Jayden ran over to Admin and snatched her off the ground. "What is the meaning of this?! You can't just lock us out! Are you trying to get her killed?!"
Admin simply pointed her finger down towards the ground. "Sit."
"What the-" Jayden felt a heavy force immediately push down on his body and slam him down into the ground. He tried to get up but found it impossible to do so as the pressure attached him to the Earth.
Admin flipped her finger back up and the pressure instantly vanished - she walked past Jayden's stretched out body to get a better look at the fight that was about to unfold.
"Don't forget that you currently exist within a space that was constructed by me. Here, I can control the space as I please. Including how gravity works and the area of space said gravity takes up." She pointed her hand at Jayden. "Like this. Push."
"Gahhh!" Jayden was propelled across the area and slammed into the invisible barrier that surrounded the training zone Admin had built. Jayden slid down the wall and slumped onto the ground. "This..is bullshit.." He groaned out as he felt the pain radiating from the impact all over his body.
Within a pocket dimension such as this, there are rules that can be set by the one who rules it. However they must possess the power to declare themselves the absolute of that realm. Which is why when Axel fought Conquest, there were no rules in place. His power had diminished that much.
In this case Admin had set the rule that she could manipulate space, time, and material as she pleased with no regard to the law of nature or physics. Such a high standing rule left no place for any other rules to be applied.
"Admin, explain yourself." Jun said stepping forward with his hand on the handle of his sword. Even with this currently being nothing more than a regular sword, Jun was more than proficient with a blade to make it into a deadly weapon. "Why are you actually letting this go on? You said yourself that you're the absolute here - you could do something." Jun demanded.
"I'm here to fulfill a job, Jun. The destruction of Heaven's forces and the placement of a new King. To that end, Axel is a key piece of that equation and our Queen will have it. " She looked at Jun. "An opportunity has presented itself to push Axel closer to that goal. I unfortunately am not an expert on shortcuts to unraveling this seal, so...I'll take any chance that may have favorable odds."
"Even if it costs the sanity of Iris?"
"The cost fails in comparison to the overall benefit it will bring. Who knows, Iris may benefit as well."
Axel rushed forward to Iris and delivered three well placed strikes across the chest plate of the armor.
Each hit bounced off the thick density of the armor. "Okay, how about this?!"
He raised his blade high and brought it down with authority - while doing so, he poured in as much as energy as he could muster to quickly manipulate the size. "Get crus-"
< Maximum energy output reached > The blade suddenly stopped growing in size and Axel couldn't exert anymore toward it. Iris brought up her hand and swatted the blade to the side, the weight of which threw him off balance from having done that.
Iris lifted her foot and stomped Axel right in the center of his upper body.
He was sent flying backwards at a high speed before colliding with several of the training equipment, knocking them into a pile with him at the center. During which, he slammed his face into part of the equipment that was poking out and felt something crack.
"Probably not the most opportune time for him to hit that limit." Admin said. "I warned him exactly of that if he tried to push it too far."
Jun and Jayden couldn't believe their eyes. Axel who had defeated a God, albeit weakened, was now being put in his place by the business end of Iris's boot.
"This is a first.." Jun said.
"Hopefully of many." Jayden mumbled.
Axel struggled to climb out of the entanglement of equipment - he didn't want to admit it, but he was definitely feeling that hit.
"Damn it, Admin." He grumbled. " Did this chick take a massive dose of steroids or something?!" He said to himself. "If I'm going to fight seriously I need this bracelet off!"
"I supPoSe tHis morsel...waS too feEble to eaT." Iris spoke.
Eh? Axel thought as something snapped inside him at Iris's words.
"Get serious...did you already forget with that thing running around in your head who the fuck I am?" Axel's voice echoed out from the pile.
Axel exploded up and out of the pile with a burst of energy. He gracefully landed several feet away from the possessed Iris as he was now ready to get serious with a face that seemed like he was ruffled. And ruffled he was. But there was one thing that was wrong...
"I'm the goddamn hero. And you already know I got that dog in me."
*drip* *drip*
"Hm?" Axel looked down at the ground and saw spots of fresh blood. "Whose blood..." He saw another drop hit the ground and realized it was coming from his face. Axel ran his hand along his face and it came back streaked with blood.
He had completely broken his nose. It was completely bent to one side and had a steady stream of blood flowing.
The possessed Iris stepped towards Axel as even more unholy energy was radiating from her body and sent off traces into the air around them. "I...am made..to consume!" The spirit of the armor declared.
"Its speech is becoming more clear." Admin stated. "That means the synchronizing is advancing."
It's coming. I gotta break through that armor somehow or this could be over quick, thought Axel. The drip of more blood flowing from his nose continued to distract him. "Not even a problem." He reached up, grabbed his nose, and yanked with force to realign it.
*CRACK*
They all could hear the sound of Axel snapping his nose back into the correct position without even so much as a wince. Even the possessed Iris stopped for a second.
"Ouch." said Jayden as he had already picked himself up off the ground.
Axel pointed the tip of his sword at Iris. "Now, round 2!"
< Slayer Iris, recognized. Activating Dark Grasp >
Iris held out her hand and Axel was suddenly yanked towards her. "Whoa, what in the Jedi is this?! It can use her system too??" Axel tried to stop himself but the force of the pull was too strong. His neck landed right in her grasp and she was sure to tighten it.
"Gah, you're cheating!"
"What? I wasn't aware it couldn't access the system with Iris's mind locked away." Admin admitted in surprise.
"Not locked away. Hijacked." Iris responded in her double voice. She began to pour her energy into Axel through the hand that was around his neck, just like she did with Jun. It was attempting to drain his divine energy.
Axel could feel his brain going foggy as the foreign energy invaded his body and clashed with his own. But as it did so, something different happened than it did with Jun earlier. Instead of being absorbed, it was just blending with that of Iris's as if it was a missing puzzle piece.
"You're kidding me right now." Admin quickly threw both her hands up towards Iris. "Unholy Art: Undead Sealing."
A swirl of black energy erupted on the ground underneath Iris - several skeletal arms burst up from the energy and grabbed a hold of her and pulled her down towards the ground, sucking her into the unknown pit of energy. She released the grip she had on Axel, who fell just outside the energy vortex.
"Foolish! You can not contain me! This girl will give me what I want and then I'll rip the cores from your still beating chest!! Not even someone like YOU can stop me when I achieve my full power again."
More and more arms kept popping up until finally the armor started to be dragged under into the unknown. It looked at Admin with dead glowing eyes as it disappeared from sight. Once gone, the portal shrunk and closed up behind it.
"Iris!" Jayden yelled as the portal vanished.
"Admin...where did you send her? " Jun asked, worry clear in his voice.
Admin lowered her arms. "A temporary prison. I was going to do so anyways if Axel couldn't stop it from reaching its full power. I wanted him to think he was all that was standing in the way of total destruction though. You know, feed his ego."
She looked down at the unconscious Axel. "But I can retrieve her later once the energy burns out. This needs to be dealt with first." Admin had felt the unique disturbances in Axel's energy during that and had no clue what that even meant.
"Iris wasn't playing around." Jayden stated. "Did it seriously activate her system? But I've never seen her use that ability before."
"It would appear so." She blatantly ignored the last part of what Jayden said for some reason.
But something else was occurring that was unknown to even Admin. The energy the possessed Iris had poured into Axel had created a connection between their energies when they clashed. This was not something intended by the armor and it triggered something he had never experienced before.
Iris's memories began to pour into his mind through the link.