Neither of the two expected to meet in field of disappearing flowers. No matter how tenacious Cer was, crossing the Bellum Empire and the Impuritas-infested lands of Northern Grandis should have taken weeks on foot alone.

Moons were fast, but not that fast.

Cer deduced this from Raoul’s scrutinizing gaze, which was a look that asked: “How are you here?”

Cer gripped her chest. Months ago, a certain diamond brooch would have reacted to his pathetic disparaging perception of her.

“… What’s with that look? Can’t believe that your precious little sister managed to make it this far? Are you going to tell me that it was worthless again? Heh… Looking back, have you ever greeted me differently?”

The three headed wolf reared its head and howled into the moonless night. The blue hue of the meadow’s skies gave off the illusion that there was a moon. But the wolf did not howl because of this.

This was Raoul’s final warning.

“We’re not strangers. But if that’s how you want to keep treating me… then that makes it easier for me. I wonder if you’re thinking the same thing. Tch. For all I know this is what you wanted since the start.” Cer growled.

A bolt of lightning struck behind Cer, illuminating her frame before her dark-clad brother. Whisps of darkness swirled around him. They looked like miniature versions of the storm above. She knew that Raoul had some connection to the Sins; particularly the sin of Acedia – the Sin closely related to the Affinity of Despair.

But this was different.

The swirls eventually merged with his shadow, which flickered like dark flame. It swirled in a way that caused the hairs on her back to stand.

Adrenaline coursed through her body as her instincts warned her to stay away. However, her mental space was disconnected from her instincts. A Moon like Cer had faced countless horrors, be it in the form of Corrupted or the places where the Corrupted resided.

Raoul cleaved the air with a single swing of his arm. Fresh, fragrant dew filled the air as grass fell like confetti. His eyes narrowed at Cer, relaying his deepest, most raw intentions.

“… You joined the Impuritas, and now look at you. Look how low you’ve fallen… Can’t say I feel alone now, knowing I’m not the only lousy mut here.”

“Know your place.” Black lighting landed behind Raoul. “I gave you a chance to end this. In turn, you would have given me a chance to settle this for our sake. But you… you never stopped trying to worm your way to my side. I should have been more thorough with you. You haven’t learned a single thing.”

That fucking lethargic way of talking…

His mannerisms were pathetic. Raoul spoke like a man with nothing left to live for. Even his bodily gestures were torpid, and his slovenly stance contrasted Cer who assumed an impassioned pose.

The air vibrated excitedly. Sparks of black and blue currents jumped in the air, incinerating the last of the floating grass. The tension grew exponentially with every passing second. They were like a pair of sprinters at the start line, waiting for a trigger to set them off.

“Cut the crap! I gave you a chance to tell me everything! But you ran away from me! ‘This is all my fault’, ‘I can’t be forgiven’ – What kind of bullshit are you spouting? Did Iscario feed you a spoonful of a fake promise? Just like every other Impuritas!?”

Cer released the [Bolt of Tasty Levin], leaving it stabbed in the ground. She unintentionally discovered that they were persistent so long as they weren’t thrown at a target, but she shrugged it off for now.

“I spared you because I thought your eyes had finally opened. I was wrong. Nothing’s changed. You think you’ve become a Moon. There is no moon here Cer. Neither you, nor the moon mother loved. I should’ve made it clearer to you sooner!”

Raoul had made up his mind, as did Cer. The two were not going to see eye to eye, no matter what. Therefore, there was only one way to resolve this.

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“I should have never saved you from that river… Look at how reliant you’ve become.”

Cer impaled another [Bolt of Tasty Levin] into the ground. She formed one more, and snapped it in half, wielding two lightning bolts like they were daggers. Her expression darkened.

Her heart twisted with a different perception of Raoul. No longer did it beat with love. Similarly, Raoul summoned a dark, shadowy blade made of lightning as he mounted his three-headed wolf.

Its form sundered the world like, appearing like a crack in space.

“The needy little Cer that dreams to be like her big brother… dies tonight!”

“… Right. Yeah. What was I thinking? A degraded wolf like you was never going to do anything to end this. The needy Cer… has to die after all, huh!?”

Finally, the last lightning storm of the Effeuiller La Dahlia triggered their assault. Both Cer and Raoul charged headfirst, splitting the world apart as their electrical field clashed with one another.

