Chapter -70: Discordant Light
Mother Divine remained stationary at the gates of the temple, raising her tome as it lit up with golden rays of light.
Sarajin wasn't given a chance to think over his first move before his opponent made the choice for him, firing off an array of light rays across the grounds, a sampler of the sheer speed her projectiles could employ.
Sarajin widened his eyes and tried to back off but the rays singed the tops of his feet and burned through parts of his pants before he had even drawn his sword.
The saint then brushed her other hand around like a painter stroking ink, gathering light into a spearhead shape that she fired straight at Sarajin's chest.
Sarajin cut it down and it felt like glass against his blade, and in turn, it splashed upon him in the form of many warm shards.
He then kept on the move while Mother Divine flipped through the pages of her tome with a rising smirk.
Sarajin had to get in close then and now but the moment he began to sprint he felt hesitant to commit and pulled back, instead sending a wave of fire her way.
With just a wave of her hand the fires dispersed and she landed upon the pages she desired. That very same hand then lifted up and collapsed light from the temple into her palm in the form of multiple fuzzy orbs.
She flicked them out and they started zipping around, weaving an impassable wall between her and him.
Sarajin pointed his sword downward in both hands and then pulled away, feeling the hairs on his arms rise as the orbs were drawing in closer.
He suddenly felt himself pressing his back up against a solid object and turned around to see a wall of light had been erected beneath his notice.
He then quickly hopped to the right and performed a weightless slice on the closest orbs, which seemed to be enough.
But then a few other orbs zipped to his side and clung to his poncho, growing and glowing until they were pitch white, upon which they burst one at a time.
Sarajin took the attacks with a little dizziness felt afterwards and his vision blurred. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to rely on his other senses for a while.
There he picked up that light made a sound from the act of burning their way through the air and used it to pick off the remaining orbs.
Then the saint brought down a larger ray of light to sweep straight at him. Sarajin could only rely on the sharpness of his hearing to react in time.
A millisecond later and his body would be scathed straight up. His blade could hold back and in time deflect the light into one of the pillars.
But then the saint sent out a second one, and the combined impact hit Sarajin at the right spot to cause his sword to fly up out of his hands.
Sarajin forced his eyes open and leaped into the air to try and get it back.
With a gentle whisk of her wrist, Mother Divine summoned a chain with a serpent's head to bite down on the sword and drag it over to her side.
She then snatched it in her hand and stabbed it into the ground with ease behind her hip.
Her lips curled wide and the intensity from her tome caused her expression to be shadowed in an eerie tint.
Sarajin bit his lower lip and then repelled away with a burst of wind from his hand, narrowly avoiding a cascade of white light falling from the sky.
He then landed against a nearby statue and pressed his knees until the light passed, launching himself forward in a barreling spiral.
Mother Divine fired off a quick ray of light but in a moment of even quicker thinking Sarajin coated his poncho in reflective glass to send it back down in front of her toes.
Mother Divine then waved her free hand in an arc to craft five golden swords from thin air, and launched them all to pursue him.
They homed in so even if one missed the others had a better chance of hitting their mark. Sarajin fired off two wind blasts in rapid succession to push him to the ground quickly before they'd be able to change their trajectory.
He then rolled onto his feet and eyed the saint, wondering to himself in the free moment he got, "She's really trying to punish me! That's crazy...!"
While he had his sights set on his sword he thrust his hand out and concentrated on it as hard as he could with his eyes closed.
When the sword didn't budge he pushed his eyes open and gasped, "No good. I still haven't figured out how to recall my weapon like Aurians can..."
Mother Divine wasted no time in spreading her hands to grace the heavens above, and command them to open wide, expelling a cascade of light to sweep across the entire temple grounds.
The ground trembled, and Sarajin had no choice but to get closer to his opponent, unarmed, if he wanted to survive.
"Have to act fast!" Sarajin raised his body and thrust his hands out repeatedly to randomly toss wind blasts at Mother Divine.
She had no qualms standing there and letting them be, as all they did was raise dust off the ground.
But that was what he wanted, because as far as he knew her being an adept of the Light meant she was blind to the sensation of all other elements.
Sarajin grit his teeth and formed a sword of pure fire to hold in both hands, tearing it through the air with his sights aimed at one target, "Focus the tome! Don't miss your mark!"
He swung into the dust and as the flames roared in intensity...his body stiffened, forced to a stop.
