Dimensional Descent

Anselma’s arms shook as the veins across her arms bulged. An overwhelming power poured into her like a hydraulic press, the pressure increasing akin to an endless tide.

Just as she was about to be overwhelmed, vines shot up from the ground and Myxor Adurna appeared to Aina’s side.

Crackle.

Lightning whipped against the vines, shattering them to pieces just as Myxor’s shield crashed into her side.

This seemed expected by the four as they worked seamlessly together. Eryvon had even taken the Laevis Bow into the skies, already prepared to unleash a torrential storm of supporting arrows from above.

However...

BANG!

Myxor was sent flying back even faster than he came. At some unknown time, Aina’s wing had formed a shield to her side, and with the slightest of flickers, the Adurna Head catapulted around, drawing a line through the rain that made their delicate droplets sting as much as a rain of needles.

Anselma managed to hold on due to the distraction, but she was still forced a step back, her arms vibrating beneath the strain.

Taking advantage of the gap, Eryvon unleashed his rain of arrows, each one ignoring time and appearing before Aina in a flash.

But the moment they entered her Domain, it was like the laws of the world broke. It was said that photons didn’t experience time and had no concept of this fourth dimension, but...

That was only a matter of perspective.

The beams of light slowed considerably and the infinitely heavy arrow hidden within was caught in Aina’s palm.

With a light squeeze, she shattered it to pieces as her lightning danced across the skies like an endless sea of whips weaving in and out of one another.

The arrows that slowed within Aina’s domain shattered in a rain of light. There was a brief beauty to it in the expanse of explosions and darkness.

But brief it was before a savage wind broke it all apart, sending them spiraling into the distance.

Trees bloomed in the surroundings and a dense poison air filled the skies. Its power was unlike anything that had been seen before, but Aina remained indifferent to it all. In the far off distance, the Regentrix arm hung limply even though the Adurna Shield still held strong. His inner organs rattled about within him, and the others seemed to notice just how badly injured he was a step too late.

They were too used to the Regentrix being the strongest tank amongst them. Never could they have thought that the simple swipe of a wing would leave him in such a state.

But what they failed to consider was the fact much of the Regentrix’s defenses came from his ability to counter and deflect, it was rooted in his Lineage Factor and his Idol.

What would he do if the laws of the world he relied on to sustain those things shattered to pieces before his eyes?

Myxor roared into the skies, the bones in his arms popping back into place as his Manifestation appeared at his back.

Finally realizing the seriousness of the situation, the four Heads no longer held back. One after another, avatars that could hold up the skies appeared, each one dwarfing Aina’s own as though they had been carefully refined time and time again...

Because that was precisely the case.

This wasn’t the first time these four had reincarnated, and it wasn’t the second or third either. Time and time again, they put themselves through these rigors for one reason and one reason only.

To grow strong for when the time came.

However, much like Aina, they had reached their own bottlenecks. The only way past this was by layering their Manifestations through each life they experienced, awakening it again, and again, and again.

Until now, they stood akin to mountains, their feet rooting the earth more firmly than even a world could and their heads becoming the pillars that stirred the clouds, swayed the wind, and held up the skies.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

They drew their weapons and treasures at the same time, a colossal mass of oppressive might descending.

At that moment, even if there were members of the Brazingers still in the vicinity, they had long since died. Those that were smart had already retreated to a far off distance. In this clash of Gods... mere mortals had no right to hold up their head.

Aina faced off against this might, her expression unreadable. It was the Force that stirred around her that truly reflected her heart.

Ruby lightning sparked with a wild intensity, but a steady-handed darkness belied it

all, moving slowly, unhurriedly, handling the weight of a life of pain and torture. The tall ancient trees in the surroundings finally shuddered to a stop as Eryvon flexed his arm. The damage he had received from Aina’s wing poured out from his body and his injuries vanished in the blink of an eye.

He struck out with his shield and a beam of silvery-blue light crossed the void and appeared before Aina.

At the same time, the tall ancient trees swayed a single time, illusory emerald vines taking shape as the sound of a beating heart filled the depths of space.

The emerald vines bypassed Aina’s lightning, latching onto her body-or so it seemed. Instead, it poured into her soul, restricting and restraining her.

At the same time, Laevis charged up an attack from above and Anselma did the same. Both were waiting for the same thing...

For Myxor’s attack to land and give them the opening they needed while Aina was both restrained and reeling.

But what they expected to happen didn’t.

”You’ve all... forgotten what it means to be human...”

Aina spoke for the first time since her father’s death. Her voice had a gruffness to it, a

sultry depth that compelled the world into obedience.

Her compulsion in her tone bloomed forth with a power the likes of which had never

before been seen.

Tying her soul down with vines?

She wasn’t like these false humans who did everything in their power to separate their bodies and their souls-pitiful existences who were nothing like her husband, the true

Ancestor of Spirituals.

They were nothing but cheap, fake imitations.

There was no separation between her own body and soul at all.

CHI.

The vines snapped and Aina vanished.

A beam of light passed through where she had just stood, digging up a smooth, deep trench through the ground and vanishing in a winking light that tore through the far

off distance.

A massive depth of black formed in the skies through the space it passed, but none of them could even focus on it.

Aina stood high above them all, holding a limp Loryth in her hand. With a motion that was almost delicate, she brushed Loryth’s sweat-stained hair from her face and then pressed the Thronebearer’s back against her own tree.

Ruby lightning flashed and Loryth was pinned to it through her shoulder, and then her other shoulder, through her knees, and finally, through her neck.

The Crudus Family Head convulsed.

”I didn’t realize until today that the wood that that took my mother’s life was actually

your own creation....

”Black Wood... that day, my mother was humiliated and stripped, her head was shaved and her naked body was forcefully pressed onto the wood.

”The only thing separating her and it was a cushion between its effect and her head... it’s a clever trick, it forced her body to rot as her head stayed intact. ”But if I just make you experience what she experienced, would that be fair?”

A voice more beautiful than words could describe hung in the air. It filled one with a sense of calm... and yet a contradictory dread at the very same time.