Even as the almighty tornado continued to suck her inside it, dizzying her with the speed at which she was being moved around by the swiftly circulating wind tunnels...
She felt sick to her core, a constant stream of damage being applied to her body and slowly breaking it down to pieces. She was sure that there were many more insidious concepts mixed in this deadly attack but she was not in the mind to find out what they were.
'Ah... Once again I am so hopeless in front of an enemy.'
She was sure that Sol was watching this fight from somewhere, keenly observing her actions. She was also sure that if she really fell in danger he would come and save her. She would never die no matter which turn this fight would take.
So, should she be happy to know that her life would never be in jeopardy?
'Fuck this shit!'
The mana around her body started going wild like a hungry beast as she fought to get back control of her body and limit the damage she was receiving from this wrathful force of nature.
She was not a damsel in distress who needed her prince to come and save her at the most opportune moment and make her swoon with his beautiful timing and charming way of rescue. She was a warrior and she was not willing to lose this fight.
'Sol trusts me...'
She would be given the important responsibility to be his glorious knight and representative in the future. She would fight at the forefront of the war and take care of an entire battlefield with a battalion under her control and authority.
All of that now hinged on how she would be dealing with the current situation and how much she evolved from this fight.
Failure was never an option for her. She refused to believe in that notion. She needed to, no, she had to win at all costs...
'But... How can I win?'
If she focused all her energy on her control over the lightning element, then she believed that she could accelerate herself enough to definitely escape this tornado storm she had been sucked into. But this would change nothing for her. It wasn't as if Neun was only capable of sending one tornado storm her way.
There was only one way for her to even the playing field between them... and that was to reach the Duke realm, right here and now.
Curling up her body like a ball, Sestuna brought out her own water and wind elements from inside her and covered her body entirely in those elements, creating what seemed like a protective cocoon.
This was the best way to protect herself as she thought up a solution and a method to attain victory over her opponent.
Mana condensed all around her and she slowly went back to her own consciousness to deeply ponder her options.
All she could see inside was a deep void above what looked like a lone gate standing in this endless void of her mindscape.
Sestuna knew that the formation of this gate was already an indication that she was going in the right direction. She could even see that the gate had slightly opened and was waiting for her to fully comprehend her Truth to fully open the gates.
But this slight opening was not enough for her to truly do anything in this fight. She did not just need a step in the right direction. She needed to reach her destination to annihilate her opponent and achieve a perfect victory.
What was her 'Truth?'
What were her strengths and weaknesses?
Sestuna thought back to the training she had done with Kali in Medea's world.
She was someone who had reached the power of destruction through her own understanding of the basic four elements. No matter how she thought about it, she was, without a doubt, someone worth all the respect in this world for that achievement alone. Just controlling the basic elements to sublimate the power of destruction was unprecedented.
Then... what about her?
Setsuna had already admitted it inside of her mind. That she was actually nothing special. She had nothing that could make her comparable to the true geniuses of the realms.
Her talents were amazing when thinking of them from a general perspective. But when faced with the true supernatural geniuses and monsters at the top of the pack, she was just someone slightly special that was barely able to distinguish herself from the mediocre populace.
This reality was something that had hurt her ego many times over but she had managed to accept that simple reality over time. But now, it was time for her to truly accept and surpass that reality to establish herself at the peak.
If so, then what did she want in reality?
Fight for Sol? Protect him? Avenge her father?
Setsuna sighed as she began to walk alone inside the darkness of this everlasting void in order to reach her Gate of Truth. She did not know when, but another woman had appeared next to her in this endlessly lonely and desolate plane.
Her features were impossible to distinguish but her exterior did not seem that much different from her own self.
As she walked further and further, images started to appear along the way one after the other. She easily recognized the first one. It was a picture of her as a child.
"This was a good time, wasn't it? Back then life was easy for you and everything you wished for was handed to you on a silver platter."
Setsuna smiled as she watched her younger, more spoiled, self. It was a time when she was still the Princess Sestuna and not Sestuna the Slave or Sestuna the Knight.
She passed this image of her over, causing it to dissipate on the horizon and more images to form.
The next image that greeted her was one she was just more than a bit familiar with. This was a picture that always greeted her in her nightmares and filled her with endless hatred and wrath.
"Sadly for you, Fate had something else in store. The indecision of your father, the ambition of your uncle, and finally the scheme and plans of the goddesses. It's hard to say that it's the fault of only one person... but the end results are there for all to see. On that night... You lost everything that you held dear."
Her father, in his giant wolf form, had fought alongside her mother against the usurper. Even though it deeply hurt her heart to admit it, the man was without a doubt extremely strong and worthy of his powers. He alone had managed to take on a King and someone who was not far behind the realm of a king without much of an issue and even landed a decisive and easy victory.
