Gabel's Aura bellowed like a wild beast before forging an Incarnation as realistic as Vali's in an emerald-crimson hue.
It didn't get to fully form itself before he jabbed it into the still stationary figure of the young heir pinned to the pillar, but soon, the fork of a glossy trident showed, sunk deep into Rias' neck!
Indeed, this was Gabel's Incarnation. Gilded with indescribable markings, and the beautifully sculpted shape of a half-serpent, half-human figure with a solemn face, the trident seemed to ooze of mystery.
However, as with the glaive, Gabel noticed that even though he had stabbed into the enemy, there were no traces of blood to be seen.
His eye darted to Rias' bandaged arm once again, and he saw more blood leaking out from it.
So it was true...
...!!!
While still in the murky shroud of stalled time, Gabel suddenly turned to Rias' other hand, and found a large saber clasped within it tight, even though he had passed it on the ground when on his way to kill Rias.
At the same time, the dark-eyed man felt his dome of shackled time shudder before popping like a bubble, releasing Vali, and Rias! Gabel pulled his glaive, dematerialised his Incarnation and dashed back, a stony look on his face.
That saber... what had it done?!
The thought replayed in his mind, but...
In the next minute fragment of time, Gabel saw himself face to face with Rias once again, as if he hadn't moved from where he was just now – after his attempt to deal damage with his Incarnation!
...!
"So that's what it was..." the young heir of the EverSword House said with mild intrigue, no apparent gaping scar or wound on his neck or forehead. "Time..."
The numerous eyes on the surface of Rias' large saber suddenly rolled, and the miniscule hourglasses that acted as their pupils shivered within the white viscera.
Gabel, and Vali – who had just returned to her senses – felt violent tremors ring through their bodies, and the latter found her head cut into three slices, while for the former... his shoulder had been slashed apart!
Vali fell down with her face sliding off, and Gabel staggered back.
Rias was gone from before them, and was instead standing a few meters behind the two. He didn't idle by though. He noticed something with Gabel with his narrow eyes, and his figure seemed to suddenly get erased from where it was standing, appearing on the dark-haired man's other side!
A radical noise shifted the air and demanded that the ground quake in its wake. It was striking, sounding to the ear like the cacophonous noise of thousands of clashing swords in a large scale war, only, all of it condensed into a split second!
Gabel, and Rias stood still in their respective positions, but the sounds of conflict rung micro moments later, before they both shot in opposite directions. Gabel hissed a calm breath, his glaive in hand, and his Aura like a flame over him. Rias on the other hand...
Blood dripped from his bandaged arm.
His hand had been lopped off from the wrist.
It had suddenly appeared on the ground, like an Incarnation called by its Master, no evidence showing when exactly it had even been stricken off.
The bandage around Rias' arm then slid off, revealing harsh, scarred pink skin that looked as though it had just been taken out of a fire. Gabel ogled it.
So that's how the arm looked without a cover.
In a blink, however, the lost hand re-emerged from the stump of Rias' arm, as if there wasn't a previous attachment on the ground – which turned into ash.
"Your power. It's peculiar. My sword found it hard to completely emulate it. It's not like a technique etched into the body. It's not like a blessing either. Stopping time. Reversing time. I almost thought you a Mage for a moment. What is it?" Rias asked curiously.
Gabel, wearing the same poker face as Rias, replied with a non-answer.
"O bloody veil... mine expertise in your excellence is so meaningless..." he chanted, before holding out his glaive.
Rias expected as much. As it seemed, he wasn't quite as powerful with this mysterious power as Gabel, which was why he was the only one to emerge harmed after their 'short exchange' while manipulating time.
The young Game Master gathered his fingers together several times, getting a feel of his new hand, and then he switched his sword into its grip.
WHAM!
As Gabel watched, Rias was suddenly decked in the face by a large fist!
The young man soared and tumbled in the dust, a look of mild surprise on his face.
Vali huffed, looking a little exasperated as she then stood close to Gabel, eyeing Rias whom she had caught off guard with a mean hit.
"That brat is actually a lot more cocky than I imagined," she said as she looked at his pink arm. It looked viciously mangled, but as he stood, it was already healing.
"Looks like we can't do meaningful damage to him. Everything that we do to his body, whether fatal or not is transferred to his arm which, I think, has regenerative properties close to mine in potency."
Gabel grunted.
He had noticed as well, quite obviously.
The current problem in contending against Rias was that it was hard to tell what the Imagining Technique was actually capable of. Was the strange arm a part of his Technique? Or just the deer? But what about the sword?
