Chapter 35: Ren Akari P9
~35.9~
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The next weekend, Alethea went to Ferris, a distant planet in Realm 1, to recharge its foundation. She fully charged it within half an hour and headed back to Atlantis. Once outside, she began channeling mana to teleport but then stopped abruptly.
"You shouldn't have come here, Shiro?" She looked directly at where Shiro was. Even with his expertise in stealth magic, he couldn't hide from her.
He shrugged and revealed himself, laughing as he approached. "You always have been keen. Even back when you were among my retinue, your observation abilities were exceptional."
"Your compliments are meaningless to me," she replied. She snapped her finger and created a gigantic barrier, continually feeding and strengthening it as she spoke. "Why put yourself in the same location as me? I won't let you escape now. Your safety net won't work."
"Are you referring to the teleportation accessory I used last time? Surely you don't think I haven't improved upon that by now. Or that it's my only option."
"No, I'm certain you've improved in many ways. I can sense your massively increased mana output. Your output right now is quite a big higher than my own. And I also expect you think you can take me on in a fight, but just in case you can't or I get backup before you can win..." She eyed the ring on his finger. "You have that. Yes, it's much better. You don't have to touch it to use it, rather simply will it to happen."
"Right on all accounts. Truly you are a master at observation. But you should know, I haven't been gone for merely one year. I've been gone for-"
"Around two hundred and seventy years. Ren told us all about your escapade. Phantom took her and sent her with you on missions, all of those missions occurring before the day she was taken. And then she was placed back in the same day at the same time, meant to be a plant. Meant to give you intel on us without anyone knowing. But we she wasn't corrupted. We worried quite a bit about that, but neither myself nor Kye nor Sanae could find any corruption. Instead of being a plant, you gave her back to us to distract us. But figured it out."
Shiro began to look annoyed. "Your observation abilities are expanding beyond praiseworthiness and into annoyance."
Alethea chuckled. "So then what now? Are you here to kill me?"
"No." He smirked. "Imagine you going home and doing our dirty work for us."
"So then, you mean to corrupt me? Go ahead, then. Try. But you do know I have changed, right? I mean, my body isn't even the same one as the last time we met. Or could you not tell the difference?" As she flared her power, her ears, tail, and wings appeared.
"I knew that much, yes. You have used revealed those features publicly... except the wings. That is news to me, I'll admit."
"And that is why you have a zero chance of leaving here alive. You don't know what I am or what I am capable of now."
Rather than take her words as a threat, he smirked. "I could say the same about you. How can you boldly assume you will win when you don't know what I am capable of now?"
She smirked back at him. "I have more mana than your boss."
"What good is that if you can't use enough of it?"
"Go ahead then. Show me what you've got. By the way, the moment this barrier was placed, your teleportation device was broken. It won't teleport you now, and you can't teleport yourself out of this barrier."
His smirk change. He furrowed his brown and stopped hiding his anger. "So be it. You seem more thirsty for this fight than even me." He drew his katana and held it to his right. "<
"Your output was already roughly three times mine, now it's six. I can bring that back down to three with the same thing, though."
His body began glowing with black mana and purple sparks of energy. "<
"That, among other things. I could match your power with Radiant Burst and Mana Burst combined, but that would be dangerous. My few minutes of Radiant Burst would get eaten up in one attack by putting Mana Burst on top of it, and then I would be vulnerable to what you have now."
"Yet you are still standing here, undaunted. You clearly have something up your sleeve. You haven't even summoned your weapon."
Alethea brought her hands together, intertwined her fingers, and closed her eyes. "By my rite as champion of the patron god. I offer my being as a catalyst of balance."
"For you to chant something... this is going to be an exciting battle." Shiro smirked as he prepared himself.
"To the world, I become a beacon of hope. Against evil, I am-" She opened her eyes and raised her right hand to the sky. "<
Shiro's excitement faded, replaced by confusion. "Your mana is just... gone?"
