Meanwhile, Ilda and Maki stood facing each other, motionless, their eyes locked on one another.
The air between them seemed thick, taut as a wire about to snap.
Ilda flashed a provocative smile, then gestured broadly with both hands, openly challenging Maki to a fight.
"So, you're shy?" she said mockingly. "Come on… let's have some fun."
Maki's response was immediate. Sparks of lightning erupted along her arms, crackling violently around her fists. Her gaze hardened, cold and sharp, fixed directly on Ilda. In a fraction of a second, she vanished from her starting position and accelerated abruptly toward her, the ground cracking beneath the force of her impact.
Ilda reacted in time. She crossed her arms in front of her, adopting a solid defensive stance, her muscles tensed to the extreme.
Maki struck. Her fist slammed into the exact center of Ilda's crossed arms. The impact unleashed a blast of lightning, an explosive flash that erupted with a deafening crash. Ilda's defenses shattered, her body ripped through by a violent electric shock that briefly paralyzed her muscles.
Before she could even catch her breath—
Maki followed up.
She spun around and delivered a lightning-fast side kick, aiming directly for the back of Ilda's neck. The impact was sharp and brutal. Ilda's body was thrown backward like a rag doll, crashing through several metal walls, deforming and pulverizing them in its path.
She finally slammed heavily to the ground amidst smoking debris, the metal still vibrating around her.
Maki slowly rose to her feet, the lightning gradually dissipating around her arms.
His gaze remained fixed on the silhouette of Ilda, buried in the rubble.
Ilda slowly straightened up, spitting out a trickle of blood before wiping it away with the back of her hand. A husky laugh escaped her throat.
"Good, good... very good." She raised her head, her eyes shining with excitement.
"I expected nothing less from you. At least I won't be afraid of killing you with the first blow. You're tough." She spread her arms slightly.
"I can finally go all out." A reddish aura exploded around Ilda, dense and violent, streaked with red lightning that cracked like whips in the air. In a heartbeat, it vanished... then reappeared right in front of Maki.
The two struck at the exact same instant.
Fist against fist.
Shockwave.
The ground cracked beneath their feet.
Ilda unleashed a relentless barrage: lightning-fast side strikes, abdominal blows, feints to the head. Maki responded with surgical precision, blocking, deflecting, absorbing every attack. Their exchanges were so rapid that they left afterimages, as if several fights were unfolding simultaneously.
Suddenly, Maki opened her palm.
"Chain." An electric chain instantly shot from her hand, hissing through the air before wrapping around Ilda's ankle. With a swift movement, Maki yanked, violently throwing Ilda backward.
Ilda hit a wall… but instead of crashing, she used it as leverage, digging her foot into the metal and smiling.
"Too predictable." In a flash of red, she yanked the chain, using Maki's own technique against her. The pull was brutal, and Maki was yanked forward. Ilda wound up a blow intended to shatter his ribcage.
But—
A dull thud. Maki raised his elbow just in time. The impact rattled his bones, electricity crackled violently around his arm, but the attack was abruptly stopped. The two remained frozen for a fraction of a second, their faces inches apart, auras intertwined, red and blue lightning clashing in a continuous rumble. The fight had clearly just escalated.
Maki lunged straight at Ilda.
This time, Ilda didn't back down. She planted her feet firmly on the ground, assuming a perfect attack stance, her gaze locked on Maki, ready to counterattack at the slightest misstep.
But Maki didn't strike.
She lightly tapped the ground with the tip of her foot.
An almost innocuous gesture.
— BZZZ— A wave of electricity spread instantly beneath the metallic surface, invisible yet devastating. The current abruptly disrupted Ilda's balance: her feet were forcibly deflected in the opposite direction to what she had anticipated.
— Wh—?!
A microsecond.
That was all Maki needed.
She appeared behind Ilda.
Her fist clenched, saturated with energy, the lightning coiling around her arm like a living core.
— Too slow.
BOOM.
The punch landed violently in Ilda's back. The impact unleashed a blast of electrical energy that pulverized the ground beneath their feet. Ilda's body was hurled like a projectile, piercing several metal structures before bursting through the ceiling.
