Sylas felt his Will faltering.
There was a flash in his eyes and the Will pressuring Runes appeared once again.
This time, however, Lorien was ready for it. Her pink mist changed again as she poured more Will. From only gathering small tidbits of Foundations, it suddenly began to form outright true Runes. They only had three to four Foundations between them and couldn't even meet the standard of lowest class Runes, but this change was still enough.
Sylas felt his Will rebuffed by something.
But Lorien felt like she had just been hit with a truck.
Her eyes widened. Just how powerful was Sylas' Will?!
Lorien recovered quickly and followed up with an attack, but this brief lull, as short as it was, gave Sylas just enough breathing room to stumble forward and roll out of the way of the next attack.
Sylas coughed. If he had been with his real body, he would have certainly been leaking blood all over. But the cracking damage to his Scorpion Warlord Armor, and the vague flickering of his avatar, painted the story clearly enough.
'If my Scorpion Warlord Armor collapses… so will I.'
Rune Armors were powerful, especially in his Scape, but they were a double-edged sword. Because there was no body, they were etched into the Will itself.
Back then, Ragnar had to abandon his armor because Sylas almost killed him through the Scorned Wraps. In this case, Sylas' situation wasn't much different.
The Armor was deeply entrenched into his Will and they were practically one in the same right now. He couldn't afford to allow it to crumble completely.
But would Lorien allow him that chance?
Sylas could feel her Will getting deeper. He felt that he could understand her more clearly now than ever before. Maybe it was because of the Rune Avatar Scape, or maybe it was because she had no choice but to show more and more of her true self.
But right now… he could read her almost as easily as anyone else.
Before, she was still trying to see how much of herself she could still hide and pull off this victory. But she was quickly realizing that the more she did this, the more she was falling into the same trap she tried to ignore in the first place…
Giving Sylas time to grow.
Right now, she stood at the fork in the road. Would she expose herself now? Or would she accept this loss?
How important was this Aether Treasure to her?
Her jaw set and at that moment, her faceless avatar gained a pair of two pink eyes.
It was too important.
Lorien's pink mist poured into her body. Her avatar gained a river of pink mist for hair, and a pair of pink eyes that seemed to contain the explosion of a nebula within.
A dress of pink mist adorned her body and fairy-like, angel wings of pink soared outward from her back.
Her Will solidified and a crown pulsed into existence above her head, a presence beyond that of a Warlord descending with an arrogant might.
Sylas felt like his own Will was being buffeted with hurricane force winds. For the first time, he felt Lorien's Will clearly and understood something…
She had Shaping Will as well.
This was the very first time he had seen someone with Will comparable to his own. No, her Will was beyond his own.
While he had only just formed his Shaping Will mere hours ago, she had clearly formed hers for a long while.
She knocked her fists together and then spread them out, a long, thin sword taking shape.
Could pink scythes of wind fill the skies as she swept it outward. And in a single instant, a vast chasm had opened up between herself and Sylas.
This time, she wouldn't give him the chance to reverse the situation.
She took a step, the ground rippled, a large wave of Runes taking shape beneath her. Acceleration Runes, rebounding and reverberation Runes, even lightness Runes. They shaped together into an explosive movement technique that carried all her momentum into the tip of her spear.
Sylas' perception slowed the world down.
He could hear the beating of his heart, and helpless swirls of thought spun in his head. This woman… was on another level entirely. He was no match for her, he knew that.
Deep inside, he was completely unwilling to lose, but even with all the time in the world, he couldn't find a path to victory. Maybe it was because she had a head start, maybe not. Whatever the case was, it didn't matter.
The gap was there and he had no ability to cross it.
But he didn't want to lose.
He really… didn't want to lose.
He had never felt such an urge before in his life, and he realized that it was because he didn't care much about the things he had done before. He had skated by life on easy mode, his so-called discipline being just an extension of his own distaste for the status quo.
But now he was here. He was doing the things he loved, the things he wanted to do. He loved how this world made his blood boil and how it lit his emotions aflame. He loved dancing on the edge of life and death and fueling his adrenaline with the blazing liquor of the world.
He was intoxicated by it.
And because he was… he actually cared about not losing.
It was funny, in this moment, Sylas didn't once think about his 10 billion Hero Points or the fact failure here would waste an opportunity he had taken months to finally be able to take advantage of.
At that moment, there was a flash in Sylas' mind and a feeling he had experienced many times before came once again…
That smirk… like someone was looking over his shoulder, sneering at his inferiority and preying on his downfall. And this time, it would finally get its wish.
Then Lorien's sword ripped right through his armor and chest.
[Victor: Lorien Myst]