[YGG] Ygg Crew Adventures: Episode 9928B - Crim v Einst

{BGM: “Godspeed”}

From Crim’s stance and delayed action, Einst knew better than to assume he’d caught the Captain. In fact, his decision to use the Gatotsu as his opening strike was based solely on the Captain’s own familiarity with the technique. Crim would know the technique and be to react in time, there was no doubt about that. He had noticed that Crim lacked the usual resonance of power, as even while suppressing one’s own power Einst could detect the faintest ripple of ether. Be that as it may, Einst didn’t need to read the Captain’s energy in order to fight. The sort of enemies the two were accustomed to fighting made relying on such methods wholly unreliable in the first place.

With that in mind, as Einst carried out his attack and Crim drew his ARM with lightning speed and precision, he was prepared to deflect whatever came his way. The HI-IMPACT round collided with his sword and erupted in a small geyser of green ether that spread in a noticeable dome-pattern. Meanwhile, the immediate effect for Einst to deal with would have been the physical shockwave, in which he detected no ulterior threat. The wave washed over him, managing only to push him back about a meter before he recuperated. If there was anything the Captain should have remembered, it would be that it was nearly impossible to disrupt Einst’s balance. It was a good attempt, but one that fell short as Einst used the reversal of momentum to throw himself backward much like Crim had.

{BGM: “Ride of the Valkyries”}

Crim flipped backward, releasing a crescent-wave of green ether in his direction, while Einst also flipped backward, sheathing the ‘Ochi’ and pulling the Valkyrie from its massive scabbard slung across his back. The enormous blade was well documented as being dangerously unstable and most difficult for the swordsman to control, and yet none of those difficulties appeared to remain. The Valkyrie exhibited no condemning shriek or suffocating power—rather, like the Captain, it exuded nothing. The crescent-wave broke over the scabbard protecting the White Swordsman’s back, continuing around him to connect with the energy field erected by the Captain and sending the entire area up in smoke.

A bare instant after the Captain’s chained attack fired off, a secondary explosion appeared much higher in the sky, only it was a blinding white in color, and nothing like what the Captain had used. It seemed to spread like a carpet bomb effect through the orange and purple streaked clouds above, eventually descending from the ‘center’. Somehow, the White Swordsman had managed to use the Valkyrie as some sort of blast-shield to literally ride the wave high up into the sky and now….now he was apparently surfing the waves of his own explosions!

Each burst brought an equal bump in velocity, with Einst front and center making a frenzied bee-line for the Captain, sword underfoot. If he listened closely he would be able to hear the man’s frantic screaming, as if this was all just one major accident. For all anyone knew it very well could have been, as the sheer level of force carried with his “attack” was far more than he typically used at such an early stage of battle. Of course, it was no accident...but it was entertaining.

Despite all of the apparent chaos, Einst was paying extremely close attention to every little detail in the Captain’s actions. He had chosen to stand ready with his ARM once more, while quietly readying one of his materia beneath the cover of his Turk jacket. The Captain might have exhibited no discernible energy patterns or anything than emptiness, but his materia was a different story, especially in the presence of Einst. He didn’t know what spell was coming, or what effect Crim was going to add to his next move, but he knew something was coming and that was enough. As for the more immediate, Einst rode the Valkyrie all the way through to the last 100 meters of his descent, shoving the blade down with another explosive burst of speed via his legs. Far exceeding the sound barrier by multiple times, the blade would skewer the Captain right through his gut if left unchecked, pinning or burying him in the sand behind him. This left Einst to land several dozens of meters away, one hand resting on each of the blades sheathed at his hips. His stance was completely foreign to Crim, undoubtedly picked up in his time on Zerania. Upon taking up his stance, Einst’s body began to slowly pulse with some form of empty, white light.

While he only expected his attack to inconvenience Crim and not actually strike true, there was a purpose behind it. Despite leaving Einst’s hand, the Valkyrie still appeared to be dormant, at least for the time being.

“You’re move, Cap.”

