Infinity: Rising of the Soul Weavers

* Feint - My Sunset *

Flickering from her spot, Raven reappeared in front of the girl in the dark dress and slashed horizontally with her crimson claymore, heat and violent aura erupted out of her.

Gritting her teeth, the girl unleashed her own aura while blocking the strike with her bare hand that was dyed black now.

"Is that all you've got?" She muttered while pushing Raven's sword away and stabbing at her with a dark dagger that was just formed in her hand.

Retreating slightly, Raven didn't bother evading the dagger and instead used the white aura to disintegrate it into thin air.

'Be careful,' Tu warned in her mind.

'Ah, I'm aware of how strong she is.' Raven replied with a serious expression.

***

'How is she suddenly so powerful?' the girl muttered in her mind, feeling the strain on her body.

Compared to the previous duo, this crimson-purple haired girl was on a whole different level.

'But that doesn't mean I can't win against her!' she thought while dashing towards her, two dark swords materialising in her hands.

Evading her strikes easily, Raven grinned while counter attacking with a kick to the ribs.

The kick was strong enough to send the girl crashing against the hard ground. 'How dare you?' she thought, her anger rising above the limits.

However, at that moment she let her guard down, and Raven didn't risk letting that chance go to waste.

Suddenly, white runes lit up the edges of the crimson claymore as she jumped slightly up then plunged down at the girl.

A reinforced dark barrier was created in front of her, but against the white radiance of the claymore's runes, it didn't stand a chance.

Evading the slash by a hair's breadth, the dark haired girl watched in horror as the giant sword passed right through her guard and almost cut her in half. A small cut was left on her cheek, under her right eye, as dark matter leaked out of it.

'Why would it not heal?' she muttered while jumping away, panic slowly taking control. 'How dare someone as lowly as her do that to me?' she asked herself, feeling the aura within her burning chaotically.

Seeing that her attack had failed, Raven took a deep breath and dashed forward towards the girl in order to press the advantage.

Suddenly, the purple and silver circuits along her armour shone as countless pins of cyber matter were created in her open palm. 

Without much of a word, the pins chased after the girl, like bullets that had a mind of their own. In reality though, it was Kayla who was controlling each and every one of them.

The pins were so small and fast that the girl who was moving sluggishly, due to the effect of the claymore, among other factors, had trouble avoiding all of them.

On Kayla's command, the tiny pins attacked the girl, penetrating her body that was suddenly frozen and unable to move.

Snapping her fingers, the pins started to instantly get bigger in size as well as increase their mana concentration.

The girl was almost frightened at the idea of that exotic white aura invading her body. Thinking quickly, she turned her body into dark mist that suddenly dispersed, leaving behind the pins that were about to explode.

Even though she was quick, a portion of the explosion still managed to wound her. 

Yet, since almost no white radiance was actually embedded into the pins, she was not actually harmed. 

Clicking her tongue, Kayla decided to try and make the next attack even more challenging.

***

While watching the fight, dark aura flared from the white man's body who was still struggling to free himself from the dark cyan spear connecting him to the ground.

Flickering next to him was Ian with his still neutral expression. Touching the spear, he made it instantly disappear into thin air.

Not waiting for a moment, the man wanted to go help his mistress as he had been watching the fight and wasn't happy in the slightest. 

'How dare that kid harm my mistress?' he thought, anger painting his features.

However, before he could launch himself into the fight mindlessly, Ian stepped in front of him. "Do not think for a second that your interference would be of any value here." He simply said.

"A battle between two archon candidates is ought to be this violent." He said, more to himself, than anything else.

The moment he had felt the white radiance of that crimson-purple haired girl, he knew that she was one of the other candidates he was planning on testing.

Furthermore, he could see the numbers above her head suddenly disappear before the fight had started, which meant that an immortal presence was backing her up and even guaranteeing her survival.

Normally in his colourless vision, he could see that each person has a number to indicate their countdown. After the countdown reaches zero, the person would die.

What made this encounter between the two archon candidates even more surprising, was the fact that the dark haired girl regained her countdown after being exposed to that white aura.

However, it kept changing from hours, minutes, to seconds and so on. But it would even hit a surprisingly large number every now and then, such as months or even years.

It was as if the crimson-purple haired girl was still debating whether she wanted to actually kill her or not.

'Interesting…' Ian muttered to himself while thinking about the countdowns in general. 'Now that I think about it, even though the tiny baby that passed away had a normal countdown that ended normally, that girl with the white wings did not, her countdown had never reached zero…'

Feeling a sudden mana change in the atmosphere, Ian watched as the crimson claymore cut through the dark haired girl's body.

...

Watching the girl with her wounds on the ground refusing to heal up, Raven could feel the dark aura raging within.

Although she could have taken this chance to end her, she chose not to.

Screaming in agony, dark energy escaped the girl's body as it tried to attack Raven. A simple white barrier was enough to stop the attack from harming her.

Gritting her teeth, Raven looked at the girl while making sure not to lash at her instantly. "Tell me, why did you attack my family? Why did you destroy the city? And why… Why did you kill my Maya?"