The wooden table ripped into splinters. Fire flew like a precise blade, blurry, before combusting into a conflagration of an explosion.

The boom shook the ground.

Yet, amidst that hazard atmosphere, Rose’s eyes caught the sight of the air pierced by ice spears, drilling towards her.

She jumped back and twisted her body as her own fiery creations flew. Yet, on contact with her creator’s makings, small explosions ripped hers to smithereens and the attacks still came her way.

There was a chuckle.

They merged into one, becoming a weapon large enough to shatter through iron, and her eyes widened. She swung down within the air and sparks flew. Clearly, the spear was just as tough. Yet, her burning sword had never been stopped by ferric before. And this wasn’t a start.

“Sever.” She gnashed her teeth as mana.

Her searing blade slashed the monstrosity into two and she landed upon soft grass amidst a field of flowers as ice shattered around her.

The smoke in the distance was gone and a shield of ice scattered into mana.

“Girl, I don’t think you understand what it meant to be a guardian of the Forgotten Forest.” Bianca shook her head, standing amidst broken furniture. Mana whipped around her, shining blue, and a light danced atop her palm. Looking at her creation as if she saw a child that needed to be taught, she smiled. “You don’t want to fight me.”

Rose narrowed her eyes at the woman.

“I don’t care.” She spun her blade, anger lacing every inch of her voice as its sheath appeared in her other hand with a spark of flames. “Fix me or I'll burn you until only ash remains.”

Her sword engulfed in a conflagration of crimson and she pointed it at the woman. Her golden eyes, fire dancing in them, glared.

The Silent Witch took a step forward. A silver shine lusted over her skin. Another step and the image of a bull, brown with crimson eyes, appeared before jumping into her. A third step and she was grasping a spear of water. A fourth step and wings of light clung to her back as she rose into the air with a flap.

“I think I rather not.” Bianca Idris Blake chuckled. “You’ve met your maker. So quietly live out the remainder of your tame life and become my sister.”

The screech of birds rang and three came to form. A flaming phoenix flapping above her. A multicolored form to her right. And a dark shadow on her lift. She floated in the air, her mere figure radiating pressure as mana whipped around her. She stood in like a goddess of battle. Her blonde hair whipping with the wind and her cold azure eyes looked down on the homunculus.

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Rose remembered.

Seven spirits.

The woman before her wielded that many spirits.

For the splinter of a moment, Rose remembered Shana Striker and how she had lost to someone who merely wielded 3. But her creator was not a Reaper. And, furthermore, this wasn’t a situation where she could back down. Not at all. This was for the sake of her existence.

As much as she felt warmth for the woman, there was only anger in her heart at the moment. She had finally found freedom. There was no way Rose Ausra would allow herself to be erased into someone else.

“No.” She muttered. Her core hummed and mana pulsed through her being. Strengthening everything.

She raised her weapon, took a step of her own, and slashed.

“No.”

The sky became a flaming line that smothered the breath of oxygen and all mana in its way. The atmosphere shuddered and burned. Her attack flew, lifting the world the crimson of raging flames.

Yet.

In the face of such an attack.

The Silent Witch chuckled.

“Then you’ll have to learn to stand down the hard way.”

She threw the weapon in her right hand.

The spear of water flew.

Then expanded.

Then morphed as a roar broke the air.

It was a beast in the shape of a shark. Made completely of water, its jaws were as long as blades and what was akin to tusks ran down its length. Its size, massive enough to cast a shadow over their battlefield, left the homunculus dumbstruck as it opened its jaws and devoured Rose’s attack.

An explosion reverberated through the air.

But.

There.

Only a bubble of water remained, its inside swirling with the snuffed out remains of flames.

The Silent Witch took a step forward.

A storm of mana rolled around her and she molded them with the will only two races wielded well. A dance of ice birthed about and snow fluttered within the air. Her hair danced and a spear of ice made itself known in her grasp. Then, the birds by her side screeched and joined that dance, spinning about the tip of the weapon until colors melded. Fire. Shadow. And the radiance of color dancing in a frightful light. The air shuddered and quaked.

Rose moved before the weapon fully formed. She didn't move forward. No. She jumped back. Her eyes. Her core. Everything told her she didn't want to face that creation. No, she feared it.

"Sorry," The Silent Witch said, the spear now dancing with colors along its full length as she floated down. Once her feet touched the floor, she smiled. "But whoever heard of fighting God?"

She threw her weapon.

The homunculus’s feet stamped against the ground.

The air exploded and the weapon’s speed was before her.

She slashed.

Her clothing ripped off.

The world burned.

Her blade met the thing.

There was a spark.

A momentary flash of light.

A world dyed in the heat of hot white.

Then.

The boom shattered her eardrums and the bones of her arms broke. She screamed as the explosion ripped apart the area. Grass evaporated into mana and flowers turned to ash as her body flung away.

“Be glad you’re soon to be my sister,” The voice resounded, “Else I would have killed you.”

The homunculus blinked her eyes as she passed through a barrier of blue, smashing through something akin to a thin layer of water. Blood soaked her vision. She looked down to see a hole through her abdomen.

She was completely and utterly outclassed.

“Come back when you’re whole. Less pathetic.” The cold, azure, eyes of her creator glanced its last at her.

Then.

Her world was dyed in the rush of flying vehicles, lights of all shapes and sizes, and she was falling.