Noint flew through the air like a comet, only this time of her own volition. Silver streaks lined the sky in a blur. Ivan only waited for the comet to hit him. It seemed Noint was intent on taking his arm as he did her wing. But to slow it down he did something he'd hadn't attempted before, the runes on his palms glimmered with gray light. Taking a book from Yue's book he pressed his hands on the air itself. Slowly the air flowed with frosted breath, Movements became sluggish, and the air itself started flaking snow.
It succeeded in slowing her but not by a lot. If he had to guess this explosion of power was like Limit Break. Only that it seemed like Noint had an inexhaustible capacity of mana, after her first few attacks that no normal mortal could pull off she seemed no less rugged than when they began. Either she had as much talent in magic as Yue or her inhuman body functioned as did the homunculi.
She must've had a core with nigh-infinite mana, if that was the case then Ivan planned to steal it for himself.
But going back to her current condition. Light enshrouded her entire being, her movements multiplied to a great degree. As for physical prowess, the air itself trembled as if she had a gravitational effect on reality. Just a swing of her swords would've likely caused a rift in space. Taking advantage that she still hadn't crashed into him, Ivan formed icicles in the air along with some panes of ice for defense.
"Here she comes!" Ivan wasn't blind to not notice what was going down on the ground below. He knew Yue waited on standby to provide support. As much as he favored a battle of honor between two warriors this bout was for the sake of moving on, he couldn't afford to die here. If that meant accepting some help from the side then so be it.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE
Ivan crossed his bracers in front of him. Arching his knees into the air to form himself into a ball.
BOOM!
The moment of impact marked something akin to a collision between planets. Ivan's body carried a metallic color as he manifested Diamond Skin last minute while forming his faux barrier of restoration around him. It succeeded in vastly lowering the power of the impact by reversing her momentum; however, the sheer force of her attack managed to overpower the backward propulsion in due time.
After the collision the battle didn't end there, it only marked the beginning. Noint bisected her swords to chop off Ivan's head like scissors. Her leg lunged forward to dig into his knee should he choose to ward off the greatswords with his hands.
Immediately Ivan activated his lightning-clad mode, for the first time he used his mind control exploding needles, using his bracers to hold back the head chop and pointing his fists toward her unguarded face. He fired dozens of needles right into her face, not minding how close he was should the impact happen.
And of course, it did.
BANG BANG BANG!
Over and over, she stood there attempting to guard her face with her arms, unable to do so as the force behind each explosion sent her body into shock. Ivan's face would've melted off if not for the defense of his mask. Using her shock to his advantage, Ivan briefly paused the fire of his right gauntlet to destroy one of her swords.
SHATTER!
The blade exploded with the activation of his right arm's symbols. All that remained of the valkyrie beauty was a single sword and wing. Having been reduced to such a state Ivan anticipated her reaction. Shall it be fear? Hate? Would she deny the present that transpired in front of her?
Unfortunately, none of that happened. Instead, she took the opportunity when Ivan removed one arm to destroy a sword to break out of the loop. A fine outcome to Ivan who was starting to run low on ammunition anyways, or well he needed some time to reload. He considered the bout to be successful on his end anyways.
Though it was a shame that the ice needles he formed behind her back were all deflected by her remaining wing. Such magic was extremely expensive to someone like him who didn't possess infinite mana, though that situation seemed to be changing soon…
"Be proud of yourself, Irregular. You are the first in hundreds of years to injure an apostle. As such you cannot be allowed to leave alive." The white enshrouding her only enhanced as it seemed like she planned on laying everything on the line to kill him. After that barrage of missiles she was bleeding minorly but nothing severe.
Odds were she knew that the next intent of Ivan was to go for her heart and steal it for himself. If she was going to die then she was set on taking him down with it. Her lord's games needed to continue. The least she could do was offer her life to ensure it. Though unfortunate for her she didn't possess a self-destruct feature or anything like that.
In fact, her creator intended the apostles to be unparalleled beings that could conduct his work for him with ease. As such he held complete faith in their strength, so much so that he didn't bother adding a contingency plan should one of them be defeated. In his defense the apostles were made to overpower residents of the world, an outside factor like Ivan was simply unaccounted for. Hence why he was an 'Irregularity.'
