In the late morning sun in the Economia Capital, people filled the streets and for a brief moment, everything looked normal until an arrow was launched.
It tore through the air with a sharp crack that split the air apart.
Greshina raised one of her fans and deflected it but the impact alone shattered windows across multiple buildings and sending a shockwave down the street that knocked people off their feet. Some didn't get back up. Cars spun out of control, colliding into each other, while pedestrians scrambled in panic.
Phaenora didn't give Greshina time to recover from the deflection. She closed the distance instantly. Her sapphire glaive appeared in her hands as she swung it in a clean, devastating arc aimed straight at Greshina's side. Greshina met the strike with both fans. The force of it sent a violent tremor through the ground. The pavement cracked in a widening pattern while a nearby storefront collapsed entirely, burying the people inside under concrete.
Greshina pushed back and spun her fans in a controlled motion that sent invisible cutting forces. The attacks carved through the street, splitting vehicles and tearing into building facades, leaving clean cuts that reduced everything in their path to debris. A bus caught in the edge of one of those slashes split apart instantly.
Elyonari stepped forward again, drawing another arrow, this one glowing with a deep emerald heat that. The moment it left her bow, it struck the ground near Greshina and erupted into a blast that swallowed an entire section of the street in fire. The explosion consumed anything within its reach and the heat wave that followed ignited nearby vehicles, turning them into minor secondary blasts that caused a chain reaction.
Greshina moved through the flames without urgency as she flicked her fan outward again. The motion sent another slicing wave forward that tore through a cluster of hovering vehicles that had tried to rise above the chaos. They split apart in mid-air, spiraling down into the streets below where they exploded on impact, scattering burning debris into fleeing crowds.
By then, law enforcement had arrived in force.
Sirens filled the air, flashing lights cut through the smoke and armored vehicles surged into the district while helicopters circled overhead. Loudspeakers blared evacuation orders that no one could properly follow anymore because the battlefield kept shifting faster than people could escape.
One helicopter descended too close.
Elyonari didn't even look up directly as she drew her bowstring again, this time forming an arrow that was made of wind. She released and the projectile struck the helicopter's side, slicing clean through it. The aircraft split in half before crashing into separate buildings.
Phaenora's glaive strikes forced Greshina to respond and every missed swing caused chaos. One downward strike split the road open entirely, creating a deep trench that swallowed police cars whole, while another horizontal sweep tore through a line of armored vehicles, sending them flipping and crashing into each other.
Greshina's fans moved in sharp patterns that sent cutting forces. She redirected Elyonari's next arrow into the sky but the deflected projectile exploded above the city, raining down fragments that struck rooftops and streets alike, igniting fires across multiple blocks. People who had managed to escape the initial clashes found themselves caught in the aftermath either struck by falling debris or consumed by spreading flames.
The ground itself was no longer stable. Cracks ran through entire streets. Building structures began to crumble. More helicopters tried to circle in from a distance but Phaenora's next swing reached them anyway. The arc of her glaive sent a shockwave that tore through the airspace, catching multiple aircraft at once. They shattered under the force, breaking apart before they could even retreat. Their remains fell into the already devastated streets below.
Elyonari kept drawing and releasing arrows with each one forming a different element and forcing Greshina to shift, block or redirect. Flames burned entire sections of the city. Lightning struck and spread through anything conductive and bursts of wind compressed and crushed whatever they caught.
Greshina deflected one of Phaenora's thrusts and answered with a slicing motion that split the side of a skyscraper, causing it to collapse into the street with a deafening crash. Dust and debris filled the air, mixing with smoke and fire until the entire district became a haze of destruction.
None of them slowed down. None of them looked at the people and none of them cared.
Elyonari moved like she always did in battle but this wasn't even a real fight.
Every arrow Elyonari released was met with a fan raised at just the right angle, deflecting it with minimal effort. Every time Phaenora's glaive came crashing down, Greshina didn't counter, overpower or retaliate. She simply redirected it, slipping out of range. It irritated Elyonari more than she expected.
She drew another arrow with a dense, compressed wind pressure that made the air around her bow tremble. Greshina tilted her head, using one fan to deflect it upwards. The projectile curved off, slammed into a distant tower and detonated into a compressed blast that crushed an entire section of the building.
Phaenora came in again from the side. She leapt high into the air, bringing her weapon down with a force that distorted the space around it. Elyonari followed, stepping off a collapsing ledge and launching herself upward as well, drawing another arrow in mid-air. They moved in sync without even needing to speak.
And still, she didn't attack.
She blocked Phaenora's strike with crossed fans while Elyonari's arrow curved in and struck from behind. Greshina twisted her body just enough to let it graze past, then tapped it aside with the edge of her fan, sending it crashing into the ground below where it exploded into a burst of energy that incinerated a group of fleeing civilians.
Elyonari's focus snapped back to Greshina as she landed lightly on a cracked surface that immediately gave way beneath her weight.
"Why did you do it?"
Greshina blinked once, almost like she hadn't expected that question mid-fight. Elyonari didn't stop moving as she drew another arrow.
"Why did you make him suffer for sixty years?"
Phaenora snorted lightly as she landed beside Elyonari.
"I've been meaning to ask that too."
The two of them moved again, jumping across collapsing structures. Greshina sighed. It felt as if the question was mildly inconvenient. She parried another incoming strike from Phaenora and deflected Elyonari's next arrow without even looking directly at it.
"It's none of your concern. That's between him and me. Also, let's not pretend you two are innocent here. You took my man. I've been protecting him this entire time and this is the thanks I get?"
Elyonari didn't respond immediately. She fired again and this time she used lightning. Greshina blocked it again. Just then, a voice echoed through the district from multiple directions, amplified through speakers.
"THIS IS LAW ENFORCEMENT! CEASE ALL HOSTILE ACTIONS IMMEDIATELY! PUT YOUR HANDS UP AND SURRENDER OR FORCE WILL BE AUTHORIZED!"
Phaenora glanced briefly toward the sound, then immediately went back to swinging her glaive like nothing had been said. Greshina, however, actually looked mildly amused.
"You know, this area is what… five percent of Economia? It's cute they think they can do anything."
More vehicles moved in. More helicopters circled them. Greshina's eyes shifted back to Elyonari, studying her more closely now.
"Let me ask you something, Miss Elyonari Do you not care about the people you're killing? You're the Split of Life, aren't you?"
That made Elyonari pause for a fraction of a second.
"Compared to what your other self did to my people, this is nothing."
"Fair enough."
"FINAL WARNING. CEASE IMMEDIATELY OR WE WILL ENGAGE WITH LETHAL FORCE!"
Elyonari turned her head slightly toward the approaching police units. She raised her hand, causing vines to sprout from the ground. They tore through the pavement, bursting up with enough force to send chunks of concrete flying. They wrapped around police cars instantly, crushing them like they were made of paper. More vines lashed out, grabbing vehicles and slamming them into the ground.
Helicopters tried to rise but the vines followed. They shot upwards, coiling around the aircraft and dragging them down violently, smashing them into buildings or the street below where they exploded on impact.
Elyonari lowered her hand slowly and clicked her tongue.
"I'm done playing nice."
Phaenora laughed.
"Finally, I've been waiting a long time to see her serious side."
Greshina watched the two of them. She summoned a faint, eerie purple smoke from her fans. Greshina's smile widened slightly as she lifted both fans. Her tone wasn't playful anymore.
"Alright," I think it's time I stop humoring you two. It's time to show you how a Deity actually fights."