Chill rent the air with a crackling snap. Mist poured from the walls of the city as a barrier rose from the parapet. Thicker than a man and made from perfectly clear ice, it encircled the entire capital.

Though the cold was fierce, it held none of the lethality Ranvir remembered from the northern glaciers. Instead, there was invested a strength and clarity in the formation belying a natural structure of such size.

He swung around, dodging Saleema’s attacks. Stones swarmed him by the dozen. With Loce’s help, he avoided injuries, taking only minor scrapes. Space writhed around him, forcing a retreat. She attempted to hamstring his speed, yet her renewed spirit had not compensated with refreshed techniques. He swept aside her attempts to hamper him and rushed from her domain.

She followed at a stately pace, each footstep landing on a plate of hardened space. Saleema had retrieved new clothes from somewhere and now wore an old outfit of an outdated style. Her pants were looser, hanging low to the knees, while her top was much tighter than any he’d seen on modern Ankirians.

After initially escaping his Sand Barrage, she’d been naked for a time. Eventually, she’d retreated, appearing in this outfit. Despite being new, it was still ragged and moth-eaten. An odd smell lingered on the ripped and strange clothes. One Ranvir wasn’t too keen on getting familiar with.

In her escape, something new had changed. Her spirit had coalesced. Gathered into a form resembling that of a normal person. Almost. His senses were sharp enough to cut at the core of her spirit, revealing not the injury, but the break.

Dhaakir’s soul, when stretched to the limit, revealed a dark man violating others for the experience. Saleema’s spirit was unlike any Ranvir had ever fought. He did not fight children. Despite her outward appearances, despite the strength of her soul, she was only a kid. Bleeding and in need of help.

What kind of man was the Sun King from whom the entire royal bloodline was named? Bacchus the First. What drove him to hurt a kid so much? It left a vile taste in Ranvir’s mouth. Her advancement had struck her spirit, reverberating through her like the ring of a gong. Vibrating and shaking until it found a vulnerability.

It was with the volatility of a child she lashed out. Tantrums on the scales of mountains. He shook with it. Not anger, but a black fear searing his stomach to a char.

In this moment, struggling with her, he could sense her clearly. The impetuous fury of a babe, bafflement at his refusal to bend. To his spirit, it felt no different from waking Frija up on a morning when she didn’t want to go to school.

And he had to fight her.

Wind swirled around him again, snow thawing to rain as the cyclone enveloped him. It rushed faster, thrumming with some echo from his spirit and a sound emerged. It started low, rising quickly until it threatened to shatter his ears. Saleema cocked her head and winced, purple eyes staring at him in confusion.

The keening cry tapered off and Ranvir found his breath steadying. Inside its cage, Graywing had spread its wings, staring into the firmament of its containment.

“You are sad,” Saleema said. “Don’t be. This will not take long, Stranger.”

She didn’t sound like a child. In fact, there was cold intelligence behind those eyes. Once more, the distortion of her spirit and body. With her spirit ‘restored,’ it should be vulnerable.

But managing even something as simple as an attack would be difficult. Below them, the barrier finished, gleaming in the afternoon light and streaming chill mist into the surroundings.

Ranvir steeled himself. “Let’s end this, then.” Bursting into motion, he rushed her, sending Sand Barrage ahead of him. She howled in either anger or amusement and launched skyward. Rocks fell from her, cracking the air as they passed through freshly generated space. Each trailed on a different trajectory, racing towards him from new angles.

Loce burst from him, shattering two stones, and redirecting another three. Ranvir focused on the last seven. Compressing space made two overshoot, another couple he dodged and Bastion’s defensive wall ate the last three.

Of course, she was not finished. More stones followed, and the chase intensified. Each of her attacks was born, not on the wings of killing intent, but a primal emotional meltdown. And yet, her cold expressionless face seemed unaware of the spirit behind her attacks.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

But the chase would not end with a physical closing of the space. They both understood this. Saleema was careful to keep a fitting barrier around herself. Enough space that he couldn’t close quickly.

However, the nature of her attacks were ill-suited for handling Loce and the more practice the storm locust got from fighting her, the better it got at eliminating her projectiles. And Loce’s numbers and size meant keeping perfect track was impossible.

As the chase continued on, Ranvir divvied up pocket-spaces, no bigger than a meter on any side, and stuffed them with locust. Making up the losses, he pumped mana into the spirit, forming new insects to replace the losses.

