Naelia erupts into a screetch of unbridled, irrational fury "CURSE YOU! HARUTO OKABE!" Consumed by rage entirely "If it is Silence you desire, then I shall grant it to you tenfold! I will hold absolute nothing back."
Naelia envelopes her entire body in Ritual Energy. Seizing the split-second window, Haruto bolts towards the discarded sword. Yet, before he could cover even half a meter, Naelia intercepts him, halting his momentum entirely. She utters, her voice a chilling paradox of burning anger and rigid composure "I will not let you!"
She Unleashes a devastating backhand aimed at Haruto's temple, Haruto anticipates the trajectory, he infuses his right elbow with Ritual Energy. He rises it to intercept the strike. The sheer kinetic shock of the collision ripples downward, instantly shattering the earth between them.
Capitalizing on Naelia's forward momentum, Haruto excutes a very high-speed to throw her off balance. He grabs the very wrist that Naelia used to strike him, and with his defensive hand now free, heavily charged with Ritual Energy– directly into the center of her torso.
Upon impact, Naelia gasps as a sharp slray of blood erupts from her mouth. Before the concussive force could propel her backwards, Haruto sharply twists his palm, imparting a violent torque that sent her spinning helplessly through the air.
A tempestuous shockwave radiates from the point of contact, sending a gale-force gust tearing through the vicinity that violently whips Haruto, and Naelia's hair and the onlookers. Naelia crashes heavily into the abandoned building behind her, the entire facade of the building buckles and collapses inward under the immense momentum.
Perched on the vantage point of the rooftop, Hirata watches the violent fight below, he says in anticipation "Incredible... Haruto is completely turning the tide! If he can just close the distance and get that sword, it is over!" He pauses, his expression clouded with skepticism "But where did that sword come from? It makes no sense, it fell from the sky." Without a whisper of sound, Amaru appears at his flank. Hirata flinches, barely managing to choke back a startled shriek. "Good grief!" Hirata hisses, glaring at Amaru "When exactly did you return? You nearly frightened the life out of me!"
Amaru replies evenly "I arrived the precise moment that sword was delivered to Haruto." Hirata realizes "So you are the one who had thrown that sword... That means you noticed as well." Amaru murmurs "Indeed" an analytical intrigue in his tone "Yes, he said he used to train with a sword. Yet, during our sparr session, he engaged me entirely unarmed, relying strictly on hand-to-hand combat. It was instantly obvious he was suppressing his true potential. I want to see with my one eyes."
Hirata stares at him, utterly dumbfounded "A sparring match? When did this happen? You tested Haruto yourself and omitted mentioning it to me?"
"Your recuperation was paramount, the Branch of Language is an exceptionally volatile and delicate power, it is a double-edged sword that demands immense cognitive precision. It lacks the relative structural safety of the Branch of Ritual, which carries far fewer systematic risks."
Haruto bolts toward the sword, lunging forward to claim it. Before his fingers could close around the hilt, however, Naelia erupts from the ruined building. Shattering the dense rubble with an explosive crash, she propels herself forward like a projectile.
Blinded by unbridled fury and desperate refusal to acknowledge her own vulnerability. She yells at Haruto "YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS! KNOW YOUR PLACE!"
Just as Haruto reaches out, Naelia slams her foot into the earth with catastrophic force. The ground fractures violently, and the resulting shockwave sends the sword spinning away, hurtling around eight meters behind him.
"Your hubris blinds you, Naelia!" Haruto counters seamlessly "It is precisely what will seal your downfall."
Instead of striking the shattered ground, Haruto flicks his toe upwards, launching a jagged stone shard with pinpoint precision. The projectile strikes Naelia squarely beneath the chin, snapping her head back and halting her advance.
Haruto seizes the split-second distraction, Haruto blurs past her in a blinding, short range dash. Materializing directly behind her, he uncoils a swift knife-hand strike to the nape of her neck, sending her crashing heavily to the ground.
Haruto takes advantage of the precious seconds she remained immobile, Haruto pivots flooding his legs with a fresh surge of Ritual Energy, he sprints towards the distant sword.
Skidding to a halt, Haruto finally closes his fingers around the hilt and lifts the sword. Across the clearing, Naelia staggered to her feet, her posture rigid with mounting frustration.
"It is over, Naelia! I will nothing back, I promise to grant you a painless death." Haruto declares.
Abandoning all strategy, Naelia charges towards him blindly, driven by raw fury. She shrieks "We will see about that!"
Haruto notes with an internal grimace of disgust "Yikes, this woman lost her mind"
Naelia unleashes a frenzied torrent of punches, her fists blurring with the speed of rapid-fire punching. Yet, with meticulous precision, Haruto parries each blade, angling his blade effortlessly to intercept her trajectories. The violent and metallic resonance of steel colliding with her reinforced fists dominates the field, drowning out all other sound.
