The mask stretched out, reflecting the one trapped in ice.
The light abruptly extinguished, shattering the worn path.
The girl no longer took a step, her face only pressed silently against the one called sin.
Silent and staring, speaking not a single word.
Uzuki remained trapped between thick layers of ice, nearly with no way to struggle free.
Truly no different from a fish upon a cutting board, yet needing no blade to die on its own.
...
Perhaps he was... truly beyond saving now...
She observed for a moment longer... then without any restraint, turned her back and departed.
Because she knew... she knew it completely.
*Crack crack*
The sound of metal contacting snow rang out, signaling she had truly decided to leave Uzuki to become the coldest *corpse*.
*Crack crack crack.*
The sound continued echoing steadily, the girl had begun widening the distance... gradually... ever further.
Uzuki stood still, shrouded in silence... head bowed... was this really the end?
Wait, had Uzuki begun to move?
He perhaps with all his current strength, began raising his head high.
Directed straight toward the girl who was moving away.
He... began to speak.
"That's all?"
The girl froze. Her body nearly stopped in place.
Her face slightly turned toward Uzuki, her gaze revealing clear doubt.
Uzuki continued.
His voice colder than even the layer of ice consuming his body.
"Speaking sin..."
"Yet just that?"
"Standing. Whimpering."
"Talk much... Do little."
The girl remained silent.
Then she turned around.
"The treacherous need no reason."
"Do not think of justification, nor of misdirection."
"Simply die according to what you have chosen."
He still gazed deeply... then... responded softly...
"Understood."
The words held no flavor... as if already accepting fate.
The girl glanced back once more, then continued walking.
"This cage..."
That deep voice rang out again.
"...No color."
The girl froze.
"What mean you?"
"Pitiful."
In an instant, she vanished!
Silver light flashed brilliantly, then was already pressed against his carotid artery.
"What mean you?!!"
Uzuki showed no fear, true to his usual manner.
The black pupils stared straight at the silver blade.
And...
Remained silent...
Impatience erupted!
"SPEAK NOW!!!"
The knight's demeanor had completely vanished.
Uzuki slowly turned his head to look at her, a faint blue light glimmering softly behind him.
"Isolation."
"Unworthy."
"Accused."
The sturdiest defensive stance had collapsed, the judge had become the one wielding the blade.
The entire sword swept across.
*CRACK CRACK. SCREECH SCREECH.*
The sound of shattering ice, accompanied by cutting into flesh rendered so clearly it felt numbing. One could imagine that his head at this moment perhaps no longer remained in its default position...
The end.....
But wait?
It seemed no one had died?!
The girl's arm still trembled from fury, but the sword remained fixed in place.
Uzuki was nearly unharmed.
His arm somehow had risen, along with a block of ice attempting to hold him in place, yet it was the thing that had absorbed the slash.
A special layer of metal very similar to before had now branched out like tree roots also successfully protecting his arm, with only a small amount of blood flowing.
The entire layer of ice enveloping him also showed signs of melting.
But...
It was melting very evenly, as if the entirety of all the ice was maintained at the same mana frequency.
She straightened abruptly, but immediately drew the sword back out.
Then instantly twisted her entire body: Legs -> hips -> shoulders -> arms -> wrists.
With the sole purpose of ending Uzuki immediately.
But he was no longer easy prey now!
The twin windows of darkness began to illuminate, Uzuki smashed the ice block downward creating a sound
*BOOM!!!* Extremely powerful!
Smashing straight into her sword's blade before even a blink, directly causing the ice block to disperse its original structure.
He was freed!!
Uzuki pulled the sword still stuck out directly, then without hesitation, hurled it straight backward.
He immediately directed his leg straight into the remaining structure, then launched a kick with extreme force!!!
His body shot powerfully through the air, then landed straight on the ground like a true predatory beast.
Without needing an entirely unnecessary backflip.
The girl watched Uzuki's shadow dash away then back toward the melting ice...
But this time it was very different, as if something very turbulent was stirring within her heart...
"Fuuuuu..."
A sigh rang out, filled with exhaustion and perhaps... some inner turmoil...
"Again..."
Uzuki remained focused on her words, he appeared as if he had nothing more to fight with, yet clearly the current killing intent contradicted this.
