"...well, it''s a bitte to turn back now."
epting my fate and washing away my doubts, I walked closer to Alya, stopping a step in front of her.
Noticing me, Alya simply stared for a moment before looking back up at the sun, not having any reaction whatsoever.
Leaning downward and raising my hand to block her sight of the sun, I quietly said in a serious tone.
"Are you just going to give up and feel bad for yourself for the rest of the time, sitting under this tree?"
"..."
Nothing.
Alya simply ignored my words, shifting her gaze slightly so that she could see the clear blue sky.
Shaking my bed, I spoke once again.
"Self-pity is a sin. Here you are washing away in sadness while Zach is the one who is actually suffering."
"See how he''s still smiling? He''s the victim, not you. So, why the hell are you acting so sad for?"
Seeing her eyebrow slightly raise and her finally showing some reaction, I continued.
"Do you seriously think you have the right to pity yourself? Zach''s the one suffering, not you. You''re just using pity as an excuse to doze off, aren''t you?"
In order to break Alya out of this emotionless, apathetic, and detached state, I had to make her angry.
Make her feel something.
Right now, she was just a piece of grass, flying in the breeze, letting the world take her wherever without caring in the slightest.
Responding to my provocations, Alya''s face twisted as she turned to look at me right in front of her.
The next second, the entire forest seemed to get much colder as the grass below me started to freeze.
"Well, I can''t say I didn''t ask for it."
Activating the usage period of the dash, I immediately dashed backward, narrowing and avoiding an icicle.
Getting up from the tree, Alya''s face began to show some emotion as her teeth grinded against each other in anger.
Pulling a clean steel and silver sword out of the icy cold air, Alya immediately covered it with ice before pointing it at me.
Without saying a word, Alya thrust her now ice-blue sword forward, sending dozens of icicle spears whirling at me.
Then, she mmed her sword into the ground, embedding it deep in the forest floor.
*RUMBLE*
The next moment, the temperature dropped even more as the ice began to slowly spread from the hole created by Alya''s sword.
Within two seconds, the entire floor below me was covered with ice.
Making sure not to slip, I side-stepped to the right before jumping sideways onto a tree.
Boosting off the tree, I cleaved through the branches above with the two corrupted daggers that I had manifested.
As the sun shone down through the holes I had created in the branches, the icicle spears hurling at me became significantly weaker, melting in the heat of the sun.
Using my two daggers, I simply shed at them once, shattering them into thousands of pieces before they melted under the sun.
As I sessfully avoided Alya''s first barrage of icicles, a scream suddenly and abruptly came from her side.
"AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW!?"
shing at another iing ice spear with my daggers, I replied.
"Does it matter what I know? I know enough to see what you''re doing is wrong."
Receiving no response from Alya, I sighed beforebining the corruption in my body with the blood-red substance.
The next moment, arge wing, colored night-ck and blood-red, formed on my right shoulder.
pping my wing countless times, I weaved in between the icicles, dodging them without even destroying them.
Dashing forward while simultaneously pping my wing once, I appeared in front of Alya with my daggers ready.
Responding in time, Alya shed her ice-blue sword forward, causing me to dodge to the right.
And just in time, a wall of ice formed in the spot I was just right in, stretching at least ten meters forward.
Before I could attack again, Alya once again plunged her ice-blue sword into the ground.
pping my wing, I watched in awe as a tform of ice below Alya appeared, slowly raising her higher and higher into the air.
As I appeared upward into the air, the tform finally stopped elevating Alya, leaving her right below the branches and blocking her from the sun''s rays.
Thrusting my daggers forward, I tried to sh down the ice tform, but every hole my dagger made in the tform was instantly reced with more ice.
It could regenerate.
Raising her sword, tens of icicles appeared right above me before hurling downwards at me as if it were hailing.
Realizing that there was no path out with my wing and my eyes, I simply stood still.
As the icicles neared me, I shed my corrupted daggers at the air ten times, creating ten holographic daggers.
As ten holographic daggers appeared alongside the two real ones in my hands, I smirked before sending the holographic daggers flying at her.
Not wasting another second, I shed my corrupted daggers up at the sky, sending countless night-ck shes.
As the night-ck shes and icicles hit each other, countless elemental reactions urred, causing bouts of smoke to appear.
pping my wing, I flew through the smoke, avoiding some of the icicles that my night-shes had failed to hit or destroy.
Emerging from the smoke, I saw Alya''s face transform into confusion as her sword simply passed through the holographic daggers.
Using her confusion, I manifested a green bird in my hands before sending it flying right at the elevated tform.
Looking away from the tform, I "popped" the sh, feeling a beam of light appear behind me.
Without wasting another second, I pped my wing countless times, appearing right on the tform and beside Alya.
Looking at the blind Alya in front of me, I simply kicked her leg, causing her to lose bnce and fall off the tform.
Jumping off the tform right after her, I watched as her eyes recovered from the sh, only to realize she was free-falling downwards.
[A/N: Top 10 in weekly powerstones for +5 Chapters. We are only 100 powerstones away!]