While the cat was teaching the primordial god, who was caught unprepared for the ace that Cheshire had secretly squirrelled away for such situations, things were chaotic in the mortal realm.
By now the fight between Photon & Alice had fully escalated as the lion found himself unprepared for the ferocity that each blow contained. Her graceful swordsmanship fell aside in favour of wild slashes that left him unable to do anything other than hold his shield steady. Thankfully that also meant she wasn’t using her powers to their full efficiency… Yet there was one thing to make note of about her.
She was always growing.
Although her attacks were wild they did begin to get more efficient with every blow. That crazed fighting style just seemed like an angry child having a tantrum, to an extent it still felt like that, but that style adapted frighteningly quickly. To the point where Photon found himself unable to counter.
At first her attacks would just be deflected by the golden knight - allowing him to deliver a swift counter that she had no recourse to avoid - making him get his licks in despite her overpowering might. Yet with every blow he landed she adapted to take the next hit in a more effective manner. Eventually (no matter how much might his fist, lance, knee or elbow carried) she would just use it as a chance to get another hit off on him.
Yet the horror didn’t end there. Eventually her attacks themselves began to evolve; no longer did her sword skid off the shield as she instead quickly retrieved it to launch another blow. Even his attempts to parry her weapon out her hands just resulted in a powerful clash of shield versus aura-fueled edge.
Their surroundings now a flat plane as the countless cuts she made that reshaped the area to her rage fueled whim. All the hero was able to do was protect those he knew existed - trying to do more than stand between her & the cow-kin was naught but a dream. It didn’t matter how much experience his sister brutally beat into him over all these long years; this goddess easily just adapted to whatever desperate attack he threw at her.
No matter how he worked his brain… He couldn’t figure out a way around her. She wasn’t like Navy who was clearly just skillful with everything he had practised. She was a constantly changing monster that picked up whatever she felt would be useful. If whatever she used didn’t work she would just generate something new to throw at him.
What was more concerning was what would happen when her technique-less strikes reached the peak of what was possible. That was because that would mean she’d need to pick something else up. It wasn’t hard to figure out that that could quickly become an issue that he wouldn’t be able to deal with.
That made one question rise in his mind.
“WHERE THE HELL IS MY SISTER AND WHY ISN’T SHE TAKING CARE OF HER PET!”
The only rational reaction.
Meanwhile Alice didn’t take too well to his shout as she gritted her teeth to pull out the gift that the strange little bird-cat-thing gave to her. That lovely child actually gifted her with what was essentially a curved dagger with a golden bejewelled appearance. Looking far more like a ceremonial blade than anything to be taken seriously on the battlefield; something any proud warrior would contest too.
Unfortunately for Photon, he didn’t get a chance to review it, so she hid the dagger behind her back while launching a regular attack. Just when she blocked she reached around to stab him with the curved blade around his towering shield. That knife tried gouging out his side but didn’t actually do any damage.
This wasn’t due to it being dull or not being able to breach his armour - rather she infused some strange magic into her knife making it glow turquoise as it phased through the metal. Even Photon was shocked at how easily she breached his armour as he couldn’t personally see the magic in effect. All he felt was a burning feeling in his side as he knocked her away with a powerful shield bash.
Alice was fine getting knocked back as she finally seemed to have made a choice as the earth itself reached up to make a soft cradle that prevented her from flying too far backwards.
On the other side of the fight; Photon felt his energy drain and just checking his condition with his qi allowed him to quickly realise that there was no wound left behind. Instead his already pretty much non-existent reserves plummeted even more. At this point being unable to even support his own weight let alone the armour he wore.
He didn’t manage to resist falling to his knees but only because he managed to support himself with those massive weapons he usually wielded with ease. Having to go through so much in such a short period of time… It was more surprising that it didn’t get to him sooner.
That angry Alice didn’t even take any chances as she sheathed her blunt katana to instead lift her hand in preparation to click her fingers. Although the way she did it was by placing her thumb on her pinkie and dragging the thumb across all of them. Resulting in a total of four clicks at once; at that moment jade chains exploded out of cracks within the illusion called reality.
