[TWS] Chapter 302 – Déjà Vu

After gracing Asterios with a subtle nod, the queen took her place opposite him. Since she didn’t seem to possess an artifact with a similar ability to transform, they drew their weapons from the start, making it as fair as they could. Civienne stood with her beautiful yet deadly rapier extended forward and her figure slightly angled, holding one arm folded behind her back. Asterios was sure that he would be facing the queen at her best, even if she was still disguised.

Readying his new greatsword, he wondered how exactly she would fight. They hadn’t heard that much about her besides little snippets from a person or two here and there, but everyone made Civienne sound strong. And she had to be, considering her history. But, Asterios would be dealing with an unknown, pretty much.

It was a good opportunity to learn more about the Elf Queen before they would bring down justice upon the poison cult together. There was no doubt that she would be leading the charge against the evil organization just like she had in the past.

The bright flash signaling the start of the spar wrenched him out of his contemplation and Asterios hastily reached for the draconic sources lying in wait for his orders inside his chest. Not wanting to offend the queen by underestimating her, he fully materialized his half-draconic form, bringing out his scales, wings, tail, and horns.

As the crimson and onyx energies flowed into his new sword, the red edge came alive with a blood-like sheen while the black core became as dark and menacing as the Void itself. He had already slotted six crystal sigils into the open spots and felt them ready to be activated. Asterios wasn’t certain if he would make use of those, but he would rather have them than not.

He expected Civienne to strike right away since she was definitely already well-accustomed to her weapon, even if it was a temporary or not main one, but the queen just observed him calmly, unhurriedly walking sideways. Therefore, after filling his body with scorching hot mana, he tensed his legs and wings and launched himself forward with an echoing thump.

Asterios appeared in front of the queen within a single blink, drawing a wide arc with his greatsword. Her much smaller rapier daintily moved to intercept it and she barely altered her posture. To Ast’s surprise, his blade passed her by a hair’s breadth and completely missed its target just from the delicate nudge it experienced from Civienne’s rapier.

Retaining his momentum, he swung again from behind the queen, but she was already turned around too, and deflected his second strike with the same amount of grace. No matter at what angle he tried slicing into her, she always had just enough time to tickle his weapon with her own while making slight adjustments to her posture, avoiding any kind of damage. It felt like Asterios was trying to hit a ghost or swinging at empty air. If his eyes didn’t register their blades colliding for a fraction of a second, he would be sure there was completely no contact between them. It was like the queen had a gift of premonition and could see where and how he would attack her.

That thought gave him a pause and Asterios backed off. Further enhancing his vision to bring forth his Eyes of the World, he quickly scanned Civienne’s figure. As expected, her entire body was surrounded by a tightly-condensed layer of green mana, including her rapier. But, that in itself didn’t betray anything else besides perhaps some advanced strengthening techniques. She wasn’t focusing her energy on any organ in particular, which Asterios had learned to distinguish from plenty of fights and training spars with his mates.

And that further convinced him that he was right.

Closely observing the queen and her surroundings with his special sight, he attempted another lunge and a strike. As his blade entered the queen’s vicinity, faint traces of greenish energy surrounded it as if it was cutting through an invisible layer of smoke or water. The moment that happened, Civienne started adjusting her body and dragging her rapier in a perfect path to deflect his blow with the least effort on her side.

He smiled to himself, and in the very last second, Asterios pushed more mana into his sword, extending it past its tip just like Miria often did. The queen visibly flinched and her rapier shot to a different position with a much more erratic movement, crashing much harder against Ast’s blade and making an audible, metallic noise along with a small shower of sparks this time. Civienne jumped back after blocking his strike and a few black hairs floated down the ground next to her shoulder.

“Looks like you figured me out.” Her brows rose ever so slightly. “That was quite fast, I must say.”

Asterios chuckled lightly. “You are just unlucky. Someone I know uses a similar technique, though based on hot air rather than delicate wind currents.”

