Grey Swordplay 7

Now I could see him just as clearly as I could Taci, a radiant nimbus of amethyst light, the warmth of him spilling through the chamber like the noon-time summer sun.

“Regis, help my sister.”

A wisp of purple light—a living spark of aether—dove into Ellie’s fading mana signature, and life bloomed within her.

Taci stepped back, shifting the burning brand that was his weapon into a defensive position. “Who…Arthur Leywin?” His confusion and uncertainty was palpable, laced within his tone, woven into his stance.

Arthur’s aura grew darker, hints of deep, bloody red in the purple. A beam of pure aether in the shape of a sword rippled into existence, warping the fabric of reality.

Lightning-like tendrils of aether swallowed Arthur, and space seemed to bend to his will as he reappeared just behind Taci. Purple light clashed against red as Taci spun the spear behind him, catching the attack.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Taci snarled, his voice grating against my ears.

“You shouldn’t be,” Arthur replied, his voice a cold white flame of anger.

The aether sword winked out of existence then back in the same breath, now thrust up and under the spear. Mana and aether screeched against one another and the sword slashed across the asura’s ribs.

With a growl of pain, Taci stepped back, again disappearing and reappearing, using what could only be the Thyestes Clan’s Mirage Walk technique.

I sensed aether swelling within Arthur, and he burst toward his foe, the aether sword carving an amethyst arc through the air. Taci’s spear again came up to deflect.

The clash sent out a shockwave that rolled me over, nearly toppling me off the dais. My body screamed at me that I was dying, as if I didn’t already know.

Arthur paused, glanced around. Alice had been thrown backwards off her feet. Ellie had been sent tumbling. Screams filled the chamber as many others had been knocked flat by the collision of these two titans.

Taci whirled his spear around in a wide arc, and I felt a wave of cutting mana fly overhead. Some of the screams stopped, cut suddenly short, and several mana signatures were extinguished.

Arthur was back on him in an instant, his purple blade moving faster than should have been possible in the hand of a human, but Taci matched him strike for strike. And with each clash, the chamber quaked.

They will bring the roof down on us if Arthur doesn’t do something.