Desperate Rush Against Time, Part 10?
664 10/11 3:16 (Autumn, Day, Midrar)
JouleMark was barely able to land before theyhe was forced to dash away, the location theyhe was just in having been completely destroyed.
And not only was the ground cratered by an invisible wave of force but transparents flames started to spread from there, eating into the ground.
Yet the Human-Spirit Hybrid was easily able to notice how the flames were not related to the Fire-Attribute, being neither a Composite or Altered Attribute.
As theyhe was able to notice, the flames were instead a physical rappresentation of the influence of a Skill, watching how the flames were condensing together, solidifying into droplets of a silvery liquid that theyhe was able to guess being diluted Orichalcum, an hyper-dense mass of highly concentrated Energy.
The tears further came together, rapidly increasing in mass before lowering their volume to the same as before, ever so slowly refining themselves into purer and denser version of themselves, small tears of what theyhe was certain being Orichalcum thanks to the research theyhe did in previous Timelines, not strickly a physical Material but Materialized Energy.
Yet JouleMark had little ability to observe it in detail, Luna having raised a clawed hand before swinging it down diagonally, theirhis eyes widening as theyhe was able to notice a faint distortion in the air, the only sign that led the blue-eyed one to retreat, just in time for five long fissures to open up in theirhis previous location, her transparent flames spreading upon the ruptured ground.
Theirhis eyes opened wide, trying to grasp as much of the current situation as possible, stretching theirhis Senses towards Luna and scowling hard upon being unable to Sense any Vital Mana or its component Materials. "I see. You no longer have either Black Blood or Vital Mana at all, don't you? Your body is now formed by Astral Ichor, the blood of the gods. How?! How were you able to reach this stage?! Last timeline's you was further in the timeline yet was still using them separatedly! How?!"
He could not stop himself from roaring, his hatred and fear briefly overwhelming Joule yet Luna's answer served only to further agitate him.
"You are quite naive, Regressor." Her calm, slightly amused voice sounded out not only from her mouth but also from the very air around her, shaking on its own to convey her words, and gaining a slight echo. "I am more advanced than last Times because you are. Do be reassured, I do not have knowledge or memories from them. I have no need of such. Upon seeing the way that you move and act, predicting and responding to the way I fight, I simply learn from it.
"In the previous Timeline, you were lucky enough that Rose -" And here she shared a name that she should have no knowledge of belonging to a Person she never met. "- could not affect me. In this Timeline, instead, she did and so I was able to predict and prepare for your ambush." Her calm voice filled the air, slight mocking impossible for him to miss. "Oh but do calm down. Your emotions are disrupting your fused state."
Silence stretched out between the two briefly before Mark started breathing in and out a couple of times with closed eyes, forcefully calming down and returning to harmonize with Joule. "Why did you spare me the previous Timelines and then told me this?"
"Oh, it's simple, really." Luna calmly affirmed, her eyes narrowing in satisfation. "I don't believe I willingly spared you in the first or second Timeline but from the third one to now, I simply planned on using you to sharpen my own abilities. And the reason I am telling you all this should be incredibly easy to understand. You are not going to survive this Timeline and so there is no more need to hide this fact from you." Her lips twisted in a sharp grin, air shaking around her because her tendrils shifted, aiming at the Human-Spirit Hybrid.
Blue eyes widened as their owner felt a wave of fire cross the distance to their back, the immense increase in heat the only signal behind the wave of flames launched right for them, aiming on charring them.
Fortunately a wall of solid water interposed in the way, shielding them as it boiled rapidly, writhing and then more humidity being pulled into place to assist the barrier, rapidly drying out the area around them in exchange for stopping them from being enveloped in flames, their eyes piercing through the mist that started rapidly filling the air, meeting the crimson lights functioning as their enemy's eyes.
They were barely able to dash left, despite the fact that in so doing they would ran through some of the fire as otherwise they would have been impaled by long tentacle-like sharp protrusion emanating from Luna's body, the flames functioning mostly as a smokescreen to force Flux to intervene.
Yet JouleMark had barely time to land before a foot crashed into their chest, sending them flying to the ground hard, bouncing once before Luna smashed her foot on their back, her tendrils sharpening once again into spikes that thrusted downwards, aiming on ending this battle here and now.
JouleMark's hand closed with force around the necklace, shattering its glass-like gem at once, emanating a bright flash.
