Tyris wasted no time, her soul essence surged violently, powerful gusts of wind and yellow lightning bolts starting to dance around her in a wide circle.
In mere moments, the beautiful warrior woman was replaced, in her stead, a giant bird of prey. Adorned with brilliant white feathers, a sharp beak and devastating talons forged out of shining steel that glowed brightly with golden lightning.
And enormous wings that are covered in thunderclouds.
As soon as the transformation was complete, she flew straight into the sky, stopping just below the clouds, her new giant form having grown smaller due to sheer distance.
Now around her element and out of reach of the Winter Beast, the lightning around her grew brighter and larger.
The already present clouds darkened further, the small lightning bolts dancing within them growing larger as well.
She knew what would happen to the area.
She knew very well that the possibility of sinking this large part of Antarctica is a reality.
But the Winter Beast was worth the price.
Not to mention, the boy.
The boy, the boy, the boy.
To her, everything was starting to be connected with him.
Every important figure tried to catch him, with none succeeding.
And she, she was growing tired of it all.
With all her might, Tyris used half of her Transcended reserves to unleash the attack.
The clouds began swirling clock wise, growing large and starting to form a shape.
In mere moments, a tornado as large as the Winter Beast itself formed in the sky, inside, a large glowing ball of lightning starting to grow.
It grew and grew and grew, until it filled up the tornado entirely.
And then, Tyris let go.
With a screech not befitting the bird's nature, she pushed down the attack.
And the rest, gravity did the job.
In a mere minute, the attack fell upon the Corrupted Titan, the wind barely drilling through it's formed defenses.
But it was enough, the defenses were gone, just like the wind.
But the giant nail of lightning remained, and that was what Tyris had hoped for.
The nail struck the Titan's head, a wall of snow and wind blasting outwards from the impact alone.
The Titan roared, ice forming.
But it was too late.
The attack punctured the body of the Titan easily, nailing it down to the ground.
The battlefield shook, and the ice all around cracked and shattered.
Beginning to sink.
Sky Tide descended swiftly, exhausted.
Her now large and sharp eyes narrowed upon the Titan, noticing the lightning disperse around it's form.
She hadn't taken it down.
But the damage was great enough that the Titan wouldn't linger around and leave.
Hopefully to somewhere where people don't live.
She watched, slightly annoyed, as the Titan regenerated it's punctured and cracked body in just a few minutes, it's soul freezing blue eyes staring her down.
But just as she anticipated, it didn't attack.
Just turned around and started its slow trek towards where it had been originally heading before the fight with Lythos.
Her form glowed and shrank, the transformation dismissed.
Gulping down the fresh and cold air, she mentally cursed herself for the inability to do enough damage.
She was sure, if she had injured the Titan enough, the boy would have revealed himself to help out, and then she would of just snagged him and flown off.
Now she was exhausted, far from any safe location, without any compensation.
Well, at least she got to see the ending of the battle between the two Corrupted Titans.
Which she will admit, was a sight to behold.
***
I've been lucky, I will admit.
Ever since I had touched the Terror that destroyed my home I have been lucky.
Even if the Spell despises me, even if I don't get memories whatsoever.
I've been lucky.
I've been lucky in terms of my amazing aspect, attributes and nightmares.
I even have a citadel that I plan to rebuild.
However, my current situation is definitely the opposite of lucky.
Because I was just blasted into the floor of the fucking ocean.
I'm barely managing to push the water away from me.
And I'm running out of soul essence.
Hell, I can't even teleport to the surface.
That's already bad, but salvageable with my cohort of devils.
But that wasn't the bad part. No, far from it.
The actual bad part, was the Corrupted Terror half swimming and half floating through the water.
Pretty sure it hadn't noticed me, but as soon as I summoned one of my Nightmares for help, it would lock onto them, and by extension, me.
So you could say that I'm royaly fucked. And be entirely correct.
Snarling and desperately pushing down the corruption with my will, I focused on gathering the last drops of my soul essence.
Miniscule tears formed in the corners of my eyes, ones that I refused to acknowledge.
This wasn't the end.
With gritted teeth, I shrank the bubble of air into a smaller shape, conserving essence.
I don't need space, I need time.
Until this fucking freak of nature buzzed off.
Deliberately ignoring the soul cores appearing and vanishing from my vision, I just hoped.
