The battle congealed like ice on a river; Lingxiao and Lingsaki’s binding spells seemed to bite. No—they only worked because Lorin never even glanced their way, as if rain slid off stone. Even when her steps slowed a hair, I still grasped at smoke, my blade chasing a shadow.
Frustration pricked like needles; several times I nearly scored, only to be reversed and nearly skewered instead. In the end it was a gulf in strength, a ravine between cliffs I couldn’t bridge. Even so, with Lingxiao and Lingsaki beside me, I felt that gulf had a rope bridge, and a stalemate was natural fog.
Lorin spoke, her voice a cold bell on the wind. “I don’t know what you’ve been hiding till now, but dragging this out is like watching paint dry. Next, I’m getting serious. If you don’t want to lose, bring everything.”
Her words fell, and her aura surged like a tide; the clouds above split like silk under a blade, from slabs to a shattered field. Around the Heavenly Lance, a pale haze welled up like dawn mist, and danger crawled over my skin like frost. Lorin moved faster by severalfold, every motion leaving afterimages like torn banners in wind. Each casual thrust hurled me back like a wave; my right hand on the Shattered Light Sword throbbed like a bruised drum.
Resolve hardened like iron in a forge; I couldn’t hold back anymore. …Sword Domain—open! I flung the Shattered Light Sword skyward, and the Sword Domain blossomed like a storm of petals. In heartbeats, the air filled with blades shaped from Sword Aura, a flock of steel starlings wheeling overhead. Within the Domain, ambient elements refined into pure energy and Sword Aura, like rain distilled into crystal.
We’d stalled because I was too cautious, a hunter tiptoeing around a tiger. Lorin wasn’t a common foe; instead of grinding for answers, I had to ignite everything and grasp a spark of victory. “Lingxiao, Lingsaki—hold nothing back,” I called, my voice like flint. “Attrition won’t touch Lorin; we end this in a thunderclap.”
I seized two floating blades to catch her lunge; they shattered like glass rain, and I slipped aside and caught my returning Shattered Light Sword. Now the real fight began, an hourglass overturned; could I endure at full burn until I struck the bell from her hand?
…
“So this is the Sword Domain?” Lingxiao breathed, wonder like moonlight in her eyes. “It’s beautiful, a world made of blades. This energy is so pure, like springwater; the boost in here even tops my magic domain. Truly, the Sword Wielder lives up to its name as the strongest.”
Lingsaki’s gaze sharpened like a drawn edge. “True, but now isn’t the time to sigh over stars. The Emperor’s still being pressed; Brother’s like a bowstring about to snap.” She flipped the Book of Night deep into the back, pages whispering like wings. “Book of Night, page three hundred—Magic Domain, Veil of Night.” “Book of Day, page three hundred—Magic Domain, Zenith of Daylight.”
Almost at once, a black moon and a blazing sun rose, each taking a throne, merging with the Sword Domain like ink and gold. Dusk unraveled into a wonder of alternating day and night: in the east the sun burned, auroras spearing the sky. In the west the black moon drifted, stars spilled like salt across the dark. Under their twin light and boons, the swords that filled heaven and earth shifted hue and form, growing secret and resplendent like orchids after rain.
