Blades, and Bad Decisions: Judge's Guide to Getting Smacked

Judge, now sitting grandly on his throne, watched as the woman in Victorian attire looked around in confusion. She wore a red steampunk long coat, with black a waistcoat, and skinny pants. It didn't actually scream steampunk, but she was there. He deactivated EC as he deemed it unnecessary since they were inside the studio.

"Hey!" The woman said, brushing off her short black hair, her crimson eyes gazing sharply at Judge. "Do you think a change of scenery would actually make you win?"

"Precisely," It was his turn to speak more arrogantly, "You started the fight, now let me end it." He snapped his fingers, changing the entire space. He had to record the fight, it might turn out epic.

"WHa—" That was all she could muster before she was hanging upside down, tied on all limbs with a chain. Judge had to crush her ego just as he had done to Hawthorne. This one would take some extra efforts, that's all.

But little did he know that his calculations were far off, like... really far off. She snapped the chains without effort, but her sword was nowhere to be seen. "Looking for these?" Judge held up her sword.

"You little!" She rushed at him in an inhumane speed, and as she was about to reach him, he teleported behind her, a light push was enough to knock her out of balance. But she did not crash even though there was a wall in front of her, rather, the wall vanished.

She now sat in the throne room once again, with Judge standing near the throne, smirking with her sword in his hand. "What a fine beauty, what's the sword's name?" He turned to her.

"The sword's name is Ashen and me, the owner... is Seraphis." She was surprisingly calm despite the situation. She stood up— and vanished. Judge's eyes widened in surprise, trying to locate where she was, but all he could see was the ceiling near him. Was the ceiling always this close? He thought.

He soon realized why he was about to hit the roof, Seraphis had given him a big ol' smack to his temples. He teleported to the ground, and thought 'Uh oh! I screwed up big time didn't I'.

She was strong, maybe stronger than his mother. But he couldn't give up, he summoned a cane for a dramatic flair. He stomped it on the floor and snapped his fingers for that extra flair.

Suddenly, the entire place vanished, leaving a long and unending black plain, with a moon behind him. Seraphis, wasting no time, lunged at Judge with her sword aimed at Judge's heart. "Another change of scenery? I prefer this one more."

Judge summoned a sword and activated his EC, Seraphis' movements slowed down, it was still fast but he could dodge them, he blocked any attack that had less force behind it, but even those swings were heavy.

The air swirled around and sparks flew as they fought, Seraphis with her relentless, powerful attacks and Judge, with even more speed and keen observation. The fight ensued on, as both of them started to use ether.

Seraphis extended her left hand, the red gem on her glove shined. A reusable catalyst! Judge stepped back, and back again as she rushed towards him. Seraphis pointed her hand at him and flicked. "Blow away!"

Judge got blasted away, he had to create a wall behind him to not go any further, but even the wall was shattered. Luckily he lost momentum and was able to land properly. He dusted his coat and stood up, only to be immediately be engaged in another sword clash.

Ashen was a sword with a sleek design, it was as thin as a katana. To produce that much power from a sword that thin, Seraphis is a monster. Judge was clearly losing, and she hadn't even unsheathed her sword yet.

The clash went on with Judge thinking of possible solutions, all while listening to her nagging. "The stance is incorrect", "a little more to the right", "You call that a swing?"

"What are you? My teacher?" Judge snapped, he couldn't take it anymore.

"We will see," Seraphis smiled as she went in for another strike.

"What?!" Judge wasn't expecting that answer, "Just so you know, I don't need teachers."

But she did not respond, instead, she was more enthusiastic about clashing swords, well... scabbard against sword.

Judge, could not fight longer, he had to go find his mother. He needed to know more about the mystery of why the egg appeared here alone. His mother would never endanger him, even with an egg as hard as this, she would not have left him alone. She might be in danger.

Seraphis swung her sword again, but this time, it hit him straight and square on his upper chest, setting him sprawling away. But this time he made a thicker wall, which cracked but stopped him in his tracks.

This time instead of sprawling straight at him, Seraphis raised her left hand, and the red gem started glowing, she started to concentrate her ether on the tip of her fingers, "Breaker", she said in a calm voice. Sending forward a wave of white energy that swirled as it propelled forward.

He decided to use a risky move, which was the principle of nothing, which he still had not understood completely, but he knew the basics. He raised his hand, and opened his palm "NIHILITY" He screamed.

Judge and Seraphis both looked at the scene surprised, her attack had just vanished, as if she had just shot a confetti popper and the little pieces were all scattered. But her calm demeanor did not fade.

"Alright let's stop this, you are sent here by the deity of stories are you not?" She sheathed her sword.

"WHAT?!" Was all he could muster before cracks started appearing on the void that seemed endless. He did not need a lot of time to understand why there was cracks forming. Nihility, the art of nothing, as it name suggests, creates a space of nothing, and ether seeps in to repair the space.

His whole studio needed ether to sustain, and it could not handle lesser amount of ether inside, so the ether that seeped inside the pocket of nothing was absent from keeping up the studio.

Judge teleported both of them back before asking his question, "How do you know the Deity of stories?"

He was sure that this world had separate gods and she was one above them. There was no way that Seraphis have met Clio, unless he was missing a crucial information on how the gods worked. He needed answers.