No, prayed. Prayed that this wouldn't be the end.
Because this world, both worlds, are so, so wrong.
And if no one is willing to do anything about it, I would.
Sitting on the extremely wet and cold icy ground, I just couldn't help but think.
Had I been too foolish? Egotistical?
No, I hadn't been entirely foolish, I've just been delt a bad hand.
Egotistical? Some might say so.
But I'd say I was just confident, and why wouldn't I be?
I have, without a doubt, the strongest aspect in history!
No, I have been complacent.
Pushing aside training for more techniques, dismissing the fact that I couldn't even fully use the ones I've already learned.
Not pursuing enhancing my memories even further.
Sure, I have two Transcended memories, the [Assassin's wear] as well as the [Vamparic dagger].
And two Ascended ones, the [Twilight bow] and [Kingdom's eclipse].
But why not grow the bow, why not grow the dagger and attire further?
Complacency.
A scowl morphed my face into something ugly, and I began to feel the disgusting thousands of miniature hands clawing at the edges of my mind.
Breathing heavily, I calmed myself.
Negative emotions would only forward the corruption taking hold.
I had to grow, not just in soul cores.
Not just in fancy techniques that cost more than they are worth.
Not just in control or my Nightmares.
No. I had to grow, me.
I needed to be smarter.
To be better than I currently am.
Blinking slowly, I froze.
Bringing up a gloved hand, I rubbed at my eyes.
Then I rubbed my fingers together.
Letting out a sigh, I just laid down, forcing the bubble around me to lessen in height and grow in length.
It was starting.
***
Tyris faced Morgan, a golden brow raised.
In turn, Morgan raised a black eyebrow, surprised.
Almost in perfect unison, they spoke.
"Why are you here?"
Morgan's lips twitched slightly, amused.
Tyris however, didn't let her expression change.
In fact, one might say her face is carved out of stone.
"Classified."
Tyris finally answered, seeing as Morgan made no move to.
"I see, same here."
Morgan replied after a moment.
"You've seen a young person running around?"
She then asked, voice as cold as the ice they stood on.
Tyri's impassive face shattered, a scowl formed.
'Always the boy.'
"Managed to get away."
Morgan let out an uncharacteristic chuckle at that.
Then after a sigh, she decided to comfort the obviously winded Saint.
"You shouldn't beat yourself up for it, his aspect makes him basically impossible to catch."
Morgan then stepped to the side, extending a hand towards a large metal tent.
"Tea?"
Tyris didn't reply, just starting to walk.
Morgan followed soon after, not before gazing into the dim horizon, a gleam appearing in her eyes.
'Yes, be good and don't let anyone else but me catch you.'
A smirk now adorning her face, she stepped inside the tent.
As expected, Tyris stood off to the side, her cohort lounging lazily on the three couches placed in a "C" formation in the middle.
"Take a seat, wherever you prefer."
Tyris, tired and more than a little annoyed, just sat on a half clean desk, her long armored legs swinging gently just slightly above the metal floor.
Her gaze met the floor, impassive.
Soon enough, Morgan returned with two cups of hot herbal tea, giving one to Tyris who, despite her annoyance, accepted it with proper etiquette.
Morgan dragged over a chair, sitting in front of the blond Saint.
Her eyes brimming with excitement, she didn't beat around a bush.
"Did you see the fight?"
A blond brow rose in response, one that quickly lowered as she remembered it.
Tilting her head upwards, Tyris stared into the ceiling, remembering the fight in vivid detail.
"I did."
Both sipped their tea silently.
But Morgan wanted to know, no, needed to know how the fight turned out.
She would have been there, watching.
But no, she was forced to return to her camp as soon as she learned the news of her father planning to forcefully take her back home.
She needed to be at her best, just in case she needed to fight.
So unwillingly, she wasn't able to spectate the fight of the Titans.
But now, here she was, in front of the only person who had seen and was willing to share the information.
"I would like to hear it."
Tyris hummed softly, brushing away a strand of hair.
"It wasn't fast paced or too flashy, it was just large and or powerful attacks."
Morgan raised a brow, amused.
"Oh really?"
Tyris glared at the princess for a brief moment, before letting out a sigh.
"It was… spectacular…"
She started, and Morgan could hear the slight awe in Tyri's voice.
"It was as if Antarctica itself faced off a mountain. Each attack larger and more powerful than the last, each missed attack shattering the ice beneath.
