151. A Blown-haired Witch, Elenore Blair Veyne
“Hades’s hell! Get back, Cubie!” Zetius bellowed as he mustered the last of his strength and sprinted toward her. The knight forcefully yanked the rusty blade back. Cubie dropped low and darted away at once.
“How could he respawn over and over!?” Zetius groaned as he threw a left hook. The enemy countered with an open palm.
His fla strike was completely halted by this iteration of his foe. Zetius’s power was far from enough. He was being outmatched.
The knight studied him intently with malice in his glowing red eyes. “Are you afraid of hurting your knuckles?” he mocked, beginning to crush Zetius’s fist.
“AHHH!” Zetius scread as sharp pain shot up his spine. Then, a blinding electric light erupted from his fist. The elental surge shocked both him and his enemy, sending them hurtling in opposite directions.
Zetius crashed into a pillar, shattering it. The cold fla snuffed out. His hand trembled in excruciating pain. He groaned and rose to his feet with difficulty.
“This is endless!” he grumbled to himself.
The Dark Knight erged from the smoke. His armour glowed in patches where it had been scorched by lightning. He raised both hands to his sides in a threatening gesture.
“Witness the power of the night! Oh, hail the goddess Nyx! The cosmic force of the night shall return, perpetual cycle of singular truth!” he shouted to the dark sky. Then he burst into rowdy laughter, echoing throughout the chamber.
Just as the Knight of Nyx had first declared, he was no longer human. He had beco chanical, single-purposed.
“Ah… damnation,” Zetius cursed under his breath. He inhaled deeply and eventually gave a nod in comtemplation.
He now understood what he had to do.
“We can’t defeat him,” he admitted to Cubie at his side. The Dark Knight had grown stronger, faster, tougher. Worse still, his respawn ti shortened with every cycle.
Cubie gasped, stunned. “A~are you giving up?” she stamred, glancing back and forth, keeping one sharp eye on the maniacal foe.
“Never... We just need to cut off his arms and steal his blade,” Zetius replied with a conceited smirk. Despite his ragged body, his willpower had never wavered as his head held high.
Cubie blinked, then nodded vigorously. She steeled her resolve and pushed aside the pain gnawing at her stomach. “Let help!”
“On three, godspeed!” Zetius bellowed, counting in his head. The ticking in his mind matched the beat of his heart.
His two fingers slowly rose, pointed straight at his target. His aim was true. He had never missed in a mont like this.
Zetius’s mind entered the devastating storm. Its swirling eyes twisted with colossal force. Lightning erupted in the distance, followed by thunderous roars. Chaotic. Powerful.
Ice particles collided in the massive cloud, generating intense electrostatic charges. Negative ions surged. With his control, Zetius could draw out the positive target.
Precisely, the storm bent to his command.
Power crackled and surged from his core, pushing outward in all directions. His eyes shone with blinding light, his irises glowing light blue.
His lips moved, almost on their own volition.
“Astrapyion!”
He roared as the electrons discharged towards his enemy. In the blink of an eye, the devastating lightning cracked upward from the ground, evaporating the stone floor in its wake.
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Searing pain flared in his fingers as they flinched involuntarily, and the lightning strike veered off course, obliterating a stone pillar into a pile of dust.
“Aw!” he yelped, shaking his smoking hand. The ruthless Dark Knight saw the opening and took it without hesitation.
“Foolish boy!” the knight shouted, launching a vicious thrust. The blade sliced through the air, aiming straight for Zetius.
Zetius raised his arms in a feeble attempt to defend himself, knowing his end was near.
“Zetius!” a female voice bellowed, cutting through the chaos. He caught only a glimpse of her blown hair as she rode her staff, bolting between the combatants.
“Magnetos!” she cast without pause. The blade shrieked and ground against an immovable magnetic field before being fully deflected.
“You?!” the Dark Knight roared in frustration, swinging his blade to the side in a wild attempt to strike her down.
But the mage, wearing a pointed hat, spun her staff with fluid grace — her movent a srising dance from a forgotten age. She raised her staff overhead, its Arcanite gem pulsing with mana.
“Thalassion, heed my calling!” she chanted. Her words chid like a bell, lilted like a lodic plea from the ocean’s depths.
Luminescent water surged forward and lashed out.
Imdiately, the spell cleaved through the knight’s arms, causing them to fall and slide across the stone floor along with his longsword.
“Impossible!” the knight staggered, scrambling backward in terror.
The unknown mage spun on her heel as flowing water coiled around her. The currents slithered like commanding serpents, engulfing her form. With a fluid motion, she pointed her staff at the fallen blade. The elental serpents seized it and carried it to the door, smoothly sliding the weapon into the slot.
The door trembled with energy as its surface cracked open, and light from the outside seeped into the darkened chamber.
Zetius watched the scene with awe and disbelief. It was a performance, graceful, precise. Nothing about it felt like a battle.
“Insolence! Why?! You have conquered this—” the knight choked as black smoke poured from the slits in his helt. His glowing red eyes flickered and began to burn away. His tall fra buckled and dissolved into dark smoke, unable to retain its form any longer.
In less than a minute, this woman had accomplished what Zetius had failed to do for over an hour. There was no doubt in his mind, she wasn’t just an ordinary mage.
Despite the unexpected turn of events, relief flooded his chest. Cubie huddled beside him, clinging to his Arc coat as they watched the elegant mage strive toward them.
A faint scent wafted from the brown-haired arcanist — a soft, powdery, violet veil. Zetius recognised that sll imdiately. Enchanting. Familiar.
Not from his life, but from Jack’s. Zetius was sure of it.
“Elenore...” his lips moved on their own. In suspension, Cubie’s hands gripped his shoulders tightly.
“Who?” she whispered, her voice trembling with uncertainty.
Elenore rushed towards them on the ground. “Are you okay?” she asked, eyes scanning his injuries with maternal care.
Zetius studied her pale, immaculate face. So enchanting. So beautiful. Her presence soothed him, almost if it could lt the pain from his body. His ears stopped hearing anything, only the deafening throb of his heart remained.
Elenore brushed a loose lock of hair behind her long, pointed ear. She wore a wide-brimd hat in dark purple with a golden cone on its pointed tip. Her matching purple dress was intricate, embroidered with gold seams. A blue crystal sat at the centre of her chest, accentuating her generous cleavage and elegant figure, one that could make even Aphrodite jealous.
Her attire was that of a high archmage, adorned with grace and style. Zetius stared, entranced.
Then her large, doll-like eyes t his. Eyes that could make a man, woman, or even animal blush.
She chanted softly, “Iasis.”
A wave of soothing warmth washed over him. Zetius blinked, stunned, as he slowly stood. The pain, the fatigue, it had all vanished. As if it had never been.
He only broke eye contact when Cubie gently shook his shoulder.
“Zetius! What’s wrong? Are you muted sohow?” she asked, panic creeping into her voice.
“N~no...” he murmured, his hearing gradually returning. “Gaia... she’s even more gorgeous than when I first saw her at the Eastern Dam party... and in Jack’s forged mories.”
Elenore clasped her chest in relief, then offered a warm smile. A tiny fang peeked out from her lips. Wait… She isn’t an elf, a Wildren perhaps? A question popped into Zetius’s head.
“I’m glad...” she said, her voice soft as a breeze.
“Thank you so much... umm...” Cubie mumbled, still wary of the mage’s sudden appearance.
“Fufu,” Elenore chuckled before responding, “I’m Elenore Blair Veyne,” she introduced herself in her velvety tone.
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