Of all the constructs in the world, you choose to represent your Virtue in such a way.
Thinking back at her words, Astrid definitely knows about Equinox's Virtue. But how? An Augur spirit can only learn about abilities they have experienced and analysed very thoroughly. And up to this point, the Seer was not certain if he had even used the Night Chant near her. He had after all just gotten his memories of the Virtue restored.
———
Ikky stared in awe as he watched the spirit's torso separate from the rest of its body. But in the next second, his face made a grimace, hurriedly lifting his free arm to block Astrid's sword strike.
The sword met Ikky's arm and immediately broke it, pushing that arm into his chest to crack his ribs and send him flying into the wall.
A thundering sound spread throughout the tunnel as Ikky crashed into the wall. He fell on his stomach before slowly attempting to push himself back on his feet.
"...Why?" Ikky asked amidst desperate gasps for air.
Astrid shrugged. "That was your fault. If you hadn't ignored me as a threat, you'd have been fine."
Equinox took more laboured breaths while the Vrykolakas held his bones and internal organs together. Any other suspicious spirit-looking person, and he'd have rushed right at them with his sword in tow. But now he was quiet, attempting to understand her actions. Perhaps this is how some deal with the loss of a loved one. Nox is after all related to the man who murdered her sister. So if anything, her actions towards him was that man's fault, while Ikky dropping his guard was his own.
"I should leave." He said.
Astrid did not respond. She simply watched in silence as Ikky slowly walked away while keeping both eyes on her. In time, the prophet soon started to realise that he in fact was not going anywhere — the distance between the two remained the same no matter how far back he retreated.
"Oh... Oh no." Ikky came to a disturbing realisation. The space within the tunnel was being tampered with. And the only thing he was familiar with that was capable of such a feat is the evil-spirit of bone gathering, Kotsu-sha.
"Didn't you kill that thing?!"
Astrid turned her head to the ceiling, then side to side, looking for the stone spirit.
'What is she—' Astrid's neck suddenly snapped back, her eyes now focusing in Ikky's directions.
Equinox watched as her eyes slowly drifted until she was looking just right above his head. And that's when the sound of a clash rang. Ikky's sword was raised right above his head, holding the giant stone club from shattering his skull.
The Vrykolakas was covering two of his broken arms now, so in terms of arm strength, Ikky's present self was currently more than twice the usual. Still, even he had to buckle his knees under the weight.
Equinox quickly bent even more before immediately moving away from the weighty club and taking one of Astrid's sword slash to the back of his arm. Giving him no time to rest, the Kotsu-sha fell on the ground and immediately ran at the Seer, swinging with full force.
"This bastard!" Equinox cursed, fortunately blocking the club from making contact with his body. As the stone spirit swung at Astrid, he used the opportunity to reposition himself.
The Kotsu-sha was a massive spirit with three arms, yet it only really used one of them to attack, while the two other hands were clasped behind its back as it made simple hand signs to seemingly manipulate the space around it.
Equinox's eyes drifted from the stoic cracked face of the stone spirit to the halo of erratic darkness circling around its neck. That halo, just like the white crown above Astrid's head were markers assigned by Equinox's Virtue. They determined the roles of the characters in Ikky's grand story, while the 'sword' in his hand was simply a canvas for him to draw that story in detail.
Equinox took a deep breath, forcing more essence into his Virtue. Astrid, who was engaged in a short clash with the stone spirit, noticed her crown glowing brighter and turning bigger, while the ring around the spirit's neck shrunk. Yet the spirit was the only one of the two who seemed to have been affected by its marker.
Astrid lunged forward, now with an actual intent to kill the spirit, however, the space around her body was shifted, making her jump in the opposite direction instead. Stones fell off the Kotsu-sha's face, its stoic mouth suddenly bending into a frown along with its stoney eyebrows. Under the effects of the choking halo, the spirit turned bigger and most likely stronger as well.
Equinox took a nervous step back, asking his Augury spirit, "Hey, how long will you bet it'll take for me to figure this guy's whole gimmick out?"
Yaga simply replied. "It's a good thing you're such an effective punching bag."
