"[Silent Rain,]" Calga's voice resounded and a rain of white light began to fall. The spell radiated the unknown power of silence itself.
Higure clicked her tongue and traced a line with her hand. A tear in the dimensions opened, from which she invoked a magic circle.
"[Gorge of Ruin,]" she uttered and the light was sucked into it as if a liquid.
But the more it swallowed, the smaller it became. Bit by bit, the silence was shutting it down.
"[Pave The Way of Permanency,]" she chanted instead and called upon the seventh layer; which, albeit not the strongest, was the hardest to control. "[Synekeia.]"
The dimensional tear closed prematurely, and with it, the rain vanished as well, as if taken to the grave alongside the ruin spell. Despite that, there was no moment of respite.
Calga, clad in light, flashed toward her. She struck against his claw with her own. Katastra, ever stronger as it stayed active, dismantled the tiger's magic on contact. With her other hand, Higure conjured a sphere of star energy, around which gravitated smaller stars.
"[Natcattiram Cataract,]" she uttered and released the spell Rakna taught her. It drilled into the abundance of light energy defending Calga. But she wasn't done, "[Gentle Echo.]"
The Cataract divided itself into hundreds of pieces. Each of them flew at the tiger with the same speed and exploded into a revolution of orange star energy.
"[Silence.]"
But once again, it stopped. The explosion froze halfway as if time had stopped and Calga shook it off with a burst of aura, dispelling the spell.
This always had been the old tiger's most daunting asset. His Silence was not magic; it was a skill belonging of the Ultimate class. Furthermore, he had honed it to perfection. As far as cooldowns went, it had none.
Higure grunted to herself, swinging her claw from a distance. Katastra surged from her arm and shot a wave of Ruin. Calga evaded the attack, ignoring how it erased the mountain below without mercy.
"[Bloom Like The Sun, Onera,]" the tiger chanted and the World became blurry. Dream mingled with reality; clones of him appeared and simultaneously charged at her.
Watching from a distance, Rakna was fascinated. "He summoned Onera into reality…"
Ceresta's eyes flickered as she perused the information she had access to. "While Dusk Lions are called Dimension Breakers, their rivals are known as… Dimension Makers."
A Dusk Lion broke into Enthymio to siphon its power.
A Dawn Tiger pulled into Enthymio to shape it.
And as if used to it, Higure expertly struck the clones down. Using Elemental Reinforcement with Echo, her body became just as illusive, hitting twice or thrice in the same movement.
"[Silence.]"
Calga's every instance collectively spoke up and the lioness buckled down under their continued offensive. Gritting her teeth, she clasped her hands.
"[Echoes of Ruin – Bell of Silence.]"
Silver mana coalesced into the shape of a bell before it rang.
Immediately, the spell once designed for this specific situation clashed against the bubble of the old tiger's Ultimate Skill. At once, an equalized field was created between the two.
However, Higure's spell affected those who disturbed silence. While it did nullify Calga's skill on her, she became its sole transgressor in exchange.
But that was precisely her intent. She pooled Star Energy into her hands and willfully forced it to detonate; to immolate her body in dark orange flames.
The Bell of Silence delivered its punishment, even on its caster, compressing a thousand echoes into one place, breaking down the matter inside of it.
Higure grinned even as her nose and ears began to bleed.
"Behold, the power of my beloved," she said and her DuskMane began to transform into a new form by absorbing everything around it.
A purple, halo-like crown lit up above her, and red, gleaming four-pointed stars appeared inside the orange dimension as it grew bigger. It shrouded her body like a feathery cape.
All the energies around her, the echoes of the Bell, and Katastra's Ruin, began to orbit her as if caught in a gravitational pull. The accumulation of power progressively made the former DuskMane shine like a real star.
Calga's eyes widened at the ability he had never seen. Swiftly, he gathered his light and conjured countless strings. He tightened the constructs and launched them at the Bell currently imposing its own domain of silence.
The strings dismantled the spell with no opposition, and the tiger moved right after, fast enough to seem like teleportation.
"[Silence,]" he whispered and channeled its power into his own racial skill.
A pulse of aura banished the clouds above and emerging from unseen horizons, a spectral tiger claw made of yellow energy, outlined by a white hue, struck from the sky toward Higure.
