Miss Irons threw my blade to the side and swung hers at me. In a blur of blue I was back another ten feet. I almost lost my footing when the  force of my sudden velocity change combined with the wind pressure created by her massive weapon cutting through the air.

I had still not gotten used to the ability to use Mana. While my sword skills had remained perfect and natural after my memory wipe, this feeling felt new. The Magus Stone had given me some instruction on how to use the abilities and craft the Mana to my will, but if I had had these abilities in my past, none of that was coming through now. Instruction was never a good replacement for experience, and the middle of a fight was not a good time to experiment. But I had little choice now.

Miss Irons looked down at her hand as drips of blood fell from it. She seemed shocked that anything could cut her skin. A small smile crept up on her usually expressionless face. A chill went down my back as I prepared for her counterattack.

She held her sword up into the sky with two hands holding the grip right by the hilt and gathered energy into it.

‘Clean Sweep!’

Fwaaa Whoosh!

With a downward thrust, a massive gale was created forming a dense wall rushing toward me at hurricane speeds. I crouched forward and blinked through the wall, appearing in front of Miss Irons.

I feigned a horizontal slash and then moonsaulted over her while carrying the momentum of the swing. I charged the blade with Mana and felt it drag across her shoulders. I felt a slight rush of euphoria on landing a blow only to be met with a backhand that hit like a charging rhino.

The blow hit me in my left shoulder and sent me flying ten feet before crashing into the ground and skipping off it for a few feet more. I blinked once more in an attempt to stabilize myself and get a bit more distance. It worked but was a bit disorienting and my shoulder now screamed with pain. I suddenly heard a voice from the sidelines.

‘Tidal Force Flow!’

Blue stood in a pose with energy crashing down on her from above like a waterfall. The energy swirled up around her like a whirlpool and began to form clothes around her. Suddenly, yellow chains burst from the ground and ensnared her, breaking the transformation.

‘Ah!’

‘That will be enough, Marina! There is no need to get yourself into any more trouble.’

Victoria had returned with the pipsqueak, Selene Orica, in tow. Selene stood by Green holding her staff while Victoria kept Blue entangled. I felt my control on the situation slipping and keeping my anger in check was becoming more difficult by the minute. Selene was assessing the situation.

‘What a nightmare! Miss Irons, are you ok?’

‘I’m fine.’

‘But you’re bleeding!’

‘Mmm. So I am.’

Miss Irons inspected the cut I had landed on her back. To my surprise, the cut that I was certain was a solid blow looked like a long shallow papercut. A light smear of blood could be seen in the center of an otherwise benign red line. She readied herself to attack again.

I shifted my attention on Victoria. Maybe I could gain an ally if I could get rid of her again. I blinked in her direction and then dashed to attack. My eyes went wide as she held Blue in front of her as a shield. A flick of energy came from my right and Selene caused a wall of stone to form in between me and Victoria.

My instincts flared as I sensed an attack from Miss Irons from behind. I jumped and kicked off the wall as it crumbled. Miss Irons had used the side of her blade as a blunt attack in an attempt to knock me over. It resulted in rocks flying as she demolished the wall in front of us.

I moonsaulted again and focused all of my energy into a downward slash. She shifted and my blade hooked in her left horn. She turned to backhand me again, hoping I hadn’t learned from my last moonsault. I decided this was a good time to use my last new skill.

I channeled Mana into my feet and pushed off of the air. I charged my blade again and yanked it out of her horn, causing it to break off and fly to the side. The air solidified into a platform and I pointed my blade at her heart and thrusted as I pushed off the air platform.

My blade made contact but only left a scratch as it slid to the left. I had spread the Mana too thin trying to use it in both the air platform and my sword at once and it had dulled my blade. I shifted the slide of my sword with the end result being me standing behind Miss Irons with my sword blade facing upwards in her left armpit.

She clamped down hard with her upper arm as I focused everything I could channel on just the part of the blade that was touching her. I pulled up and felt the blade pass upward like I was dragging it through gravel and Miss Irons arm fell to the ground.

As if nothing had happened, she quickly spun and dropped her blade and grabbed the back of my head by the hair. In one forceful motion she slammed me into the ground and pinned me there with her knee on my back. She grabbed my right wrist and held it fully extended and locked in position.

I scrambled to get her off me. I even attempted to blink, but it apparently didn’t work when in contact with someone. I scrambled as I pushed Mana into my fist and punched at her grasp but she didn’t budge.

A dark brooding tendriled into my thoughts. I knew instantly it was the fairy's influence. It pulled at me and beckoned for an answer.

Reach for me. Call out my name. My power will give you knowledge to undo. All will answer before you.

Yellow chains of energy wrapped around my sword and pulled. I pushed back at the urges to call upon the her as my knuckles turned white and I held to my blade with everything I had. Miss Irons tightened her grip on my wrist and I heard it pop. Pain rushed up my arm and I screamed.

The blade was wrestled free of my grasp and flew through the air to Victoria’s hands. I fought hyperventilation as waves of pain echoed through my arm. Miss Irons began to stand and release me, but then stomped on my calf. I heard my tibia crack and my vision went white.

‘Was that wholly necessary, Miss Irons? ’

‘What? She can’t run now.’