She two-handed the single greatsword. Flying into the air before dispersing the remaining feathers on her single wing. Dozens of feathers formed together to form magic circles. Ivan sighed in awe as hundreds of magic circles, each with different elemental attacks, littered the air.
Waves of fire, tornadoes of gust, icicles of ice, asteroids of earth, each magic circle held the same level of danger as her first magical attack. Ivan smiled brightly in face of this attack, he stared over at where Yue was waiting before looking back at his impending doom. "Come, puppet of god!"
WHOOSH!
Each spell propelled forward with great vigor. Mimicking his former method of dealing with these kinds of attacks he shot forward like a missile. Simultaneously he activated his restoration field to hopefully revert any attacks that made it by his arm of destruction. And so he flew, at the speeds he was traveling turning was nigh impossible.
He was able to bend the bullet I suppose you could say but such changes to his trajectory were marginal. With Noint having lost her remaining wing's feathers all she had left in her arsenal was the sword she held. The swords were beautiful, seemingly of the same toughness as Azantium. Breaking the other one with his hand was a product of him taking advantage, now though it would be different.
Ivan was sure she wouldn't allow him to touch it for longer than a second.
So yes, his intent now mostly lay in stealing her heart. Like a toy without batteries, he inferred that upon losing her heart she should be inoperable. There was however the chance that her body would remain operable using the mana her body infused and stored before being separated from her core.
An idea he wanted to implement on the girls upon their creation but was incapable of as it required attunements to their bodies that likely would have resulted in continuous failures.
He burst through the flames with renewed vigor, right hand in the air as it threatened to drop upon her like a hammer. However, as soon as it collided with her body—
WHOOSH!
Her 'body' dispersed into dozens of feathers. It was an ability he didn't anticipate from this muscle-headed puppet. From above lunged her, falling from the sky with a sword in hand. Ivan dodged it by deactivating his air walk, but it was too late. As impressive as it was to dodge an attack that was almost certainly supposed to attack his head, upon falling he left his chest exposed to her attack.
The armor got shredded from the chest piece in a single downward slash. Blood poured from his chest but not in copious amounts. Likely something he could attribute to the chainmail he thought would one day come in handy. While falling he pointed his bracers in the air, right at her.
BANG BANG BANG!
He fired off a ton of rounds before regaining a foothold in the air. As strong as he was slamming into the pavement at high velocity sounded too painful for his tastes. They were closer to the ground, for better or worse.
Noint dove down through the ashes from those explosions, now that they stood below what remained of the tower she got very careful about his movements. So careful that she neglected the other irregularities that may have been skulking the area,
"...This is for hurting Ivan."
BANG
What remained of the tower fell forward on top of the unsuspecting Noint. Its bricks and contents spilled out and crushed her. But that wasn't all, of course, Yue knew simple debris wouldn't kill an apostle of god.
"Spatial Shatter." So she intended on bisecting the valkyrie in half.
Space divided and anything between the invisible slash was therefore lost forever. "GAHH!" For the first time, Noint displayed her emotions for the world to see. She only narrowly dodged the slice after having lost a foot in the process.
Ivan didn't relent, he jumped atop her as she made desperate attempts to regain her footing before plunging his lightning-infused hand through where her heart should be. And without hesitation, he ripped it out—
SPLAT!
Copious amounts of blood flowed from her chest. The beating of the blue mechanical heart came to a complete stop after several seconds, without another glance Ivan transported it to a preserving chamber within his Treasure trove.
Noint's eyes lost their luster as time went by. As emotionless as they were, their beauty was undeniable.
She exhaled her last breath staring at the stars, her emotionless face marred with shame.
"....."
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Noint ga shinda! She was so pretty too... Well, at least Ivan got a new heart. Time to clear the Divine Mountain now! After that, two will remain. I'm so excited~! l'll finally have time to read new work for inspiration as well. If you've seen my twitter I just got a copy of Kizumonogatari, though I haven't touched it yet as I want to fully immerse myself when I do take the time. From there I'm likely to buy the sets should I enjoy it.
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