Chapter 170

Without warning, the darkness surrounding her turned into a starlit night-sky that was a pleasant change from the dull white she was looking at earlier. Staying stock still, her ears twitched as she strained to hear any sounds or auditory indications of people near her, her nose taking in the scent of the air, but there didn't seem to be anything nearby. All she could hear was the wind brushing across the sand, and the dry desert air filling her nose. The stars seemed to wink down at her as she felt herself all over, confirming the integrity of her body and pinching herself on the thigh to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

She took the prick of pain from her fingers squeezing her skin as a sign that she was lucid and proceeded to sit up and look around. The sand she could feel underneath her was already enough, but she just needed a little more confirmation.

In the distance, she could spot the low building that served as the entrance to the ramen shop, and a man walking over to her. He stopped as soon as he caught sight of her, and with her artificial vision enhancements, she could see his eyes widen as he laid eyes upon her form, standing up from a fatal wound like it was nothing.

Far above her in the sky, the couple were fussing over each other while descending when they felt a presence on the ground spark into existence, immediately catching their attention as they used runes to observe the area. In a flash, they pinpointed the source of the sudden flare of energy.

"She's alive?"

Brynhildr's murmur of disbelief reached Sigurd's ears, and he couldn't help but mirror her surprise. He had killed her with his own hands, strangling her to the point of death and then crushing her Spirit Graph with his own hands. Surely, that was enough to end even the toughest of Servants, as once the Spirit Graph was destroyed, there was no coming back even with Guts. At best, a Servant could linger for a few minutes with sheer willpower and skills to maintain their container's cohesion, but that was it.

In fact, MHX Spirit's Graph had been destroyed, but instead of disappearing from the world, it was instead rerouted to a realm between the border of life and death, a place that all Artorias were destined to at least encounter once in their existence.A certain Space Onii-san could also have something to do with it…

Whatever the case, it was undeniable that she was alive and kicking, her body whole once more even though there was a gaping hole on the suit right over her heart, exposing the pale skin and smooth (and slight) curve of her breast. In her hands, the two swords that had given Sigurd much grief earlier were humming quietly, the vibrations reassuring her of their presence as she gripped the handles tightly, gazing up into the sky at her opponent who had managed to successfully kill her.

A blue blip in the sky appeared, looking just like the stars in the sky until it started growing larger and larger, dwarfing the sparkles of light in the sky as it grew in size until it was as big as the moons in the sky, though it was significantly brighter than the other celestial bodies. As it grew closer, rippling lines tracing from the center could be seen, with trails of what looked like azure flames lining the sides as it fell downwards. It was accompanied by a howling whistle that filled the desert wasteland for miles around, a poignant warning to all those in it's way as it descended to the earth.

"Suu-"

Taking in a deep breath, MHX crossed her arms, her forearms a mere inch above each other as each sword went to the opposite side, the blades parallel to her hip while the hilt hovered just above her waist, the entire sword almost at a perfect right angle with her thighs as she bent her knees in preparation.

"-haa"

Her draw was in sync with her exhale. In one smooth motion, the tip of the blades drew an arc in the air, travelling until it made a full circle from one side to the other, her arms fully outstretched behind her. Her bent legs straightened at the same time, sending her rocketing towards the falling comet at reckless speeds.

Travelling ahead of her and far outstripping her in velocity was an X of pure energy that was not dissimilar from the ones she had used earlier in the fight against Sigurd when dashing from place to place while releasing her blade beams, except this one was much, much larger in size. On the ground, it could be mistaken for a crescent moon from the side, and it rushed up to meet the blue comet-sized fireball spat down by Sigurd.

Next to the man with his gaze riveted on the revived MHX, Gray stared at her figure rising into the air with undisguised surprise, her eyes blinking as she watched her Servant rise into the air with ease, cutting the comet into four equal sections in a flash. She thought she was witnessing the death of her Servant, but to see her rise from the dead like that was beyond her expectations. Instead of wondering why she wasn't waking up after MHX's death, she now stood up and raised her head to gaze up at the skies, the clash of legends once more reenacted in front of her eyes.

