Chapter 31:

  "The Clash of Titans"

  Arc 3: Chapter 10

  POV: "???" + Alfredo Lighting

  The blast of power that erupted in the center of the kingdom made everything tremble—walls, foundations, and perhaps reality itself. At the epicenter, Bruce and Alfredo faced each other, two monuments of power colliding in silence. Fencer watched the clash with surgical attention, every muscle tense, every movement of the combatants dissected by his analytical eyes.

  Flávio, however, stood paralyzed before another sight. His gaze fixed on Amanda Graymon, who held a shimmering barrier in front of them. The effort was visible on her face, but she remained firm.

  “How are you holding that up?” Flávio asked, voice mixing admiration and concern.

  Fencer, in turn, finally seemed to grasp the full extent of the danger. His eyes widened slightly.

  “We need to leave,” he said, and the statement sounded so abrupt, so strange coming from him, that Amanda and Flávio stared at him in confusion.

  “I know it seems…” he began, but Flávio had already processed the information.

  “Okay, we should go,” Flávio agreed.

  Amanda focused on maintaining the crystalline shield before them, but small cracks were beginning to spread across its surface, like spiderwebs made of fragile light. The power emanating from those two men was so immense that even pure magic was fracturing.

  Before she could do anything, it happened.

  Bruce and Alfredo shot away from there like comets on a collision course, a burst of light dragging them out beyond the kingdom’s walls with uncontrollable violence. It was a jet of luminous power so intense that it carried the two warriors within it. Everything in their path was destroyed—most notably a section of the wall, which crumbled like paper. The wave of destruction swept through the commoners’ houses, who barely had time to see the light before their homes disintegrated.

  When Luna finally emerged from the prison, the scene before her was one of complete devastation. She understood instantly.

  “Shit!” she exclaimed. “Right now?” she added, fists clenched.

  Without hesitation, she channeled her light and followed the trail of destruction toward where Bruce and Alfredo surely were.

  Raphadun emerged from under the rubble, coughing and shaking off dust.

  “Shit!” he muttered, hand to his head where a trickle of blood ran. “What happened?”

  Even dazed, he got to his feet and headed in the opposite direction from where the blast had come.

  On the other side of the plaza, Fencer, Amanda, and Flávio rose among the wreckage. Dozens of soldiers lay wounded ahead, having tried to contain—with their own bodies and magic—the overwhelming power of the two strongest men in the world. Amanda was the only one unharmed, thanks to the protective magic she had conjured—but her wheelchair was destroyed, reduced to splinters.

  “Damn,” she murmured, staring at the useless remains.

  Before she could say anything more, Flávio lifted her in his arms, supporting her.

  “Let me go! Put me down!” She began to kick, slapping his chest.

  “Do you think I’m going to stand by and do nothing after you helped us?” he retorted, and there was a sincere smile on his lips.

  “I…” she began, but the words died. Her face twisted into an expression trying to hide what she felt. “Idiot,” she finished softly.

  Fencer watched the two, and something rare happened: a small smile appeared at the corner of his lips, fleeting as a secret. Then, without a word, the three began to run.

  In the vortex of light and darkness that had torn through the kingdom, Bruce and Alfredo finally stopped. They were now in a wide green field, far from houses, far from people. The grass rippled under a wind that seemed to herald the end of the world.

  They faced each other.

  No words were exchanged. They simply gripped their swords.

  In a movement that defied perception, they collided again. The speed was such that their bodies seemed blurs of light and shadow. The swords met in a symphony of metal, sparks of pure light and absolute darkness bursting with every impact, igniting the air around them.

  Bruce moved with lethal precision. Bringing the sword to his right hand, he concentrated darkness in his left. The black power coalesced in his closed fist, and he threw a punch while his blade sought Alfredo. The impact threw Alfredo backward, but in the same instant, a burst of light shot from his body, striking Bruce’s left arm squarely.

  Both retreated, measuring each other.

  The silence between them was heavier than any shout.

  Then Alfredo smiled. It was a strange smile, full of things words could not express.

  “This is, at last, the moment,” he said, voice cutting through the charged air. “We can’t hold back. Luna will arrive here soon.”

  Bruce understood the message. He limited himself to a huff, a sound that could be disdain or perhaps acquiescence.

  Alfredo planted Dawn’s Edge in the ground.

  Immediately, light began to pour from every direction, as if sprouting from the heavens themselves, emanating from the earth, the air, every particle of the world. The power was so intense that the field around them seemed to hold its breath.

  Bruce watched attentively, awaiting the attack. There was no respect in that wait—he hated that man. This was the fight, and it would be fought with his most powerful strikes. It would be, finally, checkmate.

