In the lecture hall, Harold and Stephen both maintained eye contact. Their earlier exchange tired made them catch their breaths amidst battle. Tavas fizzled back into the spirit realm after Harold unsummoned him.
"Don't let him gather his strength back!" Konge exclaimed.
Harold charged, sending off a slash of Divine Light. "Yeah, I know!" The Divine Light trailed as it plowed through the entire lecture hall in Stephen's direction. Stephen flicked his finger into the sky, making a chair in the lecture hall to propel into him. Using that flying chair, he latched onto it and began surfing on it, turning it mid-air to send himself toward Harold.
Seeing Stephen in the air, he charged more Divine Light into his blade. Stephen kept up the same energy by imbuing a gravitational force onto his blade as well. "Come at me, Harold Etton." He leapt off the chair and began his descent with his sword, readied to slash. The moment was quick, but Harold was nimble. He slashed his sword alongside Stephen, causing their blades to clash with their attacks. The impact created a shockwave that pushed the chairs in the lecture hall away.
Landing on his feet, Stephen hurled his leg forward with a sharp kick to Harold's abdomen. The blow was sudden and unexpected to Harold, and it knocked him far into the scattered chairs of the lecture hall. Stephen trekked forward to Harold to what used to be a row of neatly placed chairs.
Harold recomposed himself and saw Stephen's second attack, a wind-piercing stab to his body. Harold quickly leaped back, parrying his sword for last-second measure. Stephen flicked his finger again, this time pulling a chair from behind Harold to fling at him. Sensing this, Harold ducked with urgency, avoiding the chair but not realizing the attack to come next. Stephen slashed downwards at the chair, splitting it in half, but also using that to disguise his slash towards Harold.
He failed to see past this and barely reacted to the slash. It nearly reached his neck as his sword slammed onto the left side of Harold's collarbone. Groaning in pain, Harold recoiled by jolting his legs upward and took a huge backstep. Konge's eyes widened. That cut was pretty deep and nearly lethal. "Oi, Harold, are ya' alright?!"
Harold gritted his teeth as the pain rippled through his body. "No! I'm not alright!" he cried as he pushed himself to go on the assault. He shot a blast of Divine Light from the tip of his sword, which Stephen parried away at the last second. Swerving his sword amidst their blades touching, he re-angled it to aim at Stephen's head. On reaction, Stephen weaved out of the crossfire and thrust with his sword.
"Now!"
Harold lifted his leg, kicking with all his might. It was an interruption that stopped Stephen's counterattack altogether, staggering him back a couple steps. "That was for earlier..." Harold said with a trembling grimace. He held onto his collarbone, feeling the blood trickle down his chest. Stephen recomposed himself from the unexpected blow, spitting out blood and a broken tooth.
Fighting with one arm his entire time has been quite a setback for Harold. He had to quickly readjust his fighting style, even if it wasn't perfect. And with the previous exchange, it proved very costly. And from here on out, he was on the losing end of the stick. His wound was bleeding a lot, and he didn't have a chance to patch it up. He gripped his wound harder, trying to slow the bleeding as best he could.
"Harold, dodge!" Konge hollered.
Snapping out of his pain, he saw it too late. It was the podium from the lecture hall, hurling itself upwards into Harold's body. Taking him against his stomach, it blasts itself high into the air before smashing him into the roof. The force was powerful, so severe that it smashed him straight through the roof and made him go right into the third floor of the academy. The podium finally released its gravitational force, collapsing alongside Harold onto the hard wooden floor. He was now in the academy's library, gasping for air as the wind was knocked out of his lungs. "Urrgghhh..." he groaned, feeling like his lungs collapsed in themselves.
Konge fluttered in front of his face as he was on the floor, writhing in pain. "Harold, Harold!" he yelled with all his might, but his voice wasn't reaching him. Harold was tense, his body shuddering as he tried to bear through the pain. He wasn't listening to Konge since it was the least of his concerns. He was descending into loss at an incredible rate, and his fears of losing were growing by every second. "Am I really gonna die here? I don't have any healing potions, and I'm in unimaginable pain! I-I can't think of a way to escape this situation!" Harold was never the strongest around. Whenever things got tough, the best thing he could do was escape when things got sticky. Currently, he cannot, though. He has so many things piling up in his mind, trying to outweigh the other in terms of whether he should escape or stay and fight.
Floating into the library through the hole that was created, Stephen steps on the other side of the massive crater, facing Harold. "It seems you're finally at your limits."
Harold, writhing on the floor, grit his teeth as he scowled at Stephen.
"Thinking about it, if you weren't so selfless, you wouldn't be in this situation."
"What are you talking about?!"
"I used to be like you. I strived to help others with all my power, but in the end, it was futile. I gave my heart to the world, and in the end, the world took away the most important thing to me. So why should you care about it?"
"I-I'm not like you! I'm trying to make the world a better place by stopping evil people like you!"
"You are like me, we're very similar. It's because we faced a similar dilemma. I failed to save someone important to me, like how you failed to save Kasca Evergreen.
