Far above the clouds, two beings of absolute power stood. They were munching on a concept that Jay introduced to them, popcorn.
"I must say, he might seem useless, but these popped kernels of corn are revolutionary," Janus spoke with a refined tone, admiring the delicacy that sat before him.
"Indeed." Ouroboros had to agree. "The whole upper realm must know of this delicacy."
They glanced down at the island below them. Their eyes were glued to the very apex of its world.
"Shall we bet on who will win this one?" Ouroboros spoke, a small grin plastered on her lips.
Janus glanced over to her, then back at the spectacle before them.
"There is no point, we both know who is going to win."
Ouroboros' face hardened. "Indeed, but what's fun in being right all the time?"
"You just want to win." Janus shot back.
"Touché."
"Fine." Janus reluctantly agreed.
He saw a small spark on the other side that he believed Lady Ouroboros missed.
Let's truly see if this was all for nothing.
Jay POV
Slip.
I glanced around at the destruction we brought to the world around us as we clashed.
Space was nothing, if not transversive.
The once grand mountain now lay riddled with crushed snow and broken rock.
My breath stood in front of me as I tried to catch it. This battle was a far cry from our past duels, the energy was stagnant between us.
A sign of something ending, whatever it was.
Slip.
I moved with the speed of a bullet, blitzing forward and streaking the air with the light of my blade. My other half was the same.
Our blades clashed, the shockwave pushing both of us opposite ways.
I spun in the air, building up kinetic energy, storing it in my legs.
This was another technique Ouroboros had that past space wielders used.
It passively stores kinetic energy, each hit 'locking' a part of your stellarium. When you release it, that 'locked energy is released.
Space fluctuated around my body as I released all the locked energy in my body.
Step.
My other half moved as well.
We met in the middle, our blades constantly clashing in an array of silver and white.
I pushed harder, going for a heavy frontal attack. He would always read it, his blading directing it outward, always perfect.
These clashes kept building until I had once again stored enough energy in my kinetic reserves.
I just needed a moment to strike.
What if I just baited his spatial perception?
Whenever we compressed space to blitz forward, we would always prep the space ahead of us, which we could also read with our spatial perception.
It was a trade-off that one had to accept when fighting oneself.
But what if I prepped two sections of space, one in front of him and one behind him?
He couldn't defend both, right?
With the idea flashing in my mind, I tested it.
Step.
This was it, I moved along the line leading to his front, but as I moved, I shifted onto the space leading behind him.
His eyes flashed a hint of wariness. I got him.
Appearing behind my other half, I readied a strike I had been hiding for a long time.
An idea I polished for months.
I channeled the snow below him to lock into his feet. Honing the pressure into the tip of my blade.
I compressed it, tighter and tighter. The space around my blade warped inward, its silver luster gleaming darker and darker until it looked pitch black.
I swung.
Condensed Swing.
This took a lot of prep time, and I had never worked once, but with my recent breakthrough in stellarium absorption, I could do it now.
As the swing moved, I saw what should've been impossible.
That same ball of energy, condensed along the bottom part of his glaive.
My heart sank as I took in the implications of what was about to take place.
What happens when two unstable energies collide? An explosion.
The surface of the air around us quivered for a small moment. A small squeal echoed out around us, as if trying to deny the very happening that was taking place.
Smoke blistered from the collision. My glaive took the brunt of the blast.
I allowed the friction from the air to carry me to the edge of the mountain peak.
On the opposite side at my other half.
How?
How does he always keep up?
I don't understand.
As the smoke cleared, I understood one thing.
I was never meant to overcome him.
A fiery glint plastered along my eyes, my mouth twisting into a smile.
I don't understand.
But I'm having the time of my life.
I laughed, the sound of my voice echoing along the sky.
Even if it all was meaningless, I found joy in this defeat.
Because I finally felt like I was understanding why I couldn't win.
The space around me stopped moving. The constant pressure that my spatial perception had around me disappeared.
My other half glanced at me, confused.
Did he think I'd given up?
Ahh, he can't see this.
The world was so beautiful right now.
My form slowly lifted off the ground, as if reality was forgetting I existed.
My other half noticed something was off.
I must've left his spatial perception.
Motes fluttered from the sky like snowflakes, landing on my skin and flowing into my mind in the form of information.
Star Form.
Spatial Lag.
Light bent around my skin, a translucent hue lingering on my form.
I slowly walked over to my other self.
I thought of all the days I was below him. He was something I could never control.
I always thought he was what I should become, but he wasn't me.
Just what they wanted me to be.
But they weren't me.
My idea of control.
Being the most true to myself, the ultimate image of myself.
My emotions, my mind, my body, my state.
I swung. The moment my blade touched his form, I shifted back into reality.
My blade slid through him, passing his shoulder and into his stomach.
Other Jay POV
It hurts.
Not just the pain, but the feeling of being surpassed.
It hurt more than I thought it would.
My whole purpose was to do this, and yet.
Yet.
Why am I so sad? Is it because I was going to disappear?
No.
I felt as his blade left my stomach, my form collapsing to my knees.
I gulped for air, trying to breathe air that wouldn't go down..
Looking up at my original self, I thought this day would never come.
"Hhhha." I pushed for words, trying to say the things I never got to say to the man in front of me.
"Happy~." A small, bloody smile quivered on my lips.
He glanced at my face. I felt his eyes look deep into my soul. "That's a lie."
His words struck a chord in my gaping chest.
How did he know?
"You can keep lying to me, but to lie to yourself is colder than anything else you've done."
His tone was both as cold as ice, but also as hot as the sun above us.
"You want to live, I know, because that's what I would want."
I took in his words one by one, not because I had to, but because he knew.
"You're me, you may not have my memories, but you ARE me."
There was a pause in his words as he looked to the sky.
"So live."
"Ask them, say it. You want to live."
I looked up into the sky, past the clouds, past what should be visible.
"I…" My words hitched, for a being of control, I was truly led along a string.
"I want to live."
As the words left me, the lights in the sky twisted. Before me, Janus appeared, his hands pulling the two halves of my body back together.
"Fool…"
His voice felt different from my past encounters.
"Good job, I technically didn't lose the bet." And it was back.
"What do I do now? I cannot leave this place."
I voiced my thoughts. What does Jay have planned?
"I don't know." Jay's voice shattered my expectations. "I am not you."
As his words left him, he turned around and sat along the edge of the rubble.
I turned to Janus, who had already disappeared.
If anyone could see my face right now, they would see the happiest smile I have ever worn.
Ouroboros POV
Shocking.
Truly shocking.
The boy who had learned of stars only four months ago was already touching a Star Form.
No small feat.
In all my memory, only one had ever reached this point so quickly.
The bearer of the Sun, Sol.
No other constellation's child had managed it.
Normally, a Star Form required years of study, years of resonance. Only after achieving full harmony with one's star could a bearer invite another into their inner constellation.
He has reached his limit for now. No other star will heed him until he leaves this place and the inner realm takes notice.
It's time to prepare.
We're finally leaving this world behind.