CHAPTER 585: COPIED STRIKE

The wings on Sera’s back rapidly transformed. From pristine white, their color became silvery, while the feathers turned metallic. She held out her hands to each side, summoning a pair of long, curved swords made of Angelic Metal.

Afterward, her wings propelled her towards Castiel, just as an excited chuckled echoed from her lips.

Castiel summoned a special polearm made of a mirror-like crystal. It had a long axe blade at its end, a fitting weapon for an executioner.

His glowing wings broke the air to their will, pushing him towards Sera with unnatural speed. He also chuckled while flying towards the Angel, finding infinite amusement in the idea of death.

Sera raised her left hand and used her blade to intercept Castiel’s horizontal swipe by redirecting the blow above her head. With her other sword, she slashed towards the Executioner’s legs.

The slash’s momentum turned Sera’s body around as Castiel’s wings beat the air once again, pushing him away from her blade.

She didn’t let him catch his breath though, and after finishing her turn, she jumped after her prey.

Castiel raised his polearm, catching both vertical strikes at its handle. He then pushed the swords, stepped forward and kicked Sera’s stomach, sending her flying backward.

The Angel used his enemy’s attacks and stabilized herself midair using her wings. She flipped backward and landed atop a nearby branch, just in time to intercept another of Castiel’s attacks.

He tried sweeping her legs, but instead she stabbed down her sword, in the way of the axe blade. Somehow, the Angelic Metal went deeper inside the branch, as if she could hurt Bea’s creations.

In reality, Bea manipulated the branch to create a perfect hole for Sera’s blade. This way, the polearm got blocked and left Castiel open for Sera’s counterattack.

The blade in her left hand glinted as she cut the air between herself and Castiel. It only nicked his chest as his wings sent him flying onto the same branch Sera stood atop.

For a single moment, neither fighter moved. From their brief engagement, their heartbeats reached peak performance, while they took even breaths, filling their lungs with the stale air of their helmets.

They couldn’t see each other’s faces, yet they could easily guess what expressions appeared behind their masks.

Sera was a woman of peace. She would’ve preferred never to fight in her life, but... it would be a lie to say she didn’t enjoy the adrenaline coursing through her veins. It was an addiction and one of her greatest flaws.

When the Seed of Madness began growing inside her, making her bloodlusted, a part of Sera began enjoying the constant fighting and killing... That part hadn’t disappeared with the Seed. It simply hid itself, waiting to be unleashed...

The building stress wasn’t only because of this fight’s importance. It was also that corrupted part of her mind. For the past few weeks and months, she had sparred with friends every day, yet she never took anyone’s life... By now, her body hungered for a fresh kill!

A joyous chuckle echoed from the Angel’s lips as she spread her wings and jumped forward, beginning her assault once again.

Castiel did the same. He swept his polearm from the ground upward vertically, aiming to bisect Sera. However, her silvery wings pushed her further upward, and with a flip she landed behind the Executioner.

Both her swords aimed to cut off Castiel’s arms, but he simply moved his wings backward, blocking and parrying Sera’s blades.

A moment later he turned around while stepping closer to Sera’s reeling form. His axe blade split the air, and it nearly cut the Angel’s body in half. She managed to stop his blade though, by crossing her swords and pushing them away from her head.

The power within the blow pushed down her blocking blades until the axe began pressing down on Sera’s pauldron. Her armor dissipated the blow all over her body and didn’t let the polearm bite into her skin.

A slight ache spread all over Sera’s skin, which she barely noticed. Instead, a light giggle echoed from her lips as she pushed Castiel’s weapon to the side, while she fell on her back and kicked out the Executioner’s legs.

He fell backward, over the branch’s edge. However, he was an angel too, and so his wings quickly stabilized his fall and propelled himself upward towards Sera.

But before he made it onto the branch, his opponent jumped down to meet him midair. Her blades glowed with holy golden flames as she aimed to stab them through Castiel’s skull.

The Executioner chuckled in delight... Finally, the match was getting interesting!

Barely a quarter second passed from the moment they crossed blades. During this time, neither used any abilities, just their fighting prowess. However, since they couldn’t seem to overwhelm each other, it was time they began a more destructive fight!

Castiel’s crystal wings turned mirror-like, reflecting Sera’s falling form. Before she saw herself, Sera managed to close her eyes, which was exactly what the Executioner expected.

