The Ethereal Domain

  ?“Since your target is me, shouldn’t this scenario be more preferable to you?”

  ?Iris said calmly. It wasn’t as much a question as it was a statement. Yet it left Raiden momentarily perplexed, asking.

  ?"That still doesn't answer my question, though. Would you not have a better chance together, or do you believe your chances increase alone?"

  ?"Simple. Because I would prefer an outsider not being part of this mess.”

  ?“What do you mean?”

  ?“A friend of mine wielded the exact same power you hold. At first, I thought he had simply left to train, but now I see you must have killed him.”

  ?"I thought the []

  ?At her words, Iris let out a small, humorless laugh, telling her as it was.

  ?"Rumors tend to paint an unrealistic picture. I am actually quite the emotional woman.”

  ?And so they clashed, Ice versus Lightning.

  ?Iris created ice constructs around them, both to help her attack and defend against the barraging lightning. The constructs had to be continuously remade, as the lightning was destroying any and all ice in the vicinity.

  ?To avoid the lightning strikes faster, Iris would freeze the air directly under her feet, thus creating a platform for her to step on. This lets her easily change directions and dodge, even in the air, increasing her mobility. It was faster and more unpredictable than flying.

  ?To counter this, Raiden changed up how her lightning fell and began making it ricochet off the frozen constructs instead of destroying them, as she herself chased after Iris. When she caught up, Raiden pierced Iris's foot before thrusting her hand through Iris's chest and grabbing her heart. Yet what she found was cold, freezing even. As her arm was stuck in what now appeared as a frozen statue.

  ?"You aren't the only one who can create clones. Normally, I wouldn't use such tactics, as it's been proven only to waste mora. But it works well when you wish to buy time.”

  ?Iris said with a calm, calculating smile as she stepped out from behind one of the ice structures before sending a slash of frost towards Raiden.

  ?"Shatter!"

  ?She said as the clone that kept Raiden's arm encased began forming spikes, it exploded outwards in a wave of icy spikes.

  ?In the end, Raiden was left without her left arm, as it had been ripped off in her struggle to get away from the explosion.

  ?"Seems I underestimated you.”

  ?Raiden said, clutching her shoulder where her arm used to be.

  ?"Don't try to pride yourself, your expectations were correct. For the most part, at least.”

  ?"What do you mean?"

  ?"Why you didn’t go after Blade, why your clone was only summoned after I came in physical contact with Blade. Why you went for my heart the moment you had my clone within your grasp.”

  ?"I see… So it was that obvious?"

  ?"Yes, you are after my core. Or more specifically, my and Indra’s core.”

  ?"You know that, and you still chose to fight me now?”

  ?"... Yes, it is indeed stupid. Honestly, the only one I have ever felt the drive of revenge against is Indra. Feeling it towards anyone else is illogical, even to me.”

  ?“So you do agree this is stupid?”

  ?Iris was silent for a moment. This was honestly ridiculous, though she couldn’t figure out which was worse. that she was feeling the drive of revenge, or that the perpetrator was flaunting their authority in her face.

  ?“Well, like I said, this is as much personal as it is tactical. With the strength you have shown so far, Indra should have been able to finish you had he been serious. That goes for me as well, had you not pierced my heart with that lightning.”

  ?“So you are saying I'm weak?”

  ?“I’m saying, the only way you could have escaped would be if you utilized the weak link. A group is only as strong as its weakest link.”

  ?Iris said as she gathered a lot of mora around her.

  ?"What are you... it seems you're going for a domain? Now?"

  ?"Well, we are both weak, let's settle this elsewhere.”

  ?Iris said, a cold smile playing on her face before saying.

  ?"Ryōiki: Frozen Lake

  ?As a barrier fell like a curtain around them, yet in that barrier were things not like one might expect. An eternally snowing field with a river as cold as ice dividing it in two. Frost and beauty all in one, and Raiden found herself here.

  ?Looking around, she noted the change before swinging her sword as lightning charged against the side, yet it only continued on, until the landscape shifted and icebergs erupted towards her.

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  ?Jumping into the air to avoid the crashing ice, she was only met with more trouble. Even in the air, she was not safe. What she thought were only snowflakes turned out to be hidden small ice flakes, and when enough gathered, they made multiple small cuts around her body.

  ?Reaching out to destroy them, she was suddenly grabbed by Iris who appeared beside her in the air.

  ?“Did you enjoy killing Ray?”

  ?The question caught Raiden off guard, but not as much as the slash aimed for her neck. Only having moments to dodge, she sent herself back to the ground, though visibly getting exhausted.

  ?It was weird, a domain should be taking the biggest toll on the caster. And even then, the risks involved were heavy. Even so, Iris spoke lightly.

  ?"Territorial advantage and automatically generates ice for me to use. That is my domain. Simple, right?”

  ?“Then what is this?”

  ?Gesturing to her frozen arm. It had barely any ice on it. The fact was that it should do no more than impede her, not make her useless.

  ?“Oh that? Suffering.”

  ?The smile on Iris’s face woke her up to the damage being done to her arm. Looking down at her arm to see that the ice that had cut her had actually stuck to her, freezing her little by little as they ate at her.

  ?Trying in vain to burn the ice out of her via lightning, she fell incredibly short.

  ?"It's no use. If it was this simple, I wouldn't see you suffer.”

  A vestige of Iris appeared from the snow, as she mocked.

