There was light.
A pure, radiant, golden light.
If I didn't have my eyes, I might have gone blind right then and there.
As it stood, though, the world seemed to flip as Charla and I shot straight up into the sky, her golden blade chasing me as she swung to bisect me.
With a smirk, I swung back down, the impact of our blades creating a reverberating blast of sound and air around us as we both came to another sudden halt.
Our blades shook with effort as we pushed back against one another, yet we remained locked in place.
I leaned forward, a smirk crossing my face. "So, wanna make this quick and tell me your evil plan already?"
She scoffed back, returning my smirk with a cold sneer. "You assume too much, pagan brute…"
I faked a dramatic gasp. "Really? No, my bad," I deadpan back at her, "it's just that, you know, you call yourself part of the 'Hero' Faction, but you just tried to get a girl enslaved by an evil dragon…!"
I pause as our blades slide off of each other, our momentum carrying us forward, past each other.
I whirl, just in time, to bring my sword around and down as she brings hers up, turning into a low, starting, upward-arching cut.
Our swords' edges meet, and sound deafens temporarily as metal clanging together roars out around us.
"So yeah." I continue, once the wind calms and sound returns, "Sorry, I got that mixed up." I gave her a playful smile. "Should I call Cao Cao and have him pick you and your schoolgirls up, since this was clearly all a big misunderstanding?"
That seemed to irk Charla something fierce, as her eyes narrowed and her face went stiff as the golden light wrapped around her sword once again.
A cross-shaped slash ruptured my torso into four parts-
I vanished, my eyes spinning, as Charla lashed out with her sword and golden light, which abruptly focused on its tip, blooming from her blade into a nimbus of cutting light.
A cross-shaped slash ruptured through the torso of my afterimage and carried on past, parting the clouds in the sky into four distinct parts.
Behind her, I let out a nervous whistle.
"Struck a nerve~?" I utter, playing up the mocking tone.
Charla gives a rather unladylike snarl at that, as she turns, pointing her sword my way.
"That man lost the Miracle, and he had no idea." Charla states with no small amount of disdain, "It is in my hands alone now. You'd best remember that, pagan." She practically spat.
Hmm, the 'Miracle,' huh? That Cao Cao lost?
My mind speeds through the encounter with Cao Cao over again, and I realize the one thing he didn't do.
Activate the Dying Will.
He tried to, or at least he looked like he might have attempted it, but nothing happened.
Even after I took the spear and started looking at it, I couldn't find anything like that. It felt almost empty, in a way.
But that's not what she has, right? I heard her call it His Dying Wish specifically, which, while similar, is definitely a different thing.
Interesting, nonetheless.
"I'll make sure, then," I smirk at her once again. "Anything else, or am I going to have to pry everything else out of that pretty little head of yours?"
"As if you could." She huffs, "I know not how you learned my name, but whatever trick you used, it won't work on me."
Huh.
She isn't lying; I can read it on her face. She earnestly believes that.
Oh. Oh. Belief, His Dying Wish. It'll protect her, won't it, if I try?
I might end up like Zekka then, but instead of my nose exploding, it'll be my eyes…
Yeah, best not to try that until I get that sword out of her grasp.
Briefly, my eyes glance downward, toward the town.
My senses spread out, and I find that the people have come alive. I can feel their magic in the air, and yet…
Not a single teleportation across the whole town. Not even once. Not even where I sense Freya, as she is physically on the move.
That's the work of the barrier, I'm guessing.
But then, if no one can teleport in or out, then that should mean she's trapped here too, right?
My eyes return to her sword.
No, no. If her sword contains the power to create miracles, literally manipulate wishes, then subverting something like a barrier that stops teleportation isn't out of the realm of possibility.
In fact, she could even do anything with that power, assuming she's creative enough, or maybe has enough faith in belief.
Hmm. Speculating does nothing now.
There's only one way to find out.
"You know," I begin again, as aura, gold-like glowing honey, seeps out from my being, "I'm hearing a whole lotta words, but not much proof of it."
Like throttling up an engine, the sun in my chest came alive with a single beat.
Power like magma began flowing through my veins like blood, and I let out a hissing breath.
Charla, for her part, didn't even so much as flinch, as she gripped her sword with both hands and held it in front of her body.
Even as with each beat, a pulse of power shot through me, and I grew stronger and stronger.
Instead, she merely said one thing.
"Then I shall."
A pure, radiant, golden light erupted around her, clashing against my own honey-flavored golden light.
Where the two energies meet, they spark violently. Holy Power and Holy Spirit Power, nipping at each other, crackling like lightning as they beat against each other.
