“Under all this water, they essentially become my hands and legs. That means, as long as you’re underwater, YOU ARE ALWAYS IN RANGE OF MY ATTACKS!!”

  *BLURB BLURB*

  *!!!*

  Eissen’s danger sense activated, but he couldn’t dodge it. Lukia has compressed water and made it explode on Eissen’s right waist. His waist bursts open, and blood flows out rapidly. Eissen quickly holds his waist with both of his hands to prevent more blood from coming out.

  Mari’s heightened senses allowed her to hear Lukia’s attack behind her, but she was too late to push Eissen out of the way. Seeing the blood flowing out of Eissen’s waist, Mari’s anger quickly peaked. She immediately turned to Lukia with her scythe ready in her right hand.

  *FWOOM*

  *BRRRSSSSSHHHHHH*

  The blade of her scythe catches green fire, and she spins it really fast, creating a whirlpool all around her. She throws her spinning scythe at Mari, and it reaches her in no time.

  “Didn’t you hear me?”

  Mari’s scythe suddenly stops spinning and is floating steadily in front of Lukia, not moving even an inch.

  “All this water is essentially my limbs! None of your attacks is going to reach me anymore!”

  *BLURB BLURB BLURB*

  Suddenly, Mari was punched in her belly. Even though it felt heavy, her belly was fine, covered by her Vein Armor, but she got pushed back slightly. She prepares herself and swims towards Lukia at high speed.

  *!!!*

  Suddenly, Mari was stopped halfway towards Lukia. Her hands were spread open to the side, while her legs were held slightly spread open as well. It was invisible underwater, but Lukia created four giant hands that held Mari in place on her hands and legs. Lukia swam towards Mari, and she reached her in one second. She prepares her right hand, straightens her palm, creates a whirlpool around it, spinning at 250km/hour, and thrusts it at Mari’s belly once again.

  *GRABS*

  *?*

  Mari caught Lukia’s hand and stopped it in place. She grabbed her exactly on her palm, stopping her entire attack, bursting the spinning whirlpool away.

  *BLURBH*

  “URRGGHHH!!!”

  Mari punches Lukia in her belly, but she creates a small whirlpool spinning at 100km/hour in front of it. Though it was destroyed, the whirlpool reduced the damage she received by a large margin. Mari swings her left hand to punch Lukia in her cheek.

  *BITES*

  Her left hand was stopped by an invisible giant shark head, biting her entire left forearm. She quickly pulls back her right hand and summons her giant scythe. She bashes the invisible giant shark away with her left hand.

  *!!*

  “(OH NO!!)”

  Mari grabs Lukia’s right forearm with her left and swings her giant scythe diagonally downwards towards her torso. Lukia quickly creates a small whirlpool around the arm that Mari grabbed, spinning at 300km/h, and the force of the whirlpool deflected Mari’s hand away, releasing her from her hold. She immediately swims backwards away from Mari as fast as possible.

  *SLASH*

  *!!!!*

  Suddenly, Lukia’s left hand floats motionlessly in the water. The skin on her left hand also turned entirely white.

  “W-W-WHAT?”

  Lukia looks at her left hand.

  “I can’t move my left hand. I can’t feel my left hand.”

  She quickly turns her head towards Mari and sees that there is a hand, entirely white and a bit see-through, dangling on the blade of her giant scythe.

  “BLURB BLURB BLURB BLURB BLURB!” said Mari.

  “GIVE ME BACK MY HAND!!”

  Lukia sends four giant whirlpools, each spinning at 350km/hour, towards Mari. Mari simply puts her scythe in front of her and spins it really fast, creating a whirlpool of its own.

  *BLURBH BLURB BLURB*

  *BRRRRRSSSSSHHHHHHH*

  Mari deflected and destroyed all of Lukia’s four giant whirlpools easily. She still spins her giant scythe, and its blade catches green fire once more. She throws her spinning fiery scythe once again at Lukia, and it reaches her within seconds.

  “(HOW FOOLISH!! THIS WAY, I CAN RECOVER MY HAND!!)”

  Lukia stops the spinning scythe with her invisible giant water hand right in front of her.

