'What in tarnation is he actually made of?! The technique he's been using so far is severely lacking in sophistication, so how can he enhance himself to be functionally equal to my Quintessence Avatar state? It's utterly preposterous!'
A hint of astonishment and disbelief flickering in her white, incorporeal eyes, Ninna studied Theodore carefully. Again and again, he had relied upon straightforwardly infusing more and more Energy into his physical vessel to transcend his limits further and keep pace with her.
Naturally, she was no stranger to such methods–in fact, they were amongst the most simple ones that she could think of. She had even already utilized this exact same process to elevate her strength during this duel, but she couldn't do so to such an outrageous extent.
Not only were her base Standard Attributes lower than his, but she also didn't have a practically unlimited amount of Energy to work with. That latter part was the most critical: Theodore burned through mind-bogglingly vast oceans worth of Energy every single second without breaking a sweat!
'And then there's that recovery speed of his. It far surpasses what I ever would have expected to see from almost all Supreme Pillar heirs. That aside, where did he get a healing-related Talent?! This man's simply an enigma, I swear!'
Although she was internally complaining and grumbling, she was actually very much enjoying herself. Neither of them allowed the other to catch their breath for too long, continuously imprisoning each other in increasingly terrifying and durable cages, or drowning them in projectiles.
In Theodore's case, he also repeatedly aimed for a close combat clash, which she could only helplessly evade. Despite feeling relatively certain that she could withstand his might, she didn't want to risk it–her self recovery capabilities left much to be desired, at least compared to his.
'It's about time to turn it up a notch again. Let's see how he'll handle this!'
With a confident smile, she–for the first time since their confrontation had begun–tapped into the massive Array that spanned the entire Tetrachroma Palace's territory. She might not be an expert when it came to the field of Array Formation, but she at least understood the basics well enough to pull this off without a hitch.
Inordinate amounts of Foundational Element essence began to converge upon her, which her metamorphosed body guzzled up rapidly, akin to a parched traveller stumbling across an oasis in the desert. From moment to moment, she grew stronger, at an incredible rate!
Previously, she had been unable to fully utilize her Quintessence outside of merely fashioning her body from it, leading to an enhanced state. Now, however, there was much surplus in store for her to work with.
Obviously, the few hundred worlds around her couldn't provide her with an infinite, inexhaustible amount of essence, therefore she soon arrived at the maximum expenditure that they could bear.
"What are you going to do now, dear Winter Saint~?"
Feeling particularly smug and almost omnipotent, she chose to tease the patiently waiting Theodore a little. With a playful wink and a combative gaze, she was eagerly anticipating how he could possibly keep up with her now.
She had already re-established a prison of the four Foundational Elements around him, yet this time, it was reinforced by as much Quintessence as she could spare. This served not only to make it basically impregnable, but it also made each one of her attacks far more difficult to defend against. Any defensive shell would crack easily if faced with Quintessence!
Best of all, however, were its space-related effects. Even though the Lesser True Void was always referred to as 'empty' and devoid of spacetime, that wasn't exactly the real truth.
Technically, it was a part of the overall Heavenly Dao's spacetime–it was just functionally almost identical to the True Void beyond. In other words, it could be seen as a neutered version of it, one kept together by a transcendental Will.
In other words, space- and time-related abilities could still be used here, and Ninna was now in absolute control of the space around them. Whether it be sealing it completely, or teleporting to any location that she fancied–she could do it all.
'Come on, show me what card you'll play now!'
Sending another barrage of blows Theodore's way, he appeared like a turtle in a jar. She had even restricted his movements, making it impossible for him to evade! But rather than an expression of panic or displeasure, what graced his face instead was an intrigued, fascinated smile.
And before she could comprehend what had happened, he already stood a few kilometres away from the area that she had just targetted, observing her attacks curiously.
"Wait, what?"
Flabbergasted, she replayed the events in her mind, but soon felt like she was missing an indispensable puzzle piece.
'It's totally different from all those times before. He didn't shatter my means head-on, but instead, he appeared somewhere else in less than an instant, almost as if he had teleported there. But that's impossible! I completely sealed off any possibility of this happening!'
Ninna was not the only one attempting to decipher her opponent's methods–Theodore was as well. And contrary to her, he had just made a vital discovery.
'I see, I see. So that 'light' is 'Quintessence', then, the hypothetical product of a fusion of all four Foundational Elements, which only existed in some fringe theories before. I was under the impression that it had been completely debunked countless times over, which is why I didn't immediately think of it.'
Observing Ninna out of the corner of his eye, his smile widened.
'But what do you know? It's actually real, somehow. And from what I can tell, it gives the one wielding it near-absolute control over space. My Legendary-grade Spatiotemporal Harmony is utterly powerless in the face of it. What an outrageous ability. Perhaps, only those beyond 'divine' or Talents of at least Supreme-grade could put up a fight.'
