Chapter 490 CH 451: THE MEANING OF 'SETSUNA'

Even as the almighty tornado continued to suck her inside it, dizzying her with the speed at which she was being moved around by the swiftly circulating wind tunnels...

She felt sick to her core, a constant stream of damage being applied to her body and slowly breaking it down to pieces. She was sure that there were many more insidious concepts mixed in this deadly attack but she was not in the mind to find out what they were.

'Ah... Once again I am so hopeless in front of an enemy.'

She was sure that Sol was watching this fight from somewhere, keenly observing her actions. She was also sure that if she really fell in danger he would come and save her. She would never die no matter which turn this fight would take.

So, should she be happy to know that her life would never be in jeopardy?

'Fuck this shit!'

The mana around her body started going wild like a hungry beast as she fought to get back control of her body and limit the damage she was receiving from this wrathful force of nature.

She was not a damsel in distress who needed her prince to come and save her at the most opportune moment and make her swoon with his beautiful timing and charming way of rescue. She was a warrior and she was not willing to lose this fight.

'Sol trusts me...'

She would be given the important responsibility to be his glorious knight and representative in the future. She would fight at the forefront of the war and take care of an entire battlefield with a battalion under her control and authority.

All of that now hinged on how she would be dealing with the current situation and how much she evolved from this fight.

Failure was never an option for her. She refused to believe in that notion. She needed to, no, she had to win at all costs...

'But... How can I win?'

If she focused all her energy on her control over the lightning element, then she believed that she could accelerate herself enough to definitely escape this tornado storm she had been sucked into. But this would change nothing for her. It wasn't as if Neun was only capable of sending one tornado storm her way.

There was only one way for her to even the playing field between them... and that was to reach the Duke realm, right here and now.

Curling up her body like a ball, Sestuna brought out her own water and wind elements from inside her and covered her body entirely in those elements, creating what seemed like a protective cocoon.

This was the best way to protect herself as she thought up a solution and a method to attain victory over her opponent.

Mana condensed all around her and she slowly went back to her own consciousness to deeply ponder her options.

All she could see inside was a deep void above what looked like a lone gate standing in this endless void of her mindscape.

Sestuna knew that the formation of this gate was already an indication that she was going in the right direction. She could even see that the gate had slightly opened and was waiting for her to fully comprehend her Truth to fully open the gates.

But this slight opening was not enough for her to truly do anything in this fight. She did not just need a step in the right direction. She needed to reach her destination to annihilate her opponent and achieve a perfect victory.

What was her 'Truth?'

What were her strengths and weaknesses?

Sestuna thought back to the training she had done with Kali in Medea's world.

She was someone who had reached the power of destruction through her own understanding of the basic four elements. No matter how she thought about it, she was, without a doubt, someone worth all the respect in this world for that achievement alone. Just controlling the basic elements to sublimate the power of destruction was unprecedented.

Then... what about her?

Setsuna had already admitted it inside of her mind. That she was actually nothing special. She had nothing that could make her comparable to the true geniuses of the realms.

Her talents were amazing when thinking of them from a general perspective. But when faced with the true supernatural geniuses and monsters at the top of the pack, she was just someone slightly special that was barely able to distinguish herself from the mediocre populace.

This reality was something that had hurt her ego many times over but she had managed to accept that simple reality over time. But now, it was time for her to truly accept and surpass that reality to establish herself at the peak.

Her desire for vengeance never left her, but it did not become an all-encompassing desire that was destined to burn her whole.

She stopped seeking vengeance for vengeance's sake. She now sought that in order to reach a new and more beautiful life by severing her past and accepting her future with them. They finally arrived in front of her Gate of Truth.

Both Sestuna and the featureless figure stayed silent as they watched the humongous gate that was slightly opened.

"You now know what you want, right?"

Sestuna smiled. Her gate was filled with images. Images from the present, images from the past, and even images she could not really make sense of yet.

All those images seemed to fuse in a grand whole and create one great picture.

A Wolf howling at the Sun and the Moon at the same time.

"Instructor Kali once told me that in a long-forgotten language, my name had a certain meaning."

When he was younger Sol loved sharing this kind of knowledge with her. Kali was much the same and she would always talk about how her linguistic skills were useless in this plane. Even though she was not able to understand what she meant by that.

"In that foreign language, Sestuna means (An Instantl I [A moment] or even a 1A split second]..."

The figure looked in her direction and Setsuna gently caressed the gate that was starting to open under her touch.

"My name is Sestuna. Perhaps this is Fate, destiny, or whatever you wish to name it. But I represent an instant. The very moment between life and death. The very moment between victory and defeat. The very moment... to change my destiny..."

She laughed, remembering the new catchphrase that Lilin had obtained after she opened her Zone...

'Distance is meaningless for her huh... Then...'

"Time will be meaningless for me. Let me take an instant in time... and stretch it into infinity... and beyond."

A smile formed on the figure before it slowly dissipated into particles of light and entered the slowly opening gate.

Setsuna did not know what the figure was. Perhaps another self of hers? The personification of her fears and insecurities? Or perhaps something more?

It did not really matter.

"Thank you..."

Thanks to the figure... she had now found her path. The path to her 'Truth.'

Back in the real world, Neun watched with progressively more disappointment as she received no feedback from inside the tornado. 'Did the princess give up?'

She could not help but wonder in her mind.

It was then-

Awooo!!!

A howl that seemed like it could tear open the entire sky could be heard coining from within the tornado that had trapped Setsuna. The Rain and Wind were stopped as Ice and Snow started to take their place, freezing everything on its route.

And in that very 'instant'...

- 'Time' itself stopped moving...

[Zone: Eternal Memories]

[A Step into the Present : - : Fimbulvetr [1]

(AN: Sestuna is Time and Lilin is Space. Haha, I think I did a pretty good job. The Setsuna zone is pretty broken. It can do so much. You will have to wait for the next chapter to see.)

(1]: Fimbulvetr is the eternal winter that precedes Ragnarök. The picture of the wolf with the sun was a reference to Fenrir, The Sun Devouring Wolf. Sestuna's goal isn't to devour the sun. Heh, at least not in that way...