself as wind had suddenly been knocked out of his lungs during that sudden pulse of gravity. Considering the previous events of his body being pushed and pulled, alongside the mysterious event of him suddenly floating, he came to a conclusion. "So his abilities have something to do with gravity, huh?"
Stephen put his foot on the windowsill in the courtyard. "Indeed, I can control all properties of gravity." Harold charged a mass of Divine Light and slashed in the direction of Stephen. With the slash barrelling toward him, Stephen afflicted his own Artifact on himself, imbuing himself with a purple energy. Afterward, he took a tiny leap to allow him to free-float in the air. Casually avoiding the slash of Divine Light, he looked down on Harold.
Charging up another blast of Divine Light, he noticed Stephen imbuing the area above them with a purple ring. "Oi, kiddo, stay on the defense for now, we don't know what he's about to do next!" Konge advised. Then, seeing a shard of glass dart toward Harold from the corner of his eye, he screamed. "To your left!"
Noticing it last second, Harold intensely weaved downward. Even then, he barely avoided it, getting a cut on the side of his head. "Urk!" he groaned. With the pain being induced, he accidentally released the blast of Divine Light, his blade accidentally pointed at the academy's rooftop. With debris collapsing onto the field, he hastened his speed as he rolled to avoid it. As he rolled, he got back up to analyze the battlefield once more. In his observations, he saw another shard of glass rattle on the floor. Harold realized what was coming next as he saw the glass beginning to slowly attract to him. Taking initiative, Harold began running back from the glass. The glass shot itself toward Harold like a bullet, and he could barely react in time. As he weaved his head back, the glass shard inched near his neck before missing.
Looking back at Stephen in the air, Harold wiped the blood off his forehead that blocked his vision. "Damn it, he's making things pull towards me using his crappy powers. If only there were a way for me to get him fast enough before these objects could get me."
Konge fluttered to Harold's inner coat before tapping his foot on a familiar object. It was his frying pan. "Pssst!" he whispered. Harold saw the action and gave a confident smirk in reply. "I was thinking about using that. If you're with the idea too, then I'm gonna do it!" Then, looking around the courtyard, he saw all the glass shards rattle. "I can't do it now... He isn't using the right object!"
Readying to avoid the glass shards again, he prepared to roll in another direction. But before he could move, he could feel an enormous gravitational force push him down. "Argh, what the heck! I can hardly move!" As the glass shards were hurled toward him like bullets, he watched in panic. In Harold's mind, he was in pure conservation mode in terms of Rysen consumption. He didn't know what Stephen was fully capable of, so he didn't want to waste too much Rysen or show his cards too early. However, in this situation, he had to use it.
"Tavas!"
Calling out his favorite adorable red panda, Tavas sparked with ethereal flames from the spirit realm and onto the field. Letting out a mighty cry, he summoned his Rysen Barrier, which glowed with its vibrant red hue upon arrival. With the barrier easily blocking all the glass shards, Tavas looked back at Harold. With the gravity on Harold being intensified, he groaned with all his might to push past the gravity. "Gah! This gravity Artifact is so annoying!" With his body being squeezed harder and harder, he could see in the corner of his eye Stephen squeezing his palm as tightly as he could.
Then, in the blink of an eye, all the pressure was gone. "Huh?" Harold weakly stood up, brushing the dirt off his body. His body was sore and shuddered as he tried to keep himself composed. Seeing a red ethereal aura glow around his body, he looked back at Tavas. "No way, is this from you, Tavas?"
Tavas cheerfully let out a small cry in reply. Running to Tavas, he began giving him pets and scratches. "Awwww, you're such a good boy! You're amazing, Tavas! You just saved my butt from nearly dying!" As Tavas happily mewls from the affection, Konge observed the aura carefully. "It seems to be something that's blocking off Rysen properties. That's why Stephen's gravity powers aren't working on you."
"Sweet!"
"What isn't sweet is that we got a bit too distracted, ya' dumbass!" Konge replied, staring into the sky.
Above Stephen's head was a collage of debris from around the entire academy, smashed into one gigantic ball. That ball was nearly as big as a house, and it menacingly shadowed over them. "Aw, crap!" Harold cried as he built up Divine Light into his blade. "We can't outrun that! Our best bet is to tackle that head-on!" Standing proudly, he built up as much Divine Light as he could. "Tavas, when I slash that thing, take up your barrier!"
Tavas nodded, locking in for the inevitable moment to activate his ability. Tossing the giant ball toward them, Harold slashed downward at it with the collage of Divine Light, clashing against it. On impact, it created a giant shockwave that rumbled the entire academy. "Tavas, now!" Roaring, Tavas created another barrier that secured them from the outside world.
As the dust settled, Harold dug out of the debris with Tavas plopping up beside him. "Luckily, we survived..." From above, he saw Stephen already having a rock readied to fire at him. As Stephen fired the rock at him, Harold grinned. "Do it now!" Konge exclaimed.
"Yep, I'm on it!" Harold sheathed his Artifact at his waist as he dug in his coat. Then, pulling out his trusty frying pan, he whacked the rock straight back at Stephen. Clearly surprised, Stephen raised his hand in an attempt to crudely shield himself, but it came to no avail when he felt it impact against his stomach.
As Stephen descends downward, Harold rushes in his direction. "Tavas, create a barrier in the air!" Complying with the order, Tavas roared, making a barrier platform in the air. Taking the big step onto the platform, he then used that platform to jump at Stephen in the air. Stephen saw him raise his blade into the sky, expecting Harold to do a downward slash at him. "Such a telegraphed attack."
Stephen angled his blade to block the attack, and Harold suddenly unsummoned his Artifact at the last second before the clash. Before Stephen could process this, Harold dug into his coat with swift speed and whipped out his frying pan, smashing it directly into Stephen's face. Harold used all his might, sending Stephen directly onto the second floor of the building.
Stephen went into the lecture hall like a ragdoll, rolling down the stairs all the way to the podium at the very base of the hall. Harold leaped down and ran to the doors of the hall, where both of them made eye contact. Both panting heavily, clearly they were exhausted, but they still held sharp looks at each other. Stephen stands up, trembling from the aftershock of the frying pan to the face.
"Not bad..." Stephen says.
"Y-You're not bad yourself." Harold replied, panting as he wiped the blood off his forehead.