It wasn't a singularity per se, a blackhole, being able to do that would have put Kurumi on the same level as me and Ophis. Rather, it was a degree of spatial manipulation that astonished me.
It swallowed everything, even air itself, and changed the weather along the city turning it from a clear night into a stormy one.
'She has certainly lived long' Elysir commented, 'Although she has inherited control over time due to an innate ability, her control over space is natural... you have got yourself a skilled pet, Ray'.
Faced with such a technique, I knew I had to intervene to stop these spatial waves from spreading along the city, but I wondered if I had to intervene to save Solution as well.
I created a barrier that limited the growth of the singularity to only the area we were in; it engulfed the whole manor of the fallen aristocracy. I peeked to see how Solution was faring and found something shocking.
Solution's black goo was swallowing the Singularity; these women are just subverting reality so casually...
'...' Even Elysir was left out of words, 'As expected of you... creating monsters!'.
'Sorry, ok? I didn't know! The system, no, that motherfucker Horus was the one who contacted those monsters in the first place!'.
[...]
*WHOOSH!*
Realising that her technique had no efficiency whatsoever against Solution, Kurumi was not discouraged and instead a copy of hers appeared out of nowhere in the sky as the singularity vanished with abruptness, leaving a gapping hole that needed to be refiled with air and a confused non-humanoid Solution.
Kurumi had an old yet graceful musket and a flintlock; completely stylish. She descended alongside a gigantic clock on her back and didn't show up in her own. I understood then how she managed to cover so much area on her own compared to the elves.
Dozens or even hundreds of hers appeared trying to grasp that black goo and keep it in place. Whenever they touched it was as if they slowed down time.
Kurumi first pointed the gun at her head much to my surprise and shot.
Then with unnatural speeds, she took the musket and fired it at Solution.
As if she knew what to expect, Solution didn't stay there to just get shot. She skipped out of the grasp of dozens of hands and evaded one bullet that was shot towards her. I thought she didn't need to evade those bullets but when the bullet impacted the ground I saw space around the impact constrict as time dilated and froze.
"Wow," I whistled.
Before Kurumi had my interest, now she had my attention. She is a lot more diverse than I thought.
There didn't seem to be an end to how many bullets she could shoot and it seemed as if every bullet had a different purpose. She shot Solution, her clones, herself... I didn't know what the fuck was going on anymore.
Solution eventually began creating clones of her own as at one point half of her body froze in time, she managed to get her core to a section of her gooey body and created three clones out of it, escaping Kurumi's grasp.
Clones of Kurumi fought clones of Solution in what looked like a campaign war rather than a duel. More amazing was that Kurumi knew exactly where Solution's core was at all times while Solution had a great grasp of the gothic girl's abilities.
These two had fought a lot, no wonder the hatred loomed.
With this much hatred, as the master of these two pets, I wondered if allowing them to settle their differences with a duel was the right idea.
*BAANG!*
I did notice Solution was beginning to tear off Kurumi's body in the most gruesome ways possible, I began to wonder if Kurumi was even capable of feeling pain.
"You're just an annoying pest. Why won't you just die!" Solution cussed out in frustration.
"You will have to kill me another million times, slime-chan~"
...
'Although it is conveniently stated that space and time are equally superior laws to the rest. That is a wrong assumption. The truth is that everything that exists, exists first in a temporal or atemporal plane before it exists physically in space. As such, time is the most superior law that is tied to fate. This Kurumi… unless her opponent has spatial or temporal capabilities, she won't ever be defeated. You can see Solution is superior and stronger, but she's unable to defeat someone who exists in a higher plane than her own. The girl seems to store the time that she can use to come back every instance, and Solution can't physically attack that time, hence, she's unable to win' Elysir said in my mind.
'Ray-chan, you just stop this fight, it is meaningless!' My mom added a piece and I nodded, it looked like this fight was going nowhere as those two were just unable to kill each other. But all Kurumi had to do was deliver a precision strike in Solution's core and it would be over.
Rather than allow this fight to reach that stage, I should have ended it. At a particular junction though, Solution was more clever… but at what cost?
Kurumi fired her weapon, but she failed to notice that I was behind Solution, in her line of fire, just as Solution planned.
'This shrewd slime...' I sighed in exasperation, already foreseeing the outcome of this move of hers. As expected of one of Nazarick's creatures, I guess...
Solution even discarded the protection she had put around me before, leaving me vulnerable to Kurumi's bullet. Then her main body dissipated and the bullet was en-route to impact with me.
!!!
Kurumi realised this and that's when she faltered, one of her clones fired a bullet to divert the trajectory of the bullet she shot at first, but it wouldn't reach in time. In doing so, she was distracted; an opportunity that Solution took to wrap five of her bodies in her goo mid-air.
*BANG!*
The bullet impacted my body and rather than do damage this time barrier manifested around me. I was shocked that it didn't stop my time as it would to anything else. But I felt slow and just walked out of its boundaries.
It was already amazing that anything Kurumi could do would affect me.
"You're dirty!" Kurumi cussed out only to get shut by one of Solution's tentacles piercing her skull ever so slowly.
"Fufufu~" Solution laughed as both of Kurumi's codes constricted in what I believed now was acidic goo that was peeling off her skin little by little.
She couldn't kill Kurumi, but she could torture her.
"Run now. Bitch–"
*WHOOSH!*
A shadow blurred and impaled Solution's body with ease. The latter gasped and coughed, seeing the hand that had just yanked her core out of her body. Haku sliced her hand out of the goo and shattered it. Holding onto the core and wrapping it in darkness.
Solution's body naturally dissolved and both of Kurumi's bodies fell off the sky coughing before they disappeared inside her darkness and another Kurumi came out, she was pale and staggering.
That confirmed Kurumi can indeed feel pain. She was looking at Solution's core with dead hatred.
"You saw what she did, master!".
"I did... and I'll deal with her accordingly".
Haku walked up to me with a stern expression, her gaze told me she was expecting something from me.
"Master, I know you are benevolent… but she deserves to be punished".
Haku said and handed me over the core of my pet who had shown today nothing but unruly behaviour, even willing to put my safety on the line to defeat Kurumi.
"It doesn't matter if she believes you are almighty… if she wasn't your pet I would have already shattered this core".
"I understand…"
Haku was right and now it was my time to discipline this unruly slime... and it couldn't be the pleasurable punishment... it had to be a harsh punishment.