Right behind the comet she had cut, several more massive orbs were hurtling down towards her, each one closely followed by the last as they blanketed her field of vision, hiding Sigurd and Brynhildr who were much further above her. Corkscrewing through the gap of the first comet, MHX pointed both swords forward and started spinning furiously, her entire body turning into a drill. Energy released from the blades, following her spinning motion into a trail of energy that spiraled outwards in a cone, with a near solid tip of her twin swords spearheading the way forward. The black and white turned into alternating streams of energy, a massive cone forming around her and protecting her against the incoming comets. It strobed with red edges outlining the blacksides, and blue right next to the red, the two swirling together in complete juxtaposition against each other.

The remnants of the first comet were about to approach the ground, but they disappeared beneath the swing of the man who just a moment ago had been standing right next to Gray. She only noticed that he was gone when the remains of the meteor disappeared in her peripheral vision, and seeing the distinct bare back of the man where the meteor would have landed, she looked next to her and found him gone.

"These youngsters, cutting loose right next to my workshop like that. Guess I'll have to clean up the loose ends."

As he said so, the sword in his hand disintegrated, metallic dust scattering the four winds.

Cracking his wrists, another hiltless blade filled the empty space in his right hand, a gentle curve to its spine, with shallow valleys of waves sandwiched between tight clusters of the hamon, a fish-belly like tang fitting snugly in his practiced grip.

"Still, what a pain in the arse."

This time, he hurled the sword point up, the blade travelling perfectly vertically as the kissaki intercepted the other flaming pieces of energy that were bound on a course to the wastes surrounding his workshop.

Gray found herself spellbound as he eliminated the fallout one by one, acting perfectly like a craftsmen intimately familiar with his work as he acted efficiently, not just in his handling of his weapons, but in the process of destroying the comets as well, sometimes not even outright destroying them but sending them off course so a whole bunch of them could collide together with him only having made a single slash. Still, none of his strikes actively sought to prevent the comets coming down, the blades only seeking targets below MHX's feet.

In the night sky of the desert planet, MHX flew.

Having drilled through the first few meteors sent down by Sigurd, she continued to advance upwards through the air, the steadily dropping temperatures and dwindling lack of oxygen doing nothing to dissuade her as she kept on her course, blasting through the air on a pair of sword jetpacks.

With one keeping a hand on her original Secret-calibur in a reverse grip, a steady stream of ether spewed from the blades in a leaf shape, resembling the exhaust from a jet engine. It was certainly just as powerful as well, if not more, as MHX maintained her grip on it with a magnetic lock near her hip on the hilt assisting her, a thin film of energy spreading across her body to help deal with the volumes of air she was slamming through, though it would immediately shatter in the face of the comets dropping down at her, which were increasing in frequency at a frightening rate.

Sigurd conjured a dense, compact ball of energy in front of his sharpened teeth as his mouth grew more dragon like, scales popping up on his face and neck, tilting his head backwards as he raised his hand beneath the orbs forming a handspan away from his mouth, a glow originating somewhere deep within his throat lighting up the insides of his mouth as the energy mass grew in size. It rapidly grew from a dot into a baseball, then it stopped at roughly the size of a bowling ball. At that point, he lifted it away from his mouth to hurl it downwards at MHX, and with him no longer collapsing the ball of energy, it instantly expanded upon leaving his hands, turning into a great orb capable of flattening houses and smashing a tower into pieces. As MHX grew closer, he started acting faster and faster, the orbs forming at an increased rate, with three projected at once from his jaws and hands when he got the hang of it.

