CHAPTER 434: ARC 6, CHAPTER 50: THE UNKNOWING HEIGHTS OF MAGIC

"CRASH! BUFF!" Two thundering swords slashes broke incoming waves of rock that broke apart like sea waves.

Dust powdered through the surrounding area, only allowing rays of white light to pierce through from the pillar beside her. The juggernaut form of Forallei clanged forward like a rushing golem and bashed against the bar.

Jotou had her around the bend of a walkway, making Forallei’s momentum her weakness. The blonde’s thundering strikes were subtle—less loud and more focused.

Lightning barely fizzled out and when it did, Jotou dispelled the magic, wrapping the arcs of electricity back onto her arm like a cord of rope which she then used to strike forth at the stone figure.

"BASH!" To no surprise, it had no effect as Forallei slammed down on the walkway making it wobble up and down, before a torrent of rocks spawned around the metal akin to twisting vines and ejected up in an instant into large jagged spikes.

Cornered around, Jotou instead of stabilizing herself threw herself against the railing and toppled over the side, avoiding the jetted up stone that dissipated into gravel.

’Land, land, land!’ Her foot arced with lightning and she launched herself with a bolt of a kick, halting her fall for a moment to allow her to land on the walkway below. She peered up in an instant, but a stone figure was quicker.

"Shoulder-Charge!" she yelled and like lightning, charged into the railing to one side and caught herself with her free hand upon it.

"DUFF! Dfff!" Stone saved Forallei and she steadied herself from falling through the metal, and launched two battering ram-like fists forward.

Jotou took a backstep, and another as two more of the same came at her head. The blonde’s eyes widened, watching the stone slightly scrape against the tip of her nose, shaving off skin that then began to redden.

In the same instance, a spike jetted up diagonally from Forallei’s form pierce into the blonde’s enchanted white dress hem. "Snap!"

It barely gave any protection as it poked a hole and Jotou had to back away, tearing the enchanted fabric in a split downwards. What enchantment it had blunted the spike from continuing further, but that is all that it provided.

The slight panic was shrugged off her shoulders as Jotou bounced from side-to-side in a shuffle, spinning her blade in between her fingers. ’There’s no hope of damaging her. I need to keep some serious distance.’ "What’s the matter, am I too much of a struggle for a God~?" she smirked.

Without even a word, stones slid Forallei forward like a charging train and her four arms thrusted forth. Jotou dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding two arms, one for her head and the other for her waist.

The rocks came to a rumbling halt, stunning Forallei for but a moment. Jotou watched Forallei turn, having almost crashed into the wailing pillar.

The blonde’s eyes wandered up, finding any bends or turns in the above walkways. "Last I remember, it took sooo many of you to take me down and even then I got away~ Hmhm~"

Jotou’s eyes widened and she leaned down with a grin, "And that was after I was worn down," she whispered audibly.

The stone armour faltered like roof shingles off of Forallei’s form and she turned, not like a raging bull, but poised and with her scarlet eyes calmly half-lidded.

"DFFFCRASHBASHFSH!" Massive curling and curving pillars of stone ejected towards the blonde with such a speed and all around her, that, this was it...

About a dozen or so of them, about to squeeze and crush her into pulp. Her breath hitched, desperately searching for a gap or a way to break them with thunder.

It felt, peaceful... Part of her was so ready to simple accept her demise. ’I won’t allow it.’ Clarity hit her mind and she need not find a gap, just wait for the right moment for the right spell. She watched above her head.

...

"Kickbolt!" she huffed and launched herself upwards right when the pillars were an arm’s length away from caving in on her. It was clear, the pillars would curl towards her, but it could not twist so suddenly.

Would it get her high enough? Should she have broken it? Whatever the outcome, she held her breath and braced herself.

"BAHSHCRASH!" All the pillars crashed into each other.

"NGF!" Jotou winced and silenced herself in an instant and landed atop all the crashed stone. However, one leg was hit from the back and front of the kneecaps, making her land with a slight limp.

She hid her panic and kicked her leg out, knowing it was going to bruise badly. For now, she forced herself not to limp as she looked down at Forallei. Forallei stared right back, unfazed and unmoved from her position.

’Well, there goes using her momentum against her.’ "What’re you staring at? Pervert," Jotou stuck her tongue out and crossed her sword over her front side as the split fabric of her dress swayed.

To the blonde’s side, she noticed the columns of rock stretched from walkway to walkway—above and below. Yet stone and rock were present beneath Forallei’s feet, and it connected like wires to the much larger pillars.

"Perhaps Ceridwen was correct," Forallei calmly responded.

"That being?" Jotou was glad to have a moment to catch her breath.

"You would be more useful as a thrall than a nuisance."

