664 10/12 0:13 (Autumn, Sunrise, Midrar)
Luna carefully observed Mafel's armor, judging its abilities as an Artifact, watching its two layers, the inner one being a skin-tight black layer that completely enveloped her body while the second was a more normal-looking set of plated, purple armor.
'How does it work? After all, it has no Runic Pattern that would protect you from my Domain nor is a Spell inscribed into it. Yet it still isolates you.' She wondered, her Senses failing in finding any explanation behind the armor, briefly looking around to make certain none of her Curses remained outside.
'You are right.' Mafel smiled unseen, her grey hair phasing right through her armor and flowing in a completely absent wind. 'My Artifact doesn't function as a suit of armor that protects me.' She nodded, smug. 'But I learned plenty from you. All of my previously created Curses were condensed into this armor alone. The purpose of my outer layer is just to enhance my physical and defensive abilities, sure, but the most important function belongs to the internal one, the creation of a False Domain around my body that negates the Effects of other Domains.'
'I see.' Luna nodded, sending back her own satisfaction and congratulation, continuing the explanation on her own. 'And while normally a True Domain would overwhelm a False one without too much problem, by forcing its Range to cover just your own body and negating all of its possible Effects, you are able to negate my Law of the Cosmos' Effects entirely. Wonderful job!' She congratulated, satisfied.
Red eyes briefly moved to the Phoenix, watching her progress, and deciding she now needed just a little bit of time until she could properly join the fight, before observing Sabel, the Human having already risen on her feet and preparing to return in the fight.
Mafel launches herself forward at surprising speed, her staff's branches joining together to form a spinning, drill-like head for her now spear-like weapon, Luna stepping aside to dodge the Unique Arma before jumping back to evade the surprise attack of the branches erupting and trying to grasp her in their thorny vines.
The moment the Lunarian's feet left the ground, Sabel jumped, using the walls around her to more easily control her flight path, solid light amassing between her joined hands into a great sword, the weapon falling down upon the white-haired one and slamming into the left gauntlet of the Unique Arma, the vantablack armor mitigating some of the Damage.
Luna's Will flared yet it repeatedly fell apart, feeling not Sabel's previous weakening but straight-up Rejection from her Rebellion, her eyes immediately focusing on the Human's bracelet and noting its much more refined appearance.
Crimson pearls soon started to observe the greatsword itself, noticing how it was not a solid mass of light like her previous constructs but instead its surface was shimmering, like the surface of a lake. 'Your Unique Skill's Effects are resonating with your Unique Arma and then imbued into this construct.' She sent as confirmation, her other hand grabbing firmly onto the sword's edge.
Before Luna could send Sabel flying back, Mafel crossed the distance between the two, her Unique Arma's branches behaving like a thorned whip and aiming for the Lunarian's side, aiming on striking her or at least forcing her to retreat.
Yet the Vampiric one did neither, feeling the incoming strike and responding by rising her right leg, using her Unique Arma's protective layer to safely stopping it, making certain that the whip would grab around her limb, slamming her foot on the tip of the whip and in so doing trapping the weapon in place, especially once the white matter formed long tendrils that now surrounded the vines.
Soon enough the Lunarian grasped more firmly onto the greatsword, causing it to start groaning before she, with an even more intense wave of Will, shattered it entirely, forcing the Human back just in time for the white haired one to shift around the Spectral Elf's punch.
The two soon traded blows, Mafel's physical abilities having been vastly enhanced and allowing her to buy enough time for Sabel to rejoin them, her newly recreated greatsword slamming into the grey-haired one's whip, forcefully freeing it from the white stone.
And Luna was able to perceive how the same Rejection almost crippling the amount of power she could bring to bear was completely ignored by the Elf, this last one's Energy and the first embers of her Aura flowing without issue despite the Anti-Skill Effect enveloped her too.
'Is this… Is your Rebellion being filtered through an Anti-Luna Effect?' Luna asked, frankly sharing her wonder at her Mate's action, her eyes and her smile opening even wider at feeling the Human's assent. 'And once more, you are able to genuinely surprise me. All of you do.'
This last part may have seemed to be purely to reassure Mafel but was instead true, Luna finding the Elf's creation of a Curse-Attuned Artifact able to not only fight a Domain but, more impressively, was able to use the negatively aligned matter to create a positive change in herself.
Passing her eyes briefly over Amber, watching with interest as she progressed in forming a more effective Form, being distracted once Mafel crossed the distance between the two with a rapid swing of her staff yet the real threat was Sabel following behind, wielding once more her Rebellion-infused greatsword, her Unique Skill's Effects surrounding both of them and stopping Luna from effecting them with her own Skills.
