(23.2) The 7th Crown

Aki pulls at Vira's emotions, trying to bring about all of the memories of good moments to the forefront. Even if it is wishful thinking to believe that maybe nice thoughts would make Vira give up and turn herself in to the authorities.

A flash of sunlight sparkling within a stunning audience chamber comes to mind. A handsome person extending thier hand out appears for a moment before the vision corrupts.

"Get out of my head!"

Vira shakes free, shielding her memories with a flood of anger and willpower.

Aki clicks her tongue. Of course it'll be difficult to see a hostile person's memories but she hadn't expected such powerful motions like that to obfuscate every corner of Vira's mind.

Vira sends more shadow slices and tendrils but they are quickly blocked and reflected by Aki's shield spell.

Another push from Aki allows her to pull out more emotions and again does Vira try to fight back.

More flashes of the past appear. A report listing the number of deaths from a surprise attack. The same audience room from before but this time filled with somber faces of different races. Their words are unintelligible but the gravitas of war is felt all the same.

"Stop it!" Vira swipes again but the hazy recollections make her too sluggish and inaccurate to hit Aki.

 Aki pushes further. Each tug makes the emotions feel more raw, turning Vira's frustrated shouts into angered screams then more juvenile cries of anguish.

This time a field of flowers so breathtakingly beautiful instantly shifts into the same field covered in corpses. A sense of weakness and uselessness permeates the heart.

Now a lab in the catacombs of New Pinacca – different yet notably the same city – comes to view. Bodies in various states of dissection lie on the tables and the words enhancements and True Hero come to mind.

"Let me go! Let go!"

Vira tries to manifest a scythe but it crumbles as her senses get overwhelmed by Aki's mental attack.

"Now!" Without her amulet, Aki directs her magic through the ring finger of her right hand. "Spectral Bind!"

A single thick chain appears from the ground and wraps itself tightly around Vira. It pulses briefly as it sucks up some of Vira's vitality.

Flashes of battlefields quickly pass by. The handsome person is there again. Now they kneel in front of a willow tree holding a ring. Immense joy that immediately changes to despair.

The handsome person stands to the side now, showering praises with a wide smile on a victory parade. The memories corrupt as the scene shifts back to the willow tree. Pain shoots Aki's core as the memory view looks down to see a sword piercing her body. A decorative cup held in hand falls to the ground, spilling its murky contents.

Poison. Betrayal. Cursed sword. Unhealable injuries. Why?

More memories flash now. Gigantic glass towers and oddly familiar vehicles racing down black roads seen from the darkness of an alley. Smelly and brutal-looking men and woman chasing her. A scarred woman holds up a sizzling metal rod as a group of men hold her down. Violence. The people that were assaulting her splattered in piles of blood and body parts as she stood over them.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Vira's ear-shattering scream flourishes with fire, expanding outward in one sudden violent burst and destroying the ghostly chain in one fell swoop.

Aki feels her ring finger shatter the second the spell breaks and the force of the exploding fire throws her out of the memories as well as across the courtyard. She crashes against the broken stones and gasps as the wind gets knocked out of her.

Her eyes lock onto the corner of her vision to open her status as she gathers her breath.

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Aki  Title: Witch

LE: 10/55 HP: 70/200 

MP: 230/300

SP: 0/50 

[Starved: Lack of food dulls sense by a small amount]

[Skill Burn: Use of Skill Points prevents full LE recovery for some time]

[Blurred Vision: Temporary effect. If not healed, eyes will permanently worsen]

[Death's Door: All stats reduced until LE restored. All defences -200%]

[Final Journey: +10 to physical stats. +100% magic potency. -80% MP cost]

[Broken finger]

More: ⟲

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It wasn't long but Aki was able to recover a little bit to put up a fight again. After healing her finger, at least. For that she was glad.

"No fair, no fair, no fair!" Vira cries out. "Bosses shouldn't be allowed to regen like that! First the 9th and now this stupid illusion lady too? That's unbalanced!"

Vira stomps her good leg forcefully, fire licking the corners of her mouth in her huff.

"It was supposed to be quick. I planned it all out." She speaks with a desperate tone and runs a hand through her hair. "Completely isolate the city and lower its defences. I even hired an assassin to bring me the city lord's head to cow the city."

Aki stands up slowly, raising a hand cautiously toward the enraged woman.

"I vowed to destroy this evil city." Vira mumbles. "This was the path I chose but… you! You got in my way!"

She raises her blackened, skeletal arms above her head. "One way or another, I'll have my justice. Retribution in a Black Hole."

An overwhelmingly massive amount of mana surges from Vira like a floodgate has been opened. One of her arms explodes into dust, knocking her down into a kneeling position. Yet still she keeps an arm raised, commanding the spell.

Behind Vira, the gashadokuro opens its mouth wide, becoming a focus as a ball of such pure black, it is clearly visible against this stormy night, forms.

Even with less rain within the circle of fire, the sphere grows larger. Sucking in the raindrops that fall too close to it, quickly pulling up stones and small pieces of rubble that grow in size the larger it grows.

Not even the green flames are safe as they swirl into it, forming an ever-growing green accretion disk.

"Vira!" Aki's mind buzzes with otherworlder knowledge. Though the details are fuzzy, the pieces of information that meld with this world horrify her. "They're gone! Everyone that hurt you is gone! It's been 600 years, right? Even a mid-life baby born back then would already be dead by now!"

Aki crouches down, grabbing hold of a piece of heavy stone as she starts to feel her clothes getting whipped up by the growing vortex. She has no way of stopping a spell like that. She has to convince Vira to do it.

"You didn't have to attack this place! You could have started fresh!"

Vira laughs, spitting out ash that gets sucked up in an instant. "I told you, didn't I? You don't know this world like I do. Whatever you sell yourself as; otherworlder, hero, or even an acolyte, you'll see false smiles and gilded promises. Truth is, whoever you side with, you'll only ever be a weapon to them! A liability to use and dispose of!"

Aki allows herself to slide forward, closer to Vira. "That's not true-"

"It IS true!" Vira retorts.

"It isn't!" Aki punches Vira across the face. "You had bad luck. A life filled where horrible things happened to you. I won't deny it. But that's no excuse to take all that anger and hurt on others! Especially not on people who had nothing to do with it!"

"The Estrils had EVERYTHING to do with what happened to me." Vira snaps her hand to Aki's neck and squeezes. "They made me."

Her eyes shine with power. Even as Vira stands now, a corpse barely holding itself together, Aki could feel how this woman was depicted as The Witch of Disaster within the game Winter and Vira were familiar with.

"How do you know these Estrils aren't ashamed of what their ancestors did?" Aki claws helplessly at Vira's burned arm that firmly presses against Aki's windpipe. "Last I checked, they looked like a short-life race."

"They-" Vira makes a strained expression, as if she battles within her mind over this answer. Over the reason. "Impossible."

The wind starts to pick up more. No longer does rain fall even lightly but even larger chunks of rubble are sucked up and vanish within the abyssal darkness of the black hole. Even bodies, defeated Dead and fallen fighters alike are beginning to disappear within.

The scent of rain, fire, and death that had hung like a thick curtain before abates as the spell strengthens.

Aki flails her legs, finally kicking Vira in the sternum and falling free from her crushing grasp.