I sent that yappy dog off into the air at the disturbance I sensed. Sending a message to get down here so the real fight could begin. Unless the Homunculus wanted me to chase it, which I was more than prepared to do. The Homunculus appeared and took him away. A worthy trade to draw him out and confirm the trick he was using.

He slowly floated towards me taking his time. I settled into my stance and kept my senses peeled for any of those annoying Valkyries.

The screaming and destruction for the backdrop of our fight was perfect. Let him taste a bit of suffering he would soon face. I had waited for far too long and prepared far too much for my revenge. After what he had done, he would take responsibility at the end of my fist. The Astrologer was a cunning foe, but against the might of my Kung-fu, he would find no escape.

“Homunculus,” I greeted the disgusting thing. Its nature was revealed to me beneath the fragile shell it wore around itself. It was disgusting since it was a proxy of my great and hated foe. Its appearance was only mildly unsettling and nothing that would distract me from my goal.

“Divine Empress,” it replied in the haughty tone the Astrologer possessed. Self-assured and cocky, that everything would go his way.

“Finally revealing yourself, but not your original. What is your plan? You know, you will not escape me once I have set my gaze upon you.” I did not sense anything amiss, but the Astrologer was a tricky opponent, attacking in unexpected ways. No matter what he did, I would be ready.

“An excellent question. I plan to kill you. You underestimate this body, since I have never truly gone all out.” I frowned at this. Was he truly hiding his full potential in this thing? Even with items there was only so much he could do. That was why I had taken up skills and perfected them in combination with my Kung-fu.

Nothing was out of the ordinary that I could sense. Well, time start repaying the debt he owed me. “So be it,” I said, confirming in my mind that talking was no longer worthwhile.

I flicked my wrist. Throwing a void imbued needle. It flew through the air. An opening test if you will. “Shatter!” The homunculus broke apart my attack and scattered it around him. I was already throwing another four void imbued needles.

“Null Refraction Shatter!” He spoke quite fast. The power of not having actual lungs and using direct vocal manipulation. Or sound manipulation. A clever trick to bypass vocal limitations in a battle of this speed. Triangular glowing triangles formed and flew at me, catching my attacks in the process. Null Barrier. Force Barrier.

The Astrologer’s Homunculus had not moved yet, so neither would I. The attacks shattered against my barriers. Their weak levels no match for the skills I had prepared for this very fight. I considered this a warmup for when I got to real thing.

Imbue Void. I then punched out. A massive sphere of void type energy erupted from my fist, the ground and the very air itself turned to dust as the energy shockwave flew towards my enemy. “Shatter!” No more games. The energy wave broke around the Homunculus like a wave flowing around a barrier on the shore.

I kicked off the ground flying into the sky. Imbue Force. My hand shot out towards the thing’s center. It disappeared, sinking into a lower layer of energy. But not clever enough. I already knew this trick, it would not work a second time. I struck out regardless as I climbed above his position.

The Homunculus took a portion of my attack as my energy crossed the physical barriers between energy layers. It appeared and plummeted towards the ground. “Shatter! Null Refraction Shatter!” Ah, one of the signature rings was used.

A whirlwind of fire energy was unleashed in my direction. With more triangular blades of null energy cutting through it around me, to hem me in. Weak! Force Barrier! I kicked off my barrier, shattering it in my wake, changing my trajectory mid-air. Force Barrier! I kicked off again. Too slow!

The Homunculus disappeared. Force Imbue. It didn’t matter. I struck downwards with everything I had. A massive crater erupted outwards as all that force energy exploded outwards blowing the ground away from the point of impact. The rubble itself being pulverized into dust. A crater formed.

I sensed the Homunculus through the dust and kicked off the ground. I exited the crater and saw it trying to float away. It had lost the lower portion of its body. It was leaking some nasty fluids, but it mattered not.

“Shatter! Shatter!” Clever, two rings of opposing energy. But I sensed the energy and easily dodged the annihilation beam that formed. Another trick I was familiar with and would no longer work. I closed in as the Homunculus collapsed on the ground. I crushed each of its hands with a quick strike of my foot.

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I hadn’t had to work this hard in a long time. “I win,” it rasped out of its actual throat a sick grin on its lipless mouth. I looked around. Eight pillars stood around me. A ring placed on top of each one. I punched down. The thing’s head was turned to paste. The word of power was still said regardless. “Shatter!”

I kicked off the ground avoiding the annihilation explosion that happened. But what was coming next was far worse. That dog! Saying he didn’t want to piss off the Heavens, but then he does this. I would never make another treaty. Well, at least I knew he would not be spared from what was to come. I could have regrets later about not killing the Astrologer myself once I escaped this disaster.

