Quies opened his eyes.
The familiar suffused white glow of Valerie's Illusory realm shone soft light on his lightly tanned skin. His scruffy sable hair came to rest with the absence of wind. He rested his homespun zweihander on the leather shoulder plate. His blood surged throughout his body, controlled and aimed with Blood Enhancement.
Valerie stood a modest distance from him, not as far as when they were on the Schooner, but still a considerable length. Similarly, she rested her Railblade on the shoulder plate of her dark featherweight armor. Her weight rested on her right leg, hand on hip.
"Uhm… okay. How do I do this."
She stood there for a few moments.
"Ah, I have an idea, I think."
She lifted her Railbrade off her shoulder and moved into a ready stance. Seeing this, Quies hesitantly positioned his zweihander into his guard position.
"Try blocking this."
Quies stared at Valerie after she declared that statement. She stood still. Quies tensed as he anticipated an attack from her. He focused his blood enhancement towards his head, improving his clarity in hopes that he would react fast enough. Suddenly, his thoughts moved faster, and the world became just a little more saturated. Valerie stood out more from the pale white background of the Illusory Realm.
And yet, all it took was a singular blink.
"Come on, I know you can do better than that."
"Better than what?"
Quies was still tense, confusedly looking at Valerie. Her position had shifted. The tip of her sword rested a hand length or two lower than it was before, or maybe he was just imagining it. He reset his stance and tensed, not knowing exactly what Valerie had done. He flicked his gaze downwards for a moment, then looked back up.
'Wait what-'
He looked down, towards his forearms. Before, two plates of hardened monster leather covered a thin layer of fabric, which covered his skin. As he looked down again, he noticed there were two wounds. Both of them positioned slightly above where the leather protection ended, cutting into the black fabric and slightly nicking his skin. Upon a closer look, he could see part of the leather slightly worn at its edge, Valerie's Railblade grazing it during her split second strike.
"H-how?"
He lowered his stance immediately and took one hand off of the zweihander, letting its tip bounce off the black surface of her Illusory realm. His free arm went to grab one of the wounds until he remembered that he could use Blood Enhancement to mitigate bleeding.
Or, maybe he could bleed just a little for experimentation purposes. All he had to say were two words.
"Thundercall tech. Practically impossible to block, I'm guessing."
"Practically impossible to even see."
"Well I kinda cheated by striking when you blinked. Anyways, close your eyes again."
Quies loosened the muscles in his arms, relaxing a bit, but not fully. His free hand returned to the hilt, and lifted up the zweihander into a ready stance once more.
"Why…"
"I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise. Well, actually maybe I sort of will, depending on how you do."
"Reasurring as always."
He closed his eyes. His eyelids glowed a barely noticeable dim red, the white light scattering in the subsurface.
With his primary sense taken away, all his other senses heightened in compromise. He found that he started to pay attention to things he hadn't before. He could feel his lungs breathe in the… air? He wasn't sure whether it was actually air or something else. He felt his heart beat, the cursed blood flowing through his body.
"Listen for me."
"Huh?"
"It should be easier in a quieter space like this. My song resonates better in my own domain."
Quies still didn't get her statement, but tried his best to interpret it. He kept his eyes closed, but this time focused more on his hearing. However, the only things he could hear was his own breath, and the pulse of his heart. Nothing else made noise in this Illusory Realm. No wind blew past his ears, no birds chirped overhead, and no leaves rustled in the breeze. Just silence.
'What does she mean?'
"Listen to where my voice is. Listen as it fades. Listen for what is left."
Quies followed her instructions. He focused his Blood Enhancement on his mind further, even isolating it to different parts of his brain. He listened as Valerie's voice disappeared in the endless expanse of the realm, with no walls around to bounce the sound back. He listened until the final waves of sound came to rest, the air even stiller than the oceans of Etris. With the veil of sound disintegrated, he focused on what hid beneath. Eventually, Valerie's voice was gone. However, silence wasn't left in its absence.
He heard it. A faint hum. A mere figment, a murmur, of the song, whispered within Valerie's soul.
"Can you hear the music?"
Quies focused in on the noise, his heartbeat and breath slowly fading out as his concentration shifted. It sounded… rough… in a good way. Almost electric. A ball of energy, its will trapped within the barriers of the soul. Its sound enchanting, yet falling upon the ears of the deaf. A sonorous hymn, sunken below the endless tides of the world. It was purpose with an unwritten goal.
It was the faint sound of true, unfiltered divinity.
"I can."