[img]https://i.imgur.com/H1LfXbE.png[/img] [hr] Now that was not how she “expected” things to go - but expectations in case of Runa who defied time by her existence was a matter of somewhat different approach compared to creatures of different perception of time, one would say “normal” perception of time, but the term of normality made of little sense to Runa. As she viewed expectations different from others - they were more of a sketches of the future to come into a shape, shaped up from the multitude of perspectives her abilities allowed her to see, to take into consideration and narrow the events into the outcome she saw the most fitting for the collective of her presences. Even though the slips occasionally were to happen anyway. But new circumstances were nothing but a new context for a new path to shape forward from where they ended up being in their existence. The turns of events were to unroll this way and now Runa had only to put it into a new perspective and onto new tracks - after all it was easier than putting them back on the old tracks. The demoness shifted and flickered in the air, disappearing from being seen by anyone - in presence and sight she just vanished into nothing and from the same nothing she appeared alongside where the dragon fell. The dragon which was back to being Katie - despite everything the little Princess managed to get that beast to come into senses. It picked Runa’s interest for thinking through it later, but as of now she had other things to do. [color=FireBrick]“How fitting that you would end up laying in here”[/color], the demoness was to say to the laying Katie. They both were to find themselves into a massive crater - a gigantic hole in the earth, a wound inflicted into the Abyss from the explosion and erosion old and massive - yet the ground around the place remained cold and lifeless, and was not touched not by moss, not occupied by a variety of creatures and monsters inhabiting the place. And it was not only the rocks alone - instead of the rocky ground on which one would expect to find themselves, Katie and Runa stood on a piece of structure made by a hand knowing of art and craft - and unlike the structures of the fort they were at before, this looked way more grandiose and rich, regal and signifying power. They were standing on top of the palace which too was brought down from above to find its grave in this dark world. The various signs and marks of the crater and the palace were to look inward imploded, as if the ground itself was to blow up from inside, as something tried to burst out of the darkest depths of this place, and yet it was clear that the collision happened from above, creating massive walls of rocks to surround them. [color=FireBrick]“Remember my story about the world above us which once found its death and fell into here, like in a rain? It started here.”[/color], Runa said as she made her way towards Katie, in a calm pace and her usual smile frozen on her face, [color=FireBrick]“I do think it is a rather impressive exposition of how hungry this place is. The Abyss. It yearns to swallow everything on its way. It erupted here, reached over the above and pulled the world from above into itself, devouring it. It matters little if it is a single person or a nation. Such is the nature of this place. Hungry bottomless pit.”[/color] A blackened blaze is what Runa found as if drawn naturally to the distortion that was Katie. The fiery energy died down, slowly but it did so like a dying flame, until the blackened etches formed into a familiar dark coat. Katie was no worse for wear, for the most part, scuffed and face down into the ground seemingly unconcious. Whether the sheer impact of her fall caused the crater or it truly was some relic of a time once told, it was hard to say, but she was beyond the help and the distance of the others. As Runa approached, a soft crack filled the air and a splintered section of the palace's pillars fell off like a jagged lightning bolt in front of Runa's feet. It was a bad omen, a sign of misfortune, but probably the only warning the demoness would get. A plume of blackness manifested out of Katie, forming into a scaled spectral fist that launched itself outwards towards where Runa was standing. Whether she dodged or not wasn't really a concern, the arm's owner slowly lifting herself off the ground. [color=indianred]"I really, don't give a shit. Lecturing like that is bad for my migraine,"[/color] said an unamused Katie, already back to her feet and scuffing off the dust from her attire. The arm remained behind her, still attached to her frame and hovering like a massive cannon ready to fire again. [color=indianred]"It's not often I get pissed like that. Maybe I should thank Riku for the pep talk."