I waste no time in taking the initiative, feeling Chloe’s will surrounding me, protecting me, adding to my own as I face Filia in yet another clash.  Our movements— my own, and those of the sapient mass of onyx-colored metal which has taken on the form of my shadowy doppelganger— are faster than during our last clash.  Filia leaps into midair, their raven wings outstretched as they deliver a kick out of a side somersault.

I block the kick with my forearm, the clash of our bodies emitting a shockwave that ripples against the barrier surrounding our arena.  Filia flies up, and I follow.  Now our battle has moved to the air.  Bullets echo through the chamber, sending clouds of dust and dirt up into the air.  My eyes water, my mouth fills with soot and particulate detritus.  It smells like dirt and blood and shit, and through it all, we continue clashing.

Filia shoots a bullet that grazes my shoulder.  Chloe’s magic has already started taking effect.  Just a weak healing spell, but thanks to the doubling potency provided through [Angelic Bond], it’s enough to stitch the flesh and sinew back together just in time for my punch to hit with full intensity.  It hits with enough force to crack Filia’s [Etheric Armor], and the follow up manages to dent it further.

But my third attack, a bullet to the face, is blasted away with a burst of [Repulsion].  It ricochets back toward me, only missing my neck by the barest of margins.  Undeterred, I fly forward, dodging bursts of fire and lightning as I approach.  A massive collection of fiery energy is building up from within the core of Filia’s body.

Damn it!  I don’t have time to build a [Flaming Reflect] formation.  Instead, I go for a [Frozen Barrier], having just enough time to erect the relatively simpler array in my mind and Manifest its effects into the world around us.  Fire clashes with ice, forming a cloud of steam that clings to my skin, hair, clothes, and armor alike.  It feels like fighting in a sauna, the reprieve from the sunlight the one saving grace I have as battle conditions deteriorate further.

Back on the ground, the dirt beneath me is now mud, stealing my traction, causing me to slosh and slip with every step I take.  But neither slows me down, my mind firmly fixed on winning the fight before me.

Again the two of us engage in close-quarters combat.  This time, as they spin a kick toward my back, I conjure a piece of rope from my [Inventory] and use it to knock the attack off-course.  They’d be able to break a piece of mundane material with a fraction of a second of dedicated effort, but I only needed the surprise for less than that, just enough time to redirect Filia’s momentum by a tiny bit and send their leg flying upward.

I have an opportunity to attack, and I take it.  With my [Mechanical Arm Cannon], I fire [Impulse]-enhanced [Ether Bullets] at my double, aiming right between their legs.  Chloe would kill me ten ways to Sunday had the situation been reversed and I were to allow her property to be damaged in such a manner.  Right now, though, I’m more interested in winning and getting this ritual over and done with than looking pretty or adhering to the customs of sparring.

Filia wanted this.  For me to come at them with killing intent.  And that means fighting dirty.  They will understand this truth.

I fire [Lightning Ether Bullets] directly at them.  They have my form, and with it, my weaknesses.  There is a small chance that I’d trigger backlash while firing, but by deactivating my wings, I can forestall that potentiality as well.

The fight continues, but the tide is now thoroughly in my favor.  Through clashes of fists and bullets and magic alike, the two of us are nearly evenly matched.  Our offenses and defenses are completely aligned, and having studied Filia’s movements, I can now predict them just as easily as they can to me.

It’s so… exhilarating!  Adrenaline courses through me, spurring my [Indomitable Will] forward.  The pain I feel as our fists collide makes me feel more and more alive.  And more than that.  I feel a new connection starting to form.  It’s thin, wispy… I’d say ethereal, but it doesn’t seem to be effectuated by Ether in the slightest.  Or maybe it is, in a novel way.

“You are strong,” Filia says through gritted teeth.

The two of us find ourselves embroiled in a contest of strength, hands locked, fingers interlaced, pushing back at one another with all our might.

“As are you,” I say.  “Every bit as strong as I am.”

“Exactly,” Filia responds.  “That is the nature of bonded equipment.  As I told you before, as you grow stronger, so will I.”

“Then neither of us can ever win this fight.”  I smile.  “We’d be sworn to do this until we both lay prostrate on the ground, unable to move.  Or, at least, that’s how it would be.”

“How it should be.  It’s not just about strength.  It’s about will.  It’s about dedication and determination.  I will entrust my very being to you.  You must understand why I cannot submit to one I do not respect as being worthy of my master.”

“Would you really be okay with that?  I don’t know if I would want to serve another if I could help it.  That’s… part of the reason why I took on the path of a warrior.  I wanted to get stronger.  Strong enough to choose my own fate without having to be bound to the dicta of another.  And I… I can’t go along with that path if I try to forcibly bind you to me or dominate your will with my own.  It would mean that I’d become the very thing I swore to fight against.  I– I would be no better than the System, enslaving society and the universe itself to its domineering will.  I see that now.”

Filia relents on our clash.  For a moment, I fear this is a deceit to strike me where I’m most vulnerable.  But then, I see it in their eyes.  This is finally over.

“You had alluded to it earlier, but I want to hear you state your truest desire,” they say.

“I want a world free of the System.  A world with hope.  A world that still has a possibility for the future.  A world with true freedom.  Where Chloe and I can live our lives in peace and love until our ends eventually take us.”

