Welcome To My Dark Side

Chapter 28 Double And Destroy

When Lyria had scarpered off after Lady Azura had startled her by making a noise from her hiding spot, she had continued to go after Lyria except she was even more careful this time. She made sure that she flew a decent distance behind Lyria but in doing so it had caused her to lose sight of Lyria. Quite a number of minutes had gone by and Azura was about to give up and accept the fact that she had lost Lyria again but then she stumbled across 3 dead wither skeletons next to a nether portal. She flew down to observe the scene more closely. The way the skeletons' bones were shattered told Azura everything she needed to know. Lyria had clearly caught one of them by surprise by jumping out of a tree, essentially cutting him in half. The other two had been caught off guard by Lyria double crossing them. This left Azura to be even more confused by Lyria's actions and she had no idea whose side she was on.

Azura still decided to track down Lyria as her curiosity was getting the better of her. After she had crossed into the Nether it had taken her a while to figure out which direction Lyria had gone in. Eventually Azura spotted an ancient bridge in the distance and as she drew nearer she saw that a fight was taking place, although she could not make out who or how many. That was before she came close enough to see two Lyrias fighting. 'What!? There's two Lyrias! Ok so that explains her weird behaviour but which one's which?' Puzzled Azura but as she came closer it became more obvious. One was in a Nether uniform and the other was in Frostbourne uniform. Azura realised that the one in a Nether uniform was the one who had stolen the crystals for Azura could see her limping and again Lady Kaia was clearly helping her fight the other Lyria.

To Azura's horror, she saw that the Frostbourne uniform Lyria was tossed to the ground by Kaia. Without a moment's delay Azura dived downwards onto the bridge just in time to extend her own sword out just underneath Kaia's scythe and just a few inches above Lyria's head. Lyria still had her eyes closed but she opened them upon sensing a flash of light. At first she thought she was dead but when she looked up she saw the blue glow of Lady Azura's latest elytra blade. Lyria had never been so happy to see a sword so close to her face in all her life. Lady Kaia was no longer looking down at Lyria and instead she was glaring at Azura because of her dramatic and unexpected entrance. "You.." Kaia scouled. "No one hurts my apprentice!" Replied Azura emphasizing the word my since there were two Lyrias.

Kaia removed her scythe off Azura's sword and thus broke the brief stalemate. Azura reacted quickly and lunged at Kaia only for Kaia to fly backwards as a way of dodging the blade. Swiftly Azura flew after her and started a round two of the nemesis angels fighting for possession of the skies. Meanwhile Fractureverse Lyria had managed to scramble around the huge gaping hole on the bridge. Lyria having just got to her feet was not able to deflect Fractureverse Lyria's sword in time to stop it from tearing a hole in her elytra. This put them on a more even playing field since Lyria was unable to fly upwards to escape from any attacks. She swung her own sword at Fractureverse Lyria but her opponent deflected it with ease.

While the battle of the Lyrias continued, the two angels fought each other in the air. Kaia was more cautious this time since she did not have the advanced strength or speed of a nether star. This helped even the odds out more than last time. Azura did not happen to have her beacon guns on her but even if she did she would not have bothered to use them this time since she had understood by now that bullents essentially rendered useless against skeletons. After a failed attempt by Kaia to disarm her, it gave Azura a small window of opportunity because it would take Kaia a few seconds to reposition her large and heavy scythe which meant that Azura would have a chance to lunge at Kaia with her much more nimble sword. She thrusted her sword forward towards Kaia's chest but Kaia soon saw this coming and just about managed to block Azura by moving her new netherite arm upwards to protect herself.

Blue sparks went flying when Azura's sword made contact with the strong netherite metal. Kaia smiled smugly at Azura who had been caught off guard by such an unusual tactic. It was going to be a difficult fight if Kaia was going to use her left arm as a way to defend herself like a shield. Now it was Kaia's turn to strike back. She swung her scythe straight for Azura's neck but Azura was far too quick for her as she went to go for another lunge. Even though the scythe did not make contact with her, the hot flames from Kaia's fire charged scythe singded her clothes and burn her skin in several places. In retaliation she spun round and hurled her sword at Kaia only for the two blades to go smack straight into each other as Kaia deflected the attack. Two and fro they flew and their weapons clashed with no clear winner or loser. They carried on ducking and diving at each other until they heard a scream down below from the bridge causing them to instantly cease fighting.