[/color] Runa’s emotions and reactions were hard to read by anyone - and herself in that case as well. She felt the rising mass of energy forming around the downed girl, the shape of it coming to seep into the ground on which they stood and infecting the marble of the palace with a tingling flicker of electricity shifting and acting out of place - yet visibly Runa paid little attention to that omen. It was not about omens from now on, it was not about survival and winning either. A multitude of roads opened before her and she had to narrow that labyrinth down to a singular path. The black haze to shape and manifest itself into a massive fist launched towards the demoness, to which she only flickered and moved aside from its trajectory, seeing Katie to rise up from her as hazy state and now standing face to face with her, the blackened cloud of her anger still held into a formed fist, visibly twitching from its readiness to strike once again if desired. [color=FireBrick]“I am not surprised. In the end, all of this is just a challenge to you all, adventurers. No matter”[/color], Runa said and crossed her arms on her chest, her eyes cold and passionless as never before, [color=FireBrick]“Yes, the princess managed to break against all odds. She is quite an interesting character. Things lay ahead of her, but she remains the most elusive. Evaded both you and me. Quite an interesting trait.”[/color] [color=indianred]"Out of everyone here, you're the one that always makes the least sense. Every time too. I bet you have experience in that,"[/color] Katie said deadpan. The fist behind her began to fizzle away in drenched black smoke as the air itself contorted and burned. [color=indianred]"If I'm remembering right, something, something, you and that mutt want out. It's all since come back to me, and every time I remember you being the most annoying one."[/color] Katie sighed to herself more out of the effort than anything else, already unlatching her blade and pointing Pendragon right at the demoness. [color=indianred]"Frankly, I think I blame you for this whole mess. Or, well, I've got all this lingering rage still inside and you're the closest thing to kill,"[/color] said Katie with a faint gleam in her gaze. [color=indianred]"It's nothing personal. You just piss me off,"[/color] she said before gunfire filled the air and Pendragon lighting up. [color=FireBrick]“Oh, thank you for the compliment”[/color], Runa said in regard to the line of making no sense to Katie, [color=FireBrick]“I do feel it is only fitting for you to be at disadvantage to how you see things, but it is a matter of a perspective in the end”[/color] Runa shrugged and watched the fist of anger fizzle and drench away, leaving a trace of smoke and burned air behind it, a cloud of shadows rising and coating the space around Katie as the girl then drew her blade out and pointed it at the demoness standing idly. [color=FireBrick]“Wanting out is only natural, is it not? But then again, no matter. We are at the different disposition now and the time of talking is no more”[/color], Runa said looking at Katie and that sword of hers, while stretching her hand somewhat sideways in order to summon her spear, which soon shaped up in its form in Runa’s hand, alien and flickering as was herself. [color=FireBrick]“I do not take it personally, of course I don’t. We just happened to be at the place of space and time here, and we are at war which will help us both. So come. Lend your help.”[/color] A shot rang out, echoing and bouncing between the marble of the palace and the rocky walls of the crater, as the charge was fired at the demoness, who again, met it with a flickering shape and disappeared from its trajectory, only to appear again in a fragment of a moment later - Runa’s dashing motions shortening the distance between her and Katie with the blade of the spear aimed at her in a simple and direct attack [color=indianred]"Nice trick. You must be the life of parties down here,"[/color] Katie mused. She was already charging at the demoness step for step in a flicker of speed, blade swung low to high with enough force to smack back the spear the moment the metal clashed. Violent sparks rang out between the two, Katie's strength and experience hardly displayed in her motions. [color=indianred]"I never took you as the fighting type. You left that part up to Nephy, so maybe you shouldn't bite more than you can chew."[/color] War or not, it meant very little to Katie in the moment. Already with the distance closed between them, she balled her free hand into a fist before launching a flat out punch into Runa's face. Or stomach. Or wherever really, as she aimed in the demoness' general direction, heels ready to pivot and dash towards the next spot Runa wanted to flicker towards. [color=indianred]"If it's having your head lobbed off, I'm happy to help."