A few moments earlier, on the other side, where Raym's body lay on the ground, his sword close beside him...
Raym drove the sword into the earth and leaned on it to force himself upright, his arm trembling beneath his own weight. And the moment he lifted his head, the transformed Araki stood before him in a stance that made the soul recoil. Before either of them fully grasped it, that monstrous arm rose, aimed to finish Raym off...
Raym didn't think long. This time, he decided to gamble on something.
"I won't run. I'll answer with an attack."
He tore the sword from the ground with everything he had — well, let's say it was everything left of him now — and as he fed it the power of Light, the blade ignited with a burning glow, throwing off a fierce spark that shot straight toward Araki.
Araki looked into his eyes, and a memory of Zak's old warning surfaced: Watch yourself around the boy with the Light — he's never predictable.
Araki smiled, almost admiringly, thinking to himself: Hm. This boy is impressive. Ugh — if only I'd gotten my arm on you sooner.
The spark struck Araki's body — and didn't even scratch it. He swung his heavy arm forward in response — but no one stood there anymore.
In that same second, a voice spoke from behind him: "Your defenses are wide open!!!"
A blade drove through his body...
Blood began to pour, and Araki pressed his arm to his chest until it was soaked entirely in his own blood — then smiled like a beast baring its horrifying fangs,
as though nothing had happened at all. He seized the blade lodged inside him and began to squeeze, until it started to crack...
Panic and confusion seized Raym as he tried to yank the sword free, moving like an entirely different person than he'd been a second ago...
And before he understood what was happening, Araki glanced at him sidelong without fully turning, and swung his other arm — wreathed in flame...
But before it could reach him, Lorian stepped in front of him, and with one decisive strike of his own sword struck Araki directly, throwing him off balance...
In a flash, he pulled the sword and Raym both back, retreating as far as he could...
Lorian began scanning the surroundings. Everyone was either exhausted or down. Araki was on the verge of his limit — no,
he'd already crossed it, and his legs could no longer hold him, so he sank to his knees, though his eyes toward Raym were still filled with something close to fear...
Raym ran his fingers over his sword, and seemed to speak to it: "It's a little cracked at the top... but it's still good."
Those words, spoken by Lorian, pulled Raym's composure back to him at once — but Lorian himself had reached his own limit,
and was struggling to stand without leaning on his cracked blade, afraid of making things worse.
But both of them had forgotten something important...
Araki's eyes were blazing with pure hatred, and he lunged toward Lorian, who barely registered it in time. Raym cried out to himself, desperate: "Please. Just one more."
And in a moment too fast to measure, Raym vanished — carrying Lorian with him — and landed another strike on Araki, a spark of light trailing behind him...
Both Lorian and Araki looked at Raym with the exact same expression — admiration and fear at once — but Raym stood anyway, against his own body's will...
The instant Raym leveled his sword at him again, Araki's fury surged, and what enraged him further was seeing the blade still coated in his own blood. ..
His expression froze into something terrifying, and he leapt in an instant too fast to see, seizing Raym's right arm and lifting him high into the air...
Raym kicked and struck at him with his free arm — uselessly. ..
Lorian tried to rise, but his body betrayed him. Araki's grip on Raym's arm tightened, and with it came his screams — futile — until the arm shattered completely. But the pressure didn't stop.
Raym raised his left arm, trying to gather Light for a strike, his insides consumed with hatred toward Araki — but the arm wouldn't respond. Only a black aura flickered from it, and nothing more.
And as the pressure grew, and Raym's sense of pain began to fade in and out —
a sound changed everything. The sound of something breaking. Shattering.
Araki smiled and let him go. Raym dropped instantly, freezing in place without a sound. He didn't care about his arm, now nothing but ash scattering in the wind — every ounce of his focus had narrowed to one single thing in front of him...
His sword had shattered into small fragments.
Raym stared at the shards for a few moments, his breathing quickening then slowing all at once, as though he had come unmoored from reality itself.
Araki laughed in his face, as though he'd finally gotten what he wanted, and looked into Raym's dimmed, lifeless eyes. He readied his other arm for a final blow, wreathed it in black flame, and drove it forward in a stabbing thrust toward Raym — whom he now treated as though he no longer existed at all.
But a familiar voice, screaming, dragged Raym partway back to reality:
"RAAAAYM!!!"
It was Lyra, sobbing, screaming like she'd lost her mind...
Raym looked ahead of him, and found a sight he wished he'd never woken to see.
Araki's arm had pierced clean through Lorian's chest. His left arm had already fallen away,
parts of his internal organs burning with it. Lorian gripped Araki's arm with everything he had, unable to turn toward Raym, and spoke in a broken, exhausted voice:
"Raym... boy... I don't know if you can hear me. But I don't regret this..."
He coughed blood, but pressed on without stopping:
"I understood that we both had reason to kill this wretch. But I saw in you a stronger will than mine. Maybe what I'm about to say is selfish — but I've only strengthened that will of yours now. I know it. You're a brave boy, and a kind one, Raym..."
He closed his one remaining eye for a moment, blood pooling at the corner of his lips:
"So I'll leave my purpose to you. And I know, without a doubt, that it's the right thing to do."
He lifted his head with the last of what strength remained to him, and looked toward Raym with a single eye that carried everything at once — apology, pride, farewell — and cried out:
"Raym — live for me!!!"