Leaning her body to the left, her Saberkiller Style: Jetfire Skyblade shifted with her, the plume of ether bending to the right as she performed a tight swerve around a comet, then the black counterpart of Secret-calibur came into play as she held it sideways in front of her, a sudden burst of black particles that send her hurtling to the right as she grazed past a comet that was right in the path of her turn. Abruptly, she cut the speed to her jet/sword, rolling her entire body to the left until she felt like she was about to vomit, allowing her to just slide past a shower of smaller comets that had split apart before she had the chance to notice. The barrel roll brought her into the path of another one, and this time she angled her sword upwards and dived, her black sword providing a boost as she attached it to the other side of her hip. Anticipating this, five other smaller comets found their way towards her and trapped her against the larger bulk of the meteor she had just dodged, the heat on her back threatening her as they pinned her against it. Flying as close to the comet as she dared, she waited a second or two until they were right on top of her, then skewed towards the large comet that she was skimming against, almost kissing it's surface as she felt the shields covering her fail against the heat being released by the object she was next to. The next instant, her swords roared as they spat out an even larger blaze of ether, her ass getting the hell out of there as she slipped between the gap of the first comet arriving and impacting on the larger meteor letting the rest hit the meteor and avoiding getting turned to crisp by the large meteor.

She didn't have time for a reprieve as she felt heat on her back, and a massive blue fireball filling her face. Pulling her sword back like she was about to perform a draw slash, she placed the black sword right next to the white and simultaneously triggered the jets of ether. The result was an almost quadrupled output as they resonated with each other, a literal storm of ether spilling straight out, but in exchange it sent her corkscrewing in an uncontrollable ascent towards the sky. A bloated cloud of gaseous ether floated behind her as she zig-zagged and bent around the incoming projectiles as best she could, often coming millimeters away from getting her face fried. She could practically smell the distinctive smell of ozone and plasma wafting off the orbs zipping past her, and her ears were constantly bombarded by shrieks of wind as they flew past her, her body buffeted by gusts of superheated air as the rapid heating from the projectiles caused air to whip around them like cyclones, further adding to the difficulty of flying between them.

Sigurd eyed the figure flitting back and forth through the rain of ether that he was hurling at it, then decided to change tactics. If these big ones weren't doing the trick, perhaps it was time to flood her with quantity instead of quality.

He kept the orbs that were forming on both palms and in front of his mouth, his eyes glowing a furious cerulean that burned like green flames, and when he released that energy blasts that he was building up, they split into tens, hundreds of smaller sphere instead of the massive comets they were before, all of them homing in on the distant figure that was still rising up and trying to reach him through the hellstorm. Each one released from different vectors, covering all directions around her as they swarmed the minuscule dot swerving and ducking, covering her as a deadly swarm of spheres that would explode on contact.

It didn't take her long to spot the incoming onslaught, and this time she opted for power over speed. Though Sigurd had made sure that there were little to no gaps in the formation of the falling spheres, expanding a certain amount of focus and concentration to direct the spheres and control their trajectory, the fact that the spheres were no longer one massive comet and instead split into many parts meant that each individual sphere could now be easily destroyed by MHX's sword.

Shifting the black sword off the magnetic lock on her waist and allowing it to hang freely next to her, she scanned across the clouds of spheres moments before they engulfed her. Her eyes danced across each cluster, noting the denser and looser parts, then jumped further behind them and checked for anything else she had to look out for. Her mind spun at a frantic pace, digesting all the information and spitting out conclusions one after another, mapping out a route through the clouds of hazardous mines.

Abruptly, she felt the small of her back chill, a shock running up her spine, and she turned around a hundred and eighty degrees to face whatever was coming up behind her.

If she hadn't turned around in time, she would have been stabbed in the back by a construct that vaguely resembled a dragon, with identifiable wings, claws and a reptilian jaw, though it was hardly bigger than a bear. Still, it was enough of a threat as it's jaws latched onto her sword and refused to let go, biting onto it as she drifted closer to and closer to the scattering of spheres that promised to turn her into ashes if she didn't try to cut her way through them.

