Chapter 34 - 31: Reunion of Hearts
Miyabi reawakened, her breath steady but her mind still heavy with the weight of what she had just endured. Her body had changed—her once black hair now gleamed white with blue-tipped ends, her ears sharper, her form more refined. A tail, something she never possessed before, swayed behind her, mirroring the icy hue of her transformation. Her weapon, too, had changed. The katana she once wielded was now a Nodachi, a much larger blade exuding an overwhelming presence of power. She could feel its energy hum in her grasp as if acknowledging the shift in her very being.
Her golden eyes slowly rose to meet the Ethereal, which had regenerated, standing before her with its grotesque hammer. It snarled, seemingly undeterred, but something in the atmosphere shifted. The world had gone silent. The only sound left was the slow, deliberate impact of Miyabi's boots against the frozen ground as she walked forward.
The Ethereal, for all its unnatural might, suddenly began to tremble. A primal fear, something deeper than logic, coursed through it. It wanted to flee, but it couldn't. It was as if the ground had swallowed its feet whole, leaving it at the mercy of the predator before it. Miyabi's presence was suffocating, an unseen force pressing down on reality itself.
She walked past the Ethereal without even glancing at it. Then, without warning, five deep slashes carved into its massive body. The Ethereal let out a bloodcurdling cry of pain, ichor splattering the frostbitten terrain. Miyabi didn't stop, didn't turn back. Her voice, cold and emotionless, cut through the silence.
"Stay down. No matter what you do, it won't change anything."
For a moment, the Ethereal's fear was replaced by something else—rage. It roared, defying its own terror, and lunged toward her in desperation. But Miyabi didn't flinch. She turned, throwing her Nodachi forward with inhuman precision. The massive blade impaled the creature's chest, the sheer force sending it crashing backward.
Miyabi was on it before it could even react. With a heavy stomp, she pinned it beneath her foot, her Nodachi still embedded in its torso.
She exhaled, her shoulders tensing. Her mind clouded with sorrow and fury. The anguish of loss. The torment of helplessness. The memories of everything she couldn't stop. The image of Ellen's lifeless body on that screen, mocked by the so-called Doctor, flashed before her eyes.
A deep, guttural roar ripped from her throat, shaking the very air around her. A pillar of ethereal blue fire erupted from her body, swallowing everything in its vicinity. Yet, instead of burning, the flames froze everything in its path. The once ravaged battlefield had turned into an arctic wasteland. Ice stretched in all directions, trapping everything in an eternal frost, the sheer intensity of her power leaving nothing untouched. The Ethereal beneath her was no exception—it twitched once before falling completely still, encased in a crystal coffin of ice.