Hell Difficulty Tutorial
Chapter 593 – 2v1

There are no words exchanged between us. Vic charges first, only for her body to explode into pieces the moment she gets closer. Each of these pieces grows into another person, and five Victorias charge Lissandra at once.

She kicks one of the Victorias away, the broken body passing by me as it sails through the air. Another two explode into quivering piles of flesh. One of the remaining ones grabs Lissandra's arm, and the last one tears off a finger to throw at Lissandra.

I use Wraith Dance to jump down and lash out at Lissandra with Fracture.

Lissandra ducks under the blade, and a cascading mana attack flows from her hand. Victoria, holding onto her arm, bursts like a bubble.

I catch Victoria's finger midair, pulling it close to protect it as a burst of heat pours from my partially unsealed heart. It scorches everything in the area, leaving the air flickering behind it.

Out of the golden flames, Lissandra emerges undamaged with a pale blue barrier flickering across her skin. My kinetic energy’s hold on her is broken through a sheer burst of force, and a sword made of mana forms in her hand, which she slashes at me.

It meets with Fracture, which, incredibly, does not cut through it immediately. The two blades clash. While her sword remains firm and stable, Fracture is beginning to crack, releasing bursts of black and gray smoke.

I send a disruptive wave at her, something that would’ve easily overwhelmed anyone from Earth’s tutorial, but she remains unaffected. Instead, she pushes me back, using her mana to reinforce her body.

Circles of flame burst from the exhaust node on my back, tearing through my hoodie. The flames surround me, swirl around my form, and lash out at Lissandra.

She steps forward, forcing me back, and the flames closing in on her are blown away by the pressure radiating from her.

The finger I’ve hidden within these flames behind her begins to expand, and Victoria regrows from it, only to be kicked away by Lissandra, who doesn't even turn around. Still, Victoria endures and grabs Lissandra's leg, twisting in an attempt to break it.

I seize the opportunity and boost my body to its limit, slashing at her with Fracture once more and finally shattering the sword she’s created.

For a moment, that familiar pale blue mana flickers across her palm as she deflects the blade by striking the flat. Lissandra breaks free from Victoria's grip and kicks her again. Then she vanishes, reappearing atop another broken building.

I use the mark I left on her to send a tricolored orb through and then teleport behind her using the same mark. But the explosion I expected never happens. Lissandra stands completely untouched. With a viper-like motion, she reacts as if she’d seen it coming and grabs me by the neck. She raises her arm to block Fracture, only to realize with slight surprise that it's not there.

Victoria reaches us, holding the sword in both of her hands, which are already more damaged than mine, and slashes at Lissandra, who moves to dodge. I use that brief opportunity to create a nail made of black mana and jam it into her shoulder as she deflects Victoria’s strike with Fracture.

I release a burst of kinetic energy at her, and she lets go of my neck to quickly draw a glowing inscription in the air that absorbs all of that kinetic energy and deflects it back at me, forcing me to absorb it in turn.

Lissandra vanishes, even with the black mana nail piercing her, even with the pull of the black mana crown and my attempts at disruption. Her control is so precise that she ignores it all, and I focus on observing how she does it as closely as I can.

I grab Fracture as Victoria throws it to me. Meanwhile, Victoria bites off her tongue, spits it out, and grows another duplicate, with arms undamaged by the strain of holding Fracture.

Both of us jump over the buildings and follow Lissandra, who continues to put up distance by creating shields and shooting projectiles at us that, though weak in appearance, totally obliterate anything in their path.

We chase her across the rooftops as the first projectile lands behind us. The building it touches caves in without a sound, sucked inward before collapsing in a slow, unnatural slumping motion. Windows melt and flow like wax, then burst into steam.

Another shot cuts through the street below. The asphalt warps, buckles, then craters inward. Cars roll over and crumple as if they were made of tin foil, their frames folding into each other before they burst into flames.

One glowing orange spark flies past my face, and the heat alone singes my cheek, leaving a glowing line tracing across the hood of my hoodie. Behind me, it touches the building and explodes into a fiery vortex. Victoria ducks under another, her hair catching fire briefly before she can snuff it out.

Another attack strikes a parked car. It just folds the car inward until it forms a perfect sphere, glowing faintly, then sinks through the cracked pavement like a stone falling through water.

All while Vic seems unkillable. She is quick, she is durable, and no matter how much she gets destroyed, a new version of her always pops up. It seems like these versions are becoming tougher with every attack Lissandra sends her way, likely due to some sort of adaptive resistance, passive, or trait she’s acquired.