Before the flash could ever even end, Luna's bladed tips had already thrusted downwards, intent on skewering her opponent at once yet impaling only the ground, JouleMark having vanished from under her only to reappear around five meters away in a process that Luna understood to be Space-based instead of Time-based, her Senses starting to grasp the formula behind this change in position while her tendrils shifted, increasing in number and trying to cut off their escape route, forcing their only way out to be through her.
JouleMark breathed once, having been forced to use their lifeline, before releasing a wave of Shining Bolts all around their body and activating their Time Walker the very next instant.
The world in its sight greyed out, panting lightly before their blue eyes met the still eyes belonging to their adversary, concentrating their will in the lightning bolts emanating from their body and carefully adjusting their trajectory to strike at each of the incoming tentacles.
Once done with their orders, JouleMark breathed out once more, their blue eyes unable to not go towards the orb floating above Luna's head, noting its slow yet inevitable spinning despite the stopped time, sign of enough Orichalcum's or Adamantium's presence in a single place.
After all either of the two Materials passively twist space and time around themselves, one of the reasons behind the innate Resistance of the two Energetic Alloys to being harmed at all.
JouleMark scowled briefly, launching themselves to a specific path that would soon be completely covered in Luna's tendrils, walking right around their Light-Lightning Composite Attribute.
They stopped their Unique Skill, the World returning to flow around them at the two second mark and in the same moment their lightning was twisted towards their new targets.
Some, those aiming directly towards Luna, were casually batted aside by an hand enveloped in black lightning while the bulk of their attack struck the Lunarian's tentacles, dealing little damage but forcing a minuscule path to safety for the Human-Spirit Hybrid, just large enough for them to escape before the black tendrils could fill the dome.
They breathed out once before dropping down just in time to dodge the punch that would have otherwise caved their skull in, a flurry of Shining Bolts erupting from their body and striking the white haired one in full, causing her to not even flinch thanks to her use of Everlasting Ascension directed to change her Resistances to both Light and Lightning into an Immunity.
And as per the other effect of this Skill, because no Damage was inflicted on her, Luna was able to absorb a very small amount of the Energy contained within the blow, increasing her Existence slightly, thing immediately followed by Luna launching JouleMark back with a knee-strike right to their chest.
As JouleMark righted themselves mid-air, Luna concentrated on her own body, feeling the lack of any trace belonging to her Vital Energy, Mana or even blood, all of it having been converted wholesale into just 376 Units of Astral Ichor forming her body.
She experimentally extracted twenty Motes of it, feeling her physical body weaken a corresponding amount, pooling them together in a single mass that she immediately shattered, causing a mist to start spreading, filling the area in her Astral Ichor.
Blue eyes widened in dismay once their owner felt the droplets the Lunarian previously released joined back together in a single whole all around them, glowing brightly and forming a Domain that enveloped only the two of them, the slighty silver filter evident trace of this phenomena.
The Lunarian analyzed the Domain, noting at once how it did not seem to do anything but also feeling that there seemed to be hole that she could fill, if she only wanted to.
Curious more than anything, she directed her Ability Skill ArcaneArmageddon to patch the hole and in response the feeling of the False Domain changed entirely, eagerly awaiting her next command.
JouleMark did not hesitate, launching a concentrated beam of Shining Bolts right at her chest, trying to stop her, only for their efforts to be completely ignored, Luna manifesting her Will into a physical Law and using it to destroy the Spell itself using just ten Moles of Astral Ichor.
"[Ragnarök]!" She commanded softly, Channeling her newly-created Spell into the Domain thanks to the Spell-absorbing ability it gained with her Magic-based Skill.
If she was to Cast the original Spell, it would not be in on itself an "attack" Spell, instead being an area-based Support Spell with multiple effects, the lowering of the heat, the weakening to both the Light- and Holy-Attributes, the strenghtening of the Earth-Attribute and the increased ferocity to both the Lightning- and Air-Attributes.
These effects were however quickly concentrated and amplified while being Channeled into the Domain itself, the temperature dropping rapidly as clouds started to accumulate overhead, fierce winds sharp enough to cut steel and strong enough to rip apart boulders, sky blue lightning bolts falling down to the earth and leaving behind large cold crystals, the light dimming.
JouleMark watched with wide eyes the air around them, watching carefully the snowflakes falling from the sky and starting to breath heavily because of the humidity that was instantly drained to the clouds.
Attention that was well deserved once the first one fell upon the ground as they watched cold blue flames erupted from the point of impact, flash freezing the dirt and the rocks under it in an instant.
All the while Luna floated in mid-air, left unscathed from her Spell.
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