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The sky of the floating city cracked like glass under the weight of the released forces. The broken towers rose and plummeted in slow motion, crushed by the waves of heat and cold clashing in the air. The vacuum between each breath was filled by the roar of the entire crater, as if the world were screaming in terror of those two presences.
Mei no longer thought. Calculation, formulas, angles—everything dissolved into pure savagery. Fire sprouted from every pore, spreading in golden currents that serpentined like solar snakes. Her golden eyes burned in a frenzy, and her body advanced in unpredictable, violent, instinctual movements.
— You… — the princess narrowed her eyes, raising walls of ice around her — …are fighting like a beast!
— And that's bad for you! — Mei roared, shattering the wall with an incandescent kick that turned ice columns into vapor.
Every punch, every kick was accompanied by the Pulse: circular flames that exploded around her fists and feet, restoring her spiritual energy with each impact. Mei struck and her body responded, as if the cosmos itself fueled her. The wilder she became, the more alive she felt.
The princess retreated, but not in despair: the cold around her condensed, forming abyssal currents. The Tree of Life pulsed in the distance, and with each beat, Seraphyne felt her power multiply. The ice wasn't just ice—it became the Abysmal Cold, so dense it sucked heat from space, extinguishing light.
— You grow stronger with brutality. I grow stronger with the infinite. — Seraphyne raised her hands and the sky was covered in frozen darkness. Black ice blades descended like rain, each drop capable of splitting a mountain.
Mei roared. The fire opened into a golden whirlwind, vaporizing part of the rain, but dozens of blades pierced through, lacerating her skin. She did not retreat. Every wound was a new pulse, every drop of blood transformed into fuel for even greater flames.
— I am not infinite, Princess… — Mei spun, a kick so violent it split the crater's floor and part of the city in two. — I AM THE NOW!
The impact opened a crater within the crater, the entire city swaying in pieces. Mei launched herself at Seraphyne, blows in sequence, so fast they seemed like multiple versions of herself exploding simultaneously.
The princess raised ice stakes to block, but every block was a mistake: Mei destroyed them with animalistic fury, reappearing behind her, beside her, above her. Pure instinct turned her attacks into something impossible to predict.
— Savage… unbearable! — Seraphyne screamed, releasing an abyssal circle. From her body exploded a field of absolute cold that froze heat waves, froze even sound, froze even the air. — But if it's a beast you want to be… then I will crush you like an animal!
The princess's veins glowed dark blue, the Abysmal Cold now condensed on her skin. She raised her arms, and ice dragons emerged from the ruins, roaring with the energy stolen from the Tree of Life.
Mei guffawed, blood streaming down her chin. — Now this is getting fun!
She opened her arms and invoked a spiral of gravitational fire, pulling the dragons inside. They collided against her and exploded into vapor, but each impact only fed the Pulse, and her aura grew until it became a living star.
The next shock split the city into two levels: above, Seraphyne molded reality into black ice, pure abyssal cold, freezing even the flames; below, Mei exploded like a walking supernova, melting space and pulling everything into the orbit of her fury.
— You are chaos without logic.
— And you are logic without a soul!
Their blows collided. A fist of golden fire against a spear of abyssal ice. The impact bent space, split towers in half, and made the entire city spin on its axis.
Mei panted, but did not stop. Every blow recovered energy, every wound became new strength. Seraphyne trembled, feeling her own adaptation fail before the Empress's absurdity. Still, she kept raising walls, shaping ice storms, absorbing, evolving.
— Admit it, Empress. — her voice was almost an icy whisper. — Deep down, you know you love facing me.
— I love destroying you! — Mei responded, her eyes burning like suns. — And you will feel every second of it!
The two advanced. Without calculation, without restraint, only fire and ice in their wildest form. The floating city shattered around them, towers turning into meteors falling into the crater. The world trembled, divided between Mei's wild sun and Seraphyne's abyssal cold.
And in that moment, there was no longer an Empress or a Princess. Only two primordial forces, dueling to decide who would be the eternal flame and who would become the eternal ice.
The floor of the floating city was unrecognizable: streets twisted like solidified magma, leaning towers and pieces of platform floating like lost islands in the void. But neither Mei nor Seraphyne stopped—each was now the living incarnation of a primordial element.
Mei breathed deeply, golden eyes shining, but now with something different: she didn't just react, she created possibilities in the air. Mental calculation had been replaced by absolute intuition, every gesture of hers provoked micro-explosions of energy, as if every movement wrote new laws of physics in the surrounding space.
— You think you understand me, Princess? — Mei said, her voice low, but laden with fury. — I haven't even started dancing for real yet.
In an instant, Mei advanced, but not as before. It wasn't flames or predictable punches: she created a corridor of unstable gravity between her and Seraphyne, a fissure in space that deformed the trajectory of any attack coming at her, as if the air around her had a life of its own. Seraphyne had to adjust her Abysmal Cold in fractions of a second, creating ice that twisted and tangled like dimensional serpents.
— What…?! — the princess murmured, eyes wide. She could feel that the analyses made until now were no longer enough. Mei hadn't just abandoned logic; she was redefining the battle every second.