I felt it more than I saw it.
We moved at the same time, and this time, our clash doesn't just create a boom; it ignites the sky itself.
Evening became a mixture of dawn and high noon, and in the center of it all, blades danced.
I gripped my sword tightly with one hand, blocking a charging downward slash from the golden blade.
Fire, flickering with gold, pulses from my blade, and I catch her eyes briefly widening as my counterattack, a lone slash, turns into a cyclone of flames, forcing her back.
We are still above the town. We need to move this, now.
The back of my mind supplies the thought, and I agree.
I'll accidentally burn down the whole place at this rate.
So, through the flames, I exploded forth, following up by charging her right back, a smirk plastered across my face.
I don't need any fancy sword forms, not for this part.
I mirror her attack, my heavy downward strike clashing with her sword as she raises to intercept.
But instead of sitting there in a clash, I intentionally pull back and go in again, and again, and again.
Monk's robe cut to her right shoulder. Blocked.
Thrust to her gut. Redirected.
Turn, and spin into a wide arcing slash for her neck. Blocked.
Each violent clang ringing out, she's forced just a bit further back, forced to defend, unable to draw upon the Miracle.
She attempts to disengage, however briefly, throwing herself backward, as golden light gathers around her sword.
No.
I breathe.
Golden fire flares around my sword; the sun in my chest gives an explosive beat.
Dance.
And I'm upon her again, halo of sunlight at my back propelling me forward, as my sword comes down like a ray of sunshine, clad in golden fire.
I see her teeth grit as she redirects her efforts, her golden holy light smashing into my blade instead, the clash of our attacks roaring glamorously as we continue our flight.
Again. Don't let up.
Before the light of our attacks even has a chance to fade, I'm already cutting again, flowing seamlessly from one into the next.
Clear Blue Sky.
I spin; a fiery golden slash radiates out around me, cutting through the light, and forcing her back.
Raging Sun.
I step through the sky, Charla barely raising her blade in time as I slash twice in such succession that they may as well be one, attacking her from either side.
The golden light around her shines, flashing with her sword as she blocks both with the length of her blade.
Burning Bones, Summer Sun.
I twist and spin with my next slash, a tornado of golden flame roaring and spiraling over her guard, cutting through the golden light emanating around her sword.
She grunts as the front half of her cloak is slashed through, shredded, smoldering white cloth sent scattering all around us, revealing the school uniform that, much like other members of the Hero Faction, she wears underneath her cloak.
It seems the light closer to her body is tougher and thicker.
No matter.
Setting Sun Transformation.
I continue the stream of attacks with a backflip, kicking myself into a spin as I lash out with my sword straight for her neck.
This time, her sword hammers back against mine, the force knocking us both away, as outrage draws itself across her face.
Solar Heat Haze.
I waste no time, immediately rushing back into her guard with a burst of honey-laden light, a haze of heat enveloping me as I slash down upon her once again.
Her holy light shines, and the length of my true strike is revealed through the haze; with a smirk, her sword clashes against mine again.
I smirk back.
Beneficent Radiance.
With a fluid motion, I drag our swords low before breaking into another fiery spiraling slash, this time head up.
She breaks away just in time, the golden flames smashing into her blade as she flings herself back, further pushing her advance backward.
Sun Halo Dragon Head Dance.
My breath is a hiss as I raise my sword and charge.
It's not the fire that makes the roar; this time, it's my body as it moves, chasing her advance, golden flames streaking out behind me like a comet.
I smash into her guard, using my sword more like a bat than a blade, and it feels like it too.
One. Two. Three. Four. Each slash, a cut aimed at her neck from various angles, she wards off, our blades bouncing violently off each other.
My smirk only grows.
Fire Wheel.
My next attack turns into a leap, and abruptly, I'm over and above her.
I slash once, my body spiraling, creating a ring of fire in a loop to go with the stroke of my sword.
A halo of light ruptures out from her sword as she follows and meets my blade, meeting my ring of fire shortly thereafter.
It was almost a perfect copy of my own attack.
How did she…?
Fake Rainbow.
I burst with movement before she can counterattack, my body becoming like a heat haze, leaving a dozen hazy afterimages in their wake.
A burst of attack, flaming sword slashes, comes at her from all sides.
She moves, her golden blade arcing around her like a twister, taking every single minor strike with the edge of her blade.
My eyes narrow.
Flame Dance.
And I breathe.
All around us, I sense nothing; the town and its auras are far away now.
So this strike?
I put in my all.
