8. Piercing Void, Eye of Azan

"Achievements are only won through sacrifice."

- Anu, The Immortal Sovereign, scattering his brother's ashes in the Valley of Emperors.

I guess easy was never in the cards, huh, Riu?

But Niva already knew that. Had known it since before she stepped foot in this cavern hand-touched by the Heavens. Her resolve compressed under the pressure, hardening, emboldened by the searing flame of sin.

The gi — no, Knight — roared, heaving his greatsword in an upward swing. There was no possible way for it to hit her at this distance, but her mind told her to dodge, so her body followed. Swordlight shining a bright red brushed past her hair like the whisper of a mother putting her child to sleep, bisecting everything from rock formations to multiple columns.

Wow. How the heck—

Her armour rankled as she rolled into an upright position over a bunch of cobblestones, and she saw a faint golden hue passing over his body. Tsk. Whatever it was, it was really growing on her nerves. She refused to believe spending power like that didn't carry any side effects. Else what was the point of training?

Analyse, she heard Milia say again.

Niva shifted in place, holding her weapon overhead. That's right. Keep calm. What did she know? The priestess had been able to use the strange ability from the start, while the Knight only tapped into it after he transformed. Was the requirement different? Perhaps defensive attacks cost more qi than offensive techniques. It wasn't much, but it beat nothing.

After the priestess' pressed her palms together, two swirling disks opened above her, and sharpened pellets whistled through the air like arrows. Niva bobbed and weaved through the storm, but it wasn't enough. There were too many. Making the tough choice, she shattered the shots at her vital areas on her spear and swallowed a scream when three pellets punched through her thigh. The saving grace was that the priestess' breathing came harder now. Good. If the creature had been capable of summoning a hail like that without trouble, Niva would've run. She was avaricious and vengeful. Not cognitively disabled.

Niva closed the wounds with a quick mental command. The Knight waltzed through obstacles unimpeded, reaching her position in no time at all, unleashing a furry of slashes. He had gotten faster. Blood Fiend Eruption erupted. Niva had to pull hard on her middle stage art to keep up, all but pulling it by the ankles to the bottom of the sea and sliding in counters where feasible. Her spear left a gaping hole in his belly as she danced backwards. Not so much as even a hint of pain showed on the creature's face, but Niva spotted how he leaned on his backfoot more heavily now. He couldn't uphold this enraged state for long and she blew on a strand of hair in relief. However, although the priestess could no longer use the hail without damaging the Knight, she had more tricks up her sleeve. The clean dodge that should've put Niva in place for escaping from the Knight's retort stopped mid-way when the priestess' third eye blazed.

Niva couldn't move. Couldn't lift as much as a finger. She panicked. What was this? In what world does a lowly second realm possess enough strength to control someone's movement?

Relying on any single ability is a mistake, Milia repeated in her mind, answering with disappointment. You will face many enemies, all with their own heritage. Need I say more?

And she remembered her response. Reckless confidence exposed for what it was: foolishness. Her army years were the cause of many close shaves with death, but during all of them, she had been fighting with other people that could make up for her flaws. Here she was, alone and outnumbered. A fox stuck in a trap would chew through its own leg. A cornered rabbit wouldn't hesitate to throw away its herbivorous nature. Life and death were no pithy thing, and even bloodsuckers would struggle against their destiny. She was here to murder them in cold blood. To rip out the boons granted to them from their decaying corpses. Who would accept that lying down?

She'd thought herself invincible because she was a step higher in the cultivation scale. Because she had more qi at her disposal than usual. Because she'd seen a few battles. "I'll carry the sin for us both," she'd said. How vain. As if their demise was written in the stars. A chuckle that sounded more like a sob escaped her lips. But as it did, her gaze darted to the priestess. The eye was utterly bloodshot, the beast herself quivering like dishes on a countertop during an earthquake.

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Overloading all her cells, Niva's heart thumped in her chest as she fought back. She wouldn't be fast enough, however. The warrior's diagonal stroke was a Dwarf Chestnuts' branch away from her arm. It would cut through all the way to her throat. By luck or providence, the priestess' spell faltered. Niva screamed. Speeding toward the floor, the motion returning to her body was the cracking of a dam, and the Knight's weapon was a scissor sliding through the paper that was her armour. He carved off a slab of her upper arm and shoulder. But notably: not her throat. Even gritting her teeth through the pain, Niva absent-mindedly admired the slash. Clean and precise. Like a butcher in the early morning, entirely in his element. The air parting for it was a gentleman opening the door for a Lady, the golden sheen around his blade lending the weapon the credence worthy of that behaviour.

