Camilla, hours before the battle…
She met with Hilda and Raum in Boggart’s Diner to discuss how to proceed with their fight and the reclaiming of the Ichor Doru spear.
“I really wish we didn’t have to fight for you to reclaim it. I would just as readily hand it over to you if you asked me to,” Hilda said in a meek tone, not looking forward to the match.
“No. It has to be done this way. It needs to be done in front of an audience so that the truth of the matter cannot be ignored. The world needs to know that Sophia Lykos left behind an heir to the throne of Brunhildt and it was wrongfully stolen from her.”
Raum chose this time to speak as he asked, “In all these years, you’ve spoken much of Brunhildt, but you always ignore Duranell. This would have been your kingdom as well if your mother and father had survived long enough to see their wishes fulfilled.”
Camilla shot him a glare as she said, “Duranell is not my concern and is not in need of saving. My brother Dean may have squandered his chance for claiming the throne, but it hardly matters. The man playing king rules over nothing. His people do not need him to rule, nor have they ever needed a king for quite some time. They didn’t need a king during the Mordrinite War and they don’t need one now.”
Hilda nodded her head in agreement as she said, “I have to agree. Its amazing how independent the Lycenean people are without the need for a ruling body to lead them. Maybe that is what King Lycaon wanted for them when he founded Duranell.”
Camilla’s mood soured when she heard that and said, “Yes, the Wolf King’s dream came to fruition and was preserved for over ten thousand years. All the while, Queen Athena’s dream for her kingdom and her people has been violated and bastardized beyond all recognition. If she were alive to see what it has become, I imagine she would weep in horror.”
Hilda gently put her hand on Camilla’s shoulder and said, “Then we must make an effort to return it back to its former glory.”
Now…
The time had come for them to face each other in battle at last.
Camilla stared into Hilda’s eyes with such intensity that she went pale. This would not be a rehearsed battle, they could not fake a fight like this.
It had to be real, and it had to be bloody.
“You must not hold back in any way against me dear Hilda, for I will not show you mercy,” she said as she pulled God Stitcher from its sheath and aimed its point at Hilda’s chest.
“Come, so that I might mount your head on that spear,” Camilla said with a ruthless tone, causing Hilda to squirm.
Yet in spite of her uneasiness, Hilda tightened her grip on Ichor Doru, unfurled her Valkyrie wings of Gold, and waited for the announcers voice to call for the start of the match.
“Begin!”
Before the battlefield could finish expanding around them, Camilla stretched out her left arm with her hand open wide as she used the power of God Stitcher to expand the range of her magic.
Within less than a second she had Hilda’s entire body in her grasp. It took her considerable effort to maintain her control as the powerful energy flowing from Hilda’s body was resisting her, but she had her trapped.
Camilla then closed her hand into a fist as she tightened her hold on her even further and raised her into the air. Hilda’s arms and legs were pressed tightly against her body as she was squeezed by her hold.
“Come on now dear Hilda...I haven’t even released any restraints on my power and yet you’re yielding to me so easily? I know you can do better than that,” she said playfully as she toyed with her.
Hilda strained her eyes as she looked down at her.
Through gritted teeth she said, “I never...imagined that you would be this powerful. Even with...the use of my wings, I cannot match you so easily.”
Camilla smiled up at her as she waited patiently for her to go all out.
Hilda growled as the spiritual energy within her body began to rapidly increase and Camilla’s hold on her became more difficult to maintain.
The veins on Hilda’s arms and neck began to bulge as she strained against Camilla’s hold on her before she said, “Fractured Earth: Release 20%!”
She then crossed her arms across her chest before violently spreading them out as she released a concentrated burst of spiritual energy from her body. As she expelled that energy she managed to break free of Camilla’s hold.
Upon landing back on solid ground, she stomped her right foot upon the dirt and spires of rock exploded upwards.
Camilla stood undaunted as the spires of rock slammed into her and shattered into harmless fragments upon her skin.
In response to Hilda’s attack, she took a single step forward, and as if materializing in front of her, appeared less than an arms reach away from her.
In Hilda’s perspective, it must have seemed like she was over ten feet away only to teleport forward to close the distance.
In reality, all she did was redirect the vectors of the air around her to remove wind resistance, rapidly increase the kinetic energy created by her walking forward and transferred it to her entire body, and then transferred the same kinetic energy to stopping her in place.
Hilda flinched as she tried to take make some distance between them and raised her spear just in time to block Camilla as she back handed her.
With just a simple swipe of her hand, she sent Hilda flying back hundreds of feet. She only managed to remain standing due to her magic over the ground beneath her as it bent to her will.
Hilda then raised her spear high above her head before slamming it back down upon the ground. When the spearhead embedded itself into the dirt, the ground split in front of her and rose high into the air like two massive tidal waves.
Camilla let out a whistle in a taunting manner to feign being impressed.
The waves of rock on either side of her were so tall that they could have dwarfed most buildings in size.
Watching to see what she would do next, Hilda let go of her spear, spread her arms wide, and clapped her hands together violently.
In response to her movements, the waves of rock slammed together in an attempt to crush Camilla.
