Emilia Zeijrn I

"What have you done?".

Having heard the apathetic voice behind me, I moved a few steps away from where the voice originated - without turning back and with quick steps. Now confident enough, I quickly turned around and searched with my eyes for the person who spoke.

My scanning with my eyes stopped, as a result of distinguishing a presence, which lay before the open entrance to the garden, I focused my gaze on the presence, which as a result of my analysis revealed itself in the figure of a woman with purple hair.

The woman was similar to the one in the visions that the goddess had shown me in her world (rather the same, with the only difference being in age, the woman in front of me being younger), the same purple horse, which was similar to orchids, a visibly strong body and a pair of rigid eyes, which exuded an almost tangible murderous intent.

"That's what I should be asking, Emilia Zeijrn," I said, as I watched the woman take slow but heavy steps into the garden. But no amount of explanation, either yours or mine will change anything." I said as I thought about Emilia's strange way of acting so far.

At the sound of my words, my eyes closed and I concentrated on my body, the mana inside my core, coupled with that in my veins slowly cooled - "Haa..." -. A deep, icy repair came from my lungs and was expelled through my mouth, composing an icy air, which became visible in the environment.

I tensed my forearm muscles and imagined a silver, curved sword appearing between my fingers, which closed and clenched the hilt; Rose's, which was conjured from within the dimensional space of my bracelet.

Responding to my action, Emilia unsheathed her glowing gray rapier, which descended to her waist, as she positioned herself in a battle pose. With the rapier in front and her back stiff.

"I regret having to break the promise I made to you back then," said Emilia, as she released a murderous intent and made a green arrow disappear, which had previously made my body react with a jump. But if there was something I learned, from that life, it was that death generates life".

Instantly the ground and my body shook and Emilia disappeared from my sight. I scanned the garden in search of her, but I could not find her and without any other alternative I conjured a 360° wave of wind, which moved all over the garden and it was only for an instant, but the wave seemed to collide with a gust of contrary air, which I linked to Emilia.

I let out a breath and tightened my grip on Rose and with my eyes glued to the ground I imagined ten eardrums of ice being generated, aimed at the irregularity in the air that collided with my wave.

-Ruumble!

The moment I conjured the eardrums the ground shook again, destroying both the eardrums and my balance.

I tried to position myself firmly on the ground, but I had no time to do so, due to an approaching rapier threatening to pierce my waist.

-Clank!

The screeching and deafening sound of metal clashing was generated when my weapon met Emilia's -who had appeared in front of me-, for a while our eyes met and a battle of strength and thrust was generated.

I tried to push as hard as I could, but little by little Emilia generated an advantage over me - one that I wanted to grant to my lack of balance and not strength - "Thud." My right knee buckled and with no other alternative, I had to support it by leaning it back on the ground, all because of the force Emilia was exerting on me.

I felt the blood rushing to my head and the veins bulging on my forehead due to the pressure exerted on my body and my strength, but unlike my body, my head was free and I made use of it to think of a way out.

In a moment an ice tympanum was generated in front of me, which ran towards Emilia's stomach, a little pressure was released on me due to the movement she made to dodge my attack.

-Zap!

A small lightning bolt traveled from my hands and passed over my sword, reaching Emilia who had to jump backward, a movement that I copied and which generated both distance and a breath on us.

"Before you die, I want to ask you, what's the use of changing the future like this? - You didn't learn from the mistakes we made, you didn't promise to change everything if you had the opportunity, so why?"

"I don't know about any promises, but I've been hearing that damn word a lot lately," I said, as I made my belt and scabbard appear from my storage, which I arranged on my waist. You should have realized that I am not who you know," I paused as I sheathed my sword, "I don't know what Adad promised then. But I can tell you that I hate promises."

I rested my left hand on the scabbard of my sword and my right hand on the hilt, I leaned the front of my body and ran my left foot backward, I concentrated every bit of my mana on my sword and conjured around it lightning that rattled in silver color, and the moment I felt the hilt freeze I opened my mouth and let out a whisper.

"-Trueno-"

Instantly my feet strained to the limit generated a force that propelled me several meters forward, at a menacing speed thousands of vines - which had been conjured by Emilia, who had also prepared and had not been alone watching me from a distance - filled my sight.

I repositioned my grip on my back and cut as many vines as I could while leaping to dodge the ones I couldn't cut, gradually getting closer and seeing that the perfect moment had arrived, I gave a large circular cut that cleared the vines one foot around me.

-Tap!

