Memorial.
I keep experiencing this feeling.
Feeling like, I’ll die soon.
. . .
Earth. 2046.
Mount Parnassos, Greece. For better, or for worse this life has been quaint. For these few years in solitude, a sort of routine had been developed. That routine includes; Early wake up, hike down to the valley and back, return for bathing, watch the global news, paint during free time (acrylic), sculpt when anxious (air dried clay), and train until the sun sets. During that routine, eat, sleep, and repeat.
And each night, before sleeping, relax to a warm cup of tea in the living room. Usually, the setup is conservative. Modern glass dishes, a kettle fresh from the stovetop, and a single tea cup to sip from.
Tonight, however… There are two.
Ellen carefully fills both teacups, at each edge of the table. Her silk robes slide against her smooth skin, strangely smooth for her age. Due to the fact her Carnage magic considers the signs of aging to be a negative status ailment, it consumes the less important parts of her body to upkeep her appearance. Her bones are nearly hallowed, and her blood beyond thin. But, she remains living. Day in, and day out. She enjoys it actually, every bit of it. Even if moving is a bit painful at times, or waking up was a blessing in itself.
“hmmhh…”
She lowers herself into her seat, opposite of the second teacup on the other edge of the table. Cold hands are greeted by the warmth of her cup, and she leans her lips towards the rim. Slowly, and passionately she takes her first sip of tea. Her tongue is greeted by an assortment of natural flavors, hinted with floral accents.
She relaxes.
What is left of her muscles decompresses.
And when she opens her eyes, the second guest to the tea party appears. Carelessly holding the fragile cup in their hand with a smirk.
“… Good evening.”
“It’s practically good fucking night at this point. Have you even seen how dark it is outside?”
Her guest, Everlong, takes a sip from her cup as well. Unlike Ellen, however, Everlong didn’t like the taste of the tea much at all. Immediately rejecting it — spitting it rudely out towards the table.
“You drink this shit!?”
. . .
Silence.
Ellen replies with a simple smile. Nothing more.
“…”
For a moment, she glances to her side. At — her cellphone.
“No need, Miss Laine. The ANMS is a little too busy handling some trouble I already cooked up, on the other side of the universe.”
Everlong sets her cup down, brushing back a few spikes in her hair as she stares intently at Ellen. Hoping the glare would be enough to get the answer she wanted, but eventually realizing how direct she’d have to be.
“You know what I’m here for.”
“No, I don’t.” A simple response.
Everlong’s expression twists. Growing impatient this quickly.
“Flowstate,” she says, “You’re the only living person who still has it. Ellen, you know how I work… You’ll either have to teach it to me, or die.”
“Then, I guess I’ll die.”
“… Ugh!”
The woman rolls her eyes, groaning in anger. In the same moment, each dish that Ellen had carefully prepared for her tea shatters. The shards spread out against her coffee table, as the wasted tea spills in consequence.
“You old fucking hag. You’re not gonna make this easy for me, are you?”
Ellen is startled. Honestly, heartbroken. Her face saddens as she glances down to feel the warmth of her perfectly brewed tea — wasted on her skin and the table below.
“…”
Ellen’s head sags.
“Hello!?”
Everlong raises a brow, after not getting a response from the grey haired woman.
“Am I fucking talking to myself, or what bitch!?”
She stomps, standing up on top of the table as she approaches Ellen. Towards her she carries a clenched fist, and as she reels her arm back that fist opens facing the back of her palm towards Ellen. In a flash of chartreuse glimmers — Everlong’s backhand whips towards Ellen’s head. With full intent to cause gruesome damage.
Green and yellow are mixed in the air with crackling red lightning. When the flashes die, Everlong can see that her attack is currently held just a foot away from contact — blocked by Ellen’s sentient katana blade. And, though it was sheathed, the energy and hunger that oozed from it seemed to seep through the material that holds it. Staining the air with a disgusting predatory feeling.
“That wasn’t nice, Ev.”
Ellen’s head still hung low. In fact, she didn’t seem to move. And when she looked up to speak — she seemed to look at where Everlong was, instead of it.
“Ellen Noir, huh? You two must be a package deal.”
She says, commenting on the blade that blocked her attack. For a moment, she grins — but that’s quickly interrupted by a snarl.
“The fuck out of my way.”