  All of Alfredo’s light power materialized into countless shimmering particles floating in the environment, as if the stars had descended to earth. He raised Dawn’s Edge from the ground and leaped, light pouring from his feet like wings. Bruce followed the movement, launching himself into the skies as well.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  High above, Alfredo gripped the sword with both hands. He raised it above his head, and all the particles of light began to converge on the blade, fusing into it in a hypnotic spectacle. The light grew, intensified, became so powerful and immense that it gave shape to a gigantic sword cut against the firmament.

  The Threshold of Dawn.

  Bruce watched, intrigued. And then he smiled.

  “I expected nothing less from you!”

  Far away, still in the plaza within the destroyed walls, hundreds of people saw the colossal sword of light rise into the skies. Fencer paused for an instant, astonishment stamped on his face—he knew exactly who was behind that attack.

  In the celestial battlefield, Bruce sheathed Valkyria. With his hands, in a movement that was both gentle and brutal, he formed a circle before himself.

  Immense darkness surged from his palms.

  The power was so overwhelming that even from above, Alfredo felt himself being pulled downward. His descending trajectory accelerated against his will.

  “It’s affecting…” Alfredo took a deep breath, feeling the invisible force acting on his body. “Gravity…”

  From Bruce’s hands, the power continued to grow, becoming absolutely colossal. A monstrous sphere of darkness formed, surrounded by a dark halo with orange and yellow tones on its edge—the signature of a power that defied the laws of the world.

  The Curve of the Abyss materialized.

  Then Bruce drew Valkyria again.

  The titanic sphere transformed into a dense trail of darkness that flowed into the sword, filling it completely. The distorted gravity bent the space around it, making the field’s grass curve at impossible angles. When the blade had absorbed the maximum power it could contain, Bruce murmured:

  “Valkyria, Singularity Mode.”

  From above, Alfredo watched Bruce.

  And the memories began to take him.

  When did it all begin?

  Alfredo’s green eyes, once full of youthful hope, now stared into an abyss.

  Death surrounding me? Since I became the strongest soldier of light, since I annihilated entire armies, killed every one of those soldiers in the War of Science… I finally understood.

  His hands were covered in blood.

  I am just a man of death.

  His face, now also bathed in red.

  I only kill.

  His eyes, an ancient fury, but also a deep sadness with every spurt of another’s blood.

  And before I could realize it, I was there.

  Alfredo now saw himself on a pile of corpses. Bodies piled beneath his feet, a mountain of death stretching in all directions. Some of the dead still stared at him with glassy eyes. He looked down, saw them. Then raised his face.

  I could never see anyone.

  Before him, there was nothing. Just him, solitary at the top of that pile of bodies. That was the strongest being in the world.

  And then that day arrived.

  Returning from a mission, Alfredo found his stepson, Marcos Lighting—at the time the second-strongest man in the world—falling to the ground, in tears.

  “What happened?” Alfredo asked.

  “That monster… A man defeated me in a duel, Alfredo,” Marcos murmured, wounds evident on his body.

  “That’s… impossible…” Alfredo said, paralyzed beside Marcos.

  At that moment, Alfredo was not taken by fear. He was taken by something he could never have imagined.

  “I see it in your eyes, Bruce,” Alfredo said, now back in the present, staring fixedly at Bruce, who wielded Valkyria and leaped. The distorted gravity destroyed the ground to the right where the sword pointed, a small living miniature black hole. “That’s what you prepared for me.”

  I finally understood.

  “You need to defeat him and train more, Alfredo!”…

  The voice echoed in his mind.

  I heard that from my home every day. If not, “that man” would surpass me. The relentless boy of darkness, who was once weak. But now he was doing everything to defeat me.

  He was at the top of the imaginary pile of corpses. He looked down, and one of the dead stared back.

  I must always look at them… Every day, every time, I’m going to kill again.

  The memory returned in full force.

  Marcos, along with several light nobles, surrounded him.

  “You need to train,” Marcos insisted. “You can’t let Bruce surpass us. He’s a dangerous, unstable man. He cannot have power…”

  Alfredo then looked him in the eyes.

  “Don’t worry,” he said, with a calm bordering on resignation. “He will never defeat me…”

  Alfredo turned his back, refusing to train once more. Marcos shouted behind him. Even Theodora tried to influence his mind, but couldn’t.

  So that, finally, I can see someone in front of me on the pile of corpses…

  I will let him come to me.

  The memory dissipated like smoke in the wind.

  Alfredo was once again in the skies, before the colossal sword of light. He projected downward with all the power he possessed.