Mother Divine had pinched the blade between her fingers, having barely budged an inch to try. She then stared through him, the flames glow flickering in her hollow pupils as she smirked.
"Is this the flame of your soul?" She snickered, "Such a dull, tepid light..."
A tiny squeeze and the flames broke down, causing Sarajin to stumble past her with a puzzled, hanged expression.
She then whipped her right foot up into his gut and carried him forward, launching him through the air.
Then she immediately prepared to cast a bombardment of light rays to strike him down.
Sarajin had enough sense of self left to flick his wrist out, using a vine summoned from it to grab hold of his katana and pull it back into his hand.
He then quickly slashed the rays to send them crashing around the temple grounds, the combined force causing him to fall hard on his back with a bounce.
Only to be hammered back down by a cascade of light.
It wasn't so much physical force as it was being assaulted with pure heat, leaving no burn marks on the skin but pressuring him to the point it was heating his body up.
When the light subsided Sarajin quickly put a cool breeze over his body as he stood, his knees feeling like liquid.
The saint put her tome down by her hip and Sarajin took a moment to catch his breath and observe her.
There was nothing to suggest she was exerting much effort, whether she was that strong or the tome was doing all the heavy lifting was unconfirmed at the moment.
But the fact she held off his makeshift blade with the easy of squishing a bug didn't inspire much confidence...
"This is like Ophelia all over again, the gap between us feels unreachable...!" Sarajin hastily bit his teeth and began whipping around the temple grounds, narrowly avoiding or attacking the rays of light fired his way.
"No! Don't think like that! Then all these years of training mean nothing!" Sarajin attempted to flip the script in his head, thinking about what was different between the two encounters that he could exploit to his advantage.
He stopped in place, twirling his blade like a pinwheel to divert a flurry of curved rays into the sky. All the while concentration on Mother Divine and seeing how she treats her power.
"She's barely putting any effort into her movements. Her body is as light as the element at her command..." His eyes widened with thoughts of realization and he turned aside, briefly throwing his poncho up to mask the change in expression.
He then began to sheath his sword and charge forward, turning the poncho into reflective glass as another bombardment of rays rained down.
Then he ended off midway towards the saint by slashing forward, sending a wave of pressurized air her way, followed by a downward slash that added more force to his attack.
She slid out of the way and then waved her arm back in an arc, guiding the wind along a path of solid light until it was flung back out his way.
Sarajin widened his eyes and braced himself on the ground, swinging his sword the moment the wind got in close, and then capturing it on the blade.
In that same motion he swung his sword up until the wind collapsed into a typhoon, which he sent out towards her with all his might.
The golden instrument at her back levitated to her like a shield, spinning in the opposite direction of the gale to nullify it.
She then raised her palm to the back of the shield and infused it with light, most of it gathering and both hardening and sharpening the spikes in a bright, ivory veil.
The shield then rose into the sky and slowly spun around, firing off one spike at a time to home in on Sarajin and zip towards him.
They seemed manageable until Sarajin tried to attack, upon which they moved just faster enough to pierce through his defenses and burn across his clothes and skin.
He seethed a hiss of pain and then tried to attack faster, but while he had confidence in his speed on any other occasion...The Light was simply too much to handle, and it wasn't even close.
This finally shone in the evidence Sarajin was looking for to confirm his theory, "She's not using all of her power with each attack."
Ophelia was different. When she came at him she was using every ounce of strength she could muster. She didn't need to. There was no way a child like him would've ever landed a hit on her.
But now he is grown up. Now...he understood.
She fought with everything she had out of respect, even if it was to crush him and his dreams to dust...
For a moment Sarajin felt lighter with sadness but drew his head up, continuing and failing to fend off Mother Divine's attacks.
And he saw this battle for what it was.
There was no respect to be found. The saint saw this as an opportune time to toy with him, and was drawing this punishment out to appease her own ends.
So it was true what she said...She had no reason to make a promise but she had zero reason to assume he'd succeed.
"And that's where you're wrong..." But despair didn't reach him at this juncture. He had more than himself to think about. There were others who were counting on him to inspire hope through triumph and strength.
"When I took up this blade I knew that every time I fought I would always be at risk of hurting someone. So I used that fear to teach myself restraint, so my blade would always be used more as a shield than a weapon of violence!"
He stood his ground and with a more solid foundation in his body and soul he was able to leverage his strength against the oncoming attacks and for a brief moment, push them away.