{BGM: “Force of Will”}

Einst’s face lit up in both surprise and wonder as he watched Crim swallow up the Valkyrie with some manner of new trick, which he was able to make out the faint glow of what appeared to be a new rune on his hand. Some form of spatial manipulation, that was no doubt going to cause issues eventually. He continued on his path to the ground, landing and taking up his new stance despite the development. When his blade reappeared far off in the distance, Einst couldn’t help but smile. His body became enveloped with that empty white light, while Crim remained in place, still readying that materia though he had begun to also fumble within his coat. He spouted off something about this being a test and what his deal was, to which Einst eagerly responded.

“Too slow, Cap!”

Twincast:

Phase Break (Magic Equip) - - Rerun

As Crim knew well, Einst was a near peerless swordsman, yet he was an even better High Mage. Utilizing a skill he rarely ever showcased, Einst near instantly cast two spells alongside one another—especially when compared to the long charge of the Captain’s materia. The white light faded, and when it did the Captain would be subjected to the powerful school of magic Einst referred to as Phase Manipulation. So long as he could sense an item’s presence, he could target it and with the Captain taking his time to cast an undoubtedly high tier of magic, he had plenty of time to lock onto it. Materia generally didn’t come with external enchantments to prevent them from being broken, which was exactly what Einst had attempted to do. Given the nature of what materia was, it would result in an explosion of condensed magical power—Lifestream as it used to be known—right ontop of Crim.

As for the second spell, Rerun did exactly what the name implied. Einst vanished from his position only to reappear high up in the sky...again, with the Valkyrie underfoot. The sword had clearly been left unscathed from its brief departure from the realm, and whatever had happened to it upon reaching the ground on its return was erased. Now Einst was hurtling through the air again at pretty well the same speed as before, perhaps a smidge faster. Riding the concussive blast-waves on a direct course for the Captain himself, adjusting for any change caused by the first spell. It looked like he really was going to try the same trick twice.

Passing below the 100 meter mark, Einst didn’t shove off this time, instead he dropped down and took the Valkyrie in his right hand. At roughly fifty meters however, Einst pulled his body into a mad spin and picked up speed. If the Captain’s new trick struggled to manipulate the Valkyrie before, it was going to have a much more difficult go of it this time around. The increase in speed was at least three times that of before—still too slow to give the Captain a real struggle, but speed wasn’t the only factor here. The ‘mad spin’ was in reality a complex maneuvering strike that momentarily betrayed the eye, positioning Einst to swing the massive sword in a diagonal slash aimed at his upper neck/shoulder (trap-muscle) while simultaneously landing in front of the Captain. Upon landing, he would see that Einst’s left hand was tightly gripping the handle of his new sword, which he immediately drew with deadly force and precision. This time, he aimed for the Captain’s abdomen. The two-fold strike was designed to soak up whatever defenses the Captain might employ while immediately moving into a quick, precise and powerful second strike without having to reposition a single part of his body. The end result, on Einst’s part, would have the Valkyrie embedded in the sand to his right side while the Ochi in his left hand would be fully extended up to his left. His left leg was extended backward as far was practical, so as not to get in the way of his sword-drawing technique where his right leg was tucked inward, bent at the knee.

In the end it would appear that the so-called expert swordsman had left himself open to counter-attack, but that assumption would be a mistake. He was testing Crim, and it was high time the man was pushed to his limits. He stared Crim down with his sharp, jade gaze, an almost sadistic grin spread from ear to ear.

“What’re you waitin’ for, Cap? Playtime’s over.”

{BGM: “Liberi Fatali”}

As luck would have it, Crim had a more than adequate response to all of Einst’s goading and attacks. His Phase Shift magic failed thanks to the Turk jacket, but that really wasn’t too much of a surprise. The jacket failed to conceal the materia from him, but Einst was quite aware of its capability to protect against ether-based attacks, to a fairly respectable degree. His Rerun of his prior attack was also answered, with a series of spells that Einst couldn’t help but be impressed with—it was a good showing for the Captain.

The LEA Crystal the Tenkai Bracer was composed of would most certainly have had plenty of force to reflect back into Einst’s arm and throw him off, if not for the nature of the blade which struck it, which too was both indestructible and came with a laundry list of properties. Of the more important ones, it was able to break physical and ethereal matter & energy. So when the large amount of power that wound up in his attack was sent back at him, the Valkyrie did exactly that, effectively shrugging off the encounter. It didn’t require any skill activation or what-have-you, which was somewhat strange.

