*
Her body is sent flying. Her body freezes in mid air, as if caught in a photograph. Erasing all of that momentum in an instant, she corrects her orientation and faces me with a pleasant smile.
She must be surprised for the first time. Even if it ended in no damage, I still sent her flying. I didn't catch her by any menainful surprise, she ate my attack head on and simply didn't anticipate it would have any effect, underestimating me.
"Is this a new authority? Why can't I sense anything?" (Primordial)
"Authority? You believe only things in heaven can touch you, don't you? What about above the mountains? In the stars?
Supreme manifestation, second skill, {Yggdrasil}." (Giselle)
"... I see, I didn't think you could ever do it. Only someone firm in their own identity, certain enough that they believe their name would persist through history, would ever have the security to abandon their name. " (Primordial)
Thus making that abandoned name part of their power, only by acknowledging my individuality would I complete the final step as Yggdrasil's manifestation. It was simply the last cour after an exceedingly long journey, I've fulfilled many other unmentioned criterias on the way here. Becoming SS grade in the Primordial Shadow's Oblivion Magia, becoming human, having my own wishes... They are my companion stars, they are my anchor.
I won't tell her what {Yggdrasil} did. She would know, she can read my mind, she can read anything that exists. However on this level, knowing what something can do is not enough. A can do B, A cannot do C. In reality, A will do C despite not being able to. Such limitations and definitions have no more bearing. Or perhaps that's the ability of {Yggdrasil}? To do all that is possible, to her it must be like looking into a mirror. I'm not so sure myself, I've just used it for the first time on instinct.
"This is a first, you're not going to attack? I'd never expected such caution from you." (Giselle)
"Don't you worry about that, if you're too scared I'll initiate for you." (Primordial)
Exchanging snark, we probe each other's intent. Her eyes licked my body all at once, predicting my next action from both my posture and my combat dress. It's something similar to fortune telling, but ostensibly infinitely more accurate. If I'm forced to attack, that cuts the possibilities of {Yggdrasil} in half. If I defend, I don't know what she'll do. Only for this individual, every move is a bad move. That's just how absurd her existence is. I don't hate it, my own existence is a little absurd too.
Perhaps I've learnt to love myself. As much as Arin wanted Lastia and not Yggdrasil, she made sure to cherish me for those few months, made sure I cared for myself and lead a normal life. Knowing what 'normal' is, is enough proof that she taught me well. It's proof that she loved me even if she didn't need to, to her I must have been like a rebellious child. I won't let you down.
I'll initiate, I'll set the pace. It's more important than being afraid and not knowing when she'll attack. I come to the decision instantly, my figure could no longer be seen. Light will not reach the eyes nor will it reach the soul, we enter the edge of the world where her Oblivion Magia manifested her own possibilities. The world of white becomes a world of black. Sub-dimensions, esoteric spaces, whatever anyone could call it, we stepped into it casually like a Sunday morning at the mall. I suppose to us, they no longer bare any distinction.
"... To come here without intending to, maybe you finally hit your limit?" (Primordial)
She spoke casually as she caught my fist in one palm. Energy erupts at where I was caught into a massive explosion. The world is silent and dark but also filled with the chaos of {Feed}. Nothing but death and destruction can persist here. Or so it should be, but our bodies are so dense with magic it's became nothing more than a tickle.
"The pressure here is infinite to begin with, like the other side of the event horizon. An ordinary person couldn't even launch attacks here, but we aren't so ordinary are we?" (Primordial)
Physical and energy attacks are futile here. {Feed} was going to be useless from the start. It was no surprise that she knew I couldn't defeat her no matter what, not without a new skill. To stand here is already to endure infinite pressure and heat, so the next step-
" {Yggdrasil}. "(Giselle)
Conceptual attack. Infinity only holds significance on quantified metrics, from the very beginning this should have been the first step. A first step that comes unapologetically late. I fire a feint and then a punch, her palm could no longer withstand it and her wrist crumples under. An audible crack resounding breathing distance. There's no way sound could travel here, it was the effect of {Yggdrasil}. It must look so pathetically wasted under my utilisation to her, but I don't care. I need to live, I need to kill her. I can't afford mercy like she can.
Pushing my fist further into her broken wrist, her palm deforms and her forearm creaks. Her leg springs like a coil, hammering her heel deep into my abdomen. Her visage blurs under my vision as she rapidly flies away... No, I'm the one that got sent flying. Such a simply attack from her carries conceptual potency, it's like breathing to her. Moreover, now that I can actually pose a threat to her, she might take it seriously and kill me within record time.
It's as if I finally picked a rusty knife off the ground and swung it at an opponent with a gun. As if I tasted the air above the starting line. It's exhilarating, the taste of death, the scent of defeat. It's so close, yet not quite there yet. I look down, observing my wounds. Before I noticed, my heart and brain has been stabbed through, my bones disintegrate to ash and my blood vaporised. Within that moment of cognition, everything returns as it once were. She killed me by launching an attack across time, was from the past or the future? It no longer mattered, the concept of death has been erased by {Yggdrasil}.
Well, {Yggdrasil} can't erase concepts, but it can disable the concepts of this shadow of a deity. She fires them like an ammunition, with her arsenal of infinite concepts, any normal god with a singular authority or a finite number of them would lose. The Primordial Shadow sneers, seeing through my aspirations.