Ilia

They were on the outskirts of town, just as the sun was halfway swallowed by the western horizon and the heat of day mixed with the chill of the night when Mia and Ilia sensed an oppressive presence. Both have encountered the First Children before (well, in Mia's case, a suspected First Child), yet the presence doesn't have that same feeling. it's somewhat less in intensity, but more murderous. When she narrows that down, Ilia's head lifts towards the sky as the presence is internally confirmed as the same one she felt in the northernmost point of her homeland.

A grey dragon comes into view from the south, its cries bellowing across the desert. Ilia clenches her teeth, her right hand subconsciously reaching for the hilt of her new sword as the dragon becomes clearer in her sight. "That's Kirimai... It's Lady Eydis!"

"Finally!" Mia's enthusiasm to avenge her master has no place in the safety of the two girls. There's no way one of them, even with Divine Objects, can fight a master like Eydis, and the two of them combined lack the necessary power to be a threat with numbers to their advantage. Medina and Jaymes, with their skills and abilities, were defeated by her, granted by interference in the latter duel. Plus...they're already caused enough trouble with Lady Medina, no reason to further it.

"Mia, we need to run to town!"

Mia looks flabbergasted. "What? We can take her! Remember what Medina said, that we can fight here with we're together!"

"She... She did, but think about it! Eydis beat your emperor, what chance do you have? Think logically for one!"

"Fine. If you want to run, then run." Mia shrugs off Ilia's hand and steps in the direction of the approaching dragon, slowly beginning its descent. "Today, I fought a giant that could kill me like I'm an ant. For six months, I trained with the strongest man I know, learning all his secrets to be on par with an Integrity Knight. My sister bartered her life to assassinate the first emperor. I know I might lose and die...but I wasn't raised nor trained to run from danger, but to run towards it."

Ilia shakes her head. "That's idiotic! Insane! Bartered with her life? No, Mia, you don't understand, she was willing to die for what she believed in. What you're doing is nothing like that! You're seeking revenge."

"And I believe in it wholeheartedly. So run if you're going to run, Ilia." Mia draws her steel sword as Kirimai lands between them and the desert town, dropping off the loner rider before returning to the skies. Eydis silently watches her dragon departs, then brushes her snow-white hair aside and faces the younger swordswomen. She stares at them, absent of emotion, absent of words like they're not really worth her time.

Ilia agrees...yet Mia is determined to fight the knight. Medina gave them two orders, for Ilia to avoid using her status and for the two of them to stick together at all times. To abandon Mia now, even if getting to safety is the logical choice, contradicts her infallible loyalty to Medina. She values the latter more than anything in her life. "Okay, but first..." She raises her arm, firing a fiery arrow in the air that eventually explodes, then fully draws her new blade and joins Mia in her approach toward Eydis.

Eydis still silently regards the girls, so much as not even drawing the Dark Slash Sword. Ilia doesn't fear the blade, though, but the power Eydis wields. Basic art lessons teach that the Umbra arts are the most difficult to control. Not even Ilia, studious as she is, has had many successes with the dark element. For one, its feeds off its surroundings in its hunger for sacred power. People, animals, plants. Once it comes into contact with something possessing sacred power, there's a reaction. With people and animals, it will drain their blood if exposed to a wound.

Considering the Dark Slash Sword is, in a way, the Umbra art in physical form, Eydis could kill them with a single seemingly non-fatal cut. She could kill them without the sword by combining the element with another, like the wind element, and create a dark whirlwind. She could probably kill them with those crimson eyes of hers. Or worse, she can avoid their body altogether and attack them the same way she did Jaymes-drowning their soul in darkness.

Incarnation, experience, power, all side with the fearsome tenth knight. All Mia and Ilia have are numbers and, in Ilia's case, hope that Medina saw the flare.

"You're going to pay for what you did to my emperor, Eydis!"

For now, she swallows her fears and prepares to fight. "Mia, calm down. We have to take her together."

"I'm taking her now!"

