Celeste feinted a high swing, forcing Esthia to raise her scythe, then pivoted on her heel, delivering a passionate kick to Esthia's knee.
"You're predictable," Celeste muttered, profiting on the vampire's stagger by thrusting her glaive toward her unprotected side.
But Esthia anticipated it, letting her body dissolve into mist as the glaive passed through. "Am I?" her echoing voice was as annoying as it could get. Which was highly annoying if you didn't know.
A glaive was a weapon that not many people from the race used since spears, they all thought, were better. But to some, glaive offered a more versatile use at the cost of having to train more. Celeste was on of the people who trained their whole body to the breaking point every day.
The flame on her blade began to burn brightly, and her wound had stopped bleeding, although not healed.
The air around her shimmered with heat, distorting Esthia's figure. When the scythe came for her again, Celeste swirled her glaive, pulling the flames into a spiral that deflected the strike like a burning storm.
Esthia's echoes hissed, retreating, but her grim reaper loomed closer, extending its skeletal hand. It made a shadow on the ground and from it, spectral chains erupted, lashing out to ensnare Celeste's legs.
"You'll have to do better," Celeste mocked, slamming her glaive into the ground. A pulse of light erupted, shattering the chains into fading embers.
Celeste darted to the side, avoiding the arc of Esthia's scythe, which cleaved through a white wall, but now charred and soiled due to the ongoing fight.
The wall shattered, its shards hurled in every direction. Thinking fast, Celeste caught a fragment mid-air and hurled it back at Esthia, her glaive's flames igniting the projectile.
The vampire swatted it aside as if she had anticipated it, burning some of her mist in the process, only for Celeste to use the distraction to close the distance, driving her glaive upward in a blazing arc.
"You can't win, Celeste," Esthia whispered, "Not against the mist you can't. Those are made to include my predecessors' skills." The grim reaper attacked her next, which she easily avoided while parrying Esthia.
Her heart pounded after hearing where the grim repeat got skills from, but she forced a smirk. "Then you know what's coming next."
Before Esthia could respond, Celeste threw her glaive into the air, its flames erupting like a flash bomb. The sudden burst of light blinded the vampire, buying Celeste the split second she needed to close the gap and drive her knee into Esthia's gut.
She retreated back and caught her glaived and held it sideways. She bent forward slightly and rushed at an unimaginable speed— something that even the grim reaper behind Esthia could not see.
The blade cut cleanly through Esthia's neck, and her lifeless body fell to the ground. But there was no blood anyhow, black mist started to seep out of her body, and the grim reaper seeped into Esthia, like it was becoming a part of her.
Celeste spat out another handful of blood, but they did not burn and hit the ground. "It takes such a toll on my body," She complained to herself.
Her body was swallowed by mist and it started to thicken around her, obscuring her figure. Celeste's grip on her glaive tightened, her sharp eyes scanning the swirling fog.
As the mist thickened, Celeste gritted her teeth. She couldn't see, but she could feel the oppressive air of Esthia's presence growing.
Suddenly, a sharp pain erupted in her side as a black blade pierced her ribs. She did not see it coming. But instead of retreating, Celeste grabbed the blade with her hand, letting her fire consume it.
She flew up and held her glaive toward the mist sphere. The catalyst on her weapon started to glow as her cold bronze eyes focused on the entirety of the place her attack was going to be. "Fly up Avians, grab the pilgrims!" She shouted at the fighting Avian and pilgrims and turned her attention back on the sphere.
Celeste opened her mouth and voiced her attack slowly.
She closed her eyes slightly before opening them again, the bronze iris started to glow brightly in a golden color.
The ground beneath Celest began to boil, and all the Avians fighting flew up. Except for a couple who were caught by the Vampires they were fighting against— but one managed to throw the vampire onto the ground, while the other was thrown to the ground first.
Everyone on the ground started to scream as the ground gave way to lava. Even a handful of pilgrims who were fighting the vampires got caught up in the chaos. But some Avians managed to rescue them, regretfully leaving three on the ground.
All the people left on the ground began to burn as they all squirmed and fought each other to escape. Some stepped on others, their comrades, while some grabbed others with them while trying to escape.
It was an ugly sight, the kind of sight you see in the depths of hell. The boiling river ate up bodies while they tried to escape using anyone present. This was a true Lacus ex Inferno, in other words— a lake from hell. But its power diminished due to the lack of sunlight.
The screaming quieted down in a few moments' time, but the mist— her actual target— was not affected. The mist got thickened, but like an experienced fighter, she did not wait for whatever was coming.
She held the glaive sideways and the blade grew in size. Holding the shaft with both hands, she rushed forward with a flap of her wings, aiming to cut the mist in half.
It was quick, precise, and practically was nothing to write describe about. A single slash cut the mist in half, and the body inside dispersed into black mist and vanished.
Now you might be thinking, did it end just like that? Of course not.
The next thing Celeste knew after wondering why it ended just like that, the sky started to get opened like a zip lock. They parted like window curtains, and the darkness beneath it began to grow.
Light went out like someone blew out the candles and darkness encapsulated the whole place.