Chapter 222 - Ch35: Ren Akari P6

Chapter 35: Ren Akari P6

~35.6~

*****

 "Begin!"

"<>!" Rei cried as she unleashed an immense burst of mana, going straight to wielding her Radiance of Light.

Ren smirked and did the same. "<>!"

"Princess, that girl possesses the Radiance of Darkness. It's not borrowed power."

"No, it's not. This will be a fantastic duel. The Radiance of Light against the Radiance of Darkness."

Standing across from each other, a mass of Radiant Light collided with a mass of Radiant Darkness. The two moved faster than most of the class could even see. Only the royals could follow their movements somewhat, and only Kye's daughters could follow them perfectly.

"Mom."

"Yes, Joey?"

"May I join them partway through? I want to test both of them."

Kye was taken aback. Her eldest daughter never took an interest in her siblings' activities. She cared for them as her siblings, but always kept to herself.

"Okay. Sure. If you're interested in them, by all means."

The younger blonde nodded, and they watched the fight unfold.

Ren used a single katana, while Rei used two. Rei specialized in dual-wielding, but Ren had nearly three centuries of live combat experience to pull from. They were well matched.

Rei brought one blade down, forcing Ren to parry it, but she couldn't parry the blade coming from her side as easily. She moved back, allowing the blade to pass harmlessly in front of her, spun around, and used the momentum to give her next attack more power. She poured mana into her blade and forced Rei to respond with the same. The force from Ren's one attack pushed Rei to use both blades to stop it.

Rei jumped away and poured mana into both of her katana. "<>!" She sent a cross shaped blast of light mana at Ren and prepared another. "<>!"

Ren knew she could dodge the first attack, but was stubborn. She decided to face it directly. "<>!" She mimicked the attack, and the two collided in a mass of light and dark mana. But then a concentrated ball of fiery light mana came flying at her from behind it. She smirked and fought fire with fire. "<>!"

She timed her attack precisely. Pyroclasm was a pillar-type spell, and the instant Rei's attack moved over the spot Ren designated for her own, a pillar of black flames erupted and carried the star-like mass of golden flames into the sky, where it exploded harmlessly, the golden flames coated in black flames.

"Impressive," Rei said.

"I'm not done."

"Huh?"

As the flames in the sky faded, Rei felt additional mana in the sky. Several catalysts were floating in a circle around them. Rei understood what they were, but it was too late to react.

"<>!" A massive bolt of black lightning fell from the sky and engulfed both girls. Sparks of black lightning spread out across the ground in all directly, prompting Kye to protect the class with a barrier.

"Was that a black Kami Ikazuchi?" one of the students exclaimed.

When the spell faded, Rei was on one knee with Ren standing in front of her, blade pointed toward her.

That was when Joey summoned her own weapon form and lept into the fight. She was so fast that Ren couldn't jump away. She was forced to parry Joey's blade, but the force was too great and she was pushed back.

"Joey?" Rei said as she got to her feet.

"Hello, sisters."

""Sisters?"" the two black-haired girls replied.

Joey nodded. "Rei is mother's daughter in this life, Ren is mother's daughter in a past life. You are both my sisters."

Rei smiled. "Right. You don't look at things like a mortal."

"Both of you shall now face me. Work together if you can. I will not make this easy."

"Actually," Ren said. "How did you put so much power into that attack? Your output is about the same as mine before including the Awakening. You shouldn't have been able to push me like that."

"It's Mana Burst," Rei said. She pointed the blade in her right hand at Joey. "She can use the same insane techniques that mom uses."

Ren gripped her blade with both hands and took a stance. "I see. How much can she unleash at once?"

"The two of us are at a constant state of two-fold with Awakening. In the instant her blade clashes with ours, she can output a thousandfold burst or more, which will make this insanely difficult."

"More like impossible."

Joey's face remained emotionless as she responded. "So long as you do not use Radiant Burst, I will match your awakened state with mine. But be aware. Even though I am using roughly the same amount of mana, only twofold, I am also not using alignment mana like you are." Her body glowed with white mana. I will use the same amount of mana as you, but my attacks will feel much heavier. Fight me with only blade work. Spells will be useless. If you would like proof, simply cast one at me now and I'll show you why."

Not wanting Ren to try a spell in the middle of the fight, Rei went ahead and casted one. "This is what she'll do. <>!" It was the same spell she used against Ren. The star-like mass of fiery light rocketed toward the blonde girl, but she didn't back down. Without saying a word, Joey sliced through the magic with her blade. "She'll just cut the magic. That's something white mana allows her to do."

"I see. So we have our work cut out for us."

Rei blinked at her. "Did you just make a pun?"

"So, what about you? If you don't trust me, how can we fight her together?"

She shook her head. "Whatever. We can talk more about that later, but suffice for now that I learned a lot about you in our exchanges. I'll trust you, at least enough to fight with you."

With stars in her eyes, Ren said, "Do you mean it?!"

Rei sighed. "Just focus."

Joey held out her left hand and summoned a black katana. In her left hand was her own weapon form, Jouten. "Jouten, <>. Kuro, <>." There was no intense surge of mana from her own weapon, but there was from the black katana. She then brought the blades together and merged them, a feat that took both the black-haired girls by surprise. The result was a black blade with white embellishments.

"I didn't know that was possible!" said Rei. She steeled herself for an intense battle.

"It's new to me as well."

"I shall begin now," said the monotone blonde. She vanished, leaving black and white sparks of lightning in her wake. She reappeared in front of Rei, clad in white mana with the sparks of lightning surging around her, and brought her blade down.

Rei blocked with both of her swords, but could not withstand the force from the blow and was flung backward.

The moment Joey appeared to attack Rei, Ren swung her blade, empowered with black mana and purple sparks, at Joey. The blonde twisted around faster than Ren's blade moved and struck it with her own head on, forcing the void mana wielder back as well.

In the time that Joey countered Ren, Rei recovered and came up behind her sister. Joey twisted around, again faster than the blades were moving, and parried Rei's left blade while palm striking the broadside of her right blade.

Joey didn't have time to deliver a decisive blow on Rei in her vulnerable state as Ren jumped back in.

The three exchanged blows several more times before Joey jumped away. She unfused her weapon and dismissed both. She gave the black-haired girls a smile and said, "Well done!"

The two exchanged glances and smiled. Ren sheathed her blade and Rei's disappeared with Sora taking her human form again.

Joey walked back up to them and took one of each of their hands. "You are very good, sisters. You make a great team! Let's go get ice cream after school!"

The three smiled, surprised but happy to hear Joey not speaking in monotone. """Sure!"""

Standing with the rest of the class, Kye smiled.

Well done, girls.

*****

Revision: 2024-12-2