"Uhm, Kaida, Isaac is here. Why are you just standing there?" Cinder spoke, her voice giving the hint of curiosity.
"I was just thinking about something, don't worry." She spoke calmly, though warmly, turning to go down the stairs now.
Kaida reached the door, grabbed the pill from him, and held it still. She waved as Isaac walked off, though Kaida stopped in her tracks.
"... something is watching him, not the thing from the Rainforest."
Kaida blinked, turning her eyes up with Isaac gone. She shook her head; she was thinking too much about a world that was simply about cultivation. Her body energized, she stretched as she'd finished refining her Singularity's Edge to wrap around her blade, making it an afterthought for her to use. Though it still used a lot of Qi.
Kaida took a small breath, getting ready to start the battle. One, she wasn't sure she'd win; in fact, she was sure she'd lose, but it mattered very little whether she won or lost; what mattered was how much she grew from this experience. To which, thinking back, she found it ironic that she had put the pills in her mouth since the boost they gave only came because her Qi grew passively at an incredible rate.
At a moment's notice, Kaida disappeared, not in the fact that Space Folded, but instead Kaida using the most Qi she could, protecting her body, her legs enhanced, reaching speeds she had only found near impossible before.
Faster than a Meteor's Plunge into the Atmosphere, minutes passed as she skimmed the planet's curve, air itself screaming behind her. To the point, if Kaida didn't already have resistance to the intense heat, she'd have burned up already. As she landed in the desolate area, she was covered in nothing but empty land. Having traveled less than an eighth of the way around the planet. She tipped the pill in and swallowed. Feeling minor effects, yet they were negligible.
"You ready, Kaida? Or do you need time to rest?" Akari spoke, her voice with excitement, yet Kaida could tell Akari was holding back a magnitude of an amount; the fight wouldn't be fair, at least head-on.
Kaida, without speaking, nodded with a calm expression. A flash of movement, Akari appeared right in front of Kaida. Her blade swung, caring nothing for the empty land around them. A swift movement that felt like a strong wind.
Kaida moved her blade, sharpened and clean, and it connected with Akari's, with the metal's clash ringing like a bell, the sound tearing the thin air until Kaida felt it rattle through her chest. The force created a shockwave and caused the ground to shake and split, dust spiraling up and sticking to the sweat on her jaw despite the cold altitude, her blade coated with Singularity's edge.
Akari reacted in surprise, launching herself back. Yet in that moment, she flew up, in the sky like she was hovering, her blade pointed as a ball formed, releasing like a beam. Kaida swiftly jumped, forcing the air beneath her to weigh more than her, thus holding her up. Yet in that exact moment, she launched herself forward, a slash directly at Akari's right arm, the one holding her other blade.
Yet, still, a moment of Hesitation, she didn't wish to leave Akari completely harmed. Which had allowed her to move her hand, reacting in the moment before it could connect.
"Don't worry about it. Unless my soul's destroyed, I won't die, and my arm will come back in a blink." Akari's blade swung, hitting Kaida's blade's mid-region, sending it back.
Kaida pushed forward to cut, knowing Akari could at least survive this. Akari's eyes widened in surprise, noticing the coating. She quickly stepped back, though she looked back at Kaida with happiness. She didn't expect Kaida to be this advanced, but it was something she wouldn't take for granted.
Their blades clashed, and multiple sonic booms erupted as they flew across the battlefield, each trying to land a hit. Akari deflects them instead of simply taking them. Singularity's edge was able to hit indiscriminately, at least for those who couldn't heal at the molecular level.
It felt thrilling, Kaida's grin forming as she flew back, her hand moving and forming Andromeda, taking barely any time. She threw it ahead and folded space, appearing to the side of Akari, her blade swinging and cutting her arm, reaching the bone, only to barely miss it, creating a deep cut. Yet even then, Akari's wound healed in what was an instant.
It didn't dissuade Kaida, though; it only made her more confident. Akari's parries grew deliberate, almost probing. She was reading Kaida's rhythm, waiting for one pattern to break.
"...She's taking longer to attack; this is my time." Kaida thought to herself, moving in a split second, as Andromeda flew to Akari, releasing a barrage of Qi blasts. The miniature gravity pull jerked her around and threw her to the opposite side of Kaida.
She counted the micro-delay in Akari's rebalancing—0.07 seconds, enough to drive the next cut inside her guard. Allowing her to boost herself further and slice downwards.
"SH-" Akari tried making noise, but she was being pushed back, taking on a more defensive act, not yet trying to attack. However, Kaida's aggressive attacks made her change mid-fight. Kaida, on the other hand, sliced down, her blade at full force as it caused Qi to shear off and hit the ground, an explosion large enough to rival a nuclear blast. Sand vitrified into glass where the Qi sheared the ground. The air cracked with pressure waves strong enough to shatter distant cliffs.
Akari, now going on the offensive, pushed Kaida back, her blade swinging in both directions to her arms. Her blade moved and pushed up to stop, the sound of it clanking as the force from both blades was much more than what Akari intended.
