Heroes of the Holy War

"Akira, using basic healing, is able to extend the time to 10 minutes.." Gamble finishes explaining and everyone watches Akira fight the king. Akira is clearly toying with him, pushing him back and mocking him after each failed attack, and akira is laughing at the king in every possible way. Gamble senses someone with strong mana approaching. 

"You'll have to fight after all," he says to the kids. After a moment, the sisters from the previous attack appear from behind the hill. Shocked, Gamble asks, 

"Didn't she blow herself up?" The woman, looking at Gamble with disdain, says to her sister, 

"I don't care about transferring the shield. We're killing him." Then she looks towards Akira, who is staring at her with wide open and, terrifying eyes, which frightens her. The woman, looking scornfully at the king, says, 

"He couldn't help himself." Pulling out a note with a circle drawn on it, she says, 

"You could have been more useful," and then shoots the note towards Aki, who is paralyzed, only watching Akira. The note disintegrates from the barrier, and Gamble realizes, 

"So you need a magic circle to activate it?... I have a plan," he thinks, then grabs Kaen's katana and places it next to Aki, whispering something in his ear, and then says out loud, "You three take the ugly little one; I'll take the older one... just kill her." He then enhances everyone with the Light Boost spell, adding, 

"You have 10 minutes before the boost ends, so don't play around." Gamble immediately launches himself at the woman with basic wind magic, pushing her far away. He then sends Joe towards Kaen. Gamble heads towards the woman, and Kaen attacks Joe with simple strikes, but Joe counters the last one. Kaido joins the fight, repeating the trick of surrounding her hand with stones, hitting Joe in the face and breaking her tooth. 

"YOU!!! MORTAL!," says the enraged Joe. In Joe's eyes, the numbers nine and two(92) appear. Realizing this, Joe immediately attacks Kaido but is parried by Elarina. Kaen uses the moment to kick Joe, sending her into the water, giving the kids time to explain the plan. In the meanwhile, Gamble reaches the woman, who also has a symbol in her eyes, this time "91." Ignoring this, Gamble asks, 

"Why are you attacking? Can I know your goal?" The woman replies, 

"For our race, you are an enemy nu-" she doesn't finish as Gamble rushes at her, saying, 

"I was joking, I don't give a shi#," then forms a mana club in his hand and strikes the woman, sending her flying. When Gamble tries to jump to her, she's already gone. Gamble gets hit in the back but immediately gets up and blocks more attacks. 

"You are tough, I'll give you that," says the woman, but Gamble says nothing and continues attacking her. The woman blocks all the attacks except the last one aimed at her legs. She quickly stands up, and Gamble changes the club into a shield, blocking more of her attacks. The fight continues, and Akira keeps toying with the king. 

"Come on, old man, entertain me," taunts Akira. 

"That the sage's power has reincarnated in you... laughable," says the battered king, whose forehead has grown a horn and part of his body has turned black as nothingness. Akira's expression changes from a smile to a terrifying murderous look. He stares at the king just as he did at the woman, but the king is not scared and attacks Akira, who takes the hit. The king tries to attack again, but this time Akira breaks his spear and drives his knee into the king's ribs. 

"Damn demons," says Akira, wiping blood from his nose. Looking to the right, Akira notices Gamble struggling. Ignoring the king, Akira leaps towards Gamble, kicking the woman and sending her into a tree. 

"Are you okay?" asks Akira, who then spits blood and clutches his shoulders. Knowing that Akira is slowly reaching his limit, Gamble tells him, 

"Deactivate the sage form. I have an idea." Unwillingly, Akira deactivates the transformation, and Gamble explains his plan to him. When the king, fully transformed into a demon, and the woman, also transformed into a demon, approach from both sides, Akira and Gamble face the king, ignoring the woman. Enraged, she attacks the heroes but is stopped by the 

"Solar Sphere" spell cast by Aki. 

"YOU BITCH!" screams the woman, wanting to jump at Aki and finish her off but noticing Joe in trouble, she tries to help but is killed by Aki, who pierces her head with her sword, pinning it and the sword into the ground. Aki returns to help the kids while Akira and Gamble start emitting their auras. Akira has a flaming orange aura, while Gamble emits a calm yellow aura. After a moment, Akira and Gamble open their eyes, and armor appears on their battered bodies. Akira gets orange armor with flames, while Gamble has a classic green knight's armor with a yellow cape. 

