High up in the sky, far above the clouds where the air was thin and cold, Yuki flew in front of Natsumi, looking at her not as a family member, but an obstacle.
"Yuki, please! Stop this nonsense and come back to heaven with me! That's all I'm here for!"
"I'd never leave me glorious Master's side, and a heaven not worshipping him is a failed society."
"What are you talking about? Your glorious Master? Yamato really did a number on you… Can't you see that he is nothing but a mood you seem to have been following for the last year? One that insulted god at that. But I'm sure he will forgive you if you just come and-"
"-I'm gonna stop you right there… I understand it now."
"Really? That's great~! I was so worried… But now everything can turn back to normal."
"I understand it perfectly clear now… You are jealous. You want to separate us… Take him from me… He's not the problem… You are the problem! If I kill you, I can go back to working on his immortality, so we can start a family and be together forever… Just us… Ah… Yes, only you and me, Master… I will be back with you soon…"
Natsumi looked at her sister in shock at first, but tried to regain composure to try and convince her to join her side.
Yuki, whose face was bright red, hugged herself as tightly as she could while panting and drooling at her fantasies, her eyes spinning hearts that looked right through Natsumi into the future she imagined with Yamato.
"You've completely lost it… You know there is almost no chance that you can have a child with him right?"
"Ah… How thoughtful of you… Almost makes me want to forgive you for your refusal to submit… But don't you worry! I've injected my blood into him, and we were a perfect match~! Yes, my blood is flowing through his veins as we speak… Connected by blood, mind and soul, forever one even now… If that is not what a soulmate is then what I don't know what is! Isn't it awesome!? My heart explodes at the very thought of our togetherness!"
Yuki moved her hands up and down her body, brushing over her own soft skin, feeling the blood beneath which at this very moment was in touch with Yamato's.
"T-that's… Your perverse fantasies aside, what makes you think he even wants to? Can't you see how empty he is? How he utterly lacks the capacity to love you, even if you do so much? Better you break it off now before you-"
"-Of course he doesn't. But he will~ He will love me so much! So much that when someone else besides me even talks to him, his first reaction will be hostility, pushing everything besides me away, in a complete and utter state of mutual love and affection!"
"There really is no talking to you… I will not fight you,Yuki. I'm here to help you wake up of his manipulation, not beat you from one prison into the other!"
Yuki's demeanor switched up completely, as her eyes turned cold and empty, her panting stopped at once and her gaze locked back onto her sister. Her tone was as detached as she was capable of, even siblings who hated each ofher to the death would have more warmth in their tone.
"You keep blaming him… What is wrong with you, worthless sister? Do I need to be blunt for your idiotic brain to understand? You mean nothing to me. If you would die here right now in front of me by being pulled in all different directions at the same time and by that ripped into a million different pieces while keeping consciousness, I would not spare a single thought of pity to you. If you kept reliving that moment of pain and despair, for all eternity, I would still not even look at you, as it would be a second wasted that I could have spent looking at my love and Master."
"You… You don't mean that… What did he do to you for you to be so cruel? Are you under mind control? Has he hurt you? I can help you if you would only let me."
"Sigh…"
Yuki closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before clapping her hands together. As she pulled them apart, a black hole formed in between her palms, growing larger the further her hands pulled apart. When it was about twice as large as her head, she blew gently against it, causing it to start spinning with increasing velocity.
"You think this is not me… That I won't hurt you, because you are my sister? Well, then you got nothing to worry about… Just stay sill, and trust in your love for me… I will trust in mine."
"What are you…"
She summoned her sword and hit the black hole with the flat side of it, shooting it at Natsumi like a baseball.
"You know that won't do anything, Yuki…"
Natsumi let it hit her stomach with full force, and it did in fact, not do anything. However, Yuki immediately charged forward, aiming for Natsumi's head with her sword. As she tried to dodge Yuki's attack, she found herself unable to move as the black hole was keeping her set in place. As the tip of Yuki's sword got closer to her eyes, she unwillingly drew her own sword to block Yuki's attack. Avoiding death only barely, she was hit so hard by the impact that she was ripped off the back hole and she spun so much around that Yuki's sword still managed to cut her arm, which let a drop of blood fall down onto the ground, where Yamato and Lucy were fighting currently as well. Falling right in between the split earth, the drop of blood would never reach any ground to land on and instead fall forever.
