Chapter 979: Progenitor vs. Progenitor: Round Two
"Huh? I just got you. It’ll be troublesome for me if you die off so soon."
At the sound of Luka’s voice, life law energy poured into Arthur’s body, reanimating it, and light flooded his vision once more, his body jerking upright as he clutched his chest, feeling his rapidly beating heart while breathing heavily.
Arthur’s face was pale as a sheet, and the voices of his Ego Weapon felt distant.
"Stand up, Arthur. I’m not leaving until I see what I came for."
Luka’s voice echoed in his ears, and he slowly lifted his gaze, turning to see her stab her sword into the ground and walk away from him.
Then, raising her left hand into the air, she said, "But when I do, I will be leaving with this."
Contained in her left palm was a swirling orb of cosmic power, an Authority manifested into reality.
"It’s not yours anyway, is it? This thing’s made of Angelic factors. It has Syndra written all over it."
Held in her palm was the fragment of Syndra’s Progenitor Authority that Arthur had taken from the Book of Truth Replica he destroyed decades ago.
It hadn’t merged into Arthur’s own Progenitor Authority because of the immense difference in the quality of the Authorities, and had only existed within it, empowering it without fusing with it or being absorbed by it.
That was why Luka could extract it from him with such ease.
Luka turned, putting away the manifested Authority, then looked back at Arthur, who was still on his knees.
"Get up already! Pick up your swords, or this time, you will stay dead."
Her words confirmed the terrifying reality of what had just happened, but she didn’t give Arthur time to dwell on it as she snapped her fingers, calling her sword back into her hand while walking toward him.
The moment her blade returned to her grasp, her pace quickened, and she engulfed it in the dull-golden light of Dawn, swinging it straight at Arthur.
[[MASTER!!!]]
Both Celestia and Lostvayne screamed in Arthur’s mind. The two swords appeared in his hands simultaneously, and he instinctively swung both upwards just in time to block Luka’s slash tearing through the air toward his neck.
Luka’s blade collided with Arthur’s weapons, sparks of cosmic energy arcing through the space between them. She placed her left hand on the edge of her blade and pressed against both of Arthur’s swords with her single weapon, leaning in as she shouted.
"Come on, we don’t have all day! Show me something worth my time!!"
Her grey eyes began to glow, and the light surrounding her sword intensified as more cosmic energy and divinity coursed from her arm into the blade.
The light of Dawn emanating from it was infused with a touch of conceptual power, forcing Arthur to draw more from his Aspect of Destruction to resist its radiance.
The crimson-silver light coating his blades burned brighter, but the stronger it burned, the brighter the brilliance of Dawn radiating from Luka’s sword became, a blinding brilliance that forced Arthur to squint.
Not only was Arthur using all the power of his Aspect of Destruction, but he was also pulling even more from the source of the Aspect’s energy.
The connection between Arthur’s existence and the Concept of Destruction that his Aspect embodied a facet of gradually strengthened and widened, his silver hair beginning to take on the same crimson sheen as his vertical pupils, the colour spreading from his irises into his sclera, visibly showing the growing influence of destruction over his existence.
Arthur’s vision slowly filled with red as he groaned, straining to push back Luka’s blade, every muscle in his body tensing.
His arms shook under the pressure, veins bulging as he forced the weapons upward and to the side, trying to stop her blade from cutting toward his neck from the left.
Each passing second felt like an eternity, the weight of her power rising higher as he poured every ounce of destructive energy he could summon through his existence into holding her back, sparks scattering around them like shards of fire in the air.
The red haze in his vision thickened as more destructive energy coursed through him, so intense that his mind began to feel distant from his body, and in the blink of an eye, Arthur found himself staring into a giant crimson pupil at the centre of a black fissure tearing vertically through a massive crimson star, cosmic energy radiating from its surface in violent waves, the power of pure destruction licking across it like flames.
’This...!’
