Read My Will

"There's no way..." Providence calmly narrowed her eyes over to Faith. One eyebrow raised above the other as her golden eye began to flicker a purple color. Faith threw up into the water and it sank within the ocean. She was surprised to see such a weird ability to activate and was unsure of where it came from.

Faith was properly able to predict what Providence was able to do. Although Hikari had a similar power, Faith was able to use it independently of the A.I. Sister, which meant that it must've been a completely different subset of abilities to Faith now had access to.

Although important that Faith was able to call upon such a powerful ability, she was worried about how dire of a circumstance it must've been to activate.

"You are a mess of weird abilities... nothing like Ali Asterio. You had an Aura earlier, and you were able to read my will. You're an amalgamation of the past. Faith Asterio... you might be the only foe I retreat from," Providence revealed to Faith. Knowing she was powerful enough, Faith ran at Providence once more, scattering her feet on the waves with her arms unable to catch up. 

Her speed was so inconsistent that Faith couldn't reinforce her arms to the rest of the resistance her body needed to travel so fast. They came off of her body at the shoulder, and Faith was forced to strike Providence with a heel kick to the bottom of her chin.

Providence was launched into the air by a large margin, suffering the wounds that came from Faith's boot and having to regenerate her face before she hit the ground. 

As soon as Providence crashed into more water, she ran at Faith once more, striking quickly with two carefully placed punches.

With one punch to Faith's shoulder and another to her stomach, Faith put everything into blocking her chest, as the ability activated once more.

[Jertachi]

The words appeared in her left eye and she grabbed onto Providence's forearm, cracking it in the middle and kicking her in the throat again. Faith's arms finally regenerated once more, and with the power she had from amassing strands in her chest to block the attack in case it was necessary, channeled the strands into a golden saber that cut Providence down the middle in the same way as earlier.

Her body fell apart as easily as it repaired itself three seconds later, and she was left with even more confusion regarding Faith's abilities.

"Well, shit! What do I do?" Providence's demeanor changed wildly once Faith beat her out once more, realizing that it couldn't have been Providence standing against her after so much time. Faith's battle intelligence was extremely vast, but she lacked critical thinking skills in battle, a skill she believed she lacked because of her father.

"Who are you?" Faith asked what she believed to be a fraud of the previous enemy she knew as Providence. Her abilities were all out of proportion and weren't consistent with the power she used to hold. Providence, at least to Faith, also seemed to talk more about Ali Asterio than use attacks against Faith. Faith was skeptical after the thought bloomed into much more.

"I don't believe that to be very important. Either way, I'm sure we aren't done here. I'll send Finny my regards," Providence turned into a puddle of Strands that looked like black slime.

Faith shot an attack full of Golden Strands at the puddle of Strands with wide eyes, fearing the name she just heard once more. It sent chills up her spine as she watched the puddle fade into the ocean, spreading out in multiple directions.

She felt chills encase her body, and Faith turned away from the ocean, flipping her hood up once more. Faith forgot to tie her hair back and didn't care about her appearance anymore; as long as she was hidden from her father.

As Faith slowly returned to the market stalls she took the fraud of Providence away from, she noticed praise coming behind every counterpointed in her direction. The people were clapping, congratulating Faith on taking care of the threat.

Even if the people were satisfied with Faith's performance, she knew something was missing. She took away the threat, but the threat was more concerned with breaking Faith down, rather than actually attacking her with an attack that mattered.

With what Faith was able to tell about her patterns of attacks, the fraud was preparing to use Jertachi. Charlie knew what that was and what it did, so Faith honed her next journey to isolate Charlie and ask him about the strange attack.

"Here! Take this!" One of the vendors shouted out toward Faith. She was gifted with a plethora of items, such as food, jewelry, and other trinkets that would help her out. She was flattered by their kindness but was unable to smile due to the looming thought that just kept growing. Finlis Vega.

"Thank you! Really, I can't take all of this... are you sure?" Faith asked the vendors and people around her. They assured her it was fine, claiming that she saved their lives, and it was the least they could do. Faith noticed the kindness of each and every person around her, amazed at their affinity to reward her.

Faith didn't want to help them for a reward but for another selfish reason. She didn't want to be like her father who destroyed buildings when he fought, so she placed Providence on the ocean to fight her with no holding back. Faith awakened more and more abilities for every new encounter she came across, so she viewed that as her reward.

She thanked the vendors and left the main area, placing everything into a sack made from Strands around her shoulder, and continued to walk through the city, praising the architecture of the city around her.