[/color] The metal clashed, the metal caused the sparks of the fighters’s energy to fuel the air with shades, the weapons swinging and finding each other in the trajectories both girls put them into caused cascades of stretched out shapes of color painting the paths the weapons went in before the collision and after them. Even though Runa indeed did not appear as a fighting type, her agility with the spear was more than obvious to show she was more than capable of using this weapon and putting it into use. Even though the direct attack the demoness put on was rather easy to evade and deflect, Runa herself deflected and evaded well. But it came out to be that her dashing was not the only way to abuse time and disrupt it. Right as Katie’s fist made its impact with Runa’s stomach, pushing through the solidness of her body and causing the demoness to take a step back, or two - pushed behind; a flickering motion was to appear again, but coming not from Runa.. But from another Runa, who appeared right behind the girl, the very same spear in her hands, flickering and aiming to strike down at her in a motion which made the appearance of the reality before Katie’s eyes itself to acquire cracks on its surface. [color=FireBrick]“You might want to consider saving that energy of yours”[/color], both Runas said in the momentum. [color=indianred]"And you might want to watch where you step,"[/color] was Katie's response. Her instincts told her to turn and turn she did, Pendragon raised up as more metal kissed metal, pacing her steps as she spun away from between the two Runas. No sooner was she away did the first one find her foot stepping into a cracked portion of the ground. It gave away immediately as debris and crumbling terrain fell into the distance, the dark abyss that made for the ruin's pools. Katie was already back in position, Pendragon still aimed at both now. [color=indianred]"You should have paid attention to that omen. Don't you know it's bad luck to hang around a raven?"[/color] she said with the shadow of a smirk. With two of them that made for two targets each for Pendragon to ripple and fire off bullets dense enough to rip through stone on impact as they launched out of the blade's mechanism. Pair of spears hit the empty spot, making the ground to crack and shatter under the force of both strikes as Katie made her way away from between two Runas and gained a position to aim at both of them now, with the marble ground underneath them all to once again remember the sensation of scars to run through as the floor started to crackle and pieces of structure disappearing in the black pit of the Abyss under one of Runa’s foot; taking a moment for them to once again find a better positioning. [color=FireBrick]“Not bad. Usually it takes this little trick alone to solve it. You are the second one to do this. Congratulations”[/color], one of the Runas said, the other applauding to Katie once after - only for both of them to flicker away in a quick dashing motion - away from the shots fired at them which left the drilling holes in the stone around them and two spear wielding figures to shorten the distance once again: one using the other’s spear as a platform for a jump during which she disappeared from the view into the flickering absence, and the other one once again aiming the piercing strike at the firing girl, slashing directly at her weapon of all things. [color=indianred]"Call it luck or call it a curse, but call it what it is. An advantage."[/color] Katie continued firing off shots, the air billowing with smoke from Pendragon's discharge. No sooner did they ripple in the air and crack sound with force did the two demons flicker out of time again. [color=indianred]"Oh typical. Are you going to do that the entire time?"[/color] Katie jumped away from the one rocketing towards her, blade brought up to slash upwards instead of blocking or deflection. Once more the sheer force in her swing was enough to send the air flowing, if not blow back the demoness entirely. But no, she wasn't supposed to play defensive. She wanted the demoness' head, didn't she? That notion alone made her pivot a step forward before rocketing at Runa be it blown back or not. Pendragon dancing along her fingers like bladed death, she slashed voraciously and without mercy. As Katie went offensive, her swings aiming to push the demoness further back to stun her and further to launch at with a rocketing speed - the second Runa from before appeared once again from the position unorthodox for appearances in general even for the demoness herself. The raven aiming to blow the deadliest of slashes, cutting through the air and making it to flicker similar to how Runa herself did, made the first one to evade and play defensive - but then out of from under Katie’s feet the Runa who disappeared amidst the jump before, rocketed herself - the inertia gained by her in the jump - which she only accumulated as she flickered out of the place - was now to come out in the full force. Even though it was to come upside down in perspective, the power itself was there and the demoness’s kick was aimed at the attacking raven; enough of the force to disrupt her attack at the very least. [color=FireBrick]“Entire time? Now you make no sense to me. How amusing.”