Everlong grips the blade by its sheath, and blasts it with an unknown composition of energy. Relinquishing its effect on the atmosphere, and releasing any negative effects on a non-wielder. After this, she throws it into the oak flooring beside them, and turns her attention back to Ellen. She grips the woman by her robes, and lifts her up to meet her eye to eye.
“You’re going to show me Flowstate. Or, I’ll pry it out of that old head of yours myself!”
Simple, dry, and neutral, “No.”
After saying this, Ellen gestures for her sword to return. And, in that moment — the blade digs itself out of the ground, unsheathes itself, regains its presence, and spins through the air as it settles into her palm. In the same motion, Ellen finally attacks.
A slice at the arm of Everlong’s that held her up — a slice that’s covered in red lightning, oozing a desire to kill. A deep desire to hunt.
Devour. The effect of Devour turns any preferred slash into a ‘leading slash’ . And, after the leading slash lands — ten more slashes of the same type, damage, and precision will land as well. Simultaneously, or delayed depending on the user’s intent. In this case, the effect is delayed. One thing to note, is that the slashes following a leading slash cannot be avoided, countered, or destroyed. Either dodge the lead, or take the punishment.
Confused, Everlong blocks the slash with a glimmering hardened energy just barely coating her skin. The red sparks dissipate upon contact, the force shakes the air around them. . . She huffs, glancing back at Ellen.
“Did you just try to sneak me? All that effort for what-?”
Her words are rudely interrupted by the delayed following slashes. All ten of them, unexpected — cleave clean into the tan skin of Everlong. This causes her to recoil, dropping Ellen as she backs up and scans the damage. Impressive damage, actually. Like a hammer beating a nail into place, each of the ten cuts dug deeper than the last, nearly reaching bone in an instant.
“… You dirty bitch.”
She looks back up at Ellen, as her wounds begin to repair.
“I won’t be letting that happen again, now that I know you can do it.”
Recently, Ev’s taken a liking to the capabilities of modern technology. Going as far as getting it implanted, if the use of it was beneficial. She chuckles slowly, as a mechanical whirr builds up in her chest. Metallic scales breathe upon the surface of her skin, near the upper portion of her back. Steam releases, pushed past a barrier of immense power… A signature effect of E.Vo. technology. Instantly, Everlong launches herself into battle! Her fists clench, and she moves from her position faster than the hair on her body could keep up. She closes in at a high angle, pulling a heavy fist down at Ellen’s current position. And should that first hit land, she continues the sequence with a barrage of punches — in order to allow not even a single window for Ellen to respond quick enough.
“Do you not research your opponents?”
Ellen looks unamused. As Everlong closes in, she simply holds up her blade vertically with a single hand — blocking the first punch. However, the force of it was not neutralized at all. Once the hit makes contact, the two of them practically vanish from the scene, in a massive explosion. Everlong’s hit pushes Ellen back, into the face of the mountain her little cottage rested upon. And, with the continuous barrage of punches — the two of them practically dig through the mountain and back out the other side! The trees shiver, and flocks of birds flee the area.
“…”
All Ellen does is… Stare. Blocking every single attack Everlong throws like it wasn’t even difficult. Keeping herself from being damaged even once, forcing the collateral upon the area that surrounds them.
Carnage. The effect of Carnage allows Ellen to receive stat boost immediately after landing any sort of attack. These boosts work in a leveling type system, including six levels and starting from minimal, to Maximum. Once a boost is applied, not only is Ellen’s stats increased — but damage is often reversed as well. Stage 1, Minimal boost.
A small highten to her reaction speed, and Ellen could already find a window in Everlong’s ruthless barrage to attack. In a crimson flash, Ellen’s blade reorients at the opposite angle — and she dives into Everlong’s defense with a swift swing at her torso. Afterwards, should the attack land or not, Ellen pulls up blade up for another swing as she passes by her target’s side. This swing, is another leading slash for Devour, with following slashes delayed by ten seconds.
Surprisingly fast for an old lady. Everlong is forced to pull back, but only for a moment. Noticing her blade wasn’t coated in the energy of Devour for the first attack, Ev parries it and responds with a quick elbow — forced into a slim retreat just before the second attack finalizes. She performs a backbend, that transfers energy into an upwards kick towards Ellen’s chin, redirected into a spinning triple kick, and sprung from her arms into the air — where she twists and shoots out a charged punch! Extending an explosion of psychic energy back down at Ellen’s position.
