image [https://i.imgur.com/XPQ0qa6.png]

The air was bitingly chilly and stagnant as everyone looked on at this mysterious woman, wondering why she kept staring at Carmen so intensely. Tension was high as nobody made any sudden movements, trying their best not to provoke whoever this powerful being was. Moments later, the woman spoke, breaking the silence like a hammer to glass.

“You there, girl… Come here.” She demanded with a surprisingly soft, yet raspy voice.

Despite the sudden request, her tone surprisingly didn't have an ounce of hostility in it. Carmen looked up with confusion, wondering why she wanted her of all people to come forward. After a very brief ponder, Carmen didn’t heed the request and stayed put, continuing to stand still in her spot.

“I said… COME HERE…”

The woman repeated with near godly authority. However, this time, her words sounded grizzly and weighted with great power. It was almost as though she spoke in an entirely different language, but for some reason, they could still fully understand every word. Immediately, Carmen lost control of her body as she unwillingly stood up and walked forward.

‘What?! Why is my body moving on its own? I can’t stop myself!’

She began to panic as her body moved completely against her will. When they noticed Carmen slowly making her way towards this mysterious lady, Mariah and Elise quickly stood up.

“What did you do to Carmen?! Let her go!” Mariah yelled, summoning forth her Manifest with zero hesitation.

Bridgette and her team got to their feet as well, contemplating their next move in this harrowing situation. The woman looked at them with a fairly cold glare, seemingly irritated by their sudden defiance.

“Do not concern yourselves with my actions.” She said plainly, waiting for Carmen to arrive.

“Like hell we will!”

Mariah gripped her Manifest and prepared to throw it, taking aim at the woman. After exerting her Core Energy, Mariah's spear ignited into impressive orange and red flames.

“STOP.” The woman replied, using that same strange vocal tone from before.

Everyone in the room, minus Carmen, froze in place and was unable to move.

“BOW.”

Immediately, everyone dropped to their knees and lowered their heads. They fully prostrated themselves, bowing down to her against their will.

“I - I can’t… Move.. What is this?” Bridgette remarked, feeling completely overwhelmed by the strange power this woman commanded.

“Carmen… No!” Elise cried out, sensing that Carmen was probably in great danger.

As Carmen walked closer and closer to the strange lady, her headache intensified and the Boundless imagery rapidly played in her head. She made her final approach and after stopping a few steps in front of the woman, Carmen closed her eyes. She flinched from the pain of her headache and began to fear for the worst.

The mysterious woman stepped forward and Carmen could feel her hand getting closer. Carmen shuddered slightly just as the woman’s hand touched her shoulder, causing her heart to beat a thousand miles a minute. Then suddenly, the woman brought Carmen in for a hug, warmly embracing her out of nowhere.

She hugged Carmen tightly and gently caressed the top of her head, as though Carmen were some long lost family member. She was stunned by the current situation, feeling confused as to why this was happening. While the woman patted her head, Carmen’s headache ceased completely and she no longer saw images of the Boundless either. Before Carmen could say anything, the woman began to speak.

“What's a Boundless like you doing down here child?” The lady asked with a fairly gentle smile.

Carmen looked up slowly and stared into the woman’s alluring gray eyes.

“Huh? Boundless like me? But I’m not-.”

Before Carmen could finish her reply, she was swiftly interrupted by a fast approaching object flying towards them. A large ethereal sword, shrouded in purple energy zipped past the woman’s face with blinding speed. However, despite its incredible pace, the woman effortlessly dodged it by tilting her head slightly to the left.

“Ohh, what do we have here?” She said, noticing someone flying towards their location.

Azhane Belouis levitated down to the ground with her twelve ethereal swords rotating around her. Her expression alone could kill a man with the amount of irritation painted across it.

“Let my sister go… Or else.” Azhane said coldly, her bloodlust beginning to flow out in rapid fashion.

Surprisingly, the woman didn’t flinch even an inch at Azhane’s immense power. She instead held an expression of great amusement, wondering who this uninvited guest was.

Azhane scanned the room and noticed that all of the students were bowing down to this woman. Confusion quickly took over her face as she averted her gaze back to the woman, trying to understand the situation better.

“Tell me, who are you? What’s your name?” The woman asked with great curiosity.

“Let Carmen go-”

“TELL ME YOUR NAME.”

The woman’s voice shifted to that grizzly yet powerful tone of hers as she locked eyes with Azhane. However, to her surprise, Azhane remained silent and glared back with her vivid red eyes, seemingly unaffected by the woman’s ability.

‘What!? Why does my ability not work on her?’

She was greatly taken aback by the failure of her skill. The woman had clearly never experienced this before and her shocked expression proved this fact. She eventually stopped her embrace of Carmen and stepped forward, now looking a bit more serious.