[/color] But with the second the third would come as well, with the support of the first one they were to close up on Katie and start striking at her with the piercing strikes of the spears, aiming to abuse her offensive assault; the Runa who was to launch herself upwards was to slash her spear against the air, making the reality to shatter and crack once again and the small shards, reflecting fragments of reality with the edges sharp the demoness was to launch at Katie, throwing them at her with the spear and leaving the deep blue cutting shades of color to follow the thrown pieces and disrupt the coloring palette of the place they fought at: each shape of a trajectory disrupting the colors to be seen through. [color=indianred]"Oh so you can do more than buck and dodge,"[/color] Katie mused at the demoness' manuevers. The multiple copies were little more than body shields for her to contend with as far as she was concerned. Pendragon was swiftly brought down with the brunt wide width of the blade taking the kick meant for her. Runa's-well one of them-boot met with the weapon before Katie threw them both backwards with a followup swing. Skidding backwards, she suddenly found herself in the opposite position from just a moment before, swinging and spinning Pendragon to deflect and physically bat away the spear strikes aimed for her by Runa's next onslaught. The air shimmered once before cracking, splintering more so from the demoness' abuse of time than anything else. It was beginning to get annoying and even a liability as those same shards of fractal reality came pelting at Katie like an ice storm. [color=indianred]"How nice,"[/color] she muttered, spinning Pendragon horizontally in one hand until the blade became more akin to a buzzsaw. More importantly, it was a shield against the fractal barrage as the shards burst on contact meeting the spinning metal. [color=indianred]"I can do this all day Runa so let's cut this short-"[/color] A heavy weight seethed somewhere in her chest that made Katie flinch. It burst at her nerves with a sharp pain and made her stumble about, some shards getting through and hitting her leg with equal pain. [color=indianred]"Shit,"[/color] she hissed, knowing full well the familiar sensation drawing upon her. She tore away the shard from her thigh and kept up her defense even as the fatigue of her prior rampage finally caught up to her in spades. [color=FireBrick]“So can I. Days and hours, weeks and minutes are of no matter to me. Or to us. However you would like to comprehend me”[/color], Runa said with little additional tone put into the words - there was no hate, no cheeky intonation, no smugness. The words were cold and merely informative - informing Katie on the fact that this can go on, go on more and more, and the demoness would know of little fatigue. The storm of shards of reality itself were still storming at Katie who covered herself behind the shield of her weapon as Pendragon adapted to Katie’s tactic in its spinning protective shape. Runa - or rather Runas - kept on pushing with the same tactic, only to drag on time a little more: the Runa in the air was using her spear piercing through and castiving more of the sharp reflective shards at Katie, managing to land a few hits. All while it was to come as a cover for two demonesses on the ground to shorten the distance between them and Katie, and while one was to push at the spinning weapon in order to stop its defensive shape, the other was to come from a flank and pierce the ground underneath Katie’s feet in order to send cracks across it too, the reflective shards forming underneath the raven, forming its spikes upwards, aiming at her and soon to burst at her like a closing beartrap. [color=indianred]"Tch."[/color] Gravity distorted and bent along Katie's form. As if handled by an unseen force her body was launched off the ground and away from the Runas and their pronged assault. Pendragon remained spinning in her hand and with a hurl of her arm she threw her blade like a shuriken right at the one sending the shards her way. Pendragon hissed in the air as it traveled in trajectory, slight indentions made along its surface and wherever else it made contact with as space ruptured around the weapon before finally cutting through the attacking Runa. It grinded and cut into Runa's front and midsection before slicing through completely. The demoness, one of them at least was left with two halves flying with the dripping segments of her upper and lower torso sucked into the whirlwind that was Pendragon like a black hole. Throughout all this Katie continued dodging and moving, running along the ruined structures of their environment parallel to the ground with little gravity to stop her. Some shards made their mark, piercing her coat and leaving red blotches along her inner