(Third Person POV)

Aestrea took one step forward.

The moment his foot touched the ground, everything around him slowed down.

The air grew strangely thick, like he was moving through honey. His body felt heavy, sluggish, and even his thoughts seemed to have slowed down.

"...Time?" he muttered, his eyes narrowing in surprise.

Horae smiled from across the chamber as a beautiful scepter suddenly appeared on ehr hand, glowing faintly.

The golden light around her pulsed slowly... and Aestrea quickly realized that it was those waves that were slowing him down.

"Correct," she said, her voice echoing in the slowed space.

"I am Horae, the Goddess of Time. Welcome to my domain."

"Tsk," Aestrea clicked his tongue in annoyance.

This was definitely going to be an annoying battle.

He forced his body to move, pushing against the invisible weight of slowed time.

Shing!

His dual swords appeared in his hands.

The Heaven Swallowing Sword hummed with hunger on his left, the Midnight Sword gleamed with deadly sharpness on his right.

Horae raised her scepter and pointed it at him. A wave of golden energy shot forward, moving normally while everything else crawled.

Aestrea barely managed to bring his swords up in time. He crossed them in front of his chest.

CLANG!

The impact pushed him back several steps. The force was heavy, even through the time distortion, causing his arms to ache from the block.

Horae didn’t give him a break. She flicked her scepter again, sending another golden beam straight at his legs.

Aestrea twisted his body, but it was too slow. The beam grazed his thigh, cutting a shallow line across his skin.

Drip...

Blood trickled down his leg.

"....."

Aestrea blankly stared at his wound.

’This woman... she also has the Authority of Sharpness?’

He pushed forward again, forcing his legs to move faster. Step by step, he closed the distance. Horae waited for him with a calm smile, twirling her scepter like a baton.

When he got close enough, Aestrea swung the Midnight Sword in a wide horizontal arc, aiming for her waist.

Whoosh!

Horae leaned back smoothly. The blade missed her by inches, and she countered with a quick thrust of her scepter, jabbing the end toward his chest.

Aestrea twisted at the last second.

The scepter tip grazed his side instead of piercing his heart, but Aestrea ignored the pain and spun on his feet, bringing the Heaven Swallowing Sword down in an overhead chop.

CLANG!

Horae blocked it with her scepter. Sparks flew as the two weapons met. For a brief second, they were locked together, pushing against each other.

"You’re really strong... You can still move when your body functions are slowed down by one trillion times," she smirked lightly.

’This is why I hate this fucking Authority,’ Aestrea grumbled inwardly.

She twisted her scepter, and Aestrea felt the time around his arms slow even more. His swords became heavier, harder to control.

He gritted his teeth and activated his Authority of Karma.

A faint black glow surrounded his body.

The slowed time around him wavered, karma balancing the scales just enough for him to break free. He shoved her scepter aside and slashed with both swords at once.

Shing! Shing!

Horae dodged the first slash, but the second cut a clean line across her left arm. Golden blood welled up from the wound and dripped onto the floor.

She laughed softly, not seeming bothered by the injury.

"Good. Very good."

She flicked her scepter again.

This time, time slowed around Aestrea’s legs only. His lower body became sluggish while his upper body moved normally. The mismatch made him stumble.

Horae took advantage immediately. She stepped in close and swung her scepter like a staff, aiming for his ribs.

Thud!

The blow connected hard.

Crack! 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Aestrea felt something crack as pain flared in his side.

He staggered back, coughing once, but used the momentum to spin and counter with a low sweep of the Midnight Sword, trying to cut her legs out from under her.

Horae jumped over the blade gracefully. While in the air, she pointed her scepter downward and fired a concentrated beam.

Vwoom!

Aestrea rolled to the side. The beam hit the floor where he had been, carving a deep, glowing trench in the marble.

He got back to his feet, breathing harder now.

Blood trickled from the cut on his side and the graze on his thigh. His body was healing, but the time manipulation made everything feel heavier and much slower.

Horae landed lightly, still smiling.

"You’re holding back," she said.

"Why? Afraid of breaking the rules of our little duel?"

Aestrea didn’t answer and charged again.

Swip!

He attacked with a series of fast slashes aimed at different parts of her body.

Horae blocked and dodged with elegant movements, her scepter moving like an extension of her body.

CLANG!

She countered with a spinning strike, hitting him in the shoulder. Pain exploded through his arm. He ignored it and drove his knee into her stomach.

Thump!

Horae grunted and stumbled back. Aestrea followed up with a thrust of the Heaven Swallowing Sword, aiming for her heart.

She twisted at the last moment.

Splurt!