Lissandra, even though limited, is far stronger than Ruby's avatar. Not because of any difference in levels, in terms of skills or stats, but because of her sheer experience and the level of decisiveness she demonstrates. She knows most of my skills and quickly adapts to Vic’s.

Even while holding back and fighting so simply, her style feels like that of someone who had to learn on their own, gathering abilities from different sources and relying entirely on her own personal understanding.

The fight slows down as she retreats to the streets, giving us a few seconds to regroup.

Victoria joins me at my side, throwing down a few pieces of herself that grow into new duplicates. They start walking in from the side and surround Lissandra, who lets it happen without so much as turning to watch them. Fracture vibrates in my arm, breaking, cracking.

No cheesy one-liners are spoken, and I attack. Reaching through a stretched Ley Line, I teleport, only to appear somewhere entirely different, I wanted, coming out somewhere high in the air.

I send a pulse of detection and fly in that direction, altering my course and heading straight for Lissandra, who is locked in battle against Victoria's duplicates.

I crash down like a meteor, with Fracture slicing past Lissandra, mere inches from her body, as she twists out of the way. Immediately, I boost myself with black mana, both in body and mind. The barrier around Lissandra's body flickers as my black crown starts absorbing it, and Victoria moves faster than before and grabs her from behind, locking her in a chokehold as she jams one of her fingers into Lissandra's eyes.

My Mana Wavelength Iris observes Lissandra and the mana moving around her body, and she easily returns that gaze with her one remaining eye. Everything feels slowed down, and I move as if wading through mud, my body struggling to keep up with my perception.

Lissandra increases her speed to match mine. The fading mana around her skin flickers, and she deflects Fracture by striking the flat of the blade with her hand and directing it into the ground. In one smooth movement, she throws Victoria off her, by breaking and twisting my sister´s arms.

I boost myself further. I recall the way Lioren moved, and even though I lack his grace, I try to recapture a portion of it, if only for a moment, moving faster, raising Fracture, and thrusting it toward Lissandra.

In response, she slams her palms together, catching the blade between them. Fracture halts just a palm’s width from her chest. Even then, it releases bursts of gray and black smoke, tearing into her hands and leaving a series of gaping wounds across her chest. The same force hits me as well, and I’m forced to redirect my mana to avoid damage to my circuits.

Lissandra moves to twist the blade out of my hands, but Victoria's punch hits her blind side and sends her flying through the air, rolling across the asphalt and finally coming to a stop against the side of a bus. Victoria doesn't stop there, though, and charges her, sending the bus rolling across the road as she slams into it with her shoulder, but Lissandra is not there anymore.

Feeling a movement behind me, I release a burst of mana in that direction, a portion of the huge amount I’ve collected over the course of the fight.

Lissandra, standing there, slashes her arm through the air, and the burst of energy parts, passing by her sides and tearing into the street and buildings behind her. She walks forward, her gaze locking with mine. Mana spirals across her body in a pattern far too complex to be random. My currently activated Mana Wavelength Iris catches it for a moment, then falters. Pain surges through me, and my grip on my mana breaks from the overload of the information.

Even then, I force myself to make an attempt to absorb the kinetic energy of her punch, but I fail and am sent flying back, crashing through the glass window of a small shop nearby.

I boost myself back up only to see Lissandra holding my black crown, which she must have grabbed when she kicked me away. She smiles and throws it far into the distance, only to take another punch from Victoria, who appears nearby. The hit lands, but Victoria’s body instantly detonates under the force, torn into flying chunks of flesh and blood.

Another Victoria grows from one of the scattered pieces. She moves the same way, landing a second hit before her body disintegrates mid-strike from the strain. For a brief moment, she's as fast as Tacita and nearly as strong as Jean. The impact sends Lissandra crashing through buildings, and the shockwaves push debris and vehicles down the street.

Once again, from the pieces, a new Victoria appears, charging at Lissandra with her shoulder and sending her into another building that collapses as well. The structure groans under the impact, walls cracking and supports giving way. Before it can fully collapse, however, it erupts in a violent explosion, launching debris in every direction.

Lissandra steps out, with pale mana flickering around her and remaining nearly undamaged.

Victoria charges again in the same reckless fashion, and I try to read her trajectory, predicting where her punch will send Lissandra. I move to intercept, ready to swing my sword as she comes flying toward me.

I move, positioning myself before Lissandra's body reaches me, but a spear of mana forms in her hand. She drives it into the road, slowing her momentum and causing me to miss. She then immediately moves and stabs at my neck, chest, and leg before I break the weapon with Fracture and slash it across her legs, wounding her in the process.

