00:35 IST, First day, Fifth month, 3079 PV | Planet City Stelarum / Ignis Plains / Temple / Throne Room

  “It appears I've arrived a bit late to the party. How unfortunate, I had to acquire an invite indirectly.

  Anyways, you thing, get over here and let's dance, shall we? I can assure you I am far more competent than my apprentice.”

  Initae points one of her many swords at Regulus. Man, she sure is a badass when she gets down to it.

  Her eyes are full of a raw primal anger, it seems she is quite serious at the moment.

  From my perch against the wall, I watch as Regulus steps away from me. Having lost interest now that a more intriguing ‘specimen’ has appeared.

  “What do we have here? It can't be the entity that has avoided our detection for so long. It just casually wanders directly into our clutches. How wonderful. The superiors shall be pleased immensely.”

  “I don't give a jack about your superiors. But, you harmed my dear apprentice and dear Ray. Thus you shall die.”

  Initae moves.

  Faster than I can perceive, she is behind Regulus and her blade is going straight for their throat.

  Regulus’s sword snaps up to meet her attack and their blades meet. A deafening thunderclap resounds through the chamber.

  Their blades glow a brilliant white where they meet. It is blinding, forcing me to close my eyes lest they be permanently damaged.

  “Interesting, buddy you're a bit tougher than you look. Is that some special armor I see? Or perhaps you are simply manipulating this body from a distance?”

  “A valid query. While I would like to explain it, the technology is beyond even my own vast comprehension. Let alone a plebian like yourself.”

  At Regulus’s words, the glow in Initae’s eyes gets even brighter.

  At a speed I can barely perceive, she throws her floating swords directly at Regulus.

  Before they even move from their positions, Regulus’s vessel sprouts over a dozen new arms, each one holding a sword.

  All of the floating swords are parried and shatter into a billion pieces which quickly dissociate.

  Initae moves back, just as several blades swipe through the spot she just was.

  “Inae reflection? Really? That is going to make this a little bit annoying.”

  Briefly, the sword in her hand disappears and is replaced by two rapier-like swords that she is dual wielding.

  My guess is she changed the imbuement or something to pierce stuff that reflects the inae. I wish I would've thought of that.

  She also changes out of her maid uniform, to my great disappointment. Instead she opts for a set of full armor. She looks like some medieval knight, but significantly more glowy.

  Regulus reacts to her new appearance by changing their own. They change from my size, to one perfectly matching Initae’s. They also opt to keep six arms, each wielding a glowing sword made out of whatever their vessel is.

  Initie briefly intensifies her glow and then she moves, creating a sonic boom behind her.

  She slices off three of Regulus’s arms and makes a pretty deep cut into their arm in the blink of my eyes.

  They then proceed to engage in close-quarters-combat at a speed that I am unable to track.

  The only thing that I can notice is the constant thunderclaps that are indicative of their blades countering each other.

  As they dance around the room, I can tell that Initae is landing quite a few hits, but I do notice a crack or two in her armor appear, only to be quickly repaired.

  They exchange blow after blow.

  Their shells crack and even break off a few times, only to be repaired shortly.

  As the fight goes on, I start to notice that the repairs are taking longer and longer.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  They look like a tornado of blades, striking at each other as though they are children throwing a tantrum, but I can see the unimaginable amount of training that is guiding both of their blows.

  It feels as though I am watching two gods fight.

  The impacts resound around the room, my brain instinctively tries to find patterns in the sound, but I cannot.

  Suddenly, they stop and stand several meters apart.

  Regulus is covered in dents and scratches, while Initae has quite a few of her own. I imagine if they were alive they would be breathing heavily.

  Upon Initae’s face a devilish smirk and she utters a few simple words.

  “Alright kiddo, enough childsplay.”

  “I shall be glad to comply with the request of such a strong opponent.”

  Initae starts to light up. I can see veins of what appears to be a different category of inae light up across her skin. I get a sense as though reality itself is getting heavier. Almost like time itself is kneeling before her.

  Regulus lights up as well, but with a strange glow that is not inae. Rather, it appears to absorb all forms of light, an anti-glow. Their weapons also radiate a strong presence, as though they bear the weight of a thousand suns.

  The two of them square off, seemingly preparing to end it with a single set of moves.

  They impact each other.

  Faster than any being could perceive, it is over.

  Initae stands, her blades coated in a strange blue fluid.

