A Hollow Abyss

  ?A weapon so familiar, yet it seemed so foreign in his hands.

  ?“So that’s how it looks in the hands of someone free?”

  ?Raiden commented, for the first time letting herself stop and take in the surprise. It could be called nothing else, seeing a completely unknown man not only challenge her and be a perpetrator in cutting the untouchable, but now even copy her weapon and seemingly her Authority.

  ?For Blade though, this was both an achievement and a victory. Blade had Mora-grade weapons at his disposal other than Severance, yet none of them were like this one. The more he looked at Raiden’s sword, the more information had been flowing through him. So, the same way he created weapons, he tried using the information in his brain to create it. The only problem was that it wasn’t a proper weapon, but a construct made by Mora. Yet now that he had made it, he felt it being placed in his storage. He guessed the storage also worked as an archive for all his copied originals.

  ?After some thinking, he finally understood how his Absolute Authority worked, or at least the storage part. His Authority was simultaneously a vault and a library. The vault carried the original of each and every weapon, no matter what. As long as it exists somewhere at some time, it is the original. Yet the library part was the one he had unknowingly been using. His Authority doesn’t only carry the original, but every piece of information stored about it, too. Using that information is what lets him create the copies. And unlike before, these were proper weapons, not the hollow cheap imitation constructs he had created. All that information is then stored in a specific book for each weapon.

  ?Yet what about now? He had created something that wasn’t in his library, nor vault, but rather added it. Since the stuff Raiden created were constructed using her Authority and Mora, they weren’t proper weapons, but by creating a weapon perfectly modeled from what he had seen and felt from it, he could make a true weapon from it. It was still under experimentation though, as Blade still didn’t know how he had reproduced the effect of her Authority by creating the blade, nor could he sustain it for long as the weapon broke down after a few seconds.

  ?From it though, he learned another thing. Just because he lost something from his vault didn’t mean he would lose it from his library, meaning he could still easily mass-produce it as long as he had Mora. He knew this because even though what he produced was the original, he could not find it again in his vault, but he could find the information for it. Meaning he still had it in his library.

  ?His thoughts were broken as he had to avoid a lightning strike from above. This was fun, was what he thought as his Mora took form, a ghost of a skull forming. Learning new information, testing it out, trying it out. He had never truly known it, but this felt good. Being able to explore was his form of freedom.

  ?Rushing at Raiden, he dodged her strike, but was forced back by the cold, as a giant tree of ice sprouted around her. Yet Blade did not mind. Jumping off it as he landed a distance away, opening his vault and launching weapons at her. He wanted to test more things.

  ?As the ice and weapons clashed, he found a few more things out. Though the originals were stronger, the time it took to shoot copies was shorter.

  ?Raiden created hounds of ice that burned with flames, as she created creatures of all forms to chase him. Blade jumped in the air, contemplating a weapon of mass destruction that could take care of the horde in one go. A bomb would do, but how would he even make it work? Yet his curiosity got the better of him. Why stop at creating a bomb? Why lock yourself to one form?

  ?Turning Severance into a bow, he created a bomb in his hand. Yet it was no normal bomb, but an atomic one. A bomb that wasn’t done forming, as while it was still materializing, he aligned it with his bow as if it was an arrow, and in his hand it became one.

  ?Raiden watched him with a steady but confused gaze. She barely understood the fact it was a bomb in his hand, yet now it had become even more confusing seeing it as an arrow.

  ?Empowering the arrow with Mora, he let the shoot out, and the explosion was a delightful, expansive one. The atomic bomb vaporized the creatures and the ice, even forcing Raiden to erect a barrier to block it.

  ?Blade had modified the bomb a bit to reduce its explosion range in favor of lethality, both to increase damage and stave off unneeded destruction to the Arena.

  ?Landing back on the ground, he smiled as the atomic arrow had been added to his vault and library. It would shorten the time needed if he ever wanted them again.

  ?One thing he thought was that it was surprising nobody had done it before. Shrugging it off, he turned Severance into twin daggers as he rushed at her.

  ?Raiden tried jumping away, but couldn’t as she noticed her arms and legs were tied by time stasis chains. Though here they were more like time delayers, as all it did was slow her down enough to where Blade could reach her. And it didn’t help when she hesitated, feeling her core fall, before turning the field into an electrical field forcing Blade up, before she said.

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  ?“Convergence

  ?As the flow of electricity became a field of ice flowers and spikes, gracing Blade in the legs and almost taking off his hand if it weren’t for his gloves, which were now ruined.

  ?Yet his questions lay more with the new move. Convergence? A move that could shift lightning to ice? Or could it be the same with fire? Either way, he needed to end this quickly. Yet if he continued as he had been doing, he would run out of Mora soon. He had to admit he had been wasting a lot ever since his body was fixed. Severance had said his Mora reservoirs were large, but not endless, he would run out eventually.

