Chapter 6: Battle of oneself
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Dream trial, feathered fox sanctuary.
Woven sparks of ethereal light dance in the air; Astrada sat floating in the middle of a large circle made up of runes infused with raw hollow energy.
Not too close by, the guardian fox Silvia and her close companion & friend Shoki watched in silence as the trial began for the nomadic being.
Lost in varying thoughts, Shoki murmured.
'In this trial, one must fight against every piece of corruptive thought formed from one's self; I only hope that you will have the strength needed to see this ordeal through until the end of the trial.'
After a second of thinking to herself, Silvia spoke up and said in a calm, even tone:
"Worry not about any added distractions that will appear around you as the fight begins; they are only intrusive noises used to lose your focus when battling the nightmare version of yourself, who will try everything in their power to either weaken your body or destroy your spirit."
A moment later, the nightmare forms in front of Astrada's multicolored eyes. She sees long, cascading hair in a deep shade of black; pure black eyes with cracks around her face and fingernails; and a lightly colored veil covering her face while she holds a massive white bow in hand, coupled with an intricate, detailed black grimoire floating next to her.
Slowly, Astrada lowered herself in front of the nightmarish deity manifested in flesh and pulled back her arms, weaving sparks of hollow energy from her hands to form a bow of her own, a will formed of psychic essence & true hollow energy, spreading along the trial room around her.
From within the dream, Astrada and her nightmare counterpart each fired their bows; both arrows at immense speed. collided with each other, causing seismic waves, that even spread throughout the alternate space. of the dream trial and further out into the physical spirit world.
The home of everyone else, like the feathered foxes and their clan sanctuary. After all, it's due to the spirit world having no concept of time or distance. It is very easy to lose sight of the foxes' home. But due to the nightmare seals they cast to ward it off using their innate trigger abilities, it makes it near impossible to sense where they may lie, making possible threats to the home they live in harder for them to be harmed.
For a few seconds, the waves trembled across the endless spaces of both the dream trial and the spiritual realm outside, encompassing all of it. Both Astrada & her nightmare were knocked back, both flying to other ends of the dream.
Both almost immediately got up and assumed their fighting stances once more. She wove sparks of hollow energy through her hands and formed a four-leaf grimoire with stars wrapped around it's cover. This grimoire created a giant trumpet twice the size of Astrada's giant figure and released a powerful shockwave of light. The shockwave pinned the veil version of her to the ground, creating a massive crater that extended deeply into the ground beneath her.
The Black Veil Nightmare contorted her body to extreme lengths before a pure white moon emerged above the light of the Astrada attack. Simultaneously, a soft, ethereal voice whispered into the moon, causing the Astrada light to disintegrate and fall apart rapidly. Confused for a few seconds, Astrada swiftly floated backward away from the hanging moon's rays, allowing her to study the spell in great detail and depth.
This innate trait, as the first Sage, has been honed through extensive study and practice in various forms of hollow energy control and lambda mastery, alongside her profound exploration of telepathy, telekinesis, and soul research since her inception into physical reality.
Born during the post golden age era, Astrada has much to still learn and many things she wants to experience after her close call with the reaper through clashing & battling against the old but still powerful cosmic serpent white eye her most tuffest conflict and most harrowing experience.
The fear and doubt that gripped her during that fight instilled subconscious doubts within her. These thoughts gave rise to a nightmare: in the distant sky, the veiled one raised her hand gently, forming multiple rays of moonlight of varying sizes, all covered in starlight. On the other side, Astrada rose into the air and pointed her finger at the veiled one, causing the moonlight to instantly disappear for a second .
"Lambda type: flow."
From the finger burning off behind the nomadic deity Astrada, an onslaught of torrential hollow energy formed into the shape of a gargantuan cosmic serpent named white eye. It had pure pinkish white eyes and scarring all around its hulking old body due to previous battles. As it rushed past her, it dropped onto the veiled one, causing the nightmare to be pinned deeply into the ground. It split everything beneath it and left a net of large cracks, sending massive ripples through the dream trial from this devastating attack.
'Lambda… the universal equalizer', This was the thought that raced through Astrada's mind within the next moments. Even with that attack, she had focused entirely on healing her finger to regain her lost hollow energy output. The cost of using abilities like Lambda within those brief moments of intense combat was evident.
From the smoke of her finger, the nomadic deity subsided and turned to look at her nightmare. Its body was horrible, mangled, almost resembling a zombie. The side of the veiled one's face was split where the mouth should be, and large chunks of flesh were torn from its torso and right arm. The left arm was completely gone, and severe bruising covered her body from the physical weight it had been subjected to.
The nightmare appeared somber, as her soft eyes. turned to look at the deity in front of her. As Astrada, she had inflicted significant damage on the nightmare by leading it into a false sense of security, causing immense damage to its body. A hollow energy core, barely clinging on with only a few minutes of life remaining, burned within the creature's manifested soul sanctuary intensely.
Despite the intense amounts damage done to nightmare its presence still remains intact and with a will still holding steady; from her hands multicored blade forms as armor wraps around her figure removing her veil and giving her a pair of large burning wings with winged helmet akin to flying warriors of old fantasy tales.
Astrada, aware that despite the grandiose display of powers just now, veiled one was still gravely injured and could only sustain this for a few brief moments, using this knowledge to her advantage, she will lead this nightmare into another fatal mistake, employing a little lambda.
"May this trial conclude with respect and fairness." A warm smile graces the deity's face as a crystaline moonbeam bow materializes in her hands. She draws her arms back and takes aim.