All of this was just an educated guess, though. He would have to research this strange 'substance' a lot more to come to any reliable conclusions. Perhaps, he could ask Ninna to help him with his experiments after he won? That would be a fantastic use of the one command that he could give her.
Shaking his head, he got rid of his distracting thoughts and once more evaded her next wave of attacks, in the exact same way as before.
He hadn't teleported–space was sealed, and his Intraworld Teleportation Talent couldn't be used in the Lesser True Void. Additionally, any regular movements of his should have been impossible as well–yet those were precisely the ones that he had relied on. He had simply... strolled out of the dangerous blows' way.
But he hadn't done so 'now', when they were almost upon him–no, he had already begun walking when Ninna hadn't even thought about them yet.
Relying on his Prognostication and Improved Threat Perception Talents, coupled with Spatiotemporal Harmony, he could sense them all coming in advance. Then, relying on the third Talent, he followed the most ideal flow of time that he could sense, resulting in the deeply confusing scenes that Ninna was now witnessing.
One moment, he was surrounded on all sides, and the next, it was as if he had always been somewhere else entirely–almost as if time was playing a trick on her, with the present and past increasingly blurring together.
Theodore had to admit that Ninna's control over space was of a far higher order of power than his amateurish capabilities when it came to time. He had also only recently got this Talent, so he was not yet accustomed to its finer workings.
Still, with his sparring partner being altogether incapable of messing with time itself, even though he was basically a complete rookie when it came to temporal manipulation, he had still become untouchable and undefeatable.
'It's time to strike back.'
Plotting a course leading directly to Ninna, he silently appeared next to her without her being any the wiser, then grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up, about to pronounce her as the loser...
But before he could do so, he found himself completely restrained, her spatial control having caught up with him. A bit annoyed, he escaped her grasp and attempted to restrict her fully again and again, yet every single time without fail, before he could properly subdue her, he ended up stuck in place. Literally.
From Ninna's initial shock, slight fear and astonishment at him getting so close to her without her knowing, both she and Theodore soon grew numb at the constantly repeating events.
Although his approaches were always different, due to the nature of this being but a friendly duel, he couldn't just go for a killing blow. And if he aimed to only keep her in check, then she would always have the chance to do the exact same thing to him.
They were stuck at an impasse, with neither capable of fully dealing with the other–at least not under the present circumstances. There were definitely more hidden aces for them to rely on, and if this were a life-or-death battle, then one of them would have surely bitten the dust by now. However, these were all merely what-if scenarios, not their reality.
"... it's a draw, then."
Sighing to himself, Theodore ceased his attacks, and so did Ninna. They both stared at each other with a complicated gaze, evidently deep in thought. In truth, they definitely weren't happy with this outcome, but they had to accept it, whether or not they wanted to.
"... yeah. So... how do we deal with this? Will we treat it as both of us having lost, or both of us having won?"
Seemingly having made some sort of decision, Ninna shrugged off the doom and gloom rather quickly, then moved on to another issue that they would have to consider.
"Either option is fine by me. We did say that we wouldn't be giving each other any outrageous commands, though, so I suppose we could say that we both won, if you don't mind?"
Having reflected on the matter a little, Theodore put forth this amicable offer. There was no need to antagonize her, and if this could help with establishing friendly relations with her–possibly also with eventually recruiting her to his side–then he was prepared to pay a small price for such a blessing.
'It's all just a gentleman's agreement anyway. I'm sure neither of us will go too overboard here, as it's not really a binding promise.'
With these considerations in mind, he put on a warm smile.
"I'm alright with that. Then, have you already thought of a command? Or should I be the one to start?"
Fully on board with his proposal, Ninna seemed entirely unbothered by what he might ask her to do–nay, she even appeared to look forward to it. However, it was impossible to tell whether she was genuine about this.
"Just like with our duel, let's go with ladies first."
Continuing his gentlemanly act, Theodore gave her an encouraging nod, going through every single potential scenario in his head.
It was conceivable for her to request physical intimacy, but he didn't think it was very likely to happen–after all, they were both trained to become better than to be driven by such base instincts.
What if she asked him to transfer some of his Students to her, though, or to help her during this round? She might even suggest an alliance. Alternatively, perhaps she would put forward something along the lines of 'doing her a favour in the future'?
In any case, he was certain that he could handle what was to come. As long as it could bring them closer together, then maybe someday, he could make her join him, gaining an incredibly impressive ally!
Locking gazes with her, a slight blush coloured her cheeks, yet her expression was surprisingly serious and sombre. Then, finally, she took a deep breath and voiced a request that he had never once even considered to be possible.
"I command you to... make me your Follower! ... pretty please, with a cherry on top?"
Genuinely stunned for the first time since he had met her, Theodore couldn't believe his ears.
'I'm not experiencing auditory hallucinations, am I?'