  ?"I can freeze concepts quite easily, but when fighting against an Absolute Authority holder, freezing a concept is of little use. But what would happen if I froze your blood veins carrying mora?”

  ?At the words, Raiden swung her sword at the vestige, only for it to dissipate as a new one appeared. For her to use a domain, she knew Iris must have refined the technique to make it worth it. Yet doing nothing left her as a lamb for the slaughter, and that helpless.

  ?"In our body exists a heart and blood veins. But in truth, these are the covers. We could never die of blood loss. Inside our blood veins lie another type of veins. Veins that carry mora around our body. That's what we actually are afraid of losing. And inside our heart, that's where we find our core. The thing holding our essence and absolute authorities.”

  ?“Your point?”

  ?“No matter how many times you trash or swing, I will continue to freeze you. Slowly, painfully. Until even regret is beyond you.”

  ?Again Raiden swung, only for the vestige to dissipate again as more vestiges appeared around her, collectively saying.

  ?"I believe it is a good plan. I’m not any good at the revenge stuff though, and since you refuse to indulge

  ?"Are both you twins sadists?"

  ?Yet at her words, spikes crushed into her arm.

  ?“Do not compare us. But your answer is no. Indra just has fun, for me, it is much more personal when I take actions.”

  ?Iris said, stopping a short distance away from her kneeling form, only for Raiden to continue speaking.

  ?"Well, I also have a plan.”

  ?"Don't you mean had? I'm killing you here, after getting enough information out of you.”

  ?"No, I meant it in the present. My master wouldn't let her dog die, especially while it still has its use.”

  ?"Master?"

  ?Though the sentence could never finish. The sky outside the domain did not just brighten, it cracked. As if creation itself slammed into the exterior of the Frozen Lake, shattering the barrier from the outside like cheap glass. Iris gasped, the feedback of her sanctuary being crushed sent her to her knees."

  ?"What did you do?”

  ?Though again, her sentence got cut off. The domain was broken, and so was the force holding Raiden, using her lightning to rid herself of the ice. Her actions were to extract, nothing more, and so she did. Her hand plunging into Iris’ chest, fingers closing around the core. The blizzard that had stayed did not fade slowly. An immediate death was what it was.

  ?"How sad... you truly are a dog… well it's not like I lost… so I’m fine with it…”

  ?Iris said weakly, already feeling the strength leaving her quickly, as her heart was ripped out.

  ?Raiden caught Iris before she could fall, her regenerated left arm holding her steady. To an outsider it may have looked like a figure holding their dying friend, yet Raiden coursed electricity through Iris’s heart, incinerating it, leaving behind only her core. A small orb that seemed to fluctuate with a glowing substance in it.

  ?"How courteous.”

  ?Iris said weakly, despite her body's waning strength.

  ?"Goodnight, []

  ?Raiden responded as she broke the core and absorbed her essence. At the action, Iris's body began dispersing into mora, with her last action being closing her eyes. Her last thought was none, as she had accepted the notion of death long ago.

  ?As the core broke, the snowstorm that had momentarily been prevailing

  ?Many thoughts had been warring in him. What was happening? He should go and help. What could he do? What should he do? Iris had been right, he was weak, but he could help, couldn’t he?

  ?Yet just when that thought had won, the curtain of light had dropped. A light that had dropped across the entire valley, ruining any chance of Blade going to Iris.

  ?Now forced to flee, it felt like reality itself was refusing him help, telling him he was far too weak to change the fate of anyone. Due to Iris and Raiden, the terrain had become far harder to cross than before, yet Blade had no choice but to continue. But the feelings gnawing at him were everything but good.

  ?After a long time of running, he finally found a way out of the cliff. When he did and looked back, he truly saw the destruction committed. The valley was irreversibly changed. Despite it all, he couldn't help but look at it in awe. This was what a fight between origins

  ?Quickly shaking his head and refocusing, he knew he needed to find Indra. He had no chance in his current state, and if he wanted to have any chance at helping Iris in any way, having them regroup would be for the best.

  ?Yet he was left with no destination. No map, no location or whereabouts. Did he even have a way to help?

  ?His first steps away were unsure, filled with doubt. So when he first saw flames, he followed them, believing they would lead to somewhere at least. He had nothing to lose.

  ?The first place he reached after following the flames was a small village. But as he checked the first house, all he was met by was a corpse. Or at least what remained of it, as it fell to the floor. It was hard to see what it was, as it was burned entirely, but he thought he could glimpse the outline of a woman holding a child.

  ?The thought made him sick, even if he had seen similar sights before, but as he looked around, all he saw were similarly burned corpses. Many of them with faces of terror and pain.

  ?The more he looked, the worse it got, until he eventually simply fled the village, not wanting to see more.

  ?He questioned why Indra, or anyone for that matter, would do something like this. He thought back to the gods he had killed who derived pleasure in inflicting pain on others, and wondered if Indra was anything like that, though he didn't ponder for long. For now, the best action would be to just find him first and ask questions later.

  ?The next village he came to wasn't all too much better. The only positive was that he didn't need to see the bodies, as the whole village was practically burned down. The only reason he even understood it was a village was because the foundations were barely visible in the ash, and as he looked around for other clues he found signs of lives lived and lost.

  ?When he left that village, he finally saw it. A flaming inferno in the distance.

  ?Blade had finally found Indra. Now the question was simple. How would he meet up with Indra?

  ?Running over to the inferno, he had a lot to tell him, and potentially they could find a way to help Iris. Now it was simply about how to meet him.