Camilla…
She ran through the hallway to get away from that strange man that looked like Marcus but was not. For some reason, she had a feeling that it was not the same man.
As she continued to run, she could see the exit quickly approaching on her way to the arena floor. Yet just as she was about to step through, she heard a bloodcurdling roar echo from the direction of the waiting room.
The moment she stepped out onto the arena floor, she scanned the people in the audience until her eyes landed on Marcus sitting among them. His attention was focused on Frosk but he took notice of her briefly before talking to a red and white haired woman standing next to him.
This time, his eyes were blue.
What is...what is going on here…? she wondered as she tried to make sense of what just happened while also struggling to maintain her sanity due to the influx of information that was forced into her mind.
There is SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE!
The sheer vastness of what she now knew about the universe threatened to make her knees buckle from under her.
The greatest professors and scientists of this world would give their lives to hear of the things she had become witness to, yet she just wished she had more time to process it.
As she walked closer to Frosk, he quickly understood that something was very wrong with her.
“You don’t look too well. Are you alright?” he asked.
Taken aback by his concern for her, she struggled to speak as she said, “You...need not worry...for me.”
A look of doubt flashed across his face until he said, “Before my second match began, I was told that my next opponent would be someone of such tremendous power that I would not be able to hold back against. That I would need to use everything and anything I have to win, including my armor.”
Breathing heavily as she was struggling to get her thoughts under control, she managed to ask, “What...is so special...about your armor?”
Amused by her insistence that she was alright, he engaged in the conversation further as he said, “This armor is too powerful. I can make even a god look as weak as a mere child by comparison. I might see the argument that you would merit my use of the armor if you were...in a better state, but right now, it appears that its all you can do just to stay standing.”
“I am not so helpless as to suffer through you sympathetic prattling any longer. Be quiet,” she hissed at him as her thoughts finally started to calm down.
For some reason, the more he agitated her and made her angry, the more focused her mind felt.
To hear this man, Frosk, seem so carefree and have the audacity to be concerned for her sake frustrated her to no end.
There was no way she could allow herself to appear weak in front of him if she was to face Moyako later on and win against her.
Anger…
Frustration…
Rage…
The will to defend one’s beliefs and and fight to achieve one’s goals…
All these emotions fall under the God of Wrath’s will and allowed her to focus even under the extreme toll of so much knowledge.
She pondered the thought of what this could mean for her, to feel such emotions and to allow them to guide her path forward.
To allow them to grant her further strength, even in the face of one of the chosen of the God of Wrath.
Gritting her teeth, she took in a deep breath and stared him down as she asked, “Frosk, do you have any other names that you use?”
His expression became puzzled as he asked, “Not that I am aware of, why?”
“Do you have no titles of any kind to lean on aside from the Champion of Forrosa?”
He held his chin in his hand as he thought to himself before he answered, “I don’t believe so, but why does that matter?”
She grinned as she said, “Then I will give you a title right now. I name you Frosk, The Wrathful Shadow!”
He seemed pleased by the sound of that title, but was still confused as he asked, “I admit, that name sounds nice but what is the point of such theatrics? What are you intending to achieve?”
She then pulled out her own sword, pointed it at him, and said, “It will be a name known by all the moment you concede victory to me, Camilla Lykos The Almighty!”
It was then that he appeared to understand the meaning behind her words. It was a means of getting herself in the right state of mind to be able to fight with everything she had, uninhibited by whatever fresh burden was being put on her.
He gripped his two swords, Hoffnung and Gurthang, tightly in the firm grip of his hands as the announcer finally called for the third match of the third bracket to begin.
“Stygian Tide: Release 20%” he said as shadows erupted from the ground, becoming a physical and tangible entity, as it clung to his body and became a second skin wrapping around him. His shadows extended even as far as around her which put a limit of what she could control. She would be unable to manipulate the ground beneath her if his shadows covered the area under her.
As he lunged towards her, he moved at such a speed that rivaled even Artemis’s. From Camilla’s experience, Artemis could move at the speed of light without manipulating time and was easily the fastest person in the world with such power. Even Moyako, as powerful as her flame magic is, could only approach light speed but not truly reach it under her own power.
Even so, Frosk was not quite there yet either.
She managed to evade his attacks easily as she stepped to the side just as he brought down Hoffnung and it slammed into the ground.
It cleaved through the ground and sent a cloud of rocks and dust exploding outwards, all of which bounced off of her harmlessly.
Frosk then looked up curiously as he said, “I thought that The Almighty was supposed to deflect everything and anything that reached you, so why would you dodge?”
He then swung Gurthang horizontally so as to cut her in half, and as a wave of shadows expanded from within the blade, it extended its reach. The blade swept over the area from where she was standing but she quickly jumped over it and floated in the air.
