Chapter 649 Awakening of the Abyss
The Infernal Castle, a once imposing and formidable structure, now had a massive hole on one side. Slowly out of it emerged Leo, his body moving at an extremely slow pace due to the warped time. I watched as he slammed into the far wall of the layer, and then hit the ground, time readjusting itself.
From the sky, Akasha manipulated my body, rotating me to face the castle. She halted our ascension for the briefest instant, hovering amid the dust and debris thrown up by the cataclysmic exit. With his monstrous form looming out of the gaping hole in the castle, Leo was a force to be reckoned with. He roared a guttural, animalistic sound that echoed off the ruined castle walls, sending shivers down my spine.
The monstrous Leo was losing ground, but suddenly the ground beneath him shifted, breaking into giant shards and rising into the air. Through the force of the Eldritch, he commanded the flying shards towards us. Akasha merely laughed, her amusement vibrating through my body as she immediately propelled us forward, shooting through the storm of sharp debris.
Reacting with speed only a universal abyss could muster, Akasha spun and twirled my body around the shards. Each near-miss sent my heart into my throat, the adrenaline coursing through my veins almost overwhelming. Off in the distance, Leo, manipulating the debris, was watching, roaring his defiance to the echoing sky.
"No more playing," declared Akasha. Energy gathered within my palms, bright and sizzling. A surge of power left us, hitting the debris with an audible explosion. A shockwave rippled from the blast, destroying anything that was within its reach. The Black King's lair crumbled entirely as we watched, reducing to mere ashes in moments as Leo growled with rage.
However, the effects of this destruction did not reach the demons around, thanks to the Pact. Akasha's grin widened when she noticed the protected demons. Gone was the bubbling fear that had taken hold of the demons, replaced by a newfound resilience. It was a sight to behold.
Leo retaliated a fierce draft of wind surrounding him. His crimson eyes glaring at us, he summoned energy blasts, lightning-fast, streaking towards us. Akasha chuckled, moving my body aside in fluid movements, dodging the successive waves of energy.
"No more running," Akasha decided, cracking our knuckles. My body tensed, and the celestial power hummed through us. She raised a hand, palm facing upward, and a sphere of pure black energy began to manifest. It ballooned rapidly, swallowing the light, much like an abyss would.
Just as Leo intended to send another wave of energy blasts, Akasha thrust my hand forward. The black energy ball left us, soaring towards Leo with blinding speed. It collided, resulting in an earth-shattering blast. An incandescent mushroom cloud rose where Leo stood, the sight-threatening and terrifying.
But Leo was far from defeated. Bursting out of the dust and debris with a thunderous roar, he displayed his raw power. He counterattacked, ripping the very fabric of reality around him, generating a cataclysmic shockwave of distorted energy that sped towards us.
"Amusing!" Akasha echoed, as my body moved with incredible speed. She created a black shield with our free hand, meant to absorb the oncoming wave but the force was too monstrous, sending us spiraling backward.
As we regained balance, Leo was already upon us. He took a swipe at us with clawed hands, his strength massive. However, Akasha managed to maneuver my body away in the nick of time, her celestial brilliance swirling around us.
She decided to end it, drawing our arms back before releasing an immense surge of cosmic energy toward Leo. A blazing arc of power that illuminated the dark sky, it collided with Leo, creating a blinding flash followed by an earth-trembling explosion.
However, Akasha made sure our Pact held. The demons watched in shock and awe, unharmed despite their proximity to the lethal energy clashes. They had front-row seats to a celestial duel, one that redefined the boundaries of their world.
As the dust finally settled, Leo was down, cratered in a pit of his destruction. The battle had razed the entire Black King's castle, leaving nothing but a few ruins behind. All the demons were safe, merely watching in stunned silence as the celestial spectacle unfolded.
Akasha floated towards the ground, our descending shadow looming over Leo's fallen form. "You never stood a chance, Leo. See the depths of your unfamiliar abyss," she mused, not a shred of mercy in her voice. Gazing at the unconscious Leo, she declared, ""The game is over." Unfortunately for Leo, he would not be joining in on the rest of the festivities.
The victory rang clear in the still air, echoing off the ruined castle walls. With a powerful surge of energy, Leo was sealed into a crystalline structure. The clear prison shimmered, refracting the light, his monstrous form trapped within.
"I'll bring him back," I said inwardly, those words hopefully reaching Akasha. "He is my friend, after all." The celestial entity responded with a harsh laugh, her amusement chilling in its coldness.
Suddenly, I was ripped back into her realm where she stood before me, imposing as ever. I still found it strange how much more control she seemed to exert compared to Truth. He hardly ever pulled me into his realm, rather waiting for me to come and see him.
"Why would you? He's a threat to you, your friends, and the universe," Akasha countered, her words being almost swallowed in the vastness of space around us, filled with scorn and curiosity. "You just had a taste of the hellfire he's capable of stirring up. The chaos he can cause, even compared to myself. He's no use to us in this state, Galio."
I swallowed, a lump forming in my throat as I processed her cold words. She's right, part of me echoed, my logical side. But Leo...
"I cannot leave him to suffer," I announced, my resolve hardening with each word I uttered. "I'll find a way to bring him back, recover him from the clutches of this monstrosity."
Akasha's laughter echoed again, this time littered with subtle exasperation. "You hold onto your allies, your friends with desperate clinginess. I see now why Truth finds you so amusing. A coward masked as a hero." Akasha's voice dripped with unabashed mockery, her laughter a cacophony in my mind.
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