"Come on, dumb disciple," Ariha's voice echoed in his ears as he flew through the churning cloud. "Are you going to lose to a pure Healer?"
He clenched his jaw, and the [Wings of Radiance] unfolded in their fullest glory. Wings of white and golden light expanded as his speed exploded. He caught sight of her incandescent celestial form again, flying above another fold of clouds, patterns of the Way twirling around him.
He had his own share of the pattern of the Way as well, but unlike her defensive intent, the twirls of pattern under his control churned with the diabolical power of lightning and thunder. Plunging them all to weaken her defences, he drew on the calamitous power in his left hand.
Lightning and wind blades crashed into her from all directions, but Ariha managed to withstand them easily. He already knew this wouldn't earn him a victory against her... if it did, he would have defeated her weeks ago.
No, this was merely the primer of what was to come. He concentrated and converted the void essence into void light. The runes on his left arm stirred as his skin in contact with the blade began to tear off as he imbued it into his blade. Radiance essence already moved on its own through their separate path, while he set his eyes on the target.
He shot towards her. With the lightning and wind blades weakening her control of the Way, he sundered through her defence. But even that wouldn't be enough. Thus, he released the Tier-5 Anti-gravity script as well as an empowering script so that he could withstand the sheer force of his speed. He would only get one shot at this, one opportunity to catch her off guard...
His figure exploded into speed, dominating through the storm and plunged into her immediately. Ariha had noticed his explosion of speed, but she was a moment too late to put up any real defence. He thrust his blade, void light screaming out of [The Divider].
Her expression changed as she instinctively drew her celestial wings to defend herself.
Her wings glowed in silvery light, but the void light found purchase easily, piercing through the glowing feathers to plunge into her upper chest. Before even a smear of blood could spray out, the acceleration force of all his speed caused him to crash into her, as both of them descended downwards.
His attendants weren't focused on that, however. Instead, they were concerned with the wound he had caused on her. Glowing golden-red blood finally came out in a fury, tainting her iridescently pristine wings. Her sleeveless dress was smeared with blood as well, with a deep wound on her upper chest.
He stood up and moved a couple of paces away. Ariha remained sitting there, carefully examining her wounds, without trying to heal them.
"I'm sorry," he found himself trying to say, but she stopped him.
"No," Ariha shook her head. "I should have expected it... Void light, huh? Even without complete mastery, it has the power to kill transcendents."
It was as though she had just learned about such power for the first time, even though she had helped in developing all his abilities to a great extent. Experiencing a horror was after all very different from studying the horror.
He exhaled, looking at his feet.
"Don't worry about these wounds..." she scratched her wings, which stopped glowing. "They will heal, and even if they didn't, it's not as if I am a real person who needs to care about them."
He only felt pain in his heart hearing her... even with the heart transplant, it hadn't changed much about how his inner heart worked.
"My existence is..." she faltered to choose the right words, "fulfilled in training you. The same is true for my other incomplete and cruel avatar. By withstanding her challenge, you'll fulfil our existence."
That was right, his real goal was to climb the summit and grow his power... meeting the challenge of another version of his master was a trial tailor-made for his growth.
Yet his heart pounded just with the thought of losing them... losing her again.