Then her eyes widened as the dragon started glowing, it's brilliance reaching a fever pitch as she felt her skin tingling from the increase of mana radiating off the dragon's constructed body. Obeying her instincts, she jerked away as she fell towards the ground, reversing Secret-calibur on her left hip as she pointed it towards the dragon while letting go of the sword trapped in it's mouth, her sword propelling downwards and away from the dragon as it became and outline of white against the black night sky and the orbs that could be mistaken for a meteor shower from the ground.

*dON*

An expanding white sphere appeared where the dragon was a moment ago, a flash of heat and light hitting MHX in the face, and then it was gone, the energy rapidly shrinking and receding until only her sword was left, gravity taking over and sending the weapon flipping head over heels down until it reach its original owner below it. Grabbing her black sword from the air, she reversed her sword and shot upwards again, accelerating away from the other dragons that she had just noticed closing on her from behind as she streaked towards the spheres that now covered the skies like rain, except that they could kill her if they just so much as grazed her skin, and each sphere was the size of a bowling ball instead of a raindrop.

Sigurd didn't react to the failure of his dragon, but instead started producing more behind the extraordinarily large clouds of spheres that continuously multiplied from his hands, completely hiding him from MHX, though he could still sense MHX with the upgrades that his draconic form had given to his five sense, and well as a strong sixth sense he always had that had only gotten stronger after he embraced his draconic heritage. In addition, the mana he had access to now far exceeded before, allowing him to perform these feats as his lungs had turned into miniature worlds that produced mana like never before, each breath releasing enough mana to enchant a rank A Mystic Code as his presence alone was slowly saturating the atmosphere around him with ether, changing the environment itself just by existing. As a result, the bombardment of projectiles and semi-autonomous dragons took as little effort, and he was able to continue all day and night if he wanted to.

MHX noted the fact that there were now miniature mana dragons chasing after her ass and quickly dove into the cloud of orbs, to both hide from the dragons on her tail and also cut a path through it quickly so she could stop worrying about it. She soon found it wasn't as simple to cut through as she thought.

For one, the moment she got close to them, they instantly started homing on her presence, gathering around her body like iron filings to a magnet. She suspected Sigurd had probably done something with runes to make them capable of this, but she didn't have the luxury to ponder further. While they weren't exactly speedy, it was still a pain as they blocked anything in sight all around her, forcing her to cut through the continuously accumulating wall of spheres that if they exploded all at once if she did nothing about them, would easily take her out by enclosing her in a crowded space filled with volatile ether. As a result, the moment they started moving towards her, she sped up and burst through the front, weathering the small explosions as she rocketed straight through them, her skin stinging slightly even with how fast she cut past them. Behind her, a tail of explosive ether projectiles started forming, growing longer and larger the more she spent flying in the field of spheres.

To add to that, the dragons attacked at every conceivable opportunity, strafing her, performing suicide runs or throwing energy blasts of their own at her, harassing her and wearing her down. She had no way to hide with the multitude of orbs following her, and though she wanted to save her strength to face Sigurd and Brynhildr to strike them down in one blow, she realized she might have to act soon or she would just die here. Sweat beaded her brow as she considered her options, all the while weaving through what space was available for her to dodge through, cutting through the patches of empty space that quickly closed if she moved too slowly, all the while slashing at the dragons that attacked her or simply putting on a burst of speed against the kamikaze dragons targeting her.

Then as if that wasn't enough, beams of concentrated ether lanced down on her from above as she whirled past a dragon's claws trying to rake across her face. Behind Sigurd, blazing white runes spun in concentric circles as they spat out thick beams of energy, each one of them large enough to blow away half of MHX's entire body. Several more joined the first five, and then the air behind him was filled with runic arrays in a similar manner to Gate of Babylon, except it was ether rays instead of weapons, white instead of gold.

