"Solarel."

Her voice softens. Her technique liquefies. No longer the martial artist dodging and countering on a knife's edge, suddenly Mirror is a rush of maddening aggression bending at impossible angles as if she didn't have joints to begin with. Most children of Hybrasil are gifted with highly flexible bodies, but here she is like fighting a thunderstorm. Pieces of the Gods-Smiting Whip seem like they must be melting, or else shifting into some other dimension when its arm curls around its back to snatch a tail and twirl it in a circle like a blade.

The only thing she cannot do, or rather does not do, is land a kill shot. The thunder is yet far away. The wind is yet gentle. The rain is yet warm. 

"Everything I have done so far across this entire tournament has all been for the sake of defeating her. All my secrets have been saved for her sake. All of my techniques have been refined against the best in the galaxy to measure up to her. All of my games and all of my restrictions are just an artifact of wanting... no. Needing. To be better than her best. And I have not reached those heights yet. I have further yet to climb. Even my offer of a nap was another claw I am sharpening against Solarel."

This right here is the true deathblow. Solarel's ultimate technique has always been her use of information. The toxic infodumping to overwhelm an opponent's ability to reason. The strategic declarations of emotion to fluster someone into giving her what she wants, or to trick someone into taking what [i]they[/i] want. Sounds simple when said, but it's far subtler than that. If Mirror understood how to describe it she would not be so awed by it. Even where she has defeated this power has largely felt like a factor of luck instead of personal growth. This too might be another layer of the form. Infinite petals, spiraling around the center of the universe. Potentially undefeatable in the end. 

But even this is a distraction. The scything of the final blade disguised as a wistful sigh. The reason the One Day Defense did not last longer was the same reason Solarel had left a string of broken cats, broken hearts, and shattered pride behind her on her campaign across Hybrasil space. The true name of her power was evil incarnate. Even just to speak it was to risk falling prey to it. 

Fulfillment. Once it sets in there's no coming back. The flames that fuel a warrior turn to a baker's warmth, and the final blow never quite reaches all the way it needs to strike true.

"I entered this tournament not knowing she would be here. I do have dreams outside of fighting her which made it worth contracting my services out to the main government. Ordinarily, we would not align. Ordinarily, we would find the idea of working together, hmph. Distasteful. But my dream is worth theirs a thousand times over. And even that. Even [i]that[/i] is ultimately about defeating Solarel."

She rises off the ground now, still no thrusters. Purely with Nine-Tails' leaping power she takes to the sky to drop kicks in the pattern of a meteor shower on the Ginger Tiger's head. Faster and faster, harder and harder, beyond reasonable endurance, beyond typical physicality. Can your gifts keep up with hers still, Kiriala? You want to try, don't you? Are you any closer to Mirror's riddle?

"No one understands her. It was not the power of the [i]Aeteline[/i] that made her untouchable. It was not trickery that made her skilled. It is not enough to be faster than she is, stronger than she is, smarter than she is, nor more magnificent or beautiful or to dream larger dreams than her absurdly blindered brain can conjure. It is not even enough to love her. Defeating Solarel, truly besting her... that is something only I can do. With this machine. With this body. With this dream. 

"I am through being coy. I am inviting you to share in that dream. Hybrasil does not raise knights, but in my time among the Zaldarians I became one anyway. And now I stand before you with that title and the threat of falling into darkness. One final chance to determine the fate of our game today. Will you pull me away from blasphemy? Will you use me as a lover, will you attempt to draw me at last into the world of the Huntress? Or will you fall to me, fall [i]with[/i] me, and try to live inside of what I am building?"

[Mirror is opening up to someone whose regard matters to her, and dropping her Feelings back down to zero]