"Nice little trick you got here," Rav said as he scanned around his new environment. It was an endless world of trees, with a canopy reaching far into the sky. Each tree was perfectly aligned, an endless radial line of trees extending into infinity.
Rav gripped his fan tightly, his fist trembling. This was the first time he'd been pressed this much in a long, long time. To think he'd get caught in someone else's inner world.
Eusevia looked down at Rav and eyed him disgustedly. In this world, she was the one in control. As such, it took no effort for her to float above him, ready and able to strike from any direction.
"This is called an inner world. It - "
Rav interrupted her before she could explain. "You think I don't know? Give me a break."
Rav pushed his leg out, spinning his fan through the air. The mana was shifted toward Wood Magic here, so he wouldn't be at full strength. Not that he needed his full strength.
He began to dance with the fan, clouds swirling around him in long, thin ribbons. More and more began to appear, until Eusevia could see less Rav than ribbon. Shortly after that, she could not see him at all, and the ribbons faded away.
"An invisibility spell? In my own inner world? Hah!"
As she spoke, she lashed her hand out. A spire of wood erupted from the ground, impaling Rav where he stood. But as she looked she realized she did not impale Rav at all - but a bundle of ribbons that was disguised as him.
"My trick was neat too, huh?"
Eusevia jumped up, startled. The voice was coming from behind her. She was floating - she never expected a surprise attack from behind.
Rav threw a lightning-fast kick, launching Eusevia, sending her flying. She smashed into a tree, but used her magic at the last moment to brace her fall, melting into the tree instead of breaking against it. As she entered the tree, she began to pour all of her magic into it, a chaotic burst of energy. The colossal tree started to crack and break, changing form. It grew two legs from the ground and its heavy branches merged together, forming an amalgam of brutish arms. Eyes appeared from cracks all over the body of the tree, and in unison, they locked onto Rav.
Rav conjured up a large puff of cloud, the biggest he could in the relatively confined space, and shot it at the now-lumbering tree monster. It had no effect whatsoever.
"Oh great," Rav pouted as he jumped out of the way. The tree came crashing into where he'd just been, taking out one of the mighty trees still growing out of the ground. The air fills with splinters of wood as they rain over the valley from the monumental explosion of force.
Rav began dancing again, preparing a different technique.
Dancing lets him move the mana around him more naturally, an essential skill for one who specializes in the flow of clouds.
The tree aimed at Rav and brought down three of its five weighty arms, each one smashing a large section of the land. Rav narrowly dodged between two of the arms, still moving his body rhythmically to his mana. He jumped onto one of the arms and began to sprint up it, running up toward the head of the giant. He was running fast - impossibly fast. Eusevia's tree giant could not move quickly enough to react to Rav, and all of the eyes growing out of the wood could do nothing but watch.
"Cloudslicer."
Rav whipped his fan back and sliced through one of the wispy trails of clouds he'd conjured around him. The cloud clung to his fan as he spun around, and became a blade of cloudy magic that whizzed off the fan and into the tree giant. He continued to do this with the hundreds of wispy lines all around him, barraging the giant with a series of blades that chipped away at the wood over and over until finally, on Rav's last blade, the tree giant was severed in two.
As the monster collapsed to the ground, it sent a powerful vibration through the forest. Rav didn't notice it, adrift as he was on a floating cloud of his own creation.
He stared down at where the giant was moments ago. Floating there, surrounded by glowing wooden armor, was Eusevia.
"I did not think I would be so hard-pressed against a cloud. You are every bit worthy of the legend, Sage."
Eusevia spoke with a certain stiltedness. Anger that she had to acknowledge him as an equal at least. Perhaps even her better.
Eusevia took a deep breath, trying to level herself. Fighting Rav like this had rattled her. Something like a cloud should be weak against strong, powerful, unmoving forces such as hers. At the very least, he must be getting tired. If not him, his Vessel.
She'd used a lot of magic too, but that was no concern for her. After all, she had a unique relationship with her Vessel.