“A world without the System?” Filia’s tone conveys a mixture of awe and bemusement.  “I dare say, I had never conceived of such a thing being possible.  I know there are records of an age predating the System, but for as long as I have existed, had this mind and will, I have known the System to be immutable, as much a fabric of the world as the fundamental forces and the laws of physics.  But I suppose it is different for a world which was assimilated within living memory.”

“I like this world,” I say.  “Not all parts of it, mind you.  But enough of it that it’s worth protecting.  And while there might be things only I can do, I have no desire to dominate or subjugate or try to stop every petty offense before it can happen.”  I shake my head.  “More than anything, though, it’s only been four months, but I’m tired of this goddess-damned System parasitizing this universe, slowly changing us from within, all so it can feast upon us when the time is right, then move on to the next like some sort of universal virus.”

“I have seen your heart.  I have felt your will.  I have acknowledged your strength of body and mind alike.”

“Are you certain that you still want to do this?” I ask.  “I don’t know enough about the System to know if it’s possible to reverse this bond once formed.  From what I know of my bond with Chloe, it isn’t.  If…  If we go through with this, you’ll be stuck with me–”

Filia… laughs?  “I told you before, Seraphina.  I want to see where your trail will blaze.  And do not worry about subsuming my will as you fear.  Despite my ability to talk to you this way, I am not human.  I am sapient, yet my will is not the same as a truly living being.  To seek out and bond to a worthy wielder is a drive etched into the very essence of my being.  So please, I beg of you.  Do not feel regret for this.”

“But, is this not the same as enslaving you?  If so, I do not wish for that power.  I will find power from another source.”

“Please, think of it as a weapon choosing its wielder rather than a slave choosing its master.  This simile has the benefit of being more accurate as well.  But if that alone cannot convince you, then let us join strengths and fight to change and then destroy this System which keeps us all ensnared within myriad intangible chains.”

“If that is truly what you wish.”

Filia nods.  Their form, a mirror of my own, walks up to me with open arms.  And, though it feels strange, I embrace my shadowy doppelganger, feeling Filia’s form returning to the disc-like shape it had been previously.

“Now then, Seraphina.  The ritual is nearly complete.  Summon forth the weapon you’ve had made to serve as my vessel.”

I carry Filia over to the center of the formation, sitting down in a cross-legged position.  I place Filia on the ground in front of me, then draw the [Silver Swordstaff] out of my [Inventory] and hold it in my lap.

“It has been brought forth,” I say.  I can feel Chloe’s sense of awe and wonder growing as she watches from just on the other side of the barrier.  I would have her here, were it my choice to make.  But sometimes magic just has rules that don’t so easily bend to accommodate what she and I both want.

“Then let us begin!”

Like a giant onyx amoeba, Filia leaps forth, twisting their shape and size as they wrap themself around my weapon.  They then seep within, bending space itself in such a way that I wonder if they are somehow exploiting the spaces between individual silver atoms, alloying with the metal and changing its structure at the subatomic level.

Immense Ether begins radiating off it, and I instinctively join in, placing both hands on the [Silver Swordstaff] and channeling my own [Ether] within.  It starts to glow, first the purple-black of an ultraviolet blacklight, then the teal glow that is associated with [Ether] in its base state, as well as when I channel it myself.  The two colors mix together in a manner I initially thought was going to be sickly, but now see is truly beautiful.

My staff retains much of its original silver color, but is now adorned in a mixture of teal and black filigree.  Tens of thousands of glyphs and runes are etched along the microstructure in ways I can’t quite see, even with [Archangel’s Gaze], but whose effects are plain to see, made manifest in the space all around us.

“And…  Complete,” Filia says, though they sound tired.  “May our combined strength guide us forward toward our shared ambitions.”

Their voice trails off.  I didn’t realize that an inanimate item would need to sleep at all.  I grasp the weapon that we’ve formed and feel its energy coursing through me.  I can still utilize it as a weapon, though I sense that it’ll be a few days before Filia will be ready to speak again.

“It looked like it was a success?” Chloe says as she rushes over to me.

“Yeah.  It was.”

“Still wish you hadn’t been so reckless, you know.  You worry me way too much!”

I hug her and kiss the top of her head.  “I’d rather worry you on the training grounds than the battlefield.”

Chloe sighs.  “I wish you wouldn’t worry me at all.  But at the same time, I couldn’t imagine anything else.  So tell me.  Did it turn out well?”

I glance at the System notification which moments ago appeared in my eye.

[You have equipped [Filia, Swordstaff of Dawn].  When wielded by any but the [Mechanical Angel], it functions as an [Enchanted Silver Swordstaff], granting [Attack] +105, [Magical Attack] +40, [Agility] +15, and dealing [Light]-elemental damage.  When wielded by their chosen bearer, the weapon’s true powers emerge, as follows:

* Grants [Attack] +330, [Magical Attack] +70, and [Agility] +40.

* Can deal either [Light]-elemental or non-elemental damage, chosen at will, and freely toggable.

* The weapon can cast the spells [Broken Chains] and [Brilliance], each twice per day.

* The weapon will ascend as its wielder ascends, enhancing its attributes and unlocking further abilities.]

“It did,” I say.  “It certainly did.  Now then, shall we go back?”

Chloe nods.

Unfortunately, I don’t know what either of those spells are, and sadly, the [Inspect] of my [Artificer’s Glasses] fails to provide any further information.  I will have to ask Filia in a few days, once they have properly rested.  For now, though, I do think a lunch date with Chloe sounds like a most marvelous idea.