The lioness met its descent with her eyes, a glittering red slowly filling up her sclera. "[Brilliant Mane of Nightfall,]" she raised her voice and her ultimate skill came to fruition.
The 'mantle' enveloped her whole. She became a creature outside the bounds of physicality; she herself was a dimension. A creature of pure power arose from where she was; shape undefined and eyes glinting with a red and golden star.
Before Calga could react, his spectral claw was shredded into bits by the power; silence could do nothing against a star who burned in a vacuum for eternity.
"[Anastrofa!]" The old tiger called upon Enthymio, forgoing the incantation.
The inversion of reality was summoned onto the world, and attempted to twist the creature. But it ultimately was a battle of dimensions, and a hasty Anastrofa could not triumph over the Dusk Star made manifest.
With just enough time to build a shield of light, Calga was smited by Higure's power. An echoing pillar of star, ruin, and dimensional force soared. With every second, it scintillated and expanded by one magnitude.
After close to thirty seconds of such a cataclysm, it eventually ended. Higure reemerged with the unrealized mantle of the Dusk Star fluttering around her, yet to completely run out of power.
"Is it over?" Ceresta asked as she lowered her flowery shield protecting Rakna. She looked at the city-sized crater Higure had left in her wake.
Luckily, the residents of this Plateau were far from weaklings; they had long fled the battlefield when they realized what kind of beings were going at each other.
"No…" Rakna answered charily, gazing at where Calga had landed. The tiger's spherical barrier dissipated, revealing him to be weary and frazzled, but not deeply injured. "He used Focal Points at the last moment… not to destroy but reinforce the structural stability of his defenses. I didn't expect that to be possible. He's impressive."
Ceresta looked at the old beast in wonder.
"Hahaha…" Calga laughed, his legs unbending. He looked up, his aged pupils admiring the mantle that cloaked Higure's form. "You too… ascended your racial skill… fine, let—!" He couldn't finish his sentence as he began to vomit blood.
Higure's eyes widened in genuine distress. "You're--!"
"Silence!" The old tiger shouted, but without any esoteric power behind it whatsoever.
"…"
Ceresta pursed her lips. "He is not injured."
"That's his age catching up to him," Rakna sighed through his nose. "He's burning through his life to fight this battle. If they don't end it soon… he's undoubtedly going to die."
Pressing his paw against the ground, Calga's yellow light was reignited. "Don't you dare dishonor me," he snarled at his opponent. "I will give it my all. So, you better do so as well!"
Higure closed her mouth and physically reached for the mantle. She pulled it over herself in one tug, transforming once again into a dimensional entity. This time, it was far calmer. While it was hard to make out her shape earlier, her appearance was now sharper and cosmic.
"Yes… exactly that," Calga muttered and once again flew up with wings of light. "You know… it is infuriating. We make our biggest strides whilst close to death... when we don't have the luxury of walking anymore," his voice trembled from the strain. "Don't you agree, oldpal?"
Higure was silent, her power trickling into the air.
"[Be Silent. Be Quiet. Be At Peace.]"
He chanted softly. Unlike the previous times, the bubble of silence was not invasive. Even though it drained all sound from the surroundings, it didn't take away their agency. Ceresta didn't need to do anything; Rakna didn't feel as if his energies were being immobilized.
"[Come, Dawn Breaker,]" Calga called for the ability of the Dawn Tigers, his voice alone carried in the silence. Behind, exactly over the line of the horizon, a giant tiger claw emerged again.
But it wasn't independent this time. The second leg made its appearance and slowly, the head of a yellow spectral tiger materialized, followed by the rest of his body.
Far into the distance, the Sun Peak blinked as if reacting to its presence. The white hue around it resembled the dispersion of light around both the rising and setting sun. Calga promptly leaped into the creature, attaching himself to it with ribbons of light.
Meanwhile, Higure raised her arms. Looking closely, one could see the quivering in her hands, as if she was losing feeling in them. After all, she had never once closed the link with Katastra since the moment she opened it.
The Lands of Ruin were ready to manifest. From the palms of her hands, a bronze aura poured out and climbed her arms up to the shoulders. It sparked, and within seconds, it ignited into the flames she called the Blaze of Ruin.
They were far too destructive to be wielded by a mortal's hands. Even her BrilliantMane would not be able to contain it for long.
"[In Peace… Be Weak.]"