They exchanged blows of mass and altered gravity, too many blows even for a distorted second in that space.
Mei smiled.
Suddenly, concentric waves of energy began radiating from Mei's feet, each step creating fissures that broke entire towers into floating pieces, each punch projected small supernovas, not to destroy, but to reshape space and amplify the Empress's own speed. Her Pulse now not only restored energy but created small points of instinctual explosion: each of Mei's impacts multiplied, and each multiplication fed the next attack.
Seraphyne raised her arms, and fronts of black ice began to multiply like inverted trees, each branch absorbing energy from the Abysmal Cold and launching blades that pierced space at impossible angles. But Mei didn't stop to defend—she dove into the chaos, dancing between ice blades and floating ruins, her ignited hands shaping micro-explosions that altered the blades' trajectories, converting defense into attack.
— Impressive… you really learned not to think! — Seraphyne said, finally smiling. But her smile was cold, deadly. — But I have evolved too!
The Tree of Life pulsed again, this time emitting an abyssal wave that spread throughout the crater. Each pulse expanded the black ice, creating living armor that molded to the princess's body and crystallized the space around her, making the air so dense that Mei felt her movements slow for an instant, though her instinct compensated.
— I can feel it… you growing… but I grew too with every blow I landed on you! — Mei responded, spinning in the air. Upon landing, she split her core into multiple foci that exploded sequentially, each with a different pattern, creating a rain of flames that pierced, melted, and molded space in its own dance.
The next collision was like two stars colliding: the pressure of Mei's fire met Seraphyne's abyssal ice, and for an instant, the air transformed into a bridge of liquid energy, vibrating and undulating like a membrane between two worlds. Each shock created new elements: crystals that were both ice and magma, clouds that burned and froze, and bands of gravity that distorted everything existing around them.
— I never imagined a human could… — Seraphyne breathed deeply, with difficulty, but the gleam in her eyes was now one of pure respect — …make me feel the fear of the unknown.
— And I never imagined anyone could make me evolve just by facing me! — Mei responded, laughing as she launched into a somersault that crossed several city platforms. Each impact created shockwaves that propagated like a symphony of destruction, and each explosion was partially absorbed by her Pulse, fueling the next charge.
For a moment, both drew apart, floating above the crater. The entire city trembled between them. The silence was merely the preparation for the next act, for no one knew what absurdity each would create next.
Two primordial forces, two deities of battle, hating and respecting each other in equal measure, evolving every second. And even if the entire city collapsed around them, no surrender would be accepted.
— Ready for the next wave, Empress? — Seraphyne whispered, her voice almost abyssal, but laden with challenge.
— Always! — Mei responded, eyes shining like twin suns. — And this time, I won't just hit you… I will break you to the rhythm of my own savagery!
Mei and Seraphyne collided in the air with the force of two planets crashing. There was no space for hesitation: fist against spear, palm against ice wall, each impact reverberating in waves that bent gravity and deformed matter itself. Every blow from them tore the air, and the sound was almost solid, as if the city itself trembled with each direct contact.
— You really… have no limits, do you? — Seraphyne said, dodging a punch that crossed the space between them like an incandescent golden comet. But this time, she responded, her ice arm hitting Mei's shoulder with enough force to wrench a roar from the Empress.
— And you love that I don't! — Mei shouted, dodging a kick and countering with a spinning hook that collided against the princess's icy torso. The impact deformed the ice, creating cracks that spread like blue veins, and the shock of the collision created a wave that lifted debris, vapors, and fragments of floating buildings.
They spun through the air, colliding repeatedly. A punch from Mei hit Seraphyne's shoulder, who responded with a vertical kick of black ice that pierced the Empress's wrist, sending her back—but not defeated. Each impact wasn't just damage, it was pure energy, transforming space into a field of distortion: melted stone mixed with crystallized ice, fire and vapor coexisting on unstable towers, platforms floating in impossible rotations.
— Finally…! — Mei exclaimed, laughing heartily. — Someone who makes my heart beat faster!
— No dirty techniques, just power and combat.
— And I have finally found someone who forces me to feel pleasure in fighting! — Seraphyne responded, dodging a kick that burned like the sun itself. A blow from Mei hit her side, tearing an explosion of black ice that flew in all directions, but the princess responded, holding the impact and pushing Mei away, both their bodies shining with deforming energy.
— Who would have thought it would be a mortal like you to make me feel this way.
The sky cracked above them, the floating city writhing around each collision. Each direct impact deformed the ground and streets below, turning towers into liquid columns of fire and ice, twisting as if they had a will of their own. But Mei didn't stop: every wound fed the Pulse, and every explosion created new instinctual attack routes. Seraphyne, in turn, absorbed energy from the Tree of Life, expanding her Abysmal Cold and creating new techniques with each beat.
— You are a walking madness! — Seraphyne screamed, blocking with both hands a sequence of punches trying to break through her guard. — But… I'm loving it!
— Madness that destroys you! — Mei responded, landing a punch that collided with Seraphyne's stomach, and for the first time they felt each other's true strength. The shock generated an explosion that vaporized part of the air and ice, making both their bodies float among debris twisting like lava and crystals simultaneously.