At this point, she could only rely purely on her instinct, sharpened and honed against Sabers until she received a special boost against enemies that could be classified as such. Her skin crawled, and the hairs on her head prickling every time she felt death shave past her, but it was what kept her alive as she received a heads up in advance every time something was aimed at her in the dense clouds of homing orbs that disrupted her vision and prevented her from staying still in one place. Between the orbs that were hot on her trail, the dragons swooping down on her from all sides and the beams suddenly appearing without warning, she was wondering how long she'd last.

Sinking further below a trio of beams cutting through the orbs above her, she adjusted her grip on the sword and twisted it, undocking it from the lock and swinging it in front of her as the spray of ether decimated the mines in front of her, eating up all the explosive orbs that were starting to drift towards her as she stayed in their proximity, before switching it off and letting herself fall downwards, the orbs following behind her overshooting as they flew past her blue jacket flapping in the wind.

A few screens came online as she checked the status of the systems running in her suit, appearing in the periphery of her vision as it automatically ran a diagnostics check to see whether the functions she needed to use were able to work as intended. It took less than a second to complete, and in that time she turned around to face the ground and the orbs surging up towards her, using her sword in small bursts to maneuver around them until she activated the force fields. When she felt the pressure beneath her soles, she pushed off with all her strength.

Her sudden descent away from Sigurd was unforeseen, and when he was trying to adjust for it, she suddenly rebounded upwards again, throwing off his aim as the beams and ether dragons hit empty air.

For her part, she was already redirecting her bounce as she pushed off again with the aid of the force fields under her boots, though they were low on power and could only last for less than twenty momentary platforms, serving as brief windows for her to adjust her course. She could also feel that she needed to conserve her strength with the ether jets from her sword, otherwise even with the Artorium reserves within her body supplying her with mana, she'd still run out soon. She needed to deliver the final blow, the feeling that she'd received from Avalon. It wasn't something that she could just do on a whim either, and the more gas in the tank she had left, the more likely it was that she could do it, or at least that was what she thought. As to how exactly she was going to do the move, she left that for when the time came.

Far below on the ground, the man continued to repel all the remaining fallout that fell near the ramen shop combined with his workshop. Though the attacks that rained down were many and mighty, he didn't even break a sweat against them, simply calling forth the right tool for the occasion every time as he swung the swords in his hand until they crumbled to dust. Drawing forth their maximum innate potential in one blow, testing his own steel to the limits. To Gray, it was unthinkable that a simple swing of a sword could produce such results, yet there he was, each muscle of his arm, the back, the hips and his legs straining to bring the naked blade in a rough swing that seemed to be done in hopes of breaking the sword, yet was simply him testing it. The air rippled when it sailed through the air, and by the time he was done, large swathes of projectiles were cut out from the sky, beams were deflected and meteors were erased.

The man himself was starting to slightly regret that he'd allowed them to start a fight so close to his house though. He had originally planned to spectate from the side and see their swordsmanship, but it had escalated quickly. It was getting annoying having to defend his workshop from being blown apart by the mere fallout of their attacks, and he could only hope that their fight finished quickly, since it wasn't in his policy to interfere with customers' business. If it took too long though, for the sake of his workshop and the two kids living in it, he would act.

MHX continued to strafe in the skies above as a storm raged all around her, all the while getting closer and closer to Sigurd. It might as well have been raining swords on her as she wove through the ever tighter gaps between the clusters of balls, with a now mile-long tail of orbs stretching behind her as they struggled to catch up to her and explode once close enough. Sigurd's eyebrows twitched as he realized that nothing was working, not the absurd number of homing seeker bombs, not the autonomous ether dragons, not the hundreds of circles behind him raining hellfire onto the dense cloud below him which concealed MHX. By all rights, she should be dead, yet she was somehow getting through everything with nary a scratch.

Well fine, looks like he would have to go as far he could to stop her.

With a thought, all the spheres in the field exploded at the same time. The same happened to the dragons, and then his runic arrays behind him all fired at once, creating a curtain of beams that seemed impenetrable as they cut through the explosions as they started to fade, razing the area which the orbs once inhabited and vaporizing anything left within the vicinity.

