Revoked

Faith screamed out wildly as the flesh on her hand stretched to its absolute point, tearing and ripping with vicious noises... until finally, the White Stone came off.

It powered off like a light switch, and Faith fell to her knees with darkened eyes. It was the first of any attack I've ever seen to pull a White Stone off of a person, but when it came off of her, Arthur was visibly brighter than before. His orange hair shone with intentions so evil that it left a bad taste in my mouth as he implanted it into his chest.

"Finally... at long last... I have become a White Stone..."

[System Alert: A New White Stone Has Awakened]

I read the words in my eyes and was astonished by what I had just seen. Arthur twitched as visible White Strands encased his body.

Then, Faith's eyes turned back on, and she summoned a saber of Iridescent Coloring?!

Time almost came to a complete stop as she swung up from the ground, severing Arthur's hand and head from his body with breakneck speed that launched a shockwave out from underneath his body.

It was the first time I saw her use Iridescent Strands with purposeful intentions. I knew Iridescent Strands to be the most powerful attack an Arkian can muster. Cynthia explained herself to only have two charges, but when Faith swung through Arthur's skull and still held the same prosperous power in the saber, I quickly realized that when the White Stone was removed from her body, Faith experienced power so intense that it rivaled Sky.

The saber swung through Arthur and remained stationed right behind his spine at the very tip of his neck. He regenerated his head and the saber cut through him yet again, launching him six feet into the ground as Faith picked her body up.

"I'm... impressed... I didn't think that would take off your limiter..." Arthur muttered, picking his body back out of the ground. Crumbled cement fell from his sides while Faith honed in her senses. She analyzed each step Arthur took, trotting back and forth.

Based on what he said, it sounded like the White Stone taken off of Faith had been there for a reason. I never knew why she had one, yet was never introduced as one. She was Sky's daughter before she was Faith the White Stone. When it came off of her body; however, she had a terrifying presence that was heavy like my gravity. 

It wasn't a mess of speed or strength that made her powerful with the Iridescent Strands: It was her presence. She stepped forward with one last move before she took another strike at Arthur.

The Strands burned straight through his arm like a hot knife through butter, squishing tendons and severing bones from their connected counterparts, all while invoking new senses of fear within him. Arthur presumably hadn't seen a more powerful opponent than Faith.

"I heard about you from before, Faith Asterio," Arthur said again.

Hiding right under my senses, Faith had moved from her old position to right behind Arthur with a looming bundle of Iridescent Strands in her hand. She focused on Arthur and I was even able to see her eyes change positions all across his body. His neck, his chest, his arm, and then his skull. She found her target.

Arthur tried to block the strike of Faith's Strands, but I started to notice something peculiar with the way they moved.

White Strands, Red Strands, Purple Strands, Gold Strands, and Black Strands had always been observable, no matter their formation or quantity. With Iridescent Strands, it seemed that they were transcending the very fabric of the world by vanishing in and out of existence sporadically. Every time they came back, they were more plentiful and more aggressive.

It warped through Arthur's arm as he tried to block it, but it went straight through without allowing him to block it and smacked him in the head.

The force of the impact struck Arthur's head with a weird amount of force. The power behind the hits that I was able to see has gotten so intense that it could break sound barriers and the speed of light. However, this was just like a normal punch. It coursed through the wind smoothly with a light tap, but enough damage to consider him dead.

When he was hit, Arthur was blown backward around six hundred feet in under a second. He bounced off of the ground and turned his head up toward Faith.

"Faith... are you okay?" I asked her. I was hesitant to run or stop her with my gravity, but she coherently responded.

"I'm alright. I don't know what he did, but I feel... cocky..." Faith told me. She unleashed the fist balled up by her chest and smiled as Iridescent Strands continued to spark, "Allow me to fight Arthur alone. I can handle it."

"Okay, I'll leave it to you... just, be careful, alright? You have to show Sky how far you've come. And the rest of us," I told her. I pushed off of the ground with my gravity and retreated, allowing Faith to take center stage. I wanted to help her, but I knew deep down that she needed to win on her own, rather than with my help.

Hikari's talk must've really struck her down deep. Now that she's got Sky's cockiness in her blood, I wonder if she's even more powerful than him at this point...