As for the boost of the Kaiten Bracer, Einst wasn’t too concerned with that either, as the Ochi slid off it all the same. With his attacks fended off so easily, Crim finally responded back, asking if he should begin. His materia had continued to pulse with power up until that point when the pulse shifted to a massive, monumental release. Defensive and Offensive spells alike were simultaneously insta-cast on both Crim and Einst, thoroughly engulfing their neighborhood of the desert in a symphony of explosions. Einst was lost to physical sight, swallowed up in the explosion of spells that numbered in the hundreds.

There were several options the man had available, using any of his three swords, the Forbidden Techniques of the Tenrai Hibiki, or his very own Forbidden Magic. Some were more spectacular than others, some were more dangerous than others, and some were just...boring. Like the Captain, Einst craved a good show and an even better challenge. From the moment the first black magic spell landed on target, Einst’s sadistic grin seemed to grow. As he stood his ground, the cascade of spells washed over his body—but over time, Crim would start to notice that the spells he had cast were simultaneously fading.

One of his traits was the ability to outright absorb magical energy, and Crim had just dumped a massive, heaping helping of it right on top of him. He sheathed the Valkyrie, preventing it from destroying the onslaught and wasting all that juicy magic, he kept the Tenrai sheathed for similar reasons and sheathed the Ochi, likely for much the same reason. The attack on Crim’s materia was a gamble—if it worked, it was going to be one less thing for him to deal with. If it didn’t, then whatever Crim was brewing up was going to come to pass much more quickly, lest Einst find a way to succeed in destroying it. It was undeniable that Crim had successfully read Einst like an open book, but that may have very well been the intent of Einst himself. Clearly the two were already operating at a much higher level than normal. The majority of opponents they’d faced in previous years weren’t nearly so complex—nor were they as interesting.

All of that was neither here nor there. Einst absorbed the majority of Crim’s spells, with some of them slipping through and damaging his body. Due to his extremely high affinity the damage was drastically less than most would suffer, but it was enough to mean something given the tier of spells he was weathering. This of course was also intentional, as it triggered another trait of his that Crim might have known about, might not. For a few minutes, Einst’s magic power increases after suffering magic damage by several times. An exact number was impossible to determine, as it scaled with higher tier spells, magic power, and volume. Given just how many Crim assaulted him with, the volume alone was enough to jack up the effect by quite a large degree. The scaling was non-linear as well, so the only one who knew what increased it most was, well, Einst. Ultimately, casting a mixture of ~aga & and ancient magic spells supplied Einst with more than enough juice to do what he wanted.

Prism Counter: Armageddon

A magic-counter carefully chosen based on the defensive spells Crim had used, he was quite aware of the stew surrounding Crim, which included reflect. Reflect was a particularly annoying spell in that it, while overall fairly weak, worked on a magically-mechanical level that made it more annoying to get around than it should have been. Fortunately, there was a host of spells that were immune to its effect, including an entire category in the form of Area-of-Effect spells. Crim would be familiar with the spell Meteor, and this was quite similar, except that it was on a significantly higher scale. The skies already darkened by the storm Crim was brewing up, the effect seemed to be eclipsed by the presence of Einst’s magic, all focused on the desert the two stood upon. Massive meteors that were borderline asteroids showered over them, with the largest coming down right on top of the two pirates. The closer they fell, the more intense their presence became as winds picked up in speed in the hundreds of miles per hour, kicking up entire dunes’ worth of sand. They came without warning, bearing tremendous speed and power, and were more than large enough to make any hope of escape a crapshoot.

Upon impact, the main meteor set off an explosion of raw, unaspected force that could be compared to a nuclear bomb. Each of the smaller meteors, numbering in the hundreds, would strike with a fraction of the main’s power; however, the combined devastation made the figure virtually negligible. It was certainly an awe inspiring show of power on Einst’s part, one that most would never consider using, least of all in a fight against a comrade. More so the issue with spells of its nature was that it didn’t distinguish between friend or foe, namely caster and target in this case.

