WITCH OF THE END

Luna’s eyes fluttered open, the red light of the morning sun invading her eyes with its sharp rays. She wasn’t yet used to the harsh light of this desert so she winced as she lifted herself from the comfort of her sleeping bag.

‘I guess the serpent didn’t notice us.’ She mused after accounting for everyone. They had spent the night on the lower side of a large dune while hiding from the Cursed Emperor. It was surprising that the creature didn't even waste a minute on them.

What surprised her more was the fact she had managed to sleep through the serpent’s presence. Its image was still fresh in her mind…its gigantic scaled body, glowing under the moonlight as it consumed countless monsters in one bite. Some of those dead creatures were the size of cars by the way.

“Rise and shine, princess.”

Darkness approached her with a wide grin. Her timing was perfect as if she had been waiting for Luna to wake up all this time.

Luna looked up and smirked. "Did you rehearse that line while I was sleeping?" she asked while yawning at the break of dawn.

"Hehe. Probably..."

The warmonger’s beautiful face was covered in sweat, her chest rising and falling steadily. She was already out of her nanoskin uniform and was now in a light cream garment that looked similar to the tunic Gail was in. Though the garment was too short and its hem barely reached her knees. It looks like Darkness hadn’t considered her height when they retrieved the clothes from the ruined city.

Unfortunately, no one else stumbled upon an ancient temple like Luna. The rest of the buildings were covered in sand with a few things still left behind like rusty cutlery, deteriorating furniture, and clothes. As expected from people used to desert conditions, their way of dressing was light clothing.

What made the tunics even more special was the self-restoring ability that activated once someone willed zenshi into it. On top of that, Gail discovered a passive enchantment that increased resistance to extreme cold and hot conditions.

Luna was fascinated by how the people of the ancient civilization were able to create such tough magical fabric. Was it silk harvested from a creature or sorcery way beyond mundane human understanding?

Luna stared at her own tunic, which was a bit too large for her small body. Mira had to adjust it for it to fit her small frame. The fitting wasn’t perfect since she still looked like a child in the presence of giants like Adam and Darkness.

She held back from rolling her eyes. “You seem pretty happy. What is it?"

“I’m from having a good fight with Adam and Monic. Those two are monsters. I adapt easily, so of course I won..”

“I see...I see. And you’re here for?” Luna raised her eyebrow in question.

“After your fight against the horrible sandworm, I am more interested in sparring with you. I would’ve picked Mira, but her body might break from the sheer force of my attacks.”

‘Really? Is this what I am to her? A durable fighting toy. This is so degrading.’

Even though her inner self was throwing a tantrum, Luna’s face remained calm and stoic. If she looked at things differently then Darkness’s words meant that she was a worthy opponent.

‘Lena was right, I should try looking at things positively.’ With a thought, she stretched and picked up her sheathed sword. She then stood up and looked Darkness in the eyes with a serious expression. The scene must’ve looked comical because of the height difference.

“I’ve been meaning to stretch my muscles recently,” she said with a hint of arrogance. “How can I refuse the opportunity to train with the mighty Darkness?”

They still had some time before they proceeded to cross the field. Also, Luna needed to spar to continue sharpening her individual combat skills. Seeing the cursed emperor last night reminded her of how high the stakes were and how weak she was in comparison to the people she wanted to protect.

…No weak person could come out of this dungeon alive. And If they did enter it did enter it weak, they would come out stronger.

“Very well then.”

Darkness took a few steps back and held out her hand as her weapon began to manifest. First, bright blue flames burst out of her right hand and slowly began to take shape. The Zenshi finally took the shape of a jian before fully transforming into a beautiful silver Jian that glimmered and reflected the red light rays from the sun which were already pushing away the night’s coldness.

Luna studied the Jian briefly with her eyes and sighed. Manifested weapons were weapons created solely from Zenshi, they were stronger replicas of the normal mundane weapons. However, the more complicated a weapon was in terms of design, the longer it took to imagine and manifest. If it were rushed, the weapon could easily collapse.

…But ascenders like Darkness were different. In fact, legacies were different when it came to such. The majority of them stuck to old-fashioned weapons like swords, spears, bows, and sometimes armor. A few could manifest shotguns and older models of guns due to their less complicated designs from the old times. Also, the higher your level of mastery, the sturdier your weapon was.

“Nice blade.”

“Not as good as that sword of yours. My blade is just a replica, yours is something stronger. You just love holding back.”

Luna scoffed and slowly drew her black katana from its scabbard. It was light despite it being made of enchanted metal. The sword’s sharp edge was finely curved to show the beautiful craftsmanship the swordsmith used to create the enchanted sword.

The pair moved a distance away from the dune, afraid to damage the landscape because of how physically strong the pair was.

Darkness was a summoner of incredible strength with gravity manipulation. And while Luna didn’t have the glory of being blessed with mystical powers, her combat skills spoke volumes of how lethal she was when it came to fighting. Her skills with multiple weapons, especially the sword were almost flawless…turning her into the Dark Blade her mother and sister usually spoke highly of.

Few people knew of her physical super strength. Which was one of her trump cards if the need to use it fully ever came. But currently, Luna so no use for it. Darkness was just as strong, so relying on her strength was a tempting but dumb idea.

To take down Darkness, she needed to adapt to her instant movements. The ascender was fast when it came to instantaneous movements. So these unnatural movements were hard to predict even with Qi sensing active.

During their training session at the hospital, Luna relied on her intuition to predict Darkness’s speed. But now...she probably must have noticed that, meaning Darkness was going to try and trick her intuition. She was a combat analyst, so using the same trick wasn't going to work. Anyway, this rematch was long due...

Pointing her jian at her, Darkness asked with a serious tone:

“Shall we begin?”