No matter how despicable he was, his power was the real deal and this was why she felt all the more frustrated inside of her mind.
Many more images started to follow soon after with no end in sight. One more blurry than the other, the images all kept showing the sight of a young girl running away from everything she had ever known. Venturing into the unknown. Fightings against her pursuers and the bandits along the way.
She could see herself crawling on the ground while clutching her stomach as hunger wrecked her body and mind.
She could also see her past self laying with her tongue out and her eyes hollow as she fought the effects of a poison she might have ingested while eating wild herbs.
This was... perhaps... the darkest period of her life. She nearly went completely feral during that time.
Death, hunger, powerlessness, depression, pain, and so much more.
So many negative emotions and sensations swirling in her mind, attacking her body, and corroding her will into nothingness.
The number of times she had thought of putting an end to her misery and simply dying was so numerous that they could not be counted with one's hands alone. But in the end, she held on and pushed through.
No matter how painful it was she held on.
Her life was not her own. Her life belonged to ail those who sacrificed themselves to keep her alive.
She had to fight. She had to survive.
Those were the only feelings in her mind until she finally reached Lustburg.
It was there that she found... her destiny... her beloved... her will to move forwards...
She stopped as an image of a young blonde-haired boy walking into the church and excitedly asking her permission to touch her ears and tails appeared in front of her.
"Sol..."
"He was your salvation. The sun that illuminated your heart that had been filled with nothing but darkness and hatred. Had he not existed, you would have most likely become insane and done deeds that you could never even hope to imagine."
Setsuna caressed the head of the smaller Sol, causing the image to scatter in the air.
After this, more joyful images followed.
Her moments with Sol were always filled with happiness and she never forgot her objectives and goals. Then Lilin was also added into the mix, her first true friend and another source of joy in her life.
If Sol was the sun giving him the warmth she so desperately needed to live on and sustain her will, then Lilin was like the moon, guiding her even in the darkest hours of her life and paving her path forward with her gentle light.
Those two had forever changed her life. They opened her dead heart and made her feel the joy of living once again.
Her desire for vengeance never left her, but it did not become an all-encompassing desire that was destined to burn her whole.
She stopped seeking vengeance for vengeance's sake. She now sought that in order to reach a new and more beautiful life by severing her past and accepting her future with them. They finally arrived in front of her Gate of Truth.
Both Sestuna and the featureless figure stayed silent as they watched the humongous gate that was slightly opened.
"You now know what you want, right?"
Sestuna smiled. Her gate was filled with images. Images from the present, images from the past, and even images she could not really make sense of yet.
All those images seemed to fuse in a grand whole and create one great picture.
A Wolf howling at the Sun and the Moon at the same time.
"Instructor Kali once told me that in a long-forgotten language, my name had a certain meaning."
When he was younger Sol loved sharing this kind of knowledge with her. Kali was much the same and she would always talk about how her linguistic skills were useless in this plane. Even though she was not able to understand what she meant by that.
"In that foreign language, Sestuna means (An Instantl I [A moment] or even a 1A split second]..."
The figure looked in her direction and Setsuna gently caressed the gate that was starting to open under her touch.
"My name is Sestuna. Perhaps this is Fate, destiny, or whatever you wish to name it. But I represent an instant. The very moment between life and death. The very moment between victory and defeat. The very moment... to change my destiny..."
She laughed, remembering the new catchphrase that Lilin had obtained after she opened her Zone...
'Distance is meaningless for her huh... Then...'
"Time will be meaningless for me. Let me take an instant in time... and stretch it into infinity... and beyond."
A smile formed on the figure before it slowly dissipated into particles of light and entered the slowly opening gate.
Setsuna did not know what the figure was. Perhaps another self of hers? The personification of her fears and insecurities? Or perhaps something more?
It did not really matter.
"Thank you..."
Thanks to the figure... she had now found her path. The path to her 'Truth.'
Back in the real world, Neun watched with progressively more disappointment as she received no feedback from inside the tornado. 'Did the princess give up?'
She could not help but wonder in her mind.
It was then-
Awooo!!!
A howl that seemed like it could tear open the entire sky could be heard coining from within the tornado that had trapped Setsuna. The Rain and Wind were stopped as Ice and Snow started to take their place, freezing everything on its route.
And in that very 'instant'...
- 'Time' itself stopped moving...
[Zone: Eternal Memories]
[A Step into the Present : - : Fimbulvetr [1]
(AN: Sestuna is Time and Lilin is Space. Haha, I think I did a pretty good job. The Setsuna zone is pretty broken. It can do so much. You will have to wait for the to see.)
(1]: Fimbulvetr is the eternal winter that precedes Ragnarök. The picture of the wolf with the sun was a reference to Fenrir, The Sun Devouring Wolf. Sestuna's goal isn't to devour the sun. Heh, at least not in that way...
