A dozen beams of dark light shot out from Astria. Rather than going in a straight line, they were bending left and right, but their eventual destination was clear to me. I raised my blade and raced out to meet them. I cut the beams down as I jumped around. Anything the beams struck turned to ash.
“I’m not sure if I can cut too many more spells.” Alysia gasped. “It’s exhausting. I have to keep my soul sharp, and each time it gets stuck it becomes harder to maintain that sharpness.”
We had both been wondering what our limits were since we came from the Illusory Sword Dungeon, and it seemed like Alysia was reaching hers. A sword that struck too many times became dull, and when it was something so metaphysical as cutting mana, it was that much harder. If her blade could cut the spell, then it would be the same as the spell erupting right in my face.
“I’ve seen everything I need to see.” I panted. “It’s time we end this.”
I had only taken on another face and confronted Astria to see how things were. Now that I had heard enough, I didn’t need to drag this out anymore. However, I couldn’t just show her my face either. The one setback of Transformation was a slow spell. I didn’t have time to transform my face back to normal using the spell. Thus, I had to defeat Astria.
After fighting her for this long, I was pretty confident I could. With her being powered by the Mana spring, she was probably about as powerful as she had been in her lair of Karr’s dungeon, back when she could pull on the dungeon to enhance her power. I needed to cut off that power, and then suppress her quickly.
“Sharpen yourself as much as you can. We’ll cut her bond to the mana spring.” I gave Alysia the order.
I adjusted my jobs accordingly and then I used teleport to appear next to Astria. She expected this, turning and lashing out with her palm. I allowed the strike to hit as I did my strike. Her hand hit my chest, and I felt a strong pain. The pair of us separated, Astria and I both flew out from the mana spring, landing on opposite sides with thuds. I looked down at my chest to see a searing handprint. Astria was deadly as always, but I wasn’t the same Deek I had always been. Such a level of pain was bearable after what I had experienced.
That’s why, as soon as I landed, I teleported again. I fought through the pain that she likely had intended to be debilitating, and as a result, I came upon Astria just as she was getting back up again. I struck her with several spells using Drain and Weaken to amplify the damage the loss of power she got when she was severed from the mana spring.
She yelled out, but I refused to allow her to back away, keeping us close where she was most helpless. She was struck again and again as I forced her to her knees. In a matter of moments, Astria had been taken down.
“You…” She spat. “Just who are you?”
I looked down at her, and then I lifted my hand. “I’m your Master and it is time you become my slave. Enslavement!”