shirt. These were soon dissolved away instantly with blackened flames as dark ichor came out of a coughing mouth. Black blood seeped and was spat from her lips as the tension of the black dragon's usage strained her body more and more. [color=FireBrick]“Oh no”[/color], one of the Runa’s said once the launched Pendragon aimed directly at one of the demonesses and cut her in half, leaving the cut into two body to fall limb and disappear into the spinning blade of Katie’s sword, lost from sight in the crimson explosion. [color=FireBrick]“How unfortunate”[/color], the other one said and gazed between that crimson cloud of dust and bones and Katie who kept on evading the piercing attacks of the spear and the shards; the ground from which she jumped away by altering the gravity explode into a mass of broken glass taking from reality, crumbling into a mess of poking sharp edges. [color=FireBrick]“Anyway”[/color], another comment spoken - right from under that mass of broken glass by Runa who appeared from under that broken and twisted shape and launched it directly at the spinning Pendragon, causing the bear trap of the shards to explode like a grenade - the sliced up glass was to be spread all across the area, pushed onto to spread across by the Pendragon itself. Runas who remained on the battlefield flickered on the spot, allowing for the shards to come pass by inflicting little damage to them. The entire field became a landmine of glittering edges and sharp reflections no thanks to Runa's latest move. It nearly reminded Katie of another person fond of glass but she refused to acknowledge either familial relation, at least not in the heat of a fight. She continued flipping and jumping back, defying the air around her. Staying still was hardly an option at this point and Pendragon was soon called back to her, spinning in the air and caught back in her hand. More and more red began to coat her uniform but her step didn't falter even as she landed on the top of a lopsided pillar. With both hands on Pendragon's handle she lurched back and slashed downwards at the area below. At once a viciously black stream of energy burst out from her sword. Like fire it consumed everything, taking with it the rain of reality shards aimed her way. Moreover, it engulfed the remaining Runas in its sheer density and mass, the black energy eating them apart in its wake with a hunger that consumed the battlefield until the ground looked much like the land above with dark flames latched onto much of every known surface. The massive tower of black light erupting from the blade once again summoned into Katie’s hands, fell crashing onto the palace, onto the ground on which they took battle and in that crashing the tower of black energy fell and collapsed into the mass of the fire, which in its endless hunger devoured the place around. The raven standing still on one of the columns was to see how the black fire clinged and spread through, catching up onto everything in its way, spreading and taking everything into itself. The gasping flickers of the fire were to reflect in the cloud of glass shards which were now levitating idly in the air; the black light reflecting and forming lines and connections between each shard. Now all looking like a massive brilliant made out of black agony, its lines flickering in the fire alive and hungry and its edges slowly turning and shifting, moving; making the diamond to ever change in time, pulsating, and yet to remain still in time. The Runas that were on the ground disappeared in the flickering darkness, consumed without a sound made and now unseen. For a moment only the storming of the fire was to be present, as the fire sought out to consume even the sound ambience into itself. But then a voice would appear from one of the other pillars. As calm and cold as usual, Runa’s eyes directed at Katie’s, demoness holding her spear still for the moment. [color=FireBrick]“Devastating blow. Can you do even better? I am sure you can. I admire your ruthlessness, even though you don’t even know if you can land a fatal blow or not”[/color]. Katie's answer was another volley of shots at the sole remaining Runa; for now. [color=indianred]"You already know I can do better. Or did you forget the big black dragon?"[/color] Katie deadpanned. She cared little for the beauty of carnage that was their battlefield. The ruins looked even more ruinous and the power exerted from Katie's efforts left even the ground scorched hard. Another round of coughs seeped in Katie's system with more black blood splotched from her lips and spat out somewhere into the glass inferno below without care. [color=indianred]"You ready to give up yet or what?"[/color] [color=FireBrick]“Of course you can, but you are holding back too, are you not?”