The jet-black aura around the now resurrected Scarlet invaded the already desolate and
corrupted area.
It was nauseating and Neil could only hold back his urge to throw up.
"Death? You hold a law of Death? How is that possible?" Neil questioned out loud.
"You do not need to know," Yoke responded in her grotesque voice and swung her left hand
outwards, commanding Scarlet to attack.
The undead Scarlet rushed towards Neil unleashing a plethora of Corruption Nux but this
time it was fused with Necro Nux causing her Law of Corruption to mutate into something
even more terrifying. A Law one would call... Death Corruption.
Neil kept backtracking, keeping his distance from Yoke and the undead Scarlet.
He was now
especially on guard because Necromancy was not a Law to be trifled with. It was a Taboo
Law because of its distinction to oppose human nature.
Scarlet conjured greyish black tendrils from her arms and swung them towards him firing off
projectiles that flew to him at high speed.
He reacted by forming omnidirectional Azure
runes that blocked the attack, or would've blocked but were instantly getting corroded by
Scarlet's Nux which forced Neil to sidestep and dodge the attack.
'Its now corroding my Runes but the speed at which they corrode is slower than the speed at
which they regenerate so I should be okay', he thought.
"Are you still looking down on me…?" Yoke found Neil's reaction too calm which annoyed
her. She outstretched her left hand. A vacuum that seemed to twist the very air burst forth,
sucking in light and sound alike.
The air froze.
Scarlet's decaying aura warped even more
violently, mutating her body as Yoke channeled more Necro Nux into her.
"Aspect Execution: Death is Life", Yoke muttered.
A resonating hum echoed from Yoke's throat, forming glyphs in the air. They slithered in
Scarlet wrapping around her spine like a second nervous system. Her blackened eyes now burst in
a white flame as the Death Corruption Law reached its peak.
Scarlet's body cracked and
reshaped, her skin peeling away to reveal a writhing skeletal structure covered in cracks and
scars, each one pulsing with Necro Nux From her back erupted wings formed of bone and
sinew, each flap spewing a dark mist.
The conjured tendrils became blades of death and an intense flux of Nux brewed around
her, shredding what remained of the terrain which forced Neil to increase the distance
between them.
Neil's eyes squinted as he took a few breaths to gaze upon this monstrosity. His body
instinctively engaged in a defensive stance.
Azure runes were layering over each other and
this time they were spinning creating a shield of protection.
"Seems she is going all out now", he thought.
His Azure runes began weakening, bleeding away at the edges, touched by Death
Corruption's Law.
The Law did not just simply evolve, it didn't just decay but it became a force that annihilated
matter and soul.
It was a Law that didn't only kill; it erased it everything it touched.
'It's actually destroying my Runes. Incredible.', Neil praised her because it had to be known
that his Runes were unique, they were created by one of the most powerful Runemasters to
exist.
'I'm still too weak. I guess being in the Ethereal Aspect has its limits', Neil was still in thought
but in that moment, Scarlet pounced on him. She moved faster than his eyes could see and
threw a heavy punch shattering his defense sending him flying away.
Neil could only raise his
arms to block but that didn't diminish the force whatsoever.
Neil flipped mid-air to regain balance and the moment he landed he was even more
surprised than ever. The bones in both his forearms were broken.
What the hell?
Scarlet kept the pressure and this time appeared behind him launching a swift kick that hit
his back.
'She is extremely quick, all her physical attributes have been enhanced', Neil felt the force
on him once and quickly conjured a rune on his back to dampen it, even a little but he was
sent flying once again.
"Something has bothered me since Scarlet released her Aspect Execution on that Riot guy.
How and why are you not affected by it? Usually only those who have similar Laws can gain a
certain amount of immunity to it. With my Necromancy Law above her Corruption Law and being
of a similar type I was naturally resistant to her Aspect Execution but you… You don't seem
to have any Law pertaining to Death or Corruption or am I wrong?", Yoke asked as she walked
next to the Undead Scarlet.
