Through Khorn's sacrifice, the King was finally put down restoring the honor the Berserker has lost.

Although victory assured, the Heartbreak of the fall of his mentor bothered the Knight Lord. He turned his attention to his Arch-enemy, only to see Rio strangling Rex to the point of turning blue.

Immediately tackling the attacker to free his friend from imminent death, he quickly ordered the search for the source of the Silver hand's constant resurrection and destroy it before they are overwhelmed.

The swordsman kicked him in the face, catching him off guard, with a quick attempt of a stab following suite.

Which Kent avoided via rolling to the side, quickly getting back up to his feet. He rushed at Rio, sword in hand as their blades clashed violently, the force of the impact causing the surrounding area to break.

With each swing, parry, slash, bash, and sweep of their blades, caused the throne room to shake and wreck some more. The others could only watch in awe at their strength and speed, an unfortunate Silver hand tries to help only to get cut in half by the sheer force of the airwaves alone.

Rio slashed his blade forward and summoned several blades behind him, causing Kent to jump back.

He deflected three out of five blades rushing straight at him when Rio reappeared in front of him delivering a powerful thrust to his chest. Barely avoiding the strike, he was unexpectedly hit with a Powerful Ax kick on the jaw followed by another on the chest, sending him flying to the Golden throne.

He ignited the Trail Blazer's latent ability to gather kinetic energy to repair itself, growing stronger with each passing second.

Rio immediately summons another sword to his side and charged without a second thought. He knew that he was on his last rope as summoning blades can take a lot out of him but still proceeded to summon a flurry of swords to attack, although like before they were easily cut down.

Thinking of how to end this, an idea popped in his mind as he conjured up the Avatar of the Dark Steel blade before him and ordered it to attack the Knight Lord, It slammed his arms on Kent, the latter barely able to block it in time as he panted.

Trying to keep the Avatar in check while he dealt with the trait, he closed his eyes and used his Phase Shift ability to gain a third-person perspective over the battlefield. Quickly scanning his eyes over the scenario, he found him hiding behind some rubbly trying to sneak around to take Yunno's heart.

According to the Vai'len Forbbiden Legends that he uncovered not long ago, the heart of the Priestess may hold a shard of the Wolf God that contains untold spiritual power and immortality. This will also give him the ability to drain the Mana around him from any Mage across the continent. '

With the Avatar keeping him occupied, he had to activate the 2nd form of the 8 gates, The Gates of Courage. His legs mutating, increasing and compressing muscle mass to a more refined structure giving him incredible speed and agility.

A single step is all it took before he vanished into thin air and after a moment, The Avatar started to break apart until it was no more. While all else was happening, The Priestess was busy providing support to the others, unaware of the danger nearing her.

Rio crept slowly behind her, ready to slit her throat when a strong gust of wind blew him away. He crashed through the last few supporting columns, near what was left of the Throne, breaking several ribs and dislocating an arm in the process.

He scoffed, spitting out blood, desperately trying to stand up as he glared at the Knight Lord. Blaming him for being the thorn in his plans, the reason for his fall from grace, the obstacle to ruling over Vai'len.

Kent approached the downed swordsman, who yet again summoned a flurry of blades towards him, but was once again cut down by the Knight Lord.

"And here i thought that the Swordtaker Clan was honorable... yet you tried to take Yunno's life.. sent an Avatar to finish me off as well... it would seem that your honor can only be seen on paper"

"You! You're the one who ruined everything for me! I had plans and you got in the way of them all! Monster!" Rio shouted, trying his best to crawl away, knowing death was closing in on him.

Kent stopped him in his tracks as he stomped on his left leg, crushing it beneath his boot, a loud scream emitted from the man below as he started to bleed out.

Rio tried to cling to life as he reached the remains of his Avatar, reaching his hand out to grasp it, he felt something grip him by the neck instead as he gets slammed repeatedly upon the fallen pillar. Before The Knight Lord could deal the final blow, the Traitor kicked him with all his remaining strength and got free from his grasp, jumping towards the ruined remains of the Avatar of Blades and using what was left of his magic. He pulled out and stabbed a Forbidden Rune into its heart, the room started to shake as the floor collapsed into the room below.