Again, this was all part of Einst’s overarching plan. The hybrid High Mage Swordsman never did anything without carefully weighing every detail. He made no attempts at escaping his own attack, instead allowing his body to bask in the doomsday level flood of power. Rather than make ready for a follow up attack, Einst internally distributed the insane boost of power to various attributes which in this case meant everything. Boosting his parameters for a few minutes—a span of time liken to an eternity for the two—just gave him that much longer before he had to rely on his own true power. From head to toe, Einst’s body surged with newfound vigor, small tendrils of electricity sparking around his every limb and torso.

“I think you should quit fuckin’ around Cap’, you’re making this too easy for me.”

Despite the sudden leap in his readily accessible power, Einst never doubted Crim’s tendency to come out of the worst situations. He had the devil’s luck, and so he watched with careful eyes for Crim’s next move. He sincerely doubted the cocoon of basic spells he’d detected would be enough to see him through that, but the Captain was nothing if not clever. The warrior-mage stood ready with both hands resting on the handles of his swords at either hip, ready to act at a moment’s notice. It would be some time before the havoc caused by his counter would subside, but if he was a betting man, then that meant right now was the opportune moment to strike. He just hoped it would be enough to push the Captain into drawing his swords, as he was well aware that until that happened, the Captain wasn’t serious.

“Come on….”

{BGM: “This is a Fight to Change the World”}

While the effects of his attack died down, Einst released a simple ether field to cast aside any remaining debris and what-not. His eyes fixed on Crim, whom he watched call forth what Einst expected to be the DaiRaiOh, only something was much different compared to the last he saw of that blade. Rather than lightning storms there came a gigantic crashing meteor, not quite as large as the one Einst called, but big enough to effectively shatter the previous. The clashing of monumental forces was definitely exciting, but it was the prospect of the new sword that interested Einst most. Whether Crim really needed to bring out a sword yet was debatable, and he knew better, but simply summoning a blade was only so good. It wasn’t until after the attack died out and Crim could more easily be seen standing with it in hand and ready to draw that Einst knew he’d gotten what he wanted. The dancing flames and Crim’s flickering form raised some suspicion, but didn’t send up any warning signs to Einst. The release of the Captain’s Sakki was an unexpected surprise, as it showed Einst that he was actually getting serious on a measurable level. It wasn’t something that could affect a fighter of Einst’s caliber, but that went both ways. The two really did share many similarities in their arsenal; it would be the differences that would ultimately decide who was the victor this day.

“Good, you’re ready.”

As was mentioned previously, Einst wasn’t just laying about while he was gone, sleeping on some beach fighting crabs and sipping Mai Tai’s! It was time he began showing off what he’d learned, which consisted of both new and old moves he’d improved, along with a much more difficult “skill” to identify.

In a flash, Einst had the Ochitsuita fully drawn, though unlike the Captain and even his own usual fair, there came no huge crescent-wave or other eruption of force. Crim was clearly opting to stay on the defensive, at least for now, and Einst obliged. Without assuming a stance, or any visible warning, Einst accelerated from his stand still to an extremely high rate of speed, closing the gap between the two in an instant, though something was definitely “wrong” about it. For starters, it was well known that Einst was particularly fast, but the general consensus was that the Captain was the fastest. His reaction time, raw speed and agility were unmatched for years. More importantly, Einst knew this to be true—or at least that it used to be. There had always been an extremely mechanical nature to Einst’s movements, bound in his focus on not wasting any energy. This made him fairly predictable, as he often had an exceptionally direct manner of attacking.

Against an opponent whose senses were highly tuned for high speed movement, Einst had to be moving at an extraordinary rate to have the slightest hope of making them struggle. Where he moved at four or five times the speed of sound previously, Einst blew well beyond that, somewhere in the neighborhood of four times as fast. Given the short distance between the two, he was on Crim in a fraction of a second, and once he was on him Einst’s speed shifted wildly all throughout his body.