  ?Taking a moment to think, he reflected on what he had. Raiden could...

  ?Though his thoughts were cut off as the woman herself made it hail towards him, her hand began cracking, showing off the Mora in the cracks. As she began using Convergence a lot, turning the hail into lightning, forcing Blade to conjure another copy of her sword simply to ward off the lightning and hail. Yet he felt his Mora draining simply keeping the sword up, as he quickly let it break, sprinting at her. Both of them were running out of time, yet would die if they let up now.

  ?Raiden spawned more ice constructs toward him, shooting them at him at blinding speeds. To counter it, Blade made weapons, yet instead of shooting them immediately, he saved them. Cutting through the ice he could and shooting the weapons at the ones he couldn’t. Using the method to close the distance.

  ?When he took the step that reached her, he did not waste a moment as he cut through her neck, yet what he cut through wasn’t a neck nor skin, but air. As he found himself dropped from high up in the air.

  ?“Huh?”

  ?Blade was bewildered at the scene, not understanding how he found himself so high, and now freefalling towards the ground.

  ?“You seem to forget an Authority holder can use Mora for other things than their own Authority,” Raiden spoke aloud, making sure he could hear, before saying the word.

  ?“Convergence

  ?And with the word, the lightning storm accumulated into a form before turning into two giant frost blades, easily the size of mountains, falling right at Blade.

  ?Blade had been mistaken. His first thought was that she had maybe used space displacement magic to make him go through her. He should have thought more about her Convergence. If she could transform one element to another, displacing space shouldn’t be too far fetched.

  ?Yet he now had a far more pressing matter. What to do with the giant blades falling towards him? Block? Dodge? Though he had studied fire and ice too, he had come up with no good way to deflect them unlike lightning.

  ?Blade didn’t know what befell him, but his body moved before anything else. Gathering his Mora, he threw up his hand as he created a giant weapon. Information flowed through his brain as the form took shape.

  ?Using the ice constructs as a base for his creativity, he created a giant cleaver sword as the closest construct hit it. He ran up the blade he had made, throwing another creation as an enormous scimitar for the second construct. The swords themselves were hollow inside as Blade had focused on simply creating them, but he had named them, making them therefore a proper part of his vault and library. It also made up for the fact they were hollow. The first Mora-grade weapons he made. The Swords that Split the Moon

  ?The silence was an audible thing as the people watched Blade, who yet again broke expectations with his show. Despite this, all the weapons managed to do was deviate the path the constructs fell, away from Blade.

  ?Yet observing their fall path let Blade see how they had drifted straight for the crowd. Most of the viewers had understood that it wasn’t worth risking one’s life here, and therefore left a while ago, but there were still people here. There was nothing he could do without using up the remaining Mora he had.

  ?He had to do nothing though, as Raiden raised her arm towards him, the ice turning into flames that flew to her, surrounding her before beginning to rapidly change between the three forms. ice, fire, lightning.

  ?Blade understood the gesture. This was the last clash, which is why he decided to put all his remaining Mora into the attack. He had not realized it, but fear had long since stopped gnawing at him. Right now, he only felt curious about if he could truly win.

  ?Summoning Severance one last time, he readied himself for this one last time. Almost comforting in a sense.

  ?Aisha meanwhile had been watching all along. When many others had left, she had been one of those who remained. Everything going on around her had scared her, but she knew that she would only feel more fear not knowing the result of this fight. She wanted to stand by him no matter how little that meant, so she stayed to see it through.

  ?Raiden closed her hand as the elements burst forth towards Blade, or that was the plan. Yet her limbs and finger were tied. At first though, it seemed like chains? No, they were familiar in the form of chains.

  ?The elements burst forth, but it was far too late by then. Stepping forth from the flames, shielded by his Mora, the energy dispersed together with the faint gleam of a skull.

  ?This was it, the final end. Cutting through her, he used the premise of Heavenly Reversal to sever her, and with her, her Authorities. Yet something inexplicable happened.

  ?From the blade that had severed Raiden came darkness. No, something far darker, as therein the middle of it all, stood a slice. Not in the ground, nor sky. Not space nor time. But in the realm itself.

  Character Card:

  The overseer over the realm of Origins, the one who saves them from the darkness, or so people see. Truths can be filled with lies, and forgotten lies told as truths. At least we know she is creation perfected… Right?

  Name: Xuria

  Age: Unknown

  Race: Origin

  Mora: White with rainbow glimtes.

  True Authority: Creation

  Title: The Overseer

  Appearance: Xuria has long flowing light blue hair, almost white, that curls near the ends. Her eyes are pure white with a glowing yellow, plus signs in each. Her body is slim.

  She wears a long, white, winter dress that is split, redesigned to split the top and bottom at the waist. On this dress she has a pot of light blue and gold ornaments and silk ropes, showing off her influence.