Salomeh leapt in a single movement, dragon wings spread, her sword saturated with violet mana. The air exploded around her as she descended upon the shadow creature.
The Ineffable waited, motionless… too calm.
CLANG!
The first clash of swords sent a shower of greenish and violet sparks tearing through the sky. Hinata, still clutched in the creature's arm, screamed in fear as the shadow blade and mana blade locked in a frenzy of spinning chaos.
The shadow creature smiled, a twisted, mischievous, almost childlike smile:
— You dance well, princess.
It counterattacked with an arc of shadow. Salomeh ducked, barely evading—but suddenly, without explanation, a trickle of blood ran from her nose.
She blinked, confused:
— What's… happening…?
The Ineffable sneered:
— I don't need to touch you to damage you. I am… absence. The wound comes by itself.
Shaken, Salomeh stood straight and tried a vertical strike. But the creature placed Hinata in front of it—as a living shield.
Salomeh stopped her sword instantly, her heart stopped.
Hinata trembled, eyes wide open, unable to breathe.
— Tch…
The Ineffable took advantage of the hesitation:
BOOM!
A shadow blow struck Salomeh squarely in the chest and sent her sliding several meters. Her feet dug a deep furrow in the earth as she barely caught herself.
She stayed still for a moment, head lowered, violet hair hiding her face.
Then, behind that cascade, her yellow eyes lit up like two furious suns. She raised her chin, a carnivorous smile on her lips.
— For an Ineffable… you're honestly annoying.
The creature burst into laughter:
— Whahahaha! Try to hit me then! One single blow, just one, and you'll slice the girl you want to protect!
Salomeh brushed her bangs back with a sharp gesture, wiped the blood running from her nose, and raised her sword again.
She knew she had to hold back.
If she truly unleashed her power, Hinata would be pulverized by the mere pressure of her movements.
Even an uncontrolled breath risked breaking her bones.
But she also knew one thing:
she would NEVER let this thing leave with Hinata.
— Very well… she murmured, her aura vibrating like a storm about to break.
— If I can't strike directly…
She tightened her grip on her sword, her wings vibrating with impatience.
— …I'll find another way to tear you apart.
The air vibrated, sickly, as if the universe breathed unevenly.
In the middle of the meadow darkened by Abominable clouds, Salomeh launched herself, dragon wings spread, her mana sword crackling with electric violet.
The shadow creature still held Hinata in its left arm, gripped like a trophy. Its cutout smile in the darkness seemed to mock the world.
Salomeh arrived with a single wingbeat and struck.
A sharp, violent impact.
The creature parried with a shadow blade burst from its own arm, and the meadow was swept by the shockwave. Salomeh pivoted, threw a spinning kick, then a vertical slash.
Everything passed through the shadow, or was deflected without her understanding how.
Hinata trembled, paralyzed.
Salomeh ground her teeth.
She attempted a more brutal combination: a hook, a twist, a draconic energy arc.
Nothing.
The creature didn't dodge: it simply wasn't there.
— You're hitting the wind, it sneered. You will never touch what has no form.
Salomeh leapt backwards, wings vibrating with annoyance.
Very well.
If close combat served no purpose, she would use what made her the Apostle of Morlük.
She closed her eyes for a hundredth of a second and released her meta-conceptual manipulation.
The world hollowed around her. Reality became heavy, the sky vibrated, and the very structure of existence contracted.
She aimed at the creature's essence, what made it possible.
A pure meta-conceptual attack.
Nothing.
The shadow stayed there, motionless, as if Salomeh had just waved her hand at empty air.
— Really…? she breathed.
— I told you, you can't hurt me, replied the creature with a soft mocking voice. I am an absence. There is nothing to manipulate. Nothing to target. Nothing to steal. Nothing to destroy.
Salomeh's teeth clenched.
Very well.
She stepped up a gear.
— Paragraph of Void.
Time slowed. The wind halted. The ground froze.
Around her, the narration itself became a thread she tried to twist.
She attempted to write the creature into a story, inscribe it in a line, give it a beginning and an end to crush it.
But the Paragraph of Void died immediately.
It collapsed before even appearing.
As if trying to write a word on a nonexistent page.
Her breath stuck.
— Still nothing? the creature jeered.
— This is… impossible…
She tried again: rewriting perception, erasing place, conceptual reduction.
Still nothing.
The shadow tilted its head, as if surprised by her stubbornness.
— You use tools that presuppose the existence of a structure within the dream's frame. I have none. I am not a concept. I am not even a contradiction. I am a forgetfulness, I am an Ineffable!
Salomeh bit her lip. She was going to have to be more aggressive.
She tried another angle:
removing the hostility's identity.
Suppressing the very notion of aggression within the creature.
And that… worked.
For a moment.
The shadow wavered, as if surprised, its arm relaxing slightly. Hinata inhaled, sensing an opening.
But the creature burst into a dry laugh.
— Very clever… but the problem is, if you take away my hostility…
Its arm contracted, tightening its grip on Hinata.
— …then I have no reason to consider her a "person." She becomes just part of the scenery. A thing. An object. Without hostility, I have no reason to avoid breaking her. You see?
Salomeh froze.
— No…
— Yes. And now, continue. Remove something else from me. I'm eager to see what you'll sacrifice in her.
Hinata screamed, and Salomeh immediately stopped the attack.
That was her last mistake.
The shadow struck with a lightning-fast blow.
A pure shadow uppercut.
BAM.
Salomeh was thrown backward, her lip burst, blood flowing from her nose.
She tried to get up, but the shadow was already on her.
Its hand transformed into a gigantic shadow blade, long, sinuous, sharp as judgment.
It aimed at Salomeh's head.
Salomeh dodged—barely.
The blade cut her forehead, a deep gash from which a red trickle flowed down her cheek.
The pain made her stagger.
— Well then, smiled the creature. Even your blood hesitates to exist.
Then it struck the ground with a monstrous blow.
CRACK.
The earth exploded, the shockwave swept Salomeh away like a rag doll.
She flew.
For a long time.
Before being grabbed roughly by someone behind her.
— Ma'am! a trembling voice cried. Ma'am, are you alright?!
Salomeh opened her eyes.
Melokosa.
The one who was her brother.
The one who had once protected, carried, and guided her.
The one whose eyes, now, no longer recognized her.
She saw in that gaze not a brother's tenderness—but a stranger's worry.
Salomeh's heart tightened.
She forced a smile, despite the pain, despite the blood.
— Yes… I'm fine. Don't worry about me.
She gently pulled away, stood up, wobbled for a moment… then fixed her gaze again on the shadow creature.