The First Harem Tournament 4 – Blocking Light [Nia POV]

“You may do the honours,” Moira invited.

Nia gripped the side of the wheel and gave it a quick tug. Magical sounds echoed in the air, leaving tumbling afterimages in the unperceived waves of magic permeating everything. A different tinge filled each ripple, the beginning of a sequence that was aborted as swiftly as the pointer switched to the next segment on the board. Only when it came to a still, did the process unfold in full.

Coniferous trees sprung up from the ground, growing rapidly as compacted sand turned into brown dirt and shed pine needles. A dusting of snow fell from below the dome of protective energy that separated the inside of the arena from the onlookers beyond. Temperatures dropped. Nia was unaffected.

Moira would not be bothered by the change in temperature either. Bits of additional plate were strapped to her chest and a tabard lent some decency to the tightly clinging bodysuit beneath. Nia would try her best not to tear those weaker elements away from the redhead, lest she revealed what she had chosen to remain hidden.

‘That cute butt belongs to us anyway,’ the pariah thought.

The Nevr’est croaked, as if amused by the thought, then continued playing with her hair. The motions of its boneless paws created further tumbles in the weave of the interstice that she embodied, sending sways through the long skirt of her backless dress. It was as immaculate as ever, a white that did not accept any colour.

The weapon in her hand was the exact opposite. Appearing like a mixture of volcanic glass and smoothened plastic, the black sword lay large and weightless in her hand. Where it moved, it forced the magic of the world to yield to a vacuum. Elimination was possible, though costly to Nia’s endurance and ineffective. All the elimination of the ambient mana would have achieved was to upset the minds of the onlookers. Active perception was robbed from them, but in the deep recesses of their souls, they knew when something messed with the building blocks of reality.

Nia was glad that she was loved despite her abilities.

“Three!” John began the countdown. “Two!” Nia’s unobscured eye locked onto Moira. “One!” The Shield Warden raised her blessed armament. “FIGHT!”

“LADY, HEAR MY PRAYER, AWAKEN ME!”

A halo ignited atop Moira’s head. Prismatic magic communicated with her shield, lending the armament a mind of its own that made Moira’s arm, indeed her entire body, move by divine guidance. The autonomous motion was swiftly reinforced by the tensing of her own muscles.

It gave her enough speed to react to Nia’s swing. The Blue Maiden had instantaneously teleported behind her opponent. Now, her sword came to a stop, centimetres before clashing with the wall of divine will made manifest. To come into contact with that shield was to shove herself towards Nirvana. It was less an armament and more of an exception written into the laws of reality. No matter what Nia tried, she would not be able to pass through it. To try was folly.

The blonde side-stepped the sudden bash of the shield, then smoothly took several backsteps, each narrowly taking her out of the path of the Warden’s hammer. “LADY, AID ME!” Moira prayed. Ambient mana mixed with her own into unalloyed gold, filling her hammer as she swung it overhead.

Nia effortlessly sliced through the shockwave that rippled from the impact point, then snapped forwards. Moira’s shield moved in the way again. Without missing a beat, Nia renegotiated her position in the world, stabbing at the redhead from a different angle. She could not twist around quite fast enough. The tip of Nia’s sword screeched over the heavy enchantments of Moira’s ornate shoulder-armour.

The blonde blinked out of her position in existence just as the shield started to slam into her side. She was now a dozen metres aways, still feeling the searing touch of Gaia’s might on the left side of her body. With cold, green eyes, Moira raised her shield and began a slow advance.

‘It would be disrespectful to pretend I can win without this,’ Nia thought and hooked a finger under her eyepatch. Though the lid beneath was closed, keeping another separating layer between this piece of the Other Side and their realm, even this much had an immediate effect. The previously cheering crowd all in one grew silent.

“I thank you for giving it your all,” Moira stated.

“Can’t afford not to,” Nia responded without a twinge of emotion.

The paladin roared, suddenly accelerating into a shield charge. Nia skipped backwards, allowing the redhead to keep accelerating as they wove between the trees of the loose forest. Her fingers sunk between the seams of reality as she dodged back, opening a pure white rift. A Wyrdwyrm rose and unfurled in kaleidoscope patterns, quaking the world with its fractal presence. A head without eyes and maw coiled around Nia’s pale arm, casting the blue shades of a realm without differentiation.

Moira clenched her eyes shut and hissed. Nia stopped, her singular eye staring at the serpentine un-creature. Behind her piece on the other side, the Nevr’est meowed jealously through her confusion. Unlike Alice, she had never been one apt at bringing the beings of the other side over. The tear had been meant to collapse under atmospheric mana, creating a shockwave. Instead, it remained present and stable.

‘I have grown?’ she wondered to herself.

“I love you, Nia Fae, but I hate your bloody powers!” Moira growled, forcing her eyes back open. She barely managed more than a crack. It was like she was out on a too bright day, though even the sun must have been a forgiving entity compared to her eldritch presence.

“I apologize for being so enigmatic.” Nia’s eye was with the Wyrdwyrm. It tugged at her essence, bringing her towards a snow-driven field. Behind her, Moira muttered prayers, warding her eyes against the un-sight. They were both taken by surprise in this development.

In the field of white, where snow of magic lay, there stood Nia Fae. In sword the powers waned as blackness flowed to wyrm, to the world’s bane. Stilled wings of naught at all unfurled once more. Eyes drove back the blue shadows as the voided butterfly stood outside her chrysalis once more. The one between two worlds turned her head and stared back at the recovering Warden.