As soon as there was distance between her and Carmen, Azhane teleported herself directly in front of the woman and they both vanished from the arena. Almost immediately, everyone was released from that woman’s power and could move their bodies again.

“Just what the hell was that!?!” Mariah exclaimed with confusion and fear.

“I don’t know, but we better leave this area.” Linus responded, not wanting to be around if that woman were to come back.

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However, once they all got to their feet, the ground began to shake violently again. The two groups stumbled and fell over as the earthquake increased in power. They all looked up and saw the sky cracking and falling apart, the orange atmosphere dematerializing and fading away with each passing second.

“We’ve got to move now!!” Cassidy yelled, helping Bridgette to her feet.

Both groups started to sprint as pure chaos unfolded all around them. The ruins crumbled and the many trees around were uprooted before exploding into Core Energy particles. Moments later, a loud announcement was made within the plane.

“Attention all students! Attention all students! This Core Depth plane has become unstable due to an unidentified surge of Core Energy. The exam will be concluded and all students will be transported out of the exam area shortly!”

The message was repeated multiple times until everyone began to glow a bright golden color.

Within a few seconds, the two groups found themselves back in the lower chambers at the Grand portal doors.

“Lady Carmen, are you alright?” Felicity asked, helping Carmen stand and stabilizing her.

Carmen took a moment to catch her breath before giving a nod of reassurance.

“That's good, but what about Her Majesty? Is she not with you all?”

Felicity looked around for a brief moment and noticed that Azhane was missing.

“Sis got caught up with something down there, but she teleported out before the plain collapsed so I think she’s fine.” Carmen replied, recalling the events that just occurred.

Before Felicity could ask a few more questions, her assistance was requested by some of the nearby instructors. As she walked away, Elise and Mariah started to head towards the steps. They looked back and motioned for Carmen to follow them. She nodded and quickly followed after them, still reeling from their time in the Core Depths.

image [https://i.imgur.com/d60vRFl.png]

Azhane and her mysterious opponent appeared in a remote location, many miles south of LaVeda. The two clashed with titan level tenacity, trying their best to 1up the other with every chance.

With a single point of the finger, Azhane’s floating swords fired at her opponent. Their speed was incredible speed as they sliced and stabbed the air around her. Surprisingly, the woman effortlessly dodged the assault, not breaking a sweat in the slightest despite the amount of offensive pressure being applied to her. She was even able to skillfully block some of the blades with her bare hands, knocking them away as though they were harmless pieces of wood.

The swords continued to miss their mark, carving up the terrain below as Azhane watched from above. However, just as her opponent dashed to the left, a rogue sword broke through and almost slashed her directly in the face. The woman strategically forced herself back before clasping her hands together to catch the blade. Once the blade stopped its advance, she tossed it to the side and looked up at Azhane to give her a cheeky smirk.

Then with a single powerful leap, the woman blasted upwards with tremendous speed and force, crushing the ground beneath her in spectacular fashion. She flew towards Azhane and they quickly began trading blows in the air. The woman punched and kicked in rapid succession as Azhane’s swords blocked the hits. Even though some of the attacks were too quick for the swords, Azhane’s skillful teleports helped her dodge just enough.

However, after trading a few blows, the woman realized the timing of Azhane’s teleports and began to anticipate her movement. She purposely delayed her final attack, causing Azhane to mistime her next dodge. Once her moment came, she punched Azhane square in the jaw with terrifying and explosive force, sending her flying backwards as the impact rippled through her face.

The blow had Azhane seeing double until she eventually composed herself, shaking her head before wiping the blood that trickled down from her mouth.

‘How does she already know about the timings of my teleports? There’s no way she’d figure that out so quickly.’

She glared at her opponent with deadly red eyes, feeling incredibly irritated that this mysterious woman actually landed a significant blow. The amount of bloodlust seeping out of Azhane at this moment would have the most seasoned Vesta cowering and yet, this woman still had not an ounce of fear.

Once Azhane was ready to continue their engagement, the woman slowly exhaled before closing her eyes. Suddenly, there was a significant uptick in the woman’s Core Energy. Her power exploded outward as it took a visible form, causing the woman to glow with an ominous black aura. After her impressive show of strength, a tiara made of bones began to materialize on the woman’s head. The single skull adorned at the center of it stared at Azhane menacingly, leaking a terrifying amount of Core Energy.

‘Is that her Manifest?’

For the first time in this battle, Azhane was on full alert as she anticipated this woman’s next move. Once her preparations were finished, the lady opened her eyes slowly.

The moment her pale gray eyes met with Azhane's, a pair of giant shadowy arms erupted out of the ground below and took aim at her. These arms were completely blacked out and devoid of any visible details. Not even the blazing sun above could bring color to their deep state of darkness.

