Back at the bamboo forest, Maria and Nova dashed towards each other. Both of them swung their weapons at each other, but both of them parried each incoming attack. Maria grabbed Nova's ice spear and started dragging her through the floor. Nova covered her hand in ice and punched Maria in the stomach, forcing her to lose her grip. Maria recovered and used a chaos spell called "chaotic Might", a massive beam of chaos fired directly towards Nova, but before the spell hit Nova, she threw her ice spear at Maria, directly hitting her as it pierced through her arm. Maria pulled the spear out and crashed it. Nova then used a spell called "Thousand frozen crosses" that summoned massive ice spikes beneath Maria's feet. Swiftly Maria jumped into the air and slammed her greatsword down on Nova, but she blocked it with her ice sword. The pressure started cracking the sword. Maria smiled and said, "Very impressive. Your strength and power are amazing, but I will still have your head." Maria put down her greatsword and started punching Nova's sword rapidly. With every strike, the punches became faster and harder until the sword shattered. She grabbed Nova's shirt and pulled her closer before punching her into the ground. Nova was disorientated, but while recovering, she kicked Maria down and kneed her in the head, then covered her arms in ice and started punching Maria in the head, making the ground shake with every punch. Maria smiled while chaos magic started building up around Maria's body; Nova jumped back as a massive burst of chaos scorched the surrounding area. Nova tried to dodge the blast, but it ended up burning her arms. Maria appeared in front of Nova and kicked her into the trees; she planted her feet and dashed towards Nova at high speed. While Nova was drifting in the air, she opened her hands and started collecting ice into them; then she squeezed it and started spreading it through the air. She turned the ice into multiple different weapons: swords, axes and spears. Nova started firing the weapons towards Maria. Nova used her ice magic to create a longsword, but then Maria started closing in, destroying all the weapons Nova fired towards her. Nova held the longsword in her sheath right before Maria hit her. Nova used a spell called "Snowfall Slice"; she drew the longsword and slashed Maria across the chest. The longsword crumbled away while Maria started to get covered in ice. Nova kicked her in the chest, then created a giant ice hammer Maria couldn't move. Then Nova slammed the hammer down onto her head, sending her crashing into the ground. Nova started breathing heavily before saying, "Creating so many weapons takes too much time; I need to finish this quickly." The smoke cleared, and Maria stood up slowly and looked directly at Nova. She started collecting a massive amount of chaos into her prosthetic arm. Nova appeared in front of Maria and was about to punch her in the stomach, but Maria grabbed Nova by the neck and released a spell from her prosthetic arm called "chaotic discharge". Chaos burst out of Nova's body; she started screaming in pain until her whole body started burning. Nova started to lower her body temperature and grabbed onto Maria's prosthetic arm. Nova's hands released a chilling touch and froze Maria's arm. Nova kicked Maria in the head and broke free of Maria's grasp. Nova jumped back and fired ice spikes towards Maria; Nova jumped a few steps back, and all the air around her started to freeze. She opened her mouth as all the air started to flow into Nova's mouth. Maria's eyes widened as chaos started to build up around her mouth. Nova fired a massive ice breath from her mouth. Maria shortly followed. Both of the powerful breath attacks clashed. Nova couldn't see anything, but suddenly she saw a dragon approaching her, but before she could react, a massive tail slammed Nova into the ground. The dragon was Maria. She slammed her claw onto Nova multiple times until Nova became unresponsive. Maria let out a ferocious roar before flying into the air towards Seilah's location. Seilah changed into her human form; she created a barrier around Nicole, Jade, Kairi and Testarossa. She saw Maria closing in; she said, "Is this the end?" Maria opened her mouth, about to release a powerful blast, until a massive ice blast hit Maria on the face from the distance. Seilah heard a high-pitched roar closing in on her. A white dragon with four wings flew above. Seilah fired multiple ice blasts at Maria. Seilah looked up and said, "Nova, is that you?" She smiled as Nova bit into Maria's neck and pushed her towards the ground. Both of the dragons roared at each other before they both flew into the air. Nova and Maria both released powerful breath attacks that clashed with each other. The clash created an explosion; both dragons started cycling the explosion until Nova flew into the air. She opened her mouth and covered the sky in a thick mist. Maria couldn't see Nova with the mist everywhere; she opened her mouth and fired into the mist. Nova flew directly above Maria. While in the mist, she fired a powerful ice blast down at Maria, piercing through her wings. Maria fell towards the ground. Nova dived directly onto Maria, slamming her into the ground and pinning her down. Nova spread her wings out, and a chill mist started coming from the wings. Maria's mana started flowing into Nova's wings. Maria said, "She's draining my mana." Nova started draining every last bit of her mana into her wing. During this, Nova saw images of Maria's past. Nova's eyes widened while saying, "I understand the hatred and anger you must have for this world, being sealed away from the world just because of your power. It's sad, the pain and loneliness you must have experienced. I'm sorry." Maria fell unconscious as she returned to her original form. Nova changed back to her human form and picked up Maria's unconscious body and said, "I will put an end to this war the right way; no more fighting. I will not let anyone else suffer." Nova carried Maria in her arms and started walking back to Seilah.
