"To fight the enemy ahead, we must first defeat the one within."
> [Current Status: Shadow Duels Active]
[Objective: Overcome personal regret manifestations]
[Note: Mental collapse equals permanent death]
The battlefield shifted from the crumbling spire to fractured mirrors of reality. Each of the survivors was now isolated, locked inside a mindspace sculpted from their deepest wounds.
Lian's Arena – "The Path Not Taken"
The ground was gold. The sky was clean. This world was perfect.
He stood face to face with the version of himself who never picked up the Coin Multiplier, who never evolved into the Fate Diver. This Lian had a family. Peace. Love.
"You fought for power," the shadow said. "I chose happiness."
But Lian clenched his fists.
"I didn't have that choice. You're not real—you're a fantasy."
He flicked his coin high—and it split the sky.
With one strike, his regret shattered.
[Shadow Defeated. Mental Integrity: Stable.]
---
Kuro's Arena – "The Ashfield Massacre"
The town burned again. Screams echoed. And there he was: the child. Bleeding. Crying. Holding his brother's lifeless hand.
Kuro's regret wasn't just a memory—it was guilt, guilt he never escaped.
The shadow looked up. "You killed us."
"I was ten."
"You still lived."
Kuro dropped his blade.
"I'll carry you forever," he whispered. "But I won't let you kill who I've become."
Then he knelt down, hugged the crying version of himself—and walked forward as the fire consumed the past behind him.
[Shadow Embraced. Mental Integrity: Fortified.]
---
Jayce's Arena – "The Joke That Wasn't Told"
It was a silent world. No laughter. No voices. Just one man, alone, surrounded by gravestones of everyone he'd ever tried to protect with humor.
Jayce's regret was simple.
"I wasn't enough."
Sloth-Jayce sat on a bench, eating melted ice cream.
"You always laughed. But you never let yourself cry."
Jayce sat beside him.
And wept.
Then he told the dumbest joke he could remember.
Both of them laughed.
The world cracked—and the real Jayce stood, smiling through tears.
[Shadow Resolved. Mental Integrity: Recovered.]
---
Ria's Arena – "The Feathered Judgment"
Angels burned. The sky screamed. In this realm, she was not Ria the survivor—she was the executioner. Wings soaked in innocent blood.
Her former seraph-self stood above her with a blade of starlight.
"You loved your orders more than truth," the shadow spat.
"I was blind," Ria whispered. "But I chose atonement. That's what makes me stronger than you."
Their blades clashed.
Heaven sang with fury.
When it ended, Ria stood alone, halo cracked—but burning with a new kind of light.
[Shadow Purged. Mental Integrity: Sanctified.]
---
> [Shadow Duels Complete]
[Warning: The Crownless King has begun its Second Phase]
[New Ability Detected: "Damnation's Clock" – Each turn you take, one reality event is erased.]
---
They returned to the tower summit.
It had changed.
It no longer rose into the sky—but descended into the void, inverting gravity, pulling stars down like droplets. Reality itself was unmaking.
The Crownless King now stood twice as tall, cloaked in spirals of cosmic ruin. Six wings of bone. Eyes stitched shut.
"You have defeated yourselves."
"Now defeat what you created—me."
From above, meteors of memory fell—chunks of the system, broken world laws, relics from past chapters, all disintegrating in real time.
Lian turned to the others. "We beat our shadows."
Jayce wiped his eyes. "Now we beat the universe's."
Ria's wings flared. "No hesitation."
Kuro lifted his blade, growling. "Let's end this."
> [Legendary Boss Battle Begins – Phase 2: The Ruin Spiral]
[Turn Limit: 12 before complete erasure of this world]