"Mia, no!" Mia bounces off the ground and falls down toward Eydis with a jumping slash. Unfazed, Eydis slightly-so very slightly-moves the left side of her body back, slightly avoiding Mia's blade. To add insult to injury, Eydis doesn't look her way that entire time, her gaze is still set in Ilia's direction. When Eydis does blink and looks down on Mia, it comes with a backhand so strong Ilia feels the force ripple through the air. Ilia helplessly watches as Mia is cast aside like an unwanted doll by an unthankful child, her body landing and rolling across the sands in a sickly manner. She has no time to consider whether Mia is alive or not as Eydis returns her attention to Ilia. She can only hold her shaking sword up as they begin to circle each other.

"As you can see, Ilia, my power is far beyond yours. I have no mind of killing you, but I won't hesitate to do so." Just to prove that point, Eydis calls forth five orbs made of the dark element and shoots them at Ilia. Ilia counters with the same attack made of the light element, though Eydis' superiority is proven with the speed in which she conjured: Eydis didn't say a word while Ilia had to spit the spell words quickly and barely repelled the attack.

Still, she stands tall. Against all the logic born in her as an Ordonia, maybe she adopted some of the Orthinanos pride after all. She brushes her short, dark gold locks out her face and takes a deep breath. "You may be right...but I'll try my best."

Eydis narrows her eyes, possibly picking up on said pride of her friend and Ilia's senior, and draws the black sword. Ilia gulps as Eydis takes two steps towards her, but that adopted pride in her wills her legs to move faster and her arms to make the opening move. That first swing leaves Ilia with no confidence, but when she hears the collision between blades, not hers moving through Eydis', she doesn't hesitate in making the next move. Either Eydis is holding back or simply giving Ilia a fighting chance of one percent instead of zero, but she doesn't squander it.

She doesn't need to win. She needs to hold out.

Holding out seems far-fetched as Ilia, put on the defensive and dropped to a knee, goes for a leg sweep that Eydis effortlessly leaps over. She retreats in the meantime while the Knight of the Abyss twirls her blade and stalks Ilia like a wolf to a wounded, dying rabbit. "Ilia Synthesis Thirty-Four, you're disappointing me. Medina sang your praises all the time." Eydis snaps her fingers, and Ilia narrowly avoids being beheaded by a clone of Eydis. The real one steps forward with a thrust aimed at Ilia's heart. Ilia deflects it at the last possible second and struggles to hold her cry as the Dark Slash Sword rips through her left shoulder. This, however, seems to amuse Eydis. "Then again, it's Medina we're talking about."

A spark of rage fills Ilia, hearing someone who Medina considers a dear friend insult her mistress. She displays that feeling with her movements, ignoring the pain shooting in her shoulder as she swings her sword up and spins, kicking Eydis in her nose. She furiously barrages Eydis with quick strikes reminiscent of the Orthinanos style of swordplay, making Eydis step back and defend. "How dare you insult Lady Medina! After all that she's done... After all that she's done for you, how dare you!"

"And what has Medina done for me?"

"She gave up everything! Her dream to be an Integrity Knight, her love for Jaymes, her happiness... I hate seeing that sad face of hers because of what she gave up just so you could be happy! And you betrayed her!" Ilia puts all her might into an overhead vertical swing-and misses. No, her sword went through Eydis' like a hot knife through butter. Her rage regresses and morphs into fear again as the Dark Slash Sword cuts her right leg, then is removed from her sight to cut her back, only for another force to intervene. It flies over Ilia's back, crashing into Eydis' chest, through the best it does is creates a few feet of distance between the traitorous knight and Medina's junior.

Still, it's better than knowing Mia died from a smack. Ilia manages to land on her unaffected leg and looks over her shoulder, the archer kneeling down with her green bow in hand. Ilia regards her with a nod. "Thank you." Mia gives Ilia a welcoming glance, then looks at the knight in black light armor. Ilia does the same as Eydis dusts herself off. Not even a direct hit to the chest did any physical damage.

"So you stand back up? Brave of you, girl. Brave...and foolish."

Mia shrugs. "What can I say? It runs in the family and in my tutelage." Mia fires several arrows in rapid succession, which Eydis deflects with ease. Her shoulder and leg burning in pain, Ilia can only watch as Eydis marches past her towards Mia. The darkworlder trades her bow for her sword and relaunches herself at Eydis, this time landing her blade on steel. While Ilia relied on quick, shallow strokes, Mia's swings are more methodical, slower but stronger. Ilia knows this to be how Jaymes fights, more defensive even when on the offense.