Rising Claw

The shift in speed saw a massive surge particularly in Einst’s left arm while his body circled around the Captain. Einst’s sword flashed across Crim’s legs, wrists, stomach up through his chest and face in a final, long vertical strike. Each strike was aimed at a vital artery, with the last reserved for simply splitting the Captain in half. Should any of them strike true, the Captain would find no residual ether or otherwise underhanded additional effects. Clearly the flickering of the Captain’s form didn’t bother Einst in the slightest, given the all too real possibility of it signifying that the Captain was moving at an obscenely high rate of speed. Normal fighters might struggle to strike true, but it was as if Einst saw right through the fuckery. Even after seeing that the Captain’s jacket was out of commission (only following the summoning of the DaiKeiOh)—which meant his inhibitors were lifted—Einst didn’t hesitate. If anything it meant their strength was somewhere on the level with one another, but all Einst cared about was how the Captain went about putting it all to good use.

By the time his attack was carried out, Einst was already clear of the Captain and set down roughly the same distance off to the same side as he held the DaiKeiOh. Given the man’s capacity for unconventional sword-draws, it was about the only angle that would require some measure of repositioning, however small. His feet glided along the sand, kicking up two waves of sand several meters tall, but he didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon. Crim was gonna have to put in at least some effort and come to him for a change.

{BGM: “Red Fraction”}

The moment Einst initiated his attack, Crim stepped up to the plate and then some, which wasn’t lost on the White Swordsman. Knowing full-well that his rate of speed was still easy for the Captain to follow—and exceed—there was a specific purpose behind all of Einst’s goading and baiting. It’d become clear all too soon, but first there was the issue of Crim’s rather aggressive defense.

First off, the phantom-esque mirage of the Captain which split off in several directions. Initially they appeared to be fairly harmless, but for good measure Einst kept his eyes open for any signs of their activity, reserving action for when absolutely necessary. With that came the swirling Divine Flame that had appeared with the arrival of Crim’s new sword, hinting even further at the Blade’s affinity for fire. It was seemingly a sister blade of some kind to the DaiRaiOh he was familiar with, but Crim still hadn’t removed it from its sheath. Even still, the power generated from the weapon’s presence alone was nothing to take lightly.

The swirling flames encased Crim’s legs which he used to kick towards Einst’s sword, which was the exact moment he was waiting for. Just before impact Einst finally released his suppression of the Ochi’s significant, trademark effect. The humble looking blade struck against the Divine Flame without ever changing course, and for a moment the blade may have posed a greater threat than Crim expected. The Ochitsuita was able to neutralize seemingly any form of “energy” it encountered into what Einst simply referred to as Zero. The Divine Flame, while mighty in its own right, would instantly have to overcome the perpetual drive to be neutralized or forced into a zero-state of activity, hence its name (“Calm”). Even infinite energy sources such as the Zeranz Essence or the -Wave Existence- would struggle to overcome the wall that was the Ochitsuita, as it would be difficult to classify what the reaction is. However, that was neither here nor there—lest the Captain decide to use the -Wave Existence-. The Divine Flame from the DaiKeiOh, if it could not be balanced to Zero, would still otherwise fail to exert its presence past the Ochitsuita, leaving Einst’s strike to simply continue on its course. That’s where Einst altered his attack mid-strike in order to more easily continue on to attacking the Captain’s wrists, therein drawing out the Captain’s second measure of defense.

{BGM: “Kekkai”}

The Vande Stelca, Crim’s antiproton beam sword was effectively created through energy. In usual fashion, Crim procured the weapon from his person, activated it and parried Einst’s attack in a literal flash. Clashing with the Ochitsuita for the briefest fraction of an instant would be all it took for the weapon to suffer the effect of its neutralization—but would offer important information all the same. As it currently was, the effect only happened on contact and didn’t persist, at least not right then and there. There was also the question of whether it was in full effect or merely a portion, but that was anyone’s guess. In any case, the Vande Stelca parried each of the quick, shallow strikes aimed at Crim’s wrists, and for a moment even parried the final vertical strike aimed at his center torso and skull. It managed to divert Einst’s intended path just enough before the Ochi powered through and connected with Crim’s flesh, drawing blood.

It was far from over at that point.

Proving his capacity for much higher velocities, Crim aimed and fired off his resting blade with naught but a flick of his thumb. He timed it so that Einst would barely have just passed him when fired, and it traveled at a measurable rate faster than Einst himself was. He had been waiting for Crim to draw the blade and his waiting paid off, even if it wasn’t drawn in the traditional sense. It was true that he had essentially zero time to react, but that was also slightly inaccurate, or at least not the entire picture.

