image [https://i.imgur.com/7gxC4BL.png]

Prior to the trio’s engagement with Trevor, Zalthia and Claudia were deep in combat, trading blow after powerful blow. Claudia was making quick work of Zalthia’s clones, dipping and dodging their attacks effortlessly as she dispatched them with precise swipes of her claymore. Zalthia joined in on the action and quickly swiped her scythe at Claudia, attacking her from all directions with the assistance of her clones.

Claudia aimed her palm at the ground and multiple stone pillars burst from the dirt below. The pillars fired upwards and quickly defeated two of Zalthia’s clones as they were unable to dodge in time. Zalthia and her seven remaining clones landed a short distance away, taking a moment to assess the situation.

Despite Zalthia’s many skillful advances, Claudia was proving quite difficult to deal with. Her abilities, in many ways, completely countered Zalthia’s and this reality was becoming even more obvious to her. Zalthia specialized in upclose melee combat, but it was nigh impossible to consistently close the gap as Claudia manipulated the very ground beneath them.

Claudia's Earth affinity skills coupled with her immaculate sword handling, she became an incredible opponent for anyone to face. Being able to fight from range and melee, she had absolutely earned her spot as a Blade Monarch and Vice Captain of the Holy Core Saint Order.

“This is disappointing Zalthia. I honestly thought you'd be more of a challenge now, seeing as how everyone wouldn’t shut up about you. Scarlet Reaper this, Scarlet Reaper that, you’re still a joke to be honest…” Claudia coldly said, hardly breaking a sweat against Zalthia’s assault.

“Hmph, you seem jealous that more people are aware of me than they are of you. I see you’re still just as shallow as ever.” Zalthia quipped back as she skillfully twirled her scythe around.

“Jealous? Please… Why would I be jealous of a girl that’s too scared to use her own Manifest? If everyone knew how many times I’ve humiliated you in battle, you wouldn’t be so famous.” Claudia sent a cheeky smirk as she pressed her blade into the ground, resting her hands on the hilt.

“Tch. You really do like dwelling on the past huh? How about you focus on the battle happening before you right now.” Zalthia gave a deep red eyed glare as she struggled to come up with a better rebuttal, feeling small traces of truth behind Claudia’s words.

“Why wouldn’t I dwell on it? We’ve fought what? Eight times now? And you’ve yet to truly make me work for it. If you don’t want the past to repeat itself, then stop insulting me by not using your Manifest!” She forcibly stabbed Titan’s Ward into the ground and the entire area began to shake violently. Zalthia and her clones were knocked off their feet as they saw a large golem form up from the earth behind Claudia.

“We’ve been over this already! You don’t want to fight my Manifest, Claudia.. Trust me, I can deal with you without it!” Zalthia quickly got to her feet and dashed towards Claudia, her clones mimicking her every move. Claudia frowned and her golem punched into the ground, causing a massive explosion. Zalthia’s clones emerged from the dust as they began attacking the golem, keeping it busy while she fought with Claudia.

Zalthia slashed and twirled her scythe around masterfully, moving like a woman possessed. Her barrage was heavy and quick, but to her surprise was being matched one for one by Claudia. Despite the large size of Claudia’s Manifest, she effortlessly swung it with great speed.

These two Vestas were going blow for blow, dancing around the battlefield with focused intention and flawless execution on both sides. Zalthia and Claudia collided, trying their best to push the other back.

“Ah, so it seems you’ve improved a little bit. This is much more like it! Now show me why you put so much ‘fear’ into people!” Claudia said with a smirk, increasing her Core Energy to new levels.

She exerted her power and sent Zalthia backwards, leaving her wide open for an attack. Zalthia grimaced from the blow and looked down to see Claudia already in front of her, ready to attack again.

Just as Claudia thrusted her sword forward into Zalthia’s chest, one of her clones appeared to take the blow for Zalthia. The clone turned to stone before exploding into a cloud of dust, raining dirt downwards. Zalthia dashed back even further and landed with her clones returning in front of her, taking a position of protection.

“Hmph, still needing to rely on those weak imitations I see. How cute..” Claudia remarked with another smirk, finding the clone’s sacrifice to be quite amusing. Zalthia gave her another red eyed glare before she sensed something approaching from below. A large stone fist burst from the ground and uppercutted her in the chin, sending Zalthia high into the sky.

“Gah!! I'm so sick of this bitch!!” Zalthia thought to herself as she felt the pain from the attack radiate across her jawline. Once she reached the peak of her trajectory, Claudia appeared above Zalthia and swung her sword downward. Zalthia quickly blocked the attack with her scythe as the force from the blow sent her barreling to the ground. She crashed into the rocks below, causing an explosion that created a small crater in the process. However, Claudia was not finished with her assault.

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As Zalthia stood from the rubble, the very earth that cushioned her fall came alive and rose into the air. She quickly called back her clones just as all the rocks and boulders flew at her. The barrage was brutal and seemingly endless as stone after stone crashed into the crater, shaking the ground with each terrifying blow. The attack finally ended and as the dust cleared, there was Zalthia and two of her clones crouched down.

Zalthia’s scarlet robes were ripped and tattered, her long silver hair that was typically collected neatly to one side was messy and all over the place, and her scythe was bordering on unusable; incredibly chipped and cracked. A streak of blood raced down her forehead as she gasped for air, dripping onto the distressed ground.