Time to end this.

The giant swivelled, looping around his greatsword to finish the job properly. Niva jumped. She nearly cracked the column she landed on and hung suspended in a display of feline grace. Clenching her teeth, all of her leftover qi slid down the scarlet barbs of her spear towards the tip. It hissed a dark red as her spirit surged, calling on the full extent of her might. Unreleased potency begged for release, the blade keening and quivering in place as it twisted the very space in front of it, and the beak of a bird appeared around her weapon.

She met the eyes of the priestess. Resignation pooled in those too-wide orbs.

"Scarlet Dove Descends."

The soundwave of a volcano erupting exploded outward as the pillar beneath her feet imploded. She penetrated into the distance between her and her target. Her spear bore into the priestess, devouring the entire right side of her chest on impact, and sundering her in two pieces repelling from each other due to the force of the slash. A high-toned wail sounded behind her, and she didn't need to turn to see the giant retaliating. His sword stuck in the ground, raging waves of blood emanated from his position, rising in height and swallowing all in sight.

Niva wasn't done, however.

The bird reversed and billowed in on itself, the beak becoming the tail, the tail becoming the head.

"Swallow Reversal."

Divine Emperor Mo parted the Mourning Sea to save his people; she was his progenitor, partitioning the tide. The lost mountain winds in the depths of the cave cried like a child under her cut as she pierced through the Knight's head.

Niva huffed. That had taken more out of her than she expected.

Something about the eye of the priestess had made rallying her own essence less efficient, meaning she had to spend more for the same result. It lasted even after death, apparently. Leaning on her spear as she fell to one knee, she turned to look behind her. Her heart stopped.

The priestess' left half of her body stood upright. But that was all that was left. The other side lay discarded somewhere. Blood

fell down her bare innards, yet her gaze hadn't lost its intensity in the slightest. Extending the index and middle finger of her sole remaining hand, she gored through her own heart. Light bloomed, outshining the brightest of the pillars when the spheres of blood around her staff spun faster and faster until all that could be seen was a hazy outline.

And if Niva's accumulation of qi had made the air quiver, the priestess' made it screech. Blood swirled behind her, opening a portal. A bottomless pit appeared in Niva's stomach when an eyeball phased through. It was still closed, but already she sensed her end in every way, shape or form.

She dematerialised her spear in a blink, commandeering all the qi she had left into her legs. She could still—

"Piercing Void, Eye of Azan," an unforgiving whisper sounded next to her ears in no language she knew, freezing all the liquid in her body.

The pressure disappeared as suddenly as it had come, and she didn't feel anything for some time. She felt nothing. Almost like standing in the audience of an execution, she watched as her left arm crumbled. She didn't know for how long she had stood there, staring like a donkey, but she faintly felt her intact limb sink into the flesh of the giant, absorbing its blood.

Right. She could still fix this. Though the soul stopped her from controlling an enemy's blood, that didn't matter when said opponent was dead. A presence lit up near the cave entrance the moment she sucked the creature dry, but she didn't care. The crumbling halted. Until it didn't.

Too diluted.

How did she know that? It didn't matter. What was too diluted? The creature's blood? Ah! She remembered him sitting near the mysterious fountain. The vials. She stumbled, her right foot giving out underneath her as it, too, started disintegrating. It was okay, she thought, uncorking one of the bottles with her mouth and gulping it all down. She threw away the empty bottle, shattering it against the stone floor. The kick was immense. Her perception turned back to normal, though — and accompanying it was the sensation of pain. Intense pain. This was more than physical. Eardrum-breaking thundering resounded around her. Only a few seconds later, Niva realised she was screaming her lungs out.

More, she heard in her mind as the tears streamed down her cheeks.

Her second bottle followed the first. Niva face-planted, scraping her nails raw on her armour. Somewhere deep beneath the earth, in a dungeon she hadn't told anyone the location of, she lay convulsing. Desperation married loneliness. She cast a gaze towards the entrance, hoping anyone, anything, was there to see her. At least that way, another being would be aware of her death.

The last thing she saw was a figure shrouded in darkness approaching her, two horns jutting out from under its hood.