Blood was sprayed into the air, staining the light crystal blue of the ice palace with dark red liquid.
Aergia took a step backwards, her eyes wide in shock. It was the most emotions I had seen her face express throughout the entire fight.
Still, despite her obvious shock, she still swiped her hand through the air, sending an air like blast at Homura.
Homura reacted quickly, jumping high into the air and rejoining us back on the ground. Raising both hands into the air, Suijin gave us both healthily strong pats on the back.
"Beautiful work. Both of you." Her smile had returned, in full force.
I smiled right back at her. Her words of advice had pushed through. Internally, I thought to myself, I'll have to thank Mina as well. Show her that I appreciated her lessons a lot more now that I had grown up.
Even though I was excited, happy even, at my success in this strategy, I still couldn't ignore the small part of me that doubted. The small part of me that said, "But you failed once. You almost caused one of your friends to get hurt."
It was a small doubt. But I knew if I let it foster and eat up my mind, then I would never be able to keep up my performance.
Clear the mind!
I shouted those words at myself internally, trying to get a grip.
I let down all of the distractions and obstacles, opening up our view of Aergia.
Her facial expression had returned to the usual look of boredom that she always had, but she was staring at the blood that seeped down from her hoodie and drenched her hands like it was foreign. Something that she had never seen before.
"My blood." She muttered softly to herself. She then reached out her hand, letting the red liquid flow out from her would, and drip from her fingers.
Then, she turned her gaze up towards us.
"An omen, that my inevitable end is rapidly approaching."
Suijin gritted her teeth together. "If you believe that death is only the inevitable fate coming for you, then you will die. However, if you fight against it-"
"Fight it? That's.....crazy.... Like trying to fight a natural disaster."
"It's possible." Suijin replied.
"It's impractical. And it takes a completely irrational person to even consider something like that."
Aergia now began to approach us, walking slowly. I took a step backwards subconsciously, as my mind registered that this was the very first time that she had approached us. It had always been the other way around. It had seemed like she couldn't be bothered to care about the people who she was slaughtering.
A strong hand fell on my back. I looked up to see Suijin looking at me. "Stay strong Kami. Don't back down now."
I nodded, facing my opponent, and locking eyes with her.
"All things that live, will inevitably, die. That is a law of the universe. It is unavoidable. So, to struggle, is to attempt to spit in the face of a universal law you could never hope to overcome."
"But to give up, would also be a spit in the face to everything that ever preceded you. Everything your parents worked for. Everything that people who fought for liberation, for freedom-for anything-worked for." I found my voice and began to speak. Aergia's philosophy was one that I couldn't accept. It was a disrespect to the very life that you were given. To believe that just because something was inevitable, that you should stop trying to achieve anything.
"To over expend yourself. To work to the point that your body cannot hope to go one, all of it is just a waste. In the scale of everything, it means nothing."
"Thats only if you try to view things through a scale grander than you. What about the scale of humanity? Of just your life? Of the people who care? If you take a look at it through a smaller lens, than will it still mean nothing?" I argued back immediately.
"In the grand sch-"
"Don't try and hide behind this excuse of the 'grand scheme of things." The same way you believe that it renders everything else meaningless the "grand scheme" also means nothing to you! So why let it dictate your actions?"
Aergia finally lapsed into silence. Had my point landed? Had it gotten through?
However, my hopes were crushed when she shook her head. "I once lived my life trying my very hardest for someone else. I spent every waking moment working myself dry. I justified my constant actions with the idea that, "As long as they were happy, and I could make them happy, then nothing else really mattered, did it?"
We all listened to Aergia's story in a tense silence. Waiting to see what her point would be. What her final verdict would be.
"But then, that person cast me to the side. Threw me away. An entire life wasted away. At that moment I realized their wasn't a purpose. There wasn't a justifiable reason to fight. There was no reason to try and try and try. There was no reason for anything. It didn't matter enough. I had tried, and I had been burnt completely dry, with nothing to show. And I had made the realization back then, that none of it, none of it mattered."
I let out a disappointed sigh. What Aergia had said previously was right. There was no way we could see eye to eye. And how could we? She was a detached, stone-cold killer. She was a nihilist who believed that there was no purpose in life. She watched students brutally fight for their lives, and still had the guile to ask, why?
She didn't value life. However, according to her own anecdote, it hadn't always been that way. There had been a point where she had tried. Where she had given everything her all. Because she had a reason. However, that reason threw her away. All of her efforts were cast to the side. Her reason was gone, and she had nothing to show for it, despite giving her all.
And that was the gut-wrenching part.
I could sympathize with her. I hated her ideals. It wouldn't even be a stretch to go as far and say that I hated her. But despite that, I could see where she was coming from. I could understand what made her that why.
Despite all of her sins, everything she had done, I had to accept that I could understand her, just a little bit.
I wanted to vomit. The smell of smoke and rain, and charred things wasn't helping the feeling at all.
I put my head down, trying to calm myself. Outside, a massive explosion shook the entire world. The palace shook, pieces of it had begun to crumble.
Coughing, I made the horrifying realization that I was going to run out of mana very quickly. Homura and Suijin noticed it too.
