Chapter 149: Annihilation.
"Is there even anyone left on that miserable planet?" Gabriell stared at the slowly widening crack on Zola-Prime from the chaotic apocalypse of a drifting moon they had been left on.
"The liberator promised to destroy everything, but it seems Ikaris has already claimed Zola as hers to destroy." Gadriel answered, both equally terrified as they watched space continuously collapse upon itself in the aftermath of Ikaris's [cosmic scream].
"Do you still think she is not an evil god?" Gabriell asked, remembering how Ikaris relished in the death and destruction Sol had been causing earlier.
"I believe it is not my place to speak on such a matter, she has been through more than all of us, if she wishes death on her enemies then I have no issue with it, we all have hatred deep within us, she simply wears her soul on her crown, she is after all, a queen." Gadriel answered and dismissed any further mention of Ikaris's suspected malevolence.
***
"Are we supposed to even keep fighting with her at this point?" Dina was still holding on to Arla as the winds all rushed in one direction and the clouds started thinning as the atmosphere was slowly sucked into the cracks of the tear across the planet. "She is a monster all on her own!"
"She would have sent us away if she did not need our help though!" Arla responded above the howling winds. "I believe we should remain by her side!"
"That's a fair point!" Dina nodded and then looked at the skies. "But we can't even move much with this wind, what the hell is happening?"
[The atmosphere has been torn, raw solar rays are washing across one half of Zola-Prime, and a majority of the stratosphere was ignited just now because of her cosmic scream, the remaining atmosphere is being sucked away by rifts across the planet, it will be gone within the next ten hours. Before that though a tsunami will cover this land within the next three hours]
The system answered Dina while simultaneously alerting Arla of what was happening globally.
"This is a disaster." Dina cast a barrier around them again, focusing.
"Not a single soul will survive, even if there are bunkers everywhere, the intensity of this fight is likely to rise and destroy Zola entirely, had Master Vestic not refabricated Hāl we would have nowhere left to go." Arla rubbed her temples with an obvious expression of stress.
Had she not known Sol was somewhere possibly watching everything she would be panicking because of how absurd a day it had been; two planets destroyed in tandem in fights that defied the reality she used to live in, and so many cosmic events happening that the universe itself felt like it was observing them.
*Haaa~
Ikaris exhaled and then held her throat, staring at the destruction she had caused.
[You have exhausted one percent of your overall mana-]
"I do not care if it falls fifty, as long as that thing remains alive I will persist indefinitely!" Ikaris balled her fists and shook her head when she felt Saleos approaching from the horizon.
"To think he would even survive that much, I am sure he would be killed by something with the capacity to easily destroy a star..." She frowned, she was sure that Saleos had indeed been hit since the attack itself was something that could not be dodged by anyone outside of Omni-powerful beings like herself and now sol who could manipulate time itself and perceived an entire universe casually.
"I have to keep raising my power-"
[I advise you not.] The system appeared in person next to her. "If you continue there is a very real chance your current vessel will be irreparably broken."
"I can make another body at my own leisure, that is a risk I am willing to take." Ikaris glanced at her with her brow raised. "You know I am aware of this, why even bother telling me?"
"There is a chance you might shatter, Ikaris." System stared at her adamantly, and saw the hesitation in Ikaris's eyes when she heard this, the fear of losing herself a second time was real, what if her fragments remained scattered and no longer had the will sufficient to reform conscious thought?"
"Ah..." Ikaris shook her head as a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek. "E-even then!" She exclaimed and balled her fists, when Saleos's form became defined as he tore through debris and hills on his path to her.
"If I can fight, I am obligated to do so!" She sped off toward him as well, firing small firebolts that each shook the ground and caused hundreds of metres of stone and terrain to dismantle and vapourise as they crashed into Saleos who tanked them as he came like a berserker.
"And I can fight!" Ikaris fired off an especially large one and the beast before her leapt above it avoiding the explosion as he descended. "So I absolutely will!" Ikaris arched and met his descending hooved feet with her fist causing another cataclysmic explosion that left a giant crater again as she was sent crashing into the ground while he was thrown into the air.
"I'll keep pushing...!" Ikaris slowly arose with a growl, jumping to the side when a crimson bolt from Saleos nearly crashed into her, and then performing a series of rapid slides and dodges when hundreds more came from the beast's mouth homing in on her like heat-seaking projectiles.
[Cosmic tier: Mana spear(s)]
While Saleos was distracted truing to kill Ikaris, a bolt from his peripheral struck him in the side of his head, failing to penetrate his skull but sending him reeling in the air after it exploded.
"You dare-" He roared, fanning the smoke off his singed beard and roaring wildly again, only to have that roar interrupted too when another spear from Dina curved and came from beneath him ripping through his palm and exploding like the first one did, and then the mage began spamming.
