Near Orario's northern gate.
A building was flattened as a blur of pure wind crashed into it. The ground caved in as roofs collapsed over one another, burying that blur beneath tons of debris and rubble.
Winds spiraled from beneath, launching the wreckage in all directions. Someone soon walked out from the dust.
Ais Wallenstein.
Her armor was torn in places, multiple scratches running along Desperate's blade in her grip. Wounds, large and small, marred her form, blood dripping from them.
Ais' usually blank expression was warped beyond recognition, teeth gritted, hatred blazing in her golden eyes, staining them black like tar.
Normally, green and transparent winds revolved around her, yet those same winds had started to turn pitch black from the edges, as if tainted by her hatred.
A red-haired, green-eyed woman walked toward her with a longsword in hand. Her torso was torn open, skin stitching back together in moments, a monster core visible beneath.
"Aria." Her voice was composed, each footfall sinking the ground downward.
"Don't. Call. Me. That. Monster." Ais spoke through gritted teeth and furrowed brows.
"I have a name too. Revis. Call me Revis." She spoke, tightening her grip over the longsword.
Ais did not reply. Instead, her gritted teeth slowly loosened, her furrowed brows smoothing, expression flattening into a blank one.
Riveria's chant stumbled—just for a heartbeat—as she watched Ais' winds darken. She forced the words out faster, fingers trembling against her staff. Magic circles rotated around her with blinding radiance.
"Gather, furious winds. Freeze the land, Wynn Fimbulvetr. Scorch all, Rea Laevateinn. I ask of thee, final answer."
Revis looked at Ais' blank expression, her instincts starting to blare warnings.
Ais bent into a stance, Desperate parallel to the ground, its edge aimed straight at her opponent's chest.
Her expression was eerily blank, reminiscent of Bell when he used [Asura Soul Reaping].
"Tempest—Avenger."
The emerald winds around her collapsed, in their place rose a wind that was anything but gentle.
She took a step. The sound of her wind died, replaced by a suffocating silence as her new gale sheared other winds by its mere presence alone.
Revis only had a second to widen her eyes before Desperate reached her, wrapped in spiraling black winds.
Her longsword jerked into Desperate's path at the last moment.
BOOOM!
She was launched back nonetheless, punching through house after house, leaving devastation in her wake.
When she steadied herself after the impact, her instincts screamed as she banked into a desperate roll.
Another house behind her shattered from a devastating impact as a pitch black line collided against it. That line didn't stop—it turned with ravenous intensity and curved toward her, reaching her in seconds.
Revis rose from the roll and brought her longsword to block instinctively. Faster than her instincts was an armored heel.
It smashed into her face with no technique or complexity. Just pure brutality. Pure force.
A crunch rang out as Revis flew back, crashing through one place after another, skin shredding as the ground split from friction with her body.
The perimeter had long ago been surrounded by Level 5s from Ganesha Familia; they had evacuated every person from their homes to ensure they wouldn't get caught in any collateral damage.
Ais stopped some distance away from Revis' prone form and walked forward with each step.
That was the moment a shattering sound resounded across all of Orario. The earth shook as buildings collapsed like dominos. A shockwave composed of pure sound burst across every street.
Even the Level 5s from Ganesha Familia blanked out for an instant.
Revis tried to crawl away. A thin shin connected with her stomach, sending her flying as cracks rang out from her pelvic bones.
Ais swung Desperate at her airborne form. An arm flew through the air as a compressed blade of black winds passed by Revis' side.
That red-haired woman fell back down a considerable distance away, cratering into the ground.
It took several seconds for her to compose herself. Revis then looked around. People were clutching their ears in her surroundings—she had landed just outside the Ganesha Familia's perimeter.
"Come on, Aria. You can do better." Revis spoke as she climbed out of the crater. Her severed arm had already started to regenerate, nascent bones jutting from it.
Ais tensed her legs. The writhing tempest around her condensed, no longer flowing like wind but crawling like living shadows. Cuts started to appear on the ground beneath her feet.
Revis glanced sideways.
A woman was curled on the ground nearby, clutching a child to her chest. The woman was shaking—aftereffects of that monstrous shockwave. The child in her arms was limp. Unconscious.
Revis looked at Ais.
Then she looked back at the child.
A sonic boom shattered later, Ais had already reached her earlier. Desperate tore a long gash into her side. Revis ignored the pain and kicked Ais back in her chest, blasting her away.
With a short sprint, she reached that mother and daughter pair.
A Ganesha Familia adventurer tried to block her way; he was swatted aside with a slap, breaking his jaw completely.
She continued and snatched the child from that woman's arms, vanishing right in front of her shocked eyes.
Revis appeared an instant later, a fainted child in her arms.
A black blur tore toward her, Desperate screeching straight for her heart.
Revis didn't dodge.
She smiled.
And she pulled the child in front of her—small, unconscious, perfectly positioned between Desperate's tip and the monster core in her chest.
"O' radiant wind of the white forest, become the raging tempest. Come, Vas Wind—"
Riveria, enclosed in a cluster of magic circles oscillating with tremendous mana, brought her closing chant to a forceful and sudden halt. Her voice, always composed, always measured, cracked.
"Ais! NO!"
"Come on, Aria." Revis' voice was almost tender.
"You can kill me. You just have to kill this child too."
Desperate did not stop.
Ais' arm was locked. Her expression—that eerie blankness—hadn't changed. The black-winds howled around her blade, indifferent to what they were about to cut through.
Desperate did not tremble.
The child's face was peaceful. Eyes closed. Chest rising and falling in shallow, quiet breaths. Like she was sleeping.
Desperate closed the last inch.
A strand of that child's hair lifted in the wind from her blade's approach.
Ais' golden eyes—stained black and burning—stared straight through the child at Revis.
Her arm didn't waver.
Her arm didn't waver.
And then—
Everything was illuminated for a single, blinding instant.
That blinding light was followed by a radiant pillar overturning the sky, connecting below with above, contending against Babel like it dared to touch the sacred.
Golden flakes drifted down from its edge, like snow made of solidified light. They fell upon every person in Orario.
One petal floated over to Ais, coming to rest on her cheek.
She looked down.
Desperate had stopped a hairsbreadth away from that child.
Revis was no longer looking at her—she was looking over her shoulder at that golden pillar with a frozen expression.
The child slipped from her grip unconsciously as she turned on her heel and ran like her life depended on it.
Ais caught the falling child and watched Revis run.
The black winds surrounding her subsided as her hand came up, touching the golden flake on her cheek.
Bell...
Warm.
She hadn't realized how cold she'd felt until now.
...
..
.
***
[300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[8 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
[Authors Thoughts]
Now... people will ask, would Ais have really done it? My answer would be its 50/50. Her hatred for monsters against her humanity. Any can win with a slight tilt, especially as she is right now. And Bell was that small tilt that prevented her from doing it, even unknowingly.