Atop the rooftop, Hirata exhales a triumphant sigh of relief "YES! He finally has the sword in hand. Now, let us see how the tide truly turns."
Haruto marvels internally as the sword is in his grasp "This sword is already heavily saturated with Ritual Energy, this allows me to conserve my own reserves, not that I have much anyway, I am reaching my limit..."
Haruto exploits a momentary gap in her assault, he excutes a powerful upward slash. The sheer force disrupts her momentum, forcing Naelia to reel backwards, her balance falters, though she barely manages to keep her footing.
Capitalizing on her vulnerability, Haruto thrusts instantly, driving the tup of the sword directly towards her heart. Naelia reacts purely on survival instincts, she crosses her remaining two black swords vertically to block the lethal thrust. The blades collide with a harsh screech, a bright shower of friction-indused sparks erupt between them as she struggles to arrest his advance.
Even as Haruto pours greater force into his thrust, the sudden defeaning thud of his own heartbeat resonates in his ears. A violent wave of nausea crashes over him, reducing his vision to a hazy, undulating blur.
The momentum behind his sword rapidly deteriorates. Within four agonizing seconds, his offense stalls completely as a pervasive numbness crept into his hands, forcing him to expend every ounce of his remaining strength merely to keep his fingers locked around the hilt. Inevitably, his legs gave out, Haruto collapses heavily onto the fractured earth into a seated posture, desperately gasping for oxygen as his chest heaved painfully.
A cruel smirk returns to Naelia's face "Oh? It appears you have finally reached your limit, Haruto Okabe."
Haruto thinks frantically, his mind racing against the encroaching fatigue "Crap, I am running out of energy! If this keeps up, my defeat is absolute!"
Naelia glares down at him, her face contorted into a mask of disgust and rage. As Haruto struggles vainly to force his body upwards, she seizes him by the throat and hauls him off the ground. She unleashes a brutal barrage of punches across Haruto's face, her fists strike his cheeks with vicious, relentless force, she says coldly between blows "Finally, perhaps this will beat the reality of your limits into you, how patheic."
Pivoting sharply to build momentum, she hurls Haruto into the air, followed through a devastating and sweeping kick, she launches him helplessly back towards the exact same ruined wall he had smashed her into moments prior.
Haruto collides with the already crumbled masonry, his body crumpling against the debris. A heavy and agonizing cough racks his frame, spraying dark blood as his breathing grew terrifyingly shallow. Blood streaming down his face and dripping on the ground with audible liquidy sound.
He muttere weakly within the confines of his fading consciousness, the world slipping away from him "I am so weak... I could not even defeat her. I am so sorry, Hirata..."
High above on the rooftop, sheer panic finally overtakes Hirata "SHIT! SUDDENLY CAN'T MOVE!" He yells, Hirata's voice cracks as he turned frantically to Amaru "Amaru-sensei, if you refuse to intervene, then I am sorry, but I absolutely will not stand by and let my friend die!"
Amaru casts a sharp, impassive sidelong glance at Hirata "Hold your horses and observe. In fact, we have only just reached the climax. Watch closely, and do not move a muscle. I have already taken my steps."
Naelia closes the distance with a slow, agonizingly arrogant stride. She declares "it is time for you to accompany me. The Silent Abyss demands your silence. And fret not, your dear friend shall follow you into the dark soon enough. I commend you, Haruto Okabe. You fought with valor."
As he lays broken amidst the crushing weight of the rubble, a sudden, inexplicable surge of Ritual Energy floods Haruto's vein. Haruto thinks in confusion through his haze of pain "what is this? I feel as though I can stand again... what is happening? It is as if my entire body is being revitalized from within."
He forces his breathing to remain shallow and erratic. Haruto commits to the ruse, he lets his limbs hang limp "I will seize this one final opportunity ." He resolves in the silent confines of his mind "I will play dead and prepare my strike."
Hidden from her direct line of sight beneath the shroud of dust and debris, Haruto begins to meticulously and gradually channel this newfound wellspring of Ritual Energy directly into the top of the sword still tightly gripped in his hand."
"This time, I withhold nothing." Haruto vows inwardly, he focuses every ounce of his willpower into the blade "I must wager everything on this single gamble. I have an idea... I only hope it works."
Pausing mere paces away, Naelia's senses pick up the faint, lingering resonance of Haruto's energy. A condescending sigh escapes her lips "Oh? So a pitiful ember of energy still flickers within you, I see." She mocks him "It matters not. You lack the strength to wield it, and your struggles are futile regardless. I am required to bring you to the Silent Abyss alive."
Three agonizing seconds stretch out as Naelia continues her slow and deliberate march towards him. "Almost there..." Harito chants Silently, bracing himself against the crushing weight of rubble.
Another three seconds pass. Naelia is now a mere two meters away, completely wrapped in her own conceit.
