Jenso's attack worked almost exactly as intended. Between the speed and the explosion, Alvios was sent flying straight back into Jenso, but as soon as Jenso began slashing down at the flying Alvios' back, the two swords he had been holding suddenly shot through his shoulders, clashing against Jenso's attack an interrupting it. Alvios used his continued momentum from the explosion to elbow Jenso hard in the gut, and shot a blast of light energy at him with his other hand to get him away as his swords regrouped behind him.

He should have had two holes in his shoulders from doing so, but they were unscathed, and there was not even the momentary flicker of them regenerating or slowing down. It was like the swords had passed through him like he wasn't even there. "Nice try, but my swords are more than just weapons now! Do you ever hear the saying about how master swordsmen's swords are like an extention of their own arms? Mine are a step beyond that."

Jenso slid back, landing on the ground as his feet slid to a halt and the beam of light struck his chest and left a deep wound within it. 'Shit...he's too strong...I don't have enough power..' Jenso thought, glaring at Alvios. 'But if I use my Overheat form, he'll tear me apart before I know it...'

Jenso clenched his fists and began to shake as he grit his teeth in sheer anger. "Darn it...at this rate.." He muttered to himself. "NO...I CAN'T GIVE UP..." Jenso thought. He remembered Lark's words as he was being pushed to his very limit. 'A loss if only a loss if you let it consume you.' he flew back up in the sky, as the flames of his wings seemed to pulsate violently with white light.



He screamed violently, as the flame wings turned white and the flames lashed around violently. Soon after, the flames seemed to focus perfectly like before. His Ki began to spike significantly as his talons turned white as well. As this occurred, a massive amount of heat erupted from his body and spread out across the room. He glared at Alvios as his pupils were now white flames. What was going on? He still looked similar to before, but he showed some features like he had when he was in Overheat Form. 'Wow, it feels like I'm pulsating with energy...what's going on?!' Jenso thought. He looked at his own hands. 'Am I in my overheat form now..? No, this isn't..' He thought, as the deep wound in his chest closed up quickly.

Alvios narrowed his eyes at the sudden change. Did he combine the two forms from before? The speed of the Phoenix form, he was dealing with. The power of the other form though might just brute force his way through his defenses. If he combined both...

"... You're fighting for a girl you barely even know, on nothing but a shred of hope, and you bring out this much power? I'm impressed, even envious, of that sort of blind determination. Still... it won't be enough!" Two of Alvios' swords flew back to the furthest part of the cave, encasing themselves in a bubble of light. Alvios advanced with the other six, launching four of them in various directions past Jenso, while rushing forward himself with two. It would be a miracle to dodge all of it, as they closed in in-time with when Alvios' strike would land.

"Every life matters...even that of the Order of Chaos. Some people are beyond redemption and need to be killed, but not Melina. She deserves to live!" Jenso replied. Jenso seemed confused himself about what was going on, but this wasn't the time to worry about that, now. Alvios was charging at him, and he needed to act quickly. 'Well...I might as well try something..' He thought. He created a white flame whip in the air with his right hand, and released it. It seemed to levitate in the air rather than falling down, and he seemed to have far more control over it.

It grew in length and extended forwards like a snake, aimed to wrap around the flying blades that were intended to strike Jenso from several directions. He closed the palm of his right hand, and the whip would begin wrapping around the blades tighter and tighter, aiming to pull them and group them together and straight-up crush them with extreme force. Jenso himself flew straight towards Alvios with the same speed from before. Suddenly, a burst of white flames erupted violently from his feet, increasing his speed even further as the talon on his left hand dispersed. He launched a rocket punch at Alvios's stomach with his left hand as his fist was coated in a barrier of Arki, prepared to ram straight through Alvios's blades as well if he would attempt to block.

"And where will you draw the line between the deserving and undeserving?!" The blades shattered within Jenso's whip, but simply reconstituted themselves, as they were still just pure energy at their core. As Jenso flew at Alvios at increased speed, he didn't defend himself. Instead, he spread his arms, letting Jenso's blow connect, ramming one of the blades into Jenso's arm before the force of the blow sent him flying backwards, leaving the blade behind.