My feet generated a thud as they slammed firmly against the ground, I didn't waste my momentum and again tensed my legs preparing them for a big jump.

Before leaping I moved my eyes in the direction of Emilia, - who held her rapier aloft and from which emanated a purple mist that condensed and materialized around it in the form of thorny vines - a soft sway was generated in Emilia's arms, which retracted all the other vines around the garden and with her eyes locked on mine, she opened her small and beautiful lips.

"-Euphorbia Milli!"

The moment Emilia's shout echoed as if it had been packed and agreed upon, our bodies moved to the front, with my back up and my body in a bent position, I tensed my legs - I returned my sword to its sheath and again generated as much lightning as I could, along with ice, which was so cold that it came to generate a faint frost on the ground-. Ziiiing~! -My sword made a sound as I unsheathed it and swung it swiftly towards the rapier that was approaching and threatening to cut my neck.

-Claank!

The sound of clashing metal echoed as the blade of my sword hit Emilia's rapier, which deflected the weight of the clash with a spin on its feet and with a quick set of steps moved to the left where it made a swift lunge towards me.

-Clank!

Our swords clashed and generated sparks as I moved to block his rapier, once again I took a step back, and copying Lou's technique, I generated wind in my feet, making my steps faster.

A few steps away - which I used as security in case of an attack - I moved my left hand that was free in Emilia's direction, provoking that 4 bursts of speed flew in her direction, Emilia generated vines that came to her defense and destroyed the bursts, I used that instant to get closer and at the same time, I generated eardrums of ice, which cut the path to the left side.

But just as I cut her path, she cut mine when spikes of earth appeared and flew in my direction, I dodged the first one for a while and the others I cut them with swings of my sword and my ice spikes.

I had no time to rest when hundreds more attacks flew in my direction, fireballs, air, sand, and water bullets, all without exception to kill, I used much of my mana to generate walls of ice, which blocked the attacks, which at some point had ceased.

I did not wait for Emilia's breathing to become regular -which I assumed had become heavy due to a large expenditure of mana- and I attacked with my sword, just as before my attacks did not generate any scratches, something that I had too much of.

But despite not generating any damage, Emilia's blows and defenses were weaker with each attack and I still had at least a third of my mana, which I used to slowly cover my body with my Aura, which turned my body into a faint golden glow.

My actions caused Emilia's attacks to become somehow stronger, little by little my body was filled with pain due to the cuts on my body and my clothes were already stained with blood.

And at that moment became visible what I feared, a visible difference in our experience with the sword, I had managed to ignore it due to my skill (Ice Heart) that gave me more and better great control over the mana in my body, but now I felt like I was fighting against a master in the use of the rapier.

"In truth what you said, you are not the Adad I know," said Emilia while giving a cut, which I deflected in exchange for balance on my body, which she did not waste with an attack towards my wrist that made Rose fly out of my hands. Not only are you a child of mana, but your very way of acting is different from the Adad of this age."

He said as I dodged a powerful stab in the direction of my stomach, which I didn't quite manage to dodge and ended up making a deep cut in the side of my stomach.

-Spurt.

The blood that was already starting to run low inside my body spilled out from the cut, which generated a pain so great that it prevented me from jumping backward properly and ended up making me fall backward on the cold ground.

"You're not the Adad from before the regression either," said Emilia, as she grabbed the ends of my hair and pulled me forward, but I couldn't even concentrate on defending myself because of the one word she had said, 'Regression'. But you seem to know something about the future."

Emilia was a regressor.

Someone who had already experienced history and managed to go back to the beginning, someone who knew what would happen at every moment in the future.

She had tried to deny that possibility all this time, but it had become clear from the visions, that woman who had killed thousands on the battlefield was not just a vision the goddess had created.

But someone real, someone who was in front of me, pulling my hair and with her rapier ready to pierce my head.

"I don't know what you are, what side you're on, or what your purpose is," Emilia whispered in my ear as her rapier was covered in a translucent purple Aura-but none of that matters if you're trying to threaten the future."

I moved my hand slightly and imagined thousands of silver rays being generated which I condensed so much that a small arrow was generated emanating thousands of volleys.

"But I already lost it all once, and even if it's you Adad, even if the first thing I did when I woke up was to swear that this time I would save you, that I would make you happy, even if I sacrifice my happiness and my life - Emilia paused in her words, which she used to generate a stronger Aura around her rapier-. This time I will save everyone!"

"-Catatumbo-"

-Boooom!

A huge explosion resounded as my attack collided with Emilia's sword.

The last thing I saw was a small white blob moving at immense speed...