The vacuum bit at Elyonari's lungs, or at least it would have if she needed to breathe right away, but High Priestesses of Mintherenia were… different. Her physiology was half-spiritual, half-nature, built to withstand the impossible for a few precious minutes.
But the plan wasn't looking good. Space was a blank, cruel canvas where almost none of her arsenal even existed.
Lightning was pointless. Fire? Starved. Earth? Gone. Water? Dead mass. Air? Non-existent.
Her mind ran through options even as the miniature sun roared toward her in hateful glory. She was trapped in the very element Narisva ruled. This was her dimensional space and she was trapped in it on purpose.
'I didn't want to do this but...'
She stopped resisting the heat.
The sun hit her.
It wasn't immediate death because Elyonari did something that only a Split of Life chosen by the World Tree could do:
She absorbed it.
Not the entire star, not its density, nor its gravity, nor its core, just the heat and the raw, violent plasma rippling off its surface.
Her flesh charred instantly. Her robes disintegrated. Her arms flared like torches. Her hair lifted like a halo of burning filaments but she endured.
She invited the plasma in.
It crawled across her body like liquid fire, clinging to her skin. Elyonari grimaced as every nerve in her body was screaming but she moved anyway, lifting her bow as the star detonated around her.
'Mintherenia… bear witness.'
She drew the bowstring.
The plasma erupted toward her like a spiral galaxy collapsing inward. She infused all of it with Nature Energy, overloading it. It was the most beautiful and horrifying arrow she had ever crafted. With Elyonari still inside the detonation of her own miniature sun, Narisva didn't even see it leave the bow.
The arrow crossed the vacuum and buried itself straight into her throat.
Narisva gagged violently. Blood sprayed out in a red mist that hung suspended in the vacuum. The force cracked the pocket dimension she created. The dimension shattered like thin glass.
Both women fell.
The air rushed back violently, slamming into them in a thunderous shockwave that tore lines across the arena floor. Clouds spiraled downward from the atmosphere (since the Richinaria Palace is on a floating island in the clouds), forming a vortex over the arena. When the ground finally stopped trembling, Elyonari lay unconscious. Her arms were charred black and her skin was burned down almost to the bone. Her bow lay beside her completely fine.
Narisva staggered upright, gripping her torn, bleeding throat. Her vision flickered. Her equilibrium was gone. Every breath sounded like knives scraping down her windpipe.
Narisva Starisnova was nearly killed.
She pressed her palm to her neck but her Divinity couldn't keep up. Her voice refused to form. All she could do was wince and choke on another mouthful of blood.
A pillar of water erupted upward, twisting into the shape of a woman before reforming into Lysameria herself. The Nexus didn't look impressed, surprised or even worried. One wave of her hand and the entire arena shifted as if obeying her heartbeat. A soothing burst of divine healing washed over Elyonari. Steam hissed from her arms as new skin formed. Elyonari gasped sharply and lurched upright, clutching her chest as breath finally rushed in.
She blinked a few times, still dazed, then turned her head and froze. Narisva looked half-dead.
"That was… my strongest arrow. I used every drop of Nature Energy I had and it only caused a severe burn on your neck? Just how durable are you?"
Narisva tried to speak but only managed a rasping, broken noise that made her flinch in pain. Her throat was charred from the inside. Lysameria glanced down at Narisva like inspecting a cracked blade.
"You're fighting Adelasta next so recover quickly."
Narisva looked up at her, disbelief and agony twisting across her features.
Recover? From this?
The Nexus didn't care.
"And Narisva, if that arrow had been even a fraction stronger or if it was not in your dimension, you wouldn't be standing right now. Remember that."
Narisva coughed again with blood running down her chin.
Adelasta descended into the arena. Her footsteps were barely stirring the debris but the pressure that followed her was enough to make even Lysameria glance over with narrowed eyes. Narisva, still drenched in blood and soot, forced herself upright. Her breathing was shallow. Her neck trembled every time she tried to swallow. Her entire body shook from Elyonari's final arrow and every beat of her heart sent another pulse of pain up into her skull.
Adelasta eyed the burns, the half-charred flesh on Narisva's throat and the dried and fresh blood smeared down her chest.
"Elyonari really got a good shot in. This will be over in seconds."
Narisva said with rattling croak that barely counted as a voice.
"I'm… not down yet…"
Adelasta just tilted her head. "No. You already are. After all, Phaenora and Elyonari already did their job. Why do you think we're letting this play out? Why do you think you're even standing here?"
"Wh–what are you talking ab—"
"Why do you believe you're like us?"
For a moment, Narisva's heart stopped.
"What?"
"Vastarael died for you. You were stronger and faster than him and still, he died for you. Everything that happened after? Every disaster, every consequence, every chain reaction? All of it started with you."
Narisva felt something bitter rise in her throat.
"I wanted to fight you at your best but clearly, that's not going to happen."
The words stung worse than the burns. Narisva used Hyper Relative Velocity in a desperate surge and Sight Teleportation. She pushed her body beyond its limit and appeared in front of Adelasta, determined to wipe that expression off her face.
But the moment she appeared, her pupils shrank. Adelasta's eyes were glowing.
The Mystic Eyes of Perception.
In those two burning irises, Narisva saw everything. Her movements were calculated before she executed them.
"What—"
Adelasta moved before Narisva even inhaled. One step and her fist slammed into Narisva's stomach with such precision that it folded her in half. The impact was silent and then the delayed shock hit that stole every thread of air from Narisva's lungs. She collapsed. Her knees hit stone before she even realized she was falling. She stared up at Adelasta, wheezing, her eyes wide with disbelief. Adelasta smiled down at her like a teacher humoring a child.
"You got weaker."
Narisva tried to speak. Nothing came out.
"You think you're stronger now but while you've been pretending you don't need anyone after you believed Vastarael died, the rest of us have been training every single day since the Fallen Bridge."
Narisva's heart dropped.
"You're fighting like an Ascender, not a Divine. Too bad."
Before Narisva could even blink, before she could even twitch out of instinct, she felt a slight distortion through the air.
She didn't see it. She didn't feel it but she heard something hit the ground.
She looked down.
Her arm wasn't attached.
"Huh?"