Mother Divine's gaze twitched, her usual confidence showing a crack, and she proceeded to recall the shield to her back while calling upon her tome.
Sarajin raised his blade to the sky and then slashed down, this time calling upon the might of thunder to bring lightning down from the pearl skies above.
Mother Divine hastily threw her shield out to capture the lightning and then summoned a series of serpent-headed constructs of light to weave around it and dive at him.
Sarajin then thrust his hand out and the electricity expunged from the shield, striking her with the radial effect and pushing the constructs out of alignment.
This gave him ample time to leap out of the way and start slashing wind blades rapidly at the saint, who continued to rely upon her shield to save her.
She was too comfortable in the fact she was "untouchable", and it brought to mind something he discussed with Cecilia a few months back.
"Can you trick a stronger opponent into fighting in a weaker state?" She looked at him with a very puzzled expression.
"Yeah." Sarajin nodded.
"I can't believe you came to me first." Cecilia said, pulling herself away from the wall in the Oreore ravine, only to find her bloomers being tugged at by her son.
She looked down at him with a softening expression and then sighed, making a quick gesture of the thumb towards the east, "Your father's over there with grandma."
The boy lit up and ran his tiny little legs through the hectic ravine while dragging a tiny hammer behind his legs.
"Hey! Where did you get that!" She shouted with a firm, disciplinary voice, but it was too late.
She let off a "Tsk" but then was still smiling afterwards. Sarajin chuckled and partook in a little teasing, "You're enjoying this."
She firmed her arms up under her chest and gave him a death glare, "You know, I was starting to tolerate you."
"Oh fine," Sarajin sighed and then got back on topic, "Yeah I tried asking Auris but the problem is..."
"She's never had to worry about that?" Cecilia deduced.
"Yeah." Sarajin was ashamed to admit, and Cecilia in turn felt a little humiliated by this conversation now.
Sarajin kindly gestured his hand out and asked, "You've fought Vermilion before. How did you survive her?"
"Survive? I suppose I was just lucky that she never decided to go all-out against me."
"That's it?" Sarajin looked on with disappointment while Cecilia pulled away and began pacing to his right.
"But if you ask me, that's her weakness...AND yours."
"H-Huh?" Sarajin blabbered.
"Don't play coy," She gazed past the side of her face with an insulted expression, "You're always holding back because of your insane idealism."
She then raised a brow and remarked, "Though...maybe that could be the trump card you're looking for."
"You know how strong our enemies are. They don't know how strong you are. If you take advantage of that..."
Sarajin lit up with inspiration, "Then I can hit them hard enough to weaken them!"
"And then they won't be as much of a threat if they decide to use their full strength afterwards," Cecilia then noted, "But it's a risky gambit. And it's something you'll only be able to manage once per enemy you fight."
"Right, cause then they'll be prepared to take me seriously next time."
"I'm really out here enabling your crazy behavior..." Cecilia closed her eyes and let out a deep, tired sigh, "It'd be a more efficient technique if you struck with the intent to kill."
"I won't do that. No matter who I'm facing..."
This line from his memory synced with his present mindset, rushing with adrenaline as he survived the barrage of endless light attacks from the saint, "I'm going to keep being myself! And that will be the person who will prove themselves to you, Mother Divine!"
He dove straight for the center of the battlefield, barreling past a few rays of light before gaining his footing and curving towards his opponent.
Paying close attention to the way she drew her hand out helped him quicken his reaction time against her magic even faster.
She was cycling through the same pages with little variation and by now Sarajin was adapting to her tricks.
Thus, she finally decided to shift things up a little, her expression a tiny bit less haughty.
"Hmph...!" She rustled her smirk and then turned to the center of the tome.
Sarajin jumped forward at the opportunity and attempted to strike with his blade faster than she could blink.
She managed to draw her shield out but flashed a look of a surprise. She then summoned radiance from the shield and followed it off the ground as it circled around her.
She then suspended in place with a thrust of her hand and the shield flashed out a glistening halo.
Three glowing discs flew out at triangular points from beneath her feet and attacked him from all sides.
Sarajin stood and stabbed his sword down to summon a barrier of steel spires to hold them back. Upon rebound, the discs fused into one large disc over his head and dispersed a cascade of light upon him.
Sarajin backed away with the full intent to move immediately upon landing, and the saint was ready for what came next.
She floated back down with her posture reminiscent of an angel descending from up high. Her shield, armed with holy light, flew across the ground, spikes armed with deadly intent.
