THE ARCHAIC SKY

CHAPTER: THE ACCEPTANCE OF FATE

Mira's face formed a sarcastic look. Her smile of razor-sharp teeth. Her eyes goading at Amara for her without words. Amara fell to her knees her hands beginning to disappear. She gritted her teeth, shaking her head as she jumped to her feet again. Before she could attack however, Mira had already wrapped her elbow around Amara's neck. Pulling her back. "The shogun should have made it harder for you outsiders to enter this nation"

"Hah... still stuck in the old ways, Mira? I didn't expect any less of someone like you" Amara let herself relax for a moment. "And to think you were against the council who placed you in my shadows." she taunted her.

"The only reason you value the new ways is that it benefits you" Amara narrowed her eyes, gripping at Mira's arm, prying it off of her. "Stop fighting" Mira demanded. "why are you always like this?"

"because you made me hate this city. you made me hate everyone even myself. you humiliate me in front of everyone for no reason when all I wanted was to live!" Amara remembers the sights of her past and the illusions.

"so did I, but you made me hate my own mother"

"you should be glad, your mother is worth hating-"

More dolls and envoys grab at her shoulders, pulling her back. Others grabbed her arms, her legs, trying to keep her in place as one delivered a blow to her gut where Mira had already stabbed her. Her eyes widened. The pain enough to allow her to vomit blood. The sheer number of the envoys and dolls that forced her down to the ground. her hands and body too small to push them off of her, to pry their hands from her.

The harsh stone enough to cut through her skin as she forced down, their weight rubbing on her, pressing the smooth rock against her face. Amara's eyes flash. Pillars and spears of ice and metal falling down. Each with a target. The envoys' backs. But they not even manage to graze their skin. Instead broken in the air.

Amara looked around, her eyes scanning for more weapons. "You will never be enough... to protect them without us" Amara's eyes widened further, her eyes falling to the citizens and minor envoys who were having difficulty getting the council's division away from the innocent. The dolls, creaking and twinkling with metal in their joints, grabbed at her, still forcing her to face the earth.

Their weight enough to crush her to minced meat. The dolls felt less like figures of people and more like a giant hand, forming her cage, crushing her between its fingers. The adrenaline that surged began to fade as her attempts at freeing herself began to falter. A feeling of hopelessness crowding. "No... I won't" Amara admitted, her breathing becoming heavy as her limbs began to stiffen. "But I won't ever give up trying"

Amara pushed their fingers away from her, reaching out the scythe she dropped, scattered away. Reaching out for the pole of her spear, felt like trying to slide through rubber and leather. Electricity sparking around her, trying to help her before she finally has her fingers around her polearm.

A blast of electricity forced them all off of her. envoys' body flying and landing in one piece, their mannequin counterparts becoming nothing but broken pieces and splinters. The water that had soaked them all too became part of the blast. Electrocuting them further along with the lightning. "Are you done fighting?" Amara forced herself to her feet. Her scythe extended out. "I guess it's my turn.. isn't it?"

Suddenly, each slice, strike and stab became lighter. The dolls and envoys that remain was nothing but bamboo. Cutting through their necks, limbs and joints felt like nothing. Only the occasional accident of her getting her scythe's blade stuck, letting it fall behind as she was forced to pull it out.

Two of the dolls lunged at her, she spun in the air, using her momentum to drag her spear, slicing through the dolls in one go. Her blade now seldom ever missing its intended target. She avoided the mages' attacks of pure elemental energy. Running past the bolts of fire, using her speed and lightning to jump up into the air. Then striking down with her blade, another blast of dust and electricity cutting through envoys and dolls. "No amount of your pathetic efforts or struggle will change your fate"