Rage of the Dragon King.

Irelia stared down at her possessed student, whose body was now inhabited by what remained of the spirit of the Dragon King, one of her most powerful rivals. Even if not at full power, the Demigoddess knew that she'd had to be careful, one wrong move and she would die.

Her enemy made the first move, creating several replicas of the Enduring Sword and shooting them at Irelia, who blocked all of them by creating a barrier with her Divine Swords before countering the hit with an expansive wave that destroyed the replicas. Not giving her enemy a second of respite, she dashed towards him and slashed him across the chest, giving him a kick in the face afterwards and launching him towards a rock.

Pinning him to it with several of her blades, Irelia performed a quick ritual that would allow her to put the spirit of the Dragon King to sleep once more and allow Ritsuka to come back, yet he saw this and quickly formed several replicas out of thin air to be launched straight at her, interrupting the ritual.

"So you can create more of those, even without having the sword in your hands. You couldn't do that in our previous fight" - she said, but received no answer.

She wasn't talking to Talon, the mighty and haughty Dragon King of the South Seas. She was talking with a spiritual representation of his power, a powerful yet corrupting force.

He freed himself from her trap and tried to launch a hit against her, followed up with 10 replicas surrounding Irelia and preventing her escape, yet she was able to react quickly and block it with her blades, dodging the strike and stabbing him in the stomach.

Irelia thought she had the upper hand in the fight, as her enemy, while having some new tricks, wasn't anything she hadn't fought before. This changed, however, when several replicas appeared surrounding her.

She prepared herself to block them, thinking they were merely more projectiles, yet was shocked when she saw that from the replicas, copies of her student's possessed body appeared, wielding the phantasmal versions of the Enduring Blade, and ready to strike.

This had surpassed her expectations, and if she wished to win, she would have to fight with killing intent.

Two of the copies launched themselves at her, while a third tried a sneak attack and the rest, alongside with the original, prepared several projectiles. She reacted quickly, dashing into one of the copies and destroying it with a slash of every single one of her swords before dodging several of the projectiles, and blocking the rest by using one of the copies as a shield to protect her.

"Even like this your tricks still manage to surprise me. Fine then, allow me to show you what I've done with the power I took from you!" -

The silhouette of a golden dragon appeared behind Irelia, and imbued her with a combination of her amplified divine powers, alongside the ones taken from the Dragon King himself, to fight against the remnants of his soul and power inside the Enduring Blade.

Creating replicas of her own swords, Irelia trapped the copies and the original body in what seemed to be a prison created out of her own powers, leaving them no chance to escape and barely any to fight back. Then, she threw all of her blades against the copies, piercing all of them at vital points and making them disappear almost instantly.

"Maybe if you had your full power, it would've been a close fight, but now? Even with your new tricks, you're nothing I can't handle" - she said in an indifferent tone before launching herself at blazing speeds and holding him by the neck - "Now, return to your slumber, and return my students to me" -

What happened after, however, surprised Irelia. The place turned darker and the eyes of the possessed Ritsuka changed to a deep golden she recognized well. And then he spoke.

"You tried to hide the new user of the Enduring Sword from me, Irelia. I hope you didn't forget that I have a connection to the weapon. Not even your barriers could get past that" - the voice of Morgana, Talon's trusted ally, came out of the boy's mouth.

"You…" - Irelia said, her voice filled with rage.

"The allure of the Enduring Sword is too much for someone like him, and he soon will find himself like Talon was before. You cannot change that" -

"He will be different. By my oath to the Gods, he will not fall to the corruption of the Enduring Sword. Mark my words, wretched sorceress" -

"We'll see about that, Demigoddess" -

With that, the barrier around the two disappeared, and Ritsuka returned to normal, holding his head.

"Agh… What… Happened…" - he said to himself before falling to the ground in pain from the wounds that his body suffered when possessed.

"You need to rest, I'll explain everything later" - using a bit of her magic, she helped ease Ritsuka's pain as people from the village came to his aid, carrying him into one of the houses so he could get treatment for his injuries, all the while being watched from afar by Irelia.

The day was rather tense after that, as she could not forget the words that Morgana said to her. She wanted to believe that it wasn't true, that Ritsuka wouldn't become like Talon, yet today's events were hard to ignore. The spirit inside the Enduring Sword was powerful, and so was the weapon's ability to influence others.

At midnight, she sat down in the fields close to the village, looking at the night sky while thinking about that day, until a familiar voice interrupted her, an old friend from the kingdom of the Gods.

"After father told me about what happened today, I needed to come see this by myself" - the voice, a woman, spoke from behind Irelia - "Mind if I sit next to you?" -

"Not at all" - she welcomed the girl to her side.

The newly arrived woman had beautiful white hair, coupled with golden eyes. She dressed in an outfit that reminded of royalty, and she carried a staff that emitted a mighty divine light. She is Lux, the new Lunar Empress.

"I heard the news. Is it true that Morgana…" -

"Returned? She talked through my possessed student but I want to believe she's still trapped" -

"If she's coming for the new user of the Enduring Sword, then we must prepare at once. After the damage she did, we can't afford to allow her even a moment" -

"I know, and…" -

"And you should know, Irelia, that if it were needed, the other Gods are more than willing to sentence your new pupil to death" -