Then, the next words of Calga's chant hit. Ceresta staggered and Rakna outright collapsed to one knee, his expression confused rather than pained.
'I know I gave away most of my power but… what is this?' He was not being silenced; his energies were not being influenced either. Yet, for some reason, his body and mind were forced to believe that he was actually getting weaker. 'It's almost like a Sin Skill…'
Even Higure trembled slightly, confirming that it was affecting her as well.
"[In Weakness, War Shall Take You,]" with those words, Calga began to feed light magic to DawnBreaker. Mixed with the dominion of silence, it became pure white and started filling the gaps of the spectral beast. It flowed in and out of the tiger's eyes, creating a circuit that kept feeding into itself. "[Where The Lands Are At Peace.]"
Right after, as if arguing with his chant, Higure's warped voice echoed, "[In Disorder, Ruin Shall Take You.]" The bronze flames spread to her legs and began to be siphoned into her torso where it coalesced a disc. "[Where The Lands Erode.]"
At this point, both were one step away from unleashing their attacks.
"[In Silence…]" Calga breathed in and the spectral tiger imitated him, radiating yellow and white light packed with energy. "[An Uproar For Strength!]"
Both tigers roared together, banishing the silence of the Plateau. Half of the Sun Peak shut down, as if its light had been snuffed out, and a massive wave of light that dismantled all molecules it came across was launched forward by the power of the DawnBreaker .
"[In Ruination…]" Higure held the bronze disk and snapped it. "[The Extreme Finality.]"
With a sound akin to snapping metal briefly piercing the silence, ruination shot out like the arc of a star, enveloped in a bright orange dimension. The other half of the Sun Peak gave out and red stars mixed with the bronze flames as they approached the wave of light.
Upon collision, their respective colors bounced off a perfect vertical axis. And despite the silence imposed upon the world, ruination gradually filled the air with a brassy noise.
However, the roars of the two tigers overpowered it, drowning it to the point it was impossible to make out. And Calga shouted, "[Clamor!]" As if an order, DawnBreaker became louder while every other sound became even more restricted.
Higure shuddered under her mantle of dusk; she realized what was happening. Calga hadn't just pushed the boundaries of his Ultimate Skill. He had created another one entirely.
He was not just silencing others; he was strengthening himself with the intensity of the noise. It was a thorough reengineering of his power. A rebellion against silence; a battle cry.
She couldn't help but admire that conviction. But if it was noise, she could also make it.
"[Resonate!]"
The Blaze of Ruination bloated and became louder, regaining ground on the light that had begun to prevail. But despite that setback, a thunderous laugh came out of the DawnBreaker, and as if it couldn't be stopped, it roared louder.
Higure responded in kind and before long, the situation became critical.
❮ ◈ ❯
Warning!
Structural Integrity of The Plateau At Risk!
Warning!
Cease All Actions!
❮ ◈ ❯
The System was reckoning a threat against the entire 755th Plateau. But the two rivals could not have cared less. They didn't stop for even an instant, pouring every piece of mana and stamina as they could into this battle.
And the first to show signs of defeat was…
"[Reso—!]" Higure was incapable of actualizing her Echo Magic more than this. Then, her mantle scattered without warning, reverting half of her face to normal. Her visible eye dilated, but even then, she tried to push back against her opponent.
But unlike her, Calga persevered one last time. DawnBreaker roared one final time and stepped forward, exhausting itself in the process.
"[Clamor!]"
Before she knew it, a counter force knocked her arms off her own attack and her link to Katastra fully closed, temporarily rendering her limbs inert.
She watched as the white surge of light swallowed her flames and she chuckled. "Good going, old cat… you finally beat me…" She whispered tiredly and right as she was about to be consumed by their combined energy, she felt something tugging at her and the space around.
She closed her eyes with an amused smile and allowed it to take her as if she had awaited it, just in time to escape the incoming deluge.
The uproar of rebellion soon shrouded where she stood and for a moment, the Plateau shook to a degree never experienced before. The unstable amalgam of energy shot off into the sky, but it did nothing to quell the disturbance.
For a good minute, the tremor even spilled out of the 755th Plateau and reached others. It took a long time for the System to handle it, resorting to emergency protocols and ejecting the surplus into the very convenient waste bin that was Meuro.
In the end, as silence was lifted, an unconscious and dying tiger dropped from the sky.
The winner of this last battle between rivals was Calga.