This time, our fight would be different. This time, it wouldn’t take losing everything for me to gain the strength necessary to defeat him.

This time, I’d fight with everything on the line to protect everyone behind me.

“Have I ever told you what the earth attribute is actually for?”

My mother’s words echoed ever so clearly in my head.

“It’s unique… it’s not like any ordinary elemental attribute, or at least, mine isn’t. Have you ever considered what the ground beneath us provides for our lives?”

As we were now, the strength and speed of myself and Seraphim were nearly equalized, his from his abundance of corrupted energy and mine from the two shards that now supplied my aether.

“Don’t think too hard about it. It’s quite simple, actually. The earth, ground, soil, dirt, whatever you want to call it, it all provides life itself.”

Both of us were capable of healing to some extent, but my human body of flesh and bone was much more vulnerable to the blades that were the sharpness of his limbs.

“The plants who drink nutrients from down below, the animals that seek shelter in underground burrows…”

For whatever reason, despite us both having the capacity for flight in our current forms, the clash between myself and Seraphim strictly remained on the ground.

It was almost like a dance, one person steps forward while another steps back, a balance of aether and corruption encircling one another in hopes of prevailing.

In this fight to the death, I couldn’t help but acknowledge that neither of us would be where we were now without the other. Not ‘the other’ as in our actual selves, but as in what we stood to represent.

Without regret, there couldn’t have been resolution, and without resolution, there couldn’t have been regret.

“...don’t you see? The concept of the earth gives through the presence of others, yet its very foundations allow itself to flourish only beside those it gives to… I hope you’ll be able to use this lesson to allow yourself to flourish.”

[ You are attempting to channel two attributes simultaneously ]

[ Your synchronicity with two shards has allowed you the authority to attempt the aforementioned task ]

I snatched the second shard out of the air and tightly clenched it within my fist.

In an almost reluctant awe, Seraphim halted to watch as the aura surrounding my right side shifted to a blazing jade hue while my left remained the white azure of my own aether-infused attribute.

“Your fleeting growth will mean nothing. In the end, NOTHING will remain!”

Seraphim raked his hands through the air, calling forth surging waves of angelic corrupted beasts.

Such a sight had previously instilled me with fear and hesitation, yet I now felt a strange, trance-like emotionless calm staring it down.

“Through the presence of others…” I whispered to myself.

With this foreign yet all too familiar energy throbbing around my right arm, I could finally put together what my mom had meant.

The true nature of the earth attribute was to grant more strength the more the user had to protect.

And right now, I was the last bastion, standing for all the lives that still held even a shred of hope in Synoria Outlook.

“What’re you standing around all spaced out for?!”

That voice brought me back to the present reality.

“Yukiko?”

First Dance: Layered Snowstorm

A blur of white zigzagged across my field of vision, cleanly wiping away the mass of enemies that rushed towards me. 

What was she doing here?

That was the first question that flashed through my mind. Logically speaking, wouldn’t Seika and Setsuya have told her to stay a safe distance away before coming here themselves?

Yet, a second, far more significant question then occupied my thoughts.

How had she managed to defeat that many angels with just one technique?

Both her speed and strength shouldn’t have been on the level that defined my battle with Seraphim. Moreover, she definitely wasn’t in possession of any enhancing objects like a shard.

“Stop staring and get over here, will you?”

With Yukiko’s sudden appearance, Seraphim had halted his movements completely. There was definitely something more going on that I wasn’t yet aware of.

I complied and rushed over to Yukiko.

Seraphim remained unmoving, his eyes fixed on our location.

I wanted to ask her questions, but I had too many to be able to ask any of them coherently.

How had she gotten so strong? What was she doing back here? What happened to Seraphim? And why, in the face of such a situation, was she suddenly so calmly resolute?

“I can’t answer all your questions here and now, but I hope this…”

She closed her eyes and exhaled.

“...will provide you some of the answers you’re searching for.”

***

The mindscape? How in the world was I back here again?

I had already visited this place twice within the past few minutes, but this time, something was most definitely different.

The feeling hanging in the air around me in this mindscape… wasn’t quite my own.

A blaze of mana appeared before me as Yukiko’s image took form.

“This is… the same as when our memories linked before– How did you manage to make this happen?”

“We’ve got a few minutes of time, so I’ll fill you in on the news one by one.”

She stepped forwards and swiped one hand through the air, causing the edges of the mindscape to spin before depicting our scene in the real world.

“That’s where you were fighting before. In short, that’s not the actual real world, and it hasn’t been since Seika and Setsuya began fighting.”

“What does that even mean?”

The scene shifted at her command again, now rewinding to the moment when the battle first began.

“Since this exact moment, the area around Synoria Outlook has been under Seraphim’s control. You’ve probably sensed it as the pressure of corrupted energy in the air.”

“So that’s what that was… but what’s all this about ‘the real world?’”

Tracing her finger through the air, Yukiko left afterimages of her mana, creating a three-tiered diagram.

“Let’s say this layer at the top is the real world.”

She drew a line connecting that section of the diagram to the one at the very bottom.

“This line represents Seraphim’s abilities. As you might’ve guessed, he thrives on targeting the emotion of regret, being able to force people into those same memories that serve as the root of their worst regrets.”

Now that she mentioned it, if she was here with me, that meant she had conquered and awoken from her own regrets too, right? 

“This layer at the bottom is that world of regret. It’s not quite a dream nor a memory, but something in between conjured from the depths of our minds. With those two out of the way, that leaves this one,” she said while pointing at the middle layer.

“This is where we are right now. A state between the slumber of your regrets and the wakefulness of the real world. It’s in this ‘in-between’ where Seraphim wields control beyond that of his actual powers in the real world.”

“So what exactly do we do? Are our physical bodies safe in the real world?”

“Seraphim’s consciousness is currently in the in-between along with us. Right now, both your body and Seraphim’s are standing still in a sort of stalemate. Whoever wins here will return faster and stronger.”

I couldn’t help but notice she didn’t mention her own body.

“But Seraphim was the one who created this place. If that’s the case, can’t he jump between any of the three states at will?”

“Not necessarily. These powers of regret run according to rules that not even their user can get around. In other words, Seraphim has to be able to conquer his own regrets as well.”

“A being like him can have regrets?”

“Hah… you’d be surprised…”

She looked away almost wistfully.

“Now for the next important piece of information. As you’ve probably witnessed, there are two distinct ‘versions’ of Seraphim that seem to be sharing the same body.”

“One lacks composure and is quick to anger while the other is so composed he seems almost ‘enlightened.’”

“Exactly. They’re both Seraphim but represent distinctly different aspects of his identity, almost as if his very concept was shattered and the pieces were haphazardly put back together.”

“But you’d know more about that, wouldn’t you?”

“Huh?”

Her expression quickly grew flustered.

“There’s not just two, but three different versions. Isn’t that right, Seraphim?”