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The violet spheres tore through the air toward Bordeaux, shrieking with compressed power.
He didn't retreat.
Bordeaux shifted, just a slight tilt of his body, a half-step in midair and the first sphere screamed past his shoulder. Another skimmed by his ribs, close enough to scorch his coat. The rest missed entirely, slamming into the walls behind him.
Stone detonated. Pillars cracked. The chamber erupted as chunks of the castle were torn free.
Before the rubble could crash down, barriers flared into existence.
Blanc lifted her hand without looking, a smooth, translucent wall catching debris inches from her tea set. Moss threw up his own barrier with a snarl, while Veyron and Zonda reinforced the space around them, stone and dust freezing mid-fall.
"Violet-sama, please calm yourself!" Veyron shouted.
Violet ignored him.
She vanished from where she stood, reappearing in front of Bordeaux in a blur of purple light. Her fist came forward like a cannon shot, the air screaming as it compressed around her knuckles.
Bordeaux hovered, smiling.
He shifted aside.
Her punch tore past him, ripping through empty space and detonating against the far wall. Violet didn't stop, her body twisted smoothly, momentum flowing into a spinning kick aimed straight at his head.
Bordeaux caught her leg.
His fingers locked around her ankle, grip iron-tight.
A grin split his face. "Want to go, big sister?" he said, voice sharp with excitement. "Then shall we?"
He spun.
Violet's body whipped through the air as Bordeaux turned, her momentum stolen and redirected. With a final violent twist, he hurled her away.
She became a streak of purple light, smashing through stone, tearing across the chamber, and crashing into a distant wall with an explosion that shook the ground.
Without wasting a breath, Bordeaux kicked off the air and shot after her.
Blanc sighed softly. "What brutes," she muttered. "All they ever do is fight."
Moss slammed a hand on the table as he stood. "This is outrageous. Completely outrageous! There is no respect left at all. How dare they indulge in such barbaric behavior in front of Blanc-samaâ"
"It's fine," Blanc said calmly.
Moss froze.
"Let them fight it out," she continued, eyes drifting back to the board game on the table. "It won't take long anyway."
"Butâ"
"Blanc-sama," Veyron interrupted quickly, bowing his head. "We sincerely apologize for our lord's behavior."
"I don't care," Blanc replied.
Her fingers traced the edge of the Monopoly box. "I really do want to play this. Bordeaux said it's extremely fun."
Veyron and Zonda exchanged stunned glances.
This Blanc, unbothered and indulgent was nothing like the one they had prepared themselves to face.
---
The battlefield trembled.
Violet burst free from the shattered wall grinning, rage rolling off her in waves. While still airborne, she thrust her hands forward, conjuring more violet spheresâlarger this time, denser, vibrating with destructive power.
She launched them in rapid succession.
Bordeaux saw them coming.
Heat bloomed around him.
Flames erupted, not ordinary fire, but red-hot, compressed, roaring with an intensity that warped the air itself. The incoming spheres met the flames and disintegrated instantly, evaporating in flashes of violent light.
Violet's eyes widened.
"That fireâŚ" she snarled, staring at the inferno surrounding him. "That's not your usual flames. What is that?"
Bordeaux chuckled, drifting forward through the heat as if it were nothing. "Just a souvenir from my time in the Cardinal World."
"Sovâwhat?" Violet snapped. "What are you even talking about?"
"I fought the Superior Fire Spirit, Ifrit, while in the Cardinal World" Bordeaux said casually. "He wasn't as strong as I hoped. But taking his abilities made up for it."
Violet's aura spiked violently. "You fought a Superior Spirit," she shouted, disbelief cracking through her voice, "and won?"
Bordeaux tilted his head. "Why are you acting like spirits are such a big deal?" he asked. "That whole thing about spirits being natural counters to demons? Its all fake."
He smiled, flames coiling lazily around his body.
"I expected to be outclassed," he continued. "Thought I'd either die like a warrior or evolve more."
His grin widened.
"But honestly?"
"It was a total snoozefest."
"Shut up!" Violet screamed.
