I've Done That Before

Finlis regenerated his wounds and jumped back as fast as possible, looking to Sky with even more confusion than he started with.

"You... what...?" Finlis asked him. Sky tilted his head, taking the intellectual high-ground.

"All Clans are apart of different origin points of Strands. Leyndell Strands are called Aura Strands, Asterio Strands are the same name, but I'm sure you can catch on. Do you know what happens when Strands of the same clan get trapped in your body like you're trying to do?" Sky asked Finlis. At the time, Finlis grew more surprised of how Sky knew his plan, especially without being told.

"Add an equal amount of positive to the same amount of negative and you get zero. If you add positive to positive, you'll never get zero like you're trying to do. I'm already wise to the subject you're trying to do," Sky told him. He picked up his shirt, revealing to Finlis his scarred and damaged chest. It was unrecognizable to his old body. Sky had scarred himself in some way that couldn't be attributed to cuts or stabs.

"Do you see? What happens when you try it? I've known for the longest time! I've tried to contain Asterio Strands in my body, rather than putting them out into the atmosphere, but it never worked! So, I used the same logic against you! I bested you!" Sky called out, laughing with a hearty chuckle.

"W-What did you do to me?!" Finlis screamed back at Sky, but while wagging his finger, Finlis was forced into a stance of submission.

"I combined Vega Strands with Vega Strands, or should I say, lack thereof. Nothing with Nothing. It exploded and hurt you, didn't it? A constant fusion of Nothing produces Infinity, and without understanding the concept, you could seriously hurt yourself. When you add Zero to Infinity, you could seriously hurt yourself as well," Sky declared.

As he explained the situation to Finlis, Sky intentionally healed all of his scars and wounds he suffered from the fight with Asterio Strands. His knowledge of the battle had put him into a position of power that Finlis couldn't reach. He would need time to replenish, or in his case, wash all the strands out of his body that he absorbed.

"Care to go again, maybe? I have every reason to obliterate you in the middle of this vast ocean you've placed yourself in. Regardless, I plan to kill you, but I'd still like to see you struggle," Sky told him.

In the heat of the moment, Sky swung a golden saber on top of Finlis and cracked the ice in half, splitting him down the middle from his shoulder to his opposite leg, and sent everybody in front of him barreling down the ocean waters, skipping them across the surface, and turning back to get on the boat as all of the ice faded away.

Faith, astonished with Sky's performance, watching as he reconciled with Khalil on the deck of the boat.

"You knew what he was planning to do? Why would you try that yourself?" He asked him. Sky sighed, wiping shards of ice off of his shoulder.

"For the exact reason he wants to. To become more powerful. I figured, with strands amassing within me, if I were to encase my body in them, I could probably amplify my strength tenfold. Support my muscles from where they grow, rather than where they show. I was lucky I tried that first before he did, because I wouldn't have been able to come to that conclusion," Sky admitted. He looked back toward the cabin with a smile.

"And that whole thing where he exploded. He needed the lack of Strands, how did you plant that into him?" Khalil asked him next.

"For the precise reason you're thinking. Because I mastered what he was trying to do. I have nothing in my body, and Asterio Strands on the outside. It allows me to heal using the environment instead of consuming my own Strands. I said I would get rid of them didn't I? Point is, I put my Nothing into Finlis's Nothing," Sky explained to Khalil. 

"Got it, well, we should continue our course now that the ice is gone, I'll get Mizu," Khalil explained, moving to the cabin while leaving Sky on the outside. 

He leaned against the railing, studying the ocean to see if Finlis was gone for good this time. As he looked around, he nodded, then looked up to the tower Faith was on for an unknown reason.

"Hm... she still didn't come out. That Shinigami girl has been up there for a long while," Sky muttered. Scanning upward, he looked at the ladder and debated climbing up, before Dani pulled him back into the cabin to ask where all of his visible scars went.

"Oh, I healed them up! Decided to during that encounter we had down there. Everything is settled, so don't worry," Sky said. With Cole's ability, he was able to restore back his skin without any scars at all. Although, Sky wished he had stayed away from the use of Strands at all. The four people that surprised him today could have been easily beaten without the use of Strands in his mind.

"Well, we'll have a smooth trip from here on out, at the very least," Sky said. Dani and the other reluctantly nodded, hoping that having a smooth trip didn't involve more things for him to take down.