Of course, it did nothing but briefly entomb her in place as she allowed it to happen. When the waves of rock slammed into her body, she directed their vectors to allow her a sphere of freedom around her but left the rest of it alone.
She then looked down at her feet and spotted a rock the size of her fist. As she knelt down and picked it up, she had an idea as she started to break the rock into fragments before spinning it in the air above her left hand.
She continued to spin the fragments faster and faster until they started to glow with heat.
As she continued to spin it faster, she could feel it wanting to explode and fragment but she kept it contained as she extended her left hand in front of her.
She’s experimented plenty of times to force objects to reach near the speed of light but was never quite able to get there without them exploding into dust.
She always wondered how Artemis and Moyako were able to reach light speed without Valkyrie wings and without dying. She had long given up trying to figure that out and decided that if she couldn’t reach that speed without her own wings, she would make other objects move near that speed as a method of attack.
The moment she released the molten rock and redirected the energy, it would blow through the waves of rock with such explosive force that it would make any man made bomb look like child’s play.
As Camilla closed her hand into a fist and funneled the tremendous energy created by the rapidly spinning rock, it burst forward and blew apart the entombing canyon Hilda had created, heating the air and setting everything on fire.
As if preparing for Camilla to break free, Hilda flew towards her at top speed with her shimmering golden wings and thrust her spear forward.
Even moving at the speed of light with her Valkyrie wings was not enough to catch her off guard as she caught the shaft of the spear before its tip could pierce her chest.
With her hand wrapped around Ichor Doru’s shaft, while still in Hilda’s hands, it meant that all of the inertia created by her attack was halted the moment Camilla touched her.
“With my sword, I don’t have to touch what I want to control. However, if I can touch you, then my control over you is near absolute,” she said as she kept Hilda’s body in a suspended state of motion.
While keeping her in place, she transferred the kinetic energy that she took from Hilda’s body and transferred it to her sword.
Rather than slash her apart, Camilla swung her sword towards the ground and released all of the energy stored within it.
As she did this, the ground all around them shattered and blew apart. A shockwave traveled across the destroyed landscape, blowing the dust and rock away from them until it revealed that both of them were floating in the air above the ruins.
“Ooh wow, if that attack had landed then I would surely have died. Very impressive!” Camilla said as she let go of her sword and of Ichor Doru to clap.
Hilda…
Camilla’s power was truly monstrous, and she marveled at her power. She could hardly believe that she was really this powerful even when she hadn’t released a single limiter on her magic.
Even so, it was still a far more fair fight than what she had witnessed between Marcus and Cole Mohr. Camilla was being kind enough to her to give her a chance to fight back while putting on a convincing performance to show her indomitable strength in battle.
When she let go of her spear, Hilda started to fall to the ground as she lost control of herself. Right before she crashed to the ground she used her wings to right herself just as Camilla dove towards her and narrowly missed her. Her sword was driven into the ground showing that Hilda would have died instantly if she hadn’t dodged in time.
Rather than attempt another direct confrontation, she backed away and launched herself high into the sky.
This way, she could attempt an aerial assault with minimal risk.
Once she felt she was high enough away from her, she raised her spear with her right arm, as if to throw it back down at her.
Before she could get the chance, she felt her body go stiff once again.
What?! How! She’s not even touching me! How could she immobilize me so easily?!
“What do you intend to achieve by throwing away your weapon without even releasing its power first? Fool…,” Camilla said behind her.
Hilda focused her magic into her neck as she struggled to look back at her and was shocked to see that Camilla was once again holding onto the shaft of her spear.
However, she seemed to be standing upside down in the air, as if hanging from an invisible rope tied to her feet. Yet her hair did not dangle down but rather rested around her shoulders as if she were standing upright.
What kind of ludicrous power allows her to do something like this?
She wasn’t even using her Valkyrie wings to fly, she was simply standing upside down, in the air, and keeping Hilda suspended once again as if it were nothing.
Just how much can she possibly control all at once?!
“What gave you the idea that separating yourself from your greatest source of power would give you an advantage over me? Return to the earth from whence you came,” Camilla said as she kicked Hilda in the back and sent her crashing back down to the unforgiving dirt.
Expecting her to stab her from above, she waited for death. Yet it never came as Camilla harmlessly floated back to the ground in front of her.
With multiple cracked ribs and blood leaking out of her mouth, Hilda struggled to her feet.
“Every attack...I hit you with…, it did nothing,” Hilda huffed as she tried to taunt Camilla, “Yet you’ve done little more than kick and smack me around. I’ve yet to see you truly showcase the might of your magic. Hit me with something truly powerful and we’ll see just how ‘Almighty’ you really are.”
She said this in such a way to suggest to Camilla that her own performance was lackluster. Simply showing that Hilda’s own attacks could do nothing to harm her without proving her own destructive capability would prove nothing. People would still hold the belief that something could break through her nigh-impenetrable shield.
Camilla’s eyebrows rose ever so slightly as she seemed to understand the message.
She then smiled and replied, “Your arrogance will be your death dear Hilda, but very well. I will entertain you just this once.”