Following through with his strike, Einst’s sword was in front of him rather than at his side. At his current rate of speed he passed beyond Crim’s position quickly, putting enough distance between them inside of an instant. The DaiKeiOh was fired at a greater speed than he was traveling, but Einst was firing on all cylinders—meaning that he was expecting some form of counter strike, and knowing Crim that strike would come at greater speed than he was exhibiting, especially given the manner in which he’d defended himself. Einst too was highly aware or “tuned” for high speed movement, and his battle senses were exceptionally sharper now than ever before. All of this just meant that he didn’t wait to get to his designated position before readying himself to defend. Just as the katana-missile would have reached him, Einst turned and deflected the fiery projectile, allowing the Ochitsuita to exert its neutralizing effect in full. The physical and ethereal force was fully countered by the blade, sending it off course and away from their location and leaving Einst entirely unfazed.

In that short exchange, Einst displayed his vastly increased reaction and movement speed, though it wasn’t likely to surprise Crim as much as what he did to follow up. With the Captain spiraling off into a vicious storm of crescent waves of Divine Fire, Einst touched down to the desert floor with his heels, albeit in a vastly different manner than he initially would have. The area directly behind him exploded upward and outward in an enormous wave as his body transferred its momentum, stopping the White Swordsman instantly from continuing its previous course. In that moment, Einst placed the Ochi’s handle horizontally between his teeth, the blade pointing toward his right, meanwhile tearing the Tenrai from its place at his hip in a violent yet precise sword-draw with his previously already free hand. The other, newly free hand (his left hand) reached up and grabbed the hilt of the Valkyrie.

Several unexpected things happened seemingly all at once. The path the Tenrai traveled appeared to waver beneath the blade’s powerful presence, as though the swordsman had cut the air itself, as opposed to sending out the almost cliché wave of cutting force. Secondly, Einst’s body was moving freely and much faster than before, with no linear, articulated and calculated precision as he normally exhibited. Upon stopping and drawing the Tenrai, Einst began crouching and sliding his feet apart just slightly, transferring his weight evenly at first before loading more toward the front. This all, of course, happened near on the moment Einst physically touched down, yet already the crescent blades from Crim’s tornado kick were speeding along toward him and everywhere else.

Einst sprung forward in a spiral his own by literally pushing off his toes, effectively hugging the first crescent blade to reach him by executing a part horizontal, part vertical twist. Hugging fire was never a good idea, and as the Ochi wasn’t in position to defend him, the blade burned at Einst’s abdomen and cut into his stomach and chest. Though it wasn’t as if Einst had tried to actually hug and take the attack directly, so the strike was equally glancing as his own had been a moment prior. After it passed, Einst’s body coiled, uncoiled, and simultaneously twisted in clockwise fashion that more easily enabled him to draw the massive Valkyrie from his back in a forward slash. His movement continued to build up and ultimately unleash the technique he’d been saving since their fight began.

Levatnir-Xela

With a sudden an unexpected thrust of his leg, Einst kicked off the turbulent desert floor and forced the Valkyrie from its scabbard once more. This time it did not remain silent, as its trademark melody penetrated the battlefield. Those ether blades which homed in on him faced obliteration under the blade’s appetite for ether, its “song” merely representing the blade’s essence being present. Then the song vanished as quickly as it came, almost as though Einst was only focused on clearing the battlefield of the effects erected by Crim. Then of course, drawing his third sword led into Einst spinning forward while suddenly and quite unexpectedly hurtling off to his right. What this did was simultaneously enable and execute a slash with the Tenrai, this time releasing a crescent shaped wave of cutting force his own. Given the Tenrai’s place as his most powerful sword, the crescent was disastrously strong. Even further, Einst didn’t stop at one. The waves’ path intersected midflight and created an ever growing storm. Every so often a blade would carve a path through the floor, leaving behind what essentially looked like crystalline trenches. What they signified was anyone’s guess.