“Might want to use your Manifest now… This isn’t a battle you can run away from either, so stop wasting my time and fight for real.” Claudia said with a fairly bored expression on her face. The wind blew heavily and as the tension increased, Zalthia slowly stood up. She softly sighed as she looked at the broken weapon in her hand, rubbing her thumb gently against its handle.

“Fine.. But know this.. Whatever happens from this point forward is on you. Your life as you know it will end after this battle. You’ve been warned…” Zalthia softly replied, tossing her broken scythe to the ground. She absorbed her two remaining clones as she began to prepare herself.

“Oh please, spare me those empty words. I'll walk away just fine from this encounter, same as always. Stop insulting me…” Claudia responded, stabbing her sword into the ground again as she rested her hands on the hilt, patiently waiting for Zalthia to make a move.

Zalthia gripped her shredded robe and proceeded to rip it off, feeling that it was just in the way at this point. She then raised her right hand upwards, clenching every finger tightly besides the index and middle finger, which remained extended. Zalthia closed her eyes as she traced a symbol in the air with her two fingers, moving them quickly and precisely.

In that same moment, a small dimensional rift appeared in front of her, shaking ominously with each passing second. Claudia looked on in confusion, wondering why Zalthia was doing all of these theatrics just to summon her Manifest.

“Is this some kind of joke to you? Why do you need to show me such useless movements??” She asked, growing more and more impatient. Just as she hit the peak of her impatience, Zalthia opened her eyes and reached into the void in front of her. She forcibly pulled out her Manifest, Mind Reaper.

The air immediately grew colder and Claudia could feel the unsettling energy pouring out from it. Zalthia twirled the terrifying looking scythe around, causing its silver strands of hair to make a slight whistling sound. She finished her twirls and assumed a new position, clearly ready for the next phase of this battle. The skulls on the back of the blade stared at Claudia and sent a slight shiver down her spine.

“So that’s Zalthia of One’s Manifest? It certainly fits her look… Something feels off about it though, hmmm…” Claudia thought to herself as she looked at her reflection in the black blade of Zalthia’s new scythe.

Then with tremendous speed, Zalthia was in Claudia’s face. “When did she!?!?” Claudia said with great surprise, shocked by her sudden increase in speed and movement. She sidestepped Zalthia’s new attacks at the last second, with the blade just barely missing her face.

Claudia dashed back and raised multiple stone pillars out of the ground in quick succession, hoping that these would slow Zalthia’s approach. Zalthia rapidly sliced through the pillars like paper as she continued to closely pursue Claudia, not losing a single step.

“Where did all this power come from?? She wasn’t moving anything like this earlier!” Claudia began to show signs of slight panic for the first time in this battle, taken completely off guard by this sudden increase in strength. Just as Zalthia closed the gap, the golem from before reared its ugly head again.

A giant stone fist blindsided Zalthia with a brutal punch, sending her flying into some nearby boulders. She crashed into the rocks but to Claudia’s surprise, she quickly recovered and dashed towards the golem with a breakneck pace.

Zalthia gripped Mind Reaper tightly as she swiped at the golem with inhuman speed, slicing every inch of it with little to no resistance. The whistle from her scythe was loud as it cut through the stone like a hot blade to butter. Seconds later, the golem exploded and separated into tiny pieces after being shredded by Zalthia’s Manifest.

“WHAT!?!” Claudia yelled, floored by such an impossible feat. However, Claudia couldn’t dwell on it for too long because Zalthia was once again in her face, attacking from all directions. She was absolutely relentless and gave Claudia no room to rest.

Just as she had her on the ropes, Zalthia lost focus for a slight moment, feeling pain from her prior wounds shooting through her body. Claudia noticed the hesitation and took advantage of this, summoning forth two massive walls of stone. They quickly came together and caught Zalthia in between them.

Zalthia coughed up blood as she tried to free herself, continuing to be pressed tightly on both sides of her. Despite her efforts, it seemed as though it was a little too late to turn the tides of this battle. Claudia chuckled as she landed in front of her captured foe, finding the current situation to be quite amusing.

“I’ll admit, you had me startled there for a second. Your Manifest is strong, shame you didn’t use it earlier..” Claudia aimed her palm at Zalthia and the walls began to press even harder against her, causing Zalthia to scream out in pain.

“I told you I would walk away from this perfectly fine..” She glared at Zalthia with her piercing blue eyes, but to her surprise, Zalthia began to laugh.

“Man, you really enjoy hearing yourself talk, don’t you?? You haven’t walked away from anything yet..” Claudia was confused by her shift in mood and then in that same moment, Zalthia dissipated from between the two walls. Just as she disappeared, Claudia felt a deep, ice cold slash hit her back. Slicing cleanly through her armor and into her flesh.

“That was a clone you were talking to, idiot.. If you weren’t so damn dense, you would have known it wasn’t real from the start.” Claudia quickly turned around, shocked by the fake out as she saw Zalthia behind her, holding that ungodly looking scythe. Its blade dripped with her blood as its energy grew in rapid fashion. Claudia swung her sword, causing Zalthia to dash back, creating space between them.

“I’m sorry it had to end like this, but.. Your time is up.. It’s my win.” Zalthia said with an almost saddened tone, clearly insinuating something dark.

“What are you talking about?? You merely cut me.. That is not enou-” Claudia stopped talking as a heavy jolt slammed her chest. She stumbled back and looked at Zalthia, seeing her vibrant red eyes staring deeply. Moments later, Claudia found herself back at home, ten years in the past. Little did Claudia know that her world was about to crumble before her very eyes.