Maruti had enough strength to break Yggdrasil metal, but to do that, she needed a few minutes, especially for something so small where she had way less grip to use her full strength.
"I don't think it's just as simple as using strength to break it," she thought to herself, her mind racing for another solution.
Instead of panicking, she calmly took the golden ring in her palm and closed her hand around it, then closed her eyes. She focused her mind, trying to overfill the golden ring with a huge amount of mana to blast it apart. Not only that, she used her Essence Stone, Fire Body QI, in a condensed way to overheat the ring inside her palm.
The ring overheated too much, like it was inside boiling lava, yet despite it, it just refused to break. It glowed a angry red color, but it held its shape.
"Yep, it's a much better way," she smiled, a small, triumphant smile on her face, knowing it was working.
But then, all of a sudden, her essence stone stopped working, and the flow of mana got blocked immediately. The connection was severed, leaving her feeling empty and powerless.
"Defeat me first... defeat me first..." a mocking voice of Xing Liang came inside her mind repeatedly, echoing in the emptiness.
Maruti immediately understood the full situation. The ring had a huge portion of Xing Liang's will inside it, and it blocked off Maruti's flow of mana and restricted her from using essence stones.
So, if she needed to get out of here, she must defeat Xing Liang's will with her own.
"You definitely need some beatings," Maruti chuckled to herself, a dark, determined look on her face as she concentrated her mind.
And then she slowly opened her eyes. The surroundings had turned dark, with nothing in the background. In front of her, Xing Liang was standing with a faint, teasing smile on his face, just like she remembered him.
Maruti looked at her own body. It looked hollow, like she was made of glowing dust particles.
Actually, Maruti's real body was still there, its eyes closed and motionless, while the current black void space was inside her mind. Xing Liang's will, which was inside the ring, was invading Maruti's mind and blocking her from using essence stones, and she needed to defend herself and defeat Xing Liang's will.
Xing Liang had taught Maruti about several recipes of essence stones that enhanced one's will and provided extra powers that ordinary wills don't have.
Such as, Maruti could make an army of herself, having thousands of wills to invade someone's mind and fill it with knowledge and thoughts and mess someone's mind up.
Or her will could transform into a snake, causing a mind paralyze if the opponent couldn't defend it.
Becoming a lump of will to manipulate someone's action slowly throughout the fight. A dying will, which could protect her mind in case her opponent also had a quite great killer move aimed at the mind and protect her mind from going insane. And many other moves.
Xing Liang had taught her just so many things. The only reason she didn't use them was because it felt way uncool and cowardly to her.
But right now, the situation was different. She actually wanted to use them, but she couldn't.
Because Xing Liang's will had already restricted her from using essence stones.
It would've been a lot easier for Maruti to win against Xing Liang's last remaining will if she had been more careful in advance.
But there was no point in regretting it now. Xing Liang's last remaining will was at a disadvantage as well. Having no real body, he couldn't use any essence stones, nor did he have enough amount of will as Maruti.
But what he had was years of experience, while Maruti is still an amateur in the 'Game of Wills'.
So it was a fair and equal fight.
Standing in front of her, Xing Liang raised his palm towards her.
"Come."
Maruti grinned, being a fight lover, this was something that truly thrilled her.
"As you wish!" she shouted, bolting towards him.
The distance vanished in an instant. Maruti didn't hold back, launching herself forward with a powerful lunge, her fist leading the way, aimed squarely at Xing Liang's chest. It was a straightforward, aggressive opening, a move rooted in pure, raw power.
Xing Liang's smile didn't falter. He sidestepped with an almost lazy grace, his body moving like water around a stone.
Dodging each strike. But in return He didn't charge; he flowed, his form blurring as he closed the distance.
His leg snapped out in a perfect, high-speed roundhouse kick, the move a staple of Taekwondo, aimed at Maruti's head. Maruti ducked, the air whistling past her ear, and countered with a swift jab towards his solar plexus.
Her fist, channeling the direct, linear power of Karate, met nothing but air as Xing Liang twisted his torso, her punch slicing through his afterimage.
He retaliated with a lightning-fast combination, a flurry of strikes from his hands and elbows, each move precise and economical, a deadly dance honed from years of Wing Chun.
It was quite unbelievable to see that how fast they were moving and changing their styles at the same time, Even that without any use of essence stones, It was just pure muscle memory.
Maruti was forced back, her arms a blur as she blocked and parried. The first solid hit came when Xing Liang feinted a low kick, then drove his palm upward into her guard.
The impact wasn't physical; it was a mental shock. A chunk of glowing dust from her shoulder flaked away and dissolved into the darkness. Her form flickered, becoming slightly more transparent at the spot. A jolt, a brief sensation of emptiness, shot through her. She gritted her non-existent teeth.
She changed her style. Adopting a wider, lower stance, she began to circle, her movements becoming more fluid and deceptive, drawing from the principles of Capoeira. She used cartwheels and acrobatic evasions, her legs swinging in powerful, unexpected arcs.
Xing Liang, rooted in more traditional stances, found his rhythm broken. Maruti saw an opening and spun, her heel connecting squarely with his side.
A spray of golden dust erupted from Xing Liang's ribs, his form wavering for a moment before stabilizing.
Despite such intense fight going on, None of them said any more words because of them knew the weakness of wills, It was that the more they'll think and say will consume a huge portion of their power, Causing their will to deplet more quickly, Wills are a bit like battery, More complex thing will result in more consumption.
Thus they were focusing on fighting instead of doing bullshit or trash talk.