A second later, she was ejected into the open air.
Ilda crashed heavily onto the roof of the floating island, rolling for several meters, leaving behind a trail of debris and red sparks.
Maki slowly raised her head, lightning still crackling around her arms.
Maki teleported to the roof of the floating island.
Daylight was still bright, bathing the metal structures in a harsh light. A few meters away, Ilda slowly rose to her feet.
The violence of the previous attack should have been fatal.
Her spine was completely shattered, her back literally split in two. Yet, before Maki's eyes, the flesh closed, the bones reformed with a sinister crack. In a few seconds, Ilda was standing again.
"Tch..." Ilda raised her arms.
A blast of red energy exploded around her, sweeping across the roof like a storm. The air vibrated, saturated with crushing pressure. A wave of energy escaped in all directions, making the island itself tremble.
When the light faded, Ilda had changed.
She was now wearing a dark red kimono, adorned with obscure patterns running along the sides. Her hair stood on end, and her reddish aura, mingled with scarlet flashes, pulsed oppressively.
Ilda smiled, a predatory smile.
"Mythical Power… the Evil Fighter."
In an instant, she vanished.
Ilda reappeared before Maki and launched a lightning-fast punch.
Maki instinctively blocked it, crossing her arms to absorb the impact.
"…?!" A sharp pain shot through her.
Her body spun violently, as if struck from within, before being hurled several meters. She crashed to the ground in a shower of sparks, sliding on the hot metal.
Maki struggled to her feet, panting.
"What happened…?"
"I blocked the attack… yet I was hit." A double strike… in a single blow?
Ilda advanced calmly, her gaze filled with superiority.
"It's called the Double Fatal Point. Even blocked, the wave of the strike cuts through defenses and hits the target directly." She clenched her fist, the red aura intensifying.
"Now… let's see how many times you can take that."
Ilda concentrated all her power into her fist.
An enormous orb of red energy, streaked with black lightning, formed, compressing the air around her until it groaned. The ground vibrated under the pressure, cracks running through the metal roof.
Maki, without the slightest hesitation, reached out.
In a blinding flash, her scythe materialized, fully reinforced by pure lightning energy. Blue and purple lightning bolts snaked along the blade, howling like a storm about to break.
The next instant, Ilda launched her attack.
"DIE"
But Maki had already vanished.
She lunged straight toward the orb with lightning speed, so fast that the air exploded behind her. No detours, no dodging. A perfect, deadly trajectory.
In a fluid, precise motion, Maki brought her scythe down.
A single slash.
The energy orb was sliced in two, the red energy separating cleanly before losing its cohesion. In the same motion, the blade continued its trajectory and severed Ilda's head without the slightest resistance.
The body remained frozen for a fraction of a second.
Then the head slid, falling to the ground with a dull thud.
The split attack continued its trajectory, moving away from the island before exploding in the distance, unleashing a titanic detonation that lit the horizon with incandescent red.
The wind slowly subsided. Maki straightened, the scythe still crackling with electricity. She observed Ilda's headless body, motionless, devoid of any regeneration.
Without wasting another second, Maki turned and plunged into the floating island. Her footsteps echoed on the gutted metal of the corridors, stepping over debris, torn cables, and the still-smoldering carcasses of robots. She moved quickly, determined, guided by a single goal: to reach the group as soon as possible.
She had barely covered a few dozen meters when a familiar presence appeared beside her in a brief distortion of the air. Miya had just joined her, his sword still imbued with the aura of battle, his gaze cold and focused.
They exchanged a brief, yet understanding, glance.
Miya declared firmly,
"We must reach them as quickly as possible."
Maki nodded immediately, without slowing down.
"Yes. Let's go." The two accelerated in unison, disappearing into the glowing depths of the floating island. Flashing lights streamed overhead, distant alarms still blared, a sign that the entire island was now on high alert.
In the distance, the echo of footsteps, the whirring of mechanisms, and rising energies suggested that the heart of the island was not far away… and that what awaited them would far surpass the confrontations they had just left behind.