Dimensional Descent

To Aina, the world had never felt clearer.

In one moment, her head was ringing, the world was spinning, her body felt like a wobbling mess, one action leading to three others she didn’t ask for.

And in the next, she was as solid as a rock.

No…

More accurately, she had found her rock.

The eyes of a man she could never forget, the smile, the heart, the soul.

Her mind trembled.

”[Instant Recovery]…” she whispered.

A blinding light pierced the skies.

Aina’s mind seemed absent for a moment, as though she hadn’t noticed the hammer coming at her. But then her wings flapped.

Talon felt like he was watching the most peculiar of things. Aina’s wings seemed to multiply, and in an instant, both of his hammers were struck at their weak points several times over.

At the same time, Aina had flapped her wings so hard that a massive crater appeared beneath her, blasting out a sphere of space and giving her room to rebound.

Talon’s momentum came to a grinding halt in the skies.

What happened?

He was stunned, but Aina had already moved again, her small fist flashing through the air with the power of stars.

Talon’s pupils constricted. Before the blow even landed, he changed his entire approach. Arrogant and oppressive as he was, he took the battle seriously.

Usually, he would at least suffer first, but as a veteran of battle, an elite warrior who felt he was beneath no one, his speed in recognizing his situation and reacting appropriately was second to none.

He crossed his hammers before his chest, clouds thundering above.

BANG!

He was sent flying, but his expression was calm. The lightning he called for fell right that instant, sliding into his hammers. They enlarged, with Force Arts of lightning and Destruction manifesting in them.

The Destruction pooled and pooled until the heads of the hammers increased yet another size. Then, in a shocking display, it overturned to creation, light blooming.

BOOM! BOOM!

Talon stamped out with his hammers twice.

Complex magic circles began to appear in Aina’s path, each one carrying the Auspicious Air of a Natural Force Art.

In the end, it had to be remembered that the most shocking thing about Talon wasn’t his power, it was his Force Crafting. Since Aina had decided to bring this out, she would suffer for it.

Aina’s second fist slammed into the first. To her own surprise, her momentum was greatly reduced.

Talon’s eyes flashed when he noticed this and immediately took advantage. He slammed his two hammers together, a roar leaving his peals as the second Natural Force Art expanded violently. Lightning flashed and danced like splitting sparks, and then…

A flood dragon took shape.

A roar, layered over Talon’s, shook the skies.

Aina had only just burst through the first Natural Force Art, only to be greeted by a true monstrosity. But what Talon hadn’t expected occurred at that moment.

As fast as he was to adapt to taking Aina seriously… Aina was a touch faster.

Never did Talon consider that someone would have to actively make such a choice for him. The only one he could even remotely accept such a thing from was the Demoness. But right now, he had no choice but to accept it.

The dullness in Aina’s eye vanished.

She was waiting for her husband to appear, but if she died before he got here… wouldn’t that be unacceptable?

She forgot about everything else and focused on the opponent in front of her.

The instant she did, it was like the skies had overturned for her alone.

Roses of blood appeared around her, Force Arts pooling from the surroundings, spontaneously spawning, no different from Aina’s thoughts in Clairvoyance. But this time, she felt like she was on another level entirely…

Because she had tapped into the abilities of a Wise Star Order.

A Force Pill formed in an instant, so quickly that the maw of the flood dragon had only just opened when it appeared before her palm.

Aina lightly slapped out, and the Force Pill flew into the mouth of the dragon.

BANG!

It only faintly touched the lightning when shattered. It seemed like things were over, until the flood dragon convulsed, collapsing from the skies as though ill.

Talon didn’t notice until it was too late. The instant his vision cleared, his dragon falling out of the skies, he was greeted with Aina’s fist.

BANG!

His nose collapsed into his skull.

A sharpness radiated from his eyes as though he didn’t feel the pain, and he swung his arm at Aina’s head.

His pupils couldn’t help but tremble when he realized Aina’s wing was already there.

Just what happened? How was she reading him so easily? The gap in power between them was obvious, but she was his perfect counter?!

No, she must be receiving help from somewhere else. He had been defeating her too thoroughly before. Just how was this happening? Was it that pillar of light?

PENG!

His hammer rebounded off Aina’s wing heavily.

”WHAT?!”

This time Talon couldn’t even hold back his reactions. His hammer bounced back, almost flying out of his hand as though he had hit some sort of solid rubber structure.

This wasn’t the density of Aina’s wing last time he touched it. What the hell happened?

He barely had the time to smell the medicinal effects in the air and come to a realization.

She hadn’t formed one pill in that split instant. She formed two, and the second was for herself… for no other reason than to change the structure of her body for this moment right here?

Just what sort of demon was he facing?

The spring back of his hammer left Talon’s chest wide open. He could already see Aina blasting right through him, such an opening in a battle of experts, when the other was entirely unprepared, only meant death.

And yet, he died in a manner he could have never expected.

”Who the hell touched my wife?”

An arrow fell from the skies, piercing right through his chest in the very opening Aina created.