Harold's eyes widened. "S-Stop mentioning her name..."
"Or what? I remember that incident years ago. I was there at the crime scene. A young boy who fought the holy church to kidnap the Saintess. That incident was buried in history after it involved the plan to sacrifice the Saintess. In the end, you failed to save her from the clutches of duty."
Stephen pointed his Artifact at Harold. "Now, the same thing is going to happen again, Harold Etton."
His breathing quickened, and the echo of Stephen mentioning his failures overrode his mind. "Kasca..." Panic set in as his chest grew heavy. "Is it going to happen again...? Are they going to take Mina now?!"
Images of the old face flickered in his mind. She was a beautiful person—her existence was like a shooting star. He loved her with all his heart, but when it came to saving her, his best wasn't enough. It was the same. His exact situation is just like the one from the past. He tried to bury these memories away, but Stephen reminded him of them.
Then he felt it: the slap of a feathery wing. His eyes widened in shock as the sensation brought him back to reality. He was then slapped again, and then again. Konge repeatedly slapped him until he came back to his senses. "Listen to me! You're getting your ass kicked right now!"
"I-I know..."
"At this rate, you're really going to die, you fucking moron! You need to stop crying about your pain and stand up!"
Harold's lips quivered as he grasped his wound. He couldn't see a path to victory in his circumstances. His wound took too much energy from him, and his determination smothered his drive. "I'm trying my best... but at this rate, I'll really lose."
Konge fluttered in front of his eyes, gazing at the anguish on Harold's face. Konge almost spoke with a spurt of anger, his mouth gaping open, before halting last second. Taking a deep breath, he recomposed himself. "Harold, listen. I'll be honest, you're a fuckin' LOSER!"
"What-"
"You push yourself for others, you try your best in life, and most of all, you have the most genuine heart I've ever witnessed in a human being. Yet, there's one glaring weakness you have." Konge took a pause, slowly raising his wing to aim it at Harold. "You. You're the weakness."
Harold's eyes widened at the fact. "I'm the weakness...?"
"You believe in others, you believe in the world, but you don't believe in yourself! You're able to do so much more if you push yourself as you do for others, but you're held back by the horrors of your past. So come back to the present, you moron."
Harold laid speechless. The self-realization in the spur of the moment hit him like a bullet.
"You are the most qualified to use the Artifact of Divinity, and you are the most qualified to be the next king of Yula Kingdom! So lift your head up, Harold Etton!"
"Konge, I-"
Konge cut him off, reminding him of a crucial detail. "Do you remember what was used to unlock your Artifact, the Artifact of Divinity?"
Harold paused. Then, the words fluttered out of his mouth. "Hope."
"That's right, so believe in yourself and muster the hope to prevail this!"
Harold's Artifact began to shine. The blade radiated a bright, warm light that filled the library. "It's... evolving. Could my theory be true? Every user of the Artifact of Divinity manifests a new ability when soulbinding with it. Harold, on the other hand, didn't, and instead used the powers of the previous users. The ability of the first king of the Yula Kingdom, Divine Light, and the ability of the second king, access to the spirit realm. I've always speculated he had this ability, but I wasn't able to confirm it until now."
As Harold stood, he pushed past the pain until he could nearly feel his blood vessels pop. And to Konge's surprise, what he witnessed after Harold stood turned him speechless. A presence of Divine Light emerged beside Harold. It planted its hand on Harold's shoulder as he looked ahead to Stephen.
"You've come to realize it now. The thing that was needed to unlock the path for greater heights. It was hope." It spoke.
His Artifact flickered a light before engulfing itself in flames of pure white color. As soon as the flames emerged, the presence dispersed. Harold observed his Artifact in his hand, entranced by the beautiful white flame that glowed. Konge was baffled at the sight of it all. "What was that figure?! And that ability Harold is wielding! That's the ability of the sixth king of the Yula Kingdom, Divine Flames! If Harold can wield this as well... that means it's true! He had an ability this entire time, and that's to be able to use the powers of the previous users of Grand Radiance!"
The flame engulfed Harold, which made him panic momentarily, but he stopped seconds later. "My body feels stronger. And also-" he touched his wound on his shoulder. It was closed off. The gentle white flames had automatically cauterized the wound. "What's this fire?"
Konge perched on his shoulder. "That's Divine Flames, used by the sixth king of Yula Kingdom! Unlike other flames, you can manipulate it to decide how it functions. It's pretty much fire with a mind of its own! And the best part of it, since it's made of Holy Rysen, you have the choice to give blessings of power to things."
Harold did notice his body moving more fluently after the flames engulfed him. Even though moments prior, his body felt like it was being weighed under the ocean floor. "Careful, Harold. Even if you are moving better, all the flames are doing is enhancing your physical capabilities. Your injuries are still there, it's just your body can garner enough strength to move fluidly." Konge warned.
"So I just gotta beat Stephen before these Divine Flames run out, right?"
"Yeah."
Harold took his stance with a confident smile. "Then let's do this, Konge!"