Two won knelt facing each other, their bodies in tatters after taking each other’s ultimate attacks. A thick shroud of dust and sand blocked the sight from outside the duelling area, allowing the won a mont to recover.
"Haa.... damn... I can’t fight anymore. She’s a bona fide monster in thot’s clothing."
Although Ciela’s wounds rapidly healed, she remained slightly pale and struggled to summon her longbow again.
The sa remained true for Vinea; she’d looked down upon the dark elf and used her divine aura without skill. Now she was close to empty with nothing to show for it but a hole in her abdon and her body.
"Tsk, how the hell did you survive that blow...?"
Ciela pushed against the ground, shakily rising to her feet, before drawing a single dagger from her belt.
She shakily approached Vinea with cumberso steps.
Vinea snorted blood from her nose. Then planted the ground with a simple black longsword, the state Balmung took without divine power fueling its form and used to stand up. Much like Ciela, her figure shook, struggling forward.
"Never expected you to be so resilient, Ciela."
"Heh, you were supposed to crush , well... your strike was good." The dark elf placed a hand on her side, revealing the deep scars left from the rapid regeneration using her arcane magic as a binding agent.
"Shall we keep going?"
Vinea flung Balmung over her shoulder and beckoned Ciela to get her.
"You really are a brain-muscled bitch, Vinea!"
Despite her complaint, Ciela set up her dagger and took deep breaths to adjust her mindset and still the constant throb of her chest.
There were no flashy auras, magic or lights.
The two won rushed at each other, using their pure physical might. Ciela hopped across the broken rocks and craters in the ground. Vinea didn’t bother to avoid them, running straight through as if she were a rhino.
Both won stared at each other, forgetting everything else in the world.
To them, there was only this fight.
"Even if you say I am an embarrassnt, to serve and help our husbands is my greatest honour!"
"Cut the Sophism! Quitting the role he gave you out of reverence and respect for your parents and then throwing it away just because you want him to fuck you on the castle floor is only the honour of a palace courtesan!"
Ciela’s face twisted at Vinea’s insult and leapt from a rock with a burst of speed, thrusting her blade at Vinea’s exposed throat with a brutal, killing blow.
"Hahahaha, you really said it, you derranged bitch!"
Vinea’s pupils shrank at Ciela’s sudden burst of speed.
A terrifying arc of wind sliced her cheek, missing her eye by an inch as the glinting silver dagger crossed her vision in slow motion.
’Shit!?’
She grimaced while tightening her abdon and flung Balmung at the blade, with a glint of black and silver, and both won slid back. Their breath dishevelled and bodies screaming in agony, yet they couldn’t stop.
It was beyond honour, beyond Asmodeus, sothing more, sothing deeper.
"You know I used to admire you, Vinea.
The way you fought endlessly on the front lines, never gave up and always managed to drag yourself through no matter how difficult the challenge..." Ciela stroked the tip of her blade, summoning a faint green wind to envelop it, with a slight humming vibration.
"Yet, look at you now!
Throwing a hissy fit at the most amazing man in the world, creating trouble for everyone.
All because you’re backed up and need a good shag! Just tell Asmodeus you want him to throw you down, and pound you like there’s no tomorrow! He’d love it, you’d surely love it, and we’d all benefit!"
Vinea stared at the elf with a slightly agape jaw, unable to answer instantly before shaking her head and pointing Balmung directly at Ciela’s chest.
"And what of it?!
Is it not my prerogative if I choose to edge myself for a month, waiting, earnestly and patiently until the mont I am about to break before seeking my beloved husband to rock my world?!"
Unlike the flashy divine powers, when using magic, the pair specialised in a single elent: one used the hasty, agile wind, while the other chose the enduring, steadfast earth.
A dull grey surface covered the body of Vinea, who summoned her mana, forming a rocky armour that protected her gaping wound and damaged shoulder.
"Does it make a sinner for having strange tastes?!" She shouted, Balmung’s tip glinting as the artificial rocks rubbed against the edge and sharpened the blade to the limit.
"Is that all you have to say?"
"Of course it is! I don’t even care that you begged Asmodeus for sex or abandoned your post; last night was supposed to be my mont to charm him. We’d promised to et using our secret code words, yet you ruined it all! Because you shook your fat chocolate-looking ass and sat on his face!"
"Heh, so it was a personal grudge and nothing to do with shaming our Empire! I fucking knew it, you and the others always act like good little maidens in front of Asmodeus, but when we’re alone, I’ve seen all of your filthy tricks!"
After their long argunt, they struggled to breathe and glared at each other.
"Let this strike determine the winner."
"Ah, didn’t think I’d agree with you, how amusing."
The first to move was Ciela, like a delicate doe, she ricocheted across the broken land with her dagger held in reverse grip. The mont her foot stepped within Vinea’s longer range, she pushed off the ground with her rear leg and spun into a violent whirlwind.
A glint of green light trailed after her blade as she rushed at the knight.
Vinea, on the other hand, didn’t rush into the battle; she focused her eyes, honing her senses as she glared at the green tomato.
She raised her arms, with Balmung pointing to the sky behind her. Vinea lowered her hips, fully prepared to strike, gathering all her mana into defence while focusing purely on the elegance and skill of her strike.
Ciela, the opposite, beca a whirlwind of magical death.
"Ciela!"
"Vinea..."