The Sheer force, being almost triple that of what Kaida could do, sent her flying down and crashing into the ground. Kaida got up, her blade still clean but somewhat damaged, though expected.
"You wanna go all out or take some more time fighting?" Kaida spoke with a calm expression. "This time, maybe start using your abilities."
Akari looked over, a grin on her face now, both of them floating in the sky, getting the little bit of rest they needed to continue, though this time Akari had amped herself up. Holding back less than a single slash, hitting Kaida's blade caused more Qi to shear off, though this time from Akari. A loud, thunderous explosion shook the sky as the ground split, sending a wave of destruction across the desolate coastline, completely eradicating it.
Kaida moved back, her eyes lit in surprise at the sheer force of collateral damage. In that she turned back to Akari, who adjusted her power once more, Kaida's body, taking even some of the force, caused her internal body to be injured. But it wasn't enough to be fatal.
Kaida flew back, only to fly to Akari once more, but instead moved to the side, like skating on ice, her blade swung to strike directly at Akari's neck. To which Akari swung her blade while turning and pushing it and deflecting it back using more force than she should've. The Qi did not shear off this time, allowing them to continue fighting without continuous damage to the ground.
Each of the attacks that caused damage to the planet caused Kaida to twitch reflexively; she absolutely hated the unnecessary destruction of the world they stood on. But since it was an empty plane, she gave it the pass.
Kaida was to test something new, one that she had previously tested with the Astral Beast in the Simulation room, and it had worked against it. Qi wrapped around Kaida's body, like a barrier, compressing countless micro-layers of Qi into a single heartbeat.
Akari had to pass an infinite number of layers before actually hitting Kaida. Although this meant she had to do it within a time frame that, by the looks of it, was impossible.
"...Incredible, I didn't think Foundation Cultivators could even think of that. Usually, they think it's out of their league, but this is better than what I expected of you specifically." Akari spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, though she hid her excitement, as both her blades shifted and combined into a single blade, held down and pointing to the ground.
"Come forth. Herald of the Stars." Her blade lit up, burning bright to the point it rivaled the sun, glowing brighter. Kaida, unaffected by this, went to attack, but Akari moved her blade as it was heating up. Kaida knew she couldn't stop it. In a sudden moment, she felt the air shift from the sky, screaming, only to come to a halt. Her eyes widened as she launched herself back at full speed. The space around the blade shifted, light absorbing into it.
"...A black hole...?" Kaida already had something of the sort, but to turn an entire blade into one felt like madness. Yet, as soon as she blinked, she noticed her finger was cut right off. A speed incomprehensible to her, the infinite number of layers was merely bent; the space between them became nothing.
Akari spoke as if she already knew those who used it. "I should've expected her to know." She felt no pain; her hand regrew the lost finger quickly. It wasn't something to fret over. But Kaida knew when to stop. Her Qi, which was layered, absorbed back into her, leaving about forty percent of her Qi.
"Though, of course, you'd beat me easily. Could you show me a single attack of yours without handicapping yourself?" Kaida spoke blankly.
Akari looked, with a blank expression, as she moved straight up. She removed all suppression she had, feeling lighter, and her aura leaked out, not with killing intent, but with the sheer force of pressure from the difference in power. Her blade swung a single time across the desolate plains. The ground shook as the plain split in two. Akari, with a single attack, had split an island in half.
"I guess the fight's over, I'm not continuing to fight that," Kaida spoke, her expression blank. Yet, her fight-or-flight response was running, adrenaline quickly coursing through her veins because of witnessing the attack, which caused the pill's effect to go overdrive. "SHIT!" Kaida didn't expect it to come out, but again, an attack like that would definitely be the reason.
The sky dimmed without dusk. Lightning webbed silently across a violet cloudfront rushing in from nowhere. Akari stepped back, her Qi draining, and the light stopped bending. Her blade split into two once more. "...You need some extra Qi, because I'm willing to help."
"Not right now, I need to concentrate," Kaida spoke as if it were a matter of fact. She retreated the rest of the Qi back to her body. A low roll of thunder followed, so deep it felt older than the mountains.
The ozone stung her lungs. Threads of silver fire braided into a single lance, hanging above her like a spear waiting for command. Kaida drew a slow breath. The pill's effect was spiking.
The ground shifted, and Kaida lowered herself, landing on the still unstable and shifting ground, which could've given her an advantage. Her qi moved from her feet and her blade to her entire body, coating and covering it to enhance it, so it could handle something way beyond its league.
With that, a barrier formed around her, one that could at least hold the first few strikes and what she could absorb into herself. And the rest, to be used to form the Core, as such the realm was called.
The sky rang like drums; it was a small leap, but a leap nonetheless. The Tribulation in the sky, glowing like a star, was one ready to strike directly at Kaida. The first bolt detached from the violet ceiling and hung, perfectly still—a newborn star deciding where to fall.