“I told you I wouldn’t let you get away with that again!”
Regardless of the effect of the previous combo — Everlong continues. Before she hits the ground for a landing — her body is swallowed by a shadowy pool of psychic energy. A dark portal. Simultaneously, hundreds, thousands, millions of portals open up around Ellen — with Everlong slipping in and out of them at speeds far beyond perception. Then — at a completely random moment, in a completely random angle, Everlong opens her palm… releasing a single spec of energy towards Ellen, smaller than a grain of sand. Containing enough explosive power to reduce the entire mountain range to dust should it contact even a molecule of her body or blade.
WarShell. This technique involves a user of War Energy condensing a large amount of it into a hyper unstable point. By doing this, the spec of energy reacts violently to anything it touches — creating a chain reaction similar to that of a nuclear warhead, turning most — if not, all matter into dust in a matter of seconds.
Pretty much the exact reaction she expected. During the first sequence of attacks, Ellen remains mostly defensive. Blocking and parrying each of the kicks, and painfully backflipping out of the way of the burst of psychic energy. Then… Everlong began to teleport around her body, sporadically and insanely fast.
“Good lord. You young people are quite nimble.”
For some odd reason, before the warshell was released — Ellen began to paint every direction, every angle, every inch of space around her body with leading slashes. Practically surrounding herself in an orb of them, not even allowing a single centimeter of error at all. For a moment, it would seem as though she’s trying to attack Everlong’s portals — or maybe even trying to attack Everlong herself as she slipped in and out of them.. But, that wasn’t the case at all.
Because the moment Everlong releases the warshell, the following slashes from the previous use of Devour contact it first. Proving that Ellen was never even aiming to hit Everlong even moments earlier — instead, hitting the air with a leading slash and a delayed follow.. Reading the course of battle perfectly, as the energy erupts directly into Ellen’s cocoon of leading slashes. The violent explosion is met with a counteracting barrage of following slashes, eating away at most of the damage before it could reach Ellen herself. Not only that, but the following slashes that weren’t consumed by the explosion — continue extending for miles in every direction, posing a threat to Everlong herself should she choose to stick around too close to the mayhem.
Carnage. Carnage feasts on the war energy, granting Ellen the second stage. Moderate boosts to all stats, 2/6.
Ellen sighs, as the dust settles. For only a moment, nearly every inch of her skin was replaced by second degree burns. And upon receiving the flashy red boost of Carnage, all that damage is instantly reversed. Restoring her skin to the ghostly pale white she originally was.
For a moment, Ev was nowhere to be seen. And, when the chaos finally ceases, a black portal wipes her body into existence.
“… You’re really starting to get on my nerves Ellen.”
Having enough of the stalling, Everlong decides to kick everything up a notch. She summons her Egoment; MalGammamation, Mal for short — which strangely exists in the form of ten vined rings tattooed on her fingers. Through her Egoment, most of her abilities are amplified in terms of output and effectiveness. Also, it grants her the ability to use weapon specific moves and abilities with her bare hands. Due to this, her fighting can incorporate any weapon of choice without her having to actually use any sort of weapon.
Everlong points a single finger towards the sky, shooting a spark into the atmosphere that instantly darkens the sky above them even further. The clouds pulse, gathering violent electricity in a cyclone above them. And, while this happens — the ground beneath them begins to shake. First, slightly, then, aggressively, and after a few moments, the shaking became far more ruthless than the highest recorded force of an earthquake!
Disaster Elements. Xirans are naturally gifted with control over ‘disaster’ elements. This is the version of elements that we all know, specifically twisted in a manner known to kill most living beings. Lighting turns into plasmatic spires with nigh-absolute piercing, earth becomes sharper than a knife, nearly indestructible as well. And water? Simply being near it is known to strip the moisture from you entirely, and being under it will drown you and dry you to the bone in simultaneous fashion.
“HAH! AHAHAHA!”
The power coursing through her body always drives her mad on the spot. The question is no longer if Everlong has sanity left — the question is if Everlong is even aware anymore… At times. While laughing manically, she pulls her hand down into a fist — sapping the sky above of all the lighting it had to offer, right into her very own veins.
“OUUUH! IT FUCKING STINGSSSS~!”
