Inyocha fought beside Lee.
Not with shadows not anymore. He fought with steel and skill and a desperate determination to prove that he was more than the monster he had been. His Eclipse blade sang through the air, cutting down shadow tendrils, buying Lee the time he needed to reach the Hollow King's core.
"You're good," Lee said, parrying a tendril that would have taken Inyocha's head.
"I had a good teacher," Inyocha said, echoing his own words from weeks ago.
They fought back to back, light and shadow not opposing forces, but complementary ones. The golden light of the Dawnblade and the silver steel of the Eclipse blade wove together, creating a pattern that the Hollow King's tendrils couldn't penetrate.
"Interesting," the King rumbled. "The light and the shadow, working together. I have never seen that before."
"Then you haven't been paying attention," Inyocha said. "Light and shadow aren't opposites. They're partners. You can't have one without the other."
"Can't you?" The Hollow King's form shifted, condensing further, becoming more human. He was still vast still impossibly vast but now he had a face. A face that looked almost... sad.
"I was once like you," the King said. "Light and shadow, balanced. Whole. But then I learned the truth. The only truth that matters. Hunger is the engine of existence. Everything eats. Everything is eaten. The strong consume the weak. That is the law. That is the only law."
"You're wrong," Lee said.
"Am I? Then why do you fight? Why do you kill my tendrils, my generals, my children? Because you are hungry, Light Bringer. Hungry for victory. Hungry for survival. Hungry for a world where the people you love don't die."
Lee's grip on the Dawnblade tightened. "That's not hunger. That's love."
"Love is hunger wearing a pretty mask."
"No." Lee raised the Dawnblade. "Love is the opposite of hunger. Hunger takes. Love gives. Hunger consumes. Love creates. You've been alone so long, Hollow King, that you've forgotten the difference."
The King's sad face twisted into something ugly. "Then show me. Show me the difference."
He attacked.
Not with tendrils. With everything.