She turned her eyes momentarily to her neck.
A flower of five jade white pristine petals was embedded at her neck...
'When...'
She had no time to speak of before feeling its stem drawing from her blood. Slowly, its petals turning into a crimson hue, Maria found her world shaking.
Sigh
That listless voice reached her ears.
She narrowed her eyes.
"How long has it been since I have been forced to unlock my second state? Certainly not until the birth of Chaos."
Maria watched as the figure stepped out from within the dust cloud.
The first noticeable difference would be the blackened bat-like wings that hung from her back, gently curved and both sides stretching the width of her body. The next noticeable difference would her eyes, having turned as pale white as her skin...however...even her skin had changed, Maria found herself able to outline what seemed like glistering fine thin red lines running atop her skin. Even more so, there hovered an even less visible stream that led from where the heart of Iu was and towards...
...the now fully crimson flower at Maria's neck.
Her arms regenerating with every step she took, as if tiny organisms growing in speed first in a glint of the reddishness of muscles and eventually combining into one entity with its skin set.
"Hmm," Iu lightly tested her new arm.
"Truly, it has been awhile."
She smiled lightly and reigned her hand around the hilt of the weapon stuck within her chest. There was a low grunt as she tugged at the blade, slowly pulling it out.
"So this is the sword of the crimson blade?" She scrutinized it before her.
And naturally perceived, the blood that stained it gradually disappear as the blade returned to its spotless clean slate.
"Strange...it seems to absorb blood."
Maria briefly saw the hole struck at Iu's chest closing in and regenerating much the same as the arms; first came the reddish tint of muscles, then came the skin. Even more so, the clothing she wore also 'healed'.
Right then and there, Maria realized this was not simply healing. This was a literal secularly contained time manipulation or at least simply time reversal.
"Return, <Dante>." Maria stretched her hand forwards.
The sword within Iu's hand quivered, her arm vibrating in intensity to hold it. But to no avail, it forcefully tore itself from her grasp.
Spinning and flying over the distance, it came to a hovering stop before Maria within an instant. As if silently waiting for the next orders of its master.
And, naturally, she grasped its silver hilt with her silver gauntlet.
Iu smiled, her right hand balling into a fist.
She punched forwards.
The speed of that punch surpassed her usual might, it seemed she had forcefully broken to the U rank much the same as Maria.
The air blasted and ripped forwards in a vast narrow.
Mara's eyes tightened.
"Ender's Gate, Splitting Thunder, Act 10!" She chopped her blade downwards with both hands grasping its hilt.
A straight red line cut through and traced against the backdrop of the air within an instant.
There was a forceful crack, like that of glass having been sliced through.
The view before her broke off into two segments, lopping off slightly.
And just as it came, that scenario disappeared within a breath...however...
The whole world had been bisected. Starting from the ground up, everything within the path of the swing was directly severed in half; the hardened mountain ground cracking and breaking in two perfectly sliced sides and the clouds amidst the night sky having been butchered much the same.
Cutting through that force that pummeled towards her.
Maria held her sword parallel to her leg as she watched the visage of Iu.
"Oh-"
The vampire queen directly split into two halves. First, it was nothing more than the fragment of a straight line running down the middle. Next, was the crimson blood that oozed from that singular span of wound, running through her entire length. And naturally, came the breaking off, her body sloping as the leftward side seemed to began in a low and tender slide to the ground.
However...
The crimson lotus ingrained in Maria's neck quivered.
Time reversal.
The section falling off, climbed and latched back on. The blood that stained the ground, floated up by themselves and entered back through the damaged line. Finally, the line seemed to fully attach itself back as the clothes as well came in repair.
Maria watched on as the figure of the vampire queen put herself back together in expressionlessness.
"Hmm, I haven't felt death in years." Even as she said that, her face remained frozen.
Maria briefly eyed the lotus at her neck quake and a petal falling and drifting off into eventual dust.
'Any damage that would kill her, even with the regen-ability of a vampire, will be reversed in return for a petal.' This was what Maria's mind came to perceive.
Iu smiled, not bothering to explain what had become known.
"Mhmm." She hummed lightly.
The wings at her back gently flapped.
Maria swung her blade down.
Bang
Her fist was met with the response of a blade, the ground cracked into finer lines. Yet, neither of the two moved an inch.
Maria's blade refusing to advance, forced to a stop by an invisible force upon the other's fist.
While Iu's attack failed to the physical nature of the battle cleansed girl.
They were even; both came to realize this fact.
"Quite a strong young girl." The vampress spoke.
"Your training must have been quite gruesome."
She spoke naught. What was the point of conversing with someone who could read your mind?
Her weight shifted, she stepped backwards, her body spun, her silver eyes glaring for her target as her blade came to slash in an horizontal slope.
'Splitting Thunder, Act 10.'
Once again, that red line traced before her.
There was a lop of both side.