A thunderous explosion rippled through the building, rocking the hotel.
A human body slowly rolled down the wall of hardened air.
" Ah, sneaky old woman... what’d you do that for?"
Jamil staggered to his feet in a daze. In the next mont, he violently coughed.
Aisha calmly dismissed the invisible wall in front of her, walking forward.
"You see, there are two ways to break an artifact. The first is to use the traditional and more conventional artifact breakers," Aisha said, raising a finger.
"The second and less ti-consuming ssage is to simply overwhelm the artifact’s capabilities with overwhelming Force.
She smiled gently, slowly walking towards him.
"For this kind of situation, I usually prefer the second. Of course, option two depends on the strength one can output. but you can see..."
She ca to a stop a few feet away from him, her coat fluttering slightly in the gentle breeze that was sweeping through the now gaping hole in the building’s side.
"It does not pose a problem for ."
Jamil stared at her, coldly scrutinizing her for a few monts.
"Damn, I knew she was strong, but what the hell is this strength..."
Inwardly shivering, he straightened from his slouching posture, facing her head-on.
"She’s a monster. But then, I’ve t other monsters..."
In the next mont, his easy-going smile returned.
" Now that’s more like this, let’s get this party started!"
A heartbeat later, his eyes ignited, glowing ominously with ethereal light.
With a shout, he hurled a focused beam of condensed fla at her.
Moving slightly, Aisha calmly deflected the beam through the hole in the building’s side.
A terrible explosion widened the already massive hole in the building’s side.
With a shout, Jamil charged forward, instantly materializing and then launching a series of focused, white hot, flaming projectiles at Aisha.
"Not bad," Aisha murmured
The older woman calmly wrapped the plasma bullets in air and hurled them back to their sender; in the sa mont, Jamil detonated them.
" Oh shit!"
With a roar, he redirected the flaming wall of flas back at Aisha.
A secondary explosion ripped through the smoldering wreck, ripping away large chunks of concrete.
With a flick of her hand, Aisha parted the sea of roaring flas, walking through them like it was the most ordinary thing in the world.
Jamil stared at her, his face wrinkled in shock and disbelief. A split second later, his expression turned to one of ecstasy and joy.
"Pretty impressive! For an elderly woman, you’ve certainly not fallen behind with the tis."
Aisha calmly stared at him, relentlessly pressing forward.
" I don’t need to keep up with the tis to beat the likes of you. You’re just a weak coward."
Jamil’s smile grew wider at the comnt.
" Now that you ntion it..."
Several planks of splintered wood from the damaged floorboards and concrete rose into the air, swirling wildly around Jamil’s obscure form.
Nonchalantly pressing on, Aisha stared at them with cold contempt, her eyes boring into Jamil’s glowing russet ones behind her sunglasses.
"This weak coward managed to kill your niece."
With a violent gesture, Jamil directed the flaming projectiles towards her.
With a flick of her wrist, Aisha expressionlessly stopped the barrage if debris in the air.
Countless jagged shards of tal and shrapnel trembled erratically in the air, trapped between the pull of the two Talented.
Jamil grimaced slightly, veins popping up all over his face from the imnse strain of battling Aisha’s ability with his own.
The debris trembled violently, then slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, started moving back towards Jamil.
The large man’s eyes widened slightly, then narrowed in concentration.
" Ah shit! How is she so strong at her age? And how is the gap in our abilities so huge...It absolutely doesn’t make sense!"
With a groan, Jamil ntally pushed back, roaring from the trendous ntal strain.
It felt like he was trying to physically lift a mountain with his bare hands.
And like in that theoretical scenario, the task felt impossible.
Gritting his teeth, he continued to resist the incoming projectiles.
"Ahhh, aargh! "
Staring at the stoic expression on the woman’s face, for the first ti, Jamil felt a sense of dread.
" It’s almost like I’m arm wrestling a guy thrice or four tis my size."
Aisha smiled faintly, pouring more of her ability into the telekinetic battle.
"You know, that sense of despair you’re feeling, and the thoughts running through your head right now...your lack of understanding about why the gap in our abilities can be so vast...so of your victims must have felt the sa way, wouldn’t you agree?!"
Jamil’s eyes widened slightly at the comnt, his eyes glowing brighter with renewed intensity.