How could one Technique make all these things? Especially that sword.
It was becoming clear that it was capable of learning the properties of attacks and mimicking them, and it was this one ability that concerned Gabel quite a bit.
Indeed, he had the ability to manipulate time, though in restrictive pockets.
It was a power that he had come across accidentally, after finding an obscure treasure during one of his many assigned tasks from the Severed Union.
It was called Juggled Time Veneration.
Indeed, a Veneration art.
Gabel had come to regret touching the red thorn – the treasure he found – while on a rather small island south of Feinheath. When blood was drawn from his right hand, a voice had called to him, and enslaved him with its call...and the crippling, agonising pain had begun.
It was pain so great he couldn't stay conscious for more than a few minutes each time.
It persisted all day, every day, until he begged the barely discernible voice that spoke in his ear for mercy.
Only then did his perception of the red thorn and the voice begin to change.
Thus...
Gabel narrowed his eyes as he looked at Rias' sword.
He was sure Rias wasn't able to use the power of Juggled Time Veneration – slowing time, and reversing it – as proficiently as he could, which was how he had managed to cut off the young man's hand.
Of course the boy couldn't.
How could he?
But then again...
"He has more," Gabel finally said something other poetry. "More tricks and powers, I mean. Yet, he is not too concerned with us. He is waiting for something, refusing to go too far from the flame."
"Of course he is," Vali said with a half-cheery smile, her eye dashing to the pillar. She knew she wouldn't get to do much before Rias was upon them, and it seemed whatever the young heir was waiting for was fast approaching. "Well, might as well pull out all the stops. I brought resources here for a reason."
In the short distance, Rias raised his hand, and the large deer head emerged once again.
Gabel and Vali grew cautious.
The creature opened its maw wide.
"Crow..." Rias said in a dull tone.
The sound of flapping wings was the first to register. Then a dark, graphite beak the size of a man's forearm popped out of the deer's mouth, followed by a crow half as tall as full grown human being!
Its feathers were black, its body lacking much detail. It cawed before taking to the sky, but it wasn't alone.
With the whooshing of disturbed winds, a seemingly insurmountable number of crows emerged from the deer, and flew up and about!
Their numbers grew so ridiculous that for a moment, it seemed as though they filled this world, doing a fantastic job at obstructing the eye and masking important details to the senses.
It may have sounded obvious, but Vali and Gabel grew tense. They really couldn't see or sense their surroundings very well with the crows rushing about harmlessly despite their size.
Beyond that, it was as if the crows... could see it all.
Their numbers observed all, and shared it with Rias who stood a distance away, a calm expression on his face.
"This is ridiculous," Vali said as her Aura surged once more, yet a smile remained on her face.
What manner of technique was this?
What was its limit?
Well, it was quite simple.
After accomplishing a series of conditions, and adjustments to better handle the toll, a user of the Imagining Technique was afforded a chance to manifest an object or characteristic of their choice. Something they could imagine in any state of being; in sleep, cold consciousness, drowsiness, pain, fury, calm.
Conjured Daydreams, Rearren liked to call them.
The stronger the Technique got, the more Conjured Daydreams the user would be afforded, their potency in accordance to how strong their Imagining Technique was – as dictated by the core.
At the Special level, Rias was allowed three of these permanent utilities, which he manifested through a conduit shaped as he desired. In his case, it was the deer.
The first Conjured Daydream was his arm, which transferred all damage he suffered to his arm, which had ridiculous healing properties.
The second was the sword, which could replicate the effects of the abilities it had come into contact with, the efficiency of which could be bolstered by feeding it the prime source of said abilities.
The third, well...
Besides the Conjured Daydreams, a user of the Imagining Technique could manifest an unlimited number of differing (temporary) creatures, and tools with simplistic abilities up to the Special level, as long as they could visualise them vividly at a moment's notice – something all EverSword combatants paid the price for with varying degrees of solitude training.
An example of these short-lived creations, was the crows which the deer had spat out, now flying about.
Rias raised his saber, and sped towards Vali and Gabel who rushed towards him too.
This was more entertaining than the young Game Master he had thought it would be. Especially his earlier battle with the pale man, even though it hadn't been anything serious.
These two... Rias saw them as infinitely worse opponents, though he imagined they were the strongest among those that remained.
'Pity. They'll be dead soon. Even if they have Units...' he thought. 'Hmm?'
From the west, Rias saw through his overlapping vision shared from the crows, something peculiar.
It sprang forth, a golden white gleam about it, as if holy.
Was that...
Was that a golden tree?
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