"Call a truce?" Rav said. "Tell me everything you know about what's going on here, and I maybe let you walk?"
Eusevia scowled. "You already know too much. Otherwise you wouldn't be here!"
Eusevia raised her hands into the air and unleashed a massive tremor of mana. All of the nearby trees began to morph, growing legs and arms just like the giant before. Except before, there was only one giant. As Rav looked around him, he saw no fewer than twelve manifesting around him. It took him nearly a hundred slices just to cut one of these things in half.
"Mmm, new plan," Rav said aloud to himself. He needed to get out of this inner world, and fast.
Rav launched himself at Eusevia, striking her wooden armor with his fan. It left a scratch, but immediately the magical armor healed the deformity.
But it was not the armor he was trying to break - rather, he looked to break Eusevia's focus. She was only looking at Rav in front of her, who just attacked her. She retaliated by launching a thin spike of wood toward him. He deftly dodged it, and the one after, and the two after that. Eusevia, frustrated, launched a full dozen at him from several directions at once. Two of them caught him, piercing Rav completely through. Except, it wasn't Rav. More ribbons. Just like before. They fell to the floor and drifted away into cloud vapor.
"Gods damn it!" Eusevia screamed, realizing that the Rav she was fighting wasn't even real. Her tree giants were closing in - they'd be there any moment.
And then she realized it. She was surrounded by white fog. She'd let herself get distracted, and he was able to cast a spell over her in secret.
"Torpor."
Rav clicked his tongue and the clouds surrounding Eusevia darkened into a deep purple hue. They seeped into her into her, knocking her unconscious in mere moments. Her head fell over even as her magicked armor kept her suspended in midair. Her world began to fade away, teleporting her and Rav away from the lumbering tree monsters and back to the real world. Once they returned, her magic broke, and she landed, unconscious, in the snow.
Rav hesitated. He could kill her now, but something told him she had valuable information. While she was under his spell, she'd be easier to control than before.
"Ahh, what the hell," Rav groaned. "One more shot. Hey! Wake up!"
Rav ripped the veil from Eusevia's face, finally able to get a good look at her. She was a plain-looking woman, of slightly darker complexion than Rav and freckles over her face and chest. Her brown hair was soft but unbrushed, messy and wavy.
Eusevia stirred slightly, looking at him but still locked in a haze. Rav's ability, Torpor, had to power to afflict a severe and debilitating state that most often led to unconsciousness. It was one of his many secret weapons, though something he only liked to use in situations such as this one, where he was running out of options.
"I'm going to kill you if you don't play nice, you hear?" Rav said, slapping her face with his hand. "Hey!"
Eusevia spit at him, but it doesn't go far enough, landing in the snow between them.
"Start talking. I'm not kidding around anymore."
Eusevia coughed. She's still disoriented.
"Wh-what...do you not know..." she shuddered. "Why have you come if you don't..."
"How do I undo the famine? Do I just need to kill you? Can't you get rid of it if I just ask you pretty pleaseee and promise not to hurt you too badly?"
Eusevia shook her head. "You think...I...did the famine? No...I'm trying to...find the person..."
Rav narrowed his eyes. "Wait...then why the hell did you attack me, if you weren't doing anything bad?"
Eusevia smiled at him, still foggy, but she didn't respond right away. Rav grit his teeth in anger.
"You are doing something bad up here. Tell me. Now!"
Eusevia sighed. "I've been building cages...collecting Encephalim."
Negative feelings rose up in Rav's chest. Confusion. Shock. Anxiety.
"And now why the hell would you be doing something like that?"
"The one...who turned me into a Magician...she forces me to. It is my destiny. My fate."
"Someone turned you into a Magician? What the hell's that supposed to mean? Hey!"
Eusevia looked into Rav's eyes, pleading with him - her rose-colored eyes reminding Rav of the color of the moon.
He'd broken down her truth. All that remained was a defeated Magician who needed help.
"Get me away from here, and I'll tell you everything."