The earthquake finally breaches the surface — as the entire continent splits between them! Tectonic plates below snap apart like glass, and spires of searing hot magma breach the horizon, curling back down towards Ellen! Then, as the continent splits, walls of ocean water recoil and collapse towards the gap, swallowing the once beautiful mountain range in it’s deep blue body.
. . .
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Then, the deep blue boils up in a sparking green brilliance of light. A singular pulsing beam of energy is released from one of Everlong’s fingers, containing an amalgamation of dangerous energies. Including the essence of Nullborn, an entity that feasts on order, laws, and reality — PSI, a dangerously effective psychic kinetic energy, capable of blitzing through physical defense — and the Disaster element version of Lightening, superheated plasma capable of cleaving through planets like a hot knife through butter.
“I’ll just kill you… Resurrect your dead body… AND PEEL FLOWSTATE OUT OF YOU THAT WAY!”
The hairs on Ellen’s body stand on edge. Though, his stance in battle remains calm. Unlike her younger self, who’d be relentlessly pursuing her attacker with an animalistic style — she’s much too old for that. So, she simply waits. Allowing everlong to do her thing, in the meantime.. She plots.
The country splits between them, and Ellen’s focus doesn’t break one bit. Then, when she notices the spires of magma — she finally moves. Quickly, she blitzes around the area — confirming that the path of these magma beams follows here every move near perfectly. She searches for an opening to dump them, perhaps even losing them right in front of Everlong. But, that would pose too much of a risk in Everlong consuming them for more power. She’s not that dumb. So, instead she turns to the incoming tsunamis of ocean water.
Her body slips into the deepest portion of the tallest wave, with the magma quickly following her. In a perfectly equalizing manner — millions upon millions of tons within the water are boiled out of existence, while also cooling the magma until it becomes stationary — solid pillars of obsidian earth. After this happens, Ellen recoils back into action — slicing and dicing every inch of those pillars with her blade while closing back in on Everlong. Though, she coughs. A puddle of blood follows her breath as her skin cracks and sheds in many places. This water isn’t ordinary water, and she had to learn that the hard way. However;
Carnage. Carnage consumes obsidian, granting Ellen the third stage of boosts. Medium boosts to all stats, 3/6.
“I know your intent, Everlong. And I refuse to be a catalyst to chaos.”
Fearlessly, she closes in on Everlong as she releases that massive beam. Just before contact, she throws her sword — launching it towards the beam as it spins through the air at space breaking RPMs. While it does this, the sheath that accompanies it suddenly materializes over the blade… putting it’s true nature to the test.
Ellen Noir. The katana that proves again and again to be a little more than steel and forgery. It was created by Ellen’s deep fixation with the magic of carnage and devour, to be the vessel of said ability. Though, she created something far more than a vessel in her young years as a mage. By combining a weapon, a magic, and a soul together in one — she essentially created this blade in a state of synthetic singularity. It only exists one way, in one state, for one reason, and one purpose. A driving definition, fueled by the idea of battle, hunting, and destruction. Due to this, it cannot be altered in any way. This includes destroying it, changing its laws, definitions, reality, erasing it, controlling it, retconning it, etc… It is the Perfect immovable object, and will remain that way. Tied to Ellen’s soul for eternity.
Due to this, the sheathed blade completely pulverizes through the beam of death extended from Everlong. Through the nullborn essence, through the PSI, through the disaster plasma, through it all… Remaining perfectly, utterly untouched. Brandishing not even a single scratch.
And then, when it breaches the other side of the beam, right in front of Everlong’s face — Ellen’s body appears with it.
“I refuse… To show you my Flowstate.”
The moment even an inch of steel breaks the veil of her katana’s sheath, the Earth’s surface erupts in a massive flash of crimson electricity. So much force released from a single slash — reality’s firmware detects it as an anomaly, reversing the force back on itself, only to repeat again naturally. A loop. One that happens over, over, over, over, and over again in the course of only a single attack… Endless. This is merely a technique of Ellen’s, taking advantage of the way reality tries to restore itself when it breaks. In other words…
She releases a single attack, dealing an infinite amount of damage should it connect.
“What. The. FUCK — !?”
