Aegriya's eyes narrowed. Her form radiated calm, every line taut with defensive precision. She could feel the ripple of motion before it appeared — instinct honed over millennia of guarding existence.
Then… she blinked.
Thanamira was gone. Not a trace, not a shadow. One moment there, the next — vanished completely into the Nothingness.
Aegriya's senses screamed, but she remained poised. And then, before she could react further, a sharp snap — a hand erupted from the void, aimed directly for her neck.
Aegriya reacted instinctively, a luminous protective seal igniting around her form. The strike slammed into the barrier with a hiss of burned essence. Thanamira's hand seared, black smoke curling where the seal touched her flesh. The Primordial of Spirits hissed through the pain, momentarily thrown off.
Aegriya (calm, almost taunting):
"You'll need more than trickery to bypass me."
The seal glowed faintly, tracing protective glyphs around her, a preemptive defense against surprise assaults. Thanamira's form flickered like smoke in a storm, her essence unbound and flowing through the void. Every attempt at direct contact was met with instantaneous resistance, every strike partially burned, partially deflected.
Thanamira (whispering, voice echoing):
"Clever. But the grip always tightens…"
She phased behind Aegriya again, this time attempting a sweep with her spectral claws, a strike designed to tear not flesh, but the very threads of life the Primordial of Protection guarded. Aegriya's seal flared brighter, repelling the attack with a resonating pulse. The impact left concentric burns along the void, a visual testament to the intensity of their clash.
The battle began not with brute force, but with cunning, precision, and the delicate interplay of offense and defense — a deadly dance of spirits versus barriers, each aware that one slip could shatter the other's existence.
Thanamira's form flickered violently, each movement now tearing at the fabric of the Nothingness itself. The void rippled with her intent, bending reality around her strikes. Her claws left trails of smoke and crackling shadows, each swipe aimed to bypass the protective seal that Aegriya had placed.
Aegriya's stance remained steady, but the air around her began to quiver and hum. Every glyph on her barrier glowed brighter, a lattice of energy straining against the assault. The seal wasn't just defense anymore — it had become a tether, anchoring her existence in the Nothingness even as Thanamira tried to destabilize the void around her.
Thanamira (cold, almost playful):
"You protect, you shield… but even the strongest walls eventually crack."
With a blur of motion, she phased into multiple projections — a dozen spectral clones darting around Aegriya from every angle. Each clone struck simultaneously, claws lashing for her neck, shoulders, and ribs. Aegriya's seal flared with each strike, burning away dozens of Thanamira's ephemeral forms, but the effort drained her essence, tiny cracks beginning to appear along the edge of the protective field.
Aegriya gritted her teeth, summoning the full strength of her domain. The void around her shimmered as layers of protection stacked — barriers that were not just defensive, but preemptive, predicting movement, anticipating attacks before they formed.
Thanamira (voice echoing across the void, almost chanting):
"I do not merely attack your body, Aegriya… I unravel your very being."
The two forces collided with an audible shockwave of essence. The Nothingness itself seemed to shiver, fracturing in tiny arcs around the point of contact. Every strike and counterstrike left trails in the void, a dance of shadows and shields that could have lasted eons.
Both Primordials were pushed to their limits. Thanamira's attacks were faster, sharper, more abstract, testing every corner of Aegriya's defenses. Aegriya's seals burned brighter, each glyph radiating anticipation, forming a lattice that was both armor and weapon, striking back wherever Thanamira's claws attempted to bypass it.
The clash had reached its apex. Thanamira's Soul Grasp had been pushed to its absolute limit, her intangible hands shredded and flickering as Aegriya's Advanced Essence Seals held firm. Darkness and protective light collided violently, radiating waves that warped the Nothingness around them.
Thanamira, desperate, shattered the very concepts of spirits, bending her own essence and the laws of her power to invade Aegriya's mind. Her consciousness rushed into the space within Aegriya, seeking to twist and control her very being.
For a moment, it seemed she had succeeded. Her presence twisted Aegriya's perception, gnawed at her defenses, and threatened to make the Primordial of Protection her puppet.
But then — the trap revealed itself.
Aegriya's voice echoed calmly, even in the chaos:
> "You chose the wrong path, Thanamira."
Inside the essence of Aegriya, Thanamira felt herself snapped into place. She had entered willingly — but the internal seals Aegriya had carefully layered inside her own soul activated.
One-way. No exit.
Thanamira's consciousness screamed as she tried to flee, tried to bend the essence of Aegriya to her will. Every movement was blocked. Every thought she attempted to expand became trapped against the inviolable internal seals.
Aegriya's calm, almost serene aura enveloped the space:
> "There is nowhere to run. No part of you will escape. You are contained — not destroyed, but nullified."
Thanamira's rage and power collided against the trap, shattering spectral hands and fragments of her essence, but every attempt only reinforced the containment. She was trapped within Aegriya, unable to influence the outside, yet also unable to be destroyed.
It was a stalemate of existence itself: Thanamira alive in essence, contained beyond reach; Aegriya victorious, yet drained and pushed to her absolute limit.
The Nothingness around them rippled, warped by the clash of spirit and seal, a testament to the titanic power that had collided — and yet, neither had been annihilated.
The two stood opposed: one, unyielding and free; the other, trapped in a paradox of her own making, a living echo of her wrath.