Amyra looked at Nyx, her violet eyes now sharp as her silken white hair moved with a soft breeze, giving her an almost ethereal presence.

"Shall we get serious too?"

She said looking at Nyx.

They had only exchanged a few light blows until now, neither going all out but seeing the other matches intensify, they silently reached the same conclusion.

Nyx nodded, her calm blue eyes matching the intensity of Amyra’s. A violent black aura engulfed her body as the very around her cracked, many rifts forming mid-air.

She pulled out a greatsword, her soulbound weapon, one she hadn’t used even once since descending into this world.

Amyra, despite being known as a mage, put away her wand and drew a beautiful pitch black longsword. Its sharp edges glinted as purple lightning crackled around her along with something else.

Something undetectable to everyone but herself.

With a small smirk, both of them vanished at the same time, reappearing mid-air at the center as their swords clashed, a massive shockwave erupting from the impact.

BOOM!!!!!

Neither of them held back in the slightest.

The very ground cracked beneath their strike, the shockwave crashing into the barrier, one meant to withstand even Ascendent-level attacks with ease and yet, cracks began to spread across its surface.

Both of them vanished, reappearing some distance apart, only to move again in the next instant.

Amyra relied on sheer physical speed, her body enhanced by crackling lightning, while Nyx moved through space itself, locking onto Amyra’s position.

Every clash between them was devastating, sending up massive clouds of dust and making it nearly impossible for the audience to see what was happening.

BOOM!!!!!!

The thunderous echoes of their collisions rang across the arena, more than enough for the spectators to realize that whatever was unfolding within that dust was far beyond anything else happening around them.

Meanwhile, within the arena, even through the thick clouds of dust, the two girls could see each other with ease as they clashed again and again relentlessly.

But physical clashes weren’t the only thing happening.

Nyx looked at Amyra or more precisely, at the invisible domain surrounding her. It wasn’t visible to the naked eye, but to Nyx, who had precise control over space itself, even if she couldn’t see it, she could feel it clearly.

A barrier made from an element she hadn’t seen ever before.

She didn’t know what the domain was, but it had manifested the moment their blades first collided. It restricted her use of mana and placed an overwhelming pressure on her body.

And this pressure wasn’t normal. It felt like authority itself as if Amyra owned that space.

It wasn’t impossible to resist, but her mana drained rapidly every time she tried. Not to mention how effortlessly Amyra moved within that domain, almost like teleportation.

So Nyx stopped resisting, fully aware it was pointless. Instead, she used her own ability, creating a void around her body and linking it to a space outside Amyra’s domain, reducing its effects on her to zero.

But she didn’t reveal that the domain no longer affected her. Instead, she deliberately acted sluggish, baiting Amyra.

Amyra took the opening and rushed in to attack. Nyx moved slightly slower in response but just as the strike was about to land, she hurled her sword toward Amyra.

Amyra dodged it and pressed forward, her attack continuing without hesitation but at the very moment it was about to connect, Nyx vanished.

In her place, the thrown sword appeared and right on cue, a heavy blow struck Amyra’s ribs from behind.

It was Nyx.

BOOM!!!!

A violent shockwave erupted as Amyra was sent flying sideways, her body slamming into the barrier with a thunderous crash. Cracks spread across its surface while Nyx stood calmly, a faint smile on her lips.

Amyra wasn’t heavily injured. She pushed herself back to her feet, her gaze steady. The more she fought Nyx, the more she realized just how strange she was.

Amyra had always suspected that Nyx came from another world but even then, she had never expected her to be this strong.

Amyra herself was powerful, but that strength came from her past life.

Nyx, on the other hand...

She had reached this level in a single lifetime.

Even Amyra couldn’t help but feel surprised by the sheer potential she possessed.

Maybe she has even more potential than I did... before I made the deal.

Her thoughts drifted back to the past, to the days when she had been celebrated as a once-in-a-millennium genius of this world. Many elders back then had even speculated that she would be the one to pull the world out of its long slumber.

She had thrown all of that away for Alden.

But Nyx was different.

And for the first time across both her lives, Amyra felt a trace of regret. Not because she chose Alden over her own potential but because, perhaps...

There might have been another way.

But in the end, it didn’t matter because she would reclaim it one day. So for now, for this moment, she decided to let loose completely.

The lightning around her crackled even more violently as the domain surrounding her thickened, now faintly visible as a thin black layer that distorted reality itself.

She increased the pressure on Nyx, having already noticed how she had been avoiding the domain by creating a pocket of space.

Nyx’s body stiffened instantly as that pocket space began to shrink rapidly. She resisted by flaring her mana but the moment was all Amyra needed.

In the very next moment, Amyra vanished, her body moving like a bolt of purple lightning as she reappeared right in front of Nyx, her fist driving straight into her abdomen. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Lightning crackled through Nyx, clearing the dust within the arena for a brief moment before it surged back again. She coughed up blood as she was flung backward like a ragdoll, crashing into the barrier with no less force than Amyra had earlier.

But Amyra didn’t press the attack. Instead she gave her the space to stand. As Nyx slowly rose to her feet, Amyra looked at her.

"How about we end this with the next strike?"

Both of them had already expended an immense amount of mana by using their trump card from the very beginning. They were running low, so deciding it in one final exchange suited them both.

"Alright." Nyx gave a small nod as both of them prepared their final attack.