Standing in the air, Aria hovered silently while staring at the void seemingly as though she was trying to find something within the destruction.
Sensing Shiro and Nyx's arrival, Aria didn't turn around and kept her eyes towards the void.
"How much do you know?" Aria asked calmly, causing Shiro to furrow her brows.
"Not much. I only know she 'created' you, has authority on the level of Chaos and seeks something from me after I find out about the truth." Shiro shook her head.
"You truly don't know much then do you? Shame…" Aria sighed as she finally turned around.
Frowning slightly, Shiro could see visible markings across Aria's body that was pulsing with Chaos' energy.
After reaching the level of balance, Shiro understood that this kind of strength wasn't one that Nyx could interfere with.
"Already thinking of killing me without searching for the truth. How very like you." Aria narrowed her eyes as she disappeared from her spot. A blade appeared in her hands as she stabbed towards Nyx's head.
Before the blade could steal Nyx's life away, Shiro had already grabbed it with her bare hands and snapped it in half.
"The hell do you think you're trying to do?" Shiro warned coldly as she tried to grab Aria's arm only for Aria to disappear once more.
"Taking care of the pests. This chessboard was made for you to begin with, bystanders have no right in this." Aria replied emotionlessly while flicking her finger. The space shattered as Shiro was now isolated with Aria while the edge of God Realm continued to eat away at the world.
"So come, do what is ordained by her commands and come take the truth from my corpse. It is at the truth where you will find out the worthlessness of your existence, the curse you bring upon this world. It is there where you realise that there should never have been an Anima! Never should have been a Shiro!" Aria cried out. Each word filled with rage that had been buried deep within.
Her own resolve strengthening from the will of her previous incarnation.
***** has given them separate roles to play. But Anima managed to set the course off rail and perhaps that was what caused the anomaly called Shiro to appear. The anomaly that could wield both powers better than Chaos.
Grabbing her blade, Aria stabbed it within her own chest as her flesh started to dissolve, leaving behind a skeleton. Pear white material started to layer upon her bones with a crimson energy converging into an orb centred within her rib cage, where her heart should have been.
A twisted fabric of flesh and blood cloaked her body while several pairs of wings erupted from her back, adorned with a myriad of eyes that locked onto Shiro's position. A bloodied halo crackling with chaos energy appeared above her head while the energy within the void that was shredding at the realm was siphoned into Aria's body.
"My blade will be the guiding light that brings this play to its end. By my hand shall I end the cycles of torment!" Aria's voice rang out from all directions, filled with false righteousness.
"Both you and the other Shiro said the same thing. But that's fine. I will keep forging ahead." Shiro declared as she took a deep breath and activated her core. She wanted to bring the powers and form she took within her domain but reduce the cost of activation.
Snapping her finger, a mix of Creation and Destruction emerged from within Shiro's as her body was converted to black crystal flickering with the light of the stars. Wrapping herself with a fabric woven from the light of the universe, Shiro summoned both Iriel and Vinri.
"All of this! All of it was made with you in mind!" Aria shouted as she appeared in front of Shiro, their blades clashing and sending sparks. Despite the barrier that Aria has activated to keep Nyx from interfering, the resulting shockwave still caused Nyx to slam against a building in the back.
"Nyx I'll handle her! Go somewhere safe!" Shiro shouted out as she couldn't afford to keep her attention away from Aria. Right now, she was probably the only one that could match her new strength with balance.
Pushing Aria away from her, Shiro activated one of her skills as her blade phased through reality in an attempt to claim Aria's life.
*CLANG!
Despite phasing through Aria's guard, a golden crystal, similar to what Aria's halo was created from appeared and blocked the blade before it could reach her.
A hand reached out, grabbing Shiro by the arm before throwing her over Aria's shoulder and slammed her towards the ground.
*BANG!!!
Digging herself out of the crater in the ground, Shiro frowned and looked up.
"The lives that people have lived in this world is nothing but a false fantasy, all to test your worthiness! If you are unworthy, everyone dies. If you are worthy, they still die in the end! So tell me?! Tell me why your existence is not a mistake?" Aria questioned as tier 9 magic circles covered the skies, blocking out the void behind them.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro activated her own tier 9 magic circle. The ground around her started to shift before breaking down into nanobots. Standing atop a wave of nanobots, Shiro created several rail cannons before firing them off simultaneously.
*CRACK PING~
Shattering a myriad of tier 9 magic circles, Shiro frowned seeing Aria create more than she could destroy.
Immediately her body became sluggish as phantom arms dragged against her body, holding her in place.
An angelic cry could be heard as Aria's halo turned pitch blade with her wings spreading out.
A tier 9 magic circle appeared above her as energy from the void converged and formed into a trumpet.
With an intense cry, the trumpet roared out, shaking the entire realm itself before disintegrating to ash. Bloody etching appeared across Aria's body as her wings were set ablaze.
Her entire being now looked like a malevolent demon that had crawled out from the depths of hell.
"Answer me Shiro! Why must you continue despite knowing the mistake that is your existence?! Tell me why you shouldn't be sealed away so you cannot bring a calamity upon every living soul in this world?!"
Gritting her teeth, Aria cleaved her blade down as hard as she could, ripping the space to shreds as blood poured out from the cracks, setting fire and melting all of the nanobots the blood came in contact with.
Widening her eyes in shock, Shiro backed off before activating Iriel's ability of being able to cut down all forms of magic and divine spells.
Imbuing her nanobots with the same power, Shiro created a wall of blades that pushed against the river of blood.
Activating Error, Shiro narrowed her eyes as the world transformed into code, locking down on the coordinates besides Aria, she disappeared and teleported beside her. Siphoning power from the world of Creation into Vinri, Shiro slashed towards Aria.
Suddenly, a portal opened where Vinri was about to strike as a flood of blood rushed towards her.
"TCH!" Gritting her teeth, Shiro parried the blood away from her body as she was forced to retreat.
Creating some space between them, Shiro glanced down at Vinri and froze up in surprise.
Despite the fact that Vinri couldn't be destroyed, Shiro could see Vinri's code suffering from slight deterioration.
A quick scan of the damage allowed Shiro to understand the reason why. While Shiro can use both creation and destruction in harmony, Vinri was a sword of creation and Iriel was a sword of destruction. They didn't have the same properties that she has.
Through the energy of chaos, Aria was pushing the blades to their limits.
'Just like how I'm an anomaly that fundamentally challenged what the system was made to do, Aria is an anomaly in her current state. I can't fight her based on the knowledge I already know.' Shiro thought to herself as she had taken into account that Aria could perform acts that were deemed impossible by the system.
"Well?! Do you have no answer for me? What is your goal? What do you fight for? Is it worth putting the entire universe at risk?!" Aria demanded an answer as Shiro stood up straight and stared down Aria while blood, flames and nanobots collided around them while the edge of the realm threatened to kill them.
"I fight so that I can make a choice! I fight so that I won't be part of the crowd when the call for destruction descends on the world! I will destroy as many worlds as needed as long as the one my friends live in is safe!"
Slamming her foot down, a tier 9 magic array that Shiro had hidden above them roared into life as 10 layers of arrays stacked atop one another.
Above the array was a single orbital cannon hundred times stronger than the one that caused the no mana zone and imbued with the force of balance.
Stabbing her sword down, Tier 9 magic circles appeared around Aria as time slowed down to a near halt while the cannon fired a singular pillar of energy.
Each layer of her array amplifying the energy until a blinding light crashed against Aria's body.
Comments