Aether and Kazuha immediately grab ahold of their swords, getting ready to fight if necessary.
Sentience notices this and grins to herself as she rips the chains off her arm then her body. Until she grunts as the chains around her neck tighten before she growls and rips it off.
Stumbling to her feet, she stand there and wipes the blood of her lips as her hair gets in her way.
She lets out a 'tsk' but stands up straight despite how her body felt.
Glances at the villagers and laughing at their poor attempt to escape, she lifts a finger in their direction.
In an instant, the villagers are surrounded by red chains that seemed to manifest from underneath the ground.
They scream in fear from this.
"We won't want traitors running around in Liyue now do we?" She says with playful, but hostile tone as she grins their way as they all shiver with fear.
Aether and Kazuha flinch at the sound of hostility in her voice as she glances at them as her red eyes glowing. Before letting out a grin.
Walking a bit forward, they witness as she lifts up her arms in the air as a claymore manifested and she stepped on it. Standing on it, she snaps her fingers a long chain appears on her hands.
A smirk on her face, depsite all the wounds and blood on her face and clothes, she still let out a confidence aura around her.
Tapping one foot on claymore underneath her feet, the herald was caught off guard as a chain wrapped itself on it's foot. Struggling to get free, it didn't notice another pair of chains going it's way and wrapped itself on it's arms.
Sentience had ahold of him for now.
Slowly riding her claymore towards it, she claps her hands and it echoes throughout the place.
"You put quite a show back there, you underestimated my abilities." She said as she hops off her claymore.
Standing in front of the struggling herald, her face held no remorse as her red orbs were dead.
"Let's play shall we?"
Summoning her sword, she brings the tip of it to its neck, although comparison to their height difference some find it a bit funny but the murderous vibe Sentience was giving out had froze everyone in their place.
"The winner gets to live while the loser...faces a fate worse then death." She playfully says but her tone doesn't match her expression on her face.
In the blink of an eye, she was no longer standing there and a loud voice could be heard from above.
Aether and Kazuha witness her standing in the air, her claymore in hand as she lets out a sinister laugh.
As if she was enjoying this.
"I'll start!" She exclaims as she launches her claymore towards the herald who seems to be now panicking.
It lets out a cry of anguish as the claymore pins it down.
Sentience, whose eyes are filled with pleasure as she steps down, small platform forming under her feet as it gives off an echo.
"Haha! This so much funny!" She laughs as lunges down to it and lands on the ground as feather flutter in the air, the ground breaking from the impact as she looks up at the herald with a large, sinister grin that sent shivers down the Herald's spine.
"I win!" She yells like a child as she stand up and throws her arms up in the air, "Yatta!"
She cheers as the herald is strike down in a second, her sword made a sickening sound as it stabbed the abyss monster through the head.
She laughs it off as she turns to Aether and Kazuha who had retreated back into safety upon seeing how powerful she was. She has a smug look on her faces as she throws her hair back in a sassy way, proud that she had made it clear that she was someone to fear and respect.
Aether says nothing as well as Kazuha. He senses that something about Phoenix had changed.
"Traveler," he whispers loud enough for him to hear as he watches 'Phoenix' walk up to where the herald was held since it's body had turned into specks of ash.
She picks on her sword and cleans off the blood on it before putting it away. And then pulls up the claymore since it was stuck in the ground.
Aether looks at him, "I don't know how much you've noticed but-"
"This isn't Phoenix." Aether finishes his sentence. "So you noticed it as well?" Kazuha asked.
Aether nods as he glances at 'Phoenix', "I've been with her for some time and she never once acted like this. Even in back in Dragonspine, she never was like this."
Kazuha nods as he and Aether notice 'Phoenix' approaching them. "Okay now! Step aside. I have to get rid of all these traitors!" She beams but neither of them move.
She smiles at them, though it was a forced one, "don't tell me you're actually siding with them?"
She says as she looks at frightened villagers.
When they don't say anything, she leans her head and grins, "I see. Guess I have no choice but to—?"
Unable to finish what she was going to says she stumbles back as a sharp pain goes through her mind. Her eyes widen as she grips her head, her nails digging into her skin as she smacks her lips together.
"....what's going on?" She struggles to let out any words as the pain increases and suddenly stands still, her hand still on her face.
"what's going on....[Y/n]?"
[Y/n] takes a moment to respond to her call.
'....I....I don't know....but it hurts.' Her voice fades away as the ringing in Sentence's ears gets louder. '....teacher....it hurts.....' Her mind went silent, both Sentience and [Y/n] went silent.
Kazuha notices the change in the wind and pulls back Aether since he was worried about her. Aether looks at him confused but watches as strange marks appear on 'Phoenix's skin and she finally looks up after a few seconds. He takes a step back in shock as Kazuha stands his ground.
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Phoenix looks up at them as the mark on her forehead appears again and they watch as one of her red eyes slowly turns into [E/C]. She looks straight at them with no emotions on her face nor eyes as her hands falls from her face like a puppet being controlled by strings.
"......."
"So this is your choice."
—
The battle between Kazuha, Aether and 'Phoenix' now begins.
