More derelict structures and broken pipes surrounded Ragna when he came to a stop. By some sort of miracle, most of the light fixtures on the walls still functioned to help him see. From the looks of it, he must have ran for a solid while and reached another section of the underground floor.
"Agh, can this god-forsaken place be any bigger…" Although helpful before, the labyrinthine layout of Kagutsuchi now worked against him.
The air was dry and stale like the rest of the level, its ambient temperature barely tolerable due to the citywide climate control system. He didn't have to think too long why everyone left this drab place. At such depths, living there was like being in a massive tomb.
When he walked by the opaque windows of a plain shelter chiseled from rock, he cleaned the grime in one spot to look inside. More murkiness sat beyond the glass, but he could faintly recognize the shapes. Everything safe for large furniture had been cleared out by the former inhabitants. If he hadn't been in a hurry to leave, he would've looked around out of curiosity. After the back-to-back encounters, his desire for some peace and quiet rose high on his list of wants, and he would only get what he wished for once he left this city.
While this abandoned settlement provided the perfect place to take a breather, another person had been lingering nearby.
Coming into an open area, Ragna heaved a heavy and long sigh. He then raised his voice to yell, "Hey! I know you're here! I'm really not in the mood to play hide-and-seek!"
A slender figure in white leapt out of hiding from atop a building made of faded bricks. She landed without stirring a speck of dust from the floor. Long, red hair flowed behind her, close to the absurdly large blade she carried.
Ragna could tell from her frigid stare that she was no friend of his. "Let me guess, you're out to kill me?"
"Quick to the point, I see. Very well." She opened one of her hands. A bizarre-looking sword was summoned into her possession.
"Great, another one…" muttered Ragna as he reached to grab his own sword. Her white, metallic armor and the shape of the blade on her back brought a feeling of déjà vu. He must have faced someone like that before in combat, but her appearance didn't quite match up. "Who the hell are you anyways?"
"With light within mine eyes, with blade within mine hands…I am White Justice. Part of a great evil lies within your being." The red of the woman's eyes flashed. "I shall see it be eliminated!"
Unlike his last battle, there wasn't an unnatural cold to slow down his body. That fact gave him more confidence in his movements. Yet it didn't do much in preparing him to see her gone from the spot where she stood. "What—"
Blinking into existence right beside Ragna, she lunged.
He raised Aramasa right in time to repel her attack with its handle. "There!" Stepping back, he swung in a wide arc as he spun around to face her.
His blade missed its mark.
As fast as her image disappeared, the woman aimed again for his neck from another side.
Ragna understood she had been aiming for his blind spots, but her erratic movement pattern made it difficult to do anything besides defend from one attack after the other.
Sparks flew as their weapons collided another time. "Tch!" He saw her becoming better at reading his movements every time, probably looking to deal a fatal blow sooner or later. Each subsequent attempt left a cut despite his trying to deflect her swings and stabs.
"Damn it!" he hissed as her blade nicked his shoulder. Basic swordsmanship was not enough if he wanted to get out of this alive. He needed more power to back him up, and he knew exactly where to get it.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, very faintly, a multitude of whispers warned him about his arm—which never belonged to him in the first place. Voices lending their concerns reached his ear, dredging up an unease he would prefer to keep buried. Gradually over the years, what he had thought to be nothing but a replacement for his lost limb became ingrained as part of him as much as the rest of his body. Still, he had been warned to treat it like a separate entity he had no control over.
Pain from a fresh gash on his leg gave him a harsh reminder that more wounds were accumulating the longer he hesitated.
"C-come on, I don't have to listen to them…!" His current problem warranted using its strength to outmatch his opponent's speed. He had sworn not to let its power consume him, and that would remain the same even now. "BlazBlue...I need you to stop sleeping!"
Heading to his command, the seithr regulator on his right hand loosened its seal. A vivid color and a mass of black energy burst forth, nearly drowning his vision. It spewed out to wrap around the entirety of his arm, and he could feel it amplify the rest of him.
Her sword met his again, but this time he found a chance to counterattack. Immediately after his weapon took the hit, he slashed at her with his arm. Large claws ripped the space, lifting off parts of the ground.
Like snuffing the flames to a candle before it burned too much of the wick, he quickly brought his transformed limb close to himself. Once he managed to ball his open hand into a fist, the darkness around it fizzled away. As his eyes darted back at his opponent, he flexed his fingers to check if everything had returned to normal.
Steep, parallel fissures marked where he had swung. Having jumped back several large paces away, White Justice recovered from her protective stance. "Such a vile power… How fitting…"
"This is your chance to back off," Ragna growled, keeping himself ready to draw on the grimoire's power again. Her strikes were no joke, leaving deep cuts around his body from close calls. But with his arm activated, his injuries began disappearing as he spoke. At close range, she no longer posed a significant threat to him.
The woman lowered the blade in her hand before letting it vanish into thin air. A dark scuff mark marred the once-smooth armor plate on her forearm. "There is no retreat… Extermination of evil is the only true option." Having discarded her sword, she drew out the larger one on her back.
Not giving her time to swing, Ragna channeled the grimoire's energy into his weapon. A roar-like sound shot out as he launched ars magus attacks shaped like the heads of beasts with jagged fangs in rapid succession. Tapping into his arm's true nature came to him easily.
Quick on her feet, she jumped away from the onslaught.
He mirrored her to give chase, leaping to the air with his weapon fully deployed at the ready. However, he cut nothing but empty air, the woman no longer where he thought she should be. In the split second he landed back on the ground, his eyes caught sight of her making a move.
With the tip of her greatsword aimed at him, she drew its handle close to her eye level and pulled it back. A bright aura gathered around the blade before she suddenly thrusted it forward.
For a short moment, he believed the blunted tip of her sword could not reach him from so far away. But when a spell circle suddenly formed, he barely managed to shield his vital spots as a gigantic blade of light shot out. "Shit—"
By the time he registered danger, his body had flown across the desolate street and collided with the corner of an old building. Lying atop the rubble, Ragna took in a breath that had been knocked out of him. An intense, reverberating sting coursed through his right arm, but it was otherwise unharmed.
"Ugh..." Squinting through the dust and crumbling debris, he rolled to the side to push himself off the ground. Lesson learned, he reminded himself to stay alert for that kind of attack. "You got any other dirty tricks to show off?" As he jeered, he reached over to dislodge Aramasa from a nearby wall and then returned it to its default form.
"Your insults are hardly worth hearing," she replied with a stern voice. Keeping her distance, she brandished her sword with both hands to point it skyward.
He saw a light gathering around her weapon again, giving him the impression that her next move would reach him when she brought the sword down.
"Perish alongside him, O Beast." Slamming her blade to the ground with all her might, a massive wave of energy sliced across the floor.
The beam heading his way tore up anything in its path at breakneck speed. Calling for more power from the Azure Grimoire, he prepared to answer it with sheer force. But the attack never connected. "Huh!?"
A hazy shape of orange and gray shot past in front of him.
Before he understood what happened, the light scattered into pieces. They evaporated shortly after losing their momentum. From the fragments he managed to see, Ragna figured that the energy had been somehow sliced apart.
The origin of the disruption came to a halt with the help of an arm. Taking the sword out of his mouth, he then sheathed it and the other blade in his grip into the casing on his back. He turned around, his one eye drifting between Ragna and White Justice. "I don't reckon ta know what's gotten both of y'all so worked up, but I'ma need ya ta stop before this whole damn place caves in."