"Aww, thanks for the offer Foray-ray," she smiled and titled her head, only to put a finger on her chin. "But considering that you still can’t beat me, why would I join someone weaker than me in their conquest?

You can’t even face me without covering your entire elegant form all in stone~ I can’t even look you in the eyes while we dance, hm?" the blonde pouted mockingly.

"And even still you fail to shatter. Your ploys and deceptions will not work as you hope-"

Before Forallei even finished her sentence, Jotou made a dash on the stone columns towards a catwalk closer to the glowing and wailing pillar.

The stone beneath her feet crumbled into gravel, but with a huff she landed onto the mesh and spun around to swing her blade towards the-

"BASH!"

Her sword was blocked by emerging rock and Jotou hopped back.

Forallei arrived encased within said rock and stepped out towards her. Parts of her form began to be encased in greyish-silver stone, her hands up to the wrists, a warrior’s helmet over her head, her legs up to the knee and so on.

She readied her four arms and rushed forward assisted by rocks under her feet, causing her to charge much quicker.

Jotou coated her shoulder in electricity and charged to one side and did not give a second glance to Forallei. She aimed her blade for the glowing pillar- "CRK!" It was blocked by a wave of rock.

From below, noises and flashes of gunfire blared. Jotou glanced down, but once again aimed for the wailing pillar. Twisting streams of stone sprouted from below, grabbing her ankles and her waist.

Jotou in an instant charged her foot up with lightning. The stone did not pierce her or encase her in full, but instead launched her up into the air away from her target.

Before the stone slammed her against a catwalk or into Forallei, Jotou kicked herself out of the rock with enough of a charge and landed far behind Forallei on the same mesh walkway.

Jotou stifled a grunt. ’Right on the bad leg, ow.’ She then giggled, "Am I not giving you enough attention~?"

Gunfire and various scream were heard from below, all the way down at the cave floor it seemed. Forallei’s composure began to tick away into slight madness; her eye twitched and stone fists clenched tightly.

Her scarlet eyes searched up the cave ceiling as she yelled out, "Ceridwen, come claim your prize!" Forallei promptly jumped off the catwalk and descended below.

’Uhm...’ Jotou peered down and knitted her brows. Giving up the hesitation, she made a dash towards the pillar.

"SHREECH! WHAIL... HAH..." Haunted and demented sounds were followed by hundreds of ghosts that walled the blonde from advancing.

Rising up on her ghostly throne, Ceridwen was deposited onto the catwalk right in front of the pillar. Her delicate fingers lazily caressed the side of the glowing pillar.

She let her head fall to one side to look at Jotou from under her hat, "My preference of presents lie wrapped up in a box," she sighed. Ceridwen sauntered towards the blonde—her thick lashes halfway down, her dress drifting along the mesh.

Jotou raised one of her knitted brows, "Your ghouls are nothing Ceridwen," she rolled her sword hilt in between her fingers and held it taut. "You won’t stop me, not even Forallei could."

"A matter of perspective and circumstance I suppose," the rivers of runes that were visible down her skin glowed gold, then deep blue, repeating with each step she took.

An incorporeal ghost zoomed from below the blonde’s feet and rammed itself into her form. Jotou felt a familiar chill and her breath got cold.

The sound all around her muffled and it felt like snowflakes began to web and invade her eyesight. ’The mistress demands your-’

’Weak.’ Jotou’s inner voice sneered and a burst of lightning surrounded the blonde’s form. ’Tell your mistress that she will fall to my blade.’

The ghost was shunted out of Jotou’s body and she hopped on the walkway, composing herself instantly. ’I just have to get to that pillar and watch out for ghosts.’ She readied her blade in an arc of sparks. "Parlor tricks for the Thundering Blade?"

The footsteps halted, much too far from the blonde. Gunfire and rubble quaked from below while Ceridwen dragged her arm up in the air, offering it to Jotou, "I am Ceridwen of the Deuctus ’Cult’, a New God upon this plane.

Your perishment be nigh Thundering Blade," silence followed. The ghosts wailed quieter. "May your memory be mine epithet, for I may cherish thy soul after all."

A ghost rocketed into Ceridwen’s form from behind and her eyes shot wide open. All the visible runes on her skin glowed a smoky dark blue and her eyes glimmered with dark blue shadow- "Woosh!"

Dark blue shadows took Ceridwen’s steps and blinked herself right in front of Jotou in an instant and long barbed claws swiped for the blonde.

"FZNK!" Jotou’s eyes waxed open and she deflected both strikes with her sword and jumped back.

Ceridwen raised her clawed fingers and each sharp tip extended like string into the air. She whipped them downwards, from which Jotou had to take a sprint backwards.

