Kenna’s reaction to his comment appeared more surprised than embarrassed or anything else, seemingly because of her opinion to this transformation. He barely concluded yet what kind of creature that she had become, but it wouldn’t change much of his expression anyway. He was an admirer of many things, and this wasn’t the first time that Kenna had impressed him. It was the same case back at the cave, so he couldn’t really react any other way than this. “No… I think that you look MARVELOUS!” he replied to her rather insecure question. It was as if she didn’t see the same in her new form as he did; all that he felt was a large amount of mana erupting from her very fingertips. It even reminded him of Mashyuu a little. S-So much magic power…, he thought as she was about to climb up of the crater, while he reached out a hand to try and help her up. However, as he was just inches away from her grasp, Kenna went out in a blur, completely gone from the view. Imai had to blink a couple of times to let his brain function again as he looked around, only to spot her over at the teddy bear which she struggled with previously. It was still alive? Last time that he checked, it had gotten pretty damaged due to everyone’s contribution, but even the plush had a lot of endurance. It would be much more difficult with the very source of its magic, then…
Her fangs appeared to do the trick and rip open its stomach as Imai was recovering a little more. It was also good, because the amount of mana coming from her was enough to even make Imai’s skin sting a little. It was a damn good magic supply that she possessed, that girl. The teddy bear seemed to be overflown by a horde of spirits that rose from the magic circle that spawned beneath her feet, tearing its inner into oblivion as they entered its cotton body. When it exploded, Imai covered his face with an arm, spotting that the cotton flew in all directions from the scene. After a couple of seconds, it finally began calming down again, and Imai could finally look back up to Kenna walking back towards them. “… That. Was. NEAT!” he commented with shiny, sparkling eyes, “You showed that darn ted who the boss is! Good job..!” That was also when Kenna spoke about her magic, or rather, her body; the very same magic power that Imai saw clearly was really beginning to pose a trouble as it sounded to be unstable.
“Yeah… it’s like four-five versus one now, let’s jump in now,” Imai replied. He pushed himself up from the ground and began approaching the scene where Mashyuu was showing this little kid who the real powerhouse was. His Earth God Combo was devastating, causing massive cracks to shatter the surface and cut off Lilith’s domination, turning the tables to his advantage. With the scene in front of him, Imai’s gloves glowed up, preparing him for combat as Sei rested on his shoulder. It was smart, because the unexpected happened right after; as Mashyuu appeared to have the upper hand, Lilith made a comeback by spawning black spears out of nowhere which put a good hurt on the Earth Mage. “Mashyuu!!!” Imai shouted by the view, at the same time spotting Itsu rush to his aid like the comrade that she was. Imai followed troop right beside her, but the force of instinct caused him to leap to the side as Lilith targeted them both. His eyes could briefly see Itsu getting surrounded by shadowy objects, her shouts and screams echoing through the cosmic mage’s mind. “Itsu, no..!!!” he roared out in shock. Crap, Lilith was targeting everyone but him; even Kenna behind him was attacked as well. He tried to leap back to her aid, but he only found her assaulted body being lift up by Avide. “…” His eyes were quite widened by the scene, his head slowly turning back towards the demonic presence. Her words appeared to target him now, realizing his state of solitude now that everyone appeared to be out for the moment. His teeth grinded by it, prompting his body to dash forward as he clenched a fist. He was about to plant it right on her sick face when all of a sudden, the entire atmosphere changed around the two mages. Her last words spoken in that plane of reality was ‘Nightmare Realm’…
… It was cold. Imai didn’t feel like opening his eyes at the moment, but the truth was that his eyes had never been so widened. Perhaps, due to the darkness that surrounded him, he felt that his eyes were shut when the truth was that they were open. It was first when he began blinking that he noticed it. “…” This plane was terrifying, so much black and nothing to focus on… nothing stood out of the black color, not even his own hands as he laid his eyes on them. “… Did I… did I die..?” he questioned himself. He was frightened for life right now, nothing seemed to make any sense. Where was Lilith? He couldn’t spot her nor feel her magical presence anywhere in this world, only cold and empty voids. He was next to proceed into losing his mind when Sei suddenly appeared beside his shoulder, shocking the cosmic mage. “S-SEI!?” he spoke up in utter surprise, “… Hey, it is you, right?” He poked the little alien just to be sure; who knew, perhaps Lilith was trying to fool his feelings again. However, it turned out to be the real deal by time; Sei had no intentions of harming its beloved friend. Sei couldn’t warn him properly, though, as a fierce impact hit his chin all of a sudden. It caused blood to trickle out as Imai was punched to the left. “!!!” He couldn’t counter that direct attack, which worried him more than the attack harmed him. However, the only thing that indicated her presence now was her soon laughter over the scene. That made him look around again, his eyes glowing