The meadow didn't look like a meadow anymore the moment they decided to fight.
Grass flattened itself in widening rings as Vastarael lifted off the ground using Flight Mystic Circles.
Phaenora moved first.
Sapphire erupted from the ground around her, forming spears mid-bloom. She didn't bother shaping them delicately. This wasn't artistry, this was pressure. Six months ago, her sapphire would have been beautiful. Now it was out of haste.
Vastarael reacted instantly.
A Protection Circle snapped into existence in front of him. The sapphire spears struck it and slid off. At the same time, a Plasma Circle flared beneath the first shield, firing a beam at the ground beside her.
Phaenora moved backward with sapphire forming under her feet midair. She ended up creating a crystalline platform that shattered as she pushed off it. She hurled a mass of sapphire shards toward him,
Vastarael didn't draw his weapon. Three Mystic Circles layered themselves in front of him. They were Protection, Plasma, then Protection again. The shards struck with plasma flaring between the shields, turning the air into a screaming furnace of energy and force.
"You're still adjusting to your arms. Too bad Darling!"
She slammed her foot down.
A sapphire array detonated outward from her position. Spikes erupted upward in timed intervals, forcing Vastarael to dodge in mid-air. He laughed under his breath.
She really had gotten stronger.
He dropped altitude suddenly, releasing his Flight Circles. He let gravity take him for half a second before reactivating it sideways, slipping between two rising spires. He snapped his fingers and a Sapphire Circle bloomed behind him. A slab of sapphire formed instantly and shattered as he kicked off it, launching himself forward like a projectile.
Phaenora countered with a wall. Vastarael punched it.
Shockwaves rippled outward, the wall exploding into fragments that pulverized the earth. He used Flight Circles again but after losing his balance trying to spin, he used a Plasma Circle at his side to stabilize him.
Miranda yelled something in the distance. Probably about dead wildlife again. Phaenora didn't give him time to feel bad.
Sapphire formed along her arms like gauntlets. She began to use hand to hand combat on him. Vastarael blocked with Protection alone. Mystic Circles appeared in place centimeters away from his body, blowing blows with ease. Each impact rattled the air and each miss carved trenches into the ground.
She was faster than before. Six months had stripped away her restraint.
She dodged left, then shattered her own sapphire gauntlet mid-swing. Vastarael closed his eyes but he didn't need awareness for that.
He moved through the explosion of sapphire with his arms moving on pure calculation. He caught her wrist and immediately loosened his grip before he crushed it, redirecting instead, spinning her momentum past him.
She landed hard, skidding.
And laughed.
"Okay. You're terrifying without the glaive."
He hovered, breathing steady despite the fatigue gnawing at his heart.
"I told you. I'm better like this."
It was true.
Without the glaive, he wasn't thinking about reach and weight. Mage combat was pure abstraction to him now. His arms were tools, not senses, and that made him ruthless in a way he hadn't been before.
Phaenora raised both hands.
A boulder made entirely of crystal formed overhead. She manipulated it and dropped it as it fell at a rapid speed. Vastarael didn't panic. He formed more than six Protection Circles in front of him, rotating at different frequencies. The impact flattened the meadow.
When the dust settled, Vastarael was still there, hovering inches above the ground. He was completely unscathed. He let the circles dissipate slowly. Phaenora stood across from him, breathing hard with sapphire fading from her arms. They stared at each other for a long moment before she smiler.
"You caught up with your prime."
He shook his head.
"No, you did. You're better at using sapphire than me."
------
They walked through what used to be a battlefield and now looked like the aftermath of a very personal argument between two gods and a meadow that never consented to it.
Vastarael drew Restoration Runes in front of him. They hovered into the torn earth, the scorched grass and the fractured soil. Wherever a rune settled, grass rose back up. Cracks and trenches were sealed as well.
Phaenora walked beside him, watching him work with an expression that was half admiration and half concern.
"You know, I've always known you were an Energy Mage."
"You say that like there's a 'but' coming."
"There is. You're really good."
"That's what happens when you specialize in something you have too much of. If I didn't learn how to use energy efficiently, I would have exploded years ago."
She hummed in acknowledgment, then her gaze drifted to his chest.
"What you should be mad about is your heart."
"Oh, I am."
He stopped, drawing another rune before it drifted down into the soil.
"Reynolds made it indestructible. Same deal as my arms which is great, don't get me wrong. But I get tired faster now."
"That's normal. You've gone years without a heart, Darling. Your pseudo-cores were doing the job of an organ they were never meant to replace."
He scoffed softly. "And people still wonder why I was in constant pain."
She stopped walking and turned to face him.
"Honestly, it's a miracle they worked at all. Your body was brute-forcing life. Of course it hurt. Now you actually have to breathe properly again. You're learning how to exist."
"Feels ironic. I finally get a heart, and now it's the thing slowing me down."
"It's not slowing you down," she corrected. "It's making you Aeterium again. Or… whatever you are."
"Rude."
The last of the Restoration Runes finished their work. The meadow was whole again with no scorch marks, no shattered crystal or sign that a high-speed mage duel had just erased several acres of land from existence.
"See? You can fight like a monster but you still struggle with the basics."
"Wow. Just say I'm bad at holding spoons and mock me all day"
She didn't respond. Instead, she stepped forward and hugged him.
"Hold me."
Very carefully, he wrapped his arms around her. His movements were slower. Awareness was shifting into his mind as he focused harder than he ever had in combat. When he realized he wasn't crushing her, Phaenora gasped and pulled back just enough to look up at him.
"You did it! You actually did it!"
Relief flooded him so hard his knees almost buckled.
"I did?"
She grabbed his wrist, lifting it triumphantly.
"Yes! See? You're gentle now. That was perfect! High five!"
He immediately lowered his arm.
"Absolutely not. I am not ready to put force into that yet."
"You're such a coward sometimes."
She covered her hand in a thick layer of sapphire.
"There. Now we can."
He hesitated. Then, cautiously, he lifted his hand. The shockwave emerged from the contact. Phaenora's sapphire coating shattered instantly but her hand was fine. She stared at it for a second.
"See? Progress."
"Yeah. Progress. Thank you for helping me, Phae. And for not giving up on me."
"We're all here for you. Well, except Asenane. That stupid dragon has too much pride for her own good. Anyway, let's go check on Shimmer and Runner. I want to see how badly they're bullying their instructors."
He followed her but his thoughts were somewhere else. He noticed the way she said Asenane's name. She said it out of pure spite. Ever since he woke up, Phaenora avoided the topic entirely. And when she didn't, she was dismissive and was angry about it.
He didn't ask. Asenane was still avoiding him too. Every attempt he made ended the same way with her turning away, leaving and refusing to even look at him. Eventually, he stopped trying.
Still, the unease lingered. Phaenora hating Asenane didn't sit right with him. Something in his gut told him this wasn't just about the Sucking Void.
Something had happened and whatever it was, it was big enough to fracture people who had once stood on the same side.