The ground exploded as a black blur impacted the ground with tremendous force. Kaguya groaned in pain. Her ribs weren’t broken but she knew that her torso would bruise severely over the following weeks. Her eyes grew wide as a foot crashed into the ground. The force of the impact blew her away, sending her flying a ways away from where she crashed.

Kaguya stabbed her blade into the ground to prevent herself from going any further.

Yuki straightened herself and turned to face her opponent. This battle was one of attrition. The two were evenly matched. And Yuki knew that the determining factor of this battle would be their stamina. She flourished her blade and pointed it at Kaguya.

Kaguya said nothing as she pulled her sword out of the dirt and assumed a stance. With no warning, Kaguya appeared in front of her, slashing her sword furiously. The speed at which she attacked made it appear that she had multiple arms.

Yuki stayed calm, parrying the attacks as they came at her. The slashes came from all directions. It was only thanks to her Hyper Sensory that she was able to parry them all. She ducked underneath one of Kaguya’s hypersonic slashes and punched her in the torso with a prana-infused fist.

Kaguya let out a soundless gasp as she flew across the arena. Yuki appeared above her, swords ready to reduce Kaguya to a mess of cuts and flayed flesh. Before her swords made contact with her, Kaguya vanished instantly. She landed on the ground, eyes scanning and ears twitching for any sound of movement.

However, Kaguya’s speed was too fast for her to sense. As Kaguya’s enhanced time wore off, Yuki spat out a glob of blood. She looked down and saw Kaguya’s sword protruding from her torso. The wound was in a non-lethal area. She fought through the pain and walked off the blade. Using prana to enhance her speed, she spun around and kicked Kaguya in the arm, sending her former retainer sprawling on the ground.

“Shit…,” Yuki cursed. She placed a hand over her wound. “It went clean through…” She closed her eyes and her tail touched her back. A small flame appeared at the tip of her tail. Yuki bit down the urge to scream as she pressed the flame against her skin, searing the wound shut.

As she closed her wound, her eyes widened as she bent backward, narrowly dodging Kaguya’s sword.

“Divided Impact!” A clone of Yuki appeared above the two and kicked Kaguya back.

The girl slid backward. Several clones of Yuki rushed Kaguya and engaged her. Kaguya parried their blows before activating her Arts. Using her accelerated time, she instantly sliced apart all of Yuki’s clones. She dashed towards the slowed Yuki and raised her blade and brought it down.

As she did, the world exploded in a burst of bright blue light.

Kaguya flew across the arena with burns littered across her arms and clothing and crashed into the barrier. She slid down.

“Are you never going to stop falling for that?” Yuki said, grinning at her.

“A delayed Death Light. You weren’t referred to as a genius for nothing,” Kaguya said.

“Wait… you can delay Magic Skills?” Embla asked, looking to Pandora.

“Some spells can be delayed during formation and set as traps,” Pandora explained.

Yuki finished searing both ends of the wound shut and looked at her former retainer. If this keeps up any longer, I won’t be able to use the Burst. I need to amass a sheer amount of mana just to trigger it. If I could break past my barrier to Extinguishment that would be amazing, she thought.

She eyed Kaguya as the girl walked towards her. Her eyes widened as Kaguya gripped the hilt of her katana tightly and swung the blade. In an instant, Yuki slashed the air in front of her, splitting the compressed wave of wind in half.

“Sword Wave,” Kaguya muttered. A light aura of prana coated her blade as she rapidly slashed the air in front of her. A volley of compressed wind flew towards Yuki.

The princess went on the defensive, cutting the compressed waves of air before they sliced her into pieces. She gripped both her swords tightly and channeled prana through her body.

“Dazzling Strike.” In a burst of speed, she shot past Kaguya, inflicting numerous piercing thrusts.

She turned around and saw Kaguya had her blade raised defensively. However, trails of blood could be seen running down her left side and arm.

“You’re stalling,” Kaguya said.

“Huh?” Yuki turned to face her. A bead of sweat ran down her forehead.

“Your attacks don’t have a lot of power behind them which means that you’re stalling. You’re conserving your stamina for when you pour all your mana into your signature burst, aren’t you?” Kaguya asked.

Yuki bit her tongue. However, she knew her silence said it all.

“You don’t need to say anything. I know you just as well as Red. This was your grand strategy, wasn’t it? To trap me in that grand illusory world. I have to admit. You almost got me there,” Kaguya said. “But…”

10

“Today isn’t going to be your day, My Lady,” Kaguya finished.

5

Yuki readied herself for Kaguya’s next attack.

3

Kaguya widened her stance as she prepared to thrust her blade.

2

Yuki grit her teeth, recognizing the stance. It was the position her mother took whenever she performed that Burst.

1

“My version of the Transcendent Thrust isn’t as effective as Lady Mizore’s due to being unable to learn Zero Null but… I’m sure I can compensate for it in other ways,” Kaguya said. Her eyes glowed softly. “This is it, My Lady. With this, I shall thrust upon you all the faults and sins you have committed. Sins that you continue to ignore and run away from,” she said.

Yuki just stood there, clenching her jaw. Was this it for her? There was no way she could block the Transcendent Thrust. Even amongst the Twelve Sages, only three people could block the attack. Dodging it was out of the question. Kaguya’s Arts increased her speed to where she became instantaneous.

Yuki closed her eyes. She needed it. She needed a miracle. A miracle to win.

“Good game, My Lady. I hope that our trip back to Alfheim can finally make you see the light,” Kaguya said.

Alfheim… Yuki thought. The place where she committed her greatest mistake. A mistake that sparked a conflict between her parents and the Gentry. A mistake that endangered her precious younger brother. A mistake that got her banished from her country and forced the image that she had abandoned her people in their time of need.

