Flow.
Xzina floats in the air, her mind swirling in thoughts.
It is a thin line to tread upon — not a state of contemplation where things move slowly, but a state of challenge where time flows as it should. That is where Kayn thrives. This state is reached when a person is engaged in a matter of their interest, and the challenge presented is equally matched with their skills and capabilities.
She glances at Kayn.
If a task is too easy, one might feel very confident and safe about it. But that leaves openings for a sudden takeover and instant loss. Kayn is too experienced to fall into the trap of letting his guard down and allowing confidence to take over. Making him feel like he is winning easily isn't the route I should take here.
She smirks.
Instead, the route of feeling overwhelmed is the best approach. Make him believe he is not up to the task of fighting me. I might not be at full power, but I have this with me: Habil's Alpha Ianite, the twin to the one Kayn has. The first Ianites. I also extracted all the knowledge Habil had about using it. Whatever power I can muster from this slave, stacked along with Habil's, should be more than enough to handle him from what I remember.
As she floats, the orange gem Neo had on him begins to float in front of her, and the water around her starts to crawl up her body, taking shape and adjusting until it forms the shape of a middle-aged armor that is still flexible. It then solidifies, with the Alpha Ianite taking its place on the top.
All this happens while her tails reach for Kayn's destructive force.
My win condition is to reach the nexus. His win condition is to stop me. But how? He can't! No matter what he throws at me, I'll keep coming back. He doesn't have Mercy with him to seal this servant.
"I have resolved myself to end you! But you won't be alone for long. After I cut your ties with the nexuses and kill you, I'll rip that sister of yours to shreds along with her mercy!"
Act it up all you want; you must be nervous right now!
. . .
Kayn clasps his hands together.
Xzina takes notice.
He is about to attack, probably with something strong to tip the scale in the mental warfare. Ha! Bring it! I will take it head-on and break your spirit. You will never reach the flow.
Kayn does further hand movements towards her.
What will it be? Fission? Fusion?
She retracts some of her tails for cover and protection while the rest almost reach him.
The air around him flows, causing his coat to fly around.
Make a hollow orb of element zero . . .
"Orb," he says.
. . . create a vacuum by making an artificial pressure difference between the inside of the element zero sphere and the outside of it . . .
"Vacuum,"
. . . once all matter is out, insert the Ianite coated with element zero and the execution code at the center with some element zero around as starting fuel . . .
"Zero,"
. . . ensure the code includes anti-quarks, positrons, but not everything. We are going for something specific here . . .
"Fundamental,"
. . . lastly, the energy released from the interaction needs to be absorbed by the alpha coated with a layer of element zero to make more . . .
"Absorb,"
. . . and finally, force in a direction.
Forbidden physics technique: Anti-Matter.
The orb launches at high speed, heading straight toward Xzina.
Xzina holds her ground and raises her guard, bracing for the explosion with the armor. She sends four of her tails for impact with it.
But once her tails reach the orb, she panics.
Wait! This is!
She immediately uses all her power to move away from the large orb's path as fast as she can.
"Ark!" She dodges, and the orb continues to travel, hitting the rope behind.
There is no explosion, nothing; the orb just keeps moving forward, eradicating everything in its path. It is pure, simple, clean matter conversion to energy.
Normally, such a conversion of matter in such amounts would cause multiple nuclear explosions. However, the Ianite within the sphere launches a code that allows it to absorb all the energy being produced by this reaction. This energy will be stored, with some being used to further fuel the Ianite to continue converting element zero into anti-matter until the element zero stored within the Ianite runs out.
As when element zero is converted into other matter, it can never be converted again by an Ianites command except one.
The resulting process from all this makes it so that whatever enters into the sphere, will never come out. One could be fooled into thinking it is matter deletion.
But matter cannot be destroyed, nor anti-matter, nor energy—merely one converted to the other . . . or can it?
Nevertheless, the process has earned its title: Annihilation. No matter will ever survive contact with the orb.
She looks behind, seeing this happen, then looks back at Kayn with fury in her eyes. Four of her nine tails are heavily damaged, with large portions deleted.
He has become even more troublesome than before! My feelings are validated, I was right to see to it that he must be eliminated!
Kayn smiles at her. "Don't get a big head with me, Calamity. The score was 2 to 0 for us. You are the one who needs to step up your game here, otherwise I'll start to get bored!"
Kayn takes off his coat, which begins to turn into liquid and forms a cool-looking armor around him, perfected for a balance of aesthetic design, mobility, and protection.
"You spoke of resolve," he continues.
This armor seems unique. It doesn't have just one but five Ianites on it. One of them seems to be missing . . .
Xzina observes his armor, narrowing her eyes at the empty fifth slot.
Is it the one he put in that attack? Wait!
She looks behind her and sees the orb traveling back and on its way to collide with her.
She dodges again, barely escaping the orb.
Kayn raises his hand toward it, and when it reaches him, it vanishes, with only the Ianite he put in it traveling to him. He grabs it, and it automatically flows to its place on his helmet's forehead.
It's the Alpha Ianite.
He has five. Two on each arm and the Alpha Ianite on his helmet.
Five? How is that possible? He could barely have two the last time we fought!
He looks at her, "Come then, let me show you what that feels like!"
And just like that, it is recorded in the history of eternity — the first time a Calamity is shaken.