[Nia Fae AI: https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/a69ab7405e5b.png ]

A light leap and Nia took to the air. Effortlessly, she twirled through the air, her wings and the Wyrdwyrm alike fluttering like thin sheets of silk. When she descended, the creature of the Other Side behaved more like a mass of water, crashing down with her.

Moira brought her shield up. Nia negotiated her position once more. The Blue Queen hissed, letting Nia know she was pushing it. This boon, she was granted still. Now behind the Warden, Nia opened her other eye for a moment of devastation.

The halo above the Warden’s head flickered. Its stream of divine intuition was disrupted. Moving entirely on her own instinct, Moira swung her hammer around. Nia danced back two steps, thrusting forwards her left arm. The Wyrdwyrm created a manifold maw. Thrice-hooked teeth attempted to find purchase on the Warden’s flank, repelled by the strength of her faith.

“Lady, protect me!” Golden light exploded the head of the Wyrdwyrm, scattering the white into distorted mandalas that blossomed around them as a swift exchange of blows followed. Nia’s now simply sized sword met the shaft of her hammer, redirecting the heavy blows of the weapon. Still, she avoided the shield.

The halo flickered back into being. Another reverse blink of Nia’s gifted ocular severed the magic. Blood trickled from Moira’s eyes, tears of a zealot bereft of light. Nia took no joy in being the barrier. Alas, they had sworn to take this seriously.

The eye was closed shut again before its overbearing power could cause her to Fade any further. Taking in the crisp air, Nia focused herself on remaining here. She dodged and weaved only at her own speed.

Nia was the faster of the two. Though that divide was notable, so was the difference in their strength and perseverance. All it took was one false step for the hammer to shatter her ribcage like it was a fragile glass mosaic.

The wings of the voided butterfly trembled and Nia hovered away from the latest strike. Surrounded by pieces of Wyrdwyrm, fluttering like bandages of a sacrifice made, she ascended. She tethered herself to the presences of the trees, floating between them, sometimes placing her bare feet on the needly branches to refresh her vow to this reality.

Effortless gestures requested the Wyrdwyrm to strike. Pieces of it separated, flying towards Moira and breaking on her shield in kaleidoscope flares of blue and white. Pieces of it returned to Nia, spent of motivation to continue. That was fine, she was not owed any exertion from this powerful denizen of the Nirvana.

Another twitch of her finger, another serpent made of white scales and black needles hissed as it flew through the air. It appeared to be a breaking point for the Warden, who raised her hammer high into the air. That was the change in pace Nia had waited for.

“LADY, SHIELD ME!” Moira bellowed her commanding prayer just as Nia flew towards her. An explosion of golden light covered every angle of approach. The only way through was to slice an opening into it. Nia’s black sword parted the radiance like a surgeon’s knife the skin of a grape. “LADY, AID ME!” The hammer struck the floor a second time, unleashing another wave of radiance even thicker than the first. Nia slightly tensed her jaw, swinging her sword fast to part this wave of magic. “LADY, I AM YOUR KNIGHT!” A third and final explosion of light entirely dominated Nia’s sight. Moira’s mana caused a chain reaction, agitating ambient mana into a state of self-propelling power. Clenching her teeth, Nia opened her other eye once more. It weakened the force enough that she could slice through.

Behind it, Moira was coming straight at her. Valiant in the sight of the Great Empty One, towering shield raised, the Warden of the Order of the Golden Rose had leapt straight at the strongest pariah in the world.

Such will had to be applauded.

Nia accepted she could not dodge this one. The two of them met midair. Bracing herself with legs and hand, the blonde slammed into the surface of the ornate shield. The Wyrdwyrm scattered completely, its pieces retreating into the closing rift. Her one free hand still clutched her sword and she stabbed over the rim of the shield.

A clawed hand swept through the air. Moira had left her hammer behind. Nia’s eyes widened momentarily at the realization. A slight smile snuck onto her lips. “Clever,” she managed to get out a single word of praise.

Then she teleported away.

Moira’s hand seized nothing. She fell like a rock, crashing into one of the pines. When she snapped upwards, she found Nia’s blade beside her neck. Translucent, breathing heavily, and with wounds that she lacked the leeway to negotiate away, the pariah all the same stood with her sword an intention away from disrupting the mana circuitry in Moira’s neck.

“…Your victory,” Moira admitted, her own breathing only slightly agitated. She had expended plenty of mana, but little of her deep well of stamina.

“Hard fought.” Nia extended a hand to help Moira stand. A decision she regretted quite quickly. For all of her superhuman strength, when a woman like Moira in full plate armour was pulling at her slender arm, Nia had to fight to be the one not moved to the floor. Somehow, she managed to get Moira upright.

“I have a bloody headache now…” Moira muttered, weaving some minor divine magic to heal the ruptured blood vessels in her eyes and clear up the red tears. “Keep that abominable eye closed, please.”

Nia’s lips twitched slightly downwards. Calling it ‘abominable’ was a bit much, she felt? She wasn’t sure if she should bring that up now. Rather than that, she did something she was certain she wanted.

Stealing a kiss from Moira’s lips was her right twice over. As a member of the Imperial Choir, kisses between them were expected. As the winner, Moira was going to be her… how did Eliana like to put it?

“You’ll be my bitch for the next fifteen minutes,” Nia whispered, managing to sneak a dash of sadistic intent into her monotone voice.

Moira was speechless.