With a furious scream, he sent out a powerful disruptive psionic wave, the force rippling throughout the building.
" Get out of my head, you hag! What do you know?
Without missing a beat, Aisha calmly deflected it and redirected the remaining energy harmlessly into the sky.
"Oh, I now know a considerable bit about you, Jamil Al Quassim, quite a lot. For a small, bitter man, you’ve caused quite a lot of pain and grief."
The projectiles trembled a few inches away from the straining man.
"You know nothing..."
Aisha leisurely cracked through the ntal barriers in Jamil’s mind, scanning through the man’s thoughts at a frenetic speed.
" I see..." she murmured.
With a scream, Jamil fell to one knee, violently resisting the telepathic onslaught.
" You’ll regret this! I swear!"
For the first ti since the beginning of the confrontation, Aisha laughed. The older woman laughed heartily, then stopped, regarding the kneeling man in cold amusent.
" I’ve done very many regrettable things over the course of my life. But this...I don’t regret a single bit."
Invisible bindings crept over Jamil’s arms and legs, locking him in place.
In the next mont, Jamil’s eyes widened comically, his mouth falling open in surprise.
"Wait a minute now..."
In that mont, he rose into the air, immobilized completely.
Aisha regarded him emotionlessly, observing him almost clinically.
"Like I said before, you’re a weak little coward."
With a gentle flick, the projectiles in the air surged forward.
The barrier artifact thrumd with power, barring the wave of incoming projectiles.
"I wonder how long it’s going to last," Aisha casually murmured, almost like she was discussing the weather.
"You see, what we have here is a unique chance to test the limits of your barrier. Your handy artifact barrier against the might of my abilities."
Aisha took off her sunglasses, a brilliant white light piercing through the flas and smoke.
A crushing pressure descended upon the barrier around Jamil’s body.
He gasped at the terrible onslaught, getting his teeth.
For a few monts, the prismatic barrier held, shimring with translucent light.
Jamil warily watched the terrible tug of war with apprehension at first.
After a while, his confident smirk returned in full force.
"For all her talk, she can’t do squat against an artifact of this caliber... it’s simply impossible!"
Wth a sneer, he scoffed
"You can’t..."
A split second later, the words died on the lips. A myriad of cracks ford in the surface of the shimring barrier.
In the next mont, the barrier shattered with a sickening crunch, dissolving into thin air.
In the next mont, the assortnt of debris slowly impaled the struggling man, ripping through his arms, legs, and torso.
Jamil shrieked in anguish, struggling against the invisible bindings holding him in place.
Dark splotches of blood blood, staining his dark apparel, dripping rhythmically to the ground.
Jamil stared at her with bloodshot eyes that glead with hate and fear.
The struggling man opened his mouth to say sothing, but instead coughed a mouthful of blood.
Gasping slightly, he stopped struggling, hanging limply.
After a few monts, he quietly chuckled, muttering under his breath.
Aisha stared at him for a few monts, then sighed.
"Good riddance..."
Pulling her jacket around her, she calmly stepped back through the wreckage.
Lifting the man’s body into the air, she elegantly moved through the burning room, blasting the door of its hinges with her ability.
"Now to get you back to HQ..."
In the next mont, chilling laughter rose from behind her, stopping her in her tracks.
Frowning slightly, she turned silently regarding Jamil’s mangled body.
"Even in this state, you can’t help but babble on and on...what to do with you?"
On closer observation, she pursed her lips, stopping completely.
"Who are you?!"
In the next mont, Jamil’s eyes snapped open, glowing with a chilling green light.
"Who I am is none of your concern, Aisha Lorke..."
Aisha raised an eyebrow, silently staring at the new anomaly.
The wounds on Jamil’s body began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"All you have to know..." the voice continued speaking," is that you can’t stop what’s coming. Not even your precious Videntis can. And once we take over, even the Brotherhood of Shadows will be powerless to stop us!"
On the ground, the fire departnt secured the damaged building, sealing the area off from the public.
Automated drones zipped to the top floor, drenching the burning building in water, but despite the drones’ efforts, the flas continued raging fiercely.
In the back of one of the trucks, the chief of the firefighting departnt and his assistant stared at the scene transmitted through one of the drone’s caras in shocked silence.
" What the hell?!"
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