Think The Same Of Yourself

"Don't forget, Sky, I'm just as powerful as you. I'm a Pure Blood Asterio, your strength and mine are level, I'm just giving you one last chance to hand yourself into Eirikr. Your Vessel is fitting now, I'm almost sure of it," Cynthia told me.

I watched her slowly walk toward me with her hand extended as if I would shake it. I was devoid of any emotion, and held my ground, not moving while keeping a straight face.

My hair blew in my face, blocking my left eye from the world outside. It was far too long, I would have to cut it after this exchange.

Cynthia kept her hand extended for about five seconds after that, and quickly moved it after I shot a saber from her right-hand side, which lightly cut the portion between her index and middle finger.

She held it silently as it smoked while it tried to regenerate.

"It's Mahina Metal, my sword," I told her, recalling it to my side while walking forward, "You've missed a lot about my development. I'm sure I've missed some stuff with yours, so what do you say about a duel? If I win, you, Fico, and Cole all will die," I told her. My face was still straight. I didn't yearn for violence, but I wasn't afraid of it if I needed to use it.

"Sure... sure... alright, just me and you then," Cynthia said.

Before Fico vanished into thin air to ambush me, the black strands predicted her movements, and I slightly moved my body to the right, perfectly avoiding the swipe of her claws straight through my head.

She ended up behind me, panting in surprise while my head was still tilted.

"I'll take that as a no, then?" I reoffered to Cynthia, holding my hand out for her to shake. I was mimicking her, and it was enough to make her angry. She charged at me, with a weird sword curved near the middle, and swiped down toward me.

When she swiped down, the black strands grabbed ahold of the sword, but Cynthia was nowhere to be found right after.

"An illusion?" I muttered. I vanished along with Cynthia into the smoke surrounding the point of impact of the black strands receiving the attack and mimicked her yet again. Cynthia slashed through my body like it was nothing, and was met with surprise when she realized what I had done.

I balled up my hand into a fist and struck her in the stomach. The shockwave from the power behind the strike cracked the ground and launched her into the side of the dome from afar, causing the entire thing to reverberate while shaking.

Fico came in next, to which I sunk my hand into the ground, pushed her claws to the right, and wrapped my arm around her body.

I lifted her up completely, and fell to my back, cracking her skull on the ground, and throwing her up in the air to stun her.

I didn't think of Fico as an easy opponent, but she certainly wasn't hard to deal with.

[Current Heart Rate: 300]

[IMMINENT SHUTDOWN]

The words appeared in my eyes and I quickly fell out of the calm stance, grabbing onto my left arm. Black strands started to eat away at everything, from the origin point of my cracked White Stone.

With the black strands eating away at my left arm, I winced in pain.

[CORRUPTED SYSTEM]

[Mental Authority: MAX]

[Physical Authority: MAX]

[You Are Getting Close]

[Keep Going, You Are Almost There]

The text in my eyes vaguely told me something too dangerous to deal with on its way. I refocused my strained eyes on Cole, standing a good distance away from me. He cracked his knuckles, bringing The Retriever to his side, while Cynthia and Fico put themselves back on their feet.

"Reach your limit already? Don't take all of the fun away from me," Cole said to me. From around him, people from my past started to pop up...

Mom and Dad appeared in one of the two intact houses, watching me from the windows.

The entire field became populated with people I'd killed in the past. I could sense everybody.

Orion, Raven, Providence, everybody was watching me from certain parts of the field.

It came to a standstill as I visualized myself back in the black lake. The water rising so high that I was already hundreds of feet under.

"Promise me, Sky. Promise me you won't end up like me. Promise me you won't let that Wrath control your life," Mom's voice came through the window like it was floating in the air. I focused on her and watched her vanish into black strands, fading away into my arm.

"Mom...?" I asked myself, staring at my hand. It was pitch black now, showing no signs of growing lighter any time soon.

"He will succeed, no matter who the enemy is. Let's do it, Ali," Dad said. He vanished into the house, and as he did, he joined Mom as black strands in my left hand.

Now, they ate their way up to halfway through my forearm.

"Dad...?" I asked myself.

The house exploded underneath the pressure, and it surprised both Cole and Fico, but not Cynthia. She interlocked eyes with me, and they grew bright blue under the frozen time.

"Did I really ruin our family?" She asked me.

Hundreds of feet underwater, Cynthia began moving through the water as cleanly as she would've on normal ground. She walked around, observing the paintings of my dead friends that I visualized in this world.

"I'm here for one reason. Fuck the whole Eirikr thing, it's to get one more good look at you before you lose yourself, Sky. I couldn't care less about the Overlord thing up in the skies, what I care about is watching you lose yourself to the monster you've become. Lose yourself to the killer you know you are. You said that you calmed your mind, that you were immune to such things... but you aren't. You're fragile, just like I was," Cynthia told me.