“Perhaps it cannot block everything, but only things that you have an understanding of… is that it?” he guessed and she grit her teeth as he got it right.
“That is it, isn’t it?” he laughed as swung Gurthang through the air where she was hovering only to hit nothing but air as she dove to the ground, evading his strike once again.
When she landed, she was crouched on the ground right in front of him as she swung her sword across his chest with brilliant light gleaming along its edge.
He jumped back just in time to avoid being cut by her sword, but the sheer pressure of her swing was enough to launch him back dozens of feet. The very moment he was about to fall to the ground, his body vanished into the shadow realm before he reappeared.
He seemed very surprised and was breathing heavily from narrowly avoiding a near hit, but still he smiled.
“It is true that I know very little about the Shadow Realm that you and the Dark Elves manipulate, but I am fully aware that light magic is its one true weakness. That was evident enough during Fayebel’s fight against Torrs. His gold lightning stripped away the shadow realm and nearly allowed him to claim victory. If a bright light is all I need to win, then this battle shall be over soon,” she said confidently as she strode towards him.
“It will take more than that to snuff out my shadows little lady,” he said as he let go of Hoffnung as it vanished into the Shadow Realm while gripping Gurthang with both hands.
As he did, the shadows around and on his body began to thicken and grow stronger.
“For all your bluster, you have yet to make me release my own magic. Try to entertain me a little longer,” she said mockingly.
Frosk’s smile turned into a frown as red lightning sparked all across his body and he vanished.
In the very next instant, he appeared to her left with Gurthang raised high into the air to strike her down.
So fast!
She raised her own sword, God Stitcher, to parry his strike and despite the powerful light she was creating along her blade to snuff out his shadows, she could still feel the intense weight of his strike as it bored down on her.
He vanished into the Shadow Realm once again before suddenly appearing behind her with his blade pulled back to stab her.
How could he have gotten behind me that quickly?! Increased speed alone would not be enough to let him move that quickly!
She understood well enough how fast light was due to the new information that was placed inside her head, and because her magic allowed her to perceive events far faster, she could easily gauge how fast he should be limited to moving.
Yet it was as if he could shorten the distance between himself and an object while also approaching the speed of light.
The Shadow Realm could distort the distance between objects as well, can’t it?
This was the conclusion she came to as she barely managed to turn around fast enough to block his attack.
How can I hope to match his speed and counter his ability to distort the distance between him and myself?
Then, as if something had snapped inside her, the necessary information she needed came to her in her mind.
The fabric of space is all around me. It contains everything and anything that exists in this world. Matter, energy, light, darkness, life, death, all things exist within the fabric of space. To add to that, the universe expands faster than even light can travel through it! Faster than Frosk can possibly move within it, faster even than Artemis! I need only take hold of that fabric and warp it to suit my needs!
Now I will be the one to lay on the pressure!
Frosk…
As she was still reeling from his second attack, he took that moment to vanish and reappear behind her once again as he pulled his sword back to cut off her head. Yet as he swung Gurthang, he hit nothing but air as the light that showed Camilla’s body was all that was left behind. In fact, the entire area around her seemed distorted for a split second before he felt an incredible shockwave blast him with so much force that it nearly knocked him unconscious. If not for the shadows enveloping his body, he might have been torn to shreds from the impact.
As he scrambled to get to his feet, he thought to himself, What was that?! That was not the Shadow Realm that she was manipulating! How could she have distorted things so that I struck only an after image of her?
Just as the thought crossed his mind, he could see the air in front of him become distorted for a moment just as Camilla appeared from thin air with her blade raised above her to run her through.
“Shit!” he shouted as he vanished into the shadow realm to avoid getting stabbed.
When he reappeared a few feet away from her, she looked at him and cackled crazily as she said, “Whaddya know, I think I figured out how to counter your power in just the right way!”
“The most you’ve done is copy the Shadow Realm’s distortion of space. Your skill with the sword however leaves much to be desired. Lets see just how much I can pressure you before you break.”
“Yes, LETS!” she shouted as the air around her became distorted before she reappeared in front of him and swung her sword down vertically to cut him in half.
He vanished into the Shadow Realm just in time to avoid her strike before taking off at a run and swung Gurthang to sever her hand.
She spotted him just in time as she lunged towards him, distorting the space around her to send her hurtling towards him at terrifying speed.
Due to some miracle, he was able to perceive her speed enough to match her strike.
In spite of this, she still was yet to release her own magic against him.
Perhaps the reason she hasn’t released the limits of her soul is due to the fact that it only contributed to increasing how much she can control. If all she needs to do is control her own body, then releasing any more of her soul would be unnecessary beyond increasing the output of her spiritual energy.
Just from watching how she fought, she needed very little power to do even this much while he was using 20% of his own soul’s output.
