September 21, 4021 8:30 [Matriarch 04- Recovery Room]
“He’ll be discharged momentarily,” a nurse informed them.
Indra and Prasanna sat silently in the waiting room, twiddling their thumbs nervously. They were unsure of what to say to Emil when he would inevitably emerge from the hallway. It was a sobering loss, especially when he was favored to win. An upset like that was sure to disillusion anyone. The light taps of sneakers on freshly waxed floors echoed, getting louder. The two stood up, anticipating their friend’s arrival.
When Emil stepped into the waiting room, Indra and Prasanna greeted him with a jumble of condolences and relief regarding his recovery. They tripped over their words, trying to reach a consensus on which message they wanted to relay. Emil simply smiled. They blinked at him, slightly surprised, expecting some degree of disappointment. Yet, he looked rested and rejuvenated, like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Besides the bandaging around his neck, most of his minor injuries had healed completely.
“Dr. Ye said the stitches should dissolve within a few days. I’ll be fine thanks to the Vultures’ pills,” Emil signed.
“That’s something to celebrate,” Prasanna responded.
Indra nodded in agreement. “You sure you’ll be fine?”
“I’m disappointed with my performance, but I lost fair and square. My opponent got the better of me.”
Indra patted him on the back. They exited the hospital after Emil signed a patient discharge form, making their way to Sun Rock. The trio stopped by the café along the way, picking up coffee. As they sipped and strolled through town, they observed shop owners and pedestrians bustling from one area to another. Preparations were underway for the final two matches of the Hyena Succession Tournament. Indra, Prasanna, and Kaluza had been guaranteed the title of Hyena, making it to the end as the top three candidates. Now, all that was left was the matter of determining which division each of them would command. Tengri was the First Division’s Commander, with Grisha and Jin commanding the Second and Third Divisions, respectively. This meant that the top candidates were all vying for command of the Fourth Division with the second and third placements taking command of the Fifth and Sixth Divisions, respectively.
Indra had previously questioned why the Fourth Division was so coveted among the candidates. He was quickly informed by Jin, after taking another beating from him, that the division in question remained in the center of most of their formations, surrounded by other divisions and infantry. It was a prime position for Indra to be in if he were to see this expedition through safely, or as safe as one could be in the depths of the unknown. All he knew for certain was that there were strange creatures present in those depths, lurking in the heart of the Sunken Forest…and they weren’t particularly fond of intruders.
“What’s the line-up for today? Who are you fighting?” Emil signed to Indra.
Indra rolled his eyes as Prasanna laughed indulgently. “Ah, it’s tragic, but I guess you’ll have to settle for the Sixth Division, fun-size,” she teased.
“Keep laughing. I didn’t go through all this torture for nothing,” Indra grinned.
“Oh man, you should have seen the look on Kaluza’s face when they told him he was getting a bye. He practically burst a blood vessel, screaming about how they kept ‘stalling his match with the bastard’.”
Emil snickered to himself, much to the elation of his companions. As they passed streets colored autumn by stray leaves, Indra’s chest grew tight. He observed Prasanna out of the corner of his eye. She seemed jovial and relaxed as she conversed with Emil, doing her best to cheer him up, though their friend was already in moderate spirits. Indra grew worried, doubt seeping back into his mind. What if she intended to hold back and he hurt her beyond what was necessary? What if he held back instinctively, costing him the match? A firm jab to the cheek brought him back to the present.
“Hello? You in there?” Prasanna poked him again.
“I’m here,” Indra said warily.
“Look, if you want to forfeit now, don’t feel too bad. I know I put on quite a display.”
“That’s not—”
“I know,” she smiled. “I won’t hold back, so you better not either.”
They had reached Sun Rock quicker than expected. Indra stared at Prasanna’s back as she walked two steps ahead, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Emil nudged him, a sly grin on his face.
“Don’t lose focus. You can think about other things later.”
“Your friend is correct, you fool. Do not be swayed so easily by her feminine wiles!” Usha cautioned.
Will you be quiet? I’m not being swayed by anyone. I was just surprised, that’s all.
Prasanna had told him everything he needed to know. He understood her words as truth. It would be unwise to think otherwise. Indra would not underestimate his opponents no matter who they were. Especially in this case. He would need to carefully consider the extent to which he would release his Shakti.
The trip from the announcer’s booth to the field felt like a haze as the two semifinalists walked onto the pitch for the last time. Prasanna stared at him cooly, not a hint of mirth behind her eyes. She was in a battle mindset now; the person before her was an enemy—no more, no less. Indra mirrored her gaze, only one objective in his mind: win.
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“I want to see it all—everything you have to offer. I want to see the Shakti you’ve cultivated up until now in all of its brilliance,” she said, her eyes glowing a ghostly sapphire.
“Sorry, that won’t happen,” Indra replied.
“Oh? Am I not worthy enough to experience the peak of your abilities?”
“I’m afraid you won’t be able to reach them.”
Prasanna’s lips twitched. “I accept your challenge. I’ll push you to your limits until you have no choice but to use the strength you’ve hidden.”
“There are no limits that I can’t surpass.”
“That’s the spirit.”
The arena imploded in a sea of black hellfire and spatial distortion, drowning out all other noise. Their battle was unlike any other seen in the tournament. Blurs of shadow and sapphire clashed across the field, shattering the very air around them. Space itself seemed to rip apart as they exchanged blows.