Saleema flicked a gaze around, her tether-sense sweeping like a falling tower across the landscape as she searched. Noticing his increased mana output without seeing the effect, Ranvir figured. He was out of time.

Instantly, he reached through space, opening a box before her. Space flexed and strained, Loce’s container shearing apart, yet that didn’t stop the insect from appearing before her. She punched compressed space, energy lines emerging from the other end. She only kept them from her own body, letting them spread throughout Loce’s form.

A few grasshoppers shot into the lines and through the compressed space, their forms tearing into motes of mana as the wind-resistance tore them apart. Yet, the force of her blow also traveled the other way. Bugs exploded into mana in a field before her, clearing her surroundings.

Yet, she was distracted. Dune Blow trailing from one hand and a storm bolt in the other, Ranvir rushed her from behind. Both attacks detonated on target, destroying the rest of the surrounding swarm, which he immediately began replacing.

She emerged from the cloud, eyes burning fever bright, the physical only sign of the complete explosion of emotions projecting through the spirit. Her sleeve had been ripped and rasped raw, but Ranvir couldn’t tell if it had done anything to her spirit.

Instead of attacking him, however, she thrust him away. Space compressing all around him, yet each twisting him away. The wind shattered into silence as space rippled beneath him. His eyes darkened as the world shifted rapidly around him. It took him only a couple seconds to right himself and disperse the speed, yet he’d fallen far outside her Discipline.

Perception sharpened his eyes, honing on the figure hovering above the suddenly distant capital city. The glittering dome of ice turned opaque at this angle. Ranvir flexed his fingers and checked on the other spaces he’d prepared. Then he began closing on her, blurring first past the academy, then reaching the city and her Discipline of Wings at the same time.

He had five spaces left. In his chase, he saw the moment she figured out what he was attempting. Though her spirit reacted not at all, uncomprehending of the situation, her eyes hardened and jaw set.

She baited the attack out of him and he unleashed his next box, which shattered to a similar blow as the first. Yet, he dumped another box in immediately afterward, this one close enough to crawl on her. For a moment, her soul seemed to recognize the insects crawling over her and seized up.

All throughout her Discipline, space flickered and halted before her body mastered her mana. Ranvir’s attacks were much closer. A shiver ran through her spirit with each impact.

She shoved him away again, following with stones as fast as she could send them. It would seem she remembered the last time they fought hand-to-hand. Ranvir dispersed the speed much faster, barely outside her reach this time. Though the rocks stung, they traveled far enough to lose much speed.

Ranvir entered her space once more, his spirit drawn tight around him. Honing a fine edge around his next Dune Blow. Again, he started his approach. Once more, she saw through it.

First, she attempted to bait his attack by focusing her attention on him, both tether-sense and Disciplines layering over Ranvir. Yet, the ploy was easily seen through and she dismissed it quickly. Which was when he struck.

Two boxes opening around her, leaving just one left. Dune Blow spinning up with all his power. Spirit and mana nearly entirely focused into a singular attack. Then, as she dispersed the two swarms, Ranvir slipped into his own space, and opened his last box. In his head, he counted down the moments between her reaction and the energy lines.

Then he burst forth. Sparking purple embers dispersed into the air, her attack against Loce already fading. Ranvir drove his fist forward, the rushing wind of Dune Blow ripping at his ears. He struck her full on. Clothes, skin, and spirit ripped, sanded to strips and torn.

Sand blew past her. Saleema’s stomach lining laid bare, liquids weeping from the injury. Pain flickered and burned in both spirit and eyes as she looked at him. But she was neither stunned nor surprised. The flat of her palm struck his chest and space twisted behind him. A space, she prepared separate from Vednar, much like he’d made the boxes for Loce, opened behind him.

He blacked out.

A moment. He had a single moment, a fraction of a second. Bastion. With all his force, and he saw the remnants of Loce wrapped around him.

He was lying on the ground, looking up at the wall. The ground shook as something heavy and cold struck the ground near him.

From this perspective, the city’s defenses looked massive and almost seemed to lean over him. Especially the towering ice wall.

Leaning.

His back hurt.

Leaning.

He took a deep breath, and the world spun around him.

Leaning. No, tipping.

Clarity swum to him slowly. A languid approach, only to rip the veil from his eyes.

Screams. People crying out within the city. Ice groaning and breaking. The dome had shattered.