…
Thor walked the hallway of the deep end, holding his chin and deep in thought.
(What will you do now, My disciple?) Scathach's question shook him from his musings.
"Ah, I don't know," Thor said out loud, giving a light nod to the guards as he passed them.
(You don't know, since when do you not have a plan?)
Thor picked up on the surprise in his master's tone. And he agreed; he, too, was surprised with himself. Even in the worst situations, he had at least had a semblance of a plan for almost everything. But now, he had no point to go to to bring Aurora back.
'Since now I guess, but what about you, teach, got any ideas as a godslayer?'
(...None.)
Thor shrugged, already expecting that answer.
Instead, he turned his attention to the scene he had just arrived at and paused.
"??"
(Well, now, that's quite a sight, isn't it?)
He nodded.
What he saw was something that, while not impossible, was something Thor didn't see happening for a long time.
…
Fifteen minutes ago.
Kevin, Su, Eden, Sakura and Mobius had received a call to head to training dome 3. All of them thought it was from Thor, considering that AURORA was the one to deliver it, but imagine their surprise when they saw Elysia smiling gently at them when they arrived.
That on its own wouldn't be strange; maybe she would have been called there too? No, what they were surprised to see was Kalpas and Kosma out cold in a training dome that looked more like a battlefield.
Mobius, having been pulled away from experimenting on a new kind of lifeform, frowned the moment she saw Elysia, crossing her arms under her generous chest. "Elysia. This better be life or death." As she finished, an oppressive aura surged from her.
The other's sweatdropped at the death-calling aura Mobius radiated, debating whether they should use this chance to leave and let the snake and elf fight it out.
"Oh~ But it is Moby-Chan~" Elysia winked at Mobius, a vein bulged in Mobius' head at the nickname she loathed so much, and her aura grew more dreading.
Elysia ignored it and continued, "Just that it is your life and death~ hehe~" Elysia giggled, her pink jewel-like eyes shimmering, and everyone in that moment shuddered, feeling as if their deepest secrets were exposed to Elysia.
Mobius' frown deepened, "Tch! I thought something was off about you–"
"No, no~ Nothing is 'off' about me." Elysia tapped her chin, stepping over the downed form of Kosma and slowly approaching the group. "It's more like~ I don't want my friends to die~" Despite her tone being friendly and cheerful, none of them, not even Mobius, could grasp what was going on with Elysia.
"Wha–" Kevin tried to talk, but found he couldn't.
"Shhh~" Elysia pressed a finger to her own lips. "Don't ask too many questions~"
Honkai energy condensed in her hand, forming a bow. Elysia raised the bow, aimed at them, pulled the string back and only when a pink arrow started to manifest did they regain the ability to talk and evidently move.
"Shit!" Kevin cursed, his own Honkai energy flaring as he jumped aside, the others only a fraction of a second slower before they, too, flared their prowess and moved out of the arrow's path.
Kevin's body was covered in a thin layer of icy frost. Sakura drew her blade, snowflakes falling around her. Mobius' Honkai energy condensed into a thick black sludge that spread across the ground. Eden glowed golden as runes activated, enhancing her physical ability, while she drew many runes in the air that quickly flew off, attaching themselves to multiple points across the dome. And Su, well, Su didn't really have much of a flashy prowess like the others, since his powers were more psychic and were more suited to debuffing his foe.
But despite facing such a lineup of the 4-9th strongest beings after Thor, herself and Aponia, Elysia only found their actions amusing; clearly, they were only half taking her seriously. None of them was even using their cascade forms, "Mou~". She aimed her shot at Su, knowing that he would be the most troublesome for her demonstration.
"Su!" Kevin shouted.
"I know!" Su gritted his teeth; his psychic abilities might be strong, strong enough to even confuse a herrscher, but against Elysia, he doubted he could affect her mind enough to cause her arrow to miss. "Damnit, Ely!"
Elysia only smiled, and then, she released the arrow. The air trembled as the sound barrier broke, a boom causing the whole dome to vibrate. The arrow broke the sound barrier with a boom and appeared before Su's chest in the blink of an eye.
No one could react fast enough, despite knowing the path and target of the arrow; none of them could reach there in time. Sakura only managed to cross half the distance, and Kevin, despite being next to Su, could only follow the arrow with his eyes.
But then, Su's eyes widened as the arrow pierced through his chest, and he staggered backwards, clutching at his chest.
"Su!" Sakura yelled, her sword glowing blue, but before she could teleport to Su, Elysia fired another arrow. Sakura reacted, driving her blade to slice the arrow cleanly in two, but a second one had already reached her, piercing through her shoulder, pinning her to a wall.
"Ely–" Kevin growled, but before he could say anything else, Elysia had already fired three more arrows, pinning Kevin's legs and arms to the ground. He tensed his muscles to pull himself free of the arrows, but they wouldn't budge an inch.
In less than five seconds, Elysia had rendered Su, Sakura and Kevin unable to continue, but not in the way that they were unable to fight, but that they would already be dead if Elysia intended to do so.
Eden and Mobius looked on in shock, their eyes snapping between the incapacitated trio and Elysia, who had at some point turned her bow on them, her face still holding that gentle smile she had when they entered.