The fight spiraled downward, descending towards the city. Every step Mei took created heat fissures that vaporized ice instantly; every gesture from Seraphyne generated crystal arms trying to trap her or throw her against the ground. But every direct collision was brutal: fist against fist, elbow against shoulder, knee against leg, and with each contact the surrounding matter distorted. Streets twisted, buildings deformed, and the sky became covered in a mix of vapor, flames, and crystals.
— I never thought anyone would make me feel… alive like this! — Seraphyne said, smiling through the pain, absorbing blows, redirecting abyssal energy to create blades that pierced Mei's flames.
— And I never thought anyone could make me laugh amid so much destruction! — Mei responded, landing a kick that broke part of the ice wall, but felt the princess push her back with a frozen arm, the impact echoing as if the world had cracked.
They spun, hitting and being hit, hatred and respect mixed in every attack. The battlefield was no longer the city: it was the direct effect of their collisions. Every contact transformed the environment into something new—streets into frozen lava, buildings into rotating towers of crystal and fire, platforms floating in impossible rotations, defying physics.
And yet, in the midst of the chaos, there was fun in their eyes, a mutual challenge: to see how far they could push each other's strength, how far they could evolve in the heat of combat and the cold of the abyss. Every landed blow was respect; every impossible dodge, admiration; every direct shock, the apex of the dance between the Wild Sun and the Abysmal Ice.
The crater floor trembled as if the world itself were breathing, trying to swallow the entire city. The two women floated side by side, bodies marked, burns and ice mixed, breathing heavily. A tense silence formed, before the next chaos.
— Ready for the end… or the beginning? — Mei whispered, eyes burning like suns about to explode.
Seraphyne merely smiled, cold and concentrated, raising both hands. — Always ready, Empress.
In an instant, the crater became the stage for an unprecedented collision. Mei gathered energy from her spiritual current, transforming her body into a living supernova. The golden light grew until everything around seemed to evaporate. At the same time, Seraphyne raised her energy to the maximum, freezing all surrounding matter, condensing the Abysmal Cold into a black storm, capable of tearing apart mountains of stone and ice.
The two looked at each other one last time and finally roared with a primal tone, ready to end or begin a new apex of the battle.
— DEVASTATING SUPERNOVA.
— CATACLYSMIC AVALANCHE.
The two forces met with a roar that distorted gravity, split floating towers, and churned rivers of debris in the air. The heat melted metal, the Abysmal Cold froze even the air, and where the two collided, matter itself bent, creating fissures, fragments, and clouds of energy that trembled under the shock.
The final impact opened a colossal hole in the crater. An explosion of primitive energy scattered fragments of city and incandescent dust across the sky. Mei and Seraphyne fell, burned and frozen, their bodies marked, but their eyes still burning with challenge.
The sound of their bodies hitting the earth levels below the concrete streets was an inaudible chime compared to the apocalypse caused seconds before.
Without hesitation, both rose, staggering, and ran at each other. This time, there were no more abilities, no space manipulations: only fists. Just pure punches, each blow carrying the force of thousands of prior explosions.
— This is how humans fight, Princess! — Mei shouted between blows, blood and sweat flying.
Seraphyne began to adapt, applying a precise hook that made Mei stagger back, blood streaming down her chin. But Mei's gaze, living flames in her pupils, accepted the challenge.
— Like this, Empress? — Seraphyne responded with a provocative smile on her face.
— Just like that. — She murmured, and they continued.
— No dirty strategies, no veils of the abyss, no stealing allies' bodies. A direct confrontation with clear, pure intentions, just focus on the fight. — Mei continued, punching with calculated fury.
Seraphyne smiled, but something changed. Fragments of memories surfaced, vague memories of combats, of training… even of an impossible friendship, of a scenario where they wouldn't need to hate each other, wouldn't need to fight. Melancholy mixed with respect.
Mei also thought of alternate realities, not so different. She didn't know the reason for the princess's existence, but she could imagine a life without so much suffering, without so much pain imposed by forces they didn't even control.
And then, in a simultaneous instant, their fists collided against each other's faces. The force of the impact threw them back, lying parallel on the ground, panting, staring at each other. Respect became palpable, silent.
Mei rose first, her right hand igniting again. Seraphyne stood up, her left hand covered in ice, absolute cold. One last confrontation: fists against fists, fire against ice, primitive energy against primitive energy.
The impact illuminated the entire crater, a flash that made the remaining towers tremble and stones levitate in microfragments. Both screamed, releasing all the accumulated adrenaline and frustration. The explosion threw them in opposite directions, but this time, there was no strength left for anything more than to touch the ground, breathe, and stare at the sky.
The night sky opened above the crater, filled with glittering matter falling, reflecting the light of the prior explosion, and the portal beneath the city illuminated everything like a primitive aurora.
Neither of them rose immediately. Tanks empty, bodies wounded, breaths heavy, but souls intact. Ecstasy, adrenaline, and silent respect took the place of hatred and fury. For a moment, the world seemed suspended, awaiting the next decision of these two primordial forces.
To be continued…
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