Haruto notes, a grim satisfaction cutting through his exhaustion "Just half a meter more. The tip of the blade is fully charged now."
A fraction of second later, Naelia steps within one meter and a half radius, entirely consumed by her vanity and the thrill of her perceived triumph. In that exact window, Haruto explodes into motion. Explosively shifting into a low, lunging stance. He funnels every single bit of his remaining Ritual Energy directly into his legs. He launches himself forward like a catastrophic projectile, keeping the sword level and driving it horizontally straight towards Naelia's chest. The sheer, violent force of his takeoff completely obliterates the fragile remnants of the abandoned building behind him, sending a colossal wave of dense smoke and pulverizsd masonry cascading across the entire vicinity.
For a terrifying moment, Naelia fails to register the threat. Then, her stomach drops in sheer panic. Driven by pure survival instinct, her twin black swords fly up to wall her chest.
"THIS IS THE END,NAELIA! IT IS OVER!" Haruto roars, his voice cuts through the defeaning structural collapse.
"How in the world can you still fight?!" Naelia yells back, her composure completely disintegrating "I know you were entirely depleted of Ritual Energy! There is absolutely no way I am losing to an anomaly like you!"
An instant later, Haruto's energized blade collides violently with Naelia's crossed black swords, which she had stacked one over the other to absorb the damage of the impact. The cataclysmic shock of the collision blows a wind tempest, sending a howling wind tearing outward through the entirely of the remote town.
The tempestuous wind slaps against Hirata and Amaru's faces. Hirata's hair whips wildly in the turbulence, whereas Amaru's long locks merely shifts with a heavy fluidity, remaining firmly draped over his ears.
Hirata cries out over the howling wind "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!' His eyes wide with disbelief "How did Haruto tap into that much power? A second ago, he could not even twich a muscle!?"
Amaru offers his student a brief, unreadable glance before redirecting his focus to the epicenter of the collision.
Down in the center, Haruto maintains a relentless, forward-driving pressure, forcing the tip of his blade against Naelia's overlapping black swords. With every ticking second, the force behind his thrust intensifies exponentially.
Haruto shouts, the gale slicing through his hair "What a disappointment, you are far weaker than I anticipated. In the end, your own vanity paved the way for your ruin."
Naelia bares her teeth, strain evident in her features as she fought to keep his blade from piercing hee guard "Who are you to dictate the end of this fight?!" She screams back in defiance "I will kill you, I will tear you apart! I will make you suffer!"
"SILENCE, NAELIA OF THE ABYSS!" Haruto roars at the absolute of peak of his lungs. An overwhelming surge of power ripples through his arms? And his thrust became too so devastatingly intense that Naelia's twin black swords shatter into flying fragments. To Naelia, the world suddenly seemed to grind to a tortuous halt. Time dilated around her. Sbe watches in slow motion as her unbreakable defense shatter into nothingness, leaving her entirely exposed as the tip of Haruto's sword advances inexorably toward her heart.
"I cannot believe my own defeat.." she realizes "In the end, it was I who was silenced."
The sword breaches Naelia's defenses, piercing straight through her heart. The exact moment of impact, Haruto lets out a defeaning cry, detonating every ounce of the highly concentrated Ritual Energy he had funneled into the tip. The explosive power culminates in a blinding flash; after a single second of the blade piercing into her heart, tbe concussive force propels Naelia backwards like a meteor, launching her straight towards the structure where Hirata and Amaru kept watch.
Hirata shouts in exhilaration "Incredible! He completely flipped the script and secured victory with a single hit, Haruto is absolutely amazing!"
"Brace yourself, Hirata." Amaru says calmly with sharp urgency "This building will collapse, we are out of time. Cling to my back, quickly!"
Before Hirata could even process the order, Naelia's airborne form impacts the base of their vantage point with cataclysmic momentum. The entire facade of the building buckles and disintegrates under the shockwave, leaving only the remaining three walls teetering precariously. A defeaning sound of grinding stone and fracturing concrete fill the air, completely swallowing the clearing in a dense, suffocating cloud of dust.
Haruto stands frozen in the middle of the dust for several seconds. His frame shudders as a heavy cough tears from his throat, spraying blood, his body weeps blood from dozens of wounds across his body. The world spins, his consciousness begins to fade slowly, and his legs tremble and shake.
Just as his remaining strength fails and as about to collapse on the ground, Hirata catches him, cushioning the fall against his own shoulder. Clinging to his friend with a trembling grip, tears well in Hirata's eyes and spill down his cheeks.
Hirata cries with panic in his voice "HARUTO! ARE YOU ALRIGHT? Please stay with me! Talk to me!" A faint fractured smile touches Haruto's bloody face. He forces his heavy eyelids open, looking at Hirata "I am fine Hirata... Do not worry." He murmurs, his voice barely a rasp "I am just glad you are safe."