I was to the edge of the plaza, when a pillar of golden light shot straight up from the ruins of the store pillars. Well at least the Astrologer was a dead man regardless no matter where he was. Doing what he did, even though he used a proxy it was a death sentence. I was glad I had not taken part in the experiment and some other idiot Lord had done something so foolish. It was why the entire leadership of the UCS had perished.

The Heavens that controlled this place did not like people poking it. It would actively seek them and destroy them. He truly had to be desperate to poke it in an attempt to kill me. Not even I would think he would be so daring.

But now I needed to survive. The wave of golden energy swept across the landscape. Destroying all in its path down to the bedrock that supported this world. A complete reset of the area was about to happen. Anything inside the blast radius was going to be wiped out. I was not about to die to the Astrologer’s utter stupidity.

Altering the energy slightly I resonated with the rod pendent hidden under my clothing. My energy reserves filled up, but I needed everything I could muster. Energy rushed into me but my Heaven granted knowledge and years of meditation purifying myself allowed me to gather the energy within me.

I was halfway to the wall of the city when I turned. I saw the wave approaching me. Even in slow motion the wave of blinding golden energy was rapidly approaching. Imbue Force. I slammed my leg down onto the street. My angle of escape was poor, but it didn’t matter as I rocketed away right through a building. My leg was shattered. That did not matter. Imbue Force.

I had a second leg. I slammed it down. The city wall loomed ahead. I was about to reach the top, but the wave of energy was upon me. I AM HEI LONG! I would not die here! My son I will live for you no matter what! I would endure!

The wave approached me as I brought my hand back for my Dragon’s Talon strike. I would defy death to the very end! I solidified my energy around my hand as tightly as I could and channeled energy through my entire body. The air itself began to distort in front of me and the world slowed to a crawl. My arm was next. Then my body. My hand lashed out at the energy wave as it reached me.

There was only a minor ripple. But there was a ripple. The golden energy engulfed me, and I focused on holding myself physical form together as the golden energy began to shred me.

The Astrologer (The Real Body)

I remained trapped in silence, in my tomb. There was nothing to amuse me. Nothing to do but wait until there was a method of escape. I often fantasized about what my Homunculus was doing out there in the world.

Well, it would leave me the notes at the very least to catch up on. Hopefully the Devine Empress tripped and broke her neck. I didn’t think I would be so lucky, but a guy could hope. I hesitated to call any woman a bitch, but she was trying really hard to get that labeled slapped on her ass.

I felt a pulse of energy. I had only felt this type of energy a few times before. A golden cube appeared hovering in the air and spinning about. A meta-point! I was finally free! My homunculus was going to get a big kiss for whatever it had done.

My excitement quickly turned to ash the color of the spinning cube turned pure white and began to pulse black, once every second for the briefest of moments. The monochrome light washed over everything. I had only seen this once before when those old dirty men of the UCS had died. Idiots, thinking they could weaponize the System and exploit it. One did not exploit the System. There was a reason I had earned two meta-points and no one had earned any. Like any woman, it needed to be teased first before being brought into the bedsheets.

I could only hope my gamble was correct and I could survive this in my effort to take out the Divine Empress. There was no escaping what had been done. It was how I took charge of the Eastern City States after all. I would never forget the sight of all those people vaporized as these cubes came for them. Their dying screams gave me a critical clue on what I needed to do.

The cube began to float directly towards me. And the dread continued to mount. I manipulated sound energy to speak. “I sacrifice word of power, shatter.” The cube did not halt, and I knew nothing would stop it. The cube slowly came to rest against my head.

Choose One Of Three

1. Life

2. Word Of Power: Shatter

3. Unique Skill: So I Predict

I chose my word of power. I screamed in my mind as pain coursed through me. Knowledge and events were stripped from my memory. I was left barely alive as the cube disappeared. The pain was temporary. Victory was forever. I had killed the Divine Empress or she was about to die depending on the timing.

My skill So I Predict would take the massive amount of accumulation she had and give it to me. With that, I would no longer mind waiting until someone came along, and I could free myself.

I waited. Nothing happened. The skill was still active but didn’t trigger. She wasn’t dead!? Homunculus you…you…AHHHHH! The rage at myself was indescribable. My tomb didn’t even shake. I was incapable of movement. I wanted to smash something. It had been the perfect trap. I had sacrificed a meta-point for the trap to kill her. A meta-point!

My tomb seemed to close in on me as I raged within the confines of my mind.