Everlong is dumbfounded by the dexterity, capability, and versatility of this crusty old woman to the highest degree. So shocked, in fact, that when she appears on the other side of her beam — in the process of delivering her endless slash — Everlong is met with no room, and no other choice but to block the attack with her forearms! Instantly, the pain hits her, down to her deepest details of existence. An infinite amount of destruction rains down on her, and all she can do in the moment is panic. Her body starts to break apart, glitching, distorting, and tearing.
“What the fuck!? This chick only has three abilities, right!? Am I missing something!?”
Reincarnation. Only halfway into the battle, and Everlong’s next life didn’t seem too far off from this very moment.
“I have to do something… Right, I can use the Valley!.. Shit, no, that risks this old bitch getting even stronger… For longer! I’m not stupid enough to let that happen,” for a moment, she thinks. A single pause of thought, in the room of less than a frame passing in time. “. . . Wait.”
Everlong’s eyes close. And when they open, her awakening surfaces.
. . .
Eyes of Everlong. A prime tier awakening that allows her to decipher everything in the battle down to it’s fundamental values. This includes the use of abilities, ultimates, stage hazards, techniques, and much much more. It’ll even go as far as making an ability so simple to understand — it’s almost like she can straight up read the description itself from the narrative. And through that, develop counters and evasions on the spot.
“… Infinite damage, huh? Gotcha~.”
Suddenly, the pain stops. And, the damage does as well. Completely, and totally counteracted by infinite blocking, possible due to the celestial dragon scales that compliment her physiology. And, to top it off — Infinite healing. Done in a single burst of healing each second, healing an infinite amount of damage per-tick.
Not only that, however, as Everlong decided to take a trip down memory lane. Replaying the previous battle in her head up until this point — mentally scanning through everything with her awakened eyes. Downloading the data pack of Ellen’s style, technique, singularity-like blade, Devour, and even Carnage. Suspecting it may work in six stages of boosts, which means she’s either on her third or forth right now. Everlong couldn’t help but chuckle — a chuckle that suddenly explodes into manic laughter. She thought for sure this was it. This battle is over now, and she wins.
Devour. Everlong uses her own version of ‘devour’, however this effect of Devour turns any type of attack into a ‘leading attack’ . And, after the leading attack lands — ten more attacks of the same type, damage, and precision will land as well. The attacks following a leading attack cannot be avoided, countered, or destroyed.
And instead of imbuing just one attack with Devour, Everlong decides to imbue every attack she throws from here on out with Devour. She doesn’t hesitate, erupting into a barrage of pin-point attacks that target every weak point on Ellen’s body. Carried by her fist, and given the properties of gun shots by the effect of Everlong’s Egoment. And, as said before — every single one of these attacks are a leading attack, dealing ten times the exact damage should the first blow land!
“You’re nothing but a dirty old dog, using the same old tricks until it kills you! CHANGE IT UP A BIT, WON’T YA!?”
“No… I don’t think I will.”
Ellen stands up for the encounter, and her stance remains unshaken. Though, her eyes are narrow… She felt it again. That same feeling that’d been haunting her for the past few years. A feeling that honestly scares her to the core. And honestly, she never took the time to ask the question of; If I were to die, would I have even lived to begin with?
Carnage. Though the endless slash was countered, its damage to Everlong fuels Ellen’s stats and heals her damage. Miraculous stat boosts, 4/6.
Something changes. It’s not immediately clear what, but something changes. Ellen’s expression goes nearly blank, and she responds to Everlong’s attacks. Each, and every one of them — from the moment they were sensed by her in any way, were perfectly and directly countered. If it meant blocking, deflecting, or even taking the attack — it was instantly responded to. In a way that made attacking her in general, the opening she needed to land her own attack. Every response she released slips past every attempt at defense. And, in response to Everlong using devour with every one of her attacks — Ellen does the same.
Though, a large portion of her defense was sacrificed for this responsive edge in battle. She’s hit by leading attacks left and right, damage from them all burrows holes into her old body — tearing her to shreds with the pain of it all getting worse and worse. Though, through her responses to those attacks — Carnage continues to feast, and in turn, heal her while it boosts her stats.
Carnage. Attacks are delivered in response to ones delivered to her, and Carnage feasts. Massive boosts to all stats, 5/6.
A dangerous loop of boosting and countering, all done with glassy eyes and an unamused expression.
