He was simply too strong.
Sunny wasn't aware of what Aelon's Aspect abilities were. He simply thought they made him harder to notice.
His physicality promised otherwise.
As soon as Midnight Shard appeared in his hand, Aelon's pupils constricted, and the short boy lunged forward, closing the distance. But instead of targeting Nephis, Sunny was the one who had to block the first blow.
He regretted it deeply. As soon as their blades connected, he could feel a sharp pain coming from his hands down to his arms.
Sunny sprained his wrist.
'Damnation!'
Aelon didn't stop with the first blow though. After clashing blades, he followed with another strike, forcing Sunny to duck. The sword missed his head by centimeters.
By the way he held his sword, Nephis immediately knew something was wrong. Before Aelon could continue attacking, her sword cut right through the air, targeting his arms.
The blade imbedded itself into Aelon's flesh, but the grey-eyed boy was too fast for her to actually do significant damage. Spinning on his heel, he dropped down, and kicked both of their legs away. Nephis managed to jump on time to avoid the strike of his leg, but Sunny wasn't fast enough.
One moment he was standing there, trying to follow with his next attack, and in the next moment the world spun around.
When their legs touched, a he didn't feel it at first. Just a thud, like kicking a stone.
The world turned upside down. Harshly Sunny lost footing, air leaving his lungs when the ground collided with his lungs.
Then he looked down. His shin was at an angle it shouldn't be. That's when the pain hit — a white, screaming shock that locked every muscle in his leg rigid. He could see his bone.
'Fuck!'
The pain was searing hot, even though adrenaline tried it's best to dampen it. Lucky for Sunny, Aelon seemed occupied.
Nephis continued her barrage of attacks, the difference in skill definitely showing. Whenever Aelon dodged one of her strikes, she followed with another one that bit into his skin, strafing it.
After a minute of fighting, Aelon was covered by cuts. The battle would have ended sooner if it wasn't for Nephis trying to avoid killing him.
Finally managing to successfully deflect one of her attacks, Aelon seemed to have use a lot of force behind the deflection, as Nephis arms flew up, blade over her head.
'No...'
Aelon didn't let up. Using that chance, he kicked Nephis square in the stomach.
Nephis collapsed inward, like a flip phone.
Flying a few meters backwards, then scraping against the bark of the tree branch's floor, Nephis spit out blood.
'Internal injuries. Why the fuck is he so strong?!'
Sunny had to do something, anything but laying there on the ground. But he couldn't.
His leg was twisted in ways that made him want to throw up when looking at it, and Nephis surely had broken multiple of her ribs when that strike connected.
White flames enveloped her, Sunny seeing that she was forcing herself to stay conscious. Gritting her teeth, the flames seemed to mend her wounds.
But even after multiple seconds of standing there, she only seemed to slightly get better. She was still coughing blood, just less than before.
'Why aren't her flames working?!'
...
Aelon walked towards Nephis. The metallic smell of blood was permeating through the air, and the dull sounds of his feet stepping onto the tree's bark could be heard.
The battle seemed as if it was decided.
'Why isn't my dormant ability working?!'
Nephis tried her best to summon her flames, still exhausted from the prior battle against the Carapace Demon.
The familiar white hot pain arose in her, she managed to summon them. Happy that they seemed to heal her, she prepared to enter the battle once again.
But the healing was slow. Way too slow.
'That's why I felt like my flames were dampened. They actually were.'
Healing wasn't gonna get her far any time soon, so she had to switch to the offensive with the little strength that remained in her.
Nephis' limbs felt sluggish, and in general the ache of her wounds wasn't dampened in the slightest. She had to make sure not to choke on her own blood.
Legs wobbly, trembling like a deer's kin, she forced herself to stand up.
'I have to end this quickly. Even if I kill him, my life doesn't belong only to me.'
Her life wasn't hers.
It belonged to humanity, to her goal— dismantling the Nightmare Spell. No matter how many she had to sacrifice for it, as long as humanity remained in the end her goal would be achieved.
No matter if she had to kill somebody she loved.
'I can't possibly have grown that attached to him in such a short time. I barely even know him. I just got a message from Father that I should protect him.'
Right. Nephis had to protect him.
She also had to disobey her father's last wish as it seemed.
'I'm sorry.'
The flames shifted from her own body onto her sword. They were flickering softly, way weaker than in the battle against the carapace demon, but harmful for Aelon nonetheless.
His gaze shifted, slightly intimidated by them, but his steps didn't slow down.
They stood in front of each other now.
Her first and last actual battle against her brother had to result in Nephis winning. For humanities sake.
Aelon pushed himself forward, practically flying towards her. Nephis predicted it.
In a swift matter, she redirected the sword's blade, slipping past it. Using that momentum, she spun around, and delivered a straight cleave towards Aelon.
Her brother did something crazy.
Risking that the blade would reach him first, Aelon kicked her wrist. When her sword was just short of reaching him, the sharp pain from before got enhanced even more.
It was definitely broken.
Switching her sword over to her left hand, Nephis managed to block before Aelon delivered another strike to her gut with his fist.
An arm covering the region didn't dampen the force though.
Just like before, Nephis flew several meters backwards, feeling that her internal injuries were worsening. This was a lost battle.
The next exchange would decide it all.
Forcing herself to keep fighting, she stood up. Perseverance was something that her flaw demanded.
Aelon ran towards her, and struck with his blade. A silver sheen, and the sound of steel cutting air could be heard.
Nephis ducked, and spun around in the movement.
It had turned night now.
Using the momentum from her spin, her blade dug into Aelon's side. The vile -squelch- of Aelon's flesh being parted permeated through the air.
Warm liquid— no, warm blood splattered onto Nephis, some of it entering her mouth that was gasping.
The prior taste of iron that came from her own internal energies mixed with a foreign one.
'No...'
Aelon remained frozen, as if the realization of his loss had only reached him now.
"I... I'll die." he only managed to get out.
Nephis knew it as well, the attack she had delivered was way to deep, way too deadly for him to live after. And she had run out of energy to fuel her Aspect to heal him.
He would bleed out before.
When her sword disappeared, retreating to her soul sea.
Lacking hold on anything, and the strength to move due to shock, Aelon simply dropped on the floor. But when he dropped, he dropped lower. Lower than the floor was.
Nephis hadn't noticed it because it was dark, but when he kicked her, he kicked her to the edge of the branch. Now when she turned the positions around, and let him drop, he fell off the branch.
Into the water of the Ashen Barrow, flowing towards the crater.
Nephis' hands were trembling.
Now that the battle was over, all the internal injuries, and general ailments and exhaustion she had sustained before, and during the battle caught up with her.
She lost consciousness.
While Aelon dropped to his death. Probably ending up being eaten by some Nightmare Creature that tasted his blood in the water.
How cruel.