The tunnel trembled beneath their feet.
Shards of blue light danced across the damp walls—frost was already crawling in before the figure appeared.
Harvey emerged from the mist, draped in his cracking coat of ice, the mask fractured at the temple.
His eyes gleamed with a feverish madness.
> "You really thought you could run, peasant? The Vassal chose you as a fighter… and me as the executioner."
"Go!" Ban shouted to Arata. "Find Hastur and Efa! I'll take care of him!"
Arata hesitated, then nodded and ran down the corridor.
Harvey didn't even glance at him—his entire focus was locked on Ban.
Ban slowly raised his head. The violet glow of his Anima rippled within his pupils.
Around him, the walls shuddered—as if they were breathing in the rage and fear that filled the air.
> "No, Harvey. You're the one who doesn't get it. You're not an actor anymore… you're just a puppet."
A silence. Then came the cold.
The temperature plummeted. Moisture in the air froze instantly.
Harvey took a single step forward, leaving a line of ice in his wake.
> "Cryo-Blade."
A translucent sword formed in his hand, the metal shrieking as he lifted it.
Ban clenched his fists. The air itself vibrated with a dark hum.
A violet mist spread around him, pulsing like a heart—each breath, each trembling fear in the tunnels feeding his power.
---
Their silhouettes collided.
> Clang!
CRAAASH!
The impacts echoed like trapped thunder.
Harvey's strikes were fast, precise—cold and mechanical.
Ban barely dodged, absorbing the shockwaves.
Every swing split the air, shattering into sharp fragments of frost.
> "See, Ban? The King created a perfect world. No emotion. No pain. A beauty born of cold."
Ban laughed, spitting blood.
> "Perfect? You call this perfect? Look at yourself. You don't even remember how to breathe without permission."
Harvey gritted his teeth.
> "Mirror of the Tormented!"
Behind him, a dozen mirrors of ice erupted, reflecting Ban from every angle—some laughing, some screaming, others begging.
The reflections stepped out of the glass, wielding twisted versions of Ban's own body.
Ban closed his eyes for a heartbeat.
Then opened them again—two violet circles blazing.
> "Violet Anima – Emotional Conversion."
A shockwave burst forth.
The reflections screamed as they cracked and melted, swallowed by vibrating light.
---
The battle escalated.
Each step shook the ground. Each blow shattered the air.
Ban charged, fists wrapped in pulsing darkness.
He struck—Harvey blocked, but his Anima faltered.
Cracks spread across the ice, trembling like broken glass.
> "What did you do to me?!"
"I just made you human again."
Harvey stumbled back, fury twisting his face.
> "Frozen Heart!"
The air thickened, heavy and suffocating.
Around him, a dome of freezing cold expanded, slowing everything—
Even Ban's heartbeat.
His breath crystallized midair. His movements dulled, stiffened. The frost crawled up his veins.
> "It's over. The King doesn't need rebels."
Ban fell to one knee, lips turning blue.
But a faint, broken laugh escaped his throat.
> "The King… doesn't need me… but I do."
His Anima ignited.
Purple darkness erupted—rage, despair, and grief intertwined.
The emotions of every lost soul in the tunnels surged into him.
The frost dome cracked apart.
> "Violet Anima – Song of the Void!"
A wave of violet light exploded through the tunnel.
The mirrors shattered. The cold burst apart.
Harvey was thrown backward, crashing into a steel column.
---
Harvey, gasping, lifted his head.
His mask slipped, revealing half his face—an eye startlingly human, pale blue.
> "You think… you've won? The King… still guides me."
He raised his bleeding arm.
> "Tears of the King!"
From the ceiling, shards of crystal rain fell, each drop chiming like a funeral bell.
Ban crossed his arms, absorbing the storm—his violet energy fused with the ice shards.
Reality itself seemed to warp under the pressure.
A silence.
Then Ban whispered, voice hoarse but steady:
> "Harvey… stop fighting what you feel. It's not the King who controls you. It's your fear."