"I'll be fine. I won't let this palace collapse until we beat her."
Suijin smiled down at my determination.
"Still, we won't let this take any longer than it needs to." Homura said, turning back to face Aergia with a determined expression."
Aergia sighed, before stretching her arms out wide, letting out a small groan. "This is the end." Her hoodie fell back, allowing her long messy braids to spill out behind her.
Getting back unto my feet, I wiped saliva from my chin and glared at her. This battle would have to end right here.
The palace began to shake, and the battle commenced once more.
Homura charged straight forwards, aiming to close the distance as much as possible. Suijin was not far behind, with her absolute Zero arrows knocked and ready.
Aergia began to flick her fingers, and move her hands and arms, twirling as she did so.
Air like gusts of wind with the destructive force of a train, or small slashes with the slicing power of a power saw tore through the air.
Homura dodged and blocked excellently, never allowing an attack to do more than graze her. Suijin covered her blind spots from behind, all the while maintain steady fire of water spears at Aergia.
Once Homura got close enough, I caused a part of the palace she was standing to catapulted her into the air, over Aergia's head. The elevated piece of ground was shattered by Aergia's attacks, but it succeeded in its purpose.
Homura landed behind her, and slashed upwards. However Aergia tilted her head backwards to avoid it.
At the same time, multiple spears came straight for her head.
Twirling her hands in elongated and elegant movements, she blasted them away, while avoiding all of Homura's slashes.
Homura imbued her blade with lightning and use flames to boost her speed. I provided her with the foot holds in the air, and she began to bounce around and around Aergia, slashing at her all throughout.
Still, Aergia managed to avoid each and every attack coming at her with elegance. Even the attacks coming from me and Suijin, she avoided what she could, and used waves of her hands and fingers to take care of the rest.
The way she moved, the pacing, the elegance, the violence that could spurt from such a beautiful act.
It was a dance; a serenade of death.
Flicking her arm and twirling in a circling, she let out a constant cyclone of these wind-like blasts.
Thinking as quickly as possible, I dropped the floor of the ice palace, managing to get everybody out of the blast radius as soon as possible. The walls of the ice palace were completely obliterated; however, I reformed them quickly.
Holding a hand over my chest, I took multiple deep breathes. Despite what I told Homura and Suijin, I was praying that this battle would end quickly.
Aergia stared at me. She could tell that at any moment, I was going to run dry.
Homura and Suijin both regrouped with me.
"Kami! If you can't hold it any longer than-"
"No!" I shouted, standing to my feet. "It'll hold. I won't let it collapse." Suijin and Homura's worry did not leave their expressions, however they respected my determination.
"Aughh!" I grabbed my head. I had a pounding headache, and it felt like someone was pressing a hot iron against my brain.
Was this feeling of burning out?
I had heard of it before but never been put in a situation where I experienced it directly. All I knew was that if I kept over expending myself, I would fry my own brain.
"One more push. Is that asking too much?" Suijin's expression told me she would really be prepared to drop this whole strategy if I said no. I didn't want to be the reason that more people potential got hurt, or even died.
"I can manage."
Aergia stood where she was, watching us closely. "A reason."
"What?" Homura said.
"You're so willing to struggle, to fight against the inevitable, because you have a reason. Something that motivates you to fight."
Her voice was blank, but her eyes were that of a person who had just made a huge discovery. What she said was a simple thing, nothing revolutionary, but it meant something to her. It looked like she had just discovered the answer to a question she's had for who knows how long.
She shook her head again. "I don't have anything like that. A reason to go on has been missing from me for a while now."
She flicked her hands, and all of a sudden, we were in battle once more.
She was fighting.
For the first time, Aergia wasn't lazily reacting or standing still in apathy—she was actively moving, weaving, countering. The detachment that defined her before had been broken.
I tried to do what I had before, and let my mind fight freely, but it wasn't working. I was trying to force something that should have come naturally. Every single distraction and obstruction that I tried to come up with was predicted and countered by Aergia.
Her attacks were coming out much faster than before, and every one of them could take a life if they were to hit.
Still, I continued to expend myself, forcing out as much mana as possible. I didn't want to be at fault for everyone losing, I didn't want to be the reason we failed.
I was burning out quickly, and everyone else could tell.
"Kami!" Homura shouted. "Slow down!"[1]
However, I wasn't listening. I continued to throw up whatever sort of attacks I could.
I was so tired and distracted, that I didn't notice the fact that Aergia had managed to close the distance between us significantly. She was constantly sipping her right finger in order to create a deadly cyclone of air that kept Homura and Suijin away.
I was too spent to defend summon anything to defend myself.
"KAMI!" Both Homura and Suijin shouted at the same time.
Aergia waved her hand in front of me, as if she was a queen sending off a servant.
At the last moment, I created a hole in the ground below me.
My last moment saves managed to prevent me from dying, however I was still grazed by the blow, and there was a crescent shaped hole in my side.
And then I entered a world of pain.
[1] "I don't know if you already know how. But girl I got the feeling that you know now. You buried in the pillow yeah your so loud. But I'm about to show you baby slow down." - Chase Atlantic