The knight swung Balmung down with a decisive slash across the air, from her right shoulder to the left thigh in a flash of black steel.
Clang!
Ciela’s silver blade clashed with Balmung, shattering into countless blades.
A deep wound leaked blood from her neck, before her voice lingered in the air, casting an unexpected spell.
"Air Manipulation: EXPLODE!"
The next mont, as if expecting the clash, a storm of tiny green blades of wind lanced through the air as Ciela detonated her whirlwind of magic from the inside.
Vinea’s eyes widened as she raised her palm.
Thousands of fine blades tore the rock protecting her body, sinking deep into Vinea’s flesh.
Within a flash of seconds, her proud earth armour crumbled, stained with dark red blood and sweat, and she dropped to her knees.
"Well... haa.... You really...."
How could this happen, Vinea knew well.
Her heartbeat slowed, calming the seething rage within her as she realised just how ridiculous she’d been acting.
Was the issue really Ciela?
No, it was just like the elf said.
’I was in the wrong, this was because I couldn’t be honest with my husband.’
She glanced up, wanting to announce these feelings to her opponent, Vinea’s heart calm and at peace. ’To think I would feel this way fighting against Ciela... these emotions, how long has it been since I ignored them?’
Ciela stood opposite her, facing away with a straight back.
When looking at the pair, no one would doubt Ciela won the duel.
However, as Vinea waited for the elf to speak, mock her or turn around with a gloating smirk, nothing changed.
The winds died down after their battle, and Vinea could hear even the faintest heartbeats in the distance and yet...
There was no sound from Ciela.
"Eh!? Ciela!" Vinea shouted, desperately struggling to her feet, "Asmodeus! Velvet! Hurry!" She staggered towards the elf who stood less than five tres away, yet the distance felt like a marathon for the exhausted knight.
She dragged her tired, wounded body through the dirt using her fingers, clawing at the broken earth, until she reached the elf and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"H-Hey, you should stop playing around..."
Ciela’s head flopped back, landing on Vinea’s chest, as the elf collapsed, her right side torn apart completely with a deep gash pouring with blood.
For a mont, Vinea’s heart stopped in terror.
’Have I killed one of my precious sisters?!’
Each second felt like an eternity as she gently poured the remnants of her divine force into the body of the elf she’d clashed with no longer than a minute before.
Vinea pressed her head against the abundant chest, the heat from Ceila’s plump mounds squishing her face as she listened for a heartbeat.
One second...
Nothing.
Five seconds...
Nothing.
But after almost ten seconds of silence, she heard a faint thumping.
Ba-Dum...
Ba-Dum...
Although weak, her legs almost gave out, knowing that Ciela wasn’t dead.
"Ah... what’s the matter, you almost look like you might cry over my death."
"You damned fool, who would want you to die?!"
Ciela’s eyes widened at Vinea’s shout; her lips trembled as she closed her eyes, tears brimming. "I’m sorry... I’m so sorry.... I just missed him so much, it wasn’t that I didn’t feel horrible about abandoning my role, but my sisters are better than I am when it cos to politics, economy, even managing troops..."
Her sudden outburst was quite the shock, and yet Vinea didn’t shout back. She gently stroked the elf’s hair, frowning a little at the snot and tears staining her favourite tunic, but with two massive holes in it, she let it go.
"See, you stupid girl, if you’d have been this honest from the start, would we have had this stupid fight...?"
"But I thought you hated ... and I didn’t want to be hated by soone I idolised!"
"You idolised a foolish woman like ?"
"Mhm, you’ve always followed your own path, never seeming to err, and even when things go wrong, you have the self-control and willpower to push through them!"
Though she wanted to respond, Vinea grimaced as she struggled to remain standing, and the two fell to the ground.
"Kyaaa!"
"Ngh... my stomach..."
Ciela and Vinea lay beside each other, their faces a ss, their bodies covered in wounds, while holding each other’s hands that quietly spoke.
Vinea struggled to remain angry at the tearful elf and gave up.
She instead realised the errors in their thods up to this point, and how relying on a strange divine bone wasn’t the only way.
Communication was the key.
For her relationship with Asmodeus and their bond as sisters.
"In the end, we relied too much on Sister Serena’s powers, when we should have been speaking to each other more earnestly, about what we want to do, what we like and the things we love and hate about Asmodeus"
"Mhm... once I unlocked my Divine core, those calming waves suddenly stopped working, and it beca hard to keep the sa act," Ciela added to Vinea’s comnts.
"Yeah, maybe Serena herself intended it to be like this... for us to find our own path and way to improve the situation between the current Royal Palace and us."
"So what about the duel...?" Ciela tilted her head and asked.
"Mm, the truth is that I couldn’t stand first, although you might have stopped breathing; that final attack was magnificent."
"Hahaha, how curious, let’s just say you won. I don’t need to follow Asmodeus around everywhere, just a few nights here or there, and to hear him say he loves ."
"No, I have a better idea."
"Oh? What is that?" Ciela shifted her head in the sand to glance at Vinea, whose smile shone under the reappearing sunlight.
"You’ll see, focus on recovering for now, Ela."
"Ela... what is that?!"
"Hmph, your new nickna, accept it! You cannot veto it anyway, hahahaha!"
"N-No... It’s the first ti a friend gave a nickna in a long, long ti, I won’t complain!"
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