Quies listened, and he heard.
A miniscule fragment of it all, a faint murmur resonating with the choir that is the song. He listened, and he listened deep, however, he just couldn't get what Valerie meant by 'listening for its purpose'. There was just no way he could discern a 'purpose' from a sound.
"Where am I going to go? Don't say it out loud."
As much as Quies wanted to retort and how ridiculous this was, he had to just listen to Valerie. She had probably gone through this process before him as well. Suddenly, his thoughts were disturbed by a change of complacency. He heard the subtlest change of sound within Valerie's murmurs. Just barely. It felt discorded, unsure of the chord it was about to play.
'All I can do is trust her.'
A moment later, the dissonance resolved, the notes harmonized in a major chord that jumped right at him. He felt his heart skip a beat. Not knowing what to do, he extended his sword forward, tip facing towards where he last remembered Valerie was.
He felt a small force push against his sword, pushing him back a bit.
"D-damn. Didn't really… uhh, good job!"
He listened once more. This time, Valerie's song felt much closer, yet its intensity died down. Its will trapped once more after a short burst of energy.
"I think I was just lucky there."
"Yeah… wanna try again? Oh, and this time I'll try to hit you. Same way as the first one."
"What? Just after that?"
"What? I believe in you. Sort of…"
He heard her faint steps grow farther and farther away, obstructing the divine murmur of the song. Valerie stopped a distance away, just far enough to where he can still hear her.
"Alright, just, do the same thing, I guess!"
Quies felt a lone droplet of sweat trickle down the side of his face. Even with this sort of 'advanced sense', as he would call it, not being able to see anything really lowered his confidence.
'She thinks I can just block her strike from a lucky placement of my sword?'
But, Quies had no more time to think. Valerie's song changed, once again letting out an inharmonious, dissonant sound.
'How does this even work? I just close my eyes, listen, and I'm just supposed to predict someone's next action.'
To say that he wasn't scared or anxious at this moment would be a lie. The grip his fingers had on the zweihander loosened, his muscles began to twitch. His heartbeat increased, which actually helped with his Blood Enhancement, but nonetheless made him more anticipatory and jumpy, which was not what he wanted. He breathed in deep, the sound clouding the dissonant murmurs of notes ahead.
Or was it ahead?
Right as he finished his inhale, he felt another change in Valerie's song once more. It still rang with that heavenly timbre that it had before, but it felt… sharp. One the verge of a semitone, yet not really a half step up just yet.
The sound cut through the air like a jade blade through the soft flesh of an arm.
Without thinking, Quies positioned his sword so that it protected most of the right side of his upper body. He didn't know why he chose the right side. Maybe it was because that was his dominant side, or it was that mysterious jargon Valerie was talking about. Either way, the action had already been executed.
The clangor of metal dispersed throughout the balanced realm.
Quies seemed to have loosened his grip on the zweihander too much, as when Valerie's railblade struck it, it fell right out of his hands. It slipped out of his weak grip, the tip barely scraping the hardened leather cuirass, and fell to the floor.
He didn't know what to do. At this point, he was disarmed with nothing to defend himself with. He was frozen in place, yet he still listened. He could hear his heart beating with ferocity, blood rushed through his arteries and veins like an open dam. His hands shook involuntarily, and his muscles were tense.
"And that's why we practice!"
Valerie's booming voice felt closer than it ever had before, shocking him for a bit.
"C-can I open my eyes?!"
"Huh? Oh, yeah."
Quies opened his eyes immediately, getting flashed by the sudden inflow of light. He moved backwards, trying to get away from where he presumed Valerie to be.
"Loosen up! I'm not gonna kill you or anything."
Quies stumbled to a stop, his eyes having adjusted to the white sky of Valerie's Illusory Realm. He looked down and noticed his zweihander laying on the ground, its sharpened blade glinting the whiteness of the sky. Valerie stood exactly where he thought she had, resting her Odachi on her shoulder.
"Hey, on the bright side you actually did fine. I didn't think you would actually understand how to use such an advanced technique."
"So why teach it to me?"
Valerie shifted, her body now facing towards Quies.
"Ah, I sort of had to… accelerate… your training. And since it seemed to have gone well, why don't we do that again? Oh, and actually grip your sword like you're fighting with it this time, please."
"How many times?"
"Ah, I expected that question. I'll take from my practice during my diver training days and make it a little easier…"
She stood there for a moment, looking down at the blank black floor.
"Would 100 times be enough?"