"So, this guy was with you before you switched sides, right? Any ideas on how to beat him without any mana for the next twelve hours?"
"Uh… Well first we need to cross this gap between us which your… Girlfriend made? She is your girlfriend, right?"
"She… Yes, she is my girlfriend… Anyway, it's at least 30 meters wide. I'm not sure if we can get across that easily. And he seems to prepare something. Ranged attack spells if I'd have to guess."
"So we need to think of something fast… He is old and is probably not very agile, so if we get close we could probably win even if it's just one of us with relative ease."
"Yes but we won't get across without any sort of bridge, and he will just attack that too which leaves us falling down which of course we do not want that. Do you have any more weapons on you? You had a lot of stuff on you when you first attacked me after all."
"No, I couldn't bring much past professor Reed's teleportation since otherwise it would have been noticed… I only have this one knife left."
She handed him a knife identical to the one she used to stab him in the shoulder with. Sadly Yamato threw the original one into the pond, as he generally had no use for weapons and it was a forbidden object in the exam, so holding onto it for longer than necessary would not be of much help if it ended up expelling him.
"Huh… Do you know what kind of spell that is?"
He looked over to the priest, who seemed to be ready right about now.
"Well, consider how long it took him, probably something big, but maybe he's just not that good…?"
"Unlikely… Let's run in opposite directions and take the knife. He will focus me. Wait for my signal and don't go too far off. If you do get too far, run back in my direction. Don't worry, I have a plan."
"Alright… I trust you."
At that moment, the priest shot a light ball at them which exploded upon impact in a fifty meter radius. Luckily, they both already ran in opposite directions along the split planet. As Yamato predicted, the priest went after him. Which was quite obvious, given how Yamato had previously insulted their god. As the priest flew above the crack now, he was still out of range for Yamato to do anything. There were not any trees nearby either, which he otherwise could have used as cover or for their material, but of course not. When Yamato was far enough away from Lucy, he pulled out a small shiny object which the priest could not identify from how far away he was, so he just kept firing his attacks, which now that he was spamming them, only had an explosive radius of five meters. He strapped the shiny object to his hand with the rope he had previously taken back from Lucy, which she was tied up with and stopped running.
"That god of yours is as pathetic as you are, old man! Can't your so called justice make you hit your target? Or is it that you cannot hit me because I am in the right, and your spell is dodging me on purpose. Because otherwise I cannot explain that awful aim you have. I will even stand still for this one!"
"You sinful brat… Unforgivable, slandering the name of our lord, even justice itself!"
He shot another ball of light at Yamato, only this time Yamato did not dodge. Just before he would have been hit by it, Lucy threw the knife into the ball and caused it to explode too early, however the shockwave was stronger this time, since the priest had charged up a bit more again this time, causing Lucy to be pushed away over the edge, barely able to hold on. As she looked down she saw the endless hole that reached through the entire planet. If she would fall now, she would die from heat the closer she got to the center, however she did not know about the temperature of a planets core. What she imagined was that she would fall forever, which to her was also quite terrifying. Her fingers began to slip as the edge was not a good place to hold on, causing her to panick even more.
"Yamato?? Help please?!"
But no response came. Yamato had also been knocked away by the explosion, however in the opposite direction. Landing right on his injured shoulder, which opened the wound again. However he still rushed to the edge and managed to grab onto Lucy's wrist just as her hand slipped off. He managed to pick up the knife from the ground, which was a little deformed but still functional as anker in the ground, from which he hung himself halfway down as well. Though because of his shoulder wound, he could not pull Lucy up with the arm he was holding onto her with. Only being able to prevent her from falling down for now while his other hand grabbed onto the knife in the ground. The priest however, unmoved by this, charged up a final shot to kill two birds with one stone. Lucy thought that was it, the ball of light flying towards her, not with unimaginable speed, but with inevitability. It was then, when Yamato pulled them up just enough so he could pull the knife out of the ground. Causing them to drop momentarily, but not for long as he used his free hand with the knife to punch the light. As the light connected with his fist, it did not explode, instead, it was redirected back at the priest, who had not put up any defensive magic since he was certain they both could not use magic because of the pill. Which of course was right, but since it was his own magic, that was irrelevant. He was hit directly and was burned everywhere on his body, while he lost consciousness and fell down towards the planets core. Directly after the light ball changed its trajectory, he rammed the knife into the wall and stop their fall, causing them to hang on the wall now but be relatively safe. It was then that Lucy saw what Yamato had tied to his fist. A piece of broken mirror? Which of course meant nothing to her, but was in fact the Unikum mirror shard Yamato still had with him, which reflected even Yuki's magic without taking any damage itself.
