ABYSSAL
It felt like danger was descending from all sides. No matter where Leonel's senses locked onto, he realized that there was no escape. It was suffocating, as though his mind itself was being forced to bow in the face of a power far greater than his own.
Even in a Mortal World, and restrained so much... a God couldn't be blasphemed against.
And yet, in the face of all of this, Leonel's gaze was frighteningly cold.
He met Willowyn's dull golden gaze. In fact, they were no longer dull, having begun to glow with such a bright vitality it looked as though the Ambrosia of Gods was combusting.
The vines lashed out, each one with a force capable of destroying planets and sundering stars. If it hadn't been for the fact they stood in the void, reality itself would have been lacerated to pieces.
Leonel took a step forward as though stepping into the embrace of a demon. His Destruction World superimposed with reality, and the void trembled and solidified.
At that moment, his Destruction World was easily ten times more powerful than it was usually. Rather than having to displace the laws of another world, or combat the corruption of Anarchic Force, it could just exist.
In that moment, the strength of the vines Willowyn deployed plummeted.
His spear struck out just a single time, the Mage Core to his back blooming as the cracks along his skin grew fiercer and more sinister.
The stroke of his spear carried a wisp of foggy red Destruction and in that instant, split into countless pieces.
Swift.
Like stars streaking across the skies, his spear ignored time and space, parrying all of the vines in a single instant.
His spear didn't collide with them head-on, gliding against their bodies and flicking them up, to the side, and toward the ground.
PA! PA! PA! PA! PA!
Finally, sound seemed to travel normally, and reality began to bend and warp in Leonel's Destruction World.
Even so, it was odd. It didn't quite feel... right. Rather than fighting back against being destroyed, the Destruction World seemed to relish in the feeling.
"[Star Fusion... Destruction]."
Leonel's gaze flashed and an unprecedented aura erupted from him.
Peels of crimson lightning erupted from Leonel's body, and he seemed to be wreathed in it all.
Even in her fury, Willowyn felt as though an explosion had gone off in her mind.
"Impossible!"
Leonel didn't even seem to hear her words. Wreathed in bloodied lightning, his spear rushed through the air.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Vines, roots, and blades danced. But every time the former two met the latter, they cracked and splintered, the bodies being shattered and falling into bits and pieces of ash.
Vitality churned within Leonel's body, counteracting the violent rampage of Destruction that ran through his body. His gaze remained cool and indifferent, every step he took like another move on the chessboard, pushing Willowyn further and further into a corner.
"ENOUGH!"
An explosion of gold surged out from Willowyn's body. Her greenish-brown vines became awash in complex golden runes that often simplified into jagged vein-like lines. They alternated between complex and simple in a dance that carried the vicissitudes of Existence.
It was an aura that was both like Auspicious Air and yet not.
It was one of the strongest Forces in existence, a fusion of Dream Force, Star Force, and Life Force. Even if all categories were ignored and a list of pure Forces were made, it would rank in the top 10 at worst, and likely easily top five.
Sylvan Force.
It was a Force of Life capable of fueling both the body and the mind with absolute ease, but this was only the most basic ability of the Force.
At its highest levels of Force Manipulation, Sylvan Force could make a person the center of their own world, a true Star. By making their Force the Stars and their body the Earth, they were able to create a Domain of all Domains, one where the laws in the region followed and obeyed their own steps.
Willowyn's aura erupted and her body grew from over three meters tall to easily over five.
At that moment, two Worlds clashed, one of creation and vitality, and the other of Destruction.
Leonel's spear never stopped, and he didn't seem to notice the change at all.
From the beginning, Willowyn had looked down on him, only using physical attacks to lash out. They said that the Sylvans were the most wise, and yet all Leonel seemed to see... was a Race of Gods that was just as arrogant as all the others. Content © 2024.
Treating humans like ants, disregarding their lives, and yet in the same breath fearing them enough to cross Existence to hunt them down.
Leonel truly... looked down on them from the bottom of his heart.
The world seemed to react to his disdain and a thrum of vitality pulsed, crushing Willowyn's in a single bound before she could even build up momentum.
Trying to make your own world within his own... using her Dream Force to give it a kernel of Life...
She stood not a single chance. In fact, it felt as though she was the one who had provoked a God instead of the other way around.
The Sylvan's expression changed, coughing up a mouthful of blood. Since the start of the battle, regardless of how much power Leonel had displayed, or how shocked she had been, this was the first she had truly been injured.
She felt in that moment that had she not cut off her world early, her Sylvan Heart would have ruptured and exploded.
Leonel took another step forward, blood lightning crackling around him. He thrust out thrice, three lances of crimson bolts taking shape and ripping through the cascade of vines.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Three holes of massive proportion were blown through Willowyn's rainfall of whipped roots, almost making it to her main body.
At that moment, the smoldering smoke that came out from the corners of Leonel's eyes and his feet seemed to catch fire.
With his feet and eyes blazing, he looked like a Demon that had just taken a step out of the abyss of hell.