The spell circle reformed around the rooftop and intensified, pulling space apart further. Erina leapt high, away from the imminent stomp and off to a roof several stories higher. Butterflies took flight, one orb in her palm as Akira launched after her.

  The glowing dragon's curve spiked Akira back down and four of her split on impact, rolling to their feet and taking off in their own directions, launching and flipping over pipes and cooling units to come in at Erina from all sides.

  Erina set an orbit of light around herself and raised both hands, taking full control of the swarm of butterflies. A twirl of her body, a flourish of her hand, a motion of her arm, and everything punctuated by a barrage of light. Two orbs broke off her orbit and burst, twin dragon's curves growing around her to cut off Akira's approaches as the tiny patriarch weaved through the storm. She was a blur of motion, barely possible to track one, let alone three or more.

  Erina winced as a stinging pain cut across her arm. Inky black venom trailed the thrown knife as it flew past her. The butterflies dispersed as black-green arcs of steel swiped through them. A shadow gave Erina a mere moment's notice, Akira diving down from above—

  The hexagram barrier flashed into place and Erina slammed flat against the ground anyway, unable to stop the full power of the attack. Teeth gritted, down on the floor, Erina threw her arm up to meet Akira's falling boot, angled barrier redirecting the finishing blow to shatter stone inches away from her chest.

  Akira punted Erina away in a spray of debris. Dragon's curves dispersed into countless glimmers of light as their owner tumbled through the air and crashed to the next rooftop over before finding her bearings and rolling into a crouch.

  She swiped two fingers across her clip. Butterflies fluttered away, fleeing as Erina cast a large spell circle covering the roof and then leapt to the next building as Akira followed. Space distorted, stretching in every direction as Akira sprinted to the next roof and then the next, pursuing Erina as the beams shot blindly around her. Several found their mark, wounded bodies dropping in her wake as Akira shifted into the next body and carried on the chase. A quiet growl escaped Akira as she extended one hand crackling with static and sharply drew back.

  Erina leapt to the next building and gasped as the world tilted. The floor was no longer under her feet, but behind her back. An overwhelming force slapped her down and dragged her back the way she came, flipping in time to see the hard wall flying to meet her.

  She righted herself to land feet first on her magic seal, cushioning her fall just shy of the new floor. Erina buckled, unable to stand under an invisible weight like an entire car on her back—and then it was gone, the world righting itself just in time for her to see Akira coming in hot.

  Erina kicked off the wall, her gut twisting into knots as she felt Akira brush barely past her in mid-air, and then that wall was obliterated with one kick. Erina landed on the rooftop below, her butterflies fluttering down to join her as she turned.

  The building before Erina cracked and ripped apart. Akira stepped to the edge as everything above herself broke off and lifted away at the command of one hand.

  She pointed a finger and Erina staggered as the floor shook under her. She was moving—no, the entire rooftop was ripped free and moving on its own!

  Akira tugged and Erina yelped, falling to the floor as her platform slammed to a stop right up against Akira's ledge. Erina looked up and found those unrelenting amber eyes staring back, a million pounds of stone hovering above her in a giant hand's invisible grip.

  Akira brought her other hand down.

  A spell circle merely a few feet across flashed under Erina. A tiny column of distorted space formed, a section of the building shearing and ripping into a shower of rubble in slow motion above her as the rest of the skyscraper shot down and demolished itself around her. The platform shattered under Erina, standing on nothing but crumbling pieces of concrete as the rocks above tumbled, suspended mid-air.

  Erina leapt aside and canceled the distortion field, the single column of skyscraper allowed to tumble to the streets below—

  Akira's heel spiked Erina straight down in a black-green arc.

  The impact forced out all the air in her lungs. Erina crashed to the ground in a spray of ether, tumbling down the mountain of rubble in the street and spilling to the pavement. She scrambled to her feet, katana hastily forming and slashing wide to discourage Akira from punting her again. Adrenaline pounded through her veins. Erina numbly acknowledged this was going to hurt so, so much more later.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  All thoughts of what would happen later melted away. Akira forced her to think entirely of the here and now. Erina got her single layer spatial distortion field up and then blocked, a large hexagram barrier stomaching the knee strike for Erina.

  Akira's next kick smashed through it regardless. Erina drew her katana, taking a few cursory slashes between the kicks and then an accelerator forming at her back to escape.

  "Agh!" A massive side kick and Erina went rocketing down the street, skipping across the asphalt like a rock skipping water before tumbling into a graceless heap. The shallow puddles soaked her clothes and hair as she got up nursing the dull pain in her chest.

  Akira was relentless. She didn't pull any punches. This was the very same Akira that could slay giants, tear through the Kirigami Family, and rip the heads off of dragons.