'Be careful, while I can rip apart her Skills, she can still affect the world around us.' The Human sent to the Elf, sending the message only to the grey-haired one, guessing correctly that the white-haired one could feel a thought being sent but not what it said exactly.
Meanwhile, Amber was concentrating on her own body, ignoring the way her flaming frame was falling apart.
Ever so slowly, more golden embers joined together, forming a long thread that she used to surround her flaming body, slowly and carefully weaving a cocoon that she could seal herself in, her heat slowly being contained inside.
Carefully she hollowed herself out, leaving herself as just a doll made by golden threads, her Aura helping stabilize her current state while she rapidly used her Vital Energy, Mana and Pyrokinesis to fill her inside with new flames.
Finally, once the entirety of her frame was composed entirely out of flames, the threads merged with the fire to form a new whole.
*Amber Gains the Innate Skill "Form: Living Flame" E-Rank.
Shivering in place for a couple of seconds more, she experimentally tested her new Skill and more specifically the way her new body, looking like a bright, golden copy of her more Humanoid Form, behaved and felt.
Adjusting to her even lower weight and the lack of any muscles, bones or organs inside the confines of the flaming threads, she was nevertheless glad that she no longer needed to breathe, her Pyrokinesis being shut off completely so that she could maintaining the integrity of her Form.
While she grew used to her new physical state, she turned her attention towards her three Mates and their escalating fight, counting on her Heat Sight to follow them, considering how she had no eyes to speak of.
Eight long and spiked whips extended from Mafel's Staff, its branches continuously swinging at the Lunarian and trying to force her to continuously move around, thing quite hard considering how even without actively using her Will or burning through her Astral Ichor, the red-eyed one still possessed a monstrous physicality and an equally refined combat ability.
The only reason Luna was forced into a stalemate was because Sabel joined in, precisely targeting and stopping the Vampiric one from ever turning the battle around, taking advantage of her sword's imbued Anti-Luna Effect to swing through Mafel without injuring her in any way.
Yet, even so, Amber was able to see how this stalemate was destinated to a rapid end, Luna adjusting to the situation far faster and starting to push them back, using her Orichalcum-based graves to repeatedly destroy the greatsword while her gauntlet batted away or grabbed the branches of Mafel's Unique Arma, aiming on forcing her two Mates to become reactive.
Luna's left hand closed around one of the Elf's vine-like tendrils, pulling Mafel in before punching the staff itself, releasing a wave of Will that shattered the outer-layer of her armour around Mafel's right forearm, tore away the weapon from the Elf's grasp and at the same time leaving her completely unscathed otherwise.
The Vampiric one closed her right hand, following through with her movement by compressing her Will around her fist, aiming on precisely targeting and crushing Mafel's armor.
Yet before she could succeed, Sabel's greatsword thrust right through Mafel, a thrust that soon transformed into a diagonal swing, forcing Luna to lean left before dashing back, the Human continuing with her momentum to launch a second swing at the Lunarian.
Black-clad pale hands slammed into the construct, destroying it with pure brute force alone, stepping back a couple of times to evade branching strikes from Mafel's Unique Arma, the staff having long since returned to the Elf's hands so that she could accumulate solid Curses to repair her armour.
As Amber watched, she carefully observed the way Sabel and Luna moved in this strange habitat, starting to copy their movements and adjusting them to her current physical state, her fingers, moved by her Aura and the flames currently filling her insides, closing with force around the hilt of her Unique Arma.
Luna crossed the distance between herself and her taller Mate, dodging the swing of the black-haired one's newly recreated greatsword by anticipating its trajectory and simply following it before the weapon could, stopping behind the Human and striking her with what would have been a debilitating blow.
Would have if her strike did slam into a briefly existing pane of light infused with both her Rebellion and her rough version of the Anti-Luna Effect, reducing the impact considerably, enough that Mafel was able to grab the flying Sabel in her arms and flying upwards, trying to create space from the red-eyed one.
Yet this last one merely smiled, the white matter beneath her feet exploding with force and sending her towards the two.
Under wide black and purple-gold eyes, the pale one's flight was suddenly interrupted, a golden comet slamming into her with a flash of steel and sending her reeling back to the ground, an immense wave of heat briefly filling the Domain before it returned to normal, leaving behind the Lunarian with an opening on her side from which silver blood flowed freely.
In her way, stood a golden-threaded doll identical in appearance to the bare form of Amber, the Phoenix having finally rejoined the fight.
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