She turned toward his figure.
"Who are you? What are you?"
Uzuki remained ever Uzuki, would always pause a moment before answering.
"Wrongly accused."
The simple words clearly struck directly at the one claiming judgment.
The girl fell silent... Yet did not rebut.
"Perhaps true..."
Uzuki was slightly stunned, given their clash until now, this was clearly something he least expected.
She continued speaking...
"Different from others."
"...While all possess..."
"You lack."
Uzuki remained as he was.
...but
clearly very different from before, his pupils slightly dilated, creating a strange expression, one that would seemingly never naturally truly appear... listening...
"Others frenzied..."
"Foolish..."
"Single purpose only."
She lowered her voice.
"That is... kill me..."
The bitter words rang accompanied by an indescribable sorrow...
"All because... Something perhaps never existed"
"...a wish...?"
As her words ended, the space seemed to sink into silence, the flower somehow in Uzuki's hand was suddenly shaken gently...
*Crack!?*
Where did the sound of shattering come from?
The girl raised her metal hand to her face, only to see that her mask had cracked...
A crack running straight through matching the flower outside... perhaps her mind as well...
He remained silent for a moment longer, then suddenly took the initiative to speak.
"What?"
The girl paid no more attention to the crack, immediately responded.
"Strange phantom."
"Like incantation..."
"Anyone arrives first. Speaks it..."
...
"But you..."
"You did not."
"No screaming..."
"No charging like beast..."
"You..."
"Like... understand nothing."
"Silent..."
"...analytical only."
Uzuki withdrew his stance, standing straight yet seeming absent... As if only his body was acting, while he was not.
"You analyze everything."
"Attend every detail."
"Use every opportunity..."
"Even I never considered."
Suddenly she stared straight into those black dots.
"Tell me."
"You figured it out?"
He did not speak... forcing the girl to continue herself.
"You realized my ability..."
"Affected by emotion."
"Each ice block oscillates..."
"Same frequency."
She hesitated slightly, then pointed directly at the flower he held.
"That thing amplifies it?"
"So you angered me..."
"Ice melted quickly."
"Then used that ice..."
"Neutralize my own slash."
...Then she asked one final question
"Everything I said..."
"Correct?"
Uzuki... Perhaps he would have nodded his head.
Would he not?
"Correct."
....An answer that could not be foreseen
Uzuki had truly replaced a simple nod with an answer generated directly from his throat, in a manner 'direct'
The girl fell silent... Perhaps having received her desired answer.
"So it is..."
She slowly turned away then looked again.
'"Isolation."'
'"Unworthy."'
'"Accused."'
Words that caused Uzuki to twitch slightly.
He now could not predict what she would do next.
She looked up at the high sky yet it was something endless and deep.
"You spoke correctly."
"I truly exist... such manner..."
"Thing lost all light..."
"...unworthy of honor..."
"...falsely accused you."
She suddenly resolved!!
"Therefore!"
Her voice began to rise.
She kicked the ground with tremendous force creating a deafening sound *BOOM!!!*
Her lithe body now became a cannon shell!
Charging mightily into the ground, causing all the snow to be hurled up, completely obscuring vision.
*WHOOOOSH!!!*
Uzuki's straight sword emerged from within the snow cloud, launching with supersonic speed!!
He held his stance, to catch it...
But—
*Thud.*
The sword suddenly changed trajectory, driving straight into the ground before Uzuki's face.
The girl slowly rose, the snow also dispersing.
Calling out loudly.
"O accidental human wandering into boundless sky..."
"No exit!"
"If you able!"
"Raise that sword!"
"Fight as true warrior!!"
She raised her sword high pointing straight at Uzuki, and screamed with all her spirit!
"Because I here!!!"
"Show you what honor of Sin-Spirit is!!!!!"
Uzuki stared at the sword. This scene.... So familiar... Yet...
Not same as then...
Different feeling.
Could not express with words...
Then... His body seemed to have completely taken control for its own, his shoulders rising, his hand placed straight on the hilt...
With force replacing words, Uzuki drew the sword straight up, and immediately.
Pointed directly at her like reply full of will!!
"Accept."