Selen's eyes slowly opened. The surrounding area was much the same, still covered in ice and fire. Yet now there was another being in the fight, someone that looked like Solaris, but it wasn't; it was his body, but not his mind.
slowly making her way to her feet, Selen recalled her claw.
Watching the fight between Solaris and Ember put a sense of dread into her. The speed of the fight was terrifying.
Yet the speed wasn't even the most devastating part; it was the pure strength of the attacks, every strike landed was as though the ground itself was shaken.
She had expected Solaris to be on the defence yet to her bewilderment, he was the one attacking, his arms coated with a matte black with a small hint of orange deep beneath his skin as though it was contained behind many, many layers of steel.
".. exramicy?"
Suddenly recalling that Solaris possessed no such thing, her sense of mortal dread escalated rapidly. The sudden realization hit her like a truck...
That was not Solaris.
Her entire body froze up, her skin crawled, and the hairs on her neck all stood up; everything about this was wrong.
Her lips softly moved in a whispered tone
"Why did he save me?"
The question rang within her head before coming to a conclusion.
Extending her right arm, the demon mark slid from beneath her skin, forming over her fingers and hand. Soon, a long, claw made of pure silver was attached to her hand. As soon as the claw stopped moving, a thin but tightly packed layer of ice covered its surface.
Even though she was exhausted from her previous bout with their mentor, she still had to fight, she had to subdue him, and figure out why this happened.
"How did such a simple duel turn into this?"
With her final thoughts spit out into the world, she dashed forward.
***
Solaris ' arm shot forward with a practiced position only a master in hand-to-hand combat could achieve, as it did, the fiery creature he once called Ember, moved its body, and raised its arm, moving fire seemingly from beneath the ground upwards, striking the arm attacking him.
Before the fire connected, the strike was already stopped, and a new one was already on its way. This time, his leg shot forward, allowing the other to slide forward, giving it more momentum.
Ember couldn't dodge this time and resorted to taking the strike dead-on, of course, with some pushback, calling forth more fire from all around the individual flames combined.
As soon as Solaris kicked, the fire swirled around embers, fiery finger, into a singular point.
Being launched back, the embers' fire began to move almost too fast to see, if not for the illuminating aspect of fire, shooting forward, directed at Solaris. As it was about to connect, Solaris was launched upward.
The devastating beam collided and passed through nothing but a thick wall of ice. The beam sank deeper and deeper, yet the ice would not give. As soon as some melted, more immediately took their place.
Finding itself in the air, the being quickly adjusted and shot its legs down towards the ground, and both soon struck something, yet it was not the ground.
Solaris ' body was standing in the air, the space below his feet, seemingly warped into two small orbs barely noticeable if not for the steam caused by the rapidly melting ice moving around them.
Falling forwards, Solaris was still attached to the orbs.
After angling itself towards Ember, its legs crouched down and soon launched forward at violent speeds, its arms outstretched, its hand open as if about to grab something.
passing across the battlefield of ice, the being approached Ember, before reaching him and tackling him to the ground as he reached the earth, a full body restraint covered his body.
Moving his fiery body to free himself, a fist flew at his skull.
The fist collided, and Ember was put to sleep.
The fire soon disappeared, as well as the iced restraint.
The smile on Solaris ' face soon disappeared as his eyes closed, before instantly opening.
"We won."
Selen stared from a distance, slowly making her way over to Solaris and Ember. Upon reaching Solaris, she tapped him on the shoulder.
turning his head, his tear-filled eyes were met by a beautiful blonde girl, smiling with relieved joy.
All the ice soon disappeared, melting into nothing.
Someone soon stepped through the gateway; it was Sami holding a small bag.
***
Now back at Crimson Cross, the three were being checked over by Sami for any wounds, and surprisingly, only Selen was harmed to a point of needing Sami's Exramicy to help her, while the other two simply needed some light bandages and ice.
Selen had been badly burned during the fight, and so Sami was currently operating on her with her Exramicy.
Solaris found himself sitting on a small bench in the main lobby, waiting for Selen. He was sitting next to the cause of his splitting headache as well.
"Sorry."
Ember spouted sheepishly.
Rage typically would have billowed from Solaris, but at this moment, he couldn't care less; his body ached, his head hurt, and he was tired beyond belief. All he wanted was to sleep, but Sami wanted to check him one last time for any brain damage due to knocking himself out.
"Why did you go crazy?"
Solaris said calmly.
"I'm not sure, all of a sudden I just felt incredibly angry, at everything and everyone, my body went off the rails in turn, I have no clue as to what it could have been."
Moving his tired eyes, Solaris glanced at his sword, which he had dropped deep into the woods along with the device he had used to call Sami.
Could it have been...