Faith VS Illya

--Dani's Perspective--

I was ready to jump into action, but before I could do it, a dome summoned itself around Faith and Illya, trapping them within a small arena.

"This is your corruption, Mom. I know you... you love these people! You would never do this!" Faith shouted out.

I felt myself slowly slip while Faith was speaking.

Illya was right there... victory was so close... I was almost drooling in anticipation.

"Faith, you must understand my stance. I do not care about anybody here but you and Sky. Everybody else is expendable, and if they get in my way and continue to do so, then I will stop at nothing to kill every last one of them." Illya stated.

"That's if you get past me." Faith said, wiping away her tears.

"Don't scream when I hurt you," Illya said again.

The fight began with Faith running at her mother. Illya wasn't very enthusiastic and didn't use her full power, but it was obvious that she couldn't just let Faith run around with her power. Otherwise, Illya would lose.

Faith came in with a slash on a saber that looked weird. It was curved and dented in some places... but I thought she had possession of that weird armament she explained to us earlier.

When Faith swung the saber at Illya, she pushed her entire body into it. It barely scathed Illya's arm... but it was an important part of the fight to realize that Faith wasn't holding back.

Could she even hold back on Illya?

After all of this time, and all of the pain I'm sure Faith had received from Illya alone, did she have the mental capacity to do that? She might've been super intelligent, but she was still a little girl, a person, just like us, who had a finite amount of patience.

Illya threw out spears of ice from her left hand and Faith looked unwilling to block them, cutting through them all with ease, and eventually being disarmed from Illya's next attack.

"You know I can't resist projectiles! Do you want to play dirty?! That's fine!" Faith shouted out.

Her eyes lit up, not in a different color, but in a brighter red.

She grabbed Illya's arm with her hand, and Faith turned into a blur as the bone and skin ripped from Illya's arm, and sent her into the side of the dome.

Faith slid along the glass on the floor, ripping up more and more shards as she moved, and fixated her vision on Illya again.

I guess I never saw what Faith is truly capable of... but it looked like it wasn't much more. I was waiting for that turning point in the battle, but Illya didn't hit it... neither did Faith.

They were at a standstill. Staring at each other with rage in their eyes.

I was confused by the stalemate, but I turned toward Faith again when her left arm fell off of her body with ease. It bounced off the ground and disappeared into strands, which went into her body.

From that point, a weird, sword shot out of her shoulder and reformed itself into the arm that used to be there. It had some sort of joint in the middle that acted as Faith's elbow, and it was outlined in a bright blue, almost as bright as Sky's eyes.

"You can't be fucking serious... that's where you went, Avie?!" Illya shouted out.

Avie...?

Avie is in Faith?!

I wasn't sure what happened. I simply blinked, and Faith was behind Illya with her foot extended. Illya was kicked in the back of her head and it completely knocked her unconscious for a moment. The power from the kick shattered the dome like it was nothing, and Faith's weird arm instantly disappeared, turning into the former, normal arm, with the armament in her hand.

"Sorry, Avie. I won't use you again." Faith said with a smile.

"Hey! Faith! Can Avie hear me?!" I yelled out to her.

Faith turned her head to me and nodded while keeping eye contact with Illya.

"Hey! Avie! I don't know much about you, but Umbra is down on Earth, waiting for your arrival! You better not lose here!" I shouted out.

I was ready now. I was beginning to fall into that Wrathful State that I had to avoid for the longest time, but Illya appeared in front of me at high speed.

"You just made the worst possible decision." She muttered.

Faith jumped into the fight before Illya could hurt me and slashed at her with the armament. Instead of breaking her strand armor, or defusing her engagement with me, Faith slashed through her arm and cut it off, causing Illya to scream out in pain.

Her skin boiled down the cut path and the armament in Faith's hands seared with that same heat as well.

Before I could jump in to attack, a mess of ice and electricity rained down from the sky, pushing up more glass and smoke than before. I was able to hear Faith shake while standing next to me again, and when I asked her what was wrong, she mumbled something to me I couldn't hear.

I asked her again, and she only turned to me with concerned eyes.

"Dani, you have to pick who you want to save. Illya is going to kill everybody here." She told me.

My entire world froze at that moment.

Pick... who I want to save?

What did she mean by that?

The mess of ice and electricity in the field was starting to get too bright... but as I saw spires and spears of ice getting ready to rain down onto the ground, I understood why.

We were all going to be impaled... but I could choose some people to protect in their clusters.

Illya was going for a full wipe of the people around us.

Faith was still staring up at the sky, and I couldn't make the decision.

What do I do?!

"Faith! What can you block that's falling from the sky?!" I yelled out to her.

"I can block about fifty percent of what's about to fall. On top of that, I will most likely be out of the fight beyond that point. Avie and I have reached our limits, and we can't fight anymore." Faith muttered.

"Cover that half, I'll get that half," I said, pointing both to the right and left.