Her aura flared violently as two massive purple spheres swelled into existence above her palms. She hurled them forward with everything she had.
Bordeaux didn't slow down.
He flew straight at them.
The moment the spheres reached arm's length, Bordeaux thrust both hands forward. Red-hot flames poured from his palms, compressing inward instead of spreading out. The purple energy resisted for a heartbeat and then collapsed, burned away from the inside as if suffocating.
The path ahead cleared.
Violet barely had time to widen her eyes before Bordeaux vanished from her vision.
The impact came first.
Her body jerked as something slammed into her guard, driving her back several steps through the air. Before she could stabilize, a second blow cracked against her ribs, followed by a third that snapped her head to the side.
He was on her.
Bordeaux stayed close, too close and his movements sharp and efficient. A fist to the jaw. A short hook to the body. Another strike that slipped past her defense before she could even adjust.
Then his knee came up.
The hit lifted her off balance, and before gravity could reclaim her, Bordeaux drove an uppercut straight into her core. Violet's body shot upward, air ripping past her as she was launched skyward.
Her vision spun.
Bordeaux reappeared above her.
His body twisted midair, wings flaring just enough to anchor his rotation. His heel came down hard, crashing into her torso and sending her rocketing toward the ground.
She hit like a meteor.
The earth ruptured. Stone collapsed inward, forming a wide crater as dust and shockwaves rolled outward.
For a split second, everything stilled.
Then Bordeaux was there again.
He drove a punch straight down, all his speed condensed into a single point. The blow detonated against Violet's torso, forcing the crater even deeper as the ground screamed under the pressure.
Violet coughed, blood spraying from her lips.
Damn it.
Her thoughts raced.
With Noir, there was hope. Noir was stronger, yes but he was stagnant. He didn't push himself. Didn't chase growth. That meant someday, maybe, she could surpass him.
But Bordeauxâ
He's already this strong⌠and he still keeps climbing. Keeps trying to get stronger.
Her fingers trembled.
Can I even catch up to someone like that?
She grit her teeth.
"I don't know," she said aloud, forcing herself upright through the pain. "But what I do know isâ"
Her eyes hardened.
"As a big sister, I'm not going down easily. I'll make this as hard as possible for you."
Bordeaux tilted his head. "Huh? What are you talking aboutâ"
Violet lunged.
Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him into a tight embrace. Her voice softened unnaturally as she pressed herself close.
"You've always wanted a hug from big sister, right?" she said sweetly. "Here. Take it."
Bordeaux froze, confusion flashing across his face at the unnatural warmth of Violet.
That confusion cost him.
Purple light erupted from Violet's body, flooding the space between them. The explosion went off at point-blank range, swallowing them both.
A second passed.
Then Bordeaux burst free, wings snapping open as he shot backward through the smoke. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth, but he was smiling.
"Giving me hope of an actual bond," he said lightly, wiping his lip. "That's cold, big sister."
Violet appeared in front of him.
Her fist slammed into his face before the words fully left his mouth.
Bordeaux went flying, crashing into the ground hard enough to carve a trench through stone.
He blinked.
âŚWhat?
For the first time, his instincts screamed late.
I didn't react.
He always read Violet's movements. Always stayed ahead. But that punch, he hadn't seen it coming.
Then it clicked.
The explosion.
Poison.
Something woven into the blast, subtle and precise. It was not lethal but just enough to dull his reaction speed even for a few seconds.
Violet stood over him, breathing hard, eyes blazing.
"That look," she snarled. "You've already figured it out."
Her foot came down.
Again.
And again.
She hammered him into the ground repeatedly, each strike driving him deeper until the area collapsed into a massive crater.
With a sharp inhale, she raised both hands. Purple energy gathered rapidly, swelling into a dense sphere right above his chest.
She thrust it downward.
At the last instant, Bordeaux vanished.
The sphere detonated, tearing open the earth and leaving behind a gaping hole that swallowed light.
Bordeaux reappeared far behind her, hovering casually, wings flexing as the poison's effects faded.
A wide grin spread across his face.
"Interesting," he said, eyes gleaming. "Truly interesting, big sister."