The punch was more powerful than he had anticipated. Some of the light around his stomach dispersed for just a brief moment, before coming together to repair the damage. As he got his bearing again though, he called back the swords that had reformed behind Jenso, hoping to skewer him from behind. The sword he still held in his left he tossed behind him, forming a third sword encased in a bubble on the opposite side of the cavern. He was setting something up, for sure.

Jenso grit his teeth as flames violently bursted out of his left arm, aiming to straight-up overpower the energy from within Alvios's blade with his own Arki in order to obliterate it entirely. At the same moment while this happened, Jenso sensed something coming from behind. He spun around atop his left heel in order to face the incoming blades, and took aim with his left hand. He fired another sphere like the one before, but it was fired instantly rather than needing time to be charged. He clenched the palm of his left hand as the sphere moved in the center of the group of blades, and another large explosion erupted from the sphere, this one twice as big compared to the one he used before as he aimed to obliterate the blades.

He shifted his body sideways to the right and turned to Alvios's set-up, aiming to launch a torrent of flames at it with his right hand in order to ruin it. Instead, however, he ended up firing a large beam of focused white flames at it. 'Wh..What the..?! Holy shit...!' Jenso thought, surprised by the power of the output.

Alvios scowled, the swords behind Jenso seemingly destroyed this time... until they reformed behind Alvios instead, two flying into his hands and three moving of their own accord to clash against Jenso's blast, the fully focused attack managing to deflect the blast, although it left Alvios breathing heavy. This has gone on long enough... Alvios threw back one of the blades, and the three levitating around him, into their own separate bubbles behind him. He held the last one in his hand, staring across the cavern at Jenso.

"Your new power... it means nothing! I can fight it! And you'll see how now, Jenso! So I give you one last chance... Stop perpetuating our battle. We both want to make the world a better place. We both want to defeat true evils. The Swarm is one of those evils. If Melina lives, we risk the entirety of them rising back up! Spreading like a plague!"

"Surrender, or be destroyed!"

Jenso glared at Alvios, as he began focusing a lot of energy into his left arm. "This isn't right, Alvios! How would you feel, if you were at someone's mercy, and they decided to kill you rather than help you? It's horrible and wrong...even if you intend to do it for the good of the world. The ends don't always justify the means. You don't know for a fact that the whole swarm business will continue...Melina is strong, and can fight this! She may not have been strong enough to fight off the swarm, but she sure as hell is strong enough to fend off the disease that's roaming through her own body!" He shouted back at Alvios. He was also breathing heavily now.



He continued to charge up energy around his left arm, glaring at Alvios. 'I'm not sure if this will work, but...all I can do is give it everything I've got!' He thought, realising that Alvios was about to launch a very devastating attack.

Alvios sighed, before tossing his blade upwards. "So be it..." The seven swords collided into the sword above him, all eight dispersing into light and becoming a sphere of its own of highly condensed light energy. It was no bigger than the orbs before, perhaps twice the size of a normal person, but it was concentrated enough that it illuminated the entire chamber, like a small sun above Alvios.

"Angel's Judgement! BEGONE!" Alvios pointed at Jenso, and the sphere above fired a massive beam of light at him, much larger than where it originated from.

Jenso's eyes widened as the beam headed for him. "This is it..!" Jenso shouted at Alvios, as the massive beam of light headed at him. As white flames condensed powerfully and perfectly around his left arm, a massive amount of heat erupted from it. He seemed to punch at the massive beam as it headed for him as the flames around his fist took the shape of a white dragon's head.

"FINAL DRAGON PUNCH!!!"

He roared, as the dragon's head suddenly launched forwards at the beam, and grew in size rapidly, easily thrice the size of the focused beam that he'd fired earlier. The attack launched forwards like a massive white beam with a large dragon's head at the end, which aimed to power through the light energy from Alvios's attack with extreme force. The dragon prepared to open it's mouth if it managed to get in range of the sphere, aiming to sink it's large teeth into the sphere in order to shatter it, while aiming to engulf and obliterate any of it's remains with it's own white flames from the inside of it's mouth. Jenso collapsed on one knee afterwards, as the flames of his wings seemed to dissipate for a moment before regaining their form. He took deep breaths and was breathing heavily.

"No..."

"NO!!!"

