Serenity started with his duplicating knives. They would do exactly nothing to Lykandeon, but in a way that was part of the point. They would do nothing but they also cost nothing and they would keep Lykandeon’s attention off the fact that Serenity had swapped from magic to weapons while Serenity kept accepting mana from Aeon.

One knife, then another, then a third, then Lykandeon threw a bolt that Serenity had to dodge by either moving away from the core or somehow occupying the same space as it; up until then, he’d been too careful of hitting the core to try it.

Serenity threw his ax as he dove away from Aeon’s core. He moved far farther than he needed to as he dodged carefully towards the angry god. As he’d expected, a quartet of shield-penetrating bolts covered the likely spots he could have moved, but none hit Serenity’s actual position. Staying close was not helpful when you were dodging and Serenity had gotten Lykandeon used to having to chase someone who dodged.

Serenity was only a couple of steps from Lykandeon when the ax hit. Lykandeon tried to dodge at the last minute, so the ax sliced right through Lykandeon’s shield and slammed into Lykandeon’s shoulder instead of his chest. It did no significant damage to Lykandeon, just a small cut, but it sliced a long line in the shoulder of his robe. The robe slid down his arm, following the ax as it fell.

Lykandeon pulled his arm out of the binding sleeve, then slipped the robe off his other arm as well. He wore only pants under the robe and Serenity was finally able to get a good look at the visible damage from the ritual. Lykandeon was clearly suffering; he didn’t look old; instead, he looked ill. Lykandeon appeared exhausted and paler than normal; that was all Serenity could be certain of, but he knew that, as bad as Lykandeon looked, he’d taken a severe hit from the ritual.

The best part was that Lykandeon was almost certainly not thinking straight. It was one of the advantages of Death magic; once you affected opponents with it, they became less capable of thinking as well as hurt. Of course, that characteristic was shared with many other types of magic.

Serenity stepped forward, calling the ax back to his hand.

Lykandeon summoned a sword made of golden light which he gripped in both hands. While it appeared insubstantial, Serenity knew that any injury from it would hurt, since it was essentially a solidified version of the bolts Lykandeon was throwing earlier. That didn’t matter; he needed to change things up and keep Lykandeon fighting, draining more of his energy so Serenity would have a chance to kill him.

Lykandeon could teleport; Serenity didn’t want to have to try to hunt him down if running away occurred to the deity, so he needed to wear him down enough that he didn’t have the energy or mana left to teleport before he realized he needed to.

Lykandeon slashed at Serenity; he caught the incoming blade with his own manablade, deflecting the blow, but it still smashed his own arm into his side, setting Serenity off balance. He took a quick step back to recover himself and dropped his ax again. As much as he wanted it to open a hole in Lykandeon’s defense for his manablade, it wasn’t worth taking a blow from that giant sword to get the opening.

He needed both hands on his own sword to have the strength to counter Lykandeon’s attacks. Serenity's sword could be used two-handed, but unlike Lykandeon’s, it wasn’t built to be a dedicated two-handed weapon. There was no reason for a manablade to be larger; the blade didn’t have any mass anyway. Of course, that meant the sword itself was oddly balanced.

A shield would have been even better; with a shield that could stand up to a few attacks, he could deal with Lykandeon’s strikes and still get his own in. Not that they’d do much good without a way to get through the man’s shield.

Serenity danced around Lykandeon, avoiding his attacks with a mixture of proper footwork and careful deflections of the oversized blade. When Lykandeon committed too strongly to an attack, Serenity took the chance to stab Lykandeon’s shield with his blade.

As expected, it slid off the shield. Serenity had hoped Lykandeon had left in an unexpected weakness, but it seemed like he hadn’t. Fortunately, he didn’t need to be able to get through the shield with his sword. Serenity’s Death Field was still going, using the mana he’d gotten from Aeon’s core.

Lykandeon slowed down and laughed at Serenity. “I can’t believe I worried about you.” He seemed to relax. “But you only have a single trick.”

Serenity blinked in surprise. Had Lykandeon not realized that the Death magic was Serenity’s? Had he not even realized he was being attacked? Serenity knew Lykandeon had realized something went very wrong with the ritual, but he didn’t seem to have realized that Serenity’s attack was a continuation of the same event. Serenity needed to keep him oblivious.

The best way to do that would be to seem overconfident and let the Death Field work a bit more. Serenity shrugged. “One trick is enough if it’s the right trick.”

It wasn’t true, of course. You would always run into someone who could deal with one trick. That wasn’t why Vengeance went for magic as well as force of arms, but it certainly helped. Serenity wanted to use another tool, but the best one he had right now was probably his Death Magebolt and he wanted to avoid the overt use of Death magic in case Lykandeon truly hadn’t realized that he was inside a Death Field.