Azhane rapidly dodged the many hands that punched and grabbed at her, cutting a few down with her ethereal blades in the process. Despite her impressive movements, the hands were also delaying their attacks just enough to mess with her timings. She was eventually caught by one of the hands and it closed its fist with her inside, squeezing tightly with each passing second. Before its grip got too tight, the deep black hand exploded, sending shadowy remnants everywhere.

Strategically, Azhane’s floating swords rotated around her and blocked the attack completely. She then quickly created distance between them, racing upwards to get out of reach of the remaining hands. Once Azhane was far enough away, she looked down and took aim with her right palm extended. With a single burst of Core Energy, a rapidly increasing, purple void materialized.

The void pulsed and flexed violently as it continued to grow, voraciously sucking in the air around it. With a forceful push of power, Azhane fired it off towards her enemy and watched as it made its menacing approach.

'Good riddance.'

Azhane's sent a deadly glare as her attack flew towards the woman with great speed, still growing in size. At this point, the orb was nearly impossible to dodge, stretching about a hundred meters wide.

However, to Azhane’s surprise, two massive shadow hands burst upwards and gripped the orb, stopping its advance. The hands sunk their fingers deep into it, squeezing as though it were a water balloon of sorts. Within a few seconds, the void was crushed like a grape and canceled out entirely.

“What!? Just who is this woman!?” Azhane exclaimed, absolutely floored that her attack was nullified so easily, making her look like some kind of third rate Vesta.

Azhane began to weigh her options as the woman stared back with a smile, amused by her efforts so far. After a brief ponder, she aimed her palm downwards again and summoned forth hundreds of small voids, their size similar to that of kickballs. Once the sky was filled with purple orbs as far as the eye could see, the woman braced herself and prepared to retaliate.

Within a single breath, the orbs rained down in terrifying fashion, plummeting down to the ground without delay. In almost every situation imaginable, this would be an easy checkmate for Azhane, however that would not be the case today. To her absolute shock, the woman's Manifest summoned forth an equal amount of shadowy arms. The hundreds of deep black hands burst from the soil and took hold of an orb, firmly catching every single ounce of Azhane's attack.

A massive explosion occurred on the surface as all of Azhane's abilities were rapidly being nullified one by one. Void energy was tossed around and imploded in every direction, lighting the area up with an impressive purple and black hue. After the attack was finished and the dust finally settled, there stood her opponent without a single scratch on her. Not only was she relatively unscathed, but even the ground and trees below were completely unharmed.

'Tch, am I really going to have to use the plane of nothingness against her? I don't want to waste one of my charges, but I might not have a choice.'

Azhane was in disbelief as she watched the woman nonchalantly brush the dirt off of her dress. She had never dealt with anyone handling her abilities with such ease, let alone matching her skill for skill. Having made up her mind, Azhane began to activate her Manifest's special ability.

“This girl is quite impressive, I must admit. At this rate we’re going to be here all day.” The woman muttered to herself, now growing a bit bored of this stalemate.

Fortunately, her boredom didn't last long once she noticed an absurd increase of power coming from Azhane. She looked up and saw Azhane’s Manifest, The Grasp of Nihility, glowing a deep purple. A hue that it hadn’t shown until now.

All of the ethereal swords surrounding Azhane receded back into the void, as though she were preparing to unleash a finishing blow. Azhane aimed her right palm at the woman and continued to exert her Core Energy to unfathomable levels.

‘Hmm, I don’t like the feeling coming from that Manifest of hers. What is she planning?’

She stared back into Azhane’s evil looking eyes, preparing herself for whatever was coming next. Within a single blink, Azhane appeared directly in front of the woman, palm extended as they stood face to face on the ground. However, before Azhane activated her Manifest’s ability, the woman calmly spoke.

“Wait.”

Azhane hesitated once she sensed all hostility leaving the woman at that moment.

“I’m over it. Good fights though.”

The woman slowly started to walk away in the opposite direction, seemingly having no interest in continuing. Azhane was dumbfounded. She didn't understand why their fight had suddenly ended with no true conclusion. As Azhane stood there with a perplexed expression, the woman simply yawned and stretched her back.

“Ahh, I haven’t gotten a workout like that in so long. Feels good to stretch my legs again.” She quipped with a playful chuckle as she did a few toe touches.

Upon finishing her stretch routine, she got down on the ground and laid on her back, resting her hands behind her head. She looked up at the open sky above and smiled, admiring the many clouds gently rolling by.

'She can't be serious right now! Just who am I dealing with here??'

This question and many others raced through Azhane's mind as she watched this woman relax and chill right before her eyes.