Sylas activated Mixed Demonic Arts instantly, his trident moving to block with its shaft. Winds shattered like glass, the impact causing the glacier beneath them to sink so much they were instantly surrounded by curtains of water as tall as dozens of meters.

The water crashed in around them, but neither of the two seemed to notice. One pair of eyes, dotted in crimson, the other surrounded by a ring of gold, clashed as their gazes met. Each one was filled with the power of their Professions, the ancestors of the Weaver and Seeing Eye Guild standing tall as though they had both picked their representatives for this fight long ago.

Sylas took a strong step back and Salivar stepped forward. The latter grinned, pulling out a bloodied blade that looked formed of ruby-like dragon scales from thin air with his free hand.

He slashed down at Sylas' throat.

Sylas' irises wiggled about and the Runes danced. The space between the blade and his neck didn't seem to have changed at all, and yet despite swinging with all of his might, Salivar found that he couldn't get closer, as though the distance had increased to infinity.

BANG.

Sylas' foot crashed into Salivar's belly, knocking the latter off balance. In the same motion, his heel slammed to the ground, his trident sweeping across space and time, growing heavier and heavier as it fell toward Salivar's head.

It looked as though both of them were frozen in time. But while Salivar couldn't break through, Sylas was using the added distance only to increase his own momentum.

And then…

BOOM.

Sylas' trident fell.

Salivar's head looked as though it had been squashed into a pancake, his skull deforming, his eyes pressing to his nose, and his nose pressing down to his mouth.

Blood was ejected from his ears, Runes of Space, of the Whale, and the sparking emerald lightning of the Scorpion pulling together. The last shattered Salivar's Will, weakening his Cryst Emperor abilities and his control over his Aether, while the former two fused into one, warping space, distorting Aether, and crafting a blow so heavy it blasted the glacier into countless pieces.

BOOM.

Salivar was sent careening into the heavy and cold waters below, but not before he managed to grab Sylas' ankle. The former's head snapped back up as though on a spring of some sort, bloody Aether shuddering and reshaping the bones that had cracked and shattered in an instant of time.

A wall of cold slammed into Sylas, seeping into his armors. The rapid change in pressure squeezed the oxygen out from his lungs. In one moment, they went from an environment so bright even they had to squint to protect their eyes, to one so dark it was seemingly impossible to see anything at all.

The cold prickled at his skin like needles, the still rapidly changing pressure making him feel as though he could be crushed at any time.

Chi.

His Rune Armors cracked, only to rapidly reform themselves at the expense of Sylas' stamina.

Sylas' eyes flashed as he felt like Salivar was about to crush his ankle and shatter his Rune Armor once more. Rather than knocking his hand away, Sylas coolly cast [Fleeting Caress].

The wave of pain pierced through Salivar's mind, his Will faltering. His initial instinct was to let go, but the wave of pleasure that came right after made him feel like he was in the embrace of one of his favorite women.

The two thoughts tugged against one another, slowing his thought to crush Sylas' bone.

Sylas drove his knee upward and slammed the butt of his trident down.

BANG!

His leg pulled Salivar up just as his trident slammed into the latter's head once more.

A radiant pair of wings appeared on Sylas' back as he cast [Wings of Rhyme]. He spun in the depths of water, and with a single flap, the pressure around them vanished.

Salivar coughed up a mouthful of blood the instant they pulled themselves out of the depths of the cold seas. Frost covered them both, and yet only a single one of them seemed just fine.

To go from low pressure to high pressure so fast placed a great amount of stress on their bodies. But to suddenly go from high to low in such a flashing instant of time without preparation… half of Salivar's body had become infused with air in the precise locations it shouldn't have been.

The difference for Sylas was that this time he was prepared. And he had happened to fuse with Nosphaleen… a beautiful woman from a race very much used to the changing pressures of deep-water swimming.

[Shimmering Vein].

Sylas struck out a palm right at Salivar's belly. A Mesmer Mark shone in radiant hues of silvery rainbow colors. The mark vanished as soon as it appeared, sinking into Salivar's Aether Pathways and confusing his mind. He wasn't sure which way was up and which way was down, his wellspring of control over his Aether—something he had undoubtedly always been proud of—slipping from his control.

Sylas stomped a foot high in the air and pulled his trident back. Holding its thick handle in a single hand, he stretched out a palm and balanced himself as though focusing all of his aim and intention on one thing before him.

His eyes locked onto Salivar as one complex Rune after another took shape before the tip of his trident. A tesseract formed in the depths of his pupils and the world shook before freezing, as though Sylas himself had commanded it.

He took a breath and exhaled, the spread of his wings making him look like an angel descended to greet the world with his presence.

And then he struck.

A silvery, streaking meteor peeled across the skies. When it struck Salivar's chest, it was as though the world itself had frozen. Time ceased moving forward. Space shuddered into a freeze. The winds slowed to a crawl, and the earth stopped rotating.

PUCHI.

A hole was blown through Salivar's chest.

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