Alicization: Steel and Lycoris

Quinella, Pontifex and Administrator of the Underworld, Part Two

“Changing into a blade without a command? Unexpected. But you won’t best me. Now we usher in the end. Let the festivities begin! Huh, strange. It seems Herysrian’s way of speaking transferred.”

Through hot tears I lift my head towards Quinella, feeling my rage overcome me as I stand up. “You want a fight, Quinella, you got one. But not with the Lord of Knights!” I swing the blade outward, and at the same time, my body changes. A red, slightly armored tunic over a long black shirt, brown gauntlets at the ends of my arms, my legs covered by black pants and leather boots. And I’m sure my enraged red irises are present. “You have now picked a fight with the Crimson Warrior… HAAA!”

Now that the fight is equal, we engage each other and clash our swords. Due to my injuries, Quinella initially takes control, but I push her back with a spinning kick to her bosom. In her retreat she takes flight, throwing Sacred Arts at me before returning to the ground. She pins my blade down and backhands me, but it doesn’t stun me long enough to block her following attack and flip back. Spitting out blood, I grit my teeth and chase after her as she hovers again. Eventually she manages to knock me down with a Luminous beam attack, but I get back on my feet before she can strike with her sword. In the same move, I harden my fist and punch her in the gut and send a shocking punch to her face. Angered, she comes at me with a sword skill, but I dodge it and we resume a normal clash of blades.

After a while she tries to fly again, but I boost myself above her and knock her down. Once she gets up, Quinella directs a gale of wind at me, then I feel my legs bound by Umbral ropes. I break the bindings but Quinella did that just to distract me as she burns my hand, forcing me to drop Medina’s sword. She tries to take advantage, but I grab her sword arm and wrench her own Orthinanos blade from her. Both swordless, we immediately attack with Sacred Arts. Once it is seen neither of us is gaining the upper hand, we call our swords back to us and stand our ground.

“Such resistance from the lord knight and the defect.”

“I think Medina has proven she’s no defect.”

“Fine. I admit I may need to keep a margin of safety. Generate Gate to Real World!” She extends her sword arm, and at the tip of her sword forms a black hole. She chuckles at my surprised look. “The reason I made this space and blade wasn’t because the irregular boy defeated me once. It was to escape from this walled garden without relying on his help.”

This 'he' again... “You’re using the Orthinanos modules to connect this world to the Real World!”

“I’ll be going now. Until we meet again, boy.”

I hold my sword up. “You’re going nowhere, Quinella!” Not of my calling, a red energy field bursts from my sword. As I charge my attack, red flowers start appearing around me. This is the same phenomenon I saw when Medina killed Hersyrian. Her own Perfect Weapon Control.

“Jaymes, this is my final wish… Remember me. I’m sure we’ll meet again someday…”

For some reason, I feel as if she’s standing right beside me, controlling the actions of this blade. “You’ll live on in my memory, Medina! You’ll bloom there like the lycoris! Now together!” I honestly don’t know if we’re saying it simultaneously, but I pretend as if we’re doing so. “Enhance Armament! Lycoris! Rain down and smite my foes!” I run forward and thrust my sword out, missing Quinella, but she was never my intended target. Instead, I strike her sword, breaking it apart to the gems that forged it.