PREVIOUSLY
"Heat?" The Nephalem chuckled, flapping it's wings. "That won't do more than leave a mere tinge on my skin."
"I grow tired of waiting, brightest star. If you're not going to attack first. . . .I will."
In an instant, spears of light appeared before Elm's eyes at a speed that would have blitzed even a well-trained prana user, but to her who was the embodiment of light, it was much, much too slow. Instead of simply dodging it, Elm placed her will upon the light and the spears turned into energy, absorbed by Elm's body as they touched her.
"Well, it appears nothing will come forth if we both use the light," The Nephalem smiled, showing it's disgusting bloody fangs. This time, it's dark wings flapped, as ball of dark energy formed before him. Crushing it in his hands, he scattered the energy over the Swamp, and the ground shook
Elm sensed something coming from below her, and so, before the thing underground could appear, she made the quick decision of sacrificing her sun-hot light sword, and thrusted it entirely into the ground, accurately attacking whatever creature was under her, pinning it under the ground.
"That was just a distraction~"
BAM!
Before Elm could even process what was going on, she felt her ribs break as the Nephalem had hit her with something of considerable weight. Thinking quick, she summoned forth the energy of chi, and healed her wound as much as she could, before sensing something coming at her, aiming directly to her face.
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Switching back to the energy of the light, Elm called forth her armor, the replica. Golden light encircled her. The light felt like a weighted blanket, comforting and warm. Her robes melted away, and she shuddered as her pants did the same. For a moment, she was bare and trembling before the light turned liquid and pressed against her body. It felt cool and warm at the same time, oddly soothing as it solidified. The red fabric of her hooded robe became layers and layers of what looked like fish scales, dark red and glistening. It was like she was wearing a long sleeve made out of some metallic fabric that also covered her hands like fingerless gloves.
The armor hugged her body without feeling constraining.
When Elm opened her eyes, the world seemed to slow down as she saw what had hit her. It was a tendril, mucus-like and doused heavily in the speed of the light, and the power of the dark. Even though time might as well have stopped when Elm was in this form, the tendril was still approaching her, no matter how slow.
Elm's heart skipped a beat. Anger boiled in her chest. She couldn't believe she let herself get hit due to such a simple mistake of oversight. Confident in her strength, she failed to think of the fact that the Nephalem could be hiding some sort of ability to compensate for it's lacking physical strength.
Anger turned to battle-lust.. A wild thrill filled Elm's chest as she stared down the angel-devil. It seemed to have noticed Elm even in this time-frozen world, and he looked like he was casting something to be free from this time-dilation but an eye for an eye, a punch for a punch.
Almost instantaneously, Elm appeared in front of the Nephalem. His eyes widened, and his breath hastened, but Elm casually cocked her right hand back. . .and the Nephalem finished his spell.
"You-"
But, he was a second too late. Elm's right hand, doused in the flaming heat of the light, with the weight of chi, drove straight and deep into the Nephalem's muddy core.
"Agh!"
But, before it's body was sent flying, it had the battle intelligence to send multiple tendrils at Elm, but Elm had already seen that attack coming from a mile away.
A blink of an eye, and all of its tendrils had been sliced. But, it was just a distraction for the Nephalem to regain his footing as he looked down and saw how his core had been caved in as he bled mud.
The Nephalem roared. His form started to change, and his power levels began to rise.
But, Elm didn't care about any of that. Armored with the light, enhanced by chi, and pumped full with prana, Elm just sat down and wondered why her heart beat like so whenever she was battling against an enemy. There was something freeing about choosing to fight, she realized. It was fight or die, and she had already betted her entire life on this the moment Willow had been stolen. No holding back. No respawning. A fight to the death.
She stared back at the Nephalem who was in his second form. Oh, even Elm was a little surprised at what it had done.
"Fear me, brightest star," The Nepahlem spoke, his voice heavy with power. "As I thank ye, for only now, in my battle against you have I achieved transcendence."
"I am the dark, and the light, combined into one."
"I thank ye, and farewell. This is your end."
Elm just sighed. She really didn't want to do this but the Nephalem was one of those types who would continue to be a pain in the ass if she didn't solve it all at once.
The Swamp was the first to notice, as it retreated from Elm the moment it sensed the tinge of holy authority that was to be summoned. The Nephalem was second, and immediately switched out his dark energy for light, covering himself in the glory of the light so that he wasn't immediately killed by what the Celestial Hero had summoned.
To say the Nephalem was surprised would be an understatement. His fingers pointed at the invisible principality of light and all that was holy hovering in Elm's fingertips.
"You, you-" The Nephalem sucked in a sharp breath. "How do you have that?!"
Elm didn't reply. She stepped forward, holding her Holy Sword with both hands, mindful of any other surprises the Nephalem might have for her. She didn't want to be careless and give him an opportunity again. The Nephalem screamed, the same warbled scream she'd heard earlier from her punch as he tried to fly away, to gain ground. Its gait awkward and clumsy, it killed the other monsters flying in his path as he rushed away from her.
But, Elm closed the distance so quickly; the Nephalem barely had a chance to react. She sidestepped and swung, while the Nephalem swiped with its good arm. Elm parried it and swung again, but she struck nothing but air.
The Nephalem appeared multiple meters behind her as Elm sighed again. This would be a real pain in the ass. Instead of power, the Nephalem had willed all of his light to be attributed towards speed which kept them in a stalemate since Elm had to sacrifice some of her speed in order to wield something as volatile as the Holy Sword.
"Th-That's right! All I have to do is keep my distance, and attack you when you're least guarded!"
Elm just let out another sigh again. How many times has she done that now? She sensed something coming from her left, and so, without even turning her head, she parried the nails bouncing off her Holy Sword, before he disappeared again in a flurry of sparks.
Parrying another swipe at her back, Elm realized that if she didn't do something drastic, they would be forever locked in this stalemate, or at least until one of them ran out of gas, and a battle of attrition was something Elm really hated.