"Did you think physical combat was all there was?" Zahyla's dual voice carried a note of genuine amusement. "That millennia of existence taught me nothing but how to swing a sword?"
The chamber itself seemed to come alive with deadly potential as Zahyla demonstrated why she had survived countless iterations of this eternal game.
♢♢♢♢
Zahyla increasingly dominated the field with magic control, Elio struggled to cut through magic that appeared in increasingly complex forms, and Lila...
"Sorry that I can't return your feelings the way you deserve... But I truly like you!"
Elio's revelation resonated in Lila's heart like a war drum. It wasn't rejection, wasn't contempt, but confirmation that in another world, under different circumstances, they could have been something more. For now...
That was enough.