Just as he said, the queen was constantly surrounding herself with a gentle, invisible breeze, which allowed her to perfectly sense the trajectory and strength of the upcoming blow. It wasn’t that far off from what Silvia had achieved in her duel with Welrond, just much more subtle and less noticeable. And, it established that the queen’s main element was wind, which somehow matched the color of her mana.

“I guess this is the point where we stop playing around and go at it with full seriousness,” Civienne commented. “Let’s see if I still got it.”

The wind around her suddenly picked up, now completely visible without having to rely on any additional techniques. The green, see-through energy coiled around the queen and focused over her thin blade, turning it bright jade. With an additional spiritual cover, it expanded a little bit.

Asterios did the same and fed his greatsword both draconic energies, aiming for an effect similar to what he had been able to achieve with his other artifact sword. His new one burst into condensed flames too, but the crimson fire glimmered just over the red edge. Another flame-like energy coursed through the onyx core, perfectly harmonized with the red one. He could feel their heat and wondered what would happen if he added Silvia’s fire to the mix, but decided not to do that in the current situation.

This time, both he and the queen rushed forward to meet in the middle. Their blades clashed with an explosion of wind and heat, causing their clothes and hair to flutter. Deflecting the blow to the side, she launched a barrage of stabs at Asterios and they whizzed past him like sharpened arrows as he dodged the infused strikes. The wall behind him wasn’t so lucky and received a bunch of humongous holes in its surface as the condensed wind energy burst out on contact.

He spun around and created a raging tornado of crimson flames, directing its path toward the queen. She traced vertical circles with her rapier with utmost precision and sent a smaller cyclone into the giant typhoon. The accurate blow broke its integrity and caused it to vanish with a pleasant whoosh.

From within the retreating obstruction, Asterios lunged forth with his twice-as-big flaming blade above his head. The queen shot a burst of air to her side to push herself out of its way as it slammed into the ground and released more flames around the point of impact, singing her clothes a little bit.

Asterios quickly followed the failed strike with a few arcs of pure fire but Civienne cut right through them with her sharp, wind-infused rapier. Technically speaking, her element had an advantage over his, but that didn’t stop him from putting up a good fight. His overall strength was definitely higher, even if Asterios purposefully didn’t release all of it during the bout.

The queen went into the offensive next and rained her own arcs upon him. Hers were invisible to the naked eye, compared to the flaming ones. Thankfully, Ast’s draconic vision allowed him to see them without an issue and he deflected every single one easily. Noticing that her little trick wouldn’t work, Civienne rushed in, taking her weapon into two hands and lowering it to the ground like a much bigger and heavier sword.

She started making mighty upward and downward slashes at Asterios, often dragging the tip of her rapier over the wooden ground. Splinters and dust followed her blows, trying to assault Ast’s eyes, but they burned to cinders before reaching them as he too was surrounded by his own aura. They continued to exchange heavy blows until the queen suddenly jumped away and took a relaxed stance.

He raised a curious brow at her and spotted the faintest trace of a smile as the edge of the queen’s lips curled up a tiny bit. Her eyes skipped down and he followed her gaze to his feet. He instantly realized that the deep cuts in the ground that had been left by her slashes weren’t accidental. They created a sophisticated formation. One he was right in the middle of.

Civienne drove her rapier into the edge of the array and her greenish energy filled the thin trenches in a flash. A weird wave washed off Asterios and his breath suddenly caught in the back of his throat. He tried to take another one, but while he definitely drew something in, it lacked the usual feeling accompanying such action. The flaming extension covering his blade flickered out of existence, returning it to its initial state of slightly shining metal.

“Did you know there’s a special particle in the air that allows us to breathe properly and the fire to burn continuously?” the queen asked as she slowly stepped into the formation. “I just took it away from this space. What are you going to do now? I bet your draconic body can last a long time without taking another breath, but can it last forever under heavy physical strain?”

