Chapter 1279: Facing Anima
"The conceptual world huh? I suppose this is where you've been since the first cycle, when Chaos cursed you with continuing your experiment." Shiro asked as she tried to walk towards Anima but their distance never changed.
Even though she was walking, she remained in the same spot.
"I suppose it's to be expected that you've seen everything that happened up to this point. If you haven't, you wouldn't have reached tier 10." Anima chuckled as she stood up.
"So do you think you have what it takes to stop me?" She asked as Shiro summoned Gungnir.
"Let's just say I like to try the impossible."
Taking a step back, she gritted her teeth and threw Gungnir towards Anima who gathered energy into her hand and created a sword of cosmic energy.
Flicking her wrist, she parried Gungnir without issue and sent it to the side.
"You know, I had only held hope of you killing me before things devolved to this point." Anima sighed as Shiro widened her eyes in surprise.
Without any warning, Anima had appeared next to her and swiped down with her sword.
Dodging to the side, Shiro summoned Gungnir once more and stabbed towards Anima who disappeared from her spot.
"You have no idea how wide the scope of this experiment truly is. Do you think I've never seen you use Gungnir? Do you think you've never reached this area? Did you think you were special?" Anima asked, her voice bereft of anger.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro jumped back to create some distance between them when she tripped over something within the ground.
Furrowing her brows, she glanced back and saw a sea of corpses, each one pierced with Gungnir through the chest. Her eyes widened as it was all variations of her.
"Did you think you were the first Shiro to get here?" Anima sighed.
Raising her hand, a myriad of tier 10 magic circles formed above her as a rain of arrows shot towards Shiro.
"Every full cycle, there is always one Shiro who achieves tier 10. Every full cycle, there is always an extra corpse within this realm of universal laws. You will merely add to the pile."
Dodging the arrows with difficulty, Shiro knew that most of her attack skills would do nothing to Anima. After reaching tier 10, she understood the gulf between tier 9 and 10 was not something power could make up. Each of her attacks had to have universal laws embedded into it.
For Anima, this was for her to protect her experiment so that she could continue the cycles. Chaos' curse.
Unless she can embed universal laws into her own attack, she should forget about using fanciful skills and so far, only Gungnir had the capabilities of utilizing universal laws!
Summoning Gungnir next to her once more, Shiro threw the spear towards Anima's head.
Just as she was about to parry it, Shiro teleported in front of her and grabbed the spear. Twisting her body, she attempted to pierce Anima's head but Anima managed to dodge by leaning back.
"The same attacks every time. I will say that with every iteration, you get a little closer to killing me. Just a little closer. But with my curse, I cannot simply sit back and watch you kill me. The only chance was for you to kill me before reaching tier 10.
"Through the avatar, I can hold myself back and let you destroy my code, my universal law. But no, you never succeeded. The moment you entered this place, you signed your own death warrant. For I can no longer hold back because of universal law and my curse." Anima sighed as Shiro understood the emotions going through Anima's head.
It was resignation. She accepted that this cycle was a failure as well and that Shiro couldn't succeed in killing her.
'She's being forced to fight thanks to the laws that she embodies… Is there really no chance I can kill her?' Shiro thought to herself with a frown as she had to admit, hearing that she failed and seeing hundreds to thousands of her own corpses behind her was something else entirely.
All of them reached tier 10 just like her, all of them came here with the same thoughts just like her, and all of them died. Was her fate to suffer the same?
'No!'
Stomping down, she summoned two Gungnirs from the ground and shot them towards Anima.
"I had put hope in you killing me before this place. I had tried my best to set up everything for you, but you wasted the chances. Kill, murder, plunder I don't care. The details of each cycle no longer matter. So long as you can kill me, anything goes."
"Oi, do you even hear yourself? Do you not remember what brought you here in the first place? How you thought the individual mattered? Aren't you just thinking like Chaos at this point?" Shiro asked with a forced smile. Summoning two more Gungnir's, she kicked the pommel and sent them flying towards Anima.
Parrying the spears, Anima shook her head.
"Yes, that's what I thought at first. But after so many cycles, patterns begin to emerge. I have seen every pattern, every choice. Cycles when you ended up with Nan Tian, cycles when you chose Lyrica, cycles when you chose to be alone. Everything. In the grand scheme of things, nothing changed. Your individual actions did not change the course of the world."
