NOVEL NEXT Chapter 454: Collapse
"I always knew that going after the Emporium and it's hosts was a ludicrous and nigh impossible task that only the most desperate and warmonging beings would ever attempt, such as myself, Ikaris, Dr'ul, Xie and the hosts who have decided to follow me to hell and back..." Sol clasped his hands vanishing just before Rasha's palm locked over his face.
"But I never imagined that even the third would be this powerful, every calculation Alpha and I made has been thwarted because of this freak!" He emerged mere feet away from her clasped fist spinning and kicking her in her jaw and then flinching and retreating several steps when the General didn't even budge from the attack.
"You seem to be having doubts, Sol Vestic!" Rasha seemingly vanished from his sights, though all she really did was approach him, stopping a foot before him suddenly with her chest slightly raised at him resulting in an explosion from her motion alone, sending him flailing across the skies while she cackled at the rush of power she felt.
"This is power of your own making, boy!" The general continued to laugh, looking over her left shoulder at the crimson crown that bathed her in eerie light, and then over her right, shaking from excitement before a frown found it's way to her face.
"No, this is quite dangerous, actually," She looked at Sol again watching him crash into a forming mountain and emerge from the other side, flying across the grounds with his gaze locked on her and his teeth grit in frustration as he thought of the few ways he could realistically kill a being more powerful than himself.
"He was able to create such a disaster by himself."
[Cosmic Scream]
"A feat that I have never seen even the Second in his early Prime accomplish, had I not locked it all away for storage within a pocket dimension I would have died easily..." She dodged Sol's initial flurry of punches and kicks, parrying his hand and attempting to strike with his guard wide open only to see the halo on his back shudder before another beam of cosmic mana erupted from his throat striking and pushing her back after she raised her hands and tanked the entire attack leaving a fork of destruction behind her.
"This means he is capable of reaching this level of power and surpassing it as well; something I had to force upon myself to live, he casually created and still has this much strength to fight!" Her legs left trenches in the ground after Sol closed the distance again locking hands and pushing her with his mouth open to unleash another attack from the back of his throat. "I need to kill him right now!"
"Before she reaches a fourth ring and is out of my reach entirely, I have to kill her, even if it takes a part of me permanently!"
"That again!" Rasha flashed her hands free of Sol's grasp parrying them downwards and slamming her palm against his mouth. "Enough of-"
"Burn away!!" Sol roared beneath her palm before the accumilated mana he was about to unleash from his mouth erupted from his eyes instead.
"W-What in the cosmic fuck is this man?!" General Silva exclaimed in shock after suffering a direct hit to her face spiralling through a cliff and emerging on the other side with her hand over her bleeding eye staring upwards when Sol landed on the tip of the cliff staring down at her with his Jaw snapping back into place.
"Every attack is several times stronger than the next, he will eventually catch up again!" She flashed the blood from her face, holding her hands to the side in a pulling motion as a mace began to materialise from her mana. "One hit, I just need one blow to remove his head from his shoulders-"
[CLOCKWORK: DOMINION]
The General was aware of his speed now, she saw when he moved and watched his approach, but even with all the power she currently had she was still left stunned when Sol's fist collided with her cheek.
Abandoning her attack she spun and punched him as well, watching his lower face get cleaved out only to immediately regenerate while he grabbed her arm and pulled her into a headbutt.
"What's happening right now?!" Her eyes, glazed over in shock and fury flashing several times in crimson before she turned her hand sideways, ripping through Sol's entire body like a sword, slicing him in half only to witness his torso snap together again while his clasped fists slammed into the top of her head cracking her skull and breaking her teeth as she was sent spinning down into the deep of the canyon.
"I am clearly stronger than you are!!" The woman roared while crashing through the darkness colliding from wall to wall before eventually getting stuck only to suffer a kick to the back of her head as soon as she stopped moving, cascading her deeper into the darkness until all she could see was the glow of her crowns. "What makes you so different?!"
"Where is this portion of power coming from when he clearly was incapable of besting me before!?" Rasha dug her hands free from the cliffside and spun grabbing Sol by his foot when he attempted to kick her again, but the woman's eyes bulged and her face registered horror after he severed his own leg forcing another to grow instantaneously colliding with the side of her face while her vision locked onto the chronology magic rotating around his right arm. "This is-"
[Unknown Tier: Primordial Wrath]-
[The entire sector has become a hazardous zone, retreat]. Jena and Alpha announced simultaneously before several portal doors began appearing across the battlefield around Sol's allies.
"Sol is-"
"Master is the danger right now!" Dina grabbed her hand, suffering a deep rend across her back when the man Ikaris was fighting failed to grab them and swung his spear at her out of frustration. "Go!"
"No wait, Dina-" Ikaris tried turning back after finding herself in the ship once more, but the door behind her snapped shut and Yu caught her by her arm. "Release me!!"
"Calm down," Yu clasped her other hand over Ikaris's shoulder and squeezed her tightly after finding the goddess's wrath turned at her.
"Ikaris!" Dr'ul came running at her with Cecelia following close behind her.
"What has gotten into her all of a sudden?" She asked, "Yu is an ally!" Dr'ul also grabbed hold of Ikaris when she attempted to strike the woman before her.
"You don't understand, THAT is not Sol-"
"What does that mean?" Dina slid to a stop after landing roughly while several medics rushed to her. "Hold, I'm alright," She raised her hand at them, taking a deep breath and then standing upright with a huff.
[Divine Heal]
"What does that mean, Ikaris?" Dina attempted to reach for Ikaris but reclined in shock when she snapped at her with her fangs baring and almost tore her fingers off.
"Dina!" Ikaris snapped violently raising Dr'ul and slamming her into Yu and then turning to the Mage with her eyes ablaze. "Try seeking him!" She snapped once more, reaching for the space that held a door previously and forcibly tearing a rift open with her bare hands only to have it slam shut once more when Jena appeared at her side and held her arm.
"Please, stop this."
"But-"
"Master is aware of his current state, Ikaris," Dina intervened again, standing before her with an apologetic expression. "You need to calm down."
"Standby." Jena announced, disappearing at the same time as the ship flickered and then appeared outside of the plane she had created.
"I do not have the means to protect you from that, at most I could try diverting or simply avoiding it..." Xie commented standing at the forefront of the ship and staring at the plane beneath them which in distance was the size of a basketball while underneath it stemming from the point that Sol had attacked Rasha there was an anomaly the size of a car in comparison completely tearing away at the space and devouring everything it touched while slowly expanding downward.
"I regret allowing my faith in the King to wane, once again, the power this man possesses amazes me beyond explanation." Xie crossed his arms watching as the spherical plane also shattered and was swallowed up by the anomaly. "If every godslayer was like this, there would not be a Grand Collective after any war or squabble amongst them."
"She is still alive." Alpha announced shocking everyone. "Rasha Silva is still alive." She repeated.
"Then he will continue to push until she is not." Ikaris now getting a grasp of what was happening took a breath, worried as she was she now understood that the reason Sol had returned his mind and mana to the moment of rupture akin to his fight with Orion was because just like the demon King, this woman was beyond anything he had ever faced.
"This is more than I have ever seen," Jena cleared her throat and the ship flickered several more times resulting in them leaping across another few sectors, watching as the anomaly began folding on itself and collapsing -dragging entire universes toward itself as it ate the very fabric of space between them.
"Can he survive a collapse of that scale?"
"Can anyone?"