Before we entered, I turned to Or'do one last time, gazing into those deep, haunted eyes.

"I am sorry," I rasped. "I am far too weak for this."

"Far from it!" He clasped me by the shoulder, his blazing eyes holding my gaze as iron is snared by a magnet. "Your discomfort emboldens me, gives me hope. For the longest time, as I strove on alone, I thought that I must cast aside the last of my humanity to save this realm. Seeing that you can still feel, still be unnerved and saddened, gives me hope that we can survive this in more than body alone."

I smile weakly. "My thanks, Or'do"

"Keep them!" He laughed again, a sound that was this time warm with true mirth. "I feel you'll need them more than I in the days to come."

Shaking my head at the enigma of his words, I pressed a gloved hand against the quivering wall, and passed through with a single, confident step.

The Soul rose, his burning sword carving a crescent of radiance through the air as he swept it from his side, and with long, swift gait advanced. Or'do immediately twisted past me, pivoting still as his upraised hand caught the monster's weapon. His bicep flexed and bulged beneath his cloak, glowing with heat that only intensified as he wrenched the blade aside; bringing his own to bear with a single fluid movement. Like a radiant spear of light, his greatsword punched through the Soul's glowing abdomen, spraying cinder and ash across the stones, and with eyes wide in shock, he retreated a pace.

I gave him not a breath of respite: pivoting on my leading foot, I spiraled past, using my momentum to add strength to my sword as it hammered against his stomach with terrifying strength. Again, he staggered, and again he fell to his knees. Knowing all too well that which came next, I rolled dexterously aside, the blinding corona of flame that swelled from him doing little more than warming my soles.

Instantly I pivoted, my blade wailing as it cleaved air, and shrieking as it grated against the bone of his thigh, piercing deep and nearly severing the limb. He screamed now, crumbling to his knees; the perfect invitation and the only that Or'do needed: he surged past me, his weapon traced with a crescent of moonlight as it came arching up into the monster's throat. The Soul's eyes bulged, this time with agony as much as terror. I take no pride in that mine was the last face he saw, as I stepped past Or'do, who lifted the now slack Soul by his shattered throat, baring its now shallowly rising chest. One last crunch of steel on bone, and the light was wrenched from his eternal eyes. The soul collapsed, and burned to nothingness in a radiant flash.

Once more, we had conquered a world, and once more defying a Phantom's place, he knelt with me as I seated myself before the First Flame, and with my body linked it.