"What... the—!?"
Burn groaned in shock. He could feel it—the momentum of his flames, which had been relentlessly pushing forward, had ground to a halt. Worse, they were starting to be driven back.
He poured more magic power into the attack, straining with every fiber of his being to reclaim his advantage, but he only continued to lose the tug-of-war.
"How!? I have the elemental advantage! How am I being overpowered by this guy!?"
Burn howled, his voice bordering on hysterical. The tide had turned so completely that he could feel the walls closing in.
Flames versus ice. A clash between that which was limitless and that which was bound by physical laws. He should have held every advantage... yet he could not reconcile that logic with the reality of being crushed. It was, however, an inevitable conclusion.
On one side stood a man who feared defeat and was obsessed with victory. The moment he glimpsed a limit, he had fled from it, drifting toward whatever path was easiest.
Facing him was a man who had tasted defeat and failure time and again. He had been dragged through the mud, but he had always stood back up to challenge his own boundaries.
Limits were nothing new to him; he had struck against them countless times. And each time, he had broken through them to reach the next stage.
That was why he could say it with such absolute conviction: he would do it again.
Even if a new wall appeared before him, he would simply tear it down...!!
"Burn, you said it yourself. You told me to accept my fate and burn to death... but if you intend to use your 'limits' to force that fate upon me, then I will simply transcend them! The limits, the fate, and the enemy named Burn... I will overcome every last one of you!"
"Don't you talk down to me! You're just a loser!"
Burn screamed, wringing out the dregs of his strength. His flames flared up with a final, desperate burst of hatred, seeking to incinerate Marcos Borg where he stood.
But Marcos met that full-powered assault with a frozen tempest of his own, undergoing a transformation that defied all logic.
"Ngh! Gwah... Aaaaaaaaah!"
The raging silver-white ice storm intensified, its color bleeding into brilliant gold.
Then, as it surpassed even that golden hue, the tempest sublimated into a platinum ice storm. Burn shrieked as his flames were swept away by the frozen deluge.
"Take this, Burn! This is everything I am!"
The hellfire, once as fierce as a miniature sun, shattered into nothingness.
The defensive flames surrounding Burn’s body vanished in an instant. He stood speechless as the surging storm bore down on him. Marcos let out a roar that shook the gymnasium.
"Absolute Zero Beyond!"
"This—this is impossible! Nooooo!"
Transcending the laws of physics... the platinum ice storm, unleashed with a soul-searing resolve to step beyond all limits, swallowed Burn whole.
When the storm finally subsided, the real sun shone down brightly upon the earth once more. Burn lay on the gymnasium floor, gasping for breath as he looked up at his victor.
"I haven't... lost yet...! Don't you... look down on me...! I won't allow a pathetic loser like you to look down on me...!"
Burn forced his head up with a groan, reaching out a trembling hand as he glared at Marcos.
He snarled with a stubborn, desperate pride, refusing to be looked down upon... but Marcos Borg was no longer looking at him.
"Howl all you like. If I have time to look down on you, I’d rather spend it reaching for the hero I yearn for."
"What...!?"
Burn was already gone from Marcos’s sight.
In the eyes of the man who was finally looking up at the rivals he had once thought unreachable, there was no room for a villain crawling on the floor.
As the weight of that realization hit him, a deep sense of humiliation washed over Burn. Simultaneously, a layer of ice began to crawl across his skin.
"I haven't lost...! It’s not over yet...! Look at me! Marcos, look at me!"
"So you finally learned it. That’s right, my name is Marcos Borg... Carve that name into your heart as you sleep, Burn."
"Damn it... Damn it all!"
Burn’s scream, fueled by pure, unadulterated humiliation, was cut short.
His body froze solid before he could finish. Seeing the mastermind encased in ice, the companions in the gym realized Marcos had won and erupted into cheers.
"We won! Marcos won!"
"Yay! I knew you were amazing, Marcos!"
"Hmph... You're all making too much of a scene. The battle isn't over yet. Honestly, what an exaggerated bunch."
Marcos’s friends showered him with praise for defeating Burn, a mastermind of terrifying power.
He laughed it off, acting as though it were nothing... but behind his back, where his friends couldn't see, he gave a small, firm pump of his fist.
"Aha~! I had a feeling this would happen. My prediction was spot on!"
Drop watched the jubilant gymnasium from high above, a playful smile on her face.
At this moment, because Marcos Borg had defeated Burn... for the very first time in history, a native of this world who was not a reincarnated individual had struck down one of the masterminds.
It was a massive, world-altering step forward. And the man who had just changed the course of history gave a small victory pose, completely unaware of the magnitude of the feat he had just performed.