Chapter 43: Contest of power

Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Contest of power

The wind above the floating platform had gone still.

Sophy rose from one knee, blood still tracing a thin line from the corner of her mouth. She closed the damaged fan with a soft, deliberate click. The hole Singer’s shot had punched through the silk remained, edges blackened and smoking, yet the smile on Sophy’s face only deepened.

"Now the fun actually begins," she said quietly.

Singer said nothing. The sniper rifle rested against her shoulder, matte-black and perfectly steady. Her breathing was even. Her eyes still on Sophy.

Around the arena, every watcher leaned forward as one. Layla’s expression did not change, but the faintest spark of interest flickered in her green eyes. Fahai’s fingers tightened once on the arm of his seat. Lady Grace watched in silence, the same calm certainty still resting on her face. Kiuesna merely smiled.

Sophy raised the broken fan.

"GOOD DEEDS: FIFTH WAVE"

The words were soft. Gentle. But with those simple words, the sky answered.

A sphere of absolute authority expanded from Sophy’s body, swallowing the entire floating platform in an instant. The air itself became dense, heavy, it was as if it now obeys her. Every particle of motion. Wind, light, even the subtle drift of the arena through the sky simply knelt to her will. Within the domain, the world slowed to a crawl for anyone who was not Sophy. Color drained toward monochrome. Sound itself stretched and warped. The very stone under Singer’s feet ceased to feel solid and became something closer to liquid memory.

"A bearer type Fifth Wave huh," Singer smirked knowingly.

Suddenly, from the center of the domain a figure stepped forward. It was a being formed of pure compressed motion. What’s more, it wore Sophy’s face and carried an identical red fan, yet its presence was colder, deadlier, and infinitely heavier. It was the exact duplicate of Sophy. The fake Sophy stood behind the real Sophy like a second self, eyes completely devoid of mercy or any spark of life.

Sophy then spoke, but her voice came from both mouths at once.

"PRIMORDIAL REALM: MOTION AUTHORITY — ETERNAL STILLNESS"

"The battle is already over," said Layla, a cruel smile forming on her lips. "Sophy’s domain forbids any movement that she did not authorize."

Elfaria next to Lady Grace smiled as well. "What will happen next? Can Singer shoot her sniper even though movement has been forbidden?"

"I don’t know," said Lady Grace. "But I do know how it will end."

With that the domain instantly locked. In that moment, Singer felt the sudden pressure. She in one desperate attempt pointed out her sniper and shot at Sophy. But Singer’s first shot never left the barrel. The bullet of condensed mana formed, then simply stopped existing the moment it tried to move. Velocity itself had been stopped, like literally canceled from reality.

Singer’s body jerked as the air around her limbs solidified into invisible restraints. Even the blood in her veins felt slower. The rifle grew heavier by each passing second.

Sophy and her fake self moved together. They closed the distance in a single shared step with their twin fans carving through the slowed world, each slash rewriting the trajectory of everything it touched.

Singer twisted, forced her body to obey through pure will, and fired three times in rapid succession. The shots bent mid-air under Sophy’s authority, then turned back on their owner, and slammed into Singer’s own shoulder and ribs with brutal force.

BOOM!!

Blood sprayed across the stone. She dropped to one knee, her rifle still raised. The Fifth Wave’s pressure just kept pressing harder.

Sophy smiled with arrogance, then looked down at Singer. "You cannot move what I do not allow. You cannot shoot what I have already stopped. And moving is just a grace I am giving to you. I can take it at any moment I wish."

Then she came closer and closer to the kneeled Singer. "You and your superior have lost this battle."

Singer’s head lifted, blood still running from the corner of her mouth but her eyes, however, were clear as crystal.

"You think you won? Then you’ve already lost." She spoke the words without raising her voice. "GOOD DEEDERS: FIFTH WAVE"

Sophy felt the sudden surge of aura as well. She shot backwards in defense. "Let’s see your greatest move..." smiled Sophy.

At that moment, the world clarified. Every small detail became visible to Singer at that moment. Every unnecessary thing fell away. The colors of the domain remained, the pressure remained, but Singer’s perception cut through them like a blade cutting through silk. Distance became nothing but pure numbers. Trajectory became absolute certainty. Time itself fractured into discrete frames only she could choose between. The restraints of motion authority still existed, yet they no longer applied to the single path she had already decided would be true.