In the meantime, Yuki was quite busy herself, throwing spell after spell at her suster without any signs of exhaustion. Even though each beam of light had no immediate effect on Natsumi, the impact did disrupt her balance every now and then, making it easier for Yuki to hunt her down with with her sword and 49 golden sword, identical to the one she gave Arina, all of course consisting of pure mana and being indestructible of course but basic in design and function. However each moving at the speed of light, Natsumi had trouble blocking all as she was basically on defense the entire time. Surprisingly though, she still held up, which upon closer inspection was not surprising at all, if one considered that Yuki's powers were still mostly sealed while Natsumi seemed to posses the full capacity of an angelic being.
"Where are you getting all that mana from, Yuki? Shouldn't you be a lot weaker…"
"Your big sister learns fast! Besides, superior god, superior growth of his disciples~"
"Huh… No, you'd like that, wouldn't you? But that isn't it…"
"I suppose it remains a mystery then~"
"…Are you stealing mana from me?"
"What? No, I'd never do that~"
"Yes you are! I can literally see your amount doesn't decrease no matter how many spells you cast! You just refill from my infinite mana pool!"
"Ah… Caught me~ What can I say, infinite mana really is a blessing. It also helps me lift my seals faster, so thanks for that."
"Ugh, I can't believe this! I'm going to have to got you off!"
"Whaaat? You'd cut off your own sister…? I was just about to come with youuu!"
"Aww, really? Then let's stop fighting and-"
Knowing her time of limitless mana supply would end any second, Yuki channeled everything into once singular beam of pure energy. Originating from the ground, the beam shot into the sky right below Natsumi and since it was moving at instant speed, there was no time for her to react. The deep purple shone brighter than the sun, blinding even Natsumi momentarily at the unexpected sight. Once it reached the atmosphere, it ripped a hole right through it and expanded infinitely into space. However even so, she still managed to deflect all the incoming golden swords with pure instinct alone. However Yuki felt how her energy supply was now heavily limited, a direct consequence to Natsumi cutting her off.
"You lied! You weren't even considering coming with me were you?!"
"Aw, so gullible."
The beam had disappeared completely by now, leaving them to exchange attack after attack.
"And all this because I didn't notice sooner… But I guess you can't blame me for not noticing a missing amount from infinity…"
"Well, but isn't this great? Now we are the same! You had to cut off your own mana supply to cut me out, didn't you?"
"Of course you noticed that… Luck really isn't on my side today, huh? But it is of no consequence… My base mana still surpasses your base mana in your sealed state."
"True, but I'm done playing fair anyway…"
"What…?"
Yuki activated the special ability of her sword, cutting forward in time and hitting before swinging, which cut Natsumi deep in the thigh. This time, the wound did not instantly heal again as the wound on her arm did, since she could no longer use her regeneration constantly on the side with her now limited mana supply. She had to manually heal activate her passive healing, which of course drained energy now. As Yuki went to go at it again, she was surprised to see Natsumi blocking the invisible attack which was aimed at her head.
"Oh? Bravo!"
"You may say otherwise… But I'm still your sister. Reading your attack patterns is like reading a picture book to me."
"My my, all grown up… Ah, how time passes…"
"You're half a millisecond older than me!"
"Gasp! No respect for age hierarchy!"
"You-!"
"Alright, this time really enough…"
Her somewhat playful demeanor disappeared again, returning to the cold distant gaze as cuts over Natsumi's entire body began to bleed through her white robe.
"Huh…? But your sword… It didn't activate…"
Yuki suddenly appeared up close and grabbed Natsumi's hair, pulling her up so she would not fall down.
