Layla attacked without hesitation since the beginning, she never stopped for even a single second. Her rapier would always be pointed toward Arima's vitals, no matter what.
In contrast, he merely kept dodging the blows and would just dissipate the light magic with his own like it was nothing. But the strange thing was that Arima didn't retaliate once. His expression was still as dark and impassive as the beginning but he didn't seem to want to counter attack at all.
At some point, Layla stopped thrusting her rapier and started swinging it instead. That fact alone surprised him, which proved how much he was not taking this fight seriously.
"You said you were holding back," Layla started talking as her rapier was entangled with Superore, and Arima frowned slightly. "But you're not," she added and her scales shined with silver light. Her figure blurred and her weapon moved strangely.
Arima couldn't react in time and was struck directly in the shoulder. He was taken off guard again and flew back to crash among the vines. His expression didn't suffer any change as he stood up again. He glanced at his bleeding shoulder and tried to lift his left arm. Layla had one more time aimed for a place at which she didn't even spare a glance before.
"You can't hold back if you're not even fighting," she declared and Arima immediately fired Superore at her. She blocked the wave of black and blue energy with light magic then jumped back.
She flapped her wings and was prepared to strike again. But when she got away from the explosion caused by Superore's bullets, she saw Arima disappearing. He deployed his wings for a second then instantly arrived behind her.
"What do you mean by that?" Before she could turn around, Arima struck her in the back and sent her flying toward the ground. But the force behind the blow wasn't that strong and she easily stopped her fall. She looked up and her sigil glowed. A star-shaped magic formation formed in the sky. It spun and released a giant wave of light energy.
Arima faced it expressionlessly and extended his hand. His body started expanding and right when the light was about to hit him, a huge shadow grabbed the light and crushed it.
It released a shockwave that shook the realm and tore the vines apart. It was important to note that this place was a least a hundred times tougher than an Original Land. A force strong enough to even cut those vines would be enough to wipe out a mountain in the normal world.
When the light faded away, a huge black dragon was left there, staring at Layla. His eyes were evidently bigger and scarier as his red-gold pupils glowed.
Layla bit her lip. She really couldn't feel any emotion from that look. She sighed but smiled as she checked the state of her body.
"What I mean is pretty simple. You just don't want to fight back. Rather, you can't."
Arima's expression twitched. Lightning thundered around him and he teleported right in front of Lanya. His giant body cast a shadow over her but she didn't falter.
"Have you forgotten which domain Lilis reigned over?" She asked and Arima frowned.
"Worldly Emotions."
"Exactly," Layla nodded and smiled. "Do you know that I also have a passive Manifestation? It's what Lilis used to stop Pandora," she said and Arima suddenly recalled. He had actually never seen Lilis' Manifestation in action. He had only learned about it through Layla's memories.
"Emotion emphasis. That's the power of my first Manifestation," Layla chuckled. "I might be cheating. But in the end, I'm not making you feel anything. I'm merely stirring your emotions a little bit."
Arima snorted. He already knew what she was getting at.
"Earlier," she spoke up again. "When you struck me in the back, not only did you reduce your strength but you even made sure to avoid any vital spot. The fact that you didn't hit me with all you've got can be normal since, at least, I know you don't want to kill me."
"But the fact that you don't even want to injure me is all the proof I need. You're not being nice because I'm a woman or anything. I've watched you behead that succubus when we met. You don't care about the gender of the opponent in a fight."
Layla smirked. "Basically, I'm already inside your head. I'm proving that to you and I'll continue to fight until you acknowledge it," she uttered and her eyes glowed. Her appearance returned to normal and her dress fluttered. She smiled calmly and her entire body turned into white particles.
Arima looked around and landed on the ground. He caused a cloud of dust to form around him and when it dispersed, he was already back to his human form.
At the same time, everything around him had turned pure white. The ocean of his soul realm had been replaced by a white surface and so had the ground. The vines were no more and Arima noticed that even some walls had appeared far away. He was right in the middle of a giant cube.
The paint soon appeared on the blank canvas and illustrated the peaceful scenery of a meadow. Arima exhaled and put Superore away.
His sigil spun and his right arm grew black scales as he waved it to the right. Layla was about to hit him, but it seemed like she was going to get blocked. But she unexpectedly eluded Arima's parry and punched him right in the liver.
He gasped as he found himself bounce on the canvas while scattering the pain on his path. He slammed his palm on the ground to recover his balance and stood up.
"I forgot…" He mumbled. He was certainly not focusing enough to have overlooked Layla's most dangerous ability. Her eyes were shining bright like a jewel and her slit pupils were incredibly menacing.
"Round 2," she announced and vanished as the paint shrouded her.