"Then don't you think I can change things now that I'm here? You've basically told me everything haven't you?" Shiro retorted while flicking her wrist. All of the spears she's thrown started to float momentarily before shooting towards Anima, blocking all paths of retreat.
"That's what you have told me every time you arrive in this place. But the corpses of your past tell of your results. Why should I hope? Why should I bother? Have you given me a reason to care?" Anima asked as she stabbed her sword down, surrounding herself in a wave of flames that reduced everything that came into contact to ash.
"The old you would've scoffed at what you've become." Shiro taunted while sweat dripped down her face.
The fact that Anima hadn't done much other than parry and maybe swing towards her once or twice was worrying.
"She would've indeed. But it's fine. There is no more hope for this cycle. All that's left for me to do is to end you and restart everything from scratch. Once you die, the anchor for this cycle will break and all will be returned to zero."
Raising her hand, an overwhelming wave of mana burst out from her body as Shiro felt millions of invisible blades locking onto her.
Her instincts were screaming for her to run away as no matter where she teleported, the blades never lost track of her.
"You're not the only one with a weapon that cannot miss. Mine's just in the form of a sword."
With no other choice, Shiro focused her senses and parried as many blades as she could.
'Ignore the ones that won't be lethal, just parry the ones with the most danger.'
Swinging her spear, she tried her best to parry but she was unable to counter all of them as blades pierced into her body.
Stumbling back, Shiro was forced to kneel.
"See? Some have even perished at this spot." Anima sighed while pointing at the corpses next to her. All of them had blades pierced through their bodies as their lifeless eyes stared off into nothingness.
"I have experienced every timeline to its end, seen every action and consequence. The corpses here are merely what I choose to show you as to not clutter our arena. So tell me, after seeing all this can you still say you are able to change what's already been proven by history? By each timeline that ended?"
Jumping back, Shiro tore the blades from her body and stood with the help of her spear.
"Anima, you say that you've experienced every timeline to its end. But there is still one that's yet to finish." Shiro laughed as she healed her wounds.
"Your own. We may be clones and fakes but it's not completely hopeless. Who knows, perhaps this cycle is the one to end yours. How can you say you've seen the full picture if you haven't seen the end of yours? It may take a long time but the end will come one day. And who's to say it's not me who ends you." Standing up straight, Shiro placed her spear in front of her as tier 10 magic circles lit up around the realm.
". . .I'll admit, this is the first time I've heard that. Perhaps you are right, there will be an end someday. But when is that day going to come? I have lived and suffered for eons, how much more must I endure before I can welcome my end?" Anima smiled bitterly as she felt a flutter in her heart.
A promise of a distant land of death that she could only dream of. Often she wished she was like the subjects of her experiments. The people who can live, laugh then die. The gentle embrace of nihility giving them the rest they deserve.
The rest that is out of her reach.
She didn't dare to hope for hope in the face of immortality was a noose that continued to tighten but she would not die. She would continue to suffer for this hope that had been bestowed upon her.
"Then let me die having lived in the heat of battle. Surely you can provide me with this much if you truly seek to end my eon's of suffering." Anima asked as she broke away from her throne. The chains still surrounded her body but her mobility was no longer limited.
Rushing forward, Anima conjured a myriad of blades around her to parry the attacks that targeted her back while engaging in close quarters combat with Shiro.
Just as she was about to stab Shiro in the chest, the shaft of Gungnir collided with her wrist, forcing her attack off her target.
Without saying anything, Shiro had fully focused her mind in order to keep up with Anima. This speed, this power, this overwhelming mana. Shiro couldn't compete in any of these aspects and can only hope to endure to the end.
Hitting the side of Anima's knee with Gungnir, Shiro kicked her in the chest before swinging down with the spear.
*CLANG!
The collision of weapons echoed out in this landscape of infinity as it was just the two of them and a sea of corpses.
Jumping back, she conjured more spears to fend off Anima while she prepared her next spell.
But before it could take effect, Anima was already next to her and cleaved down with her blade.
With no time to dodge, Shiro could only grit her teeth and lean to the side, making sure the attack was not fatal before countering with her own.
Taking damage at the same time, they created more distance between them before continuing their clash.