"Don't blink, you might die early~" Elysia cooed as an arrow manifested in her bow again.
Mobius' instincts pleaded with her to use her cascade form; Eden was no better, no matter how many defensive runes she used, nothing felt like enough.
These were only amplified when Elysia made her next showing, around her, hundreds, if not thousands, of arrows manifested, all containing enough power to wipe out entire towns if detonated.
Mobius gulped and let instinct take over, calling upon her cascade form. The black sludge she created ceased its spread, only to rush back to Mobius, engulfing her.
Hundreds of runes surrounded Eden, hiding her body from sight as she too entered her cascade form.
Elysia's smile faltered for a moment. She was both pleased and disappointed, pleased that they were taking her seriously now, but also disappointed that it took this much for them to get serious.
But she didn't have time to think further as a towering black and green serpent sprouted from the black sludge that had previously engulfed Mobius, with two large arms, golden adornments holding a large trident-like spear. The Honkai energy radiating from her dwarfed her previous self entirely.
Eden was next, the sphere of glowing runes that surrounded Eden expanded until it reached over twenty meters before splintering all over, followed by a rainbow-like glow and the runic shell bursting.
And just like Mobius, Eden's cascade form resembled that of an animal, and in Eden's case, an aquatic-like creature, resembling that of a whale, with runic markings appearing across its body that spun around it. And as if to keep the theme with that of a whale, the air felt heavy, as if they were now deep under water, facing pressure hundreds of times greater than the surface.
Both Eden and Mobius had contained their overwhelming auras within the dome, subsequently amplifying the effects. Su, Kevin and Sakura were unaffected, all being far, far beyond the human limit, let alone Elysia, the one forcing them to this state. She was entirely calm, staring at their forms as if she wasn't affected by their dramatic leap in power.
"Elysia…" A heavy, distorted version of Mobius' voice came from the serpent.
With a wink to Mobius, Elysia let go of her arrow, and with it, the thousands of arrows floating in the air shot towards Mobius and Eden.
A deafening explosion, resembling that of a nuclear bomb, erupted at the moment of impact, but Elysia didn't care about that; instead, she gazed at the thin golden aura coating not just herself, but the others as well as the dome itself. She turned to catch a glimpse of Thor before her vision was blocked by a cloud of dust and debris.
…
(...)
"A crude way to go about it, but…" Thor grimaced. Elysia had told him she would 'motivate' the others to push to get stronger, but back then, he didn't think Elysia meant this.
(Reminds me of my old methods) Scathach mumbled, as if feeling nostalgic.
Thor raised a brow, 'Old? I'm sure I remember–'
(Hmm?)
'Nothing~'
Thor returned his gaze to the fight, if you could even call it that, saying it was a demonstration would be more fitting, but now that the dust was clearing and he could see the aftermath, despite the pang he felt seeing those he cared for in such states, he trusted Elysia, and therefore trusts in her methods, if she says it will motivate them, he will just have to trust her.
In the dome, the dust cleared, revealing a striking image. Mobius' cascade form was riddled with holes, dripping black sludge as if she was barely able to hold its shape together, her trident-like spear shattered to pieces. Eden's state was no better; the rotating rings of runes were shattered, her cascade form gone as she lay sprawled on the dome floor. missing an arm, bleeding from multiple places, bruised, and her clothes tattered. If one looked closely, one would see the wounds on her body stitching themselves shut, and muscle in her severed arm already regrowing.
In the middle of the training dome, Elysia stood unharmed, only a layer of dust coating her uniform, but that was it; Elysia was completely untouched outside of that. In less than a minute, she had beaten them all.
Brushing her pink hair aside, Elysia looked between the five, her face serious. "I don't want you to die, so get stronger, okay." Gone was the playful, bubbly tone she had had the whole time; even her body language was stiff while saying that line.
Elysia knew that they could hear her. Eden and Mobius might be heavily injured, but these were, at best, superficial if left to heal in hours. She might have pushed it a little, but she could see they were processing her words. 'These eyes of mine are really cool~'
Elysia hummed as she un-summoned her bow and, with a bounce in her step, hummed while heading out of the dome, leaving the seven other FlameChasers behind to think over her words.
…
"What else can we try?" Aurora asked her alternate self.
(We could try warping again) Alter suggested.
Aurora thought for a moment before shaking her head, "We can't, you saw what happened last time, I fried my whole body. Mei's explanations on electromagnetism are too confusing for us." She sighed while scratching her head.
Alter felt offended (Don't throw me in with the likes of you. I actually listen in Mei's class.)
She rolled her eyes at Alter's words, 'Yeah, right, we wouldn't be here if you knew how!'
Sighing, Aurora took a glance at her surroundings, "Where are we anyway?" All she could see was a deep blue expanse; purple, cubic-like blocks made up the 'Land' of this infinite sea, resembling a type of quantised data block.
(...A quantum realm? Like the ones Mei and Einstein taught us about?)
Aurora found herself silently agreeing with Alter's theory, maybe it was a type of quantum realm, and it would make sense too, since the warping they tried earlier, when stuck in the imaginary realm, tapped into some of the highest levels of her power, which is a miracle they made it even here alive.
But that then posed a greater question: "How do we escape a quantum realm?"
(...)
…