With unwavering confidence in his renewed prowess, Sebastian lunged forward, his fingers tightly clutching both of his swords. He had been gripping only a single blade earlier when he launched the initial attack—the one Diego had so contemptuously blocked with his bare hand. However, throughout the grueling course of the battle, Sebastian had unleashed a relentless series of strategic feints and maneuvers designed for one purpose: to reclaim his rightful weapon that he had lost.
As he felt the familiar weight of the twin hilts balanced perfectly in each hand, a sense of completion washed over him. He knew with cold certainty that even if this impending strike failed to claim Diego's life, it would leave a ruinous toll. He was determined to inflict a wound that defied Diego's regenerative abilities—a jagged, soul-deep laceration that would forever bypass his enemy's supernatural healing, ensuring the steel's bite remained as raw and agonizing as the moment it first tasted blood. The injury would be so devastating that even if Diego survived the encounter, the scars etched across his flesh would never fade. They would remain as a grim, permanent reminder of the day he underestimated the wrath of Sebastian.
***
Diego parried Sebastian's attacks as before, but a chilling realization soon took root. He noticed that Sebastian moved with an uncanny, surgical precision, as if he were perceiving every minute detail of the battle—down to the shifting dust and the rhythm of Diego's breath—with predatory clarity.
Worse yet, anytime Diego lunged to strike, Sebastian had already anticipated the trajectory, meeting him with a flawless counter. It was as if he possessed an innate blueprint of Diego's intent, calculating the exact degree of strength, force, and speed behind every blow to neutralize it with effortless, soul-crushing efficiency.
As the battle intensified, the wounds inflicted on Diego multiplied. He fought desperately to counter Sebastian's maneuvers, but he soon discovered a grim reality: the more he struggled and failed, the more devastating the injuries became. Eventually, the sheer volume of trauma outpaced his regenerative abilities, leaving him vulnerable.
Things took a turn for the worse when Diego seemingly stopped parrying altogether, his defense crumbling entirely. Sebastian seized the opening, hastening his assault and unleashing a strike that severed Diego's arm. Without a pause, Sebastian targeted the remaining limb, striking the hand Diego used to block a blade wreathed in a brown, earthenaura. Representing the chaos element of substance, this power collided with Diego's hand, shattering it instantly under the crushing force.
Soon, Sebastian's onslaught became a rhythmic display of destruction:
First, he slashed across the chest, the blade's blue-black aura shearing through muscle and splintering rib bones.
Second, he moved with eerie speed to dismantle the lower body, systematically deconstructing Diego's physical form.
Third, he targeted the neck and head with such ravaging precision that the entire skeletal structure was dismantled.
The relentless barrage only ceased when Sebastian looked toward the floor, where the tattered garments, shattered bones, and skull of Diego lay scattered. Diego's essence seemed to dissolve into the cold stone, his spirit crushed under the weight of an inevitable defeat that transcended mere physical pain. However, despite the fact that Diego looked utterly beaten, Sebastian remained wary. He held his sword in a firm stance, his eyes scanning the area for any sign of lingering danger or a hidden resurgence.
Sebastian remained there for a long time, seemingly in fear of what would happen next, but nothing occurred. However, after some time—likely convincing himself he was being paranoid over nothing—he finally decided to move away from the place where he had defeated Diego. Just as he turned to leave, his heart skipped a beat; the silence was shattered by a low, rhythmic thudding echoing from the shadows, suggesting he was definitely not alone.
The broken structure, the scattered bones, and the otherwise utterly lifeless Diego lay in the gloom. Yet, in that stillness, a brilliant blue light erupted, casting its glow upward. Suddenly, the chaotic pile—the cracked skull, splintered ribs, fractured legs, shattered hands, and displaced arms—began to coalesce. A figure once consigned to death was rising to reach terrifying new heights. Diego reconstructed himself, effectively resurrecting from the void; his skeletal frame knitted together, and his tattered robes were magically summoned, their frayed edges mending to modestly shroud his reborn, formless frame. Furthermore, a miraculous transformation took hold as something divine sprung forth from within his marrow. Skin bloomed across his cold frame—exquisite, golden, and radiant, far surpassing the beauty of any mortal. He possessed soft, ethereal features, striking red lips, and deep, void-like pupils as black as the absolute darkness of the abyss, a stark contrast to the creature he once was.
Sebastian looked at the transformation in awe, noting every single detail with his heightened spatial awareness, hoping to glimpse the profound secrets of how such a miraculous change had occurred. He had abandoned his battle against Diego to watch in awe what was happening before him, noting every detail and grateful for the rare knowledge he was able to bear witness to.
However, as the light faded and Diego's beautiful, ethereal white body hovered above the scarred land, Sebastian couldn't contain his intense curiosity or the overwhelming surge of adrenaline any longer. He stepped forward, his voice trembling with a mixture of shock and undeniable wonder as he shouted:
[Vampire!]
As for Diego, all he saw when gazing at Sebastian was prey; however, a subtle, unfamiliar sensation remained, a primal dread etched deep into his bones. Despite his new form appearing as beautiful and white as freshly fallen snow, he carried the heavy, lingering weight of past trauma. Gazing upon Maru's castle, he couldn't help but harbor complex, conflicting emotions about the site of his suffering. He recalled dying twice while battling the relentless death knight, suffering grievous injuries while striving to fell the two guardians of the throne room, and remembering how the sand-woman's cunning and deceptively fragile-looking constructs had come closer to ending his existence than any other adversary he had ever faced in combat.
Diego's eyes bled into a piercing, predatory crimson as he locked his gaze onto Sebastian, fueled by a singular, desperate desire to crush his adversary once and for all and finally escape this accursed, dangerous place. He remained blissfully oblivious to the terrifying truth of his own rebirth as a creature of the night, his mind shielded from reality until he finally unleashed his first, devastating strike. The raw power surged through his limbs, a cold, hungry energy that signaled his transformation, yet he was so consumed by the heat of battle that he didn't even realize he had become a vampire until the lethal force of his attack tore through the air.