Then for a good measure, while the runic arrays exhausted themselves, he created a ball of swirling energy larger than the rest, tilting back his head as he summoned all the ether in his lungs, worlds of Magic that produced near-limitless energy. With a sharp jerk of his head, he sent all the mana he'd accumulated in the form of what the ancients called the deadliest weapon of the dragons, dragon breath. Flames that would scorch even entire planets of ice, quenching suns and devouring stars.

As soon as the runic arrays ceased firing, the air trembled, particles of oxygen glowing in anticipation of the coming flood, the entire area brightening as if the sun was once more in the sky.

From a single dot appearing in Sigurd's throat, it flowed until the entirety of his innards seemed to be glowing from his mouth, a glimmer that outshone the distant stars. Gray and the swordsmith could glimpse it through the fading haze that was all that remained of the orbs which once crowded the skies. MHX too, could feel static crawl across her skin as she lifted her eyes towards where she could sense Sigurd, and once she laid eyes on the white dot, her eyes widened. Before she or anybody else could act, the brightness became a sheer blistering point of blinding ether that was swelling until it felt like Sigurd would explode from the amount of energy he was harboring within his body. He held it back as searing pain consumed his body, not just from his throat and mouth, but on his chest as well, a burning that felt like his body was melting starting. When he felt he couldn't hold it in any longer, he relaxed his control over the dam that held back the power, allowing it to spill out.

Then an all-consuming flood of white completely covered everything, the entire sky blotted out in a spread of white that was like a giant bucket of white paint had spilled onto the sky. Except everything it touched disintegrated into nothing.

The man stared up at the sky, his jaw tightening.

"You've got to be kidding me."

It dyed the skies a white not unlike those of dwarf stars, a tinge of blue accompanying it as it swept through the air, wiping away the stars, nebulas, moons and the rest of the galaxy above the planet. There was no flaw in the carpet of blankness and night turned into day under it, a plain of devastation stretching from one end of the sky to the other, and reaching further beyond that. Even though Gray knew in her heart that it wasn't going to destroy the planet, it still felt like Sigurd's attack would raze the entire surface of the desert with the sheer scale of his attack, turning the sand into glass, the air boiled into plasma. The man was struck dumb too, staring upwards as destruction descended on the desert.

The first person to experience his dragon-breath up close and personal however, was MHX.

After getting blindsided by the orbs exploding instantaneously together, followed by the indiscriminate bombardment of the energy beams, she was in a bad shape, only weathering through the damage after diverting all her energy and mana into creating a shield that was thick enough to protect herself and prevent her death. The translucent blue barrier shimmered underneath the barrage, her reserves of mana dipping rapidly as blue ripples spread outwards from each point of impact until the force field turned opaque, but it held. Just when she felt the shield projectors start to shudder under the continued stress, the bombardment ceased, and she was able to deactivate the film of energy, the projector's whining in protest as they powered down, overtaxed and on the verge of failure. She wobbled, almost falling out of the sky as felt the force fields beneath her boots straining, her suit's battery already burned out and drawing on her body's innate Cosmo Reactor to continue functioning.

She sighed, staring up at the now visible Sigurd as the cloud of orbs had cleared, hoping that she would be able to muster the strength and willpower to muscle her way upwards. Then she saw what he was doing, and her eyes widened.

At that range, it couldn't even be called dragon's breath. It was more like multiple fusion bombs going off in her face, a heat so deadly that she wouldn't even feel it as her nerves would be destroyed before she received the first impulse of pain in her brain. But instead of getting turned to charred ash in an instant, the world slowed down to a crawl. She watched as the diffuse remains of the orbs drifted lazily until they came to a stop in the air, each and every one of the ether particles suspended in the air. The cone of energy that was rapidly expanding from Sigurd's mouth stopped midway, turning into a solid cone of brilliant energy that was barely larger than a traffic cone. She could feel in her bones, a heavy sensation falling onto her shoulders, her limbs and her head, like she had become encased in c*rbonite. Her vision refused to budge as her point of view became locked, permanently gazing at Sigurd and the ether spewing out of his mouth, but she was oddly unbothered by the constrictions on her body.

