Morningstar Citadel fell into an expectant silence as the outsider came to a halt beneath the Star Tree. His bone mask gleamed in the rain, and his chaotic Qi—a mixture of abyss and ancient memory—caused even the magical beasts to flee the plaza.
Violeta, the Sequence of Silent Ice, descended the steps. Her mere presence froze the puddles and turned the night mist into crystal. But today, the space around her seemed to bend, as if the distance between past and present, enemy and ally, had become uncertain.
High above, Samael watched without blinking.
"Today we shall see if the Morningstar clan can break fate or if it will be lost within it," he whispered to himself.
I. Prologue of the Rupture
The gong resounded.
The outsider spoke, his voice hollow:
"There is a winter in the memory of my lineage. Only the ice can judge me."
Violeta did not answer. She lowered her spear, and her frost aura mingled with a bluish, almost invisible pulse that caused the very light around her to distort.
"Come, shadow," she said simply.
II. Beginning: Ice and Shadow
The outsider was the first to strike.
"Shadow of Oblivion!"
A torrent of black Qi emerged from his palm, spreading like tentacles devouring color and sound, seeking to envelop Violeta.
She spun around, her spear generating a frozen arc.
"Rosary of a Thousand Moons!"
Dozens of ice spheres shot out, each opening a breach in the air. Some absorbed part of the enemy Qi, others deflected it... but the oblivion was stubborn, and several managed to touch Violeta's cloak, freezing the fabric and turning it brittle.
Violeta retreated... or so it seemed.
Her silhouette flickered.
"Step Between Worlds!"
She vanished and reappeared at the outsider's back.
The spear descended, but met a layer of bones and runes:
"Nectar of the Tomb!"
The ice turned black, but Violeta did not stop; she channeled energy through the spear shaft and opened another breach.
The audience could not follow: Violeta was a blue and white flash, moving from one end of the arena to the other, always attacking where the outsider least expected it.
III. The Awakening of Space
The outsider smiled behind the mask.
"Do you flee so quickly, daughter of winter?"
Violeta stopped time in a single breath.
"I do not flee. I am teaching you how small you are before space."
"Bridge of Frost and Void!"
The sand at her feet cracked into lines of blue ice that rose like arched bridges over the battlefield. Stepping onto one, Violeta vanished and emerged meters away, shifting at impossible angles, launching thrusts that surged from invisible rifts.
The outsider, for the first time, seemed cornered.
His shadow attacks missed their mark, and every time he tried to trace a seal, the very distance between him and Violeta fractured.
He attempted a forbidden technique:
"Mist of the Nameless Death!"
A black aura filled the arena, clouding perception, sowing terror in the hearts of the weak.
But Violeta, focused, merged with a crack in the air.
She stepped out beside him, so cold that the Qi of oblivion froze and shattered upon touching her.
IV. The Outsider Unleashes the Abyss
Realizing he was outmatched, the outsider tore off his mask, revealing a pale face with eyes like starry abysses.
"Wandering Lineage Awakening: Crown of Blood Void!"
Reality cracked around him: shadows turned into blades, and every movement generated spatial distortions of its own.
The plaza trembled; the spectators suffered vertigo, as if the battlefield had detached itself from the rest of the world.
Violeta felt the pull. For an instant, even her control over space vibrated, as if the outsider's void were trying to swallow every path of escape.
But she smiled, breathing ice:
"I am the heiress of two voids... and both obey me."
"Aurora of the Last Snow!"
Lances of blue light surged from her hands, not only freezing but cutting space itself, sealing the abyssal cracks and returning balance to the field.
V. The Duel of Dimensions
Both launched themselves at one another, clashing spear against claw, ice against shadow, space against void.
At times, their bodies vanished and reappeared at opposite points of the arena; at others, the collision generated shockwaves that split the stone and froze the air.
The outsider used his final technique:
"Crown of Total Oblivion!"
A sphere of absolute darkness expanded, devouring all sound, color, and memory within a radius of dozens of meters.
But Violeta, at the very last instant, activated her supreme gift:
"Path of the Eternal Step!"
Time slowed. Violeta walked among the fragments of frozen energy, choosing the precise instant to reappear, just outside the range of the sphere.
From there, she aimed her spear:
"Fractal Star!"
A beam of ice and bluish light pierced the coliseum, impacting the heart of the void.
The outsider screamed, the sphere collapsed, and the ice enveloped him.
VI. The Final Strike
In a last act of defiance, the outsider channeled all his remaining power into a shadow slash directed straight at Violeta's heart.
Exhausted, she stopped the blow with her spear, but the shadow split in half, and both were thrown to opposite ends of the arena.
There was a second of absolute silence.
Both on their knees, panting, covered in frost, blood, and shadow residue, they looked at each other with the purest warrior respect.
"I didn't remember who I was..." whispered the outsider, smiling through frozen tears, "but your winter returned a name to me."
"And you... taught me that even the void can be filled with purpose," Violeta replied, her eyes shining with newly awakened power.
VII. Verdict
Samael descended, and this time, his voice was solemn, almost emotional.
"Today, the battle taught us that the Morningstar clan fears neither darkness nor the abyss.
That ice and space can seal even the oldest shadow.
Draw."
The outsider bowed, reverent, before being taken by the healers.
Violeta was received by Kael and Eris, her sisters and brothers; the clan lifted her up and celebrated her, knowing that her glory was already living legend.
VIII. Epilogue: The Winter and the Void
That night, the citadel told the story of the most epic battle ever seen. Children mimicked Violeta's steps in the puddles; elders murmured the outsider's name with fear and respect.
Beneath the Star Tree, a blue leaf and a fragment of shadow remained intertwined, a symbol of an impossible peace between ice and oblivion.
And far away, on the border of the void, Samael's system whispered:
[The Morningstar clan has conquered the space between memory and fate itself.]
[Prepare yourself, Patriarch: the whole world is about to awaken.]