  Bruce rose to meet him, Valkyria shining with the darkness of a bottled abyss.

  Both are in the same direction. Both at the same instant.

  “The Solar Dawn: King Shock!” Alfredo shouted.

  “The Singular Void: Cyan’s Strike!” Bruce roared.

  The clash of their attacks was felt throughout the entire kingdom.

  A sun and a black hole collided in the air.

  The explosion of power was so immense that the very air seemed to solidify. Shockwaves propagated in all directions, hurling people into the air like dry leaves. Luna, who had finally approached the site, was torn from the ground by the pressure—but Raphadun appeared in a flash and teleported her to a safer location, both falling awkwardly onto distant grass.

  And there, between sun and darkness, Bruce and Alfredo shouted.

  In their final attacks, the strongest they possessed, everything exploded in a titanic clash felt by every living soul in those lands. Between light and darkness. Between enemies who had become rivals who tolerated each other in the corridors of the Tower of Light.

  And that, finally, was happening.

  Who was the strongest? It would be decided in that moment.

  The dust began to settle slowly.

  Luna and Raphadun reached the edge of the crater and saw. The immense depression in the ground stretched before them, but the center was still hidden by the curtain of debris. Impossible to know the result.

  Then the dust began to dissipate.

  The shadows of Alfredo and Bruce emerged in the middle of the crater, a few meters apart. There was a single portion of intact earth in the center of all the destruction—a small monument to what that field had been.

  Bruce rose first.

  He was gravely wounded. Two fingers of his right hand had simply evaporated, the flesh charred and irregular. Even so, he remained standing, sword still firm in his left hand. He looked forward.

  A shadow remained motionless.

  Alfredo was standing.

  Bruce watched attentively as more dust settled, revealing part of his opponent’s face and neck.

  When did it really begin? — Alfredo thought, eyes welling up.

  I knew you would surpass me. And I let it happen. Because on that mission I saw… the cruelty.

  Then a memory, buried for years, surfaced and invaded him with the clarity of something that happened yesterday.

  Alfredo, still young, walked through a destroyed city. Before him, a little boy walked with his head down, sad, one arm severed. Blood still dripped from the poorly healed stump.

  Alfredo ran, tearing a piece of cloth to stop the bleeding.

  “Let me take care of that,” he said.

  The little boy cried. Alfredo stopped the bleeding with a flash of healing light, and the child screamed in pain.

  “I’m so sorry,” Alfredo said.

  The little boy then stopped crying. With a trembling hand, he grabbed Alfredo’s shirt collar. The guards behind them instinctively drew their swords, but Alfredo raised his hand, ordering them to stop.

  “Why?!” the little boy shouted, voice torn.

  “I… I’m so sorry…” Alfredo placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “What’s your name?”

  The little boy, still overcome by sadness, answered:

  “Fencer…”

  Alfredo looked at him again.

  “Fencer… I’ll take you somewhere safe.”

  Fencer looked at him with eyes that had already seen too much.

  “There is no safe place… My father is dead. My sister too… I saw the soldiers kill them…”

  Alfredo was shocked, the world seeming to stop around him.

  “Tell me, sir?” the boy asked, tears running down his dirty face. “Until when will they need to kill us?”

  Alfredo didn’t know what to answer.

  I had my hands full of blood… And on that pile, I finally saw… someone in front of me.

  Finally, someone was there.

  I was no longer alone on that pile of corpses. Someone was in front of me.

  Alfredo blinked.

  When he looked, the pile of corpses before him was larger.

  He slowly raised his face.

  Bruce was above him.

  And instead of feeling sadness, Alfredo smiled.

  He opened his arms in a gesture that could be a surrender or perhaps a welcome.

  “Finally…” he murmured.

  The memory faded like mist in the wind.

  Alfredo’s body began to turn to dust.

  Half of his body was simply destroyed. Organs and blood dripped from the grotesque opening, the torn flesh exposing the horror of that impact. Even so, he remained standing.

  Far away, at the crater’s edge, Luna saw.

  Her body moved before she could think, but Raphadun held her, preventing her from running to the center. She cried, silent sobs shaking her shoulders.

  “Bruce Darking…” Alfredo’s voice came out weak, interrupted by blood bubbling from his lips.

  Bruce stared at him fixedly. It was impossible to decipher the meaning in those eyes.

  “The strongest man…” Alfredo continued, each word a superhuman effort. “You won.”

  And then he fell.

  His body collapsed onto the untouched earth in the center of the crater, and the silence that followed was more absolute than anything that had ever existed.

  The fight between Bruce Darking, the Strongest Man, and Alfredo Lighting had ended.

  Winner: Bruce Darking.