Instead, there was a scintillating sense of freedom, not in the body, but in spirit. Floating in the air, her body melted into the surrounding. Her mind didn't just focus on the dragon-human hybrid unleashing it's ultimate attack on her, but instead saw the galaxy in all it's glory behind him as well. Somewhere deep in her soul, a connection formed. She couldn't feel it, but she knew it was there. A sense of fulfillment, of becoming whole again, became known to her, and then the memory of the way she had found within that cup of Cosmo-noodles within the blank space after her supposed death came back to her, flooding into her mind and imprinting the ability into her being. In that moment, it was like the universe was embracing her, and she in turn was embracing the universe as well.

Before time began moving again, she could feel herself already acting, swords in both hands as she cast away all thought and emptied herself, a state of both emptiness and utter concentration, balancing nothingness in her mind with her entire body filled with the one purpose, every fiber of her being moving to perform a single strike. There was no need to think, her body and mind already knowing the necessary movements, performing it more naturally than breathing, reaching a result that she already knew in advance. At that intersection of infinite and zero, a wellspring of creation burst forth, countered by a whirlpool of destruction.

"Stars spiralling into void's maw, arms of the cosmic dust that harbors life, both past and present stretch towards the etherspace. Threading the cosmos of Sabers, cataphract denial!"

Or at least, that was what was running through her head. In reality, her actions were too swift for her mouth to form a single word, unless she suddenly became the fastest rapper that universe had ever known.

At that moment, her Spirit Graph registered her enemy as a Saber, despite his drastic change both in form and spirit, and the full potential of her Noble Phantasm revealed itself, the molecules of her body itself reacting and responding to the essence of a Saber. A chain reaction was kickstarted, her Cosmo Reactor connecting to the mysterious force outside the Universe, the rumored Star of Saber that aided Sabers in the most dire of hours, granting them strength in times of desperate need.

The two swords in her hands became shrouded in energy, far larger than their original size, and then bringing them up over head , she swung them downwards and unleashed a slash that would tear apart giant planets and snuff out the brightest of stars. This was her will, her drive, her purpose that pushed her onwards. A cut that reached the destiny of a Saber, and severed the threads of fate.

"Apocalypse Saber!"

The blacksmith thought he was tripping when he saw two lines cutting across the entire sky, and then the gaps expanded, obliterating the entire canvas of white that blanketed the sky and rendering into nothingness. It disappeared just as quickly as it appeared, a clear 'X' emblazoned in the air as it split into four sections and then vanished. At the center, where the two lines intersected, a cloud golden and sapphire dust and vapour hung in the air, a globe of ether remnants within surrounding the position that Sigurd had occupied a second ago.

Then he looked down, startled as the sand dropped back down, the sound of slithering paper echoing across the dunes as the sand for miles around all dropped back down a few inches or so, attracted by the brief singularity created at the moment of MHX's strike right at the center.

Gray stood frozen in place, once more in awe after having witnessed a sky bleaching attack, and a slash that ate the sky itself, in quick succession. There was nothing like it in the modern day, with little mana left to lend itself to such miracles, and with the Association and others preventing such visible incidents from occurring, it was all but impossible. To see a battle of mythical proportions right in front of her was a treat for her eyes, and a reminder as well of the power she had been given, traced from a hero of legend too.

In the air, MHX wheezed as she struggled to stand, her force fields flickering as they phased in and out of tangibility, dropping her bit by bit as they failed. Sparks flew off the exposed parts of her suit, the lights dimmed while some were out right melted, and she felt dead tired. Nevertheless, she had managed to pull it off, an imitation of the ultimate anti-Saber technique that she had fully performed in the white space. A grin wormed itself onto her face, though the muscles hurt as they strained to form the expression. Letting her arms hanging loosely at her sides, the swords slipped from her grasp and fell down, dispelling into ether as they did so.