Indra evaded swiftly as Prasanna manifested sapphire prisms around him, exploding them to warp gravity in bizarre ways. He flipped through the pockets of gravity, his arm coated in shadow. The air around it began to distort from the heat as he punched through Prasanna’s sapphire barriers with an igneous fist.
Prasanna spun around the punch, coating her leg in blue. “Azure Blitz!”
Indra halted her kick with a raised knee, swiping at her head with his outstretched arm. Prasanna ducked underneath, rolling away before he shattered the ground with a stomp. She lunged forward and Indra responded accordingly, a relentless flurry of attacks thrown from both sides. Most attacks were blocked and redirected, but sporadic flinches and fake-outs allowed for both to land unexpected counterattacks on each other.
They separated, flying back as Prasanna enveloped the arena in azure. The aura caused Indra to float. He avoided the spatial shift by directing black tendrils to shoot out of his boots and latch into the soil, cementing himself to the ground.
Prasanna curled her fingers, mimicking a bird’s talon. She altered the gravitational properties in her Aviary Zone to amplify the attractive forces between her and Indra, accelerating towards him.
Indra gathered Shakti in his fist, releasing it at the point of contact between them. Talons and fist met; Cassowary's Retribution and Devil’s Convergence split earth and sky in two. Prasanna’s eyes flickered in surprise at the dark feathered wing that emerged from Indra’s shoulder and the ring of darkness floating around his wrist.
“That’s a new look,” she remarked.
“You like it?” he smirked.
“It suits you, but I don’t think it's very polite to show off something like that without warning me about it first. It’s only fair that I show you mine,” Prasanna grinned wildly.
Indra witnessed a flash of Grisha’s personality bleed through her before Prasanna was engulfed in a cocoon of sapphire. Indra’s eyes widened as she emerged from the cocoon, glistening like an ethereal beauty. Her suit had been encased in a cut of the gem, four prismatic wings a shade of peacock blue emerging from her back.
“I call it Sapphire Faery,” she said, bringing her arms down in a cross.
A spatial rift formed in front of Indra. It twisted Indra’s flesh apart, a deep cross embedded in his chest. He pulled back, only to see a fist emerge from the rift’s opening. The impact sent Indra high into the sky, despite blocking the attack with both hands.
Prasanna flew up to intercept his landing. The two connected fists once more, azure light overwhelming shadow.
“We will perish at this rate! Do not mistake hubris for weakness. Use it now!” Usha exclaimed.
Not yet! She still hasn’t shown me everything in her arsenal!
“If you do not push her back, then she will not be inclined to do so!”
Indra grimaced. Usha was right, there was no use in saving his abilities for later.
“Petal Four: Dark Particle Theory.”
Beads of ink were released from Indra’s arm, floating all around the arena. He morphed into a minuscule black ball, shooting through the array of dark orbs. Prasanna’s eyes darted around trying to figure out which orb her opponent would emerge from.
Indra flew out of a bead, striking his opponent swiftly before reentering the array. She was caught off guard, a surprised expression on her face. Indra’s velocity picked up as he launched increasingly erratic and spontaneous attacks on Prasanna. His speed became so great that she felt each blow only after he had disappeared into the array once more. Strike after strike landed from all directions, allowing Prasanna not even a moment’s respite.
She screamed in frustration, yelling, “Fractal Theory!”
The space around them broke into an array of reflected images. The atmosphere fractured into an arrangement of geometric shapes. Indra’s array of ink beads added to the confusion of the environment as they clashed in a surreal plane of existence. The crossing of their abilities created void pockets, mimicking the effects of black holes, though nowhere near the degree of their cosmic counterparts.
They executed several more exchanges, furiously delivering an endless stream of attacks as they bounded across the fractal plane. Prasanna manifested geometric monoliths out of thin air as Indra swerved and flipped around them.
They had surpassed the threshold of what was possible for most Homunculi, bordering on a level of power that legendary warriors of old had possessed. The increasingly abstract pseudo-Domain Prasanna had conjured encumbered Indra greatly as it interfered with his movements at every turn while aiding his opponent.
A spiral stair-stepped structure slammed into him as he crashed through an aimlessly floating fractal wall. Several more of these structures appeared as he fought the plane’s contradictory fields of gravity. He evaded one, then two, kicking off the passing structures to reorient himself and redirect his momentum.
Indra couldn’t feasibly maneuver himself in the fractal plane long enough to reach Prasanna. He would need to negate the effects of the pseudo-Domain completely. “An imperfect Domain always has a weakness.” Indra grit his teeth; he did not want to think about him right now.
He reached out with his other senses, letting threads of his Shakti freely flow outward. The tendrils of energy cascaded around the plane as he strained his focus while dodging more of Prasanna's incoming attacks. He felt a slight pull from a thread near his navel, sending a signal across his skin. There!
“Is that all you got?!” Prasanna exclaimed, rushing Indra.
Indra suddenly removed his array with the swipe of a hand. “Not at all. Petal Five: Null.”
The fractured plane disappeared, along with Prasanna’s wings. Her eyes grew wide as Indra descended upon her, two wings tucked behind him as he pulled his arm back. Two rings spun around his wrist, pulsing with dark energy, eagerly anticipating the release of the primordial power stored within.
Prasanna closed her eyes, clenching her jaw. She crossed her arms over her chest and accepted her fate.
“Petal Three: Devil’s Convergence.”