The battlefield had fallen silent.
Vaelros stood at a distance, his body trembling—not from fear, but from something deeper. Something unstable. The weight of what he had taken was beginning to show.
He looked at Ace.
Not with calm.
Not with superiority.
But with something… uncertain.
"…Ace," he said quietly.
His voice carried across the broken field.
"I'll be waiting for you… beyond the Bridge of Faith."
The name alone felt heavy.
Vaelros turned, his form beginning to distort like fading smoke.
"If you can survive it… come find me."
And just like that—
He was gone.
---
No one spoke for a long time.
The wind moved through the ruined land, carrying the weight of everything they had lost.
---
They returned to Eldoria in silence.
There was no victory to celebrate.
Only survival.
---
Norio was buried at the edge of the kingdom.
A place where the land met the open sky.
No speeches. No grand farewell.
Just quiet respect.
Ace stood there longer than anyone else.
Until the sun began to fall.
---
Back at the castle, the cost of the battle became clearer.
Amagi remained unconscious, his body barely holding on.
Gorath couldn't stand, his strength reduced to fragments of what it once was.
Seris rested in silence, her once youthful face now marked heavily by time.
Tarin sat alone, staring at his hands—hands that no longer held power.
Darian stood by the window, unmoving, his left arm hanging uselessly at his side.
And Ace…
He walked away from all of it.
---
That night, he sat beneath the open sky.
Alone.
The stars above felt distant.
Unreachable.
Footsteps approached.
Isami.
She sat beside him quietly.
For a long time, neither of them spoke.
Then—
"You're going," she said softly.
It wasn't a question.
Ace didn't respond.
He didn't need to.
Isami's hands tightened slightly.
Tears gathered in her eyes, but she held them back.
"…Then don't hesitate," she whispered.
Her voice trembled.
"End this."
Ace closed his eyes.
For a moment, everything—the pain, the loss, the weight—settled inside him.
"…I will."
---
At dawn, he left.
No announcement.
No farewell.
Just a quiet step forward.
---
"…You're not going alone."
Ace stopped.
Darian walked toward him.
Injured. Weakened.
But unshaken.
"You shouldn't be here," Ace said.
Darian shrugged lightly. "And you shouldn't be going alone."
A pause.
"…I still have something to finish."
Ace looked at him for a moment.
Then turned.
"…Fine."
---
The journey was long.
Quiet.
The path stretched endlessly ahead.
Until—
Darian stopped.
"Sit."
Ace frowned. "Why?"
"We're doing the ritual."
"…Now?"
Darian nodded. "Before it's too late."
After a moment, Ace sat.
They formed the circle.
Darian's voice became steady.
"Focus only on your goal."
Ace closed his eyes.
"To end this."
---
When he opened them—
He was somewhere else.
An endless space.
Silent.
Still.
---
A figure stood before him.
But this time—
It wasn't a shadow.
It was human.
Complete.
Real.
---
"What do you seek?" the figure asked.
"To defeat Vaelros," Ace replied instantly.
The figure watched him for a long moment.
"…You cannot defeat him as you are."
Ace clenched his fists.
"Then tell me how."
---
Silence stretched.
Heavy.
Unseen.
---
Then—
The figure stepped closer.
"There is a way."
---
Far away, in the real world—
Darian stood, maintaining the ritual.
Unaware of what was being decided.
---
The space around Ace began to fade.
The figure's voice echoed one last time—
"Walk forward… and do not waver."
---
Ace opened his eyes.
Back in the real world.
Different.
Calmer.
---
Darian looked at him.
"What did you see?"
Ace stood up slowly.
"…A path."
Nothing more.
---
They continued forward.
Until—
They saw it.
---
The Bridge of Faith.
It stretched endlessly across a dark void, disappearing into thick mist.
The air around it felt wrong.
Heavy.
Like it rejected those who stepped near it.
---
Ace walked forward.
The moment his foot touched the bridge—
Everything changed.
---
His mind twisted.
Regret flooded in.
Mistakes he had never made—
felt real.
Failures that never happened—
felt unbearable.
Faces. Voices. Loss.
All crashing into him at once.
---
He staggered.
His breathing became uneven.
"No… this isn't real…"
But it felt real.
Too real.
---
Darian stepped onto the bridge behind him.
His expression tightened, but he didn't stop.
"…Keep moving," he said.
---
Each step was heavier than the last.
The bridge didn't test strength.
It tested will.
It forced you to face not who you were—
But who you could have been.
At your worst.
---
Ace clenched his teeth.
"I'm not… stopping…"
His legs trembled.
His vision blurred.
But he kept moving.
---
Step by step—
They crossed it.
---
At the end of the bridge—
A figure stood waiting.
---
Vaelros.
---
The air around him felt darker than before.
Unstable.
Cracks of energy flickered across his body.
But his eyes—
Were steady.
---
"You made it," he said.
His gaze shifted briefly to Darian.
"…Interesting."
Then back to Ace.
"And now…"
The wind began to rise.
The ground beneath them trembled.
"…we end this."
---
Ace stepped forward.
Darian stood beside him.
The weight of everything behind them.
The fate of everything ahead.
---
No more running.
No more waiting.
---
This was it.
---
And without another word—
They moved.
---
The final battle had begun.