The fight escalated. Xing Liang abandoned his refined forms, his body coiling and unleashing the explosive, close-range power of Muay Thai. His knees and elbows became weapons, hammering against Maruti's defenses.
Each blocked attack still chipped away at her, small motes of dust puffing out from her arms and legs with every parry.
She felt herself growing lighter, more insubstantial.
In a desperate move, she lunged inside his guard, ignoring a sharp blow to her side that made her entire left leg shimmer and fade.
She drove her forehead into his chin in a brutal headbutt. Xing Liang's head snapped back, and a large, shimmering cloud of dust poured from his neck and chest. His form wavered violently, becoming almost ghost-like.
They were both fading, their bodies now translucent and barely holding shape. The direct combat was no longer sustainable. With a shared, unspoken understanding, they both let go of their humanoid forms. Their wills exploded outwards, no longer contained by the illusion of a body.
Maruti's will coalesced into a raging, crimson inferno, a roaring sea of fire that twisted and churned with destructive intent.
Xing Liang's will became a deep, azure ocean, calm on the surface but with immense pressure building beneath. The two forces collided in the void.
The fire crashed against the water, sending up plumes of steam that were neither one nor the other. The ocean pushed back, massive waves of will trying to smother the inferno, to extinguish it with sheer, overwhelming presence. The fire fought back, lashing out with tendrils of pure heat, trying to evaporate the ocean drop by drop.
It was a battle of attrition, a deadly struggle of consumption. Maruti's fire was fierce but wild, burning through its own energy quickly.
Xing Liang's ocean was vast and deep, ancient and patient, but it was also a remnant, a finite reserve. The crimson sea began to shrink, its light dimming as the azure waves slowly, relentlessly, pushed it back.
Maruti could feel her consciousness fraying, her sense of self dissolving with every inch of ground she lost. She was a single candle flame against an endless tide.
Desperation gave birth to a final, desperate idea. She couldn't beat his ocean with her fire. So she stopped being fire. With the last of her strength, she pulled her raging inferno inward, compressing it into a single, incandescent point of light, a tiny, dense star of pure will. The azure waves crashed over the spot where the fire had been, finding nothing. For a moment, Xing Liang's will dominated the void.
Then, the star exploded. Not outwards in a fiery blast, but inwards. It collapsed into a singularity, a tiny point of absolute nothingness that began to pull, to consume. The azure ocean, vast and powerful, had no defense against this. It was drawn towards the void, its will stretched thin, then shredded apart as it was sucked into the collapsing point of Maruti's will.
The implosion was silent and absolute. When it was over, the void was empty save for a single, faint, flickering spark of crimson light. Maruti's will. It was barely a speck, a tiny, fragile thing, but it was hers. She had won.
Meanwhile outside, multiple cracks appeared on the ring, spiderwebbing across its golden surface. With a final, sharp 'tink', it broke in the next moment, shattering into a dozen tiny pieces in her palm.
ZOOP!...
Before she knew it, she was standing in the real world, her back facing the same cold, damp wall of that quiet alley. The sudden return was jarring, like being pulled from deep water to the surface in a single breath.
"Urghhh..." Maruti felt her stomach twist violently. The mental exhaustion from the battle of wills crashed down on her physical body all at once.
She immediately fell to her knees and vomited on the spot, the bitter taste filling her mouth. Her head throbbed, and her thoughts felt like they were swimming in thick mud.
After puking, she shakily stood up and shook her head lightly, trying to clear the fog. "I need to sleep," she sighs to herself, her voice hoarse. She knew sleep was the best way to recover one's will, to mend the fractures in her mind.
But of course, she couldn't do it right now. The sky was already turning shades of orange and purple; it was close to evening. She needed to go back and be ready to depart. Knowing Esdeath's nature, she wouldn't be late even a minute, and she expected the same from others.
She sighs once again, this time deeper, filled with exhaustion. She looked at the broken ring in her palm. It had literally broken into so many small, glittering pieces that it was hard to count. It looked like worthless golden sand.
Not like it had any use now. It was nothing more than trash. She threw it away without a second thought, the pieces scattering on the dirty alley ground.
"Where is the part of Fate?" she said to herself, her brow furrowed in concentration. She twirled around, her eyes scanning the ground, and then checked her pockets, her hands patting down her clothes.
Thankfully, there was a small, red-colored box inside her pocket. It felt smooth and cool, with quite detailed patterns carved into its surface. It was definitely a luxury box, the kind you'd get from a high-end jewelry store.
"It is inside it?" she says to herself, her fingers tracing the intricate designs. Slowly, carefully, she began to open the lid, a small click echoing in the quiet alley.
But the moment she did.
WOOOOSHHH.....
A huge, powerful wave of mana burst forth from the box, so strong it felt like a physical blow. It flew her short hair backward, whipping it around her face. The sheer force of it was immense, causing even the solid brick walls behind her to tremble and crumble, dust and small pebbles falling to the ground.
She had completely forgotten. Even though it was just a broken part, it was still a divine rank essence stone. Its raw, untamed aura could spread throughout half of the Anastasia kingdom, a beacon to any powerful being within miles.
The box wasn't just for show; it was a seal, designed to hold it's aura.
"Ohh fuck! I forgot it's a divine rank!" she immediately slammed the box shut. The flow of aura was cut off instantly, and the oppressive pressure vanished, leaving a heavy silence in its wake.
Panic seized her. She immediately turned around and ran towards her home, her feet pounding on the cobblestones. She didn't look back, just hoping that she hadn't attracted any unwanted attention.