“Liao…”
The battle of present shrinks into a void, while Ellen loses herself for a moment in thought. Thinking of her life, her career, her pupils, and the ones who’ve been there the whole way. Unfortunately, her life was never easy. Peace didn’t come without struggle, and she didn’t even get to experience a childhood. She’s seen the eyes of death, and walked the line between good and evil. Her life is one she wouldn’t wish on even her worst nemesis… but it’s a life she’d live all over again without a second thought.
“If we ever meet again,” she thinks… “I hope you’ll see how proud I am.”
Ellen continues relentlessly pressuring Everlong with her responses to every single attack the woman throws. Every hit, slip, hook, slash, dash, pummel, instantly and perfectly replied to with a full counter. There was not a single moment where Everlong and Ellen weren’t clashing attacks. Even the single second window between Everlong’s ticks of healing seemed like an eternity! Time ceases relevancy, and destruction reaches the fundamentals of what holds this universe together. Nothing stood between them but their own contact, growing more and more destructive with each move made!
By this time, the ANMS had since defeated the threat created by Everlong on the other side of the universe. But, Ellen still chose not to call them as backup. Because if Everlong is willing to drive this far to obtain Flowstate, who knows what she’d do to Liao? That’s a question Ellen wasn’t going to see answered. And, her motivation to try everything she can to end this version of Elvenheim before it continues its path.
Everlong smirks. Then, if there won’t be a change — she’s decided to just straight up kill Ellen here and now. After all, without the use of flowstate, there’s no other way she could pose a threat. Her egoment glistens upon her fingers, enchanting every single attack he throws with the energies and essences of countless previous lives. Though they do little damage to Ellen’s blade — it’s clear the damage still matters when applied to Ellen herself. Everlong practically goes on autopilot, thinking nothing of the battle until —
SKSHH!!
— A massive gash opens up on her shoulder, just after she launched an attack. Though it healed with a tick of endless heal, the concept of an attack slipping through her defense was mind boggling. After all, the E.Vo. Technology she wears adapts her fighting style constantly to the opponent. By this point, there shouldn’t even be room considered for one of Ellen’s attacks to slip past… But it did.
“!?”
Then it happened again, and again, and again. Each time, right after Everlong threw an attack of her own. And each time, the counter was flawlessly delivered — without even a shred of hope in defending against it
“Something’s up,” she thought, “That the hell did she do…? What changed!?”
Her awakened eyes zero in on Ellen, watching her every move through the heat of battle. But, nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. If anything, she just seemed to have gotten… More effective with how she attacks. Her stance, technique, and posture is the same as it always was. Could it have been the boosts of Carnage? Do they truly matter that much?
“No…”
Everlong enhances her awakening once more. This time she attempts to see the battle from the eyes of Ellen herself, only to be met with pure…. Darkness. And then, as damages from Ellen’s attacks rain down upon her body, and the battle climaxes to a brutal stalemate… That’s when Everlong realizes.
“Wait,” her eyes widen in realization, “YOU’RE FUCKING BLIND!?”
“Have been,” Ellen replies, “ Since the day I retired, 15 years ago.”
Carnage stops at nothing to prioritize the upkeep of Ellen’s lifespan. Sacrificing common comforts and healthy parts of her body, even her eyesight. And, though the effect of her blinding was gradual — it eventually reduced her eyesight to simply nothing. Returning her to the days she lived as a child, forced to experience the world through a blindfold.
CARNAGE. Carnage relishes in the body of Everlong. Turning damage done to him into status improvements for Ellen, and granting her access to the sixth and final stage… Maximum boosts to all stats, 6/6.
Now, her attacks were more than just destructive. The force she releases with each slash bypasses the threshold of damage that reality could recover from. A swing, a shatter, and dissolution. The ‘Endless’ technique would seem like child’s play when compared to the output she’s capable of now. The boosts to her combat capabilities aren’t just game changing, they might mean endgame entirely.
Continuously, each attack that Everlong lands in any way — is instantly responded to in consequence by Ellen. Increasing the multitude of attacks did nothing, as Ellen’s attacks increased as well. Trying to out damage her meant nothing, as in the final stage of carnage — every hit heals damage entirely. Her counters aren’t avoidable. They aren’t blockable. They aren’t destroyable. They aren’t even erasable from the narrative. It simply goes as follows; An attack is sensed, an attack is delivered. With zero room for error, or interruption.
The only way to beat it… Would be to not attack at all.
“…”
A smirk. And then a giggle. Transitioning slowly into a deep toned laugh.