"As if I hadn't figured out a way to bypass any possibility of reading my attacks centuries ago. You remain a naive child, living in the past. Which is why you are unable to accept my decision to leave you and your god behind… Maybe if you grow up, you can see the world with more clarity. Until then, tell your god he can go kill himself for all I care from me, will you~?"
"Yuki… This isn't over… I won't give up on you just yet…"
Yuki let go of her hair and watched as she fell lifeless for a while, before fading away into thin air.
Flying back down to her great prize, the thought of putting Lucy down from up here crossed her mind multiple times as she saw them sitting next to each other in the grass next to the gap. It would be so easy, "Oh, Master, I'm sorry! It must have been a stray shot while I was trying to beat my sister!", she could say. Then Yamato would respond "Ah, Yuki, I love you! Who cared about that weird girl anyway! I only have eyes for you. Let us marry right here, before time starts moving again, to symbolize our marriage exists outside time and will last forever!", to which Yuki would-
But her fantasies were cut short as she eventually arrived down at the ground. Finally having time to heal Yamato's wounds properly, and Lucy's two or whatever. As if nothing ever happened. Lucy was unsure to make of this situation now that it seemed to be over.
"So… We won?"
"Duh, what did you think? But befire that, you got some explaining to do miss traitor!"
"Eh, me? Oh… Right… I will explain everything after the exam. Don't we now need to get back into the canyon before time starts to move again? Otherwise we will be above the canyon walls and get disqualified."
"That's… The first meaningful thing you said since I met you and probably since you were born as well. Good job. Let's go, Master~"
"To be honest… I don't quite get your relationship yet…"
"No one cares what you get or don't get."
Yamato flicked Yuki's forehead at that as she was already on top of him again for some reason and pulled him away from Lucy towards her chest.
"Be nice. You have some explaining to do yourself, y'know? Your sister, was it?"
"Uhh, ah, yeah… Alright… I… I'm sorry for my rudeness, Lucy."
She said with a smile that could not look more forced, but Lucy decided it was the gesture that counted and not the thought. Yuki then proceeded to carry them back down into the cave, which Yamato directed her towards. And as time bagan moving again, the split planet reunited again, together with the hole in the atmosphere getting repaired and the holes in the ground caused by the many, many explosions thrown around were gone as well.
"So… We still have this exam as our competition, Master! But now I know where the location of your hideout is… That doesn't seem fair."
"Y'know what, Yuki? You won this time. You earned it. You protected me against your own sister, and if that is not good enough to guve you this one victory against me, I don't know what is."
"Awww, you really mean that?"
"Of course. Here, rip it in half to your heart's contents."
Yamato handed her the target ticket, which she took with pride and joy. Holding it up into the air, before ripping it in half with excitement in her eyes, to hear the announcement declare Yuki the winner of this exam!
A voice echoed through the canyon.
"Already? It's only been three days! Well, I guess I expected this… The winner is… Yamato's group. Consiting of the group founder Yamato, and the two group members Andrew and Lily. Congratulations! Though… I have to he honest, I didn't expect it to end this soon, so the teleport back will only be possible in a like a hour or so. Just behave until then!"
Yuki looked dumbfounded at the ticket she just ripped in half and then at Yamato, who just… Smiled?
"Master?? You promised!"
"Oops. I completely forgot, I switched my ticket with Arina's yesterday when you were busy with my traps."
"What?! How??"
"The art of disguise, my dear Yuki. Glasses and a different hair color really do make you a completely different person. Who would have thought I would be lucky enough to find it on the ground though? I was able to switch it with my own and hand it back to Arina as if nothing happened. What a delightful experience this was, really."
"You did it on purpoooosssssse! This borders on sadism, making me eliminate myself when you could have done so the entire time!"
"Yes, you caught me… But I have something else for you, if you want it that is…"
She peeked up from his chest, where she buried herself as she whined and complained about his methods.
"Hm… What is it?
But never would she have expected the reality to surpass her fantasies. As Yamato grabbed her hands and squeezed them together.
"You did your best, Yuki. I'm still very proud of what you accomplished today, and in the past. It opened my eyes in many ways… And I'm certain of one thing now… I want to be with you in the future as much as I have been with you in the past, even more than that… I want to protect you, and be with you, always. If that is not love, I don't know what is. And I want this day to represent the beginning of something new. Something real. With you."