The blasts struggled for a moment. Alvios held both hands out towards Jenso, growling with the concentration it took. When he noticed Jenso's dragon overtaking the attack though, his eyes widened, and he flew up into the center of his created sphere itself, focusing the energy directly. It was enough...only to match Jenso's attack. The dragon and the empowered blast struggled for a moment before collapsing on each other, with the beam of light shattering and the dragon exploding, filling the room with light and smoke, the shock wave powerful enough to shatter a good portion of the crystal walls.

It took a moment to see again before Jenso saw Alvios fall down on the ground beneath where his attack had been, small sparks of light still clinging to his body, but ultimately back in his normal body. He lay on his back, covered in his own blood while looking wistfully at the ceiling above. His normal sword lay in pieces on the ground next to him. He was beaten.

"Is this...what you wanted...Cilia...?"

As Alvios collapsed to the ground, Jenso stood the victor. Milena cowered in the corner, now standing, and limping towards Alvios, silently, ignoring Jenso's brilliant form above her.

Jenso looked at Alvios. He sighed in relief, glad that he had won the battle. He wasn't exactly overjoyed, though. He didn't want his friend to die after all, he merely wanted to knock some sense into him. He fell to the ground and landed on his knees and hands, as the white flames turned back to phoenix flames, and a bright orange light erupted from him. He's gone back to his normal form, and was now breathing heavily as exhaustion overtake him. 'Shit...I can barely move...' Jenso thought, looking up at Pij who was now flying in front of him. She did not fly for long though, and landed on the ground immediately. She looked extremely exhausted as well. "I'm sorry for doing this to you, Pij...I'm not sure where that power boost came from." He muttered to her. The phoenix looked right at Jenso's eyes, and he realised that the bird understood and wasn't harmed from the experience in any way.

The bird flew back into Jenso's chest as he stared at Milena who was limping over to Alvios. 'Shit...!' He thought, concerned for the well-being of his friend. It was possible that Milena had been consumed by the swarm's disease and was about to finish Alvios off despite his already serious condition, or she simply wanted to help him. Regardless, Jenso seemed to be unable to act.

Alvios looked over at the approaching Melina weakly. Was he right after all? What a cruel irony it would be, for him to be killed by Melina. Perhaps he deserved it. He had caused so much pain to the both of them, even after getting a second chance to see Cilia. He wasn't going to fight it. He had been selfish in his attempts to do the right thing. Even after putting all of his conviction at stake against Jenso, he was down.

"Melina...how are you...?" he mumbled. At the end of the day, it had all been because he was worried about the poor girl. If he was wrong about his sense of justice, at least let him be wrong about Melina too. Let her have survived. Even if it ended up being his dying wish.

Melina panted feverishly, but she didn't look anything like her sister. The blotches on her skin seemed to be less intrusive than earlier, and she was lucid enough to offer him a friendly smile.

"I'm ok," She whimpered, "Relatively speaking..."

Jenso looked up at Melina, feeling somewhat relieved. She didn't sound crazy in the way she spoke. "H..heh...that's good to hear..." Jenso replied to Melina. "Please...help Alvios...I can't really uh...move right now..." He admitted. He was still concerned about his friend, despite what had happened between them.

Alvios lay his head back, closing his eyes and smiling. "Heh...that's good to hear..." He was silent for several moments, before opening his eyes and frowning. "How could you...possibly forgive me? After all of this. How could...how could I have lost faith in you?"

Melina shrugged absentmindedly and smiled. "You weren't wrong," She admitted, "When somebody's about to die, they say a lot of crazy things..." She looked over to the corpse of her sister and frowned. "I can't imagine how crazy I'd be if I'd actually died..." She shook her head and nodded. "There's nothing to forgive! Cilia always told me you could back up your pride... I don't think either of us was mature enough to accept our fates... But.." She smiled and flexed her arms, "Turns out our insanity wasn't so wrong after all!"

Jenso couldn't help but smile as the two spoke. He didn't know what to say, and he felt like this was mostly between Alvios and Melina now. Instead, he focused on trying to actually move his body. He managed to move his arms and legs somewhat now. He tried to stand, but he was very slow and careful as he attempted this in order to avoid falling over.