Everyone stood up and formed a line behind Perceval as he led them out the back of the room in the sunroom. Gwen and Sam heard footsteps approaching and quickly hid behind some large foliage, not knowing what the situation was. The leaders walked through the sunroom, unaware of the girls' presence, and continued through a vine-covered door in the back. Exiting the mansion, they could see a beautiful orchard off to the side and a strange circular patio made of stone with intricate etchings in key points. Brunnya, Clarine, Lilina, Perceval, and Shanna moved on top of these spots, but one remained uncovered. Zephiel moved to the center of the patio, roughly fifty feet in radius while Cath, Elffin, Emory, Galle, and Roy stood to the side with puzzled looks on their faces.
Shanna giggled, "Oh I suppose this is the first time you young Lords and Ladies have seen a duel. Lady Emory, you come join Lord Zephiel in the middle. We will also need a volunteer to help complete the array. The rest of you can make chairs and sit outside the circle."
Roy headed for the inscription at first, but Galle stopped him and insisted. "I'm the one who caused this duel," Galle persuaded, "I should help with this array." Roy huffed then shrugged as he joined Cath and Elffin on the sidelines.
"Channel your magik into the rock as best you can, Lord Galle. It is important to keep a consistent flow, but given who is competing, you will want to be able to surge when they get close," Perceval explained. Galle nodded, closed his eyes, knelt on the inscription, and placed his hands on the writing. Soon, the floor lit up underneath his feet while the five others took various poses and activated their areas as well. Lights shot through pathways in the stone like spiderwebbing, Once it all connected, a dome arose with the same spiderwebbing pattern made of pure magik. Inside, however, the interior warped to a valley meadow that stretched several hundred feet in every direction. Beyond that were forests of evergreens and mountains in the distance. Emory immediately recognized this was the magik version of the holodeck.
As a ghostly figure, Perceval appeared between Emory and Zephiel and bowed slightly. He began, "Before you is a world made of pure magik, infinite in all directions. Brunnya, Clarine, Galle, Lilina, Shanna, and I are actively watching the duel but will only release the protective array if one of you yields or is knocked unconscious. The only rule is that you must not kill each other. Stand fifty feet apart and face each other; I'll countdown from three."
Zephiel pulled a pair of dark leather fingerless gloves from his pockets. On the back of each one, Emory saw the Grado clan crest, just like she had once seen Gwen put on a pair of boots. She took a defensive stance with her arms wide and outstretched while he took a boxing stance. Emory covered her body in the brilliant, prismatic magik she normally did, and, due to the magik environment, the grass beneath her vibrated like there was a breeze. On the other hand, Zephiel was covered in a dark orange magik that danced light a flame over his skin. Perceval looked at both of them before counting down aloud, "Three, two, one, begin!" His phantom figure disappeared as both competitors stared each other down.
In an instant, Zephiel appeared next to Emory and swung a hammer fist down on her head. She had just enough time to block the blow with two knife chops, though the mere force of the strike drove her into the ground a few inches. He swung a wild haymaker from the side and connected with Emory's side, sending her flying across the meadow. As she tumbled over the field, she dug her gauntlets into the ground like claws to slow her down. Zephiel didn't give her a chance to recover because just as Emory stopped, he appeared behind her and landed a straight kick to her back. It sent her back to the very same place where she started. Just as she regained her balance, he came in from the side with a heavy jab. Yet Emory caught this one with her hand, gripping onto the fist and glaring Zephiel down. "So, your intention is to overwhelm me early? I didn't realize we were going all out from the start," she hissed.
"Just to compete, you know I'm on a time limit," he growled, "Besides, what reason would I have to drag out this fight? I only have to win to break your appearance as the strongest." He attempted to slap her with his free hand, but she grabbed that hand too.
She advised him, "Then this will be your last chance to surrender. Otherwise, I will not hesitate to bring you down a few pegs in the most painful way possible." A shield popped into existence between them and sent Zephiel flying back ten feet. Both of his hands flopped and looked like they were dislocated; however, he just put them back in easily before getting off the ground.
"No chance," he grimaced as fifty baseball sized orbs the same color as the magik covering him appeared around him. With a flick of his fingers, they flew like meteors towards Emory. She extended her arm, pointed her palm towards the incoming projectiles, and projected a beam of Arcane magik that shot down each meteor. Zephiel wasn't done though, as he jumped back thirty more feet and created five hundred orbs this time. Emory grinned and generated another beam with her other hand to begin destroying the attack. The result was an explosion of sparkling blood orange energy that shined like a star in between them. Shockwaves from the blasts dug into the ground, making a deepening fissure the longer the assault continued. After twenty minutes, they both stopped, and the divide between them measured ten feet wide but several hundred feet deep.
