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Well, it was over. The surgery was apparently a success, and Crystal had a blue gemstone to show for it. She sat about in her dorm as she thought of all the ways things could play out from here. Ever since her breakdown days before she'd been more conscious of her actions, and was far more reserved in them. What kind of future laid before her now? She tried to pull her magic from the gem inlaid in her navel but to no avail. It seemed like she wouldn't get an answer anytime soon.

The dawn of the third day had come and gone, and she had watched as Rivka stood alone in the streets, blazing with magic and power as she tore through two Void with her Gladius and one with her bare hands engulfed in magic. Now it was her turn, and she felt for the second time since meeting her schoolmates inadequate, unworthy to stand alongside them as an Ars Magi. 

“Now lowering diffusion level. Nox levels rising.”

She could feel the gazes of her allies from the observation tower behind her. Most specifically, she wondered how Rivka saw her, now that she'd experienced the thrill of fighting with magic. Did she feel the same as the other girls did? Did she realize how impressive she had been when she was in Crystal's place? Crystal had never felt the need to outperform anyone but herself, but now... now she felt differently. 

But that desire was slowly overcome by the rising tension and discord within her mind. She grasped her head in both hands and closed her eyes.

“Manifestation of Voids detected.”

There was a flicker of what could only be described as [i]pressure[/i] in the environment as a Void formed, followed by another and another still. Crystal didn't need to open her eyes, she could feel their oppressive pressence. It was as if she was standing by a radiator in the middle of summer; heat and its haze surrounded her very being, enveloping her senses and bringing all of its force to bear against her soul. The world was spinning. It was simply too much, it was simply too hot, it was simply... 

An illusion. Like a star bursting, a singular point of space within the universe of her mind lit up, only for that light to go out just as she tried to grasp it. And like a dying star it seemed to contract and bend in on itself as she finally managed to reach it, her touch bearing the key to its transformation. 

Crystal did not hold within her a blazing supernova, as Rivka did. What she bore was not the brilliant lives of the stars, their fleeting final moments, nor their offspring that circled them endlessly in their attempt to emulate their parents. She did not have inside of her the unending void that would birth all of creation; she was not a vessel for the very fabric of existence itself and neither did she hold inside the forces which permeated all that there was or ever would be. It seemed that the whole of reality itself was not of her, in all of its entirety and glory. Rather, when she reached out to the light and felt it be snuffed out at her merest touch, she realized that it was not the journey of life that she was made of, but its inevitable demise. The demise of all things, the truest death of all: heat death. The frozen shell of what once was and would never be again. If one was not dead until warm and dead, then she would walk atop the River Styx itself, alive and well as she stood upon its frozen form and laugh at those who could not but fall through its surface.

[color=00aeef]Freeze over.[/color]

There was a soft and cold light for a moment which engulfed Crystal's form before fading into her body and revealing her once again, now clad in her Parma with her Gladius standing proudly next to her. The Voids had begun approaching her, the nearest ready to lunge.

She opened her now-blue eyes, and she saw the world finally for what it was. The unbearable heat she felt had subsided as it was forced to flee from her in fear. And now she was to be accosted by filth? Her hand struck the hilt of her sword, the force enough to make it slice through the ground it was standing in and fly into an arc. The as the blade approached her head, she moved her neck forwards and her left hand upwards to once again strike Hiems' (for what else would she call her manifested will?) hilt, making the flat of its blade dance along her arm. She turned her entire body as if entranced, her Gladius now spinning across its grip in only but a few orbits around her neck until she struck the sword with her right hand, transferring the spin onto her wrist before it finally found its rest with its unblemished grip held gently against her palm. 

It took only a single swing to bisect the oncoming Void down its vertical center, ice instantly forming from where pearlescent blade met obsidian flesh, if it could even be called such. Crystal fought the urge to toss her sword between her hands; she had already learned all she needed of its weight from her performance. It was neigh weightless, the only heft it had was that which was needed to know that she was holding something and that which helped her swing. And swing she did as the second Void approached, this time slashing upwards to effortlessly cut through her foe. She could do better, she knew, but without practice she would not dare risk giving an enemy an opening simply to speed along the fight. So she held herself in place, waiting for the final enemy to attack. 

'He who strikes first loses.' This simple phrase echoed through her mind as the final Void rushed towards her, and she held her Gladius out straight in front of her. There was a momentary lapse and it was over, her entire being having moved in an instant towards the Void, piercing its center mass as ice spread from the wound. Crystal slowly drew back her blade and the ice sculpture resembling a Void crumbled into diamond dust as Hiems' tip left it. 

Finally, Crystal took a deep breath and smiled.