[/color], Runa replied and dashed with another flicker from the incoming series of shots aimed at her, moving in zig zags across the fallen structure of the ruins, evading both the fires of Katie’s power and the fires of her shooting. [color=FireBrick]“The nature of the events unfolding here are slightly off from what you might acknowledge in your perception. But no matter.”[/color], Runa replied and as another series of shots were fired at her she waited for a little longer before disappearing into the flickering motion - and so the projectiles fired disappeared with her; only to emerge from a different angle together with the demoness evading them - only the projectiles were now flying towards Katie herself. All while the shapes of Runas to emerge from the zig zagged trajectory of the first demoness were to come into existence and in a jointed effort one was launched upwards with others to follow with a flicker: the jointed hands of numerous Runas fused the spears they held into one to form a massively charged weapon, looking at this point like a gigantic magical drill which sought the collision with the ground - and of course with Katie which was on its way. [color=indianred]"Does it look like I'm holding back,"[/color] Katie deadpanned with another splurge of black fluids boiling from her lips. If Runa was expecting the beast from before she'd have gladly gotten it were it not for the pain deeply rooted inside Katie. It was as if her stomach was trying to consume itself and every nerve felt like a firecracker of stinging pain. It nearly made Katie buckled and certainly was enough to make her handling of Pendragon wobble and shake at best. The demoness easily avoided her shots just as Katie avoided her own, the bullets redirected back towards her from Runa's mimicry of time. Leapt away from her perched position, Katie saw a myriad of different Runas all converge on her spot each with a spear each that was conjured and molded to form one singular point that no doubt rippled through this time frame. [color=indianred]"Fuck you-"[/color] The drill lurched into a barely raised Pendragon as fractural sparks of time and leaked space emanated from the collision. The same spectral arm from before was summoned in some attempt to punch the lance away, only to falter and spurt out with another lynch of pain coursing through Katiee's body. The drill did it work against Pendragon's flat side but the momentum was too great. Katie was immediately forced down and down into the wreckage that blazed beneath her with the lingering wisps of her curse igniting the air hotter than any of her black flames. A great crash resounded as a plume of dust and debris marked her collision with the area baked in it. The drill kept on pushing down and down onto the Katie blocking it with the Pendragon - the massive spinning spears fused into a singular force piercing through the space and time and quite literally spinning it around itself, like if a machinery rotor made a hole in the continuum and through which the said rotor would spin it further around. The fragments of time and space were flickering in the collision of Katie’s blade and Runas’s joined spear, the flickering shards and pieces of past and present, reflecting on each other showing future - many futures in which both would see the images to possibly come, or possibly never to appear. Fighting the drill would be like fighting the force of space itself, it was the weight of the world falling on Katie’s shoulders and forcing her down into the ruins, pressing her down into it, as if aiming to make her one with the said ruins. Dust and dried blood flickering in the air and shifting through the reflective mass of glass from before, as the landscape for both of the fighters was to fuse into the blackened shade of flickering absence, robbed off of its contents. From afar, where the rest were to see it, it looked like a massive circle of flickering black, where the fire collided with itself across time. The heat rising up and with it the drill gaining more of the momentum in its intensity, a singular voice to come to Katie through all the noise. [color=FireBrick]“Try it.”[/color] Power. Despite her natural prowess and own experience, it was clear to Katie the enemy in front of her was greater than her own strength. It was severely obvious she was lacking in. Power. The endless pools of her own curse beckoned at her mind among the taunting words left by the floating Runas. It was an option but fatal at this point, and she could already feel that beast begin to consume at her heart, tearing into her own chest. She lacked. Power. There was something else. Something greater than that desire; a deep and unending urge to kill. The enemy before her was a target. Something she wanted to vent at, to throw all her frustrations upon. To kill. Power. Kill. The two words blended in her flickering mind among blood and rubble and the unending noise of the lance drill with consciousness sliding in and out of reality. They melded into their very concepts but burned away with that same passion that she