Chương 149: A Stalemate is Never a Victory

Water spilled out over glass, pooling around Nyxila's feet. The fountain was fairly underwhelming. For a ritual that she had such high hopes, the narrow waterfall spilling from a hole in space over her head was hardly imposing. Not like any of Grifvoi's. Nyxila stood across from Lysyra, ritual fountain between them continuing to flow like an oversized tap. Neither of them moved. The ritual itself was hardly dangerous; water gushed out with force, but not so much that it would hurt.

Poking her hand in the fall, she found it cool to the touch, and surprisingly clean. That wouldn't do.

"What are you doing?" Lysyra stepped away from the spreading pool, her voice incredulous. She didn't dare let the water touch her.

"Don't you know where we are? The corruption will kill us both." The rising pool reached her shins. The liquid tried to crawl through the tight clamps of her boots, but she couldn't tell if any trickled in or not. Her slimy feet always felt like she was walking through water.

"You know, I'm so glad you have no idea what my mutations actually mean." Nyxila could already feel the corruptive touch of the Darkness below seeping into the water. Lysyra raised a brow as if she would ask what Nyxila meant, but the girl wasn't dumb. She knew things would get worse the longer the ritual remained active. In a blink, the Bodytwister was gone. Nyxila leapt, her hand crashed into the core of the geyser, and streams speared in all directions. Strangely, Lysyra didn't appear immediately.

She fell into existence almost a full second after Nyxila had reacted. Far too late to stop herself being washed away in the burst of water. The girl, upon failure, immediately dissolved. She appeared again at the edge of the gradually warping pool of water. Apparently teleportation dried her clothes. Instead of moving in again now that Nyxila was stuck in the air and no way to leap up in time to stop her again, Lysyra glowered. She didn't move. Nyxila narrowed her eyes.

As she landed on her feet again, Lysyra spoke.

"You're only going to get yourself killed standing in all that water. Did you forget? I can teleport. Unlike you, I can keep myself in the air." She said that, but Nyxila didn't miss how the girl continued to step back as the shore crept forward. It was nearing the edge of the arena now. Where Nyxila stood in the centre of the slightly curved glass, it was already up to her knees. Just like her efforts to clean away the blood in a bath, her blood viciously fought off the water that came near where it clung.

It was like a jealous pet snapping at anything that came near its bound owner. Nyxila was not looking forward to having to scrub later. This much blood would be arduous.

"If it's no problem for you, then come and attack." She widened her arms in invitation.

"Or would you rather wait it out? I'm sure corruption will eat my body alive if you keep to the sky, out of my reach." Her mind fell back to some of the deaths she'd seen in the Dark Star. Anything could happen. It was no wonder Lysyra had a healthy fear. But the water wasn't yet deadly; she should have attacked by now. She should have done everything to stop the continued flow from the tattered scroll at the core of the fountain. Instead, she lingered near the wall until ripples of water lapped at her toes.

Steam rolled off the surface of the water like the smoke to a fire. It obscured her vision slightly, but Nyxila still noticed the oddities all along the edge of the amphitheatre. While the corruption had spread, its hold was not yet deep. She considered opening her core name, but the chances of someone noticing were too high. Better to just be patient. Lysyra finally decided standing on her laurels was not going to get her anywhere. She ran in, teleporting around to disorient Nxyila.

Each time she jumped through space, she remained the same distance from her opponent. It was strange. What was stranger, was the ever so slight ripples upon the water that moved inwards with her. They were the only places Lysyra ever seemed to teleport. When the acolyte finally reached her — apparently not as interested in avoiding the water as she'd claimed — Nyxila spun and intercepted the teleport. Lysyra vanished, appearing behind her back.

While her rapier twisted to deflect the blade rushing for her throat, Nyxila didn't attack the girl. Instead, she kicked at empty air Steam curled around her boot, but otherwise, she felt nothing. Nyxila was about to dismiss her guess… when she noticed the ripples dispersing.

"It's not teleportation, is it?" Lysyra stiffened. All concern for the corruption spreading around her feet suddenly disappeared as she halted her efforts to run a knife through Nyxila.

"What?" She pointed to the half-dozen ripples in her immediate vicinity.

"Do I even need to say it? You've slowed down a lot with all this water in your way."

"I have no idea what you mean," Lysyra continued to play dumb. She took a swipe as she manifested upon one of the ripples, but it was casually battered away. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Remember back in the first trial?" Nyxila said.

"You knew what was written on that stone slab without even needing to teleport. And how you know of my mutations. You can see from the places you transfer to, and considering I've not seen you appear where you couldn't climb yourself, I'd say they are replicas. You're not teleporting at all." Lysyra was silent for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess there's no hiding it." Suddenly her voice surrounded Nyxila.

"Then maybe I should come at you all at once now, instead of one by one." The threat was there, but now that Nyxila could see her coming — even if only by the slight disturbance of a ripple — she would not lose. But instead of attacking, Lysyra stepped back. The closest ripples faded. She looked up at the fountain, where it water continued to gush, then down into the pool at her feet, which was starting to look impossibly deeper than the thigh height it was.

"If you know that much, then you should probably know that I'm not here." She smirked as she returned her gaze to Nyxila.

"I've never been in this arena. You summoned this pool, and it will have no effect on me." No wonder all my attacks have done nothing. Nyxila internally groaned. Even those I timed perfect. She teleported- no, her mirror image collapsed as another near the wall became visible.

