The eerie crystal palace was filled with tension. Cracked and destroyed pillars filled some of the floor as each of them stood ready to fight.
"Foolish girl!" The Empress shouted as mana gathered beneath her feet. The surge of magical power was scorching the air around her as it raised around her like a burning aura. "You're not worthy to sit on the throne of a kingdom!"
Despite those words, Leona's eyes were shining with a bright blue glow as if she was becoming one with her own mana.
"Your words won't be enough to stop me from trying!"
Mana swirled from the base of her extended arm towards the center of her palm. Her furrowed brows and sharp glare were focused on the center mass of her opponent's body with a crackling orb of fire expanding in front of her hand.
"Fool." The Empress raised her arm towards her as well, but as opposed to a fire spell, she was charging an ice projectile. "You don't stand a chance against me!"
Her threatening words did nothing against Leona's intense focus which made Robert bring his right hand under his chin.
"Hmm…" He tilted his head while slowly nodding at the tactician. "Interesting…"
Both Leonas were reaching their spell's critical point as both the ice lance and fire orb became just a bit larger than their own limb.
"Fireball!"
"Ice Spear!"
They both unleashed their spells at the same time. Once the azure flames and ice lance collided against each other they released an explosion of boiling hot steam that would have wounded both of them if not for a quick ice wall that grew from each of their left foot.
'We're equally matched…' Leona thought while trying to think of another plan to attack the empress. But if she truly is me, then-'
There was no need for her to think any further as she was hearing a faint sizzling sound coming from behind her ice wall. She threw herself on the floor as a lightning strike coursed through the air into the ice—shattering it into pieces.
"Tsk."
The Empress clicked her tongue as she noticed Leona just had barely avoided her spell. However, she wasted no time and pressed the attack again by curling her five fingers forward—each of them accumulating mana as if to shoot an individual spell.
Leona noticed the mana pattern being akin to the light spell 'Megido' and she quickly placed her hand in the center of her chest with her palm against the crystal floor.
"Wind Blast!"
"Megido!"
She dodged the piercing light shots by a hair's breadth as they carved holes in the floor in a fan pattern. However her own wind spell was too powerful as she was thrown on her back before rolling twice on the floor and stumbling up.
However, she was feeling an intense pain in her chest because of the sheer recoil she felt.
"Haaa… haaa…"
It was hard for her to breathe.
"Experience comes with pain." Footsteps echoed in front of her which prompted her eyes to trace towards the Empress that slowly walked to her. "Compared to me, what could you possibly know?"
She raised her hand once again, but Leona raised her voice before she could accumulate mana for another spell.
"Then what?! So you can do it all over again?! To manipulate and kill people?!" Leona coughed a few times before taking a sharp breath to keep speaking. "You had your chance and you chose your path! Let me carve my own!"
The Empress' eyes narrowed as her hands instinctively clenched themselves.
"Only a weakling like you would quit after being given a second chance!"
That was the moment Leona was waiting for. The split second opening bought her just enough time to simultaneously cast 'Ice Wall' with her left foot and charge 'Wind Blast' with her right hand.
Her spell was strong enough to propel her through the crystal floor like a bullet coming out of a pistol's barrel. She was so fast it caught even the Empress off guard as the ice wall also came forward with the momentum and wrapped around her target like a curling hand.
Leona turned to her right and shoulder tackled her other self with full force.
"Ughk!"
That being said, all that momentum resulted in such a powerful collision that it not only audibly broke some of the Empress' ribs but it also sent both of them straight through the shattered ice wall as both of them kept rolling on the floor before the Empress eventually hit her back against a crystal pillar while Leona stopped after skidding through the floor a few good meters past her.
"Nnngh!"
The intense pain made the tactician look at her right arm and it was clearly broken at the biceps. Thankfully, the Empress wasn't faring much better as she struggled to breathe because some of the ribs actually punctured through one of her lungs.
She coughed and some blood spluttered out of her nose and mouth. The taste of iron, while not unfamiliar, was a slow realization that she had lost.
'Am I really going to be defeated by that pathetic excuse of a ruler…?' She looked around and noticed Leona standing up in the distance. 'No… I won't allow it… I can't… not after everything I sacrificed to get here…!'
The tactician was giving her all just to stay standing, her legs were both weak and her aching hot throbbing right arm was of no use for combat, but she still had a job to finish as she slowly limped her way towards the fallen Empress.
"It's over…" Leona muttered as she stood within a few meters from her. "If I am to be honest, I don't really want to kill you."
