Her movements were getting faster. The spear she had seemed intelligent and even had a mind of its own. As she constantly fought against me, she learned my patterns and the spear adapted to my movements, constantly finding new blind spots to abuse.
I was constantly being pierced around my body, but thanks to my ability to modify the curse, such wounds were not infected and began healing faster than normal. As a result, her intent of slowly chipping away my life and energy was futile.
Nonetheless, I was still growing tired. My entire body was already at its limits, and my magic was the only thing I was relying on the most. Firing desperately Novas made by concentrating over a thousand Embers into a single point was one of the most successful and effective methods to push her away.
She quickly stepped back once more as the explosions continued. Within the smoke created, I rushed towards her and then swung my blade towards her neck, only for my sword to be intercepted by her spear once more, she parried it amazingly well.
Ignatius quickly emerged from within my body as an enormous draconic head, unleashing his Blazing Dragon Breath skill on his totality, as an enormous blazing beam clashed against her.
She quickly erected a barrier, but it got destroyed in mere seconds, only for her legs to suddenly get trapped by Furoh who transformed into a Blue Slime, entangling her legs and making her lose balance.
Without hesitating, I pointed my blade towards her head and impacted her mask with it, only for her spear to swiftly clash against my sword and move upwards, pushing it away from my target. I lost my balance, and she abused that opening, kicking me in the stomach once more, only for her tail to continuously pierce my entire body a hundred times in mere seconds through consecutive attacks, venom quickly began to fill my body so much I ended vomiting it out of my mouth.
I ended throwing up right there, as I felt my entire body completely numb. She was just as tired, covered in burn wounds, her cloak was half burned too, and her pale white skin was showing, covered in scars and recent wounds from my attacks.
For a second, her mask slowly began to crack some more, as a big piece fell, revealing to me one of her red eyes. In that moment, for a few seconds, we stared at one another's eyes, furiously. As if we were too tired to move an inch, but we knew that the one that acted first would have the upper hand.
As I stared at those red eyes, that blue hair, and her white skin and that long pointy tail, and even as I heard her voice…
"It still… not so late." I muttered.
"Celeste… Don't do this." I said.
"Ngh?!" She quickly flinched in surprise, stepping back a bit. "So you guessed…"
"Mist and Mary are here… They're unconscious but might wake up at any moment. What… will they think after seeing you've been up to no good all this time?" I confronted her.
She quickly took off her mask, revealing her entire face to me.
Celeste, a friend I made in this town.
The half-demon girl that had been singlehandedly maintaining the demon children orphanage all these years. I had my suspicions since I fought her and meet her again later.
But I didn't wanted to believe that, but now, after I heard her voice, which was no longer changed with magic, I knew it was her. In fact, it felt like she was trying to tell it to me by not changing her voice with magic.
"Celeste…" I said. "You don't have to do this, there's another way-"
"There's no other way, Sylph." She answered, her eyes filled with resentment and anger.
"Think about them!" I said.
"I've made up my mind. I will become the one that will take them all down, and make of this town a place where they can live in peace, in safety…" She said.
"So that's why you've started this… Those were your true intentions at the end, wasn't them?" I asked.
"Partially…" She said.
"The Lord… Why do you want to kill him?" I asked. "This doesn't simply feel like a way to overtake the entire country, this is… Personal, isn't it?"
"The lord of this fiefdom…"
Silence suddenly took over our surroundings.
Suddenly, I was taken aback.
The lord of this country…
Is it really Celeste's father?!
He… killed her own mother?!
"He… killed my mother in front of my eyes…" She said, her red eyes were filled with such an endless darkness that they were slowly becoming black. "I have not forgotten this anger… this resentment… All… everything else is just a medium to me, a tool to reach this point."
"But…! You can't just try to kill your father!" I said.
"…Someone like you that has lived in the happiness of a family that has always loved you can't even understand the hate I have against my own father…" She said with her eyes filled with resentment. "Get… off… my way…"
Celeste slowly began to stand up, pointing her spear at me.
"I've never considered you a friend or whatever…" She said. "We only meet for a month and you think we are happy-go-lucky friends for life?"
"I would never be the friend of someone like you…"
"In fact, I hate you. I've always hated you since the moment I met you… That face filled with happiness, that family made of heroes so strong there's not even a hint of challenge in your entire life… plenty of food, plenty of love, anything you could ever wish for was in the palm of your hand…" She said furiously. "I hate you! You're so privileged, you've got everything you could possibly have! And what… about me!? What about those kids?! You're such a damn hypocrite… I despite people like you… I want to tear you to shreds!"
"T-That's a lie… Those moments… You were enjoying them with me!" I said.
"I've never enjoyed a single second at your side." She said.
I felt my hands trembling, but I quickly picked up my resolve and stood up in front of her.
Suddenly, it began to rain, as the water started pouring from above, it began washing down the blood from our wounds.
I pointed my sword at her.
"That's right… Point your sword at me… This won't end until one of us fall." She said. "That's how life is… a battleground."