Alethea shook her head. "No." She summoned her weapon and held it at her left hip. She placed her right hand on the hilt of her weapons, and the world lost its color. "You simply cannot perceive origin mana, because you don't know what it is. Like I said. You aren't leaving here alive. I am granting you the ability to perceive time beyond its normal flow. From the moment I took hold of my weapon to the moment this attack ends... that time frame is occurring within a microsecond. You can't speak, by the way, because you can't move your body fast enough to do in altered time this extreme. You can't see with your eyes, but I am allowing your eyes to perceive me through mana. You can't hear with your ears, by I am allowing your ears to perceive my words through mana. Black and white sight and my words, both carried to your senses through mana. That's all you get. You can't react to it. Because you are not transcendent."
She placed her thumb on the tsuba and prepared readied herself to draw the blade.
"With this blessing, for a short time I can wield my entire mana capacity freely, though I won't need anywhere near that much. You might wonder why I am telling you this, when after your death your soul will be plucked from Eden by Zane and handed back to Phantom. That won't happen. No, I'm sending you to Purgatory. You are too dangerous. And since you won't be spilling these secrets, I wanted you to know just how out of your league you were."
Shiro couldn't respond, not even with changing his expressions. His mind was perceiving time at the same speed that Alethea was, but his body couldn't.
"You plagued us long enough, Emperor Shiro Shikigami. You will no longer return to haunt our lives. Farewell, Your Imperial Majesty. <
Alethea disappeared, and the world regained its color. Neither were perceiving time at an accelerated rate any longer. Alethea was standing behind Shiro with her sword held in the air, having just completed a draw cut. Shiro's body was bifurcated from his right hip to his left shoulder, and it quickly disintegrated, coated in the same rainbow energy that Alethea was wielding. She flicked her blade as if it had blood on it, even though it didn't, then sheathed it. She didn't even turn around to look.
"Now you are out of the equation. Enjoy your stay in purgatory, monster." She teleported back to her residence in Arslade a moment later and gave Kye and Sanae a smile.
"What in the world happened?" Sanae asked. She and Kye were having tea when Alethea appeared next to the table, her body glowing in origin mana.
Alethea took a deep breath and dismissed the power. "Justice is met."
Both stood up from their seats and hugged Alethea from opposite sides.
"Your adrenaline is high," Kye said. "Your heart rate is high. What happened?"
"I used the Hand of Justice and eliminated Shiro Shikigami with Flash Strike." She held her hands up in front of her face. They were shaking. The sisters each took hold of one hand. "It's over. I sent him to purgatory. He'll never live again."
""WHAT?""
She closed her eyes and looked down. A few stray tears escaped and fell onto the sisters' hands. "I made this choice without consulting you. I know how much you disapprove of sending anyone to Purgatory."
Kye and Sanae exchanged glances, then shook their heads. "You're not talking to us."
"No."
A third blonde appeared in the room, the first two consenting to entering their inner world with Alethea.
"Maya, my love. It's okay."
"Elysia..."
"You do not need permission to do anything. I can tell you feel guilty over not asking any of us first, but you are more than capable of making judgements like that. We've told you this before, and you'll hear it again as many times as you need. We're in this together. If you judge that it's necessary to do something, then it's necessary and must be done. As far as I'm concerned, our authority over the world is equal."
"I agree," Sanae added. "And let me guess, you talked smack to him in altered time where he couldn't react?"
Alethea grinned, but looked away. "Maybe."
"And besides..." Elysia said. "If I was able to enter Elysium, I would have completely obliterated his soul. I don't say that lightly."
"We were thinking the same thing," Kye said.
"He's gone now," Sanae added. "We don't have to think about him anymore."
"Indeed!" Elysia said. She patted Alethea's head. "Now go. It's the middle of the day. You can come and see me later. Shoo." She kicked them out of the inner world, and the three shared a laugh.
A few minutes later, Rei and Ren joined them. Rei took a seat with Sora, and Ren ran up to Alethea. "Aya, I've been practicing with void magic." She formed a condensed ball of black and purple mana. "Can you examine it?"
She held a hand over the void orb and smiled. "Very well done. You are a very quick study! You pass!"
"Nice work, Ren," Kye said. "By the way… Rei, Ren… would you two like to participate in the exibition match in the upcoming tournament? You have a healthy rivalry. I couldn't think of a better pair for the match."
Both had stars in their eyes and smirked at each other. ""I'll win!""
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Revision: 2024-12-13