This is going to hurt…
Hilda then released her magic to its fullest extent before taking off into the air and floating above her as she waited to see what she would respond with.
Camilla briefly closed her eyes as she concentrated before she spoke.
“Almighty: Release 20%.”
Even upon releasing a mere 20% of her power, Hilda could feel the significant difference in strength.
It felt like comparing Erebus to a grain of sand.
Camilla then pulled back her sword and concentrating a mass of energy within it.
As Hilda watched and waited for her to launch her attack, the light coming from Camilla’s sword became almost difficult to look at.
“Iai Flame Blade,” Camilla said before she swung her blade through the air with such speed that Hilda could not react in time before she was struck.
A wave of intense heat slammed into her and charred her skin, reduced her wings to ash, and reduced her to a smoking blackened crisp of a human being.
She fell to the ground and her body broke into pieces as she lay near dead from the blast.
The pain and the amount of damage to her body caused her to black out for just a moment before she could feel herself slowing being put back together.
The Ichor Doru spear, with its regenerative properties, regrew her damaged limbs and burnt skin. Gold colored blood flowed from within her body, as proof of her ability to wield Ichor Doru as her own.
The God Blood Spear, or Ichor Doru as its more widely known, is not dissimilar to the Bloodletter sword wielded by the Blood Knight known as Kayron. It bonds with the user’s blood and strengthens the user’s body.
However, Ichor Doru’s true strength wasn’t in its regenerative properties, though it was a significant part of it.
Its true power was the flames that burn within the blood as part of the spear. The flames were said to be so powerful that it could fight against death root infested wraiths and even against Nashandra herself, the Bone Empress Lich.
It was amongst the strongest weapons crafted by King Dagon and used against him in the Amaskian War.
Yet even with its immense power, it was not enough to keep her body from being almost completely destroyed by Camilla’s attack.
However, Hilda was surprised to find that she was still alive after being hit.
By all accounts, she expected to be killed with one blow, so how was she still alive? Why did Camilla decide to hold back to allow her to survive such a blow.
She pondered this as she struggled to prop herself up on her knees and look up at Camilla.
She let out a strained laugh as she said, “I thought you had intended to kill me in one strike with that blow, yet you failed to achieve even that much. Perhaps you are not as almighty as they claim.”
Yet even as she said that, Camilla’s expression was smug and triumphant as ever. She raised her hand and pointed to something behind her in the sky.
Even though it pained her to move, Hilda did so as she struggled to turn around and followed Camilla’s gaze.
She squinted as she tried to focus in on what she was looking at until a horrified gasp left her mouth.
“Th-that’s…not possible. H-how did you…?”
When Camilla struck her with that last attack, it did not just hit her, but it cleaved through the clouds and split them apart. Yet it did not end there.
Her sword had reached so far so as to split even the moon in the sky in half. Both halves of the moon glowed red hot as the flames had scorched its surface.
Hilda hadn’t even realized that a moon had been created in the spatial battlefield, much less realized that they were tangible objects.
For Camilla’s sword to have reached even the moon was a feat comparable to when Moyako destroyed the planet she was fighting on in the very first match.
“I must say, I am impressed you managed to survive my attack when even the moon couldn’t. I applaud your strength dear Hilda. Alas, this is where your fight comes to an end,” Camilla said to her in a soft tone.
Hilda turned around just in time to watch as her sword cut through her neck and the fight was over.
Camilla…
Good lord…
Not even she had expected Hilda to survive that attack. That was truly impressive of her and she will have to reward her for her show of strength after she is revived.
For now though, Camilla needed to finish the performance before the announcers could bring down the battlefield around them.
Though as she looked down at Hilda’s decapitated head, she figured it was in bad taste to actually mount it upon the spearhead.
That was just plain barbaric and likely something Queen Hylla would do to demoralize her enemies. She probably wouldn’t be too affected to see someone else do the same to her.
Camilla would be happy with simply taking the spear and revealing herself to the world at the humiliation of the false queen.
So she pulled back her arm before plunging it into Hilda’s corpse and took hold of Ichor Doru within her blood as she pulled it free from her possession.
She could feel the spear calling to her as it the golden blood cut her skin so it could enter into her veins and be united with its true owner.
Once she could tell that it had fully assimilated with her, she called the spear into her left hand and raised it high above her head.
At the very top of her lungs, she shouted, “I am Camilla Lykos! I reclaim this spear in the name of my mother Sophia Lykos of Brunhildt, and in the name of her mother before her, Diana Atrytone! As a true daughter of Brunhildt and the last of the royal line, I claim Ichor Doru as my birthright!”
With those last words, she finally unfurled her Valkyrie wings of platinum for all to see as the battlefield collapsed around her. It happened just in time too for her to see the look of disbelief and rage.
“As the true heir to Brunhildt’s throne, I disavow the False Queen Hylla Vulcara seated upon my throne and recognize her as a traitor to my kingdom and its people,” Camilla said at last. Feeling true freedom in the weight of her words as they left her lips.
How will you react to my declaration of war now Traitor Queen Hylla?