Thermal energy combusts beneath my skin, healing these wounds nearly immediately, and I throw Fracture aside, where Victoria grabs it.

I start channeling more kinetic energy through my body, using mana to strengthen it at the same time, all as much as I can with the entirety of my [Focus]. Thermal energy continues combusting inside me, sending waves of pain through my body while healing the damage I cause to myself. Using my rapidly healing body, I let go of efficiency and devote the entirety of my focus on quickly channeling kinetic energy through myself to match up to my sister and Lissandra.

Victoria unleashes short bursts of strength and speed that tears her body apart with each movement. My own body holds together only because it's constantly burning itself to heal. Lissandra uses some form of overclocking, combined with incredible mana-based reinforcement.

What began as a clash of skills and tricks shifts into a pure, brutal melee as we attack Lissandra together. In terms of stats, she’s likely only as strong as one of us alone, and yet somehow she’s matching both of us combined.

Lissandra takes wounds and blows, without bothering to heal herself, and continues to fight despite them. Even with just the physical capabilities we possess, she matches us one-on-two, redirecting our attacks, positioning herself better, or exploiting our lack of experience when it comes to fighting as a pair.

We move at speeds that turn my side view into a blur, crashing through skyscrapers and reducing them to rubble. Every step sends cracks racing through the pavement, every missed strike shatters concrete and twists metal. Windows burst from the pressure of our strikes alone, and the ground quakes beneath our feet.

An elbow strike from Victoria sends Lissandra flying through a high-rise, her body carving a jagged path through steel beams and office walls. She crashes out the other side, landing in the middle of a street that’s already been cratered by our earlier impacts. I follow close behind, my landing punch splitting the asphalt like dry earth.

The force of my kinetic impact throws parked cars into the air. Streetlights are ripped from their foundations, traffic signs bend and melt under stray mana discharges.

A single redirected kick from Vic blows out an entire building's facade, raining glass and debris over several blocks.

And yet Lissandra remains unshaken. She meets Victoria’s raw power with ruthless timing, slipping past her charges with narrow sidesteps, punishing overextension. And when she faces me, she reads the smallest shift in my stance and parries with perfect counter-movement, redirecting force instead of resisting it. Her body, though wounded, moves without regard for the injuries.

Mana radiates off her like a pulse. Shields flicker and reform between blows. Skills shape and reshape in her hands in fractions of a second. She sends Victoria crashing through an office building, then spins to block Fracture with a blade made of mana. The clash sends both of us skidding backward, tearing up the street in long, burning trails.

Fracture devours the air, cuts through the barriers Lissandra forms, and obliterates the mana weapons she creates. But she knows my plan. She locks eyes with me and changes direction to guide me away from the place she’s thrown my black crown, a move I had hoped to counter.

"Give me 2 seconds," I shout to Vic as I bury my feet into the broken asphalt and throw her Fracture.

I release a blast of kinetic energy and shoot to the side to avoid Lissandra, bulldozing through the building. She tries to head my way, but Victoria jumps in front of her, only to immediately fall back as her head explodes.

Lissandra tries to pass by, but that body moves, and a hand grabs her, and a piece on the other side regrows as a newly formed duplicate decides to attack her as well.

In that brief movement, I reach the crown lodged deep in the side of the building, and it floats over my head, granting me access to the immense amount of mana it’s absorbed from me and stored all this time.

Fracture comes flying, seemingly out of nowhere, and pierces through my leg, pinning me against a nearby wall. Victoria's body crashes next to me, only for her to stand up immediately and turn to face Lissandra, who slowly walks out from between the buildings. She’s still missing one of her eyes, her face is bruised, and there are wounds on her body caused by either me or Vic, and even a few caused by Fracture.

Still, against all logic, this Absolute does not heal herself. She didn't even put much effort into dodging; instead, she drags herself down to our level. An Absolute, bruised and wounded by two mere Champion candidates, remains uncaring about image or pride. In fact, she almost seems to be enjoying it.

"Is that all?" she asks, as her mana rises up around her.

Against my will, I let out a short snort. Grabbing Fracture, I pull it out of my leg, redirecting more thermal energy to the wound and nearly entirely burning it, to regenerate it at the expense of great pain. Even then, the damage caused by this weapon remains, and I change the way I channel mana within my body to account for these wounds.

Ding, the notification rings. Something as useless as a notice that death is now possible.

I wave it off, then the second round begins.