"A 50/50 chance, I love gambling," says an excited Gamble. Akira notices Gamble's eye has changed and asks, 

"Why is your eye blue?" Gamble, confused, doesn't know what Akira means, and the king bursts into loud laughter, saying, 

"So we have a sage and a Seinarume user here." Akira and Gamble look at each other and then attack the king. Akira summons a sword and tries to cut off the king's head, but the sword doesn't penetrate and bounces off. Gamble strikes the demon's ribs but feels like he's hitting an unbreakable wall. Seeing the demon trying to hit him, Gamble dodges, but it doesn't happen, leaving him wondering if he had a hallucination. Akira continues his attacks, starting to injure the demon. Gamble joins in to help Akira, who soon gets knocked out. Akira's armor disappears, and the demon has a perfect opportunity to finish him off but is blocked by Gamble, who has discarded his armor and summoned a shield, channeling the power he put into the armor into the shield. He then shouts, "Light!" and the shield explodes with light. Gamble immediately summons his armor, but nothing happens when mana surrounds him. Distracted, Gamble gets hit by a mana ball from the demon, who then ignites his broken spear. 

"You could have lived, but now I have to kill your familiars," he says, creating a wooden cage and setting it on fire, then running towards Aki and the others. Aki and the kids managed to kill Joe, but Elarina, Kaen, and Kaido are exhausted. Aki looks at the black smoke and, clutching Akira's scarf, says, 

"Don't die," when suddenly the demon appears beside her. 

"Why do you resist? Did you forget our deal?" he asks without attacking. 

"What deal?" asks Elarina, to which the demon replies, 

"For helping me get the Satanic Sword and Heavenly Shield, I will find her childhood boyfriend," he says, laughing slightly. Aki clenches her fist and says calmly, 

"The deal is off... I found him." The demon bursts into laughter, which quickly turns into fear. Slowly, he turns his gaze towards the fire he started, and from behind the smoke in tattered clothes, Akira and Gamble emerge. However, Gamble now wears a long green coat, and Akira is once again in the sage state. The demon looks closely at Gamble and notices a blue star tattoo on his eye. Aki takes the kids to a safe place where they can rest. 

"Looks like I have something special too," says Gamble, placing his hand on the tattoo. Akira is no longer cocky but asks, 

"How far can I go?" to which Gamble responds, 

"About 40 steps." Akira thinks for a moment, and they both rush to attack, with the demon realizing, after receiving a series of blows and kicks, that he made a mistake trying to kill both of them at once. 

Garrett Gamble, as the Shield Hero, possesses 10 spells/skills unique to the Shield Hero, including "Holy Cage" and "Shield Barrage." Now, in his desire to save his friend, he awakened an ability called "Manto Sanador (Healing Cloak)." The boys have some trouble coordinating their attacks because Gamble also possesses Seinarume, which can show images of the future, enhance vision, and allows seeing further. The tattoo also strengthens his resistance to illusions and boosts his defense. 

Returning to the fight, the boys began to perfectly execute their combos, and the demon barely blocks their attacks. The attacks might work, but even if they hit, they don't cause significant wounds on the demon's body. Akira seems to have an idea, pushing Gamble away and throwing a wind ball at the demon, sending him far away. Akira stands opposite Gamble and says, 

"If you occupy him for 20 minutes, I can kill him." Gamble objects, saying, 

"What if I go too far? The sage form will start destroying your body." Akira flicks Gamble's forehead and responds, "Is 40 steps enough? I can move while preparing." Gamble agrees to the plan. Akira stands behind Gamble, starting to gather mana, surrounding himself with his aura, while Gamble keeps the demon occupied. When Gamble jumps further away or gets pushed back, Akira has to approach Gamble within 40 steps because Gamble's cloak doesn't heal his wounds but those of selected people within 40 steps. Akira can use this as fuel for the sage mode. The demon begins to weaken, and Gamble stabs his shield into the demon's back, causing his cloak to disappear. 