Asterios certainly felt quite inconvenienced by the inability to breathe. It constantly weighed on his mind, which sent plenty of signals to his body that things were not looking good and the current situation should be remedied immediately. His flames wouldn’t be of much help if what the queen had said was true, and he at least knew she hadn’t lied about how the air and fire worked. That was one of the basic lessons in the academy.

But, normal flames weren’t the only thing in his arsenal.

With a small smirk, Asterios reaffirmed his grip on his greatsword, and the blade suddenly burst into silent, violent, black flames. They behaved more like a seeping smoke, but they quickly condensed over his weapon and continued to drip off it like ominous steam.

“What?” The queen stopped in her tracks and examined the created formation once more.

He knew she was checking if it worked properly. Only she should have been enveloped in a thin cushion of air, allowing her to breathe and move just as usual. But, she wouldn’t find anything. Asterios was still trapped in her little trick.

Deciding to end things quickly, he drove his menacing blade into the ground too and a wave of seeping darkness erupted from the floor. It rolled toward the queen, forming the shape of a gigantic hand. She hastily expanded her violent wind to surround herself with a barrier of spiritual energy but the black, flaming fingers closed themselves around her small bubble, preventing her from retreating to her blade, which was still stuck in the edge of the formation.

She struggled to push against the force crushing her barrier, getting almost completely swallowed by darkness. Asterios focused his mind on applying more pressure with his black mana, aiming to crush the wind shield to bits before Civienne blasted his black flames away.

But, before that happened, a shout reached his ears. “I surrender!”

Asterios recalled the flames and Civienne floated down to the ground next to her rapier. She pulled it out of the floor, deactivating the formation. He took a deep breath and sighed heavily as everyone jogged up to them.

“Looks like I fell into my own trap,” Civienne commented with her usual, calm tone. “I couldn’t conjure wind strong enough to break through your cage while within the array. I let my guard down.”

“I feel like you still could have escaped if you really wanted to,” he replied with a smile.

“True, but neither of us wanted to reveal all of our cards during this match, isn’t that right?” She slightly raised her brow at him.

“Certainly. Things would have ended differently if I had chosen to shift into my draconic form to neutralize your trap.” Asterios chuckled. “But, that wasn’t the point of this training.”

“You are right.” Imadil patted him on the shoulder. “And how was the sword?”

“Incredible.” Asterios nodded gratefully. “I feel like I’ve barely scratched the tip of the iceberg with this bout. It seems like it can do much more than my old artifact. It will take me a moment to discover all its secrets, but I can already tell that it’s perfect to mix my energies together.”

“Your fight was amazing, Master!” Miria beamed at him excitedly. “I wish you could have gone even further, using our abilities too! Or the ones you brought out in Bryn’s world! That would have been awesome!”

“I’m afraid it would have been way too much for this place.” The Valkyrie laughed softly. “Don’t forget that your fight almost completely melted the arena.”

“You girls also still had plenty of unused tricks in your own fights. Seeing them in the play would have been something too,” Asterios countered. “But, I think this weapon-focused practice can be considered a success with what we have achieved.”

“We are now definitely ready to kick some cultist ass!” Grea threw her fist into the air. “They have no idea what’s coming for them!”

“If only we had any idea where their base is…” Tina sighed dejectedly. “Our investigation brings barely any results…”

“Perhaps I could be of some help in that regard.”

Asterios practically jumped out of his skin as a familiar, neutral voice sounded right by his side. The girls gasped in shock just as his face snapped to its source, which turned out to be the weird, ominous, mocha-skinned woman dressed in what resembled a deep black butler outfit with purple accents and a galaxy-filled hat with a wide rim. Exactly the same as the last time, she seemed to appear out of thin air, without anyone noticing anything.

“It’s you!” Silvia’s eyes widened as she recalled the moment Asterios had stopped by the chasm with her after defeating the Terrackal.

“Indeed, it is me.” The mysterious woman regarded her with a quite characteristic, sleepy glance.

