Arven's eyes flicked past the towering clash of constructs and toward the chaos behind Aesa. The guards he had called with urgency and expectation were now completely entangled, their formation shattered, their movents reduced to desperate reactions against the overwhelming ice warrior.
The corridor echoed with the clash of steel and Magic, but none of it pushed forward. None of it reached her.
A quiet curse slipped under his breath.
"Useless…"
His jaw tightened as frustration surged through him. All that effort, all that preparation to call them, reduced to nothing in re monts.
They weren't even able to get past a single construct. They had beco obstacles to themselves more than reinforcents.
But then the thought shifted.
His gaze sharpened.
No… that wasn't right.
It wasn't that they were weak.
It was that she was far beyond anything they were prepared to face.
Arven took a deep breath slowly, steadying his mind as he forced that realization into place. This was not a failure of his n. This was the reality of the enemy before him.
Without wasting another second, he lifted his hand again and Magic surged.
A new distortion tore open beside him and from it erged a massive lion spirit. Its body was covered in bronze-like skin that glead under the light. Its every movent radiating weight and power. Its eyes burned with a fierce golden glow as it lowered its head and let out a silent roar.
"Go!" Arven commanded.
The lion charged forward instantly, its heavy steps cracking the frozen ground beneath it as it lunged toward Aesa with terrifying speed.
Aesa didn't even turn fully.
Her hand moved slightly.
Frost condensed again.
In the blink of an eye, another construct ford. This ti shaped into a massive ice lion. It mirrored the spirit perfectly from its build to its posture even to the predatory tension in its stance.
The two collided head-on. Just like the spirit and construct before.
The impact shook the corridor once more as claw t claw, force against force, their bodies grinding against each other in a violent struggle.
Arven's expression twisted.
"…Again."
Frustration crept deeper into his chest. No matter what he summoned she answered instantly and effortlessly. As if his power ant nothing more than a template for her to copy.
"I need to call the Archmage…" he thought, tension rising.
This was no longer sothing he could handle alone. This opponent was far too dangerous, far too overwhelming.
But the mont that thought ford, he felt the strain.
Both spirits demanded constant control. Constant energy. His focus was already stretched thin maintaining them. Calling for higher assistance required precision he no longer had.
He couldn't. Not like this.
Then Aesa moved. She stepped forward.
Frost spread with her movent, crawling across the ground, the walls, and the air. The temperature dropped even further, suffocating and heavy. Arven felt it press into his body, slowing him, then dulling his reactions.
His breath tightened. This was going in the direction of close combat.
"I'm not built for this…" he realized.
And yet she walked calmly, her face unchanged, her eyes half-lidded with clear indifference. Maintaining two massive constructs while advancing forward was nothing to her.
That realization broke sothing inside him.
Sweat ford along his temple. His Magic faltered for just a fraction of a second.
Aesa suddenly vanished.
Then she appeared right in front of him.
Before he could react, ice spread instantly from beneath his feet, locking his legs in place with brutal precision.
"I don't want to kill you," Aesa said, her voice flat, filled with clear annoyance. "But I will if you keep doing this."
Her gaze t his eyes directly.
"I just want to see the thing. Not destroy it."
"At least not now." Aesa thought.
Arven froze. Not just from the ice, but from the weight of reality crashing into him.
If he continued… he would lose and be killed. Not just himself. But everyone here.
A slow breath left him. "…Fine."
It's better to let her do what she wanted, and he would observe. For now.
Aesa held his gaze while narrowing her eyes. Her expression was unreadable, as if weighing whether his words carried any real aning or were simply the result of fear finally catching up to him.
The cold around her lingered, pressing into the space between them, but it no longer advanced.
"Will you let pass peacefully?" she asked, her tone flat and direct.
Arven swallowed, the movent stiff. The ice binding his legs had not spread further but its presence alone reminded him how little control he had left in this situation. He forced himself to et her eyes despite the pressure.
"Yes," he said, though the word ca out strained. "But you must let and my n live."
For a few seconds, silence stretched between them again.
Then Aesa gave a small nod and a sigh. "That's what I've been trying to say from the start."
There was no mockery in her voice, no triumph. Just quiet annoyance, as if this entire confrontation had been an unnecessary delay.
Arven exhaled slowly, the tension in his chest easing just slightly. He lowered his hand.
The bronze lion spirit flickered first, its body destabilizing before dissolving into scattered fragnts of light. A mont later, the towering skeletal warrior followed and its massive fra breaking apart into fading particles that vanished into the air.
The pressure in the corridor shifted as his control released.
Aesa moved her hand just as casually.
The two ice constructs reacted imdiately. The one locked against the skeletal warrior stopped before its form destabilized, its body collapsing inward and solidifying into a massive block of dense ice that slamd heavily onto the ground.
The ice lion did the sa, its shape losing definition before condensing into another thick frozen mass.
Only one of them remained.
The second ice warrior that faced the guards continued moving, its blade swinging in controlled arcs that forced the guards to keep their distance. It did not press to kill, only to restrain and occupy them.
Aesa didn't even look back at them.
"Co on," she said, already turning away. "Take to it."
Arven stood there for a while, catching his breath. The cold still clung to his body and the drain of his Magic left a faint tremor in his hands.
"Yes… Alright," he said.
The ice around his legs cracked and loosened as Aesa released him. He stepped forward carefully at first, then steadied himself.
Without another word, he moved past her and began walking down the corridor.
Aesa followed right behind him.
Behind them, the clash of battle still echoed, the guards struggling against the lone ice construct that held them in place. But ahead, the path opened into deeper silence.
Neither of them spoke as they moved.
Arven's mind raced despite his calm exterior, his instinct still on edge as he led her further inside.
Aesa walked with the sa indifferent pace, her presence cold and steady, as if everything that had just happened no longer mattered the mont it ended.
They moved deeper into the corridor toward the fragnt of the suspected missing Creation.
—
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