Hirune scoffed and dodged a cleave, "You really liked that sick version of me that much? And I thought we were starting to get along."
Niye scowled and split Hirune's skull in half, "Finally." She pulled her blade out of her skull and turned around.
'ten seconds,' Hirune said as Niye's blade cut her leg off from her thigh, "Well that's incovenient."
"Skeletons!" Hirune said phasing away.
A small hoarde of skeletons rushed at Niye, "Listen Niye, I don't want to fight. We can resolve this together if you help me take down Axia!"
Niye glared at her and threw her executioners blade at Hirune's face. Hirune devoured it.
"That was stupid--" Hirune was cut off by another executioners blade coming from behind her and stabing through her neck. She coughed up some blood and looked at Niye with an annoyed expression.
'20 seconds,' Hirune devoured into the air and looked around. She felt a blade pierce through her stomach, "That trick won't work on me."
How did you--," Hirune choked as Niye twisted the blade.
"The wind is always on my side," Niye cut her in half.
'30 seconds,' Hirune's legs collapsed. Her left leg could still feel the pain of getting cut off and her right leg couldn't handle the weight of her entire body on it's own. Not to mention she was never good at balancing.
Hirune felt the cold metalic hand of death lift her chin.
"Do you give up little witch?" Hirune looked up at deaths emotionless face. "Well, I guess a better question would be, any last words little witch?"
Before Hirune could say anything, a bright light shined from beneath her and Niye's executioners blade got sent flying. From this green light emerged an ominous pressence.
"Quit it," a voice said from the light before going away.
Niye spit on the ground where the light was, "You're lucky. If that wasn't the horseman of death itself I wouldn't have stopped."
"And if it was Shisme?"
"Shisme is far bellow Astra," Niye said helping Hirune up. "Why aren't your legs working?"
Hirune shrugged.
Astra sighed, "What even was the point of all of this?"
"Axia said if I could defeat you she'd free the island," Hirune's nose started bleeding.
Niye pulled a tissue out of her pocket and gave it to Hirune, "If you had told me that I would've pretended to lose."
Hirune shook her head, "Not possible."
"How come?"
"Because I'm right here. Yaho!" Axia rose out of Hirune's shadow.
Niye pulled Hirune into her arms and jumped back. Tree roots rose out of the ground and wrapped all around Axia.
"That's not going to work," Hirune said trying to force her legs to work.
"Don't force yourself. Take your time to rest and recover."
"That doesn't work for me either," Hirune said holding onto Niye's shoulders to force herself to stand.
"Stop pushing yourself it'll only make it worse later!" Niye said picking Hirune up and throwing her over her shoulder like a potato sack.
The tree roots fell to the ground, "Put my master down. I'd rather not get the blood of another witch on my hands."
"Master?" Niye looked at Hirune with an eyebrow raised.
"She's my self proclaimed Living Shift Weapon Artifact," Hirune said throwing a bunch of black seeds at the ground around Axia. "You can evacuate everyone in the area in less than a second right?"
"Indeed I can. Why?" As she asked this, the seeds grew into the large flowers of the Weeping Garden. "What are those?"
"Flowers from the Weeping Garden. Though for something so beautiful they have a tremendously ugly name so I just call them Mary," Hirune answered throwing more at the weapon.
"What do they do?" Niye said staring at the disgusting flowers. They were marigold flowers, usually she'd find them beautiful, but these marygold flowers had fleshy gums with sharp shark-like teeth. The petals covered in a pitch black gooey substance that emited a light red, almost pink gas.
"The gas they emmit devours everything within it. Which is why I'm telling you to get everyone out of here. If the flowers come from seeds they rapidly repopulate and soon this place will be inhabitable. In 5 minutes I'll come back and clean it up so it doesn't cover the island and everyone can come back."
Niye threw Hirune to the ground, "Are you insane? What if nothing goes according to your plan? What then?"
Hirune tried to stand up but she still couldn't, "I'll die. I'll die over and over to atone for my mistake."
Niye's eyes widened. She covered her mouth as if coming to a realization, "Don't tell me you..."
"Yes, when I die I come back. Though I only go ten seconds back so it's kind of useless unless I kill myself a ton. Which I can't do without Vereta doing something about it."
Niye rolled her eyes and picked Hirune back up and rushed to the edge of the island.
"What about the people?"
"The scorpions will save them. Another part of my artifact, I hold all authority over insects and plants. Since we're teaming up against Axia now, or at least I can assume we are, I may as well let you know that the executioner blades are also a part of my artifact. They take lives in order to return to others," Niye shared.
"Does that mean my lifetime is shortened now?" Hirune asked weakly. She was slowly losing her voice. 'I guess I'm still feeling the consequences of consecutive deaths, huh?'
Niye chuckled, "Well considering you came back after dying from it to a point ten seconds before your death, I'd like to think you're fine since by technicality the blade never killed you in this timeline."
"That's a relief," Hirune said with a slight groan as her eyes closed.
"Stay with me Hirune. I don't know how many times I killed you, and I'm sorry about all the times I did, but the people of the island are going to need you. Stay strong, not because I'm telling you to, but for the people that think so highly of you and Namulenza. They need you to stay strong so that they can keep their spirits up after we explain the situation to them."
Hirune nodded and forced herself to stay conscious.
"By the way, how much of the island will be covered in those five minutes?"
"Only the coast will remain, so get them all there. Oh, and while you're at it, make the wildlife collect wood and take it to the shore. You'll be building boats," Hirune laughed.
"What?" Niye dropped her on the sandy beach.
"I can already see it. I'm going to prove myself to Axia by defeating her instead of you. I told her I'd defeat you to prove myself to her so that she'd free this island, but that's not fair to you nor the people of this island. These people deserve justice, and justice will be served once I take her down!" Hirune smiled at Niye.
She smiled back, "You sure talk big game for someone that's so pathetically weak."