  Regulus’s vessel sits on the floor, cleaved into two pieces across the abdomen.

  It doesn't move.

  Initae’s crazy glowing inae goes away and her blades disappear. Quickly rushing over to me with a look of concern on her face.

  “That was badass.” I manage to croak out.

  “Thanks for the complement. On another note, why is it that I leave you alone for a few days and you end up fighting an extreme-level enemy?

  Not to mention in this freaky place. Somehow I think this material on the walls is interfering with the interplanar barrier, I cannot seem to get any form of inae into or out of this place. Almost like it is a completely self-contained reality.

  What idiots you two are. If I wasn't closely watching you, you'd be dead.”

  “Sorry, for being just a frail mortal.”

  “Id give you a bonk on the head, dear nephew, if I wasn't worried about how near-death you are. Let's grab Ray and let the Order deal with this place.”

  She picks me up after applying a few healing shots to my side and head where I am leaking some blood.

  Then she heads over and not-very-gently smashes open the tube containing Ray and grabs her as well.

  A bunch of strange liquid spills out, getting everywhere. It's absolutely disgusting and smells strange.

  We start to walk towards the exit, but then something really bad happens.

  Regulus’s vessel twitches.

  Then it starts to knit itself back together, and is reunited into a whole being.

  The vessel slowly stands up, with strange movements that show that it must not be completely healed.

  “Ha, did you puny specimens think it would be that easy to kill a divine vessel? Even the great one himself would have to put in some effort to dismantle it.”

  “Oi, rust bucket, what or who is this ‘great one’ you speak of?”

  “I'm afraid that I cannot tell you that unless you are dead. Protocols and all. Sorry little missy.”

  Is it just me, or has their personality changed?

  They definitely seem to have lost some of the creepy tone in their voice.

  “Welp, just lemme get these two to safety and then we can dance once again. I'd be glad to oblige such an intriguing opponent."

  “Seems fair, wouldn't want the grand prizes to be accidentally damaged.”

  I'm not sure how to feel. On one hand, I don't like being referred to as a prize. But being a grand prize does kinda feel nice. It's a strange dichotomy.

  Initae quickly sets us down near the door. Carefully laying Ray (who is super cute, even unconscious) into my lap. I've got a great vantage point to watch the ensuing battle. Which is great since I'm still in too much pain to move. I think my everything is broken.

  Unfortunately, I can really move my head, so I am unable to observe Ray’s cute face. Thankfully it seems she is unharmed, just peacefully sleeping.

  Initae and Regulus square off once again. This time however, Regulus has transformed into quite a sight.

  Standing at nearly five meters tall, wielding two gigantic battle axes. Kinda reminds me a bit of Rigar.

  Initae just stands there, seeming to be giving away the first strike. She doesn't even have a weapon out.

  But, she doesn't need one.

  The hulking Regulus charges and swings both axes straight for her neck.

  She catches them with her bare hands.

  She doesn't even seem to think twice about it. Like the axes are merely twigs being swung by a baby.

  She casually rips the axes (which takes the arm with it) away and tosses them to the side. Proceeding to step up real close and place her hands on Regulus’ ‘chest’.

  With a horrific grating sound, she peels apart the vessel and reaches inside.

  When her hand emerges she is holding an orb, it glows an intense green color.

  Once the orb is out of the main vessel, all of the exterior armor seems to collapse and dissipate into nothingness.

  “Hmm, quite an interesting device indeed.”

  She turns the orb around in her hands, it seems to be unable to do anything now that it has no body.

  She glows with that same strange inae I saw earlier and the entire room lights up in an immense flash.

  An ear-splitting screech splits the room. Giving me a very bad headache (worse than the one I already had!). It faintly reminds me of Regulus’s voice.

  Moments pass, but it feels like hours. The screeching stops and Initae stands.

  She has a devilish grin on her face, holding the now silver orb, it has completely lost its glow. She places the orb into a manifested pouch. I sure hope she doesn't plan to do anything world-ending with it.

  “Well, that annoyance is dealt with. Now, dear Ko, how about we get outa this hellhole?”

  I try to speak, but I am too weak to make my vocal cords function.

  The strain of trying to speak, along with all the blood I lost causes me to lose consciousness. Thankfully I managed to watch the entire fight.

  Well, Ray and I are together once more. So I'm certain that we can overcome whatever klackstorm is about to come from this event. So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 64

  Next: Chapter 65 | Healing Headrubs