Neil stood up slowly, breathing heavily as he turned to face her.
"You should be dead already considering just how much of her mutated Law has infested
this place. Which is why I am surprised.", she continued.
Neil didn't utter a single word and calmed his breathing. His eyes were sharp and he looked
especially focused now.
"I think those Rune techniques you have are a guise.", an all-knowing smile became evident
on her face which made Neil frown.
"What are you hiding under that mask of yours.", she taunted.
"You talk too much. I think I should be the one asking that question ", Neil said with a
nonchalant expression.
Yoke didn't respond and looked at him from under her mask.
"Do you think you have won?", he asked.
Yoke remained silent. She simply pointed at him and the undead Scarlet rushed towards him
again, this time with more speed and ferocity.
'I guess its time. Well, I have held on long enough', Neil thought and just as Scarlet was
about land her punch…
He murmured silently and Azure symbols spiraled in to existence. A transparent ether
erupted from him as he vanished from sight.
Yoke's eyes grew wide and she immediately tried using her [Sense] to find him but could not
locate him at all. It was as if he stopped existing.
'What the….', Yoke's thoughts were immediately halted by a large cut on her neck and the
mask on her face lifted as Neil appeared once more just a few meters away from her.
"You are quite sturdy. I was aiming to chop off your head", he said.
Yoke registered the pain a few seconds later and fell to one knee. She put her hand on her
neck and quickly stopped the bleeding using her Nux to heal the wound.
She looked up with a twinge of anger and Neil took a good look at her.
"I must say you are quite beautiful.", he said with a surprised look because that is rare
coming from him since he doesn't just consider anyone beautiful.
She had a beautiful face with a pair of haunting eyes blazed with a forbidden light: the
sclerae are inky black and her irises glow with a lurid crimson framed with sharp, angular
seemingly Japanese aesthetics and facial features.
Her skin was oddly pale seemingly the
color of her bone, as fine dark veins, like spidery cracks of obsidian, trace along her temples
and neck compliment by her long inky-black hair that fell down her back like a waterfall of
midnight.
Her bitten lips were crimson-stained as blood trickled down them.
She was scary yet beautiful, a golden apple located on the highest most vine.
"You'll pay for that ", her voice remained the same, grotesque but her movement became
more graceful and eerily even more composed.
Her space dark robe transformed to a more
ominous state.
Embroidery composed of thread like midnight trimmed in silver-gray sigils
were evident. The motifs on her robes echoed death: wilted lotus blossoms, interlocking
skeletal motifs, coiling serpents and cryptic runes woven from bone-white thread could be
seen across the whole robe. The sleeves were wide and tattered at the edges , trailing wisps
of shadow like the ribbons of a funeral bier.
"You aren't just a nobody are you?", he asked.
"It's none of your business", Yoke said as she stood up.
Neil set the distance between the two even more.
"How did you do it?", she asked.
"Do what?", he smiled mysteriously.
"How did you undo the Rune lock on the mask?", she said with a tinge of anger.
Neil laughed out loud which angered her even more causing her Nux to rise once
more.
"Have you forgotten what I've been doing all this time",
"I see ….", she quicky understood. Neil was obviously an expert at Runes and even the runes
he used were unique not the same as the ones she commonly saw but even then…. the
Runes that were engraved on her robe and mask were meant to compliment each other to
protect her from outside probes. It was a highly complex rune amalgamation that even a
Corporal Aspect practitioner would find difficult deduce and destroy.
But he was able to bypass that and break it causing the runes to lose their effect.
"You are something else.", she said with a crazed smile.
"You can say that again", he smiled as well.
"Nonetheless you will still die today.", she said as she ordered Scarlet to return to her side as
she began omitting an even stronger Nux.
"We'll see about that", the transparent ether made its return, congregating around him as
got into a fighting stance.