  “What? Where is my arm?”

  “BLURB BLURB BLURB BLURB, BLURB?” said Mari.

  Lukia looks towards Mari and sees that she is holding her ethereal arm in her hands.

  *BLURB BLURB*

  Lukia throws the scythe to the side.

  “GIVE ME BACK MY ARM!!”

  Lukia points her open palm at Mari, and she is suddenly bitten by a gigantic shark head from above and below, and as usual, it is invisible underwater; only Lukia can see its shape clearly. Mari’s danger sense activated, and she held the teeth above with both of her hands, the teeth below with both of her legs.

  Lukia notices that the gigantic shark's head struggles to close its jaw. Mari’s strength proved to be too powerful against it.

  “TCH!!”

  Lukia quickly swims towards Mari and creates a whirlpool on her right leg, spinning at 400km/hour, and swings it at Mari’s left waist. Mari smirks and bends her body backwards, letting both of the gigantic shark heads bite Lukia’s leg instead.

  *CHOMP*

  *BRRRSSHHH*

  The gigantic shark heads were destroyed by her whirlpool instead. Mari swims above Lukia quickly and summons her giant scythe in her right hand.

  “(DAMMIT!!)”

  Mari swings her scythe horizontally towards Lukia’s legs, but she escapes backwards by pulling herself with a strong water current. Her legs, from her ankles to her toes, suddenly turned white, and she couldn’t feel them anymore.

  “WHAT?!”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Lukia’s feet were dangling on Mari’s scythe.

  “BLURB BLURB BLURB! BLURB BLURB BLURB, BLURB?” said Mari with a mocking expression.

  Mari quickly swims forward and appears slightly above Mari, with her giant scythe pulled backwards above her head. She quickly swings her giant scythe down at her head.

  *GRABS*

  Mari’s giant scythe narrowly stopped about 2cm above her head. Lukia holds Mari’s entire body in place by stopping the flow of the entire water volume.

  “HRRGGGHH!!!”

  Mari struggles to break free of Lukia’s hold this time.

  “Well, then I’ll be taking these back, Green Reaper-san!”

  Lukia swam to Mari and took back her left arm and her two feet, and the skin on those parts returned to her normal skin color. Lukia moves her left arm and her two feet.

  “Ah, yes! Finally, they’re back!! Now, then, Terrorist-san!”

  Lukia prepared her right hand and straightened her palm. She creates another whirlpool around her right forearm that spins at 1000km/h.

  “This is goodbye! I’ll pierce your belly with this!”

  She thrusts her right arm into Mari’s belly.

  *BLURRBB*

  *!!!*

  Suddenly, Mari moved and kicked Lukia’s forearms from below, deflecting her upwards.

  “WHAT? HOW DID YOU ESCAPE MY HOLD??”

  “BLURB BLURB BLURB!” said Mari with a confident smile.

  Mari swims upwards, chasing after Lukia, who’s still rising in elevation.

  *SPLASH SPLASH*

  Mari kicked Lukia with such force that she was thrown upwards all the way to the surface of the water, near the ceiling of the green fire dome. They both come out of the water with Lukia still flinging in the air.

  *THUMP*

  Lukia crashes into the roof of the green fire dome, and green fire suddenly whirls around her torso, her wrists, and her ankles, holding her in place.

  “PUAH!!! I CAN FINALLY TALK!! GO TO SLEEP, WATER BRAT!!!”

  “I AM OLDER THAN YOU, YOU STUPID TERRORIST!!”

  *FWOOMM*

  Mari swings her scythe upwards, and she sends a gigantic green fire slash that is almost as large as the entire stadium’s roof opening.

  *!!!!*

  All of a sudden, Lukia had already caught Eissen with her water and brought him past the surface as well when they were all swimming up. She trapped him inside a water ball, and she moved him in front of herself to protect against Mari’s gigantic flame. Mari’s heightened senses didn’t hear anything when Eissen was caught, as Lukia did so very discreetly.

  *FWWOOOSSSHHH*

  Mari quickly points her scythe upwards, and her gigantic green flame suddenly gets absorbed in its entirety back into the blade of the scythe.