“Who are you and how did you get here?!” Civienne shouted, assuming a fighting stance.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Asterios inserted himself between the two ladies. “We are acquainted. Kind of. And I don’t think we stand a chance even if all of us joined forces anyway. I’m sure you can feel it too.”

The queen glared at the intruder for a moment longer before sheathing her weapon. She continued to keep a watchful eye on the peculiar woman, trying not to get confused by her unusual attire. The hat hardly matched the suit. Not to mention the ominous, purplish cloud swallowing the woman’s feet.

“What brings you here this time, Miss…” Asterios glanced back at the dark-skinned lady, hesitant a little bit about what to call her.

“I’m fairly sure I did mention one of my many names during our last conversation,” she replied without a shred of emotion in her voice.

Asterios frowned as he attempted to quickly go all over their brief conversation from the past. He then recalled the confusing, final line she had given to them right before leaving and finally understood its true meaning.

“Miss Abyss?” he asked tentatively.

“Just Abyss is alright, Asterios.” She politely skipped her head towards him.

“It’s my pleasure.” Asterios bowed back.

“Pardon my rudeness, but what do we owe this visit, Abyss?” Selene joined in. “We might have not been introduced properly, but my Lord filled us all in on your previous encounter. From what I can remember, you like to collect information, right?”

“To be exact, I study,” Abyss corrected her. “And as for the reason behind my visit, I think I’ve already expressed it at the very beginning of this discussion, haven’t I?”

“You said that you might be of help to us,” Asterios recounted. “But I also remember you mentioning that you don’t exactly intervene when we talked next to the chasm. What changed?”

“An astute observation. Very good.” Even though her voice remained neutral, he could feel that she was glad for him. “I also mentioned that I would not forget your kindness of heart from that night. I decided that this is the perfect moment to return that kindness back to you. Especially since I’ve been able to witness a lot of interesting things thanks to you, and have no doubts that I will continue to do so.”

“Wait. You have been stalking Master since back then?” Miria started releasing quiet growls.

“Using crude terms, yes,” Abyss confirmed matter-of-factly. “When you stumble on something curious, don’t you just want to observe it further?”

“It’s alright.” Asterios hugged Miria to his side, scratching behind her fluffy ear. “It’s not like any of us could stop her. Even Umbra can’t sense her, remember?”

“I still don’t like it…” Miria murmured quietly.

“And neither do I, but I think we should refocus on the main topic behind this conversation,” Silvia chimed in.

“Very well.” Abyss nodded gently. “I shall share with you a hint related to what you seek.”

Grea groaned audibly. “Another fucking riddle? Really?”

“It’s the best I can do without directly intervening, which I can’t do,” the woman replied. “Do you not wish to receive it?”

“No, we could use any help we could get,” Asterios quickly answered. “We would appreciate your assistance, Abyss.”

“I shall then hope that this will let you find the answer you are so resolutely searching for,” she replied.

“Doesn’t this all sound like you know exactly where those cultists are?” Civienne interrupted with a frown.

“Yes, I do.”

The queen looked ready to launch a long stream of her open thoughts at the woman but Imadil and Cynthia held her back. Literally. The father and daughter duo grabbed their queen before she marched right up to the mocha-skinned lady’s face, keeping her in place.

“This is already plenty.” Asterios looked deep into her stormy eyes until Civienne took a deep breath and nodded at him. “May we receive the hint now?”

“Listen carefully, then.” Abyss regarded them all with a slow glance and everyone grew incredibly tense, drilling their gazes into the mysterious woman’s face. “Watch your step.”

A pregnant silence filled the air for a good while until Grea finally broke it.

“That’s it?!” she shouted in bewilderment.

“Good luck.” Abyss turned to Asterios. “And until next time.”

She flashed him the faintest shadow of a smile and the black fog swirled around the woman’s body from the bottom to the top. She disappeared into nothingness alongside the dissipating mist as a gentle chuckle echoed into the distance.

Everyone stared at each other in pure disbelief as Asterios experienced the strangest ever sense of déjà vu. They were suddenly even more confused than before they had started their investigation.