So in summary, Einst utilized the hidden primary trait of the Ochi to neutralize the DaiKeiOh’s assault, deflecting the blade away from the battlefield (though it was sure to be summoned back to position). He then drew the rest of his swords, using the Valkyrie to aggressively eat the Divine Flame crescents, torrents and waves perpetuating from Crim (however successful or unsuccessful remained to be seen). Finally, Einst slashed with the Tenrai Hibiki—on an ever building tempo and seemingly unending. Each cutting blade was stronger and came faster than the previous, pushing the rate of attack well into previously unseen territory—at least for most if not all the ‘Crew. All of this, Einst carried out while moving in literal circles around Crim until eventually the attack would come to its head.

Zin Ro

Einst’s body appeared to transcend to new heights, continuously pushing faster and harder until Crim was being attacked from all angles all at once. Surrounded by nothing save the sparking tendrils of accumulated power, Einst’s rate of activity went from mundane and linear to truly chaotic. Entering this final phase, the Valkyrie saw its entrance into the mix. Amongst the thousands upon thousands of crescent blades from the Tenrai came an explosion of much larger crescents. They moved slower, but made more of a mess as they did.

Considering that Einst was circling around Crim, when he entered the final phase it was revealed that the White Swordsman had carefully aimed each and every strike at not Crim but himself. The crescent blades cut through each other from opposite or otherwise intersecting trajectories, creating a violent hellstorm growing within the center where Crim just happened to be. Of course all of this sounded like it was too much to happen quickly, but Einst was utilizing a tremendous amount of resources to pull off the exceptionally demanding skill. To onlookers it might look as though Einst just circled the Captain and set off some manner of magical bomb attack, when in actuality he created that visual effect through sword slashes, raw speed and power, and there didn’t appear to be any thought to his movement.

When Crim expected to be displaced by the wall of fiery-sand, instead he’d be smothered in a storm of slashes and ultimately caught in a colossal eruption the pushed beyond the atmosphere. Einst ended it all by jamming his Valkyrie into the desert floor which halted all movement. In the “distance”, Crim would be able to hear the building crescendo that was the blade’s song. While his attack was exponentially stronger than his previous ones, Einst expected the Captain to walk out of it unharmed. Each one kept raising the bar, and neither looked to be slowing down anytime soon.

{BGM: “Attack on Titan”}

As he finished off his technique, Einst saw that Crim was nowhere within the blast zone of his attack, instead having utilized his sword to pull himself out of the worst of it. It was obvious that the same ability to draw the blade to himself worked in reverse, though there wasn’t anything he could do about that. The new position taken up by Crim was far above and off some ways from where his own attack sprawled into the sky, and upon arriving Crim immediately set onto initiating his attack, generating a rather enormous sphere of Divine Fire at the end of his once-more sheathed blade. This left Einst standing upon the marred desert floor, blades in hand and jaws. Were there any onlookers, they’d see the faintest trace of a grin somewhere behind the sword held in his mouth as he closed his eyes. It almost looked as if Einst had submitted to his impending doom, though the reality was that he couldn’t help but to recall a pivotal moment of his recent “training”.

After spending months upon months in the family forge of his host Garteo, Einst finally completed his work. Day in, day out he worked to craft a perfect replica of his once famed greatsword he left behind. Given that he spent so much time wielding it, he knew its exact specifications by heart and while he didn’t have much skill in the way of the forge, he was a quick study. He’d spent several years being beaten, bloodied and broken at the hands of his new master. Stranded on Zerania with no hope of fighting his way off and back to the life he knew, he had no choice but to do as he was commanded. It was a hard pill to swallow at first, but eventually he accepted his fate and began showing real promise in his time with Garteo.

A master swordsman of legendary status on Zerania, Garteo knew each and every single swordsmanship style practiced on the gargantuan planet. Such mastery enabled him to identify a warrior’s weaknesses and strengths better than anyone else. Einst—Vanza as he had come to be known—was certainly strong, but he was being held back by his own mind, which had an avalanche effect on everything else. In the end, he was able to determine which style would best suit the warrior. Vanza had made Garteo aware of his normal equipment, and as such committed him to the forge until a perfect replica was made.