The underside of Cer’s long hair began to glow a vibrant blue as she manifested the Second State, as well as another necessary Corrupted Skill from the Salivating Spark.

< PASSIVE: Watt Battery >

< Electrical stimulation dances on their tastebuds. More must be drawn to complete the feast >

< EFFECT: Electrical Sources can recharge your HP and MP. Gain HP and MP via the subtracted amount of their ATT and your DEF stats. If your DEF stats are higher, then convert 100% into HP, MP and Overheal >

“WATCH ME END THIS!”

“I will make this end.”

The two were off tune. It as if neither could hear the other. This was how their conversations had always been. Why would it be different here?

Black and blue sparks exploded from the collision of Raoul’s blade and Cer’s storm [Bolt of Tasty Levin]. Woven between were [Electric Fangs], and her permanently existing [Ultracharged Field].

Furthermore, a constant electrical strand connected the two like an umbilical cord. A third connection could be felt, and it ran into the air, attached to nothing.

But Cer knew that it was connected to their mother. After all –

“RAOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUL”

“CER!”

– The two were born from same womb.

* * *

Cer’s priority right now was to dismount Raoul. His stats were not enhanced by his mount, but the speed it possessed made it difficult for her to predict their movements. With such a high AGI, Cer’s [Electric Fangs] and [Bolts of Tasty Levin] missed their mark.

They landed in the grass with a first micro explosion. A column of air ripped in the wake of the electric lances like they were a secondary effect. Cer knew that electric-based Skills were useless against one another, which was why Raoul used his wolf smartly compared to the last time.

However, that did not mean that his three-headed wolf had the same immunities.

[Ultracharged Field] had a profound effect on it, and she could tell that its HP was rapidly dwindling. The issue was that she could not see its stats, despite it appearing to be like a summon.

Summons were simply entities that were born from magic. Mana was required to keep them alive, much like how Fairies used mana instead of HP. If a Summon lost either all their MP or HP, then they’d immediately perish. Another problem with Summons was that their MP was linked 1:1 with their masters, meaning that if the Summon’s MP was drained, then so was their masters.

As a result, it was wiser to give a much smaller mana pool to a Summon, although this made them significantly weaker.

“Is that Skill then!?” Cer asked herself as Raoul replied with:

“Let it rend you apart, so that you can learn that what I’m doing for you is right!”

It was not a true reply, as the two conversed like both were speaking to their own delusional versions of one another. Neither could see the other for who they were, aside from perhaps Cer as she scrambled across the blades of grass, avoiding the maws, claws and tail of the shadowy wolf, as well as Raoul’s devastating swings.

The blade, which was only 2 meters in length, could extend to over 10 meters in an instant.

“Yeah… That’s a Skill alright, but how come something so dark belong to a Star of the Nexus? You know, I’ve been wondering for a long time now, but you’re the complete opposite of what a Star is supposed to be!”

“Can a Moon like you even understand the gravity of the burden a Star must carry? To become a Star in the first place!?”

“You were like a light to me. The sun. And I chased you! I… I chased you as far as my legs could take me!” Cer tried to make up for it by predicting his movements, only to leave her spears half-impaled in the ground.

Before long, the meadows of blue flowers and disappearing Cers resembled that of a battlefield. A historian thousands of years in the future would have described this place as a war between two great nations. But this was but the collateral – the mere litter and residue – of a Star and a Moon.

Cer admittedly did not have many Skills to use. Moons were much the same. Their simplified Skills was what made them stand out from another and made them so efficient in the first place. Why would a being of such overwhelming power require tactics, strategies and battle theories? Only the weak relied on such things.

However, Cer moved differently on this battlefield than from what Raoul remembered. Even Cer had not fought this way before. She didn’t rush in headfirst after the first engagement. She was constantly using hit and run tactics, as well as using spacing as she had a ranged advantage.

“You’re the one who chased a Star, and I’m the one who allowed you to get close to these heights. I watched a friend like you fly close to the sun. I watched his wings melt and his body fall into the sea!”

“WHAT’S THAT GOT TO DO WITH ME!?”

“Mother was the same. I watched her fly close to the Light, and she paid the ultimate price.”