Valerie moved her hand swiftly in the air creating a white orb in front of her hand, just on the knock to hit her again. Azrael looked at the orb which was growing bigger with every passing second. Knowing if it hits her, it would destroy most of her mana.
Azrael took a few steps back, "Since this is what you want, let's do it for real." Azrael moved her hands up and an orb of dark black appeared in front like Valerie's. And then they both dashed forward at the same intensity.
They both vanished once they collided with each other, leaving the library of Niflheim once again empty.
***
In a shadowy dense forest, the sky was grim with no stars or moon and not even clouds. It was just opaque while the land was covered with half-burnt trees with no sign of life. Not even a single voice disturbed the tranquil environment until a portal opened up in the middle and from there two women came out, stepping back in two opposite directions.
Azrael huffed looking at her sister. It was interesting that her sister developed so much in such little duration but this time Azrael didn't plan to go easy on her.
Azrael moved a few more steps back, with a sinister smile and spread her arms wide as the dark ambience enveloped her. Soon a dark formless figure emerged out of the pitch-black land and soon started to take form.
It was a shadow wolf, they assimilate energy from the surroundings and their opponents and get stronger with each attack. A shadow wolf is a part of the shadow cast and one of the strongest attacks in dark magic even in its normal form and it was way stronger.
The wolf started sprinting towards the direction Azrael pointed, which was towards Valerie. Valerie didn't budge at all from her place, instead, she stood there calmly, her eyes fixated on the gray hollow eyes of the creature even though it was dashing forward at full-fledged speed.
And as soon as the wolf hopped forward to attack her. Out of nowhere, the wolf repulsed back to the ground leaving Azrael in shock. She looked at her shadow puppet and then squinted her eyes to look at her sister.
Azrael couldn't help but gasp noticing what her sister used, "Air barrier? Interesting." Azrael scoffed.
Valerie let out a mocking smile, it surprised her that her sister had completely forgotten her power. Unlike dark magic, light magic can learn or bend the elements of nature according to their wishes. But learning those elements needs someone to have higher energy and control, even mastering one is a rare occurrence.
It takes centuries of control and practice to master the skill but Valerie did it not only once but two, with air and water. Both had similar properties which made it easier to master instead of learning fire which was a lot different.
The air barrier was one of the defences; if a warrior had high control over it, then their enemy couldn't break through it, even with something like a shadow cast. The speciality of the air barrier was that even if light magic illuminates energy, the air barrier becomes a shield between light and dark magic to not let dark energy absorb the light.
Azrael pulled back her shadow wolf, and clapped at her sister's moves, "Nice move. But… I'll let you go only this time." With that Azrael, closed her eyes like two giant black misty orbs formed above each of her hands.
Once opening her eyes, Azrael directly throws them toward Valerie with a strong force one after another. Valerie quickly dodged the first one. The first orb went and hit on the trees at the back, making a loud explosion and soon the others followed Valerie but she swiftly dodged them.
In the process, the place was covered in smoke, with trees being destroyed. The dust particles made the place translucent to see. Valerie stopped on her track once the dust covered the place, her eyes trying to track down Azrael. The thick layer of dust made it harder for her to see or sense any kind of motion.
And out of nowhere, the shadow wolf jumped on her, causing her to fall to the ground with one of its paws pinning both her hands down to make it hard to use any form of magic on it before she tried to attack or defend herself. If she tries to do anything the wolf would suck every energy radiating from her.
Valerie gritted her teeth in defeat, how could she let her sister fool her with those caliginous bubbles? She should have seen through it. How can her sister try to quell through some caliginous bubble?
Caliginous bubble. Those were one of the mild attacks of dark magic. There were quick rapid orbs that were like bombs. If it hits the enemy it creates a big explosion, it doesn't absorb the mana but it disrupts the flow of its victim making them unable to attack for a few moments giving their enemy a chance to kill them. If the victim was someone with no or less mana they can die with it but with the law that doesn't allow it to be used on the weak, it never happens.
"Well. Well. I told you, I'm still your older sister." Azrael stated. Coming out of the foggy dust screen, she looked at her little sister pinned on the ground helplessly and gritted her teeth in anger. Unfortunately, Azrael could only let go, winning against the weak is no fun and her anger calmed down a lot over their small fight.
Azrael dismissively waved her hand, vanishing the wolf from sight. She had a victorious smile on her face, as she watched Valerie getting up from the ground.
Valerie didn't make any eye contact with Azrael but instead, put her back towards her as she dusted off her dress. It was way embarrassing for Val to look at her. She thought once she mastered the air and water elements she could finally defeat Azrael but she got too high over her power that she forgot dark was a mild mix of all the elements. Just one difference: they were better copies of the elements and way more destructive.
"You know Erbous already got out." Azrael asserted.