There was a single moment between Sera closing her eyes and switching to Faith’s own vision. It gave him more than enough time to intercept and counterattack simultaneously.

His axe blade slashed across the air, while his wings pushed him closer to Sera’s falling form. The blade’s mirror-like edge took a strange glint, and while arcing towards the Angel, it left behind hundreds of afterimages, or rather... copies...

The blade’s edge barely graced Sera’s stomach, yet the blow could instantly be felt all over her body.

As if hundreds of polearms punched her in the stomach at once, she flew backward with so much power, her back met the Aegis System above the arena.

Most of her bones broke into pieces, piercing her skin at strange angles, yet somehow neither her brain nor her heart received any damage. Her armor also held together, but now there was a deep gash on her stomach, which didn’t seem to recover.

Castiel quickly flew after his enemy, but by the time he reached Sera, her body had already healed itself... A World Tree’s regeneration was no joke...

She pushed herself off the shield, and this time she kept her eyes closed while attempting the same maneuver.

When Castiel’s crystal wings turned mirror-like again, she laughed to herself. There was one ability she never really used, yet in this fight, it was extremely powerful...

The Angel’s body, while rapidly falling towards Castiel, burst alight. Like a falling star, drowning out even the sun above.

Mirrors created images by reflecting light at the exact angle it arrived from. However, when nothing but light entered the mirror, it couldn’t reflect a proper image. This meant he couldn’t create a copy of Sera, since the blinding light hid her form.

Sadly, all angels had the same ability to be unaffected by brightness. They could see regardless of how bright or dark it was, which meant he barely noticed Sera activating her power.

He saw her blades moving towards his head, and using his polearm’s shaft, he blocked both blades. His weapon then turned mirror-like again as he tried pushing Sera, creating afterimages in the process.

The first time he used it, Sera got caught off guard, even though Purity had mentioned this as one of his special attacks.

It was supposedly called Copied Strike. While attacking, the weapon created hundreds of copies of itself, each carrying the exact same power as the original blow. It could create a deadly blow even from a tiny cut on someone’s finger.

However, he also told Sera the counter of this move... At least what he believed could counter it, since his idea never got tested...

Just before the Copied Strike could’ve connected with Sera’s she summoned a barrier made of Angelic Metal. It wasn’t just a simple floating wall, though. During physics class, she learned about shock absorption... Who knew she’ll use that knowledge against an Ethereal angel?

The Angelic Metal wall became thick with tiny holes running through its entire length. Each hole looked like a hexagon, creating an optimal structure for shock absorption.

Even better, she manipulated the material’s inner crystal structure to resemble a honeycomb. Finally, she filled the hexagon holes with viscous liquid Angelic Metal, which further increased its shock absorption.

In the limited time she had, she only managed to create a thirty centimeter thick wall, which connected to her hands.

Castiel’s Copied Strike punched into the wall with all its power, breaking the first few layers into tiny metal fragments. The next few layers also broke apart, albeit with a lot more reluctance, leaving behind larger pieces.

Finally, the layer before Sera cracked, but didn’t break. Some of the shock still passed into her hands, but her armor spread around the force... It broke a couple of bones and bruised about half her body...

Pain flared in her mind, but with it an excited giggle escaped her lips.

If the attack had caught her without raising that wall beforehand, she probably wouldn’t have survived for long afterward. Instead, she not only survived but created an opportunity to counterattack.

Her silvery wings beat the air as Sera brandished her blades. Behind her, dozens of Angelic Metal spears appeared out of nowhere—she recycled the broken metal fragments—and flew towards Castiel from every angle.

His polearm moved quickly, parrying most spears, while using his wings, he managed to dodge everything else. However, the spears were nothing but a distraction...

Sera closed in the distance and stabbed forward with her blades. Castiel’s axe parried one and pushed the other away from his heart, so it only stabbed through his right lung.

The golden flames cooked the Executioner from the inside as their rapid descent towards the ground began.

She could hear the groan from inside Castiel’s helmet, yet soon a new sound took its place... Maniacal laughter...

A few moments passed before they reached the forest’s darkness, when Sera realized her light went out... Just then, she was staring down at Castiel’s helmet, which turned mirror-like, reflecting none other than Sera herself...