"Hah!" She laughed and a bit of blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. "That is rich coming from me." Despite her fatally wounded lung, she still stood up with the help of her mechanical arm as its fingers carved into the crystal pillar and dragged her limping body up. "I'll let you in on a little secret. That man that has been 'helping' you, Robert, he is the sole reason why I became what I am. You think I'm ruthless? You think I'm heartless? It was all…" Her eyes were stuttering as if she was struggling to remain conscious. "It was all… for… us…"
She suddenly fell forward face first into the crystal floor. A dry thud echoed within the crystal palace as Leona stood silently looking at the pool of blood forming beside the Empress' mouth. Despite the feeling of sorrow, Leona's legs buckled as her knees hit the crystal floor beneath her.
It was over. A ghost of a lost past was 'defeated'. Though it was a hard fought victory, Leona couldn't shake off the feeling that something was compelling her other self to act in such an aggressive manner.
The continuous thumping of her heart could barely be heard echoing throughout the silent crystal palace.
"Not bad at all, Leona." Clapping could be heard from behind her as Robert approached. "Your first true enemy finally vanquished."
Through sharp, deep breaths, she turned to him.
"Robert. Did you purposefully make me fight 'her'?"
"Hm? What makes you think I am responsible?"
"I… I fought her before in 'my' inner world. I'm sure of it."
"Hooo… that is an interesting theory you have there. But what do I stand to gain from doing this exactly?"
"Wasn't your 'deal' with Xenovia to make me stronger? That 'There is experience to gain through suffering'?"
The usual smug expression he wore suddenly vanished.
"Not bad Leona. I think I underestimated you a little."
"Just tell me why. Why did you do this?"
"What else? So you grow stronger, obviously." He shook his head. "There is no shortcut to become powerful. The only way to do so is to fight with your all, even if it's just inside the mind."
At that point there was a pang of sharp pain in Leona's head as she tried to raise her arm towards her head but it simply didn't move.
"Ugh!"
"Just in time as well. Your soul is still too weak to house the two of us so I'll be taking my leave for now." He bowed slightly before walking towards one of the pillars. "See you on the other side."
Just like a ghost, he phased through the pillar and vanished.
"Wait- argh!" The headaches were becoming even more intense as if her head was being split open. "Aaaaaargh!"
Suddenly, she shot up awake in a well lit and cold room. She instinctively brought her hand to her chest and noticed she was indeed unharmed and the previously head-splitting headache was gone as if it was just a bad dream.
'That… that wasn't a dream, was it?'
She looked around and realized she was in Robert's secret lab. The different vats of light blue liquid housing gelatinous slime bodies and the different women in stasis made her less calm but at the same time she was completely sure she was back in reality.
"You are pretty tough Leona." Robert's voice made a chill go down her spine as she turned towards his voice and noticed him walking towards her with one green ceramic mug in each hand. "Well, for this world's standards at least. Granted it needed a little bit of a push to get there."
He settled the mug from his left hand on the table beside her where she was currently sitting.
"Robert, just tell me the reason why you did that?"
"Why? To make you stronger, I thought I already told you that."
"If it was to simply make me stronger, there would have been an easier way."
He sighed.
"Do you really want to know the truth?" She nodded which made him place his mug on the table. "It was an experiment. I had a handful of people that went through traumatic experiences in the past but none of them were able to wield magic to your degree."
"So you took a peek at my memories?"
"You could say that. The 'fear' you had with magic was the main root of this experiment and I have to say, I gathered some interesting data that I can put to use."
She pinched her nose ridge with indignation.
"Not only you used my memories to bring forth something literally from my deepest fears, but you also made me fight it." She looked at him with anger. "I don't really like the way you do things."
"Sometimes you just need to look at the results yourself to determine if it was worth the shot." He chuckled sourly. "I daresay you only stood to gain from this."
"What if I had died?!"
"Nothing. Literally nothing would have happened. Maybe one or two days into a paralysis-like state, but nothing more serious than that. The 'Fireball' you unleashed during training was the trigger and there are a few things I could do to revert your mind back to normal, though that would have taken a bit more effort from my part."
"Screw you Robert."
He started to walk back from the hallway where he had come from.
"You're welcome."
She hopped down from the table and glared at his back.
"Was all that talk about your daughters also a lie?"
Those words made him stop and reply, but without looking at her.
"No. They are genuine, that I can assure you."
He then continued on walking. If anything, that singular moment made Leona realize he was actually speaking from the bottom of his heart.
Nevertheless she shook her head and sighed before staring at her open palm.
"I 'only have to gain' from this huh?" She then tightened her hand into a fist. "What about how much we all have to lose?"