The battle lasted for nearly an hour and a half, and I witnessed only ten minutes of it."
She spoke, her tone changing to one of disappointment at the end.
Morgan sighed wistfully, oh how she longed to spectate a battle of such grandiose.
But alas, she could only imagine the attacks larger than whole buildings thrown about like a child's toys.
"Once Lythos fell, I entered the battlefield."
And now Morgan knew why the powerful Sky Tide looked so disheveled and tired.
"Didn't manage to even get enough of the Titan's attention for it to fight back, it just walked away."
Morgan nodded, already expecting that.
"And the boy?"
She then asked.
To which Tyris responded with a simple shrug.
"Not even a slightest clu-"
Before she could finish the sentence, the ground began shaking violently..
What sounded like loud terrific whaling started to be heard.
The entire tent exploded into movement, each of them leaving the tent in a mere moment.
Brilliant gold sparks covered their forms, memories manifesting.
Barely in view for the group on an ice lake there could be seen a giant, half spiritual half physical nightmare creature.
Blue blood covered half of the entire lake, making the scene look like something from a fantasy movie.
Saying that the creature is massive would be an understatement, as even as its long and relatively thin body is bent and coiled at random patterns, it still covered nearly all of the lake
A sound somewhat similar to a groan reverberated through their very chests, as the creature tried to move back into the water.
Only to suddenly stop entirely, as if unable to move.
The next thing they saw was the ice lake literally flip over, throwing the creature back into the deep waters.
Everyone's mouths clicked open, the fresh masters moreso.
They couldn't quite process what they just saw.
But even as Morgan was about to call to her squad to move, as clearly, someone was fighting at least a Tyrant.
The ground quaked.
It surged like a wave through the ground, imitating an earthquake.
Before they knew it, they saw the creature once again.
However this time, it blasted right through the ice, flying nearly ten meters above it before it's undoubtedly enormous momentum faded and gravity forced it back down.
It landed, slammed right through the ice, and was out of sight once again.
And then, everything returned to calm, as if the brief period of absurdity and destruction was merely their imagination.
Morgan turned her head to Tyris.
Tyris turned her head to Morgan.
Almost in perfect unison, they nodded.
"Squad! We are moving out. Now!"
However, they barely managed to rush down the hill, before they all felt it.
The Masters shuddered and stopped, looking around cautiously, their bodies going into the primal instinct of fight or flight.
Tyris herself, being a Saint only slowed because the others did, ignoring the dreadful presence pricking at her mind.
She hadn't felt such a purely negative feeling in her life.
It was different from the Winter Beast's own freezing pressure, and Lytho's own crushing one.
This was just… malice, hatred. But for what, she couldn't understand.
The pause lasted only briefly, as the literal ground they stood upon started shaking.
Only after a few seconds, they noticed that the further surroundings were growing smaller and smaller.
Tyris spun, mouth already open to shout.
"Move!"
They began rushing back to where they came from, as the ground slowly but surely began tilting.
In mere moments, they reached where they're camp was just at, only to see it dozens, if not over a hundred meters below.
"How is this possible..?"
No one knew who had said it, no one cared enough to figure it out.
Tyris lunged downwards, wind already beginning to obey her command to create a platform.
Others followed suit, after a brief pause of anxiety.
But they'd much rather jump from such a height, than be crushed under half a mountain of ice and rock.
***.
Apex rose a hand into the air, and the ground, the water and ice followed the gesture.
The mask he wore had melded onto his face, now being something made out of flesh and obsidian.
The head craned to the side unnaturally, cracking all the way.
The Titan narrowed down onto the six dim cores of the Terror, grin growing more vicious.
The mouth opened revealing crimson and black teeth. And the laughter began.
It wasn't cruel, joyful, or angry.
It was just a sound. Containing nothing but nothingness.
In mere minutes, the half a mountain hill was under the Titan's command, already tilting to fall upon them both.
Turning his attention back to the sky, the Titan extended his hands outwards, as if welcoming the weight that would crush him and his opponent.
And in mere minutes, that's exactly what happened.
The lake was now replaced by the hill's bottom, jagged rocks sticking out every which way, showing just how the hill was ripped out of the ground from brute force.
And somewhere beneath, there laid a boy, unconscious and injured, with a tiny smile on his face.
Thanks for reading.
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