Dimensional Descent

A pair of wings appeared, outstretched on the small of Aina’s back. Her hair became a bloody red, her eyes morphing into a pair of sparkling rubies.

She stood there in silence as the air boomed.

When Talon appeared, he didn’t say a single word, his fist striking down from the skies above with a fury that could render even stars impotent.

Aina simply reached out her palm.

BOOM!

There was only a brief silence before everything exploded around them. The battle, the war, it all seemed to pale. But deep inside, Aina knew that the battle her husband had just fought and lost was on a level entirely separate from this.

While they were still affecting reality, Leonel and the Demoness had long transcended beyond that.

Somehow, that thought only fueled her further.

The earth beneath her collapsed into a crater so deep that lava began to bubble upward. But she still remained in the air, her palm meeting Talon’s fist with a calmness that belied the sadness and hurt in her heart.

She wouldn’t allow her tears to fall. Not while her children still needed to rely on her.

She would be strong for them, for her lost parents, for her husband.

Her arm lightly shook.

Talon flipped through the skies, being pushed back and landing in the far-off distance with a heavy thump.

His pupils had constricted into pinholes. Never did he think that there truly was someone so strong remaining here.

However, soon, his shock became boiling blood, his surprise fusing into his fury and lighting sparks of lightning across his body.

The skies clapped with thunder and two hammers appeared in his hands. Like a God of soaring clouds and peeling lightning, he shot upward and slammed down.

Aina was about to move when she felt something odd.

”His abilities… are similar to mine.”

Her mind was in an erratic state. Usually, she moved fluidly, and without thought. But there was something about Talon’s abilities that were restricting her.

”He has… some form of Clairvoyance as well.”

That was when Aina remembered. Wasn’t this the ability of the Barbarian Race? They had the ability to feel out the future in a way that only those with Clairvoyance usually could.

The realization came to Aina in waves, her thoughts a little slower than usual without Leonel’s Dream Force affinity connected to her any longer.

She needed her Clairvoyance now more than ever, but to think she would run into an enemy that was such a perfect counter to her just after she lost her husband…

Aina could feel her heart trembling as the hammers descended from the skies, her expression a little lost as though she wasn’t quite sure what to do.

Still distracted, she almost couldn’t react as the hammers bore down on her.

BOOM!

Her wings crossed about her body at the last moment.

A clash that sounded akin to metal banging against metal resonated, a harsh hum filled the skies as they vibrated against one another, Aina’s knees bending and almost giving way.

However, the one to feel shock was Talon. Despite Aina clearly being caught off guard, she managed to mostly withstand his strength. Just how much power was her body holding? How was it even possible for someone’s physical prowess to be so high?

The two separated, but Talon didn’t give Aina a chance to breathe. One swing after another came, one reverberating clang after another came, Aina using a mixture of her wings and palms to reflect them.

The more the battle went on, and the fierce Talon suppressed Aina, the more shocked he felt. She was matching these weapons, forged with the core of worlds, with nothing more than her body.

Wasn’t she a battle-axe expert? Did she not even care to bring it out any longer?

Despite Talon’s thoughts, Aina was struggling a great deal as well. She couldn’t find her footing. Fighting with so much thought involved was completely foreign to her.

She had known relying so heavily on her Clairvoyance would be a problem, that was why she had gone all out against the Four Great Families in an attempt to find a path to breakthrough. She had managed it, but in the end she still had this glaring weakness.

With the weight of her husband’s death on her mind, it was even harder to focus than usual. Her thoughts flowed slowly and languidly, lagging in her mind and making her hesitate before every attack several times.

Talon, a seasoned fighter, took every advantage.

A hammer whipped against the side of Aina’s head, and she felt her vision go entirely white. Blood flew from her lips, her body almost going limp as she shot out.

She hadn’t even been able to react to the blow. The gap just kept climbing between them until she couldn’t react at all.

In the far-off distance, Leonel’s brothers were still fighting their bloody battles. Even when they thought things had ended with the deaths of the Pluto and Void Race, the Invalids came in with numbers more shocking than they could fathom.

Seeing Aina suddenly suffer such a blow, many of them wanted to rush over, but they simply couldn’t.

The Sea Gods, the Fawkes, even the Oryx were all tied down. Never once had the war stopped. When Leonel had said they would all be on their own, he had meant it.

He just had hoped that these words wouldn’t have to apply to his wife as well.

Unfortunately, he had failed. And the end result was that a scene that had played out many times throughout history was playing through again.

Aina’s head rung. She could already feel Talon rushing forward. An expert like him wouldn’t possibly give up such a good chance.

”… I miss him already…” she thought softly.

She didn’t believe it. Her husband… he could never lose… no matter who the opponent was. He could beat her 10 out of 10 times even if she was stronger, he had said so himself. He would never lie to her. She trusted him more than anyone else in the world.

”I trust him…”

A small light of clarity flickered in the depths of Aina’s eyes as she felt something shift within her.