bright-blue due to his own resource of mana. Unlike earlier, she never said anything else other than that sick, evil laughter of hers. Closing his eyes for a moment, he tried to track down her magic power like before; being of such caliber, it would’ve been easy if not for the void. He didn’t have many chances at finding her in this blackness. “…” That was when he didn’t think much anymore, letting his pure instincts guide him to survival. He began breathing in and out, first slowly, then pacing it up a little by time. Sweat trickled down his face as he did that, and the overall situation caused another laughter from the abomination. “So what are you trying to plan now? Or perhaps, you broke down already..?” her light, childish voice asked out with echoes following the message. Imai ignored her given by his silence and closed eyes, while his mana settled inside his body. … So this is my magic, he began thinking for himself, Damn, I still have that much mana? Then why… why am I holding back so much? It… it can’t be that I’m scared, is it? No… it’s not fear, it’s just…
A stranger grabbed his shoulder by then. It made him jumpscare like never before, his face going completely white with black counter and everything. He felt that he was about to get hit or stabbed for sure, but when the mind settled and his view convinced him, it appeared to be some old geezer and not Lilith. “… I’ve seen you before,” Imai spoke after a moment of silence. The male sure stood out with the black void in the background. His beard was a little thick, but what surprised Imai was his amount of mana. “I don’t have much time, and neither do you,” the old man spoke back to him with a strong and echoing voice, “Strike! Waver not, my darling..!” Wait, what did he mean by darling? Why did this creep-looking guy call Imai his darling? It began worrying him more than Lilith at this point due to the peace that dominated this specific instant. “H-Hey, what’s with the darling stuff? Who are you?! Don’t tell me that you’re one of those that Mum asked me to stay away from-“ Imai’s words were cut off by the sudden laugh from the very same person that he was fighting against, causing both him and the old man to look towards the source… or rather, towards the direction that they assumed to contain the source. With another tap on the shoulder, Imai suddenly felt what to do now. It was like an awoken instinct, and given by his next thoughts, he decided to take this plan into action.
A loud roar erupted from his mouth as Imai launched both arms to each side, his legs stretching out below. It looked like that he was about to make a snow angle, but then the blue light that signaled his magic burst out from his body in all directions, ignoring the void and pushing the black color away. Lilith’s continuous laughter began dying out as the scene changed, Imai’s roar echoing and continuing due to the strain that this would give him. He had no intentions of holding back, though, and as that was settled, the scene finally changed to what suited him better. A plane filled with dots upon dots, bluish and reddish clouds and astronomical objects was now his world, his advantage. Imai began feeling the limit-breaking mana struggle with his body, but he focused every thought and every move into this. Slowly, both his hands met at the middle, while what sounded to be electricity travelled across the cosmos. His entire body vibrated, and the bluish mana that flew everywhere began wrapping around his skin and shrink around that area only. When that happened, what looked like a ball formed before both his hands. Even the stars in the background began circling around him due to the action that was taken, while Imai roared with all his might: “LILITH!!! YOU AIN’T GOT NOTHING ON ME, YOU SICK DEVIL!!!” His teeth then pushed against each other with a lot of force as the black ball began pulling everything towards it; stars, air, even the light itself couldn’t escape from the black hole that he created. Sweat flowed down his face like waterfalls when he finally succeeded in creating that orb, but it was more than sufficient to overload the plane that she called ‘Nightmare Realm’. Soon, what looked like a stretched painting of Lilith came into view, which was only because of the gravitational pull that his black hole emitted. Her laughter had turned into screams, her power being dominated by his. Slowly, the stretched figure was grabbed by the center of the black hole itself, which began to speed up the absorption. It sounded like a vacuum cleaner sucking up rubber, while Imai gave a last roar of struggle to speed up the absorption that ended up breaking the spaces around him. When Lilith appeared lost within the void, he could finally breathe with relief again…
It took a while for him to notice the old man behind him again, gazing at the young boy in the middle of cosmos. He gave out a soft laughter, one that was much more innocent than Lilith’s crooked voice. Imai had yet to realize who he was, though, as the male simply waved goodbye to the cosmic mage and disappeared. And with that, a blur simply passed him and Imai found himself reappearing from the void outside, spawning in from the same black hole that pulled in Lilith as her fainted body was to be found beneath his feet. She was still breathing heavily, but her magic power had weakened her to the point where she could barely lift a finger or anything. “… Uhm, I think that I did it,” he commented with a hand behind his head. Mashyuu sounded relieved to see him well and sound, and he even suggested Imai to turn in the serial killer. “… You betcha!”
WC: 2570 + 2060 = 4630