Genetic Ascension - Chapter 2013: Ribbons [Bonus]
Chapter 2013: Ribbons [Bonus]
Chapter 2013
>
[Bonus thanks to Chronotitan <3]
Cassarae’s wrist twisted, her hips torquing as her arms snapped out in a slash.
Nosphaleen’s arms went flying above her head, the guard of her trident ripping up. She tried to pull them back down as quickly as she could, but she knew that she wouldn’t make it.
One of her wings snapped in from the side and Cassarae’s blade cut it like it was a thin piece of paper.
Blood flew and splattered against both women, but their eyes hardly wavered.
With a leap back, Nosphaleen landed on her feet, slamming her trident into the earth with a rolling mass of Aether. She slammed her palms together as Cassarae rapidly closed the distance once again and Runes bloomed around her.
But they weren’t the Runes of the Whale Armor. Instead, rolling waves of Water filled the air, spilling over and crashing down.
Earth reacted in kind. As though water had made it feel the most at home, it descended and fell in waves, large amounts of Aether fueling it until the two women were trapped in a sphere of it.
Cassarae’s blade slowed, but only the slightest bit. And then it was like a cascade of them erupted.
The sphere was spliced into countless pieces, the cuts so clean it almost looked like geometric shards of glass floating in the air for the briefest of instants before they exploded into a rain of liquid.
The very Runes themselves were split into a fine mesh, cut down to their Foundations, and then to their Strokes, and it even felt like the Strokes themselves might be split as though they weren’t the fundamental unit of all of existence.
Sylas’ eyes narrowed, but Nosphaleen didn’t flinch. The slow was enough for her.
Her wings spread out as though one wasn’t cut to ribbons and she accelerated forward, her palm landing on Cassarae’s chest as though it had always been there.
Space compressed between them and it erupted, a pulsing wave that almost looked like the heat exhaust of a revving car erupting out from Cassarae’s back.
Nosphaleen waved a hand toward her trident as Cassarae flew back, coughing up a mouthful of blood. The former’s telekinesis took root and the trident was pulled out from the ground.
She took another step and instantly appeared above Cassarae, raising her trident high above her head and slamming down. Rippling waves of space followed her, her wings flapping hard in a cascade of falling blood and flailing winds.
For a moment, it looked quite beautiful. Sparkling motes of dotted crimson filled the skies like the most shimmering blood in existence. They scattered amongst the falling rain of water, and the pulling ripples of space.
And then it all coalesced into a single blow and the echo of a low roar that came from the very depths of her heart.
Right when it would land, Cassarae seemed to snap out of a daze, her mind focusing.
Sword blades manifested from thin air, ripping the space trailing Nosphaleen’s trident apart and turning her blade to face it.
The heft of the trident lessened considerably and Cassarae managed to block it with a single arm while she was sent plowing toward the ground.
BOOM.
She landed heavily on her feet, Nosphaleen hovering high in the air for a moment.
There was a lull in time and then the two erupted toward one another again, a violent upswell of clashing winds, splitting space, and churning clouds falling in their wake.
“Helplessness is a cute emotion on you. Have you ever thought of modelling? The brooding look would kill.” Yamero said.
Sylas looked over toward Yamero, half wondering what the hell a creature who grew up in the Mancer Scape could possibly know about brooding, and another half wanting the commentary to come to a stop.
He was trying to think.
But his thoughts weren’t leading him anywhere. There didn’t seem to be a solution.
He didn’t understand how he could figure out how to defeat a literal God and yet was truly helpless right now. It was starting to agitate him.
He crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze a stone reflection of cold. He hardly noticed his nails digging into his bicep.
If he had known that this was what Nosphaleen had come here to do, he would have just stopped her before it came to that.
Now it was too late.
A screech erupted from Cassarae, tendrils of blue Will radiating from her as though the solar flares of a star. But soon, so too came the tendrils of red.
They mixed into one, layering and combining.
And then she erupted forward.
Her blade blurred, every one of her strikes as simple as the passing of time itself, and yet carrying with it a mystery that went beyond.
Her fury itself was embodied within her strikes, and every block and attempt to parry on Nosphaleen’s part came slower and weaker.
There was only so much that Nosphaleen could extend this battle by, especially when she was stubbornly refusing to use her Mesmeryx abilities.
Maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference, Cassarae’s power only seeming to pour on. The wounds the latter had suffered were superficial, while Nosphaleen had lost a wing, sacrificing slashes and cuts at the altar of protecting her most vital parts.
Cassarae’s strikes only became quicker and crueler, a madness deep within her eyes treating Nosphaleen like the worst enemy she had ever faced.
She couldn’t remember having ever been so angry before.
And all the while, Nosphaleen never looked away from those eyes, her own chilling cold radiating from her irises.
She couldn’t remember having ever wanted to be someone else so badly.
Chi.
Nosphaleen’s trident descended but Cassarae’s blade was faster.
Her arm flew into the air and Cassarae kicked out, smashing her knee to pieces.
Nosphaleen fell to that very knee, pain wrecking her body to her core.
“Fuck you.” Cassarae said coldly, her blade descending from above.
Nosphaleen’s one good wing tried to block herself from being decapitated, but it hardly mattered.
Cassarae’s blade diverted, cutting down through her collarbone and severing her heart in two.
With a twist of her wrist, Cassarae’s Aether erupted, countless motes of blade aura splicing Nosphaleen’s heart into ribbons.
<