Those mighty chains quickly wrapped around the tired lion to sap away what little strength he had left and kept him unable to struggle. Neither mystical or physical energy reserves could resist the pull of those magical chains - leaving the hero in an even worse state. Only made worse when she began to walk towards him with her golden knife drawn.
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The knife may have been called Forgiveness yet it was difficult to see it that way.
With only the bastard in her eyes; she mercilessly went to plunge her turquoise glowing knife into the neck of the awaiting knight. Her chains binded him so the only hole was the one that provided her with access to his armoured jugular. Just when she was going to pierce his neck a rift in space appeared to take the knife in his place.
At the same time black feathers exploded from rifts all around him - causing the True God to once again be forced to retreat as she instinctively felt it wouldn’t be good to take those attacks. From behind a familiar small bird tried to rake her own curved blades across Alice’s back. Something that did…
Nothing.
Seriema was unable to even scratch the invisible scales that had been thoroughly battered into shape by the physical brute that was Photon. The goddess didn’t even bother looking as she whipped her hand around to backhand the little bird who only barely managed to defend herself with her knives. At least she was fighting in a far dumber fashion than the snake; completely relying on brute force to defeat them.
Something that they quickly used against her as a rift formed from the shadows under her feet - the goddess not thinking as she jumped into the air to avoid the rift. In that moment another rift she turned her face towards. A black flash exploded out and, before she even knew what was happened, claw marks filled with impurity appeared on her cheek to essentially shock her to her senses.
Turning to the side opposite of the rift revealed a familiar cat who filled a vial with the golden blood she had just extracted from the wrathful goddess.
“Have you learned to behave?”
Mother didn’t know quite what to say as she never expected the cat to just jump out of nowhere and attack her like that. The grip she had on that ceremonial knife tightened for a second - something about it letting her calm her cold heart a little. A kind smile formed on her lips as she gave out a signature laugh that no doubt made the two birds of prey shudder a little in memory of it’s origin point.
“Ohohoho~ I just got a new weapon that I wanted to test; it is really well made and can’t actually deal a killing blow no matter what I may do with it~.”
Cheshire raised a brow and glanced towards the knife… And she had to admit that she had never seen such a high quality weapon. At least they could certainly see herself comparing it to the quality treasured pieces that were made by him.
| It would be interesting to look into how such relics are made… |
| Doubt that split-personality goddess would let us even touch it! |
||| Greedy God |||
| Maybe we can steal it? |
| Maybe wait till we all get together before trying to kill prime off? |
| Prime is the one who currently acts as the core to our connection. |
| If she died it would likely result in a massive feedback backlash which would hurt us! |
| Couldn’t we survive? |
| With our weak ass body? |
| This Cheshire is more defective than the rest of us chehehe~! |
||| Che~nyehehehe~! |||
| Three stage laughs prove that you are all villains muhuhahaha! |
||| … |||
Meanwhile the goddess couldn’t help but find some similarities between the cat in front of her and the cute little thing that gifted her the knife. That led to the tiny woman appearing far more… Appealing to her own eyes. A faint blush forming on her face until her natural if massively unexplored talents allowed her to hide this slight crack in her motherly facade.
Though she didn’t vocalise her thoughts; at least for now.
“Well, regardless, we have some more work to do so it’s good you have returned chehehe~”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Silently a snake closed their eyes as they hid far above and past even the sky - to be completely hidden from those present on the land - slowly opening their eyes with a sinister gleam. Each of the scales on their body looked like a smaller snake making for a very beautiful if intimidating form. Although their scales were clearly in a period of reform; halfway between bronze & silver as the former fell from their body.
What may have been more intimidating was that they were easily long enough to constrict a continent.
“So my scale was defeated due to letting their guard down… As expected. Although it’s unexpected that the little black cat would actually spare my clone - I expected her to be far more thorough. I suppose with how weak that clone was she likely didn’t see me as much of a threat or didn’t believe it was real. Either one can work in my favour oho…ho…ho…”
Closing their eyes while the coldness of space did nothing to halt them from malting their bronze scales for something a little bit more… Gaudy.