Kyle smirked. "You’re still the same stubborn one I know. Nothing has changed, I guess." He sighed. "Then die."

Kyle waved a finger as black waves rushed toward them. Eden stepped forward to protect the both of them. He used his staff to shield off the wave while he flew toward Kyle.

Eden took to the air, waving and slashing his staff at Kyle through the air. Purple waves and strikes brushed through the air and landed toward Kyle.

But Kyle continuously kept waving them off with a single hand, sending them exploding around them. The hall they were in was growing increasingly unstable and was clearly going to fall apart sooner from all the explosions happening there.

The two fought, with Eden trying all possible tricks with his staff to take down Kyle, but they all ended with Kyle sending his tricks off into the atmosphere to explode.

Kyle smiled. "I think we’re done with child’s play. It’s time to get serious." He scoffed as he summoned a huge black wave with both hands and clapped them together.

He sent the wave toward Eden, and it brushed him off. Eden crashed against the wall and fell down, his mouth bleeding.

Before he could even get up, Kyle sent another attack, brushing him from where he was and into the air. Eden smashed against the wall, which broke and fell down.

The rock from above was about to fall on him, but Eden struggled to move aside. He gasped as he stared into thin air, catching his breath.

Kyle smiled. "You think that’s going to end it?" He laughed as he raised a hand. He used his power to raise Eden up.

Eden found himself floating in the air. He struggled to come down but to no avail. Then he pulled his staff in an attempt to use it and brush Kyle aside.

But Kyle used his other hand to throw off the staff. The staff flew from Eden’s hand and landed on the floor.

Eden gasped as he stared at where it landed. "No..." He stretched out his hands toward it, hoping to use his powers to make it fly back to his hands.

But Kyle used his powers to hold onto Eden’s hand, squeezing it as Eden felt like someone was stepping on his hand. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Ahh!" He cried in pain as he struggled to set his hands free, but to no avail.

Kyle smiled at the pain, satisfied. And then he twirled Eden in the air for a while and sent him flying toward the wall.

Eden smashed hard against the wall, and when he was about to fall, Kyle flew to him and kicked him in the chest. He flew backward and hit the wall again, falling down.

A portion of the hall collapsed as cracks appeared around the building, which had grown unsteady.

Eden felt pain rush through his body as he lay there on the floor, his hands staggering, crawling around as though he was searching for something. The pain was excruciating. He couldn’t feel some parts of his body from the beating.

And the worst part was that he was growing too weak at the moment to defend himself.

"You!" Felix, who was still in pain, struggled to run toward Eden, but Kyle used his powers to push him off and backward.

He hit against a wall that fell apart. But he struggled to his feet again. He picked up his sword and struggled to attack even with the pain building through his body.

But Kyle was stronger. Kyle grabbed him by the neck as he approached, raised him up off his feet. He choked Felix for a while, staring into his face, which was bruised and already red.

He scoffed. "And what do you think you can do? Nothing." He laughed. "I might as well just kill you now so I’ll have less to worry about..."

Before he could, something hit his hand, and he let go of Felix. Felix fell from his hands as Kyle looked to his right.

Eden had staggered to his feet almost immediately to save Felix. And he used his staff to throw at Kyle, crashing the staff against his hand to free Felix.

Kyle scoffed. "You’re still not listening, eh?" He scoffed as he walked toward Eden. Eden tried fighting, but Kyle grabbed him by the neck and raised him up into the air.

Eden choked, struggling to breathe as Kyle glared at him. "You should have listened to me before. Now I guess you’ll have to die."

Eden choked hard, closing his eyes while he struggled. It took a while before he opened his eyes again to look down at Felix, who was holding his.

He wasn’t seeing the face of the Emperor whom he should be seeing. Rather, it was Kyle he was seeing. The still youthful soul inside the Emperor.

He was still the way Eden recalled him—youthful. Kyle had his hair a bit longer, almost reaching his neck. A portion of his hair was in a parted bang, almost covering his eyes. He had that perfect face of a male lead, Eden observed. He looked handsome.

But at that moment, all Eden could see was the monster who was out to get him. He stared right into Kyle’s eyes, memories between them from years ago flooding in.

Eden scoffed. "You still have those pretty eyes..." He smiled. "Too bad those pretty eyes had to go to someone as vicious as you."

Kyle scoffed. "Shut up." He clenched onto his neck firmly, watching him struggle to breathe. "You have no right to talk."

But Eden still struggled to speak as he stared at him. "You know what?" He forced a smile. "Sometimes I wonder how it got this bad...? How did you actually get this worse...?" He stared at him. "What really went wrong...?"

The question triggered Kyle as his expression went cold and cloudy. He gripped onto Eden firmly as he muttered, "Nothing went wrong... nothing is wrong at all... this is the way it’s supposed to be... this is the way I’m supposed to be..."