  *SPLASH*

  The momentum of her upward swimming has ended, and Mari falls back into the water, but she immediately swims upwards again, jumps out of the water purely using her swimming momentum, and this time, she lands on the roof of the stadium. She looks towards Lukia and Eissen.

  “If you don’t release your bindings of me, I’ll strangle him to death by the neck!!”

  But Eissen shakes his head from inside the ball of water, implying that Mari should not release her. Mari understands his intention; she quickly leaps forward towards Lukia and reaches her in one second.

  *!!!*

  “ARE YOU STUPID? FINE, THEN!! I’LL KILL THIS GUY RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!”

  Lukia strangled Eissen by moving the water forcefully so his neck would bend following the water, but he quickly activated his Vein Armor, and his neck was protected. It hurts only a little for him.

  *SLASH*

  Mari got a clean slash at Lukia’s torso, and her soul got snatched out of her body once again.

  *FWOOSH*

  The fiery rings that bind her body disappear, and her physical body falls motionlessly towards the water.

  *SPLASH*

  Eissen was also freed from the ball of water and fell into the water as well.

  *SPLASH*

  He quickly swims to the surface.

  “Mari-chan! I am okay!”

  He removes the breathing equipment from his mouth and swiftly informs Mari of his condition.

  “PHEW!! Thank God. . .”

  *SPLASH*

  Mari also falls into the water and quickly resurfaces.

  “So, is that water woman on your scythe?”

  Mari lifts her right hand out of the water, and her giant scythe surfaces. Lukia’s ethereal body is seen dangling on her scythe.

  “Yup! Here she is!”

  “Wait a minute, Mari-chan! She is unconscious for a moment, shouldn’t her Faith power disappear and fade away, as of right now?”

  “Wait, you’re right!!”

  Suddenly, Lukia’s physical body resurfaces right behind Mari. Lukia’s ethereal body suddenly moves towards her physical body, touches it, and she is absorbed back into her body. She pretended to pass out for this moment.

  *!!!*

  “AHAHAHAHAHAA!!! AS I’VE THOUGHT, IF I NEVER PLAN ANY ATTACK ON YOU!! YOUR DANGER SENSE DOESN’T ACTIVATE!! WHAT A LOOPHOLE!!!”

  Mari and Eissen were startled by Lukia. She immediately creates a giant wave from behind and bends the top of the wave to crash against the two of them.

  “EI-CHAN!! HOLD ON TO ME!!”

  Eissen did as he was told; he clung to Mari and hugged her tightly from behind.

  “YOUR VEIN ARMOR, EI-CHAN!! QUICK!!”

  “OKAY!!”

  They both activate their Vein Armor just one second before the giant wave crashes against them.

  *SPLAAASSSHH*

  *BLLLRRRUUUBBBB BLLURB BLUBBB*

  They both immediately got pushed deep into the water, and their back even hit the ground at the bottom. Eissen let go of his hug on Mari’s back.

  “BLURB BLURB BLURB!!!” said Mari.

  Eissen points to his mouth, already equipping his breathing equipment. That immediately reassures Mari and calms her down. Mari also swims closer to Eissen to inspect his neck. She unsummons her giant scythe and touches his neck with her bare hands, checking back and forth to make sure his neck is okay. Eissen shakes his open palm to reassure Mari that his neck is fine.

  “BLURB. . .” said Mari.

  Mari puts her hand to her chest, showing a sign of relief. Mari summons her giant scythe and points it towards Eissen.

  “BLURB!” said Mari.

  She shoots out a green fire orb at him, and it explodes into a small sphere of green fire that pushes all the water away, creating a pocket of air underwater for Eissen to breathe freely. She pokes her head inside the green fireball.

  “I am sorry, Ei-chan! I should’ve done this sooner!”

  “It’s alright, Mari-chan! I am fine!”

  “Quick! Apply first aid at your waist!”

  “Alright, alright!”

  *!!!!*

  When Mari pokes her head outside, she is surprised that she is no longer underwater. All of the water surrounding her has gone completely. She quickly finds this to be worrisome; she immediately looks upwards.

  “Now, you look slightly more like someone from the Ten Commandments of God.”