Sarajin jumped ahead without a care and saw that the shield would chase him, matching his pace.
He grit his teeth and slashed down with all his strength, bouncing off the shield and propelling himself faster towards the saint.
Her eyes continued to widen and she snapped her fingers, forcing the shield back in front of her to catch his blade.
Sarajin dug his feet into the ground and with his blade snatched in the weaving of gold he ignited it on fire and pulled it down with pure grit.
He was hunched, prepared to not lose his balance should she back down.
But her confidence held up stronger than any wall, forcing Sarajin to enforce his blade with hotter fire, amplifying the coldness in her gaze and the determination in his.
"I've never tested my blade against gold before...But if it's like any other metal..." His eyes flared up and he bit his teeth in a scowl, "I CAN melt through it!"
Progress felt gradual at first, and the saint was readying more light magic, playfully swiping her hand back and forth to strike his sides with rays of light.
His hips became inflamed and he wanted to just stop. But he couldn't, he kept pressing forward, never back, and started to cut an inch of the way into the gold, then a few inches, and more and more until neither he nor Mother Divine could avoid the fact that he was GOING to cut through.
"How...?" She uttered in surprise.
"This is the moment...!" Sarajin pushed on the pressure as though he had the intent to harm and immediately his blade sliced the shield down the rest of the way, the resulting force causing the hot wind to stagger the saint back a couple steps and force her split shield to the ground.
He saw the line that needed to be cut appearing through Mother Divine's defenses, specifically her tome, and with a quick leap forward he swung his sword back and dove, ready to bring down the full weight of his resolve.
She raised the tome before her face, the light flushing forth illuminating an eerie look in her eyes, and doing well to hide the brief flicker of a maddening scowl.
Time began to slow as Sarajin felt the light wash over him, and his sword made direct contact with the tome's pages...
He suddenly found himself diving head-first through an endless white expanse.
His mind felt clear, his thoughts empty.
There was a faint presence in this void, bringing a flicker of curiosity to his head, "W-Where am I...?"
"A...presence...?" A deep, silky voice whispered, coming out in barely comprehensible fragments.
Sarajin peeked further into the void and saw the outline of a titanic, slithering entity coming towards him.
Yet there was no fear shed in it's presence, but reverence.
He was gazing at true divinity, one that made the inner elements of his soul cry, and caused him to cry as if...in mourning.
"Who...are you?"
"'Tis been so long...yet to know my brothers and sisters still breathe is a most welcome feeling..."
Sarajin wanted to speak up but the entity read his thoughts and acted on them, "Speak not. It is your grace that blesses me."
"There is only...so much will I can muster now...in this state..."
"But the warmth of your light...helps motivate me to persist just a little longer..."
"Thou has been entrusted with the gifts of my siblings...Thy heart is pure, unstained by blood..."
"So heed my prayer, my most sacrilegious request..."
"Take my Light...And upon thy steel, may it find it's first rust upon the blood of thee who casts her shadow upon my land..."
"So sayeth I...Luminesca, the Titan of Light."
The serpentine outline sped closer and opened it's gaping maw to devour Sarajin's silhouette whole.
And as his heart skipped a beat he awoke to a rending of the Light, as his blade effortlessly cut through the obstacle in his path.
As he got his bearings together the first thing he noticed was how weightless his body felt. Even the simple act of breathing had no feeling.
He then heard the sound of wings flapping close by and upon standing up, noticed they were attached to his back, with a plume of white feathers poking out from the corner of his eyes.
It wasn't just that, his whole body had changed into a new Conduit Form...
His poncho was now a pair of smaller wings wrapped over his shoulder and crossing together before his chest.
The white feathered wings instead had cloths similar to that of his poncho covering the top.
His hair was lighter in color and his eyes were bright yellow. The rest of his pure white clothes were marked with ashen colored serpents coiling up from his pants to the collar of his neck. Then, there were a couple bells dangling off his sleeves.
And this helped guide his gaze towards his katana...where he found fresh blood dripping off the tip.
His heart was already shaking enough before he saw this.
He then slowly panned his gaze up off the ground towards Mother Divine. Along the way he saw pages from the tome flying down, some making it faster due to blood dripping onto them.
The blood came from the saint's right eye, which would now never work again due to how deep the scar was.
Sarajin was horrified, confused, and couldn't make out what led to this moment.
All he wanted was to get on his knees and plead for her forgiveness, "I-I'm sorry, I..."