Flurries of them, millions in an instant, filling the skies more than the observable stars ever did and ripping through the air in whistles as they were all targeted at him.
While not as powerful as Ikaris's attacks for obvious reasons, they were capable of harming and distracting him, and Ikaris used that to her advantage as she weaved through them using Godspeed to keep up with their pace and then slamming her palm against his back.
[INCINERATION; MAXIMUM]
"Burn away!" Ikaris unleashed another great explosion that easily broke the veil of the manasphere and tore open the ground enveloping the demon-god and launching him like a cannon ball, only for his momentum to be completely stopped when Arla clasped her hands, activating the runes she had left on his arm from her first interaction with him.
Saleos was teleported right back to Ikaris again who immediately dropped an axe kick in the top of his head, causing him to spin in place before she grabbed his leg and tossed him downward with a roar.
He managed to catch his balance while he was falling through the air, but his momentum was too fast, so he prepared himself for landing, only to have his entire body turned upside down in an instant when Dina cast [inversion] on him, resulting in him crashing in the ground headfirst.
Dina was about to cast [judgement] but Saleos vanished from the crater and grabbed her hand with his other hand aimed to skewer her, catching them off-guard by this sudden boost of speed a third time.
Before he could strike her, Ikaris caught his hand and dragged them both to the ground, kicking the back of his leg and wrapping her leg around his neck flipping him and then leaping and punching him into the ground where he comically bounced and received another punch from her that bounced him even higher.
There in the air stunned Saleos screamed out in agony when a sole [mana spear] fell from the sky and went straight through his eye-socket bedding itself in his head, he tried removing it but as soon as his claws connected with the cosmic tier skill it exploded tearing him open and sending the remains of his body to the ground to form another crater.
"Surely that-"
"Don't jinx it, Arla!" Dina rushed down to the crater with Ikaris, and sure enough he was already recovering from that wound as well, causing Ikaris to sneer and curse.
"I understand now," Ikaris nodded, taking a breath and walking toward the headless body as it healed and flailed whilst the torso was being stitched together.
"He has to be destroyed completely, down to the atom, down to the matter which has memorised his form, we have to kill his very presence." She mused conjuring a flaming spear and driving it through his leg and ankle pinning him to the ground and then stepped on his other hand pinning it to the ground with her heel. "Let me handle the rest alone-"
"Stop!" The system appeared at her side again, startling Dina and Arla.
"You have already reached 20%, any higher and a mortal body will not be spared." She warned her.
"I can handle it." Ikaris grabbed the system by her head and shook her forcing her to vanish.
[Why do you and Master Vestic constantly not heed my warnings?" She asked appearing at Dina's side.
"Ikaris, what are you planning?" Dina stepped forward when the sigils started releasing raw particles of mana, and in response Arla's sigils turned red and began doing the same.
"I am going to do as I said, I will destroy him completely, he needs to be evaporated down to the subatomic level where even his mana is dispersed, so I want you to retreat up there with the others." She pointed to the distant moon and then snapped her fingers before either Dina or Arla could refute.
"Wh-" Dina snapped as soon as she could see again. "Arla, take us back!" She spun, but the elf shook her head in refusal. "Arla!"
"Trust her judgement, has she ever taken on a task she could not handle?" Arla asked, and Dina nodded and grabbed her shoulders.
"Yes! Every single fight she has ever been in was won through some sort of self-harm, she always goes the extra mile and puts her life in danger, this is not the time to be stubborn!"
"She has completely sealed off Zola, you could not return even if you tried to." System added, and they looked at her shocked. "Remember, Goddess Ikaris has administrative authority in Master Vestic's absence, I do not have the power to refuse her order, I surrendered that authority." She explained.
As she explained a white glint appeared on Zola which they could clearly see was almost completely separated down the middle now.
"Her threshold has been broken, her power is reaching Omni-being levels, she intends to destroy everything in one fell swoop, 40%.... 50."
"60%, she has stopped, any further and her vessel will immediately break."
"This is the most I can do right now." Ikaris's hand glowed formlessly.
"That attack before that caused the atmosphere to burn, cosmic scream, how much did she put into it?" Arla asked.
"Cosmic scream was 15% of her released petential, and the punch before was a mere 0.1%, what you are about to witness is on the same scale as what master Vestic had to exert to escape the power of a black hole; I may give you numbers, but the current Goddess Ikarks in all her power is a single percent of her overall divinity, in a nutshell, with the power she could wield as her true self it is not an exaggeration to say she could destroy the Omniverse."
[Creation Realm Unique Skill: Annihilation.]
"Release!"