Club in hand, and knees loaded like a spring, the Kotsu-sha did not hesitate.
———
"Hey kids, wanna hear a story? This one's about the god incarnate himself, the king of all of Svarga and father of all Summers!"
Once upon a time, Equinox was on the other side of the storytelling. The Poets in Sumeru used to pass by the streets every week, sharing tales and singing songs of fantastical landscapes in the vast world. He would hear the stories of all sorts of great people, all kinds of spirits and disasters that were eventually conquered by valiant heroes. But the ones that never fail to capture his attention were always tales of the Absolute— those with power enough to think existence itself into void, those that could burn down mountains with small effortless sighs and those with weapons in their hands capable of causing the rules of the world to bend and twist around its edges with a swing... yet for some reason, choose not to use that power.
Equinox always thought of what he would do if he had strength like that... He would spare nothing.
The Absolute would hide their weapons, cover their fangs and willingly shut their mouths as they reside alongside the rest of the lowly folk, as they watched the common rabble spread their filth. Why? Why do the gods keep sparing the humans? Everything could have ended since the first of the many transgressions, so why? He would think to himself, perhaps the answer to that is why they possess such powers in the first place.
The world is full of many evils, all holding power and authority in their own right, yet the only reason anything exist is because those with true power— the ability to end it all, choose to hold their breath and let the persistent creatures try again.
Equinox did not want to be filth like the rest, and to that ends, he had to understand the reason behind the actions of the Absolute. He would watch the fragile residents of Svarga pass him by after their fists had been pressed deep into his stomach. But Equinox would not fight back. Five, ten, twenty years and he was on a streak that he could not break. Do not lay a hand on the fragile people, do not go far as to even pluck a strand of hair out of their head.
"Fuck!"
Ikky blocked another hit of Astrid's sword with his arm.
The golden spirit watched as he flew into the distance, only to appear before the stone spirit who was quick to strike with its heavy club. And just as before, Equinox deflected its attack with his own sword.
Astrid took a look at the black sword in her hand, then stabbed it into her palm. It clearly punctured through and made a gap in it. Yet for some reason, when she had stabbed Equinox with it, the sword did not leave so much as a cut. That had really caught her off guard earlier. But now, it seems she could just beat him to death with this thing if she could not stab him anyway. No matter how resilient Equinox was, Astrid had all the time in the world to eventually kill him like this, since Equinox's stupid Virtue had marked her of all people as human.
Because of that mistake, as long as that crown circles over her head, Astrid could not be hurt by him.
She turned her head to look at the poor Seer defend himself. Equinox's moves were as unsightly as ever. The only redeeming qualities the Solstice could say he has is that Ikky knew how to take advantage of his body. With every wound he acquired, he would make sure to inflict twice the damage. Or at the very least, he would sacrifice a part of himself to escape from death without any hesitation.
"Hm?" Astrid continued to stare attentively as Ikky suddenly threw the sword in his hand right at the spirit. The spirit raised its club high, while Ikky's sword suddenly vanished just to reappear behind him instead. In that instant, the Seer burst into black smoke, reforming right after the spirit's swing and moved his hands to grab the sword that was now stuck in the spirit's chest.
"Checkmate!" Equinox leapt at the spirit, grinning from ear to ear.
Astrid's eyes fell unimpressed as she took a step forward in preparation.
The regular stone spirit of bone gathering had the special ability to swap the space between two set places. But the objects in those two spaces however would not be swapped along with the space. Not unless that object crosses the border or edge of the affected area of space completely. In other words, even if the Kotsu-sha swaps the space between two places, the objects in them have to be in motion to completely cross the border of one of the pockets of space, to appear in the second pocket.
This time, the spirit had assigned a wide enough space at Ikky's location, so the small leap he had just done to get close to his sword's hilt, ultimately sent him to the space behind the spirit instead.
As expected.
The Kotsu-sha moved its club to hold it with a backhand grip and stab backwards at Ikky's body. Equinox was not Astrid, so he unfortunately could not reposition himself so quickly, especially not in mid air.
The club stabbed backwards, and with the sword in hand, the Seer cut the spirit in half.