Arthur recognised the sight, and the instant he did, the giant pupil expanded as if it were pulling his body closer, and distant sounds immediately began echoing from all directions.
ASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOUASPECTYOU
The words "Aspect" and "You" were repeated hundreds of times, and as the sound echoed from every direction, tendrils of crimson light erupted from the massive star, snaking through the air and piercing Arthur’s body.
His arms, legs, joints, and even the back of his neck and head were all pierced, and the flames of destruction surrounding the giant star intensified, cosmic energy flowing through the tendrils directly into Arthur, the background echoes growing faster and stronger as streams of information began to forcibly flood his consciousness.
ICHOOSEYOU
Additional tendrils shot toward Arthur from all directions, piercing into his body and forcing more information into his soul, so much that his brain began to overheat, silver blood dripping from his eyelids and ears.
THEYCHOOSEYOU
The flames of destruction condensed in front of the giant pupil before erupting as a beam of crimson light that shot straight toward Arthur’s body.
PROXYOFC—!
[NO!]
Celestia’s voice rang out as her body appeared before Arthur, her left hand extending to block the incoming beam of destruction, causing it to split in two, the light spilling along both sides of Arthur’s body.
She rotated her body, pushing back the light as her right hand reached out to grab the tendrils connected to Arthur’s body and rip them out with force.
’Ce...lestia?’
THEYCHOOSEYOUTHEYCHOOSEYOUTHEYCHOOSEYOUTHEYCHOOSEYOUTHEYCHOOSEYOUTHEYCHOOSEYOUTHEYCHOOSEYOUTHEYCHOOSEYOUTHEYCHOOSEYOUTHEYCHOOSEYOUTHEYCHOOSEYOU
The voices echoed from all directions once more, repeating the same thing over and over again, the crimson light growing stronger with each repetition. Celestia’s expression contorted, visible evidence of the strain she was going through, as her hand was pushed back further with every passing second by the crimson light.
PROXYOF—!
[KEEP YOUR DAMN PROXY WARS TO YOURSELVES!]
Celestia screamed, the blurred crest on the back of her right palm momentarily becoming clear, and Arthur’s cosmic energy immediately bottomed out as she turned to face the light and forced it back with all her might.
[BY MY AUTHORITY OF NIHILITY, YOU ARE DENIED!]
Power erupted from her palm, shattering the light beam, the pulse travelling outward to hit the giant pupil and knock it back from Arthur.
Celestia then spun around and grabbed the final tendril connected to the back of Arthur’s head, pulling it as she shouted.
[We’ll be taking the power, but you can keep the responsibility to yourself!]
With that, she severed the connection, cutting off the constant stream of information forcing its way into Arthur’s soul, and instantly the crimson haze in his vision cleared as he blinked, his eyes opening to meet Luka’s grey eyes while her sword hovered dangerously close to his neck.
Immediately, the size of the Aspect of Destruction within his soul underwent rapid expansion, occupying all the space inside his soul and forcefully increasing the soul’s size to create more room for it.
|guurrRRAAARGH!|
Arthur roared loudly, unleashing all the destructive energy within the expanded Aspect inside his soul, the crimson energy overwhelming Luka’s light of Dawn and blasting her body backwards with an immense shockwave.
She staggered back several steps, and before she could recover her balance, Arthur tightened his grip on Celestia and spun his body to build momentum, pouring even more destructive power into the sword before swinging it upward in a rising arc.
|Extreme Nothingness!|
The crimson light erupting from Celestia’s blade turned silver as Arthur’s other powers mixed into it, and the rising slash unleashed from the blade collided with Luka’s body, every bit of its power focused entirely on her with not even the smallest portion of energy escaping into the surroundings.
"Guh?!"
Luka groaned and staggered backwards, and then the sound of liquid splattering reached Arthur’s ears. He looked up, his eyes widening as he saw golden liquid spilling from the diagonal line cutting across Luka’s torso.
