Erina cracked one eye open, the hiss on her lips matching that of the hot metal on her skin. Her focus uninterrupted, her railgun setup remained where she left it, now emitting a high-pitched whine behind her. The bolt exploded forth and snapped several of her bindings like nothing, dropping her to the floor.

  Eve had already moved in advance, hair whipping up as the railgun blast roared past her head. She sheathed Fragarach and looked down on her opponent with a dismissive sneer. "Poor lost girl. The unrest in your heart is proof of your purpose. Without fulfillment, any happiness you could find is empty."

  "As if I'd listen to you…!" Erina got up and brought her arm down.

  The glowing cloud spiraled down, drawing itself into a massive blooming dragon's curve that reached from the ceiling to the floor. She motioned again and it burst, beautiful new fractals drawing themselves into existence across the arena.

  "You are not meant to rot in obscurity!" said Eve. "Shine!" The floor tremored and a shelf of emerald sheared free over her, absorbing the blooming curves headed her way as the rest flooded the air around her. "Your rightful place is at the forefront of the world! Radiance!"

  The colossal sword of light, long left impaled in the ground, tore itself free. It slashed through the air with a deep rumbling whoosh, tremendous blade phasing through the fractal curves as countless tiny explosions washed off its transient metal.

  Erina raised her other hand and the blade slowed to a near-total stop. Space distorted, drawing apart the gap between millimeters as she paced aside.

  Eve flourished as an array of magic seals flashed at her own feet. The counterspell neutralized Erina's and the sword of light crashed down in earsplitting chaos, carving an immense fissure into the gemstone that comprised their battlefield.

  Erina slowly twisted her wrist, arm shaking with exertion as her brilliant shade of green filled the battlefield—and then all resistance gave way, her arm flying wide as the wind exploded into a mad frenzy. Intricate fractals blossomed all over the battlefield, every bead another threat of an imminent barrage. Emerald traces of energy condensated into currents of glimmering emerald matching the sweeping gales.

  Eve didn't give them a chance to open fire. She drew Fragarach again, twirled the point straight down, and stabbed it into the earth at her feet.

  "The time for games is over," she said. "Howl!

  A tornado roared into being, consuming her and spanning to the highest reaches of the armillary sphere. Erina's designs of light distorted and then crumbled, intense winds sucking them into the funnel and coloring it in brilliant white-green. Erina stumbled, spear flashing into her grip and burying the end in the earth for purchase as the gales threatened to sweep her off her feet.

  "This is your true purpose!" Eve's voice rang out over the chaos. "Submit that vessel to me—Emisane Erina!!"

  Wedged deep in the emerald, the vast sword of light shifted with a low crunch. Then, it tore free. The building-sized blade took flight, crumbling into particles of light as the tornado drew in everything. Erina found herself going from fighting being sucked in to nearly being thrown off the platform as a fresh shockwave exploded out.

  The vortex filled with brilliant shining gold. Sparkles and glimmers at the base whirled at incredible speed, stretching out and bursting into shape as an armory's worth of massive glimmering blades.

  The first caught Erina square in the gut, knocking all the air out of her with a pained grunt. The ground vanished under her feet, the sword carrying her with it on its dizzying revolutions around the howling funnel. One sword after another formed at the base, turning the tornado into a veritable blender that ripped apart what few thin filaments remained of Erina's constructs.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Erina's hands scrabbled at the flat of the blade for purchase and were found wanting. She slipped from the edge and felt another brutal impact as another glowing blade intercepted her, juggling her from one blade to the next without ever touching the ground. Spell circles flashed around her, blindly guessing the direction as she tumbled every which way.

  Finally, she got one wild guess right. Her fall protection spell slowed her descent just a fraction of a second. The sword intended to strike her midsection instead found her slamming down atop the flat of the blade. Hot pain flared as Erina's fingers closed on the edge, keeping her in place as it carried her up round and round the tornado.

  Her clothes were torn and battered. Blood oozed from the numerous long cuts on her stomach. Adrenaline pounding in her veins and a fire in her eyes, Erina pulled herself up into a crouching position on the blade—

  A second sword struck her platform, both tumbling out of control. As the blades reached the top of the funnel, they rained back down to strike the ground where the wind picked them up again in an endless cycle. Erina was adrift again with nothing under her feet as the howling gales swept her up and away.

  Tuck in the limbs and rotate. Erina flipped completely over, a spell circle forming under her inverted feet as an upside-down platform. The roaring gales drowned out the rush of air as she accelerated herself straight down, diving to the floor like a missile as a huge sword smashed her empty platform to pieces.

  Glittering light danced at the edges of her vision as she landed and launched into another accelerator without pause, tearing across the earth. One sword after another impaled itself in the floor mere steps behind her on her way to the base of the vortex. Every impact shook the earth and her heart, every crash another wave of ice in her veins. Erina pushed through it, wresting down her terror as much as she fought the screaming winds.

  The green katana formed at her fingertips, flying from its sheath with a cry on her lips. She could picture it perfectly—the technique that beheaded the divine dragon, the mastery that could rend space itself. Erina alone was not Eve's match, but with this—!

  The emerald crescent tore through the vortex. Conjured katana collided and locked up against Fragarach, steel screeching against steel. Their eyes clashed with the same intensity, Erina teetering on the line between ferocity and desperation as she found herself staring into Eve's cold and brutal dispassion.

  "You and I are the same!" declared Eve over the raging winds. "All that I have achieved, you share the potential for! You can change the world for the better—and because you can, you must!"

  "Will you shut the hell up?!" Erina's emotions spilled over their boiling point. Blades grating together, she dropped the scabbard in her other hand and thrust forth under their bind with the spear that promised lightning.

  Emerald blades of wind flooded the air and they broke away. Erina's stab went wide, discharging wildly in a giant twisting tree. She poured mana into it as fast as her siphon drew it—a flood of destruction that could scrape out the innards of a dragon. The golden tornado was ripped apart by the white-green branches of the fleeting tree, winds dying down and vast swords clanging off the rings enclosing the battlefield.

  A vicious slash of twenty from Eve sent Erina skidding back behind her barrier. She staggered as a blade of light smashed down beside her, then rolled as another came down where she was walking. Erina flipped, slid, and dodged as the blades pounded down around her until she had no room to move, and then all she could do was realize her predicament before they crashed down on top of her.

  Flourishing like the conductor of a catastrophic orchestra, Eve willed her blades to break apart and reform as a smaller, more numerous company and shoot down. The swords hammered Erina down, obscuring her figure and burying her in an intricate mass of white light until she could hardly move a muscle.

  Eve lowered her arms. The dust settled. Erina was pinned. Any twist of her body, every motion of her arm was impeded by the shining blades and their glowing guards.

  "You must change the world." Eve threw her blade back into its sheath and approached the girl. "No matter the price to yourself. Even if the ideals you carry have no place for you in the end. You must."

  Pain throbbing through her body and bleeding all over, Erina raised her head to meet Eve with her defiant gaze. Red dribbled from the horizontal cut along her forehead, staining her face.

  "The one with the power to rule the world is morally obligated to do so," said Eve. "Your wish for a peaceful life squanders your potential. The one who can end all suffering… By rejecting that choice, that person becomes responsible for all suffering. In ignorance, you were innocent… but with knowledge, you are damned to the noble path. That is the meaning of 'truth,' Emisane Erina."