"SHING!" All ten slashes shred through the mesh walkway, cutting it into chunks and pieces that fell down, leaving a gap.

Another ghost rocketed into Ceridwen, shunting the previous one out and her runes took on a silvery metallic hue. Her eyes rippled with three silver waves.

All the metal that were amidst falling rose to her command and twisted like molten metal into spikes that she shot at the blonde.

Jotou raised her sword to her head and held the hem of her coat up. "ShIng! Ting, ping, pang!" Like bullets they rained, but Jotou ran forwards while blocking, making those that did hit her feel like bruises that did not quite pierce her coat.

The mesh beneath her began to shift and spike up into her boots. Jotou dropped the coat and eyed the figure of Ceridwen ahead of her and leapt!

Behind her the walkway came apart strip by strip and like ribbons in the air, pierced into one another while attempting to stab Jotou. "Kickbolt!" Jotou thudded onto the other side of the gap.

Ghosts spectated all around the two, as another from the audience zoomed into Ceridwen, pushing the other one out. Her eyes swirled with greenish-grey winds and the same hued winds encased her form, moving her up into the air and away from Jotou.

Jotou peered up to see Ceridwen fly around with ease as another ghost shunted itself into her form, turning her runes into a stark white and her eyes radiated with white pulses.

Levitating in place she fired off a concentrated solar beam that whirred like a million storms. "BRRRRR!!!!!" Jotou made a dash for the pillar while the beam incinerated the walkway behind her, leaving red hot metal to drip below.

Ceridwen’s stepped on the spectating spectres to carry herself while her runes turned a blackish-red. Her pupils disappeared and her irises clouded over with blackish-red clouds.

Jotou suddenly felt the space around her shift. What she saw ahead began rotating around her, the mesh walkway was moved to the left and the pillar was cut in two?

Wait no, she was upside down, on the roof of the cave and the pillar was somehow further now. Borders of blackish-red energy put her in a transparent box, moving her from space to space, disorienting her perspective entirely.

Jotou grunted and raised her sword high, "Thundering Strike!" she slammed towards the floor and swiped the thunder to the side of her. "BLASTTTT!!!"

The entire cave rumbled and like puzzle pieces, the cubes of space Ceridwen split apart reassembled themselves and Jotou was back where she stood.

Ceridwen’s shot open eyes blinked a few times as they returned back to their usual silvery-gold hue. The ghost left her form, much smaller than when it entered, but another quickly took its place. Her eyes roiled with light blue flame—her runes the same complexion.

Light blue flame took her form and she appeared blinking right in front of the blonde who was rushing towards the pillar. Jotou came to a halt.

Ceridwen raised her arms from below and a wall of fire emerged, surrounding the entire pillar and lit up the cave in hues of blue.

"Shoulder-Charge!" Jotou bashed into the spirit-mage and pushed through the fire. The flames crackled and burst, licking up the sides of the cave and walkways. "BLASH! FZLH!"

Explosions bombarded around Jotou and Ceridwen, causing the wall of fire to burst in on itself due to the blonde’s lightning. The charge threw Jotou to one side and knocked Ceridwen’s back into the pillar with a loud thud.

While Jotou rolled back up onto her feet, Ceridwen barely flinched. Another ghost took her form and her eyes fizzled with reddish-copper electricity.

Still, it was enough time for Jotou to strike at the pillar with a strong swing and a zap. "Crack...!" A fracture formed against the barrier and the spot began to darken greatly, no longer glowing and the wail shrieked away from it.

"Thundering-!" Jotou spun around and struck! Not at the pillar, but an incoming form.

"BLASSTT! FZZLE BOOM!!!!" Waves of lightning shot up around them as Ceridwen charged into the blonde, but both their lightning repulsed each other’s and the thunder that followed knocked Ceridwen back and off the railing.

Jotou was thrown backwards around the pillar, right onto her back and slid forward, some of her hair pulled out by the mesh. She panted a little, feeling her mana beginning to dwindle, but got back up onto her feet quickly.

From the side, Ceridwen arose slowly in the air. She floated above the blonde and eyed her down. Ceridwen’s eyes sparked with a silvery-purple hue as a halo of the same colour emanated behind her, "All that for a crack."

Jotou wiped her lips with her sleeve, "Still haven’t stopped me with all your fancy new spells."

Dozens upon dozens of swords began emerging from behind Ceridwen, creating a halo, and then another around the first and then another till a hundred over swords circled behind her, taking up all the space present.

All the swords were made of crackling silvery-purple lightning, "You know not the true heights of magic Jotou Howllett; and never you will."

"SHING-FLING-PING-TING!!! FWING-TWING! CRING-DING!!!"