A halo of white gold blazed to life above Grey’s head. He shot forward, his spear dancing through the air.

Chi. Chi. Chi.

Sparks flew as blade and claws met. Blood flooded down Grey’s body, but his muscles continued pumping as though he couldn’t feel the drain at all.

Calixan’s maw opened and roared, rows of bats practically foaming out of his mouth once again, but Grey’s gaze had completely glazed over.

He felt a slight shift in his rhythm, but rather than it being entirely disrupted, it was instead like it was knocked back a bit.

His rhythm bounced back, only skipping a single beat.

The images he had thought of kept reverberating in his mind again and again. He realized at that moment what the truth of Center of Balance was.

When it was at Passive Sync, it tried to change his personality, making him kinder, more docile. However, that wasn’t because that was what Center of Balance was designed to do.

Even after he progressed it to Active Sync, that lingering attachment remained. And due to sheer talent alone, he managed to push it all the way to Core Sync, making it incredibly powerful.

And yet, unlike his other Core Sync Abilities, it was incredibly lackluster, and it didn’t even seem as easily able to influence the thoughts and minds of other people anymore.

Finally, in that moment, thinking about Instagram memes, Grey grasped it.

The reason he thought Center of Balance worked like that was because he had learned it from Giyoto. The Ability he was projecting wasn’t his own understanding of Center of Balance, but instead Giyoto’s.

By definition, Center of Balance was an Ability that could find mental focus in any situation. It wasn’t tailored to a specific mental state, and it wasn’t even called something like "Calm Balance" either.

It was an Ability specifically designed to allow a warrior to maintain their own Center of Balance.

No matter what that Center of Balance was.

And Grey’s own Center of Balance happened to be a lot more chaotic, a lot more violent, and a lot more meme-worthy.

BANG.

Grey’s strikes flowed faster and faster, one linked attack chaining with the next.

Divinesever activated over and over again with greater speed, greater precision, greater power.

Lines of white gold filled the space and it almost looked like currents of white gold wind were fighting for dominance against streaking black winds.

A hurricane of chaos and carnage flickered around the two, black bats hovering even further beyond and continuously shrieking.

A dome of sonic energy and attack formed around Grey until the world was practically peeling back its own skin and walls were curdling away.

But Grey moved beneath its influence as though he didn’t hear anything at all, the beat of those drums, the howls of those horns fueling him to his very core.

His heart beat to its rhythm, his blood pumping through him even as his stamina continued to rapidly drain.

A ring of white-gold fire bloomed beneath Grey, pulsing out.

He seamlessly began to use Last Sever and Last Coronation at once, his rhythm flowing more chaotically for only a moment before he settled into a new one.

His stamina drained even faster, the pull of two unique rhythms pulling at him as the dome of sonic attacks shattered to pieces.

The Divine Pressure coming from Last Coronation shrouded everything, rivalling the momentum of even the Command Class across from him.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Grey didn’t seem to fatigue, and as Calixan flickered from one side to the next, slapping out palms and attacking with wild abandon from bites at his neck to kicks of his heel, Grey met and countered them all.

He slipped out of the way of some, parried others, his spear thrusting to meet in clashes of white-gold and black that painted the world in chaos.

Calixan suddenly appeared behind him and slashed out with a claw that would have dug out his heart. It finally seemed like Grey had slipped up, and yet the screeching of metal and a single step and stumble forward was all Calixan got for his efforts.

Last Bulwark activated, a brief window of immunity leaving Grey with only a few bloody scratches on his shoulder during the tail end of the immunity’s effects.

Grey’s body vanished in a puff of black and he appeared behind Calixan, only for the latter to vanish himself and appear behind him.

But Grey was ready, his body pivoting and spinning. He pinned his spear to his hip, using it like a lever and sweeping out in a wide arc that cut across air as though splitting space.

BANG.

Their gazes met and Calixan stared into Grey’s eyes with a wild abandon. The bishop’s grin grew crooked and a pulse of magic came from his gaze.

Grey felt the curse land maybe before it even truly did, the chilly cold seeping down into his bones as though the temperature had plummeted by dozens of degrees.

And yet, his expression remained much the same as Last Endurance activated.

For once, rather than Prometheus taking the reins, his Last Paladin Frame did.

A brief window of immunity triggered and Last Endurance dispelled the curse effects that never truly took root.

Last Vigil activated and Grey was filled with life and vitality, the rhythm of Last Vigil and Last Coronation wrapping into one until he felt like gold was flowing through his veins.

—

Stamina: 2/351

—

Grey flicked his wrist up and Calixan’s arm followed with it. His body spun and he unleashed a roundhouse kick right at the man’s gut.

Calixan screamed, his jaw unhinging as black blades flew from his maw.

Grey’s Resonant Frame shook and the blades were stripped from the bishop’s control as Last Sword activated.

—

Stamina: 1/351

—

The black blades flew off into the distance and Calixan finally showed some semblance of an emotion.

Surprise.

But that didn’t slow his follow up. His body bowed back against Grey’s kick, the floating hands above flashing and contorting his torso as though his spine was meaningless.

And then he grinned. He could feel that Grey was on his last legs, but he knew that Grey was also trying to plan something.

He wasn’t going to let that happen.

Grey’s foot slammed back down to the ground and he pivoted into another combination attack, his spear streaming through the air as a chorus erupted in his ears.

He was ready, perfectly prepared—

The two hands floating above Calixan snapped together, fusing into one. A radiant pulse came from them and all of Grey’s built up momentum shattered.

—

Stamina: 0/351

—

Grey coughed up a mouthful of blood as though all the backlash accumulated right into his body.

Calixan closed the rest of the distance. He knew Grey’s Abilities all too well. He had been fighting Paladins for a lifetime.

Grey just wanted to time his rhythm to his Stamina hitting 0, then he could regain all his Stamina in an instant and secure a flawless victory.

Unfortunately for him, things weren’t so simple.

Calixan froze.

Grey’s digital grin grew even more jagged.

"I’m no Paladin, asshat. I’m the Last."

Last Endurance.

Grey’s spear exploded with a radiant might, a beam that seemed to swallow up the entire world erupting from it.