He managed to land on his feet then realized that the room he was in was the Crystalsis room, the heart of the protective seal of the entire capital. Aisha, Yunno, and the rest of the team quickly followed them into the room.

He managed to catch the two before they landed. Observing the room his eyes widen as he sees the massive amount of Crystalized mana and the fact that this much is so dangerous to the point that the collars of subjugation's effective range could be changed into a global scale.

Kent immediately ordered the team, including the Banshee's adepts to protect the two as they work on removing the spell seals.

Looking around, even more, he spots the remains of the avatar landing inside one of the many mana pools.

With a blade in hand, he grabbed its shoulder and saw that most of its chest was already gone when the sound of gunshots echoing near the room entrance startled him.

Sprinting back to where his team was supposed to be, instead stood a massive construct that was attacking them, infused with stone and several mana crystals all over its body. In the corner of his eye, he could see Aisha and Yunno petrified to see their friend Rio swallowed by his own arrogance, now turned monster.

The creature saw the Knight Lord and let out a mighty roar as he ran and hit him sending him to the wall before Kent could even move.

The latter coughed out blood due to the impact, seeing the shadow looming over him, he doesn't even have time to look up before he was met by a flurry of punches.

"You.. you shouldn't have come back... YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!!" Rio screeched as he pummeled Kent into the ground, the attacks causing the wall to crumble into Kent, trapping him as he felt his bones breaking with it.

Moving his head a bit, he can see the outside from a tiny crack in the rubble, wherein he spots his former friend closing in with killing intent towards his team, those he considered family and loves ones.

His body suffers even more with the poison caused by the Mana around him, forcing the two viruses to go into a hibernating state slowing his regeneration to the point that it's questionable whether he even has one.

He moves around, thinking of a way to get out, clinging to the few strength his body could offer. Cursing his own negligence for the downfall of not only himself but soon his friends as well, the screams fueling the raging anger inside him. Trying to calm himself down as he breathed in and out, he felt his consciousness slowly drifting away from using The 2 Gates.

Kent leaned his head to the side only to regret it as he sees his team incapacitated; Yunno desperately trying to heal the Captain while Aisha is doing her best to hold her ground against Rio, who is mercilessly slamming his bladed arms into her barrier with each strike draining her mana and needing to substitute her own life force to keep it up.

The attacks now going straight to her through the barrier, she was slowly weakening as she felt her life slowly fading while the Barrier finally collapsed, now all of them in grave danger.

As the last resort attempt to save them, Kent called upon the Forbidden Weapon that sleeps within the False One.

The weapon awakens as it unleashes a flurry of purple lighting that tore apart reality, trying to break free from its shell.

The TrailBlazer held its ground trying to contain it as it starts to clearly crack and break when it finally gets released with a blast of purple lighting eradicating his right hand.

He looked back to see the massive sword exploding in a flash of violent yet beautiful light, the explosion causing the entire top of the castle to be erased from reality. The Blade cleaved his right arm before it flew towards the rubble, an arm popping out to grab the hilt.

The impact blowing the rest of the debris away as Kent was enveloped by a strange light, reappearing as if he was brand new.

Rio looked on in shock to see the display of power from the blade, snapping out of it to sprint towards the Crystal Monoliths and absorbed its mana to fire a seemingly endless stream of blades towards the Knight Lord, the Blade retaliating by firing several bolts of lighting that pretty much erased Rio's blades from existence.

The dark mist began to surround the knight lord as a dark voice began to chant The Blade that could rip through the heavens, The Blade who punishes all who dare to fight it, The Blade that defies all reasons. The Blade with a hunger that can be sated, a thirst never quenched a blade that devours all who sin and one that on,y answers to one monster. All who dare to defy the will of the first Champion shall meet fang and claw...

A dark yet warm voice whispered in his mind, interrupting the silence

"Master. I am honored to be able to fight by your side once more..."

