The fallen Infori—his body, in an instant, flickered, as if dismembered by light. His silhouette fragmented into overlapping blurs, then faded.
"...?!"
His existence seemed momentarily disconnected from his path of destiny, but then reconnected with reality.
His body was then suspended in another stretch of destiny path, with an archway at the end of that path, preventing him from falling into the void and passing through the billions of destiny paths of beings living in the Overworld and Underworld.
"Ack!"
Everyone fell silent upon seeing this phenomenon, unable to believe that this could actually happen. The other Infori stared down—at the destiny path with Infori standing there.
(So it's true...)
Noya stared at Infori with a look of uncertainty at what was happening before his eyes. He possessed a vast amount of knowledge within the Pathways of the World.
He then turned to Dimsk, who had been the trigger for this incident, and he was also staring at Noya.
"..."
He seemed to be asking his queen for permission, but Noya didn't answer, simply staring at him without a nod or anything else.
Even so, Noya allowed him to go down and fight Infori again.
With that, Dimsk jumped and swung his sword at Infori. Infori immediately rolled to the right, but his delayed reaction caused the blade to graze his left arm.
"Argh!"
Intri quickly stood up and got into a stance ready to face Dimsk again. Before the fight, Dimsk spoke again as he pulled out his sword from the transparent expanse of the fate path.
"It seems you haven't noticed anything strange, huh?"
"Strange?"
"Well, maybe it's time to end it!" he said, then swiftly darted forward without any resistance and was suddenly in front of Infori, wielding his sword towards his face.
Instinctively, Infori managed to deflect it, turning the blade upward.
CLANG!
"...!"
Infori tried to do the same, immediately swinging his sword horizontally at Dimsk.
However, this time, Dimsk's body was pushed back, making Infori's attack land on nothing. He then stopped, realizing the distance between them was quite far.
"You have guts, huh?" he said, quite impressed that Infori was still holding his ground without faltering.
Infori then replied, but now slightly more relaxed.
"Not if you kick me, pushing me into the deepest void."
Dimsk chuckled at that answer. What Infori said might be true, but that wasn't what he would do even if he had the chance.
"Haha... Yes, but that's not what I want to do."
"...?" Infori was surprised again.
With a single decision, Dimsk finally extended his hand forward and said: "Join us."
Hearing that, Infori's eyes widened, not expecting to hear such a thing from his enemy.
"What? What do you mean?"
"I want you to join us, and fulfill your destiny as the chosen one," he said, then said the same words as the other Infori. "The Believer."
Noya and the other Infori remained silent at Dimsk's invitation to Infori, but Infori, on the other hand, didn't understand what Dimsk was saying at all.
"What do you mean the chosen one? I mean, what is a Believer?"
"The destiny of the chosen one is to bring balance between light and darkness, between the Overworld and the Underworld. To direct the fate of all living beings to their proper course," he said. There was a slight pause before Dimsk spoke again. "And that's you, Infori Atziluth. The Believer who was always prophesied by fate itself."
After hearing this statement, Infori became even more confused, with all the questions in his mind seemingly suddenly disappearing.
"..."
Silence filled the void, the existing paths of destiny unmoved.
However, Dimsk smiled slightly. Then, he approached Infori, wielding his weapon, intending to attack Infori.
"This may not make sense, but..." he said, then swung his sword vertically at Infori. "You must first understand your position, Infori Atziluth!"
Intri swiftly parried it with difficulty. His mind and heart were shaken, making his defenses even more fragile than before.
The two blades clashed.
CLANG!
Dimsk continued to press forward, while Infori began to lose his balance. To the point where he thrust his sword forcefully, both the sword and Infori's body were pushed backward.
"...!"
Without thinking, seeing Infori begin to lose his balance, Dimsk immediately launched a kick at his head. Infori swiftly covered his head with both hands.
"Ack!"
But the kick was too powerful for him to withstand, and Infori's body was completely pushed to the right and fell off the path of destiny.
"Aaa..!"
His body plummeted into the endless void. Fortunately, he managed to grab the edge of one of the paths of destiny, keeping his body supported by his left hand, while his right hand still held the two-handed sword.
His breathing was now ragged, and he didn't know whether Dimsk would attack or not. It gave him very little time to regain his footing, and that's when he decided to climb onto the path of destiny.
Once he was fully established on this other person's path of destiny, he looked up. He saw Dimsk, his other self, and Noya staring back at him.
Aware of the disparity in power, Infori wanted to get out of this place immediately.
(The situation is too dire... I can't stay here! I have to find a way...!)
Infori surveyed the area around him, and then realized that this path of destiny had an end, an archway not far from where he stood.
"There it is...!"
Without thinking, Infori immediately ran towards the archway. However, what he didn't expect was Dimsk to suddenly jump from where he was and land in front of him, drawing his sword.
"...?!"
Infori ran with all his might until the moment he realized he wouldn't have time to parry or retreat, he chose to move his entire body, letting his opponent's sword graze against his own.
Now positioned behind Dimsk, given the opportunity to escape, Infori quickly resumed running and finally made it through and into the final door of fate.
The atmosphere fell silent again, with Dimsk breaking the silence.
"Oh my. It turns out facing the Believer is quite disgusting."
⟨⟩ ⟨⟩ ⟨⟩