"All I need to do is wait for your own ritual to end you." Nyxila clicked her tongue. She took in her surroundings, looking for an answer. While she was confident in her own resistance against corruption, that became moot if her opponent didn't have the decency to show up for her own final Trial. Deciding there was enough water to keep track of Lysyra, she jumped and tore through the ritual scroll. Well, the Trial wasn't done yet.

Nyxila might not be able to kill Lysyra — which would be a problem considering what she knew — but this battle wasn't ensured to reach an impasse. Nobody would deny Nxyila's victory if Lysyra disappeared entirely. She just needed to wipe out the remaining replicas. Wading through waves now lapping at her chest was surprisingly easy. The blood that surrounded her fought against the water, and gave her room to move. Nyxila reached Lysyra, and the girl welcomed her blade with an arrogant grin.

The rapier sliced her in half. The Bodytwister burst in countless white motes once again. When she reappeared, she did so across the amphitheatre. Nyxila got a glimpse before the turbulent waves grew too strong and obscured her vision. Instead of chasing her down, she went for the closer targets. Her feet bound along the shallow waters by the walls. She crashed through each of the invisible copies, barely needing to do more than throw her fist to disturb the space enough for their ripples to disappear.

It was no wonder she'd not been been able to see the replicas even with her third eye. They weren't just invisible. Each held an incorporeal quality to them. There was no way to tell if they were true, full fledged copies of Lysyra hidden almost entirely from the physical plane, or they were some sort of soul fragment that the girl could manifest. Either way, they were easy to disperse. Now that she knew where to direct her sense, she could read Lysyra's soul everywhere.

Whether her true body was here or not, part of herself existed in all of her replicas. A wave crashed into her side, throwing her into the wall despite her bloody shroud's indignation. The water had already become turbulent. Looking down, she could no longer see her feet. Even as the wave receded and the water only reached her shin, it was as if she were peering into an endless depth. The shifting shapes in the Darkness far below suddenly seemed larger.

Their shadows shifted through the water; nightmares swimming beneath the waves. Unfortunately, the wave hadn't destroyed her targets. The constant ripples that revealed their presence still pulsed along the surface. Nyxila dashed forward again. They tried to flee. Some tried to skirt around her advance, but the water slowed their movements. Whatever allowed her to stay so hidden was not completely separate from reality. She eliminated them all.

At about a third of the way through a circuit of the arena, she got a glimpse across the turbulent waves to where she'd started. The ripples were back. Not only that; she caught sight of the ripples as they multiplied. Lysyra's replicas could make more replicas. Frustration consumed her. Was there no way for this to evolve beyond a stalemate? Lysyra didn't have the skill to beat Nyxila, and Nyxila couldn't cut through the mirrors fast enough to empty the amphitheatre.

Would the adjudicator declare their battle a draw if enough time passed? Nyxila hated the idea. She had declared she would win the Trial, and she wouldn't accept sharing the title. Especially not with a girl who would reward the Bodytwisters.

"Those waves are starting to look dangerous." Lysyra appeared besides her.

"You've lost, so lets not drag out your death, yeah? Forfeit, N̪ỷx̱ila." She turned to face Lysyra slowly. The girl did not understand just how vital a secret her mutations were. Nyxila would not let the girl's soul survive the day. She couldn't. Allowing this girl to roam free was far too great a threat. Even should Lysyra surrender now, she would hunt her down until nothing remained for a soulsinger to dissect. This had always been more than a Trial for Nyxila.

But the moment this Bodytwister acolyte had announced knowledge that would repeat Nyxila's past, she had signed her death. The heavy thump of her boots on glass was absent below the growing roar of corrupt waves. Two opponents stood face to face. Neither attacked. A smirk twisted Lysyra's face. Arrogant. She knew she was safe from everything the other girl had shown. Nyxila glared through Lysyra, into her soul.

No matter how many times she tried to unleash the large curse that had yet to form from her role in the deaths of so many acolytes, the immature bundle of corruption slipped through her fingers.

"So cowardly," Nyxlia growled.

"To spout death, and not be here to face it yourself." Grasping at straws, Nyxila tried to replicate one of the most terrifying things she'd seen. She slipped corruption from her core, and tried to guide it to consume Lysyra's name. The Bodytwister laughed. A spiteful sound.

"If that is cowardly, then I'll be the most cowardly harbinger to grace Coral. I have long since learnt the best way to survive is to never be found." It failed. The corruption washed against Lysyra's soul to no effect. But it did prickle at something else in her mind. Nyxila, guided by instinct, inspiration, her sense of name, and the rivers of corruption, drove her rapier through Lysyra's soul. No name was damaged, but something surrounding the blade suddenly unravelled. It wrapped Lysyra's soul in its entirety…

as the same happened to Nxyila. Their souls were linked.

"What?" The word was choked, uncomprehending.

"How?" Lysyra's eyes dropped to her stomach, where blood now pooled around the blade piercing skin.

"This isn't possible." Suddenly Lysyra and all of her replicas disappeared. All but one.

"Why can't I leave?" The voice was frantic. Gone was the arrogance in her own ability. Her assurance of safety shattered. Lysyra was suddenly a child terrified for their life. Nyxila didn't know everything, but from the chains now connecting their souls, she'd garnered enough.

"Because of the Feat I gained when I killed S̥e͔kh̃h̃a̱ͬtͣh'Rͦ̏҉̵͕ả." The blood slipped free of Nyxila's blade as she readied it again.

"Neither of us can leave until the other is dead."