I grasp my sword's hilt with both my hands, as I appear before her.
A single stroke down.
By all strict definitions of the word, she blocks it.
Yet her eyes abruptly widen, and with no resistance, she's sent flying. As though her body were swatted clean down from out of the sky by an invisible hand.
She smashes into the empty plains like a meteor, the ground exploding around her from the impact alone, sending her bouncing back up.
Where my next, and final, strike meets her.
I follow her like a comet's tail, my swords arcing from side to side, slashing straight through her waist before she could even turn her blade into its path.
The ground directly beneath her parts.
And the formation of a hellish new fjord follows, as the golden fire crashes into the ground around us like tidal waves, filling the partition with glowing lines, roaring fire, and melted rock.
The Chrysanthemum Morning Palace.
I release my breath and reach out with my hand toward her hair, to stop her body from falling into the heat, flames, and molten rock below.
A cross-shaped-
I twist midair as a cross-shaped golden slash ruptures from the tip of her thrust-forward golden blade.
Gashes burst along my torso, nearly forming a perfect "X" in my center mass, and I'm forced to blink away in a flurry of honey-gold light.
I click my tongue as I reappear, feeling the wounds simmer as blood leaks slowly against my robe.
They resist closing right away, but slowly, painfully so, I can feel them doing so.
I sigh as I spin my sword around with a flick of my wrist, and behold her.
Floating there, a bubble of holy radiance forming a nimbus around her. It's almost impossible to tell I bisected her in two, the holy light forcing her two halves to stay together. The only real indication being a thin strip, or ring, of golden light wrapping around her waist.
Well, that, and I guess you could call the fact that she's naked now an indication too?
Blown off by the heat and flames of my last attack, around her, shredded bits of cloth fall like confetti, smoldering and smoking before they even reach the hellish ground.
"What a miracle, right?" I couldn't help but comment, completely ignoring her body, which, while awesome, I don't exactly care about, giving her a smirk as I pointed my blade at her.
The sun in my chest swells.
Yet, as my power beats higher and higher, I can't help but feel as though it doesn't really matter.
No, that's not the right word.
The Will in the True Longinus took its user's ambition when it wanted to create a miracle, but it did measure it against its opponents as well.
When she called that Evil Dragon, she said something to Regin, didn't she?
The Wish, then…
"Hah." I watch as the golden ring around her waist disappears, revealing not even a scratch, as though she had never been cut in the first, "But not for you. For me."
My ever-present wish for a good fight. My own battle lust turned against me.
Charla's body rights itself, and she smirks as she points her blade back at me, the holy power around her swelling.
"Perhaps," she begins, voice radiant, "you aren't so much of a brute after all, pagan."
"Are you sure your body can hold all that power?" I wave at the aura building around her, the light casting itself across the hellish, fiery wasteland of a fjord I created.
"Of course." She stated with ease, "You shouldn't show concern for your opponent, pagan. It won't make me spare your life."
I chuckled at that. "Oh, no, no, see, I wasn't really concerned, just…" I shifted my stance, as my own aura pounds against the air like a heartbeat, my black hair shifting purple in the corner of my vision. "It'd be a shame, you know, if you suddenly popped like a balloon right before it got good."
Charla let out a short, clipped laugh before she intoned as though in response.
"Shine, holy sword. Bring judgement upon evil-doers, bring light upon my holy path!"
The radiance around her turned into a brilliant glow.
"Limited Balance Break, Another Longinus Requiem!"
That nimbus of light coalesced, and with one bright flash, her naked body was covered in splendid golden armor.
…kind of.
It's bikini armor, probably because it's a Limited Balance Break, but still.
Something is better than nothing, I guess?
I can still see everything, though, burned into my memory as it is.
"What a shame you're an enemy…" I remark, almost idly shaking my head in disappointment.
Seriously, not even talking about her enormous tits, she is beautiful; I could easily see her being an actual queen, if not a goddess herself.
Still doesn't beat Freya, though.
Charla blushes, twitching as though she wants to move to cover herself more, but decides against it. "V-Vulgar brute…ogling my body!" She bares her teeth my way.
"Aww," I fake grumble, "and here I was thinking I wasn't a brute anymore. Guess I'll ogle more then?"
"T-That wasn't permission!" She almost cries out, raising her sword above her head, as though preparing for something.
Heh. She can be cute, too. If you break through that stoic, cold, outer shell of hers.
I think, though, the way this is going, I might be stuck here for a little while.
I hope the others are doing fine without me, but I can't exactly pass up a chance like this.
I slide into a low guard, opposite to her stance.
Now can I?