The Glorious Evolution

Levi forced one leg free of the rubble and used the Chainstaff to pull himself out of the shattered pillar.

Pain stopped him halfway upright. Several ribs had shattered under Akira’s fist, adding to the wounds from his fights with the Borrower and Burden Collector... even drawing a full breath had become difficult.

’Fucking hell...’

He freed his other leg and pushed himself upright with the staff supporting his weight. Lifting it from the floor pulled at his damaged chest again, forcing him to keep his elbows close and settle for shallow breaths.

That punch had felt like it was powered by a nuclear reactor.

Akira was already approaching, giving him little time to recover.

”You recognize the Aspect, don’t you?”

’Unfortunately.’

Levi knew how to initiate stellar fission... he could split a condensed core and shape the release into an attack.

Akira maintained several reactions inside her body at once, timing them to her movements. Some powered her strikes, others reinforced her stance or accelerated her.

Meanwhile, he was still studying the principles in his spare time, trying his best to avoid blowing himself up.

Unlike sunflames, fission left little room for mistakes. He had set those experiments aside until he could survive their failures, and Ash’Kral couldn’t guide him through the other two Seeds’ techniques.

Akira had grown up learning arts developed for her lineage. Her body could withstand those reactions, and she knew how much force each movement could take... Levi had eight unlocked Aspects competing for his time.

”Use it... let’s see whose techniques are better!”

Explosions erupted from her soles as she launched herself at him!

Levi thrust the Chainstaff toward her untransformed shoulder, extending a void blade from its crown. The golden line dividing her body flashed, shifting her blackened skin to the threatened half while the other returned to its elven complexion.

Her reinforced forearm struck the weapon aside!

BOOM!

The force pulled Levi off his feet. He released a combustion burst to slow his spin, turning the fall into a roll... only for Akira to leap after him!

Five miniature cores gathered along her knuckles.

”Crowned Sun Arts: Divided Impact!”

KA-BOOOM!!

Her fist tore through the floor, breaking apart a nearby pillar!

The game’s protection dimmed the flash, revealing Levi bursting from the crater’s edge with his Void Insulation breaking apart behind him.

He had raised it while rolling, then propelled himself clear of the impact.

The Chainstaff transformed into the Starpiercer Rifle, and he fired three Singularity bullets into the dust!

Akira veered past the first, propelled herself clear of the second, then changed direction before the third could reach her. Three implosions opened behind her as fresh detonations drove her after Levi!

’And I thought Sun Jets were fast...’

Her blackened skin contained the heat and pressure of those reactions while expelling excess heat and radiation. However, it covered only half her body, forcing her strongest reactions to shift with it.

Levi followed those changes through his Harmonic Spine... whichever side powered her attack left the other vulnerable.

He just needed to reach it.

So far, she had shifted her protection before his attacks connected. A stronger strike would accomplish little if he kept giving her time to prepare for it.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Akira crossed the remaining distance and twisted in midair, driving her blackened leg toward his chest!

Dozens of golden motes separated from it, condensing into miniature stellar bombs along her kick’s path.

Retreating would leave Levi within the approaching blasts. Dodging sideways would give her room to redirect the strike... but keeping him within reach worked both ways.

’Then I won’t evade.’

The rifle reformed into the Judgement Chainstaff as a layered void shield formed across his free forearm. Golden inscriptions awakened across his bones, activating the heavier state of his Star-Forged Skeleton!

His skeletal mass nearly tripled.

Levi planted his boots and released combustion from his soles, driving himself against her strike!

KA-BOOOM!!

Akira’s heel cracked the shield, nearly wrenching his shoulder from its socket. Then the bombs detonated, driving her foot deeper through his guard while his boots tore trenches through the floor!

Levi kept the combustion flowing. He only needed to remain close enough to counterattack!

Akira had expected him to fly across the chamber again. Instead, his increased mass and opposing bursts limited the distance to several meters, leaving her leg extended against his failing guard.

She began withdrawing her leg as the final explosion faded, but he dismissed the broken shield and disengaged the Chainstaff’s upper crown, swinging it past her hip!

Crimson chains spilled from the shaft. An aetheric burst from the crown curved it behind her thigh, and a second guided it back, looping the chain above her knee.

The crown locked onto a passing link, tightening the loop around her blackened thigh!

Cling!

The chain couldn’t cut through her transformed skin, but its locked loop held when she tried to pull her leg free.

Akira tried to bring her foot down, but Levi pulled before she could brace herself!

His weighted stance held as he swung her over his shoulder and slammed her into the floor!

Bang!!

Stone erupted around her body!

The movement sent pain through Levi’s ribs, interrupting his next breath. He ignored it and pulled again, ripping Akira from the crater before she could push herself upright!