Following that, the two worked on his present ability—forcing him to utilize every single ability he could with the newly forged blade. While his Iron Serpent style was impressive, it was much too slow and predictable. Furthermore, Einst had an inherent weakness he hadn’t been remotely aware of. So it was, he gave Vanza a third blade and began instructing him in the ways of Levatnir. For the next several decades, Vanza relearned the way of the sword, utilizing three blades simultaneously, while relearning how to move properly every minute of every training-day (minus sleeping of course). The result was astonishing, as Vanza mastered every technique, ultimately earning the treasured blade of Garteo’s clan, the Ochitsuita.

“Thank you, Garteo...”

In the face of destruction via Crim’s seemingly unrestrained outburst, Einst pulled the Valkyrie out of the sand and spread his arms to either side, legs spread a bit wider than shoulder-width apart, and then it happened. In what could only be described as an eruption, Einst stopped holding back his newfound strength, as evident in the burgeoning well of raw ether emanating from his body. Golden light flared over the desert and Einst was no longer able to be seen. If he could, Crim would bear witness to the sight of the so-called “White Swordsman” apparently sprouting new arms. To the Captain’s infamous perception, the effect may have been lessened, but not entirely dispelled—after all, it was more at work than raw speed. His own technique, which he’d always referred to as the Nameless-Blade, was born anew within the Levatnir style. Turned out it wasn’t as rare as he’d believed and was well known on Zerania. What it was, was the ability to strike in true parallel simultaneous fashion—but so much more. What Einst thought was restricted to his arms was exponentially increased through his training, and could be utilized with his entire body. In the end, the simple fact was that Einst was moving far too slowly, his movements restricted by the process of thought and action. Typical human vision couldn’t register the rate of speed, but Crim was anything but typical. Finally, it was in no way the focus of his new style—merely a compliment, as Einst was about to demonstrate in full.

Levatnir: Vuc-Zei-Ko

Einst became naught but a man-sized sphere of golden light, spiraling in place at tremendous speed. In the moment before the sphere would have impacted him and the desert floor he catapulted upward, crashing into the sphere of Divine Fire with a vengeance. Its ominous descent halted as the sound of two enormous powers clashing filled the world. Behind it all, Einst was slashing with each of his swords, releasing focused ether through all three, guiding each of the swords on their own paths. This meant that his body was spinning wildly “out-of-control”, enabling his third blade, the Ochi, to strike as needed. There was no telling how many times Einst struck the sphere, but the overall clash spanned a few seconds, which was well known to be a huge amount of time for the two. There was no use in counting nor was there any need to, especially as Einst broke through the sphere and caused it to explode laterally, blanketing the entire desert for miles and miles without ever touching the actual sand. The technique was far from over, however, as he continued on a direct approach to Crim at ludicrous speeds.

Entering range, Einst obscured by his own golden aura, made only three slashes: the Tenrai was sent on a direct path to intercept the DaiKeiOh; the Valkyrie followed a similar path, threatening to split the Captain in half just above his waist; finally, the Ochi was flicked in a more angular approach aimed at his neck but from the opposing side. Naturally this meant that somewhere along the way Einst had managed to flip the Ochi around to the opposite direction and slashed in the natural direction it then faced. What’s more, traces of each sword’s latent effects could be detected, though it was more like they were being contained behind some manner of wall.

Einst would have attacked significantly more times with much more force and sought to kill were he facing any other opponent. At the first possible moment after he engaged his technique, Einst forced himself to stop. It was at that time he saw the rising blood lust in the Captain in those radiant, burning white eyes, and he knew it was time to call the fight. It was also then that Crim would see his attack had at least partially struck true, with Einst’s body suffering several burns not to mention his clothing. Some places were worse than others, with blood seeping from the wounds about his arms and through newly missing portions of his shirt.

“Welcome to Hell.”

“Good...you’ve still got it after all. Well, I’ve seen enough.”

Einst replied, pulling back from Crim and actually falling back to the surface. He let go of the Valkyrie on his way down, entering into a series of flips where he sheathed first the Tenrai, then the Ochi, and upon landing, angled himself just right so the Valkyrie slammed home into its scabbard upon his back. He gazed up at Crim, waiting for the Captain to make his decision. He’d seen all he needed to, and had a renewed sense of faith in his leader to see them through the end. Besides that, things were getting a little too heated up, and there was no sense in dying today.