Their gazes met.
The moment froze.
The rain of ice halted midair—then shattered all at once.
When the dust settled, the tunnel was scorched, covered in violet ash and fractured frost.
Ban leaned against a cracked wall, panting, his skin burned and frozen at once.
> "It's… over," he murmured, half-believing it.
But a sound answered—a crack.
The debris stirred.
A faint blue glow crawled across the ground, slithering toward the shadows.
Harvey.
Broken, mask half-gone.
A grin—almost human—twisted his mouth.
> "Not yet… Ban. The King won't let me die until the curtain falls."
He lifted his trembling hand.
Veins glowed blue beneath his skin.
> "Third Act: Absolute Frost – Throne of Crystal!"
The ground erupted with circular runes, carved in ice.
Cold rose so fast that the air itself fractured into light.
Even light began to freeze.
Ban tried to move—but his body locked up.
Harvey had forced a synchronization, binding frost to the violet Anima.
A vast spiral formed between them, half-ice, half-chaos.
The entire tunnel quaked.
Harvey stepped forward, eyes gleaming with divine madness.
> "You said I was a puppet? Look closely—now, I become the King."
Ban gritted his teeth, blood trailing from his jaw.
> "The King, huh? Then you inherit his madness too."
He slammed his hand to the ground.
A surge of violet burst outward, shattering the frost for meters around.
> "Second Veil – Devourer of Shadows!"
Arms of shadow burst from the earth, seizing and pulverizing the ice.
The shockwave tore open the tunnel walls, revealing side chambers glowing gold—the forgotten ruins of the old Theater.
---
The battlefield had become a cathedral of ruin—half ice, half nothingness.
Harvey raised his sword, gleaming with pure frost.
Ban stepped forward, violet rings orbiting his fists like distorted halos.
> Harvey: "I fight for perfection. For order. For silence."
Ban: "And I fight for imperfection. For screams. For the beating hearts you can't stand to hear!"
They charged.
> BOOOOOOM!
The ground exploded.
Streaks of violet and blue tore through the cavern.
Each impact birthed thunder. The air fractured.
Even sound struggled to exist.
Harvey staggered—his blade disintegrating.
Ban roared:
> "Third Veil – Awakening of the Violet Void!"
His body was engulfed in a living armor of swirling energy—half matter, half emotion.
The despair, fear, and rage of the tunnels poured into his strikes.
Desperate, Harvey unleashed his ultimate frost.
> "Cryo-Crown of the Yellow King!!"
A golden halo of ice appeared behind him, firing shards of frozen lightning.
Invisible voices screamed—the echoes of those he had frozen alive.
> "Those voices! They're the ones you trapped!" Ban shouted.
"Silence is peace!"
"No. Silence is death. And I bring life back to it!"
---
They struck at once.
Violet and blue collided.
Reality shattered.
The walls melted into a circular stage—a true theater.
Around them, faceless spectators clapped slowly, endlessly.
Harvey gasped.
> "See? Even the King watches. The show is perfect."
Ban lowered his eyes.
A single tear fell, glowing faintly purple.
> "If this is your theater… then I'll burn it down."
He leapt.
> "Fourth Veil – Catharsis of the Void!"
A blinding explosion consumed the stage.
The spectators vanished into dust.
Harvey screamed, his Anima cracking apart.
His golden halo shattered into frozen fragments.
With a final, trembling cry, he raised his hand.
> "You don't understand! The King saves us from ourselves!"
Ban grabbed him by the collar, their faces inches apart.
> "No, Harvey. He just stole your heart."
And he struck.
The final blow.
A straight punch to the chest.
Violet light pierced the frost.
Harvey's mask shattered—fragments swirling like snow.
---
Harvey collapsed to his knees, breath shallow.
The cold faded away.
His eyes, human once more, looked up at Ban—softly.
> "I… remember… the cold before the King. My sister…"
> "Then you can still come back, Harvey."
> "No. The curtain… must fall."
A faint smile.
Then silence.