Chapter 2084: Dimenion VS Nepheline
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Burning Forest Dungeon. A few minutes ago.
The Burning Forest Dungeon trembled. Two immense battles raged simultaneously—an intense clash of divinities, gods against mortals, the likes of which had never been seen in the entire history of Terrarium.
The gods, aligned with the evil god faction, had come to finally reap what they had sown. The mortals, long dismissed as incompetent side pieces in an invasion that could no longer succeed, had always been looked down upon as useless and weak.
Yet these same mortals—who had been trampled and controlled by the gods for so long, who possessed nothing but their own bodies and unbreakable determination—were now challenging the gods themselves. They fought with every ounce of their spirit in what many would have called a completely delusional endeavor.
"Never throughout all of history have mortals dared to fight against the gods," Dimenion declared while shifting through space, effortlessly avoiding the attacks of a furious Nepheline as her daughter supported her with magic and whatever strength she had left. "Your attempts are utterly futile! There is nothing you could ever do to accomplish even a single feat."
"Enough with your useless babble!" Nepheline roared. "Why don’t you fight me like a man, you worthless piece of shitty glass?!" She unleashed her potent Divine Aura, shattering Dimenion’s spell in an instant. She seized him, driving her fist into his body. Half of her own form shattered from the impact against the immensely tough foe. "Ugh?!"
"As you can see, there is no need for us to even try, let alone bother with your kind," Dimenion explained with a shrug. "Nobody would ever take fighting against mortals seriously—especially not a being such as myself, forged by my master as the prototype for the strongest divine sentinels."
"SHUT UP!!!" Nepheline roared. The ground beneath her shook violently as countless mountains erupted from nowhere, shattering apart and forming gigantic hands that surged toward Dimenion. "GAIA... GRASP!"
RUMBLE!
Dimenion was caught once more, crushed under pressure strong enough to turn coal into diamonds. Yet cracks rapidly spread across the gigantic hands. A blast of cosmic light erupted, and Dimenion emerged unscathed, floating in midair with his hand pointed at her.
"Your attempts are at most entertaining, but the same old tricks are growing boring," he said. "I wonder what your limit is, Hero!"
"TRY ME!!!"
Nepheline roared and charged, punching him from every angle as her body swelled and grew colossal. She transformed into a Titan of Stone, Metal, and Jewels, radiating immense magical and spiritual energies from the metals that composed her—including the strongest of them all, Orichalcum, which now coated her completely.
"UUAAAH!"
With a furious roar, twelve titanic, muscular arms hammered Dimenion from every direction. Yet his body held firm, creating an unbreakable center of gravity. No matter how hard he was struck, he could no longer be sent flying.
"Useless."
He waved his hand, and invisible spatial forces tore through Nepheline, shredding her into thousands of pieces. She clenched her teeth, her soul flaring with power as every fragment fused back together and attacked again. Dimenion responded by slashing her repeatedly with his sharp glass-made claws, tearing her apart over and over.
"Useless. It’s all useless, Hero!"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!"
Nepheline roared, clenching her teeth and pushing her soul to its limits. The Divinity Spark she had grasped began to swell, radiating the power of a star even as it risked exploding—along with her own soul.
"Hahahaha! How amusing!" Dimenion laughed. "Are you truly going to sacrifice yourself just to try and damage me? I should have expected nothing else from a mortal at the end of the day!"
Aquarina panicked and screamed toward her mother. "MOM!!! DON’T PUSH YOURSELF!"
"Stay out of this, Aquarina!! I will do it! I WILL HURT HIM NO MATTER WHAT!"
Nepheline roared. The ground beneath her trembled as she merged with the entire land and surged upward as a titan formed from the Burning Forest itself.
"Impressive. So this is the limit of what mortals of exceptional pedigree can accomplish."
Nepheline raised her hand and manifested her divine treasure and soul weapon, fusing them into a titanic divine soul hammer.
"WORLD IMPACT!!!"
She swung the hammer down with all her power, all her soul, all her divinity, and everything else she possessed. Dimenion stood motionless and chose to receive the blow.
BOOOOMMM!!!
The massive attack struck the entire dungeon. Half of it shattered apart, and even space itself fractured, warping into dark miasma and void.
And yet...
"Amusing. But this is all you could accomplish."
Dimenion laughed loudly as he showed Nepheline he was perfectly fine. The only mark she had left was a small scratch on his left shoulder—barely penetrating a millimeter of his glass coating.
"HAAAAAHHHH!"
She refused to give up. She swung her hammer again and again as her soul weapon began to shatter, then finally exploded. Each strike grew weaker. Dimenion’s body possessed incredible self-adaptability; anything that could harm him would soon become something he resisted. The more damage he received, the more immune he became.
"My master crafted me with adaptability in mind. What we cannot beat, we learn to defeat and adapt to. I am only the first of many. In the future, we will lead an army of my kind against the gods, and their reign will end—along with all of you useless mortals, who will die pathetically in their shadows! Now perish. I shall extinguish your soul just as I did with the girl!"
Dimenion roared. His claws glowed with cosmic light as he aimed at Nepheline, who kept fighting even as she shattered into pieces again and again.
"Soul Extinction!"
FLAAASH!
A cosmic explosion of blinding light surged forward at lightning speed. Nepheline gasped, reinforcing her soul and preparing to take the hit.
"NO!!! MOM!!!"
Aquarina suddenly threw herself in the way, wrapping her mother in her shadow body. Nepheline panicked and screamed at her daughter.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! AAAHH!"
BOOOOMMM!!!
A massive explosion of starlight engulfed them both. Nepheline hugged her daughter tightly, shielding her soul with her own, certain this was the end.
"Aquarina... you foolish girl..."
As she closed her eyes, expecting her soul to vanish, she suddenly realized she had taken no damage—nor had Aquarina.
"What?"
Her eyes widened. Something bizarre had happened. Aquarina’s body had turned such a deep, absolute black that when the attack struck them, it simply... vanished?
"What the...? Aquarina? Are you okay?!"
"Ugh..."
Aquarina was becoming strange—spectral, phantasmal, and semi-transparent—twisting and mixing strangely with space itself.
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