sought. She wanted power. She wanted to kill this demoness. She wanted both. More. There was more. Something pulsed near her hip and she latched onto it without thought like a parasite. No sooner did she do so did a new energy enter the air and she screamed. A horrendously choked noise echoed in the Abyss as the fractured sky started to crack once again; but whereas before in the dragon's rampage there was destruction without relent, now there was the tell-tale sign of coding and token numbers, data glitching as the Floor itself was affected, as if something was overloading its systems. Power. Kill. These two ideas made itself manifest through Katie's flesh as a storm engulfed her broken body, eating her apart in a viel of black until she emerged again. The lance stopped, breaking down at its core molecule by molecule. Even the flames parted away suddenly by a gale as [url=https://i.imgur.com/iR5H9GW.png]Katie[/url] stood like a point in the storm, the Bastion card fully absorbed into her. [color=red][b]"......."[/b][/color] And then it came to a roar. The roar. It came from Katie and from the deepest pits of her entire being. It was obvious to Runa - to all of them as they looked down from behind the glowing, flickering, reality shattering shape of a drill. They could not read what exactly happened, but they could sense the shift, the change in what Katie was to appear the moment before and in how she was to appear before them now. The change came together with that roar. The chuckle, it was a reaction from Runa. Looking at them from Katie’s perspective she were to spot them spinning and floating, clinging at the handle - or handles - of the combined spear, shifting around. They were all the same, and yet they could have some difference in their appearance, some were to have different hairstyles, some wore different dresses. But they all looked down at her, the mass of blue eyes was all directed, pointed down at her, looking into Katie’s eyes, with the cold deep blue of the color drilling through in the gaze, as if aiming to look right through her. It was as if the ocean of the Abyss itself looked deep into Katie. Coldly. And after the roar came quiet. Her entire self consumed by and coated in the black of the veil disappeared and then reemerged anew - bringing the splash of energy tremendous and destructive, causing the reality behind the reality itself to finally show up as behind the shifting shattering reflections of the Abyss, the glitches of the Data emerged to be seen for the eye of anyone now. [color=FireBrick]“Finally”[/color]. Runa said, seeing these glitches to emerge, all while the great lance of hers came to the disappearance once Katie’s energy explosion disintegrated it, it followed with the variety of Runa’s to flicker away too; leaving only one to stand before newly appeared Katie, eye to eye, face to face. [color=FireBrick]“Now you see. Now we both see.”[/color] Runa's words were met with a slash through her that crept from her shoulder to her abdomen. Before the demoness could finish Katie was upon her, eyes empty and the intent of a killer marked across her features and aura. The glitched data that made the Abyss' falls faltered and soon stabilized back to normalcy. There was no rampant outbreak of madness like before, only the cold and calculation of the Bastion card puppeting Katie's body. Something was wrong. The slash did more than harm Runa, as a great entropy ate away at her body....no, her data. All things were data in the Tower after all, and even this Abyss prisoner was no different. The final death loomed upon Runa as her body broke itself down into fractal code and numbers. Erasure. Katie slashed again, this time at Runa's arms until both were lobbed off and dissipated. Purged forever from even the confines of time, let alone the Floor's data. Katie now too moved like a pure force, pure power - just as she desired it to be. Her body was fast and she quickly closed the distance between her and Runa, sliding through her appearance and slashing through, slicing her body into pieces. And more so this time it leaked with more than just her time, or presence - now it leaked with the Data. Heavy weight of entropy touched upon Runa’s shape and presence, biting away a bit of herself as yet another body of hers appeared atop of the column once again, looking down on Katie and her own body fading away into the leaked data. The touch of death creeped through her body, feeling its cold rush rushing through her presence, as if trying to find something in there. [color=FireBrick]“Better, much better.”[/color], the demoness said, looking around the Abyss amidst which they stood still, despite all the damages done. Not the first time this place took such a damage, but certainly now of all times they pushed up to the limit, and it was just a bit before pushing it further on. [color=FireBrick]“Don’t stop, raven. This time is not over yet”[/color]