"Damn Akira, are you done yet?" Akira nods and deactivates his transformation. Gamble grabs his shield and runs to Akira, who this time speaks to Aki, 

"Do you know wind magic?" Aki nods, and Akira says, 

"Great. You and Gamble need to keep him high up in the air." Gamble says to Aki, 

"Copy what I do. I have an idea." Aki agrees, and they both run towards the demon, but instead of attacking, they run around him. The demon realizes what they want to do, but when he tries to interrupt, Gamble shouts the name of a spell, 

"Spark!" The demon gets pushed to the center by a spark. Aki and Gamble use wind magic to create a huge tornado, and the demon, inside it, surrounds himself with a shield. Meanwhile, Akira starts accumulating fire around him, swirling under his feet. Gamble and Aki begin to tire, and after a while, they are pushed away by Elarina and Kaido. Gamble shouts, 

"What are you doing, Kaido?" Kaido points towards Akira, who smiles and gives a thumbs up, then gestures for them to get out of the way. The tornado disappears, and the demon, disoriented, deactivates his shield but is immediately shot into the air. Gamble, seeing the shield, focuses on delaying its effect because he had an idea to outsmart him. Akira jumps towards the demon, who realizes too late and takes a kick to the stomach. The flames Akira had gathered start swirling around him like a drill and he drives it into the demon. Akira shouts the name of the technique, 

"FLAME DRILL!!." Akira and the demon begin to fall, but the drill does not pierce the demon. In desperation, Akira enters sage mode, and the drill starts piercing the demon's hard body. When they hit the ground, the demon ends up with a huge hole in his stomach, and Akira, after standing up, starts screaming in pain and grabbing his shoulders. Gamble quickly runs to Akira, casting a healing spell, but before he finishes, he spits blood, and blood starts flowing from his left eye. This doesn't stop the Shield Hero from completing the spell and healing Akira. When the pain subsides, Akira exits sage mode and faints. Gamble temporarily goes blind in his left eye, and when he regains his sight, the star tattoo and Seinarume disappear from his eye. Everyone, thinking it's over, runs to the boys, but the demon gets up. 

"Damn humans..." he doesn't finish as his head is cut off by the Battle Axe Heroine, Seraphina. The demon's body turns to ash. Seraphina asks Aki and the kids, 

"Is everything alright?" to which a furious Gamble replies, 

"What about asking me?" 

Seraphina responds with disdain, 

"I won't ask a hero who can heal himself if everything's alright."

At that moment, Akira starts coughing up blood and tries to get up. When he succeeds and turns to the rest, his eyes have turned completely red. Seeing this, Seraphina aims at the approaching Akira, saying, 

"If you've changed sides, know that I won't..." she doesn't finish as Akira approaches Aki, looking at the scarf, and then the red in his eyes disappears. Akira collapses onto Aki, who catches him. At this moment, he loses consciousness and has hallucinations of the past...

residents avoiding him and people who cursed and beat him for no reason. When he hears a girl's cry, he remembers his first meeting with Aki. Once, while walking with Gamble in an abandoned district, he heard the voice of a crying girl. Out of curiosity, he went to check it out, and Gamble followed him. When they reached the source of the crying, they saw a girl dressed like a noble. Gamble wanted to leave, but Akira walked down to the girl and asked, 

"What happened?"

The girl, out of fear, threw a pebble at Akira, but he dodged it and, crouching, said, 

"I won't hurt you." He said it with a very convincing smile, and the girl wiped her tears and said, 

"I don't want my father to choose a husband for me." Akira thought for a moment and approached Gamble, asking in his ear, 

"What's a husband?" Gamble, irritated, replied, 

"A man who proposed to a woman." Akira thought for a moment and asked again, 

"What is a proposal?" Gamble facepalmed and replied, 

"Entering an inseparable relationship with the woman you love." Akira seemed to understand and went back to the girl, saying with a big smile, 

"I have no idea what a husband is, but—" he didn't finish and got hit on the head by Gamble. 

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO EXPLAIN SOMETHING TO YOU, YOU IDIOT?" shouted Gamble at Akira. The good moment made the girl laugh instead of cry. Akira looked at Gamble with a face that said, 

"Just as planned." Gamble looked at Akira and facepalmed again, while Akira offered his hand to the girl and said, 

"Let's go home together." The girl took Akira's hand. Adult Akira watched from a distance, saying to himself, 

"Maybe I really lost memories of someone important to me? Just like Mom said." Then he woke up in a bed in Gamble's guest room. Kaen and Elarina were sleeping on a chair beside him. Rising with pain, he took a blanket from the closet and covered them. As he slowly returned to bed, the bedroom door opened. Aki entered, wanting to take Kaen and Elarina, but she didn't expect Akira to be awake. Aki hugged Akira without a word, and a moment later, Gamble entered, saying, 

"Aki, take another purple blanket because..." he didn't finish and ran to the living room. Akira, surprised, asked Aki, 

"How long did I sleep?" Aki, with a tear in her eye, said a month, and Akira, after a moment, lost consciousness again, thinking, 

"This time, I really overdid it with mana use."