Nameless King

"No!" Virion exclaimed as he clenched his hand into a fist with a furious expression. Massive streams of blue fire rushed toward the barrier, burning away the cold darkness infinitely emanating from Wain.

At the same moment, blood spurted from Wain's mouth as all of his wounds, covered in darkness, opened. Waves of pain ran through his body, practically exploding his mind, but then all his attention was focused on something else.

'Damn... This pressure is tearing me apart, he definitely wants to kill me... Well, maybe he can do it, I don't know what happens next, but I have no other choice.' Wain uttered to himself as he reached forward.

Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.

The beast tried to escape as for it to lose the shard was tantamount to death. It was its main source of energy that was connected to its body, so if Wain pulled the shard out, the beast would instantly die. The chains trembled violently, emitting a loud ringing sound, but they seemed impossible to break.

"Well, well, you want to live too, don't you? I hear you, but as I said before, at the end of this fight only I will leave here, so everyone else will obviously die." Wain muttered with a deadly ice-cold look before clenching his hand around the shard of the sword.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Space trembled as Wain clenched his teeth and pulled the shard toward him with all his might. He had struggled a few meters before, so pulling the massive shard out of the beast's dense flesh seemed like something impossible, but gradually the shard was coming out.

"Agh!!! Damn it, get out!" Wain shouted as his piercing voice reached the minds of everyone around him and the dark shard came completely out of the monster's body with a powerful burst of energy.

The monster beast's body shuddered as a moment later its eyes became empty and a large red soul flew out, however, it was immediately destroyed by a random current of blue flame that tried to pass through the streams of darkness protecting Wain.

Wain stared at the shard in his hand as his pupils narrowed. It was an incredible sight, and he wanted to enjoy this moment for as long as possible, but he knew he had a hell of a lot less time, about fifteen seconds.

"Fine, it's time for me to get a whole sword!" Wain swung his hand as he struck the shard on the sword, connecting their edges that way.

The darkness completely covered the sword and in a moment Gladius was fully restored. Massive streams of energy emitted from the sword as the blade was filled with many runes, however, now they did not shine as they seemed for some reason to be empty.

"Hah, Gladius, how do you feel? Surely you have an endless amount of strength right now, don't you?" Wain smiled with an excited expression as he gripped the hilt of the sword tightly.

"Hm...? Gladius, can you hear me?" Wain asked in confusion as he tilted his head. He tried a few more times as his eyes went wide.

'What the hell...?' Wain muttered as everything around him stopped as if the world had been frozen for some reason.

The first thing Wain thought of was that the Light Racer had accelerated his mind again, but he immediately dismissed the idea as everything was different this time. Before, the world had slowed down a lot, but it was still moving, but now it had stopped completely.

'Hey, it finally happened.' Abyss Artist said with a slight smile on his face as he suddenly appeared in front of Wain.

'Did you do this?' Wain asked. He couldn't move from his seat as well as move his lips, but he could communicate with him mentally.

'Yeah...' Abyss Artist simply nodded.

'But... how did you do it and why? Why did you choose this particular moment?' Wain uttered while in disbelief as his voice trembled. Every moment mattered now, but Abyss Artist did it anyway, so Wain was puzzled. He knew that the Abyss Artist would never hurt him, and that made it all the more complicated.

'Hah, I didn't do it, or rather not exactly. It happened because you fully recovered Gladius and your soul is already almost burnt out. In reality, you have no more than ten seconds to live, then your body will explode. The Abyss Artist spoke in a careless manner with a calm look as if it didn't matter, even though he was saying such serious things.

'What...? In that case, is this farewell?" Wain's eyes went wide as a wave of fear passed through his body, affecting his mind. He was ready to die in any fight, but realizing that it was very close was scary in any case.

The Abyss Artist was silent for a while before he touched his lips and said with a devious smirk, 'What the hell are you talking about? Have you forgotten that you and I have one unfinished business left?'

'Hmm? Unfinished business? With you...?" Wain muttered in confusion as he frowned, trying to understand what Abyss Artist was talking about.

'When you and I first met, you were puzzled about one thing, weren't you?' Abyss Artist stared at Wain's eyes.

'Right... Are you talking about...?

'Yeah, you still haven't seen my memory. I said I'd show it to you when the time came. It wasn't actually entirely up to me, but it doesn't matter anymore since this is the moment.' The Abyss Artist stepped forward as he held out his hand.

'Wait! Wait! I don't understand anything!' Wain tried to step back, but he forgot that it was only his mind and he couldn't really move his feet.

'Don't worry, that's the way it has to be because right now you're going to understand a lot of things. You will know the answers to your questions. Just watch.' The Abyss Artist said softly, practically whispering as he touched Wain's forehead with the tip of his finger.