“So this is it, huh? You’ve kept it right under my nose, you sneaky bitch!”
Everlong finally understands it. The gateway needed to reach that point. After all, relinquishing one or more senses is known to improve the capability and reflex of the remaining senses. In a way, if you blind yourself — eventually you’ll learn to live through only your sense of hearing, smell, touch, and taste. In that sense, you’d be able to reach a point of combat similar to a perfect responsive style. In other words;
FLOWSTATE.
Flowstate is an ability that allows the user to enter a state of prime focus and reaction. In this form, any attacks sensed, whether if be with sight, smell, touch, hearing, or even taste — will instantly be responded to with a full counter attack. The counter attacks are instant, ignoring all concepts of speed and motion as a whole. Defense, evasion, and durability are irrelevant. The response is a perfect consequence to the sensed attack.
Awakening flowstate wasn’t enough for Everlong, however. She wanted something more aggressive, more detrimental, more effective. The passive responsiveness of Flowstate allowed too many flaws. Allowed taking damage to be considered, since the response relied on sensing the incoming attack. It presents too many… Openings.
… openings…
… Openings?
“THAT’S IT!”
At that moment, Everlong became a monster. Twisting Flowstate into her own, devastating passive;
OFFENSIVE FLOWSTATE.
Offensive Flowstate is an ability that allows the user to enter a state of prime aggression and precision in return for a substantial lack of self awareness. In this form, any opponent defense weakness sensed, small or large, whether if be with sight, smell, touch, hearing, or even taste — will instantly be pin-point attacked. The attacks are instant, ignoring all concepts of speed and motion as a whole. Defense, evasion, and durability are irrelevant. The response is a perfect consequence to the sensed weakness, the very instant it is present.
Ellen’s body lights up before Everlong. Not in actuality, but in her own eyes. She could see every single weak point Ellen had to offer. Everywhere her stance lacked cover, everywhere her sword couldn’t reach in time, everywhere her old age hindered her motion, and even… everywhere she wouldn’t be able to sense an attack. Everlong’s knuckles begin to spew hundreds of ‘warshells’ with each passing moment. And, utilizing Offensive Flowstate she delivers them effortlessly to every pin-point position her attacks were drawn to due to weakness. Essentially dropping thousands of point blank planet breaking nuclear explosions on every weak spot of Ellen’s body.
“And to top it all off…”
Everlong backs up for a small bit, opening her palm as a prismatic purple energy swarms above her hand.
“To make sure your soul is sent directly to Spirit’s doorstep!”
Second Singular Shift.
This ability is death in its purest form. Only granted to those who’ve once had the blessing of the Pillar of Spirit herself. Once the required stance is entered, and the attack is fully charged… Whatever poor soul it hits will be completely removed from the realm of living. It not only wipes the hit portion of the target from reality, but also every corner reality has to offer. This includes any alternate versions of them, any alternate timelines of them, and alternate narrations of them, and even the DNA of them vanishes from their offspring.
Ellen is forced out of her flowstate. Her head lowers, realizing it’d been taken by her opponent before her. And, for a moment he felt disappointed in herself. But, for some reason … She felt at peace. As if this was supposed to happen. As if, she was never meant to win in the first place. Almost as if.. This battle would be her Memorial. She felt the twist of aggression that Everlong applied to her flowstate, tainting it in a monstrous way…
Monstrous.
That’s what Everlong is, actually. A monster.
“…”
She simply holds her blade up in defense, though it did nothing to keep her safe. Every single one of Everlong’s attacks contact the weakest, most exposed parts of her body — ripping her to shreds and reducing her body to crimson mist. It’s painful, probably the most pain she’s ever felt. But, it’s a feeling she’s used to now. Along with that other feeling… The one making her feel like some day, some time very soon, she’d die. She doesn’t scream, doesn’t wince, doesn’t even flinch. This monster doesn’t deserve that satisfaction.
In the moments before the final blow lands, she simply looks up at Everlong — seeing past the guise of his current reincarnation. To the very soul of this man. His original face, and body of… Elvenheim.
“I swear on my soul, Everlong…” a whisper carried by dying breaths, “… Your path of havoc will end one day.”
“… Can’t wait to see it happen. Ellen.”
Had she not killed Ellen when she did… Maybe this story would’ve ended right here.