But before he got too deep into this act, his heart quaked in fear, forcing his body frozen stiff...
He was looking at her face, but there was nothing resembling humanity in the expression she wore...
Her gaze was wide and single-handedly consuming all warmth in her sights. Her smile was cracking like made of dry clay, revealing an unfathomable degree of contempt. And the blood looked merely painted on, a natural fit to the canvas that was her face.
"W-What...?" Sarajin suddenly held his sword tighter as Mother Divine raised herself to her grandiose stature and drew her hand forward, wagging her fingers towards herself.
"You've taken something that doesn't belong to you. Give it back. Now." She said, trying and failing to maintain the soothing tone of a saint.
Sarajin hastily looked all over himself and then started shaking his head at her, "I-I don't know what's going on! Honest! One second I was..."
He quickly looked at the broken tome by her hip and whispered, "The tome..."
He then looked at her face and muttered aloud, "Why...why is the Titan in your tome?"
Her expression changed so drastically towards the eerie in an instant it felt like the atmosphere was screeching in pain as she shrieked, "You dare...!"
She immediately shifted back, closing her eye and proving immovable and uncaring to the blood leaking from her eye socket as she slowly stepped towards Sarajin, taking a deep, unnerving breath through her nostril.
"Do I need to make myself clear?" She whispered coldly, "That. Isn't. Yours. Give. It. Back."
This new Conduit Form opened Sarajin's eyes. He was beginning to see past the radiance this woman cast...and what he saw at the core...was pitch black.
As he held his katana at length towards her he suddenly felt very tired, and fell on one knee with the Conduit Form fading off his body as a series of light flurries.
He grasped at his chest and felt the Light was still within him, so why...?
He looked up. The saint's shadow loomed over him.
She opened her eye with a venomous glow coming off her irises, and her tongue matching that toxic look, "See? The heavens abhor a thief."
Now she appeared holy to him when basking under the light of the temple. But he could not ignore what his mind had fathomed...
"Who...who are you?" Sarajin whispered.
"That is not for you to ask," She whispered in a blunt tone, lifting the sides of her mouth into a haughty smirk, "For I am the unquestionable authority of these lands, and you..."
She leaned down and exposed him to the twisting, contorting madness her face could make, "Are just another fool who believes he was destined to lead."
Sarajin sprung to his feet and turned around, only to find that the citizens had piled up at the bottom of the stairs, gossiping among one another towards the sight of his blood-dripped blade.
Mother Divine then stood tall and waltzed to the top of the stairs, gracing them all with an empowering glow and her arms outstretched towards them all.
"Fear not my children!" She roared with a soothing tone, "My eye may bleed, but my light still shines bright, to guide you all as your Voice of Radiance!"
Her indomitable stance stirred the people to silence as she raised her voice to even greater heights, "But this blasphemer, this HERETIC, has stolen our light from under the gaze of our divine serpent, Luminesca! So I ask of thee, oh humble lambs, should this blasphemer's judgment be swift...or painful?"
The crowd threw their fists into the air and screamed and shouted, "KILL THE HERETIC! KILL THE HERETIC! KILL THE HERETIC!"
Sarajin was thrown on the backfoot as the voices flooded the city.
The saint turned to her side and slowly, the priests climbed the stairs to surround her.
With a deep, unflinching glare she flashed a smug smile and whispered just loud enough for Sarajin to hear, "I take many forms, but here...I am worshiped."
She then flicked her head towards the priests and muttered coldly, "Kill him."
The priests pulled their daggers and darted towards Sarajin with fluid but inhuman movements.
Sarajin would have struggled to react even with his senses at their peak. He only bothered to draw his sword and divert their attempts to rend his flesh. His main goal was to escape from here while he still had an opening.
He took flight and darted for the door. The agile priests leaped to and fro the rooftops and kept pace, their golden fangs digging into his legs and hips to try and drag him to the ground.
Sarajin had enough strength left to shake them off but if he didn't pick up his pace the bleeding would become an issue.
As high stakes as this escape was, it was over before he knew it, and he spent his last moments looking back...Feeling the saint's cold gaze, eyeing him with contempt.
And it would never go away now...
Mother Divine had been scarred, and she would carry that festering distaste in her wound forevermore...
This encounter left many questions unanswered.
The secrets of Caimanabel had been uncovered...
And it seems that in the Light...there was Darkness.
Next Time: Aftermath of Judgment