Gods Gift

Selena had burnt much of her soul at this point, about half. Normally, she could go to a small town and refill it by sacrificing a few people, but right now, the only way to get more soul would be to cut into the man in front of her.

She was thinking about all of this, but couldn't act on it.

She couldn't move on her own, it was like a foggy brick wall was stopping her from moving forward, or like she was viewing herself from 3rd person.

It made her feel sick, she would gag and throw up if she could.

She thought about the consequences of using to much of her own soul. Selena knew that the more she used her soul to gain abilities she lost more of her sanity and humanity, but she had only used some to heal during the fight so far as far as she knew.

'Unless....unless 'Spectre' used a lot of my soul, that would explain the increased length on the blade at the moment.'

Selena could see the battle as it was happening from her own head, like she was looking through goggles, but it didn't feel like she was even there at all.

'It's most likely that 'Spectre' took control of me by spending more of my soul.'

This was an outcome Selena had wanted to avoid. 'Spectre' was having to much fun, and burning more and more soul by taking control of her.

Unless 'Spectre' cut the man fighting her, eventually Selena would die, or rather, she would stop existing, it would be like she wasn't ever there to begin with. Only the memory of her would be left in the people she'd made an impression on. The man in front of her could possibly remember her, and maybe the emperor too if she was lucky.

Selena didn't want to be forgotten, she didn't want to die, even if she deserved it and knew she was being selfish. She's the reason her town was sacrificed, and yet she has the nerve to not want to die? It was a pointless wish and she knew that, but she still wished for a better life.

Selena wanted to live a long and wonderful life, travel the world without a weapon and instead with friends. She wanted to have her own family and her own normal life annoyances. She didn't want to worry if she'd survive the next day until she was old and bedridden, and then maybe she'd be content with life.

She never asked for any of this, it was forced onto her, and she's been fighting against it by any means necessary for so long now that it makes her feel numb about the things she encounters. She just wants a normal life, but maybe that was too much to ask for after everything she's done. Maybe she should just disappear, but first, 'I have to return my city to how it used to be!'

She fought hard to be free of her own mind. She screamed and yelled, and what she'd imagine to have been kicking and punching the air around her to try and get out.

Eventually she felt something give way, and she could see her real body shutter. She stopped for a moment, if what she's doing is hurting her body then it does more bad then good to get out of here. Even if she were to heal when she finally got out, that'd be using even more of her soul, and it's already been worn out so much today, it could also risk bringing 'Spectre' back after all the work it took to get it out.

Selena finally decided that the best thing she could probably do was let 'Spectre' try and handle it until the sword switched back with her.

Once it did switch back with her she'd have to try and cut the man and buy time to integrate it with herself. Once she was full again she could begin fighting at full strength, until then, all she could do was watch 'Spectre' and him fight.

From her point of view, it looked like 'Spectre' had the advantage in almost everything, even overwhelming the man in strength, that must have meant it was burning a tremendous amount of souls, she would feel the weight of that later.

The man kept trying to hit her of course, he was relentless in his attacks, but he seemed to get slower and slower as the fight went along, and eventually was no longer cutting Selenas body. 'Spectre' from this point forward managed to block every single blow that he threw.

He tried mixing it up often to catch 'Spectre' off guard, but it never worked completely. He'd get close once or twice every couple attacks but other than that, he hadn't managed to draw blood for several minutes.

They stayed deadlocked like this for awhile after that. Selena actually thought they might fight forever, but as time went on of course, 'Spectre' was steadily pushing her enemy back. He was wary of the blades length, he seemed to have figured out where the blade stretched to a while ago, but even Selena could tell it was beginning to be a struggle for him to continue to block and evade it.

He was avoiding the use of his right arm to heavily, he'd probably hurt it somehow before they started fighting. Every now and then Selena could see him wince in pain, it was most likely a broken arm judging from the splint.

'A splint made of Aluminum is extremely clever though, it's hard enough to keep his bones in place and possibly move them back together, but light enough he can still keep most of his speed when moving!'

Judging from the splint however, he likely didn't have any sort of healing magic or ability. It would be easy to kill him if 'Spectre' managed to get just one cut onto him. They could steal quite a lot of his soul with just one cut, enough to de-mobilize him for a couple of seconds, which was plenty of time to behead him where he stood and be done with this finally.

For the first time since their exchange had started, Selena finally looked at her surroundings. There were what originally seemed like gashes or an open cut, just without the blood. There were cuts but no dust or concrete in them, just empty spaces.

'Ahh...,' Selena thought, 'that must be where 'Spectre' is getting all of the soul to keep its physical power up and contend with the man's physical strength and speed, that's not a bad idea. I can't believe I didn't use it when I could.'

Selenas thoughts were interuppted with shouting.

"That's enough!!" It was the man.

He turned around and dashed away from Selena. 'Spectre' immediately moved to react to him running away but stopped.

The man stopped and raised his spear, he threw it into the clouds above us, and as the spear disappeared into the sky, he turned around and opened his mouth.

"I am Chavez, the spear hero. You will not disrespect me, and I have shown my physical powers to you, as you can see there is not a scratch to be seen on my body made from you. I do not know what sorcery you use, but listen girl, you can't win against me. It is time to show you something else."

As soon as he finished talking, the clouds in the sky separated to open up a hole in the middle, light poured out of the sky.

Selena looked back at Chavez to see if he had an explanation of whatever he was doing, it was then she noticed that she suddenly couldn't hear anymore. His mouth was moving but she couldn't hear anything.

There were flashes of light behind the clouds, Selena assumed them to be thunder but couldn't hear it, it was hard to tell as a result.

She attempted to read his lips, but only managed to successfully decipher one word.

"Gungnir."