Chapter 45: Crimson Farewell (2)
Tears streamed down Misha’s face.
The world blurred, then sharpened, then blurred again. Even after her soul slipped free from her body, even after Olivia seized control, the grief followed her.
One second, Yara’s claws were still cutting through the air. The next, Oliva twisted her body sideways and used the blade to knock them off course. The movement came too fast and too smooth.
For the first time, surprise showed on Yara’s face without disguise.
Olivia drove forward with rapier in her right and dagger in her left. She did not give Yara even half a breath to think. The rapier flashed for the throat first, the dagger followed low, hunting the ribs, the heart, anything soft enough to punish.
Yara answered with ice. Three shards formed beside her like pale stars and shot forward at once. Olivia cut the first apart. The second scraped across Misha’s shoulder and opened the flesh there in a bright, hot line. The third came for the eye.
Olivia dipped under it and lunged straight into Yara’s space once again. She thrust the sword for the neck.
Yara caught it with an ice claw. The sound rang through the throne room like metal biting glass.
Misha lifted her wet gaze and saw Olivia holding her ground. Her eyes widened in disbelief to the point her tears stopped.
Frost raced along the blade making Olivia release the rapier at once, and drove the dagger up toward Yara’s chest instead.
Yara twisted back just enough to make the dagger miss her heart. Still, it carved a bloody line across the underside of her arm.
It was just a tiny wound but Olivia grinned anyway. "There, you can bleed. That’s rather comforting~"
Yara’s expression turned colder. Ice spread beneath her feet in delicate white veins. Then an ice sword formed in her hand with a sharp, crystalline hum. She swung once towards her.
Olivia threw her body backward so hard that her heels nearly left the floor. The ice blade cut through the air in front of her nose. Cold scraped across her skin.
Even from outside her body, Misha felt it. If Olivia had moved a fraction slower, her head would have gone with it.
Yara did not stop there, she pressed. The ice sword came again, fast and clean, and Olivia met her with a dagger in one hand.
The two women blurred across the throne room in a storm of white flashes and sharp impacts. Olivia ducked beneath a thrust, tried to slash for Yara’s stomach, twisted around a rain of ice shards, and came back in with the rapier she picked, and aimed it straight for the eye.
Yara knocked it aside with the flat of her ice sword and drove her claws into Misha’s side.
The pain hit like a lit match shoved into raw meat.
Misha choked on it from where she floated, trapped outside, watching it all through the trembling edge of her own sight. She could already tell that the pain would be waiting for her when Olivia’s possession time ended.
Olivia did not even hiss. It was as if pain no longer mattered to her unless it got in the way of stabbing Yara.
She stepped into the wound instead of away from it and stabbed. The dagger slammed into Yara’s shoulder.
It was not deep enough, but it was still enough to make Yara’s body jerk.
"There," Olivia breathed. "Sit still and I’ll make the next one prettier~"
Yara’s eyes flashed coldly. Ice exploded from her free hand.
Olivia crossed both blades in front of her body just in time. The blast sent her skidding back across the marble. Blood from her side painted the floor behind her in crooked red streaks.
Misha’s body was getting weaker. Olivia knew it and that only seemed to make her angrier.
She charged again. This time she did not bother pretending she wanted a clean, fun fight. She wanted one thing and that was one real, deep stab.
Yara sent six shards at her in a fan.
Olivia let one hit. It punched through her thigh to the point her leg nearly buckled.
Instead of falling back, Olivia used the stumble to drop low and slide under the rest. She came out of it at Yara’s feet and slashed upward with the dagger.
Yara jerked aside but it was too late to fully avoid it.
The blade sliced through the fabric at her chest and carved a red line across her skin.
Olivia laughed in actual delight. "I think you need to change your wardrobe."
Yara looked down at the tear. The cut had split the fabric just enough around the smooth swell of her breasts, one wrong move from popping free. The sight was made sharper by the thin line of blood against her skin.
She lifted her gaze again, utterly unbothered. Then she vanished.
Olivia moved on instinct, she felt where the bloodthirst came from so she spun as Yara reappeared with claws first.
The ice tore across Misha from her shoulder to waist in a single savage stroke. Fabric split open first, then the flesh beneath it, the line of the wound blooming red as the shredded edges of her clothing fell away from her body.
Olivia whirled through the pain.
Yara caught the blade between both claws and snapped it. The upper half spun across the room and clattered against the steps below the throne.
For one second, Olivia stared at the ruined weapon. Then she smiled wider in annoyance. "Oh now I’m definitely stabbing you."
She threw the broken hilt into Yara’s face. Then the dagger came for her eye in the same breath.
Yara immediately blocked with her ice sword, then followed it with a kick to the stomach so hard that Olivia flew backward and crashed into one of the stone pillars.
Stone cracked behind her.
For a moment, her own body felt too heavy to lift.
Yara stood still, ice shards spun lazily around her shoulders like a crown of knives.
"You’re no 3-stars, are you?"
Olivia pushed herself off the pillar with one shaking hand. Blood ran from her mouth, her side, her shoulder, her thigh. Her back burned and one arm had begun trembling hard enough.
"I... am." She spat blood onto the marble. "But my growth is in process."
Yara frowned. She could not believe a mere 3-stars like her could stand against her even for a moment. That insult alone seemed to irritate her. "That’s impossible. A 3-star will always remain a 3-star."
Slowly, stubbornly, she planted the dagger against the marble and forced her body back up. Blood dripped from her fingertips. Her borrowed chest rose and fell too fast.
"You know..." Her voice was rough, thinner, but still unmistakably venomous. "I was going to stop at one good stab..."
She looked at the blood coating the dagger then backed up with a smile that belonged in a nightmare. "But now I’m feeling greedy."
「 Possession Time Remaining: 00:00:05 」
The countdown flashed before her eyes.
"Oh..." she murmured. The sound came out almost amused, and at the same time, almost regretful.
She let out a small breath through Misha’s mouth, then laughed weakly under it. "How tragic... I’m sorry, master... I can’t win this time."
「 〔SYSTEM NOTICE〕
Soul Possession has ended.
Capricorn Chamber entering cooldown. 」
Misha felt it before. The strange distance vanished and numbness broke. The wall between her and her body shattered at once.