Arima grunted and sharpened his senses. What followed was one-sided. This place offered a huge advantage to Layla. Arima could only defend since dodging wasn't even an option because of her ability to see the future. He had not used any Art until now because some of the most useful ones had been wasted by Malum and also because he really didn't dare to use them and hurt her by mistake.
But, most importantly, he couldn't strike back since the power of his attacks would be returned to him by her Soul Manifestation.
Arima made up his mind and started chanting quietly. A black and white book opened in front of him and slowly went through the pages. The Lawless Tome's interventions did not produce energy, it was more accurate to call them 'miracles'. So, it couldn't be absorbed by Layla's Manifestation.
"[Third Destruction Art, Pars Impios]," Arima intoned and the book shined. Layla smirked and waved her hand. A large chunk of paint emerged from the ground and took the shape of a book.
"[Third Destruction Art, Pars Impios]," she chanted and Arima's eyes narrowed. She had cast the magic in advance and had waited for him to use it.
'I can't stop it now…' Arima inwardly thought as he looked at the glowing book. Words were being written on it.
Error. The theory does not allow double invocation. Closing. Discharge. Solution: Destruction. ||
This was something that perhaps only Arima and Layla knew about. Not even Night and Karma were aware of it since they had never been told.
The Lawless Tome is a 'one-off' spell. It cannot be conjured by two different persons at the same time. When that happens, it will stop working and self-destruct both instances.
In this case, the two books would explode into pure energy that is 100% absorbable by Layla's Manifestation. That's why Arima was slightly unnerved.
He transformed into a dragon again and got away from the book he had just summoned. Layla did the same but then turned her body into specks of light. She could turn ethereal in this place; the explosion wouldn't be able to harm her.
Arima scowled as the books started cracking and releasing strident noises. Getting away wasn't impossible for him but he would need to either use the First Destruction Art or the First Blue Art to break out. Both were too hazardous.
When the two books finally exploded, Arima chanted an unexcepted Art, "[Third White Art, Doppelganger]."
The energy released by the books filled the canvas and was promptly absorbed. Just after, the energy reached the cap and Layla's Manifestation's final aspect was triggered. When she had used that attack against Fafnir before, he would have died if it wasn't for the Bell of Mictlan. But Arima didn't have an artifact like that at his disposition. He had no choice but to take the full blow.
When Layla's Soul Manifestation ended, both her and Arima were ejected out of the latter's soul realm. A veil of light covered the entirety of the Earth and above the HQ of Aurorae, two shadows were spotted. Layla landed carefully on the roof and gazed at Arima.
He was bleeding but his injuries were quite odd. His arm had been cut off and it was the only place from which the blood was flowing down. The rest of his body was completely unscathed.
"Doppelganger…" Layla uttered.
Doppelganger's hidden aspect was atypical. It didn't summon a copy of the caster. Arima couldn't even do that since Malum had busted the magic circuits for it. But the hidden aspect was like a secondary road.
It had no name but its propriety was that it could dictate the target of surrounding threats and redirect all of the damage. In this case, Arima had chosen his left arm.
His arm would most likely take a month to regenerate but at least he had prevented any critical injury. For him, losing an arm was a lot less severe than having internal damage.
"Fine, you win," Arima raised his remaining hand as he turned back into a human. His expression was also back to normal. "You're just bullying me at this point. I can't do this anymore."
Layla giggled. "Do you understand now?"
"Understand?" Arima laughed. "Admit it, this whole thing was a fat joke. You were never trying to convince me that I loved you. You used this whole situation as a way to influence me. For my defense, you were kinda cheating since it's impossible for me to not pay attention to you when we literally share memories."
Layla grinned and stuck out her tongue. Arima sighed. "I lost an arm for this…" He grumbled and stared at Layla. "182 687," he said and Layla tilted her head in confusion.
"That's the number of times I could have injured or killed you," Arima explained and Layla opened her mouth wide. Now she was really sweating. That was very scary to hear.
Arima groaned as he stretched. He walked toward Layla and patted her head. "Anyway, I got your point. I still have feelings and longings even with this twisted personality of mine. And you managed to reach the top of the pile," he laughed. "Congratulations."
Layla laughed with him then turned toward him. "Then, we're lovers now?"
"Hold your horses, woman. I need to sleep right now. I'm exhausted because of you. It's late too, look tat that," he pointed at the sky and Layla saw the moon rising. When she looked back, Arima had already disappeared. She pouted and teleported too.
"{Finally! This thing was driving me insane!}" Malum shouted.
"Shut up. You are insane," Arima retorted.
"{You're kidding, right? You're the one to talk.}"