"Thank you for answering my call... I am sorry that I only summoned you upon this time of need, let us end this battle together like old times... Blight Taker."

The wielder says with a sad smile. Rio getting over his shock, laughs mockingly, unbelieving of Kent's words ignorant of the power the blade holds.

Readying the True Sword of Malice just in case. Kent stood in silence as the Blight Taker showed him one of his ancestor's ancient sword strike, a skill that could literally end all battles at the cost of his own body. If it was the only way to save his friends and everyone else then it was worth it so he took the risk, following the images inside his head as he stood in a defensive stance, funneling all of his remaining strength to his right arm, legs and hips.

His breath cold as ice as the noise silenced around him, a dark fog creeping in to surround the entire capital city as dark lighting began to shoot out of the sky, time slowed down to mere microseconds as he uttered the words.

"Shadowfire Art... Blight Moon Petal Fall Slash.." he softly whispered as he drew the blade, and in a quick second, the entire capital was enveloped in a bright violet light bright enough to be seen in space.

As it died down Aisha saw Kent with the blade fully drawn and Rio motionless with cold lifeless eyes Sheathing the sword back into his belt, he snapped his fingers causing Rio and the barriers surrounding the Crystal Monoliths fading to ashes but before the Traitor could completely vanish.

He looked at the Knight Lord and mouthed "One day... I'll be back"

"In another world, maybe" he smiled as the Blight Taker devoured the souls of the sinful to suffer eternal torture at the hands of the Warden of the sword.

Before it fully disappeared, a portal opened that sucked Rio's remains to maker-knows-where. The talking blade assuring that the Warden could pursue him and he would never be able to fully recover from his wounds or come back to creation.

With all said and done, the spells cast upon the collars of subjugation now broken as the people be freed from their enslavement.

Before he could walk to them he suddenly fell to the ground as his arms turned violet as his bones were instantaneously broken from using the Shadow fire art.

Yunno ran towards Kent to catch him while his legs failed him as she whispered to him that it was finally over.

She carried him as best as she could to put him down next to Aisha as they contemplated how they would move forward with the war done and although that is true.

They could not shake off their minds those they failed to save or what would have happened if Rio succeeded in turning Vai'len into slaves...or worse.

He sighed as he held the two close to him while they fell to the floor, comforting them to the best of his ability.

Aisha and Yunno becoming flustered towards his actions, going to ask him about his actions when they remembered the oath, a promise sealed bu their blood that remained true proof upon his left palm.

"I swore to you that I shall be your protector, a shield that stands against the storm, the blade that strikes all evil. I shall stand with you to bare all your burden and your sins. For my oath is true to those who seek harm to you, i will care for you when you sre sick and i shall stand with you whether you stand atop the world or below it.... .. rest easy for I shall never leave you, know that i will always be here hy your side. For i am your knight, now and forevermore.."

Closing his eyes to rest for a mere moment as the two in his arms felt his thoughts, knowing he will stay true to his words, him knowing that the two is now safe filled him with a sense of peace.

The Maidens kissed the Hero lightly on the cheek before looking at each other.

"Thank you for everything you've done for us..." Aisha whispered snuggling in his arms.

Yunno smiled to see her sister and the one she loves finally safe and sound as she sat next to him resting her head upon her shoulders.

He took this moment to rest his eyes to recover his strength and enjoy the moment of peace.

Dawn came upon Ren'veil as the capital celebrated their victory the best they could with their current state while the Sky Raider Marines provided medical attention to the injured and recovered their fallen as they were carried off to safety.

Kent sat on the side of the gunship as he watched the capital city crumble as the lake swallowed it whole, looking over the vast landscape and seeing the damage that was done but glad that it was over and the world can start healing again.

Though the road is long and paved with many uncertainties, one thing he was sure of was the rising sun upon the horizon of the free kingdom is absolutely breathtaking.

The dawn came to greet the merry yet eccentric band of heroes of the sky raiders as they were taken to safety.

Though the battle was over the rebuilding of their new home had only just begun they may not rest as their duty is far from done for only in Death does duty end.