Without warning, a deadly pressure suddenly slammed onto her whole body, locking her in place as she felt her head clear in an instant, her muscles trembling minutely as her breath slowed down and went steady from the instinctive need to return to alertness. Stiffly turning her head, she looked upwards at the source of the chilling gaze.

Hair hung in front of her face, her head bowed forwards as she floated still in the air, with no wind to stir the strands, a silky blue curtain that hid her eyes. It should have been impossible to tell where she was staring at, whether her eyes were even open at all, but MHX could feel it in her bones that right now, Brynhildr was definitely locked on her with blank, lifeless eyes. In the imaginary gaps between her pale hair, she could imagine the purple pupils devoid of the iris, a shadow cast over her face.

She was definitely a yandere, MHX decided.

She watched as Brynhildr took her time to lift the spear, raising it above her shoulder as it grew in size continuously in silence, the mass ominously expanding until its shadow covered the observers on the ground below, and it still continued. It grew past MHX, the shaft going past her as the tip went towards the ground, the haft stretching towards and the moons in the sky, a bridge to connect the planet and the other planetoids in the system.

Gulping, she realized her throat was already too dry to do so, her eyes arrested by the behemoth that seemed to go into the vastness of space and fill it in. She could only kneel in the air on her last few minutes remaining of the force field that supported her, mesmerized by the titanic rod, a divine weapon fueled from humane emotions, generated by a Valkyrie that had fallen in love with a half-human, half-dragon warrior.

"Looks like it's my turn."

Instead of being frozen in shock, the man on the ground stared up at the spear that was already stabbing into the desert, drilling down into the shifting sands and into the rocky crust of the planet. His eyes weren't filled with determination, resolution, fear or reluctance. If anything, there was a hint of resignation in them, but asides from that, they were clear, devoid of anything.

"My body may be worn and old, but the longer you temper your skills, the sharper they get. This may as well be my peak when compared to my younger self."

Though his body was that of a youthful man, he could still grasp the feeling of his original being, and that essence was transferred over into the new container.

"I've been forging for a long time, so long that I guess you could call it infinite. Still, none of my works have ever saved people without killing anyone. When you make a sword, it will be used to kill. That is its purpose, it's way of life. No matter who uses it, whether it's someone good or bad, it will be used to harm others. To protect others, to kill one's enemies, to steal the lives of others for personal gain."

The world around him shimmered, as if in a heat haze, then the desert faded away, to be replaced by a world of dark smog and red skies, dust, ash and smoke hiding the celestial bodies. The flat plains stretched into the distant horizon, with flames covering every single inch for as far as the eye could see. There was only one other thing in that world of his own, a land separated from the Common Sense of Mankind.

As one, all the swords collapsed and disintegrated into a swirl of orange sparks, metal dust and fire, the infinite world swirling into a single blade in his right hand. The concentrated efforts of all his years, the culmination of his experience, skill and ability, a magnum opus that would remain surpassed by any other, uprooting those before it, unrivalled by those after it.

"To fight against the fate of swords, I created a sword to purge the hate. A katana that cleaves through fate, destiny and karma. That can purge one's cause itself."

Hefting the katana into his hand, he held it out at it's full length.

"This wasn't the answer I was looking for, but it's damn close."

He placed both hands on the naked tang and raised it over his head in the ascension stance.

"There's no choice but to bet it all on this."

In his heart, he wished Onui and Tasuke a peaceful life.

"A nameless swordsmith unworthy to swing this sword will set your spirit free, Valkyrie of the everlasting flames. Here goes nothing, Tsumukari Muramasa!"

Gray watched even as his body crumbled away, turning to golden motes of ether while the blade traveled downwards, the almighty spear above shrinking rapidly as it's owner felt the consequences of that one slash.

Then it was her turn to disappear from the dream.