Mistakes she should have owned up to. Instead, they became her greatest shame. They were a mere addition to how she could never measure up and forever be trapped in her parents’ shadow. She chuckled as she watched the prana surge forth from Kaguya.

“What a fool I’ve been… I’ve always been running from everything,” Yuki whispered. Prana trickled through the veins inside her body, slowly flowing faster. “Mom, Embla, Red, Cal, and Pandora… they all say it’s not my fault… but…” she closed her eyes.

It’s my mistake. My sin to face. Kaguya, you are the face of that sin. No amount of repentance will make up for the consequences that my action caused for my people… but, I will bear that sin from now on, Yuki said. “For the sake of my future and for my party, I won’t abandon them ever again! Not now! Not ever! I swear it on my name as the Princess of Alfheim!”

Kaguya narrowed her eyes. “Finally losing it after all these years? On the verge of loss and you decide to lose it?”

“I’ll bear the weight of it all! And I’ll never forget the pain I put you through. I’ll accept all of it! So come, Kaguya! If you can really perform the Transcendent Thrust, then I’ll gladly serve as target practice!” Yuki said, grinning.

In the VIP booth, Mizore narrowed her eyes. “That girl… has she…?” A small smile crept its way to her lips. “So the heat of combat does help see the things holding you back.”

“Target practice?” Kaguya raised an eyebrow. What is she planning? If this attack hits her, she’ll be defeated or at least too wounded to continue… “Fine then, if that’s what My Lady wishes. Then I shall gladly oblige as your Lady-in-Waiting.”

“What the hell is Yuki thinking!?” Embla gripped her sheets as she leaned forward to get a better view.

“I don’t know but she better do something about that or else she’ll get knocked out. The amount of prana Kaguya must have had to pull out of her body just to produce that strong aura,” Pandora said.

Cal remained silent and watched carefully.

The world around Kaguya turned blue as she moved faster than the flow of time. Kaguya thrust her katana forward, displacing the air and creating a highly pressurized vacuum blast that tore everything apart in its path. The microscopic needles of highly pressurized air pierced and sliced the floor of the arena as it shot towards Yuki.

Yuki stood in waiting with her eyes pointed forward. Her stance emitted an air of tenacity that no one had ever seen before. Even if Kaguya had accelerated her time to make it so that she can’t see the attack, she could feel the waves of pressure heading towards her with frightening speeds.

Kaguya. I thought that finally confronting Mother after all these years would help me get over it. I thought that it would get rid of the guilt and shame I’ve been feeling all these years. My need to prove myself to be just as equal to my parents has caused anguish to everyone near me.

This sin that held me down no matter how much I ran from it. My mother assured me that this was not on me. My friends told me that the fault lies not with me but with the Gentry. I might not have caused the problem but my selfish desire to prove myself exacerbated the situation. And now, my involuntary exile caused me to build a cage of shame around myself.

You’re the last obstacle. The last wall and the only one I didn’t build. Facing you and imminent defeat… my mind’s never been clearer. I’ll own up to my sin and confront you with a clear mind. And only then will we confront each other with our words and not our blades.

The prana within Yuki as she pushed past her block. Such a negative and superfluous thought had held her back. It was laughable to her. Kaguya being her final wall to her path to Extinguishment was almost poetic. The friend she had been forced to abandon.

Yuki stepped forward and held her hands out. A loud sound akin to a hammer hitting anvil echoed through the arena. In front of her, Yuki held back an immensely powerful blast of prana-enhanced air. She clenched her jaw as the pressure pushed her back, unyielding to her efforts to stop it. There was no possible way she could stop it. In mere seconds, her arms would be shredded after the Transcendent Thrust ripped apart the prana coating her hands.

However, her intention was not to block it. She intended to deflect it. She pushed back, altering the position of her footing slightly and turning her body to the left. An immensely powerful object going at high speeds like this. All it needed was a small application of force to drastically alter its trajectory.

The blast wave diverted from Yuki’s hand as she let go, jumping to the side. The sword wave slammed and ground against the barrier that protected the audience from the skills of the participants. The barrier lit up as it struggled to contain the force of this blast. A blast that could carve its way across the city for thousands of feet and cause untold damage.

Yuki raised her arms and created a shield of ice to protect her from the gale-force winds that ripped through the arena.

“I did it! I actually deflected it!” she cheered. Her eyes drifted down to the numerous lacerations on her hands and arms. She grimaced. “I won’t be able to fight much longer with these cuts.”

The blast subsided, leaving a massive crack against the barrier. The barrier appeared to look as if it would give way any moment.

Yuki turned her gaze towards Kaguya, who had a stupefied look on her face.

I only need a few more minutes. I’ve almost gathered the perfect amount of mana to use World of the Gleaming Moon, Yuki thought.

“You’ve reached Extinguishment,” Kaguya whispered.

Yuki’s hyper-enhanced senses picked up on her words. “Yeah and guess what, you were my last chain. Now…” A white aura surged from her body and created a small breeze that blew Kaguya’s hair back. “We can fight for real. Arts versus Burst. The Artless Princess versus the Genius Student of the Sage. What a tale it will create.”

Kaguya glared at Yuki. “Your last chain? Do you think I’ll be able to accept your change? You who ran away?”

Yuki remained silent. “After this, maybe we can talk about what happened that night?”

Kaguya said nothing. Instead, she sheathed her blade and stared at Yuki, dropping into a stance.

Yuki nodded. She held her blades, ignoring the sting as her cuts made contact with the hilt of her swords.

“Flickering Strike!”

“Ephemeral Blossom Dance!”