Her trapped thigh led as she was dragged toward him. She tried to turn her protected side into his path, but Levi kept the chain raised, preventing her from completing the rotation.

She shifted her protection instead.

The golden division moved toward her exposed stomach just as Levi turned into a roundhouse kick!

BAAANG!

His shin struck before the blackened skin covered her stomach, driving the weight of his Star-Forged Skeleton into her unprotected flesh!

Argh!!

Akira folded around the kick, blood bursting from her mouth as she was launched away. Still tethered, she smashed through a broken pillar and continued across the chamber, trailing fragments of stone!

Levi stumbled, his hip straining under the weight of his own kick. His skeleton could support the force... the rest of his body was having a much harder time keeping up.

He brought his foot down as the chain approached its limit.

”Switch.”

The upper crown unlocked, releasing Akira’s thigh as the links retracted and the weapon transformed.

The returning crown unfolded into a barrel, the lower crown formed the recoil pad, and the chains turned gold as they closed around the rifle’s frame.

Before Akira could reach the floor, the Starpiercer was against his shoulder!

His Harmonic Spine tracked her tumbling body through the dust, allowing Levi to aim without waiting for it to clear.

She could still use her bursts to evade... but after following her movements throughout the exchange, he knew which direction would get her out of danger fastest.

Dark energy surged toward the barrel, opening a vertical black chasm with amethyst edges. Its first ring appeared within the impossible depth!

The Endless Fall.

Opening the ultimate again consumed a large portion of his remaining dark energy... but he no longer dared to hold back.

The opening would disappear once she landed. He couldn’t let her regain her footing and force him into another exchange at close range.

Aim.

Trigger.

Fire!

BANG! BANG!

Levi fired along her current path, then shifted his aim slightly to cover her escape.

Two Singularity bullets fell through the First Depth, compressing around their deepening void cores.

They emerged smaller, faster, and at least three times more destructive!

Akira thrust her palms toward the chamber wall and expelled two miniature stellar cores, detonating them a handspan from her skin!

BOOOM!

The recoil threw her sideways, allowing the first bullet to pass through the space her stomach had occupied.

The second met her as she turned.

It struck her untransformed palm before she could shift her protection... then its compressed core opened!

The implosion devoured her arm and expanded across her exposed side, swallowing her shoulder, flank, hip, and leg before her momentum pulled what remained of her clear!

Her head escaped by less than a hand’s width.

Blood scattered from her ruined torso as the golden veins across her surviving flesh blazed white!

”Crowned Sun Arts: Daughter-Star Rebirth!”

Every stellar core inside her divided. One daughter core remained within her flesh, while its twin shot into the space beside her, taking its position according to the shape preserved within her soul.

Hundreds of tiny lights outlined her missing half!

Pale stellar ash poured from her blackened skin and gathered around them. Her lineage stored the stable daughter matter left by previous fission reactions... now, she was spending that accumulation to replace everything Levi had erased!

Bone formed around the glowing framework. Organs took shape between the cores, golden nerves connected them, and muscle closed over the reconstruction before fresh blackened skin sealed it!

Levi’s Harmonic Spine followed the process until the last connections formed.

’She had enough material stored to rebuild half her body?’

Almost all her stored ash was gone, preventing her from repeating the technique. The unstable cores in her replacement half would decay rapidly... but until then, she possessed a fully transformed body!

The weakness Levi had spent the exchange exploiting was gone.

Miniature cores ignited along Akira’s restored arm.

”You should have aimed at my head.”

BOOOM!

The first release arrested her fall. The next sent her above Levi, where another burst hurled her down at him!

Her reactions no longer shifted between her halves. Both sides supplied the acceleration, allowing her to close the distance before he could level the rifle again!

He tried to turn out of her path, but the movement pulled at his strained hip. By the time he corrected his footing, she was already descending!

Levi dismissed the rifle and raised an aetheric barrier, backing it with three layers of Void Insulation and a dense void shield across his forearm.

Akira drove her heel toward his head!

”Crowned Sun Arts: Cataclysmic Heel!”

KA-BOOOM!!

The barrier and insulation collapsed under the successive releases. Levi caught her heel on his shield, supporting it with his other arm... only for the force to drive his guard against his injured chest!

Blood burst from his mouth as one knee struck the floor!

He tried to push her leg aside, but Akira corrected the pressure. With his arms trapped against his shattered ribs, he couldn’t brace for another release.

Yet, she withheld it.

Her heel remained against his failing shield as golden light spread across its surface, following the connection between their spiritual energies!

’A Dominion!’

Levi tried to dismiss the shield, but the light had already closed around them!

”Crowned Sun Dominion: The Ever-Dividing Sun!”

Space distorted, pulling both Rifters into the Rift of Binding Laws!