And then it happens. Mia leaps back and holds her sword along the horizontal axis of her shoulders and arms, initiating a sword art-one she thinks the Aincrad-Style wielders call Vorpal Blade-and is launched forward into a thrust. Eydis once again sidesteps and, as Mia passes through, swings her sword on the girl's waist to slice her in half.

Then Mia disappears, just to reappear right behind Eydis, and pops her back with an explosive Thermal blast that knocks Eydis into the air.

Mia somehow completely avoided the attack, moved behind Eydis, and caught the Knight of the Abyss off guard? She had this ability all this time and hadn't used it once since Ilia's known her? Whatever it was, Mia praises herself with a winning grin. "Didn't see that coming, huh? You won't strike me as you did in the Forbidden Valley."

Eydis landed on her knees, but she was shaken by the sudden events. She doesn't show any surprise, though, as she stands up and approaches Mia again. "You're training under him, so a dirty trick like that is not unfathomable."

"Says you!" Mia aggressively charges Eydis, and Eydis, in Ilia's mind, allows it. If Mia notices it, she's not swayed to lessen her ferocity. Eydis does try to counter by stomping on the ground, projecting a sharp, dark spike from the footprint towards Mia's midsection. Instead of being impaled, Mia vanishes again, appearing in the air, bow in hand. She fires down on Eydis, holding her in place until she's back on the ground. She continues to shoot despite the deflections, though the power of the arrows increases.

However, Eydis is unfazed entirely. "I sense fear in you, little girl. No different from your master. You fear being alone, you fear being a failure, but your greatest fear is disappointing him."

Mia growls and slams her sword on Eydis' "I'm not scared!"

"So you are foolish then. Like your sister." Mia's eyes widen and her stance relaxes, creating an opening that Eydis exploits with a strong kick to her gut. Mia gasps as she recoils back and drops to her knee, having all air expelled from her lungs. Worried, Ilia puts more power into her healing spell while Mia tries to recover herself. Eydis cocks her head and holds her left hand up. "So you still have some fight in you? Just like Lipia...how ugly and disgusting Lipia was."

"You're wrong," Ilia finds herself shouting on instinct. "You... You would never say that! Lady Eydis would never say that about another woman."

"Hm?"

Words just erupt from Ilia's mouth, words buried deep within her mind that has nothing blocking them. "No matter if they were friend or foe, stranger or familiar... Even someone like me, who didn't care much for anything but the sword, from the moment she first laid eyes on me, you called me cute. You did that to Ronie, Tiese, and everyone you met. The Lady Eydis I know wouldn't hurt those people she called cute, she'd protect them. Or maybe I'm wrong, but if there's something I know I'm right about... She wouldn't do anything to harm Rulid Village of all places. She wouldn't endanger Lady Alice's home. She wouldn't endanger the birthplace of her 'Cutie.'"

"Cu...tie?" Eydis pauses, and for a moment, Ilia believes she sees a flicker of the Eydis she knows. That moment is not what Ilia was trying to create, but she takes advantage of it by grabbing her sword.

"Enhance Armament!" Ilia swings her blade in Eydis' direction, sending blue rock creeping along the ground around Eydis, trapping her within. Eydis grunts as she struggles, just for the darkening environment to be enveloped in purple light.

"Enhance Armament! Resonance!" The result is an explosion that scatters wind, sand, and both girls away from the impact. Ilia lands on her side pretty hard and lost grip of her sword mid-flight. She spits sand out her mouth and covers her face as the force of the explosion continues for a few more seconds. Once it's over, she shakes her head, grimacing at the pain shooting up her right side and the ringing in her ears. Debris still blankets the air, but she doesn't care about that. What she does care about is the location of her partner. "M-Mia!" No response is heard, so as much as she can concentrate, Ilia collapses the veil with a burst of wind.

Her eyes widen almost immediately. "Mia!" Ahead, Mia stands up...and so does Eydis, safe and sound, her sword in Mia's gut. Did the combined attack not do anything? How did she not suffer one bruise, or even escape? The answer comes when Ilia's sight focuses on the dark mist in the air around Mia and Eydis. The dark element...it swallowed the sacred power Mia and Ilia put in their attacks, effectively acting as a shield for Eydis. Ilia did not see it before or when Mia fired the arrow, yet she had her eyes entirely on Eydis.