  Erina flicked a few butterflies into the air. Another distortion field as Akira rushed in, Erina greeting her with a quick draw of the blade. Steel clashed with steel, both pivoting to face the other as Akira crossed her up, and then it was back into the thick of it.

  Erina was never trained for close combat. She couldn't hope to contest Akira on even footing.

  So she didn't. Beams of searing light blocked Akira's angles of attack and allowed Erina through. Fluttering wings surrounded the high-speed fight, lasers shooting into their midst to attack Akira from every angle. One body after another hit the floor, but Akira never let up the assault.

  Erina backed up two steps and a dragon's curve denied Akira the four steps she wanted, blooming up into the air between them. Her spear struck the street under it, lightning branches shooting up and perforating Akira several times over as yet another slipped out and flanked back into the offensive.

  And as she rounded the fading dragon's curve, Erina's blade scraped to a stop inside its scabbard as a spell circle formed at her feet.

  Erina's knuckles whitened as the seal vanished, and then the sword exploded from its sheath in a vast emerald arc.

  This time, nothing interrupted her. The green katana completed its crescent motion and came to a finish extended behind her, glimmers of emerald light fading in the air around her. Erina exhaled one controlled breath and then wavered, panting for air. Every sharp breath fanned the fiery pain in her chest.

  Their battle came to a brief standstill. Akira stepped back, one hand to her front. A deep red gash tore diagonally from shoulder to hip, vibrant red blood pouring down.

  Amber eyes scraped up from the wound to the one that caused it. Akira's figure distorted as she reached into her own chest and pulled the wounded body out of herself. She let it hit the floor without a care in the world, her eyes never leaving Erina. Her breathing paused as she wiped the rain from her cheek and then resumed with labor.

  "Gravity," panted Erina. "Your true Affinity is manipulation of gravity."

  "Last I checked…" said Akira. "I told you to save your breath."

  "Gravity… clones… rebirth… dimensions…" Erina's breath hitched. "Quantum immortality? Or transfer of consciousness… Wormhole theory isn't yet complete. The closest relative is the black hole. If you could have solved it, then—?"

  "You're thinking way too hard." Akira shifted her weight to the other foot. "But you're half-right about one part. The Akira of the past… of the future and all the possibilities in between… what's the difference? It's all the same to me. Or maybe I should say, all the same to us."

  Her hand drifted to her front, feeling the scar that no longer existed.

  "You don't understand." Akira's voice dropped to a low, bitter tone. "The scope of what 'infinity' really means. You and anyone who can call themselves an individual. I hope you never do." A hollow smirk crossed her face. "Pfft. 'Akira'—as if a girl by that name still exists."

  Erina's expression fell.

  "Get it yet?" said Akira. "I could rip your head off your shoulders and I wouldn't lose a wink of sleep over it. Throw in the towel already."

  "Akira… Why do you always have to lie?"

  Akira lifted her head, looking down her nose at Erina. "What was that?"

  "That's the part of you I dislike the most," said Erina. "I can't stand it. You're standing in front of me, here and now. You're just as real as I am. I know someone helped me when I was lost and alone. Someone was there to take care of me when I had nowhere to go. It wasn't nobody who swore to be at my side when everything was too much for me to bear!"

  Akira's eyes moved somewhere else.

  "I don't want to fight you," repeated Erina. Her katana returned to its scabbard.

  Akira curled her lip and turned away with a sharp exhale. The light drizzle fell from the cloudy sky, leaving countless tiny ripples in the puddles on the street. The ambient sound of gentle rainfall came from every direction.

  "Walk the path where others can't," said Akira. "Be the arm extended where the law can never reach. Those were my beliefs. I swore I'd protect you."

  "Then—"

  "That's exactly why we have to fight!" Akira met her eye. "Yeah. That's right. You're out here fighting your heart out because you know what's at the end of this road, don't you? At least, you have an idea. And I'll tell you—you're right. But I know what it means to be crushed under the nightmare of identity." She averted her gaze again. "I won't let you come to regret it the way I did."

  Akira extended her arm and the rain stopped. Beads of water hung in the air, still and unmoving. Black and white flickers like television static crackled along her arm. Stray pebbles on the road lifted away, rising into the air around them.

  Akira turned her palm to the sky, fingers curling into claws. All the while, she refused to look at her. A cold wind swept over Erina, her long black hair stirring up in front of her.

  "You don't need to understand," said Akira.

  Her quaking fingers clenched into a fist.

  A huge sheet of wind struck Erina like an invisible hand and nearly swept her off her feet, shoes skidding down the street before she found her footing in the roaring winds. A blaze like the core of a reactor cast its angry glow on the streets, drowning out the muted sunlight and painting stark shadows on the walls.

  A black hole hung in the air, the ravenous abyss concealed by glowing accretion as everything fell and was ripped asunder with incomprehensible power.