The spear was easily brushed aside by the giant. In fact, Beam did not even see it move. It was as though it had been repelled, rather than stopped, as though it was simply too weak an attack to have an effect on it.
But before Beam could even see what was happening next, Ingolsol had appeared in front of his divine fragment, a being that towered over him – yet his sword was swift and without hesitation, it went straight for the next.
The divine fragment had enough awareness to show surprise.
"Our Lord's domain is our domain," Ingolsol told it. "We swim these waters just as well as he. For we are him, for as long as our bonds last. You have no place here. Yield yourself to my blade, and allow me to drink in your power."
Even with that element of surprise, his blade failed to reach the divine fragment's skin.
"Weak," was all the divine fragment said in reply.
"How lacking in personality!" Ingolsol laughed. "I will not be done in by a mere drone. In my presence, in front of my will, you are mere flames, dancing according to my intentions."
Flames though he might have been, Ingolsol's weaponry still did not manage to reach him. Claudia closed in on her own divine fragment from the side, jabbing a flurry of blows faster than the eye could see, all of them striking their target, pummelling her in the chest.
"Woah there!" He barely dodged the sword slash that came in reply against his attacks, only for the wind of the attack to buffet him, and nearly knock him from his feet.
"I have to say, I commend his Lordship for managing to take even a single blow from these monsters," Ingolsol said, as he recovered his breath.
Beam watched their battling with a frown. The more strikes his subordinates landed, the more obvious the strength of the enemy became. It was as though they were beating hammers against an anvil, or sticks against a stone. There simply wasn't any reason for their blows to give, for them to have an effect. The magnitude of difference between the two of them was like ants against a bison.
It was a whole different world.
And then every time the divine fragments struck back, they did so with such viciousness that it left a hole in the surroundings. Every time they left a mark in the stone, Beam could feel a piece of himself being carved away, as though he was the one who was being struck.
He understood it to be his will that was getting eroded, from what Ingolsol and Claudia had said. He understood that, and it was with a degree of alarm that he noted the fragments seemed to be only growing stronger, rather than weaker, with each attack that they swung, and each blow that they took.
They grew to wield their power better, they grew to take command of more of it. Their only weakness was a lack of self. That information came to Beam like a natural fact that he'd grown up with, like it was something that was self-evident. He felt like he'd had such a thought long ago, in a place different from this one.
They lacked will, and yet earlier they had spoken to him with arrogance. Now they were nothing more than machines, relearning what it was to be an individual. He didn't understand that. It was as though as soon as the true fragments of Claudia and Ingolsol had appeared, they'd snatched away the last remaining dregs of personality from the divine fragments.
If that were true, did that not mean that they had already dealt them a fatal blow? Was it less about attacking them, and more about taking away from them, and making it his own?