She thought it was just a prediction by Jaymes and Medina. She believed them, of course, especially after both were beaten by the knight before her, but now she understands her elders' worry. They should've run to town for their lives.

"As I said, foolish as your sister." She rips her sword out of Mia, letting the girl drop on the sand. Seeing her friend go limp, Ilia feels her legs turn to jelly as Eydis faces her. That adopted Orthinanos pride and the ingrained Ordonia logic evaporates, leaving behind a teenage girl who only sees her death at the hands of a crimson-eyed devil. Tears roll down her face, but her tongue is silent, her body frozen in place. Her will to run is sapped, her will to fight depleted.

So this is what it is like to have death look you in the face.

She only has one thought, and that's failure. How she most likely was a failure of a daughter and sister, passively caring about her parents and her brother and sister. She failed her abilities as a knight by not participating in the Anti-Cedar Task Force and by staying in the background during the Otherworlder War and Rebellion of the Four Kingdoms. She thinks of how much of a failure she is a friend to the girls in her class, Ronie and Tiese. How she failed to help them when the pages of Raios Antinous and Humbert Zizek like they did, how she failed when those same guys took advantage of them, how she failed when Kirito and Eugeo were taken away and she did not comfort them. The same failure of a friend to Mia, who, despite their different upbringings on opposing sides of the End Mountains, has been nothing but kind to the imperial girl since they first met. But most of all, she failed her disciple, her lady, her inspiration, Medina Orthinanos.

The first person to give Ilia a chance to show who she really is. The first person to push Ilia to become greater. The first person to make Ilia feel human. The first person Ilia can say she loved. That's who her heart yearns for as Eydis marches to Ilia. She closes her eyes and bows her head, too scared to stare at the demon, and awaits her demise.

"I have a new goal now, one that allows me to be Medina Orthinanos, and I'll be happy seeing you take your place in the Order and accomplish your own goal. Then it'll be me calling you Lady Ilia, huh?"

Ilia shakes her head. "No, I could never let you call me that."

"Fine… Then how about you drop my title and just call me by my name, huh?"

"I… I don't know. I respect you too much to do that like you're my older sister. More than my sister, in fact."

"Sister, huh… Well, as your 'elder sister,' don't slouch at this point in your life. Because of your deeds during the war and rebellion, plus a little word of mouth by your senior, you are a trainee knight. If anything, these Ancient Apostles are a fine trial to get you closer to that end. Someday soon, you'll no longer be Ilia Ordonia, but Ilia Synthesis Thirty-Four."

"B...Big Sister..."

"Ilia..." Ilia opens her eyes, her name on a stern tongue unthawing her body. Slowly she looks up, starting from long, slender legs covered by thigh-high black boots with a crimson, gold, and white pattern to a red skirt and same-colored half-cape flapping in the wind. Crimson armor with white and gold patterns compose the trunk and crimson gloves hold a sleek red and white katana.

"M-M-Medina..."

Blue eyes part from short, red hair, glancing down at the mess of a girl behind her. "Sorry that I'm late. But I applaud you for holding your own until I arrived. Now get Mia and get out of here. Head to town and await my arrival."

"But..."

"And when I get back, the both of you better have a feasible explanation, or you're going to hate the work I'll ask Sir Deusolbert to impart on you." Despite her harsh words, Medina's eyes are warm, so warm that Ilia feels herself able to move again. She sees Mia, still breathing, the Loveblight Bow, and her sword next to her. That's right, she has to get away from here. Only then can Medina fight at her best.

Ilia nods, gathers Mia on her back, sheathes her sword, and grabs Mia's bow. She turns towards the distant town, then looks over her shoulder to the calm-faced Medina. No, Ilia's great aptitude for reading people tells her Medina's furious, just holding it in until Mia and Ilia are away. As for Eydis, that same fury is met in her crimson glare.

"Medina... Good luck."

"Aye." Ilia sprints away as fast as she can, using the wind element to enhance her speed. Behind her, the duel of two friends, united and rivaled by one otherworldly boy, are going to fight it out. Ilia doesn't sense anyone except them in the vicinity, meaning not even a First Child will interfere in this fight.

If Stacia, Solus, Lunaria, and Terraria are watching... Let Medina win this time.