How could he force her into a position in which she needed to release more of her power?
He could try to use Gurthang’s power to manifest a moon to block out the light of the sun within the spacial battlefield. This would allow him to release a large wave of attacks all at once, but that would be overkill.
Then he began to remember something he had once read about her and her sword God Stitcher.
The limit of her magic was dependent on physical touch which is why she uses that sword to expand her reach with an unusual power.
He need only break that sword, but to do something like that, not only would he need to bypass her Almighty, but he would need to hit it with something strong enough to shatter Adamantine metal.
It appeared difficult for her to manipulate more than a couple of things at once given how he was able to bear down on her with the weight of his strike while surrounding his sword in shadows.
She used light magic to counter the power of his shadows, empowered her body to move fast enough and swing hard enough to match his own power, and now she was using her magic to warp space.
If he could apply pressure to her in the right way, he might be able to use Hoffnung to shatter that sword.
As the two of them continued to move at tremendous speeds, with every clash they transformed the world underneath them into a scorched wasteland. Every collision of their blades released explosions that set the air on fire and vaporized all life around them.
While he was in the middle of launching another series of attacks, he decided to bait her and said, “When are you going to use those beautiful wings of yours in this fight? I would love to see their brilliance first hand.”
“Is that so?! You can barely keep up with me as you are right now! You may find that they are too much for you to handle!” she said with a smile on her face.
“Oh come now! I still have plenty of fight in me! You have yet to see me at my peak! Show me those platinum wings of yours!” he shouted back as he stepped back and charged up a mass of spiritual energy to bait her further.
Watching him prepare an attack, she fell for the bait as she stopped for a moment to unfurl the platinum wings on her back and charged forward.
Her wings emanated such incredible power, with much of that energy flowing around the rest of her body in the form of light magic as it boosted her speed even further.
This is it!
He took off to meet her strike, but just before the two of them were about to clash, rather than use Gurthang, he pulled Hoffnung from the shadows and slammed it into her God Stitcher with all his might.
This took her off guard as she struggled reflect the kinetic energy back at him with her Almighty magic, but Hoffnung’s power could do the exact same thing.
Her face became strained as she struggled to hold back the power as the kinetic energy was repeatedly reflected between the two, from her sword through the power of her magic, to his own with Hoffnung’s innate ability.
Then, a high pitched whine could be heard as the God Stitcher began to glow red hot from containing such overwhelming energy in it for too long.
Camilla looked down at her sword nervously as she tried to reflect the energy back at Frosk but he pressed his advance on her even further.
He then let out a guttural roar as he put every bit of strength into Hoffnung until eventually...her sword snapped.
Hoffnung cleaved through her adamantine sword, and with it, cut off her left hand and right arm up to her shoulder.
The reflected force between them that cut through her was so great as well as it slammed into the ground and carved a new canyon so long that he could not even see the end of it as it reached past the planet’s curvature. The ground where his sword cut burned red hot from the released energy as it became molten rock.
Camilla stumbled back as she clutched her missing right arm at the shoulder with the stump of her left hand.
Frosk then turned to her as he asked, “Without that sword of yours, you cannot manipulate things beyond the reach of physical touch, right? It would be smart of you not to underestimate me any further, Camilla Lykos.”
She fought through the pain as she looked at him with burning determination and said, “Very well, I will stop treating you like a child for once.”
While gritting her teeth, a strange mass of molten metal began to flow in the blood dripping from her wounds until it formed a new left hand and right arm.
Then, from her newly grown right hand, a mass of molten metal erupted from her palm and stretched into the form of a spear.
It was the unholy armament of Brunhildt, Ichor Doru.
“Without the God Stitcher, your ability to manipulate things around you without touching them is gone. It would be in your best interest to release the limits of your soul now if you still hope to match my strength,” he said, hoping that with her sword destroyed, it would be enough to push her further.
Much to his surprise however, she began to laugh.
“Maybe before this fight had started, I might have considered that the case. Its true I was not able to manipulate what I could not touch without the use of the sword,” she said which gave him pause.
Was not…? She wasn’t able to before, but now she can? What does she mean?
“But here is the thing, with all this newfound knowledge flooding into my head, I’ve stumbled onto a discovery! The fabric of space contains all that we see around it. I need only take hold of that, then I can take hold of everything within it! All you’ve done is destroy my crutch! Now, I am uninhibited in what I can control!”
She then reached out her left hand and he felt a crushing pressure envelop his entire body before he was pulled towards her too fast for him to react as she stabbed him in the chest with Ichor Doru.
She pulled his face close to hers as she looked up at him with a bloodthirsty stare while she said, “ I am a proud Valkyrie warrior of Brunhildt and one of the strongest of the Nøkkran Assassins. You had best not underestimate me either Frosk, or it will be your death.”