The entire area surrounding them had become pitch-black, and within that darkness, white silhouettes started moving around Emilia.
'What… what is this?' Emilia's eyes darted around her, her mind completely in disarray. 'Everything became dark suddenly.'
"Hey, you'll die," Ace's voice came from behind Emilia as she heard the faint sound of a grip tightening on the hilt of a sword.
With a gasp, Emilia abruptly put up a shield of ice that broke the moment Ace's sword struck down.
With a shallow cut, Emilia rolled on the ground from the impact.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. Pathetic," Ace form appeared and disappeared repeatedly, melding itself with the white silhouettes that circled around Emilia. "Is that all you got?"
With Ace's words, Emilia struggled to rise from the ground, coughing in the process.
'As expected, I can't control that magic yet,' Emilia as she now stood on her feet. 'And whatever this technique is, Ace can attack me from any direction, and I wouldn't be able to evade him.'
As Emilia raised her head, her eyes found the tip of Ace's sword ready to pierce through her skull, and as the strike made contact, Emilia's body tumbled on the ground once more.
'Hmm?' Ace, still submerged in the shadows, thought as he felt the weird sensation in his grip.
"Ugh," Emilia rose from the ground again, shards of ice falling to the ground from her face which was letting small amounts of blood flow out of her forehead.
With ragged breaths, Emilia's thoughts raced.
'That was too close. If I was even one second later, it would have been the end of me. He...'
Emilia's heart sank, almost as if she could no longer breathe. And through the unsettling silence of her mind, Ace's words echoed, a realization striking her as hard as a hammer.
Don't you remember? I told you that at any misstep, I'd kill you.
'…really is…'
No more rules. No more safety nets. No more witnesses.
The words were caught in her throat as she started hyperventilating.
You've only got one choice left… kill or be killed.
"…trying to kill me," muttered Emilia, ending her thoughts.
At that moment, a thumping sound rang strongly in her ears, the sound of her heart beating wildly inside her chest.
And as the thumps became stronger, Emilia's surroundings started freezing slowly, and without warning, a burst of cold air surged from her, violently hitting Ace who was still hiding himself amidst the shadows while also dissipating his technique.
Ace, who was blasted away by the cold air, crashed onto the ground violently, his skin showing signs of frostbite.
'Damn that hurts,' Ace thought, slowly rising from the ground with a shaky breath.
Before he could fully stand up, two magic circles appeared beside Ace, charging the same spell.
In an instant that seemed to last for eternity, Ace quickly glanced at both circles, and with a shift in his center of gravity, he leaped upwards, evading the two shots of pressurized water that were coming at him.
Emilia, with a quick response…
'Freeze.'
The splashing remnants of her spells froze immediately, becoming spikes and short spears that were coming at Ace with full force.
With a gasp and quick reflexes, Ace avoided getting hit severely, though still sustaining some cuts on his body.
"Haaaaa…" Ace released a sigh of relief.
As his gaze settled on Emilia, Ace's became more focused.
"Can I ask you why you're attacking me so suddenly?" Emilia glared at Ace with a determined yet pained expression.
"Stop it," coldly Ace replied. "Stop looking me with those eyes."
"You really are an idiot," Ace added. "Even after all this, you're still looking at me with those eyes. I hate it."
"That fear. That hesitation. That anxiety. I don't get it," Ace pointed his sword at her, his blank eyes, as dark as an abyss, carrying a hint of irritation.
"Hate me. Curse me. But whatever you do, don't look at me with those eyes. Only an idiot shows pity in a fight. Just remember this one thing. If you don't kill me first, I will kill you."
"A-Ace…" muttered Emilia, the image of her younger and broken-self overlapping with Ace's form in her mind. 'Then why do you look like that?'
"Enough chitchat," Ace sprinted towards Emilia, his grip on his sword firm.
Ace was imprisoned in a sphere of water, and inside it, magic circles formed, surrounding Ace from every possible direction.
"Tch," Ace clicked his tongue as from the circles, arrows of water started shooting at Ace.
'Freeze,' Emilia thought, as the spears of water became spears of ice.
"This won't be enough to stop me," Ace started slashing and evading Emilia's onslaught with mastered precision.
Just as fast as the spears came at him, Ace showcased incredible acrobatic and parrying skills as a great majority of the spears didn't hit him, but instead, they were being pulverized by him.
'Like I thought, that won't be enough to stop him,' Emilia observed with a calm and resolute mind, before creating some distance between her and the Water Prison Ace was trapped in.
'This should be good enough,' she positioned herself like an archer, a bow and arrow made of water appearing in her hands. 'I'll pour every last bit of mana I have into this shot.'
While Ace parried, deflected and evaded the spears of ice, Emilia was charging up her attack, the blue aura around her glowing brightly as the energy of her arrow surged strongly.
"I've had enough," Ace muttered as his sword started glowing with a silver aura.
In a single instant, the sphere of water exploded, becoming a shower of rain which soaked Ace, Emilia and their surroundings.
With his eyes settling on her and the attack she was preparing, Ace headed straight at Emilia in a frontal assault.
'Just a little more,' thought Emilia as Ace started getting closer to her. 'Just a little bit more.'
'It's over,' Ace swung his sword, only two meters separating him from Emilia.
'Freeze,' Emilia released her water arrow which became like a canon with the force of a blizzard, and with its release, a freezing shockwave followed.
The sheer mass of cold air stung your skin as if you were on the peak of a cold, snowy mountain, and amidst it, a violent cough came out.
"It's… so cold," Emilia coughed with a shaky breath, .
Ace had a dumbfounded expression on his face. The same kind of someone who couldn't comprehend what had just happened to them.
"W-why?" Ace asked, frozen blood etched on his blade while Emilia, in the most surprising and inexplicable way, was hugging him before collapsing on the cold ground.