  Above the roof of the stadium, near the ceiling of the green fire dome. Lukia has created a gigantic dragon head made of water, and its size was almost as large as the entire roof opening of the stadium.

  “I apologize, Terrorist-san! In all honesty, I can’t really fight to my fullest in such a confined space. This is very limited, but I hope you like this gift!”

  Lukia covers the entire dragon head with a thin, flowing water that constantly moves at 2000km/h across its entire shape.

  *ZZZRRAASSSHHH*

  The gigantic dragon head opens its jaw wide open, and it creates a splashing water that falls towards the stadium below, mimicking a small rain for one second.

  “Ei-chan, please stay inside that cage of fire, alright?”

  “M-Mari-chan? Don’t use words as if you’re dying to protect me from something! That would make me nervous.”

  “Just stay still inside, okay!!”

  “Oi!”

  Mari prepares her scythe to the side, and she takes a pose to swing it upwards.

  *FWWWOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM*

  The giant scythe’s blade was engulfed by a very bright green fire that raged wildly on it. Mari jumps a bit into the air and spins her giant scythe vertically.

  *FWOOOMMM*

  She stops herself and swings her giant scythe upwards.

  “SOUL EXTINCTION!!”

  Mari sends out a gigantic green fire slash upwards at Mari. The size of her green fire slash was so massive that it almost touched the water wall protecting the audience on both ends.

  Lukia puts her palms open together, top and bottom, opens up all of her fingers, mimicking the jaw of an animal. She moves her hands forward and closes her palms, as if it’s an animal's jaw that bites its prey. Her gigantic dragon head launches itself downwards following Lukia’s hand movement.

  Both of their attacks are moving towards each other, and they meet up within seconds, at about 35 meters above the ground.

  *CLASH*

  *GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*

  *ZZZZZZZZRRRRRRRRRRRSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH*

  *FWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM*

  Both the gigantic dragon head and the gigantic green fire slash push against each other as if it’s a really tough tug-of-war competition. It keeps going on for an entire minute, and then both of their attacks explode, causing a gigantic explosion across the entire stadium that even reaches the ceilings of the green fire dome. The audience is still protected by the water wall, even with how violent the explosion was.

  Under the cloud of smoke caused by the gigantic explosion, both Mari and Lukia met in the air, ready to deliver their final blows. Mari swings her green fiery scythe vertically, and Lukia thrusts her hand forward with a whirlpool that moves at 10.000km/h.

  *ZRRRAAASSSSHHHH*

  *SLASH*

  “URRGGHH!!!”

  “UUURRRKKHHH!!!”

  Mari slashes Lukia across her torso, and Lukia pierces Mari’s Vein Armor on her left waist, and it bleeds.

  *BAM BAM*

  They both fell towards the ground below without any protection, as they never recovered themselves mid-fall. The area where they fell was cracked in a small radius.

  “MARI-CHAN!! TELL ME WHAT’S HAPPENING??”

  *BAAM BAAM BAAM*

  “MARI-CHAN!! MARI-CHAN!!”

  Eissen keeps hitting the green fire cage from the inside as he calls out to Mari. Neither of them was moving for a few seconds. Everyone in the stadium was on edge to see who was going to wake up and who wasn’t.

  “URRRGGHHH!!!”

  “AAAAAARRRGGHHHH!!!”

  Both of them woke up, and they tried to sit up on the ground. They are both currently in a horrible condition as they are both breathing heavily with heavy wounds on their body. Lukia has a long, slashed wound diagonally across her torso, but it did not touch her chest, while Mari’s left waist was pierced through and it’s still bleeding.

  *pant pant pant*

  *pant pant pant*

  They both slowly get up and finally stand up. Both of their heads are down, signaling how exhausted both of them truly are.

  “Say. . . wanna keep going. . .?”

  “I have to. . . save some stamina for that woman. . . but sure. . . fine by me. . .”

  They both smiled at each other. They are both suddenly swallowed by green and blue light spheres, respectively, and a light with their respective color shoots out from the top of the sphere towards the sky. Their lights go past the ceilings of the green fire dome as if there’s nothing there. They both officially enter their Second State.