I stepped into the idyllic lakeside realm my body already covered in the black smoke of Shadow of Judgement.

You have invaded the Divine Realm of Viviane, goddess of Duelists and Honor. She cannot be attacked by any other Divine Being for thirty days.

Viviane would have had around twenty seconds of warning just as I did before I was attacked. My allies poured through the portals. Exar’kun transformed into his true form and took to the air his breath attack laying waste to the nearby forest. The surface of the lake rippled as a woman in glistening silver armor emerged carrying a long slender blade her exquisitely beautiful features contorted with anger.

“You dare to come into my house?” she said her voice causing waves to rise up from the water.

I spat on the ground. “Don’t dish it out if you don’t like the taste of your own medicine.”

“You may have survived the attack of my peers but your in my domain now,” Viviane said. “You will not survive a third time.”

No more words were spoken as she and I surged forwards in a clash of metal. I wasn’t an idiot I was only Hierophant while she was at God rank her blade cut into my side. Blood sprayed out but her next strike was blocked by an icy blue blade as Guinevere took her spot at my back to defend me.

“I’m disappointed in you child, you could have been so much more,” Viviane said shaking her head at Guinevere.

Neither Guinevere nor I said anything as we defended ourselves from the onslaught of the goddesses’ attacks. Her abilities were frighteningly precise as they lanced into me and various debuffs and affliction kept momentarily crippling me, if it wasn’t for my ability to reduce the duration of negative effects, I’d have been dead within moments. The goddess was not alone and my vassals and allies battled against warriors from the woods and lake. Nymphs and the souls of dead warriors crashed against magi and Void knights in a crescendo of violence.

A ringing like a glass harp sounded as the Void Angels burst through the portal taking to the air. Guinevere and I were alone in our fight against the goddess but that had always been the plan. Gradually I was getting faster as I accumulated more and more wounds. I utilized Blood of Kronos to increase my size my attributes quickly rising by fifty percent helping to close the massive gulf between me and Viviane. Guinevere’s support was far than just moral here closeness to me not only serving to help guard me from attacks but also boosting my attributes.

Clarent buzzed through the air flashing with sparks of red electricity whenever it clashed with the long silver blade of the goddesses’ sword. The earth reached up to snatch at Viviane but it was hard to effect the material of this realm and she effortlessly shattered the bonds of earth whenever it managed to pull at the armored soles of her feet.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Her sword pierced through my spine but that injury wasn’t enough to slow me now as my spinal cord reattached in less than a second. I needed to push her right now she was just gaging my strength and likely had some of her own abilities that grew stronger the longer a battle went on. She hadn’t challenged me which made me curious did she not have the same ability that she granted to her Champion? Why not use it?

Not that it would help her too much, all it would do is potentially removed Guinevere from the fight but her attributes were higher than mine not lower so it wouldn’t benefit her much to employ such an ability against a prospectively weaker opponent. Viviane pressed the attack, I blocked and struck but for every one lucky hit I managed to inflict on her seven more were blocked and for every strike from her I blocked three more got through.

While I had tremendous damage reduction fighting one rank above you had enough risks as it was and God rank was two ranks above me. There was no way for me to win this fight, even if my other vassals joined in they would just fall alongside me, a straight up fight against her could only result in my death, just as I had foreseen.

The angels began to sing their alien tongue incompressible but as my body began to grow pale from blood loss I began to parcel out bits of the intent behind the song. There were no singular words in the song only layers upon layers of meaning within the words.

Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory. Over and over the chorus sang and I felt my soul echo and rebound with the words as the angels proclaimed me through this rival gods realm. I couldn’t beat her, not without cheating at least. I blocked a slash of the slender blade that threatened to take my head off and saw Pierce nod to me from across the battlefield.

A grin spread across my face.

“What is so amusing mortal?” Vivianne asked not stopping her attacks to talk.

“I was just wondering, what it would feel like for a being utterly connected to the System to suddenly be cut off from it,” I said taking another hit to my chest puncturing both my hearts at the same time.

There was a sudden sensation as everyone fighting sagged. Abilities they had been calling upon suddenly no longer worked when they said the activation phrase.

“Cutting me off from the System? That was your great plan?” Vivianne scoffed. “You’re just as hobbled without it as me and my strength still vastly outweighs yours.”

“Firstly, I no longer need the System to activate any of my abilities,” I said pointedly blasting Viviane with lightning and hurling dozens of boulders at her which she shattered into powder with ease. “Secondly, that was just the START of the plan.”

A black rift opened in the sky as the Void Angels tore the space between reality asunder. This wasn’t a controlled portal; I wasn’t transporting in a fresh wave of troops or some massive creature with which to fight the goddess. I was bringing the thing the gods feared the most, the original god killer; unreality, the complete annihilation of physical matter, the Void.

The sky began to darken, and flashes of light flashed across it as the physical reality struggled to maintain itself as the Void flooded in.

Viviane darted back from me looking up in shock at the assault on her divine realm.

“How dare you!” she snarled.

“You tried to kill my daughter,” I said flatly, “don’t tell me you didn’t know what Arthur was going to do. You allowed him to create that blood curse, wouldn’t surprise me if it was your idea. Well now there is a price to pay, and you’re the one holding the bill.”

“You think I fear you just because you can open holes into the Void?” Vivianne laughed.

“I think your shitting yourself because the System isn’t here to save you anymore,” I said with a cruel chuckle. “Boss fight phase two, lets tango.”