Aiden's eyes flickered open, the light of the maze streaming in immediately. The next thing he felt was a sharp pain.

"Arghhhh," he groaned, his hands moving as he clutched where the wound was meant to be, but all that remained was a scar.

"I survived," he muttered.

"Yeah, you did," Kira said. Aiden turned his head, seeing her sitting against the wall.

"Kira," he muttered, trying to push himself up.

"Don't. You are still weak. You escaped death narrowly," she said.

He slowly hung his head down, looking at the ground. "Thank you," he said.

"It's nothing. We are a team, after all," she replied.

"I was pretty much useless out there," he said, lifting his head and looking up. "I should have been more cautious with the fight. I knew how unpredictable Aren's abilities were, and I still rushed at him carelessly," Aiden said, his face carrying regret.

"Don't put yourself down," she replied. "Unlike you, I stayed at a safe distance fighting, but you were right there, taking the most risk," she said.

"Sigh. Regardless, this is bad. Someone with Aren's abilities walking around recklessly killing more and more humans and turning them into shadows," Aiden said.

"Are you speaking of me?" a calm voice cut through the air. Aiden and Kira's heads snapped. They saw his figure forming, none other than Shadow walking in their direction.

"Shit," Kira cursed and rose to her feet, immediately attacking with an ice lance, but shadows appeared and took the attack.

"You really think you'll defeat me? Shadow?" he asked.

"Tch. You are not him. No matter how you copy, no matter how you try to be him, the real Shadow still surpasses you in more ways than you'll ever hope to know," she said in anger.

Shadow frowned. "You are really getting on my nerves. I need you dead already. I don't even want your body anymore. I just want to watch the life slowly leave you," Shadow said, a sick grin forming on his face.

"Arghhhh!" Aiden forced himself to his feet. He grabbed his sword and staggered behind Kira, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Kira, leave here. I'll hold him back while you find Aren," he said.

"Don't even start. I'm not doing that. I can't face Aren if I leave you here to die," Kira said.

"I might be the weakest, but I'll not allow myself to keep running. I'll not allow my fears to grip me forever," she said, spreading her hands. The temperature started dropping.

"If not now, then when? If not for this, then what?" she said, gritting her teeth hard. The temperature dropped so low that their breaths turned to fog they could see. Ice began forming on the ground.

"Hmmm?" Shadow became curious about what she was going to do now. Was she about to pull out some great trump card?

"I'll not let you have any of my friends!" she bellowed. An incredibly powerful wind blasted forward as ice golems started forming, rising up in their hulking forms, standing eight feet tall each.

She coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed to one knee.

"Kira!" Aiden tried to help, but she stretched her hand, telling him to stop. She wiped the blood from the side of her mouth and forced herself to her feet, a smile forming on her face. "I'll give it my all now, and I'll kill you," she said.

"Hmmm." Shadow stared at the ice golems. "This is pretty impressive. Your abilities are actually worth taking. If anything, you will be worth something in the end."

"Hmph. I'm worth something and more now," she said. The golems immediately rushed ahead, their feet slamming against the ground hard, shaking it as they ran.

Shadow lifted his hands and more than ten shadows formed, rushing ahead to attack the golems, unleashing their attacks on them, but when the attacks hit, the ice fixed back.

The golems swung, slamming into the shadows and throwing them aside in single moves. The golems were dominating, but with every attack they faced, Kira coughed even more blood. Her eyes were resolute, and with blood leaking from the side of her mouth, she kept pouring all her soul energy into the golems.

They bulldozed through all the shadows and headed for Shadow, but he summoned even more shadows, throwing them into battle recklessly. All he wanted was to wear her down.

Kira knew this was the plan, and she had no countermeasure for this. All she could do was pray and hope that she could last through the ordeal, but her body was saying otherwise. After the next wave, she collapsed to both knees, vomiting a huge amount of blood.

Her golems collapsed into ice shards on the ground. She could go no more.

"Hahahah. You lasted long. That was pretty good," Shadow said, unsummoning all his shadows. He began walking forward. Aiden stepped forward, gripping his sword tight, ready to fight.

Shadow was feeling confident. He was sure this would be their end, but when he was halfway through, Kira suddenly looked up, a smile on her face. "Gotcha," she said, and immediately all the ice shards on the ground rose up and came down like bullets at the same time.

Shadow reacted as fast as he could and summoned shadows, but he wasn't able to block them all, as one penetrated right through his arm, another his thigh, one through his back, his palm, and one through the side of his stomach.

Blood gushed out. His eyes widened in shock. All his shadows unsummoned, he collapsed to his knees in pain.

"You bitch!" he roared from the bottom of his heart, filled with pure rage.

Aiden saw their final opportunity, one that Kira had risked herself to create, so he rushed ahead, limping as he moved, yet forging forward.

"Aiden, no," Kira tried to call him back, but her voice was weak.

Aiden got there, lifted his blade, and was ready to stab down.

"Fuck you," Shadow cursed, immediately summoning another shadow even in that state, but Aiden steeled his resolve. He slashed through the shadow and killed it, but that time was enough for Shadow to take out a knife and thrust right for Aiden's heart.

STAB!

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