The blade sank into her shoulder instead, causing golden blood to spray out, splattering across his face and chest.

"Hiss... it’s been a long time since I last felt true pain."

Horae hissed in pain but grabbed the blade with her bare hand, stopping it from going deeper.

She looked at him with excited eyes.

"Yes... This is what I wanted."

She yanked the sword out of her shoulder and swung her scepter at his head.

Aestrea ducked under it and slashed upward with the Midnight Sword, cutting a deep gash across her stomach.

More golden blood poured out.

Horae staggered, but her smile never faded. She retaliated by slamming the butt of her scepter into his chest.

Crack!

Aestrea was thrown backward. He crashed into one of the golden pillars, cracking it into multiple pieces.

He pushed himself up, wiping blood from his mouth. His body was already healing, but the time manipulation made the process feel sluggish overall.

"Haah..."

Crack...

Aestrea cracked his neck slightly.

Then, he rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms out wide, loosening his muscles.

The black chaos energy around him slowly started leaking out and expanding throughout the whole area.

"Alright..." he mumbled softly.

"I’ve got the hang of it now."

At his words, Horae raised an eyebrow in pure curiosity, her scepter still glowing in her grip. She tilted her head, clearly intrigued by what he meant.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice. "Nothing can truly affect the Authority of Time. In time, there is only time alone."

Aestrea didn’t answer with words.

Instead, he activated his Authority of Karma.

A faint black glow wrapped around his entire body.

Any damage he had taken, the cracked ribs, the cuts, the bruises, began to reverse.

His wounds started closing, and the pain dissipated in the matter of a single second.

His body returned to perfect condition in seconds. At the same time, karma balanced the slowed time around him.

The sluggishness in his legs vanished, and instead... his body that had been slowed by a trillion times... was now fastened by a trillion times.

Horae’s eyes widened as she felt the change.

She understood instantly.

With a wild grin, she poured more power into her own Authority of Time, accelerating herself to match his new speed.

The fight exploded.

Aestrea moved first.

Swish!

He blurred forward, his two swords flashing in a deadly storm.

The Midnight Sword slashed low at her legs while the Heaven Swallowing Sword cut high toward her neck.

Shing!

Horae spun her scepter in a rapid circle, blocking both strikes with sparks flying everywhere. She countered with a thrust aimed at his heart.

Aestrea twisted his body at the last second.

The scepter grazed his side, drawing a thin line of blood. But before she could pull back, he drove his knee into her stomach.

THUD!

"Kugh!" Horae grunted and staggered.

Aestrea followed up with a spinning kick to her ribs.

CRACK!

She flew sideways, crashing into a golden pillar. The pillar shattered on impact as golden blood sprayed from her mouth as she pushed herself up, laughing wildly.

"Good... GREAT!" she shouted as her eyes blazed with excitement.

"This is exactly what I wanted to feel in a fight! Gosh!"

She charged at him, scepter spinning like a whirlwind.

Each swing created ripples in time, with moments where her strikes seemed to come from multiple directions at once.

Aestrea met her head-on.

Their weapons clashed again and again.

Clang, clang, CLAAAAAAANG!

The speed was blinding.

Sparks and golden blood flew with every collision.

Aestrea’s swords left deep cuts across her arms and shouldersw hile Horae’s scepter cracked his ribs twice before karma reversed the damage instantly.

They moved so fast the air screamed around them.

The temple chamber couldn’t handle it, and the pillars exploded, the floor cracked open, and even the ceiling began to collapse in chunks.

Aestrea leaped high, bringing both swords down in a devastating overhead strike.

BOOOOM!

Horae blocked it, but the force drove her knees into the ground, cracking the marble beneath her. She laughed through the pain and kicked upward, catching him in the stomach.

Aestrea was launched backward. He flipped mid-air and landed on his feet, sliding across the broken floor.

Without pausing, he charged again.

They broke through the temple walls and burst into the open sky above the desert city. The fight spilled out into the air, two gods clashing high above the golden sands.

Clang, clang!

Their weapons met again and again as they flew.

They rose higher.

The desert city became a speck below them. Then the Divine Realm itself grew smaller as they fought their way into space.

Now... both stars and distant planets surrounded them. The vacuum of space should have been silent, but their battle created its own symphony of violence.

Aestrea swung the Midnight Sword in a wide arc, cutting through a small moon that got in the way.

The moon shattered into glowing debris.

Horae laughed maniacally and fired a beam from her scepter that carved a canyon across a nearby asteroid.

VWOOM!

Aestrea dodged the beam and countered with a slash that sent a wave of black ice and chaos energy hurtling toward her.

It sliced through a passing comet, freezing half of it solid before exploding.