The sniper rifle in her hands changed. It lengthened, the barrel becoming a perfect black line that seemed to drink the light. A second scope unfolded above the first one. Mana condensed along the weapon until it no longer looked like a construct of power but like a law given physical form.

At that moment Singer exhaled. "Shïnyôkóküñ"

At those words, in that single breath she fired once. The shot did not travel through Sophy’s domain. No, it had long surpassed that. It simply ignored it. The bullet of pure force existed only along the one trajectory Singer had declared inevitable. Motion authority tried to seize it and failed.

Fake Sophy seeing the bullet approaching raised her fan to intercept the shot. But what shocked everyone who was watching, the shot passed through fake Sophy and her hand fan as if they don’t exist, as if they were only a memory.

Sophy’s eyes widened. But it was too late. The bullet struck her cleanly through the center of the chest.

PUNCHICK!!

At the same instant the bearer staggered, a matching wound blooming across its form. The domain shuddered, color began flooding in a violent rush. The once heavy air cracked like glass under pressure.

Sophy coughed blood, still standing, her face pale with shock. "Imposs—" she stammered. "Your Fifth Wave forbids movement you do not authorize, well my Shïnyôkóküñ calculates and overrides the law of motion itself."

"It Cannot be!!!"

"But it can, you are the one who has lost Sophian Vankulian"

Sophy’s face distorted with anger and shame at Singer’s bright confidence. "YOU DARE MOCK ME!!!"

She and her fake version raised their fans together one final time. The domain collapsed inward, concentrating every remaining fragment of motion authority into a single, desperate strike aimed at Singer’s heart.

But Singer was already moving. She chambered the last shot while still on one knee, the clarity burning through the pain in her ribs and shoulder. The rifle settled against her cheek. Her finger tightened.

"Bye bye beautiful"

FIUUUU!!

Both techniques shot forward and met in the center of the platform with a deafening BANG!! The shockwave sent stones and dunes at every side of the arena and the watchers. It was like a tornado, a tsunami of stones and debris shattered. It sent stones spiraling towards Kiuesna, who didn’t even open his old and wrinkled eyes. Instead Boyon, his right hand, opened his scroll, an orange power shot outwards and formed a perfect barrier for them.

The wild wind also came at Layla, but with an angered distorted face, she waved her hand and all the wild wind and tornadoes sucked into her hand.

Then the sky tore open with a sound like the world itself was splitting. A pillar of white force erupted upward, punching through the clouds. The platform cracked from end to end. Stone fragments the size of houses were hurled into the desert below. The shockwave rolled across the dunes in a visible wall of sand and pressure.

When the light faded, only one figure remained standing. Singer knelt in the center of the broken arena, rifle braced against the ground, blood dripping steadily from her mouth and side. Across from her Sophy lay on her back, the red fan shattered into useless pieces beside her open hand. The bearer had already dissolved into fading threads of motion. Sophy’s chest rose and fell in shallow, painful breaths.

Around the ruined platform the Virtues sat in silence. Layla’s eyes were half-lidded, unreadable. Fahai’s expression remained calm, but something like quiet pride flickered behind it.

"This contest was dragged too long. Good you to end it Singerian"

"I do all to please you my sire," gasped Singerian as she slowly stands up and walked towards Fahai.

Lady Grace exhaled once, soft and graceful. "As expected."

Elfaria lowered her head in shame for disagreeing with her master.

"Don’t be so glum Elfaria, you’re also a living soul, you have your personal opinions that I cannot force you to change."

"Yes milady"

Amongst all that, Layla rose from her seat, that frightening power engulfing the entirety of the place, everyone who was not a Virtue began sweating profusely. Already injured and weak, Singer felt like the aura was so crushing that her feet gave in and she collapsed.

This act made all the Virtues frown. Layla, Fahai stood up from his seat and said, "Are you looking for a war against all Virtues Layla?"

"I merely want to say, I really do hope that this Singer of yours actually... put a stop to Liues Morgan, because henceforth, all Virtues are needed elsewhere."

"And where is that exactly lady Layla?" Asked Lady Grace, slowly standing up.

"I have found Destruction"

This words shook everyone. Fahai instantly frowned, Because Finding the very destruction of mankind can be both good and a bad thing.