They both looked down just in time to see that Fractureverse Lyria had managed to push Lyria right to the edge of the bridge where she had lost her footing and had now fallen off. To Azura's horror she could just make out that Lyria's elytra was torn so she would not be able to save herself from ending up in the sea of lava and Azura knew that she could not get to Lyria in time. She heard Kaia laughing behind her at the mortified look she probably had on her face. Azura felt completely empty inside at that moment. Those few seconds lasted like eternity and to Lyria it felt as though time itself had stopped.

Poor Lyria was terrified as she fell to her death. She had done free falling before but it was only part of a stunt she liked to pull off, however this time she knew she could not pull up and save herself with her torn elytra. When she glanced upwards she saw that both Kaia and Fractureverse Lyria were smiling sinisterly. Then she saw Azura's face filled with horror. Lyria felt disappointed in herself and was frustrated by the fact that she could not have even destroyed the bridge properly. "I'm sorry." She whispered making eye contact with her mentor. Then just as she had spoken what she thought would be her last words, she noticed that she was not falling anymore. She was hovering in midair! Her determination to go through with her plans had unlocked the invisible barrier between her and the nether star's power. Lyria's face lit up as she finally understood that Fractureverse Kaia was right; she really was the Wind Walker.

This sudden surge of the nether star's powers filled Lyria with energy. She began climbing her way back to the bridge almost as easily as if she was ascending up a glass staircase. Both Fractureverse Lyria and Kaia smug smiles had disappeared when they saw this and Lyria was now the one grinning. Azura was still in shock but she was smiling. When Lyria's feet touched the bridge she saw that Fractureverse Lyria was starting to back away from her. Lyria readied her sword again by bringing it down to point at her counterpart. To everyone's surprise Lyria's move created a small shockwave which hit Fractureverse Lyria so hard that she fell over into the side of the bridge. Fractureverse Lyria scrambled up and charged at Lyria and the two continued their fight.

"You seem to have a habit of cheating death." Snarled Fractureverse Lyria to which Lyria replied with. "Well that's the first thing you have to learn in your reality and having lived in your shoes I know that you've also had your fair share of escaping death especially from your commander's evil schemes. I almost feel sorry for you growing up in that world and if you hadn't caused serious harm in my reality then I'd feel really guilty about sending you back to end up in the same cell as your wicked commander but you've clearly proven that you don't deserve such kindness." After Lyria said this Fractureverse Lyria enraged began swiping her sword all over the place with no care that her haphazardness was working to her disadvantage.

The extra power from the nether star made it so that Lyria was clearly winning. In order to stand any chance against her counterpart, Fractureverse Lyria had to keep moving out of the way of Lyria's sword. Unfortunately for Fractureverse Lyria everytime she moved out of the way, Lyria's sword would smack into the bridge causing even more nether bricks to disappear into the lava and the vibrations from this would cause Fractureverse Lyria to fall over. Unexpectedly a section of the bridge gave way and because it was the supporting part of the bridge the whole thing came apart bit by bit and fell into the lava sea. Luckily both Lyrias made it off the bridge in time even though they were still fighting.

After Lyria had rescued herself from the burning in lava, Kaia had initially been observing and was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Distracted Kaia failed to see Azura's sword coming straight for her and thus the sword was able to crack and break a number of her ribs. Kaia had learnt her lesson to be patient this time and regrettably fled the scene. She knew that King Naeus would be furious with her second failure, having likely lost both the bridge and Fractureverse Lyria. The Blue Angel and her annoying apprentice might have gotten away with it this time but Kaia was set on having her revenge and the wait would be worth it. Azura was about to chase after Kaia, however she stopped when she saw that her apprentice had successfully beaten the other Lyria and was only just holding on to her.