"Are you ready to keep going?" Zephiel menacingly called, "I'm tired of these childish games." A bolt of orange lightning left his finger and headed for the sky. Within moments, dark clouds formed overhead while thunder was heard echoing overhead. Then rain began to fall, yet unlike normal rain, each drop burned the grass as it collided. Emory's shield protected her from the fiery rain, but that wasn't the problem. Zephiel flew into the sky and raised his hands over his head as an orb grew in the air. Two minutes later, a true meteor a mile wide had formed above his head and a devilish smirk covered Zephiel's face. He moved his arm down towards her, causing the swirling mass of magik to fly towards her as well. She put her wrists together like a comic superhero and generated an equal sized beam of magik that collided with Zephiel's attack. It exploded with such force that the entire landscape vibrated since even the protection array could barely contain the blast. Then Zephiel descended to an open area of the meadow followed by Emory running over but keeping a reasonable distance away.
Zephiel jeered, "I thought you were supposed to be a special Aurelias. So far, you're just the same as all the other ones I've met."
"Special or not, I'm still more than enough to beat you," Emory retorted, "How much time do you have left in meta form?"
"More than enough time to deal with you," Zephiel gritted his teeth as he charged forward. Emory matched his pace and bolted forward. His fist collided with her palm, and the shockwave alone kicked up the ground in the area. He tried to swing in with his other arm, but she used a knife hand at his wrist to redirect it. Pulling away from each other, they took a deep breath before Emory ran forward. She tried to hit him with a palm strike except he blocked with his forearm, creating a horrible cracking sound. With her hand blocked, she released a kick aimed at his side. Zephiel countered with a downward hammer strike, successfully redirecting her strike to his leg which shattered as well. A quick jab, though caught by Emory, separated the two again.
"That's a combination of the level three and four Blood sphere spells, isn't it?" Emory taunted, "I suppose it allows you take beatings in short bursts, but it's another reason you can't fight a protracted battle."
Zephiel roared, "Enough! I've humored you long enough! It's time to end this." Like an orange flash, he appeared next to her in an instant, delivering a solid blow to her stomach. It cratered her into the ground, stunning her for a moment that he used to launch a definitive stomp. However, Emory caught it at the last minute with both hands and stopped him from moving completely by running storm magik through her hands. Blood began to trickle out of Emory's nose as she got up and pushed Zephiel into the ground instead, all while holding his leg. "Not as easy as it looks controlling that much magik at once, is it?" Zephiel stuttered as he started regaining feeling in his face again, "You may have all the magik in the world, and eventually your body will be able to handle all that power. But right now, you're barely an adult."
"You don't know a single thing about me!" Emory screamed in a deep voice that was so powerful it drove Zephiel further into the ground. A horrific sight ensued as the earth around him curled over his body, encasing his entire body except his head. Then, the ground began to freeze over the shape of his body, and blood started running like snot out of her nose. During this whole process, her grip on his foot had tightened; by the time he was inside a literal glacier, only a mutilated husk remained. Slowly, she released his foot and walked over to the still struggling head. When she stood over his face, she knelt down and made a fist.
Emory gasped, "Don't tell me what I can and can't do." She hit him square on the cheek and knocked him out cold. Suddenly, the environment disappeared, and she found herself back in the middle of the array, though Zephiel remained bound and unconscious. Brunnya rushed over to Zephiel and set him free before checking his pulse; his magik cloak had disappeared the moment Emory punched him. Lilina managed to catch Emory before she collapsed on the ground. She was breathing heavily, and her magik cloak had also disappeared. Fortunately, the blood had stopped coming out of her face.
"Magik poisoning is pretty rare," Lilina admitted as she wiped the blood off Emory's face, "Though I suppose in your case, it's to be expected. Such power at such a young age. Lord Zephiel has had over a century to temper his body to harness that much magik at once while you used more at age eighteen. It's honestly a miracle you didn't explode."
"Explode? You mean if I used too much magik at once, I could pop like a balloon?" Emory coughed up some blood.
"Let me put it to you this way: your case right now is what I call a mild case, only because of your bloodline that is quickly adapting and healing you," Lilina explained, "And yet, you will still need to see the healers before we can even continue the meeting. Special healing beyond what you know of the Healing sphere."
Emory nodded, "But I won, right? The contest is over?" Her muscles felt like rocks, and several of her bones were cracked.
"You won," Lilina laughed, "Besides, after using meta form for that long, it'll be days before he can fight at full strength again. Congratulations, Supreme Lady. Now, let's get you to the healers." She picked up Emory and carried her to the second floor of the house. They went into a room with a few beds spread out where Lilina set down the young woman. Several other witches rushed over and began disrobing her followed by wrapping injured parts of her body in a strange gauze.
"What is this stuff? I feel tingly all over," Emory asked.
"Special healing gauze. First, it's been soaked in a natural concoction of pain relievers and anesthetics," Lilina explained, "Then Life Sow and level five Healing magik has been bonded with the soaked gauze. It'll patch up anything short of death in a few hours, except magik poisoning. I'd say a few days with how it looks but you could surprise me." Once Emory was all patched up, the two Councilors returned to the meeting room where everyone was already seated. A stifling silence engulfed the room since Zephiel's side didn't expect to lose and most of the new Councilors expected Emory to win by forcing him to drop meta form. Instead, she had outright overwhelmed him by using too much magik to defend against.
Perceval tapped his cane as Emory and Lilina sat down and announced, "Now that we have all returned, we can continue. By knockout, Lady Emory won the contest. Lord Zephiel, do you argue this?"
"No," Zephiel grunted, "I concede defeat."