I heard Blue’s sobs and Green screaming something but my pain made it difficult to focus. I curled in a ball and cradled my arm and felt hot streaks of liquid running down my face. I heard footsteps in front of me and looked up to a solemn looking Selene.

 ‘Don’t worry, Darling. We will fix you up good as new. Just sleep now.’

She held out her hand and a warm crimson energy flowed out of it and throughout my body. The pain in my body numbed followed by the rest of my senses. My eyes grew heavy and I slipped out of consciousness.

-

I awoke and realized that I was chained to a metal chair at a desk in the center of a classroom. All of the other chairs and desks had been removed. Looking out the window, I was on the second floor. My wrist and leg were no longer screaming in pain, but everywhere held by chains was sore indicating that I had been chained up for a while.

I moved my limbs around to test my bindings, but the shackles on my ankles and wrists were tied directly to the chair with real metal. No binding magic this time. The chair and desk were bolted to the floor. I was trapped for now.

I waited for what seemed like an hour before I heard movement outside the door. It opened and in walked Victoria in all her splendor. She had upgraded her costume. Her witch’s hat was even bigger and more decorative and her outfit was full of black, white, and gold frills. She held what looked like a magic wand that bent at the end to form a three inch star. A yellow orb was held in the center of the star and attached to the tip.

‘So this is where we are, huh Vicky?’

Miss Irons and Selene walked in behind her. Miss Irons arm had returned and she was back in her maid outfit. Victoria said nothing as she walked in front of me. She held out her wand and chanted.

‘Bind, Psychic Veil!’

Shing shing shing pshhhh!

A set of small golden chains extended from her wand and wrapped around my head, only to break apart and fizzle into nothing. I felt my mind and body seize as I reeled against my restraints reflexively. Then I felt nothing. I laughed.

‘You know Vicky, one of the first things I did after relearning how to use Mana was increase my resistance to binding magic. Seems like that’s paying me back already.’

‘We’ll find a stronger focus. We will beat your resistance and then we can start again.’

I put my forehead down on the desk and chuckled. I then looked up at her through my disheveled hair.

‘By all means, continue to try. I feel my resistance grow every time you do. At this rate I’ll probably become immune and remember my real name. Even if it works, I won’t join you. Turns out Mana manipulation is tied to the body. You can’t erase it. So continue your random brainwashing mastermind scheme with your stupid henchmen. But there are only two paths left that end well for you. You send me home or kill me.’

Victoria was clearly frustrated by the turn of events. She balled up her fist and slammed it on the desk right by my head.

‘Why! It’s worked with everyone else! Why do YOU have to be difficult!? Every other girl comes here full of hope and promise. I just erase their name and their most painful memories and they are eager to learn and fight. But not you! I finally had to erase everything and you still won’t fall in line! What’s wrong with you!?’

I felt a cold chill of realization as I lifted my head from my desk. I heard Selene let out an audible sigh of regret. I looked Victoria dead in the eyes.

‘Finally? How many times have we done this? How long have I been here?’

‘That’s not important!’

‘One year.’

Selene chimed in from the sidelines. Her tone was dead with regret and defeat.

‘Selene!’

‘Hush, Victoria. We are all tired and this isn't working. It’s time for a different strategy.’

My mind was reeling. How could I have been here for a year? Why did no one know me then? What had I been doing all that time? How had I just now come across Mana? I suddenly heard a familiar voice.

‘Victoria just wiped everyone’s memories every time she wanted to start over.’

I looked over to see Selene stretch and grow into the taller Miss Orica. So not sisters, they were the same person. And she could read my mind the whole time.

‘The first pass you grabbed a sword from one of the students and killed half the faculty and damaged the resurrection circle before we stopped you. On another you came out swinging thinking you were in some sort of war zone. Every time you denied the Naming Ceremony. It’s like every part of your life is full of fighting and pain. No matter how much we took, you fought back. Even when you reverted to a child, you punched at us and told us to give back your mother. So we took it all, and still you fight. At this point I doubt you’re even human, just conflict incarnate.’

‘And yet you convinced them that I was some sort of savior. Going to pick up the mantle and carry these people and this war to victory. You had to realize it wasn’t going to work that way.’

‘I’ll admit that we go desperate. This last attempt was a shotgun approach to getting you to root. There were several times you almost died. This was the first time you had ever fought a Revenant. And now it turns out that Aura has some connection to your world's Mana and you have been able to gain some of your powers back along with resistance to the memory alterations. Things are looking pretty bleak on our end.’

‘I hate to sound like a broken record, but then just send me home. I’m not worth the effort. I’ll never be the weapon you want me to be. And frankly, every chance I get I’m going to tear this whole thing apart. I’ll only get stronger now. Do yourselves a favor and send me back.’

Victoria moved into my face and grabbed me by my collar. She lifted up my head to looked me in the eyes.

‘No! You did it once and you will do it again. No one else has ever found a way. No one except you.’

‘Did what once, Victoria? The pronoun game is for poorly written plot devices. What did I do that warrants jeopardizing everything on recruiting me?’

Victoria paused for a second and swallowed hard as she considered if she should tell me. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. It opened and Miss Wintry walked in.

‘Sorry to interrupt this little interrogation, but…eh hem…Announcing the arrival of the independent auditor from the King! Third Princess Clementine von Ancelot! All arise!’