Serenity lunged forward, sliding under Lykandeon’s lazy attack, and slammed into the man’s shield. It flexed a little, clearly not quite able to take the blow, and Lykandeon stumbled back. Serenity wished he could get a grip on the man; if he could actually take one of his arms out of the picture, Lykandeon would have trouble swinging his giant sword, but a shield generally prevented easy gripping.

Well, it wouldn’t hurt to try. It wasn’t like he’d ever tried with claws before, after all.

Lykandeon was still trying to figure out how to bring his sword to bear on Serenity without moving away when Serenity grabbed his left elbow. His claws penetrated into the shield and gripped it firmly; he had to hold it tightly to keep his grip and wasn’t causing more than bleeding pinpricks in Lykandeon’s skin, but that was enough to make Serenity realize that he hadn’t really thought about the fact that he had the claws of a dragon.

Dragons were extremely powerful magic-eating creatures. Of course their claws would interact with and even slice up shields as if they were solid! He was probably sucking in a little bit of mana from Lykandeon’s shield as he held him.

That thought led to another, then another. He wasn’t just a dragon; he was a chimera and his horns were from his Greater Demon of Righteous Retribution form. Lykandeon absolutely deserved Righteous Retribution.

Serenity didn’t stop to wonder if it was a good idea or if it would work; he trusted his healing enough that if it didn’t work he’d still be fine. The thought led to action and Serenity headbutted Lykandeon’s chest just before Lykandeon managed to free his arm.

Lykandeon was not expecting it. He slid backwards, tripped on one of the fallen ceiling blocks, and landed ass-first on the couch behind him. His head slammed into one of the armrests while Serenity’s horns dug deeper into his chest. They’d passed through the shield as if it wasn’t even there.

Serenity knew the trick wouldn’t have worked, even without warning, if Lykandeon weren’t exhausted. He should have been able to free himself from Serenity’s grip faster, which would have made headbutting much, much harder. Serenity had watched Lykandeon move as he fought; he was slower than Serenity most of the time, but he occasionally pushed through the exhaustion at something near what his normal speed must be. Lykandeon was higher Tier than Serenity, even if he wasn’t a dedicated physical fighter, but the exhaustion meant he moved like he was slightly lower Tier.

Serenity pulled his head back. His neck hurt; that was probably a very bad idea for anyone who didn’t heal quickly unless they were built for it the way his Demon form was. It looked like he’d hit Lykandeon in the same lung he’d hit the first time, but this time Lykandeon didn’t pass it off like it wasn’t significant.

Lykandeon gasped at Serenity and tried to push the bigger man off of him, but Serenity held on. He had a grip on both of Lykandeon’s arms now and that meant he temporarily had control.He leaned down and carefully plunged his horns into Lykandeon’s chest again, careful to hit the other lung this time. If Lykandeon couldn’t breathe, he’d be in trouble.

Serenity felt more than saw a magical discharge wash across Lykandeon; when he pulled his head back, the original injury from Serenity’s manablade was healed, but for some reason neither of the horn injuries had recovered at all. Whatever the reason was for that, he’d clearly triggered one of Lykandeon’s last protections, and Lykandeon couldn’t catch his breath.

Serenity hoped he couldn’t teleport out. Serenity had planned to wear him down a bit more first, just in case, but he couldn’t pass up this opportunity. Lykandeon was injured enough now that Serenity was sure he’d try to escape if he could.

Serenity wasn’t confident that he could kill Lykandeon with his horns; they were straight and sharp, made to impale rather than cut. Despite the holes, Lykandeon still wasn’t bleeding much, so Serenity couldn’t count on him bleeding out any time soon. Lack of oxygen would probably kill him first, but some high Tier people could go surprisingly long periods of time without breathing.

Serenity snagged his mana blade with his right hand and called his ax into his left. Lykandeon didn’t move; he seemed to not be completely aware of what was happening. It was probably for the best.

Serenity set his ax against Lykandeon’s throat, disabling the shield in a line, then cut Lykandeon’s head off.

Even at high Tier, very few humans could survive for long with their head separated from their body.

Serenity waited until he knew Lykandeon was dead and not going to rise or have some magical contingency restore him before he stood up and put his hand on Aeon’s core. He wanted to make sure Aeon knew Lykandeon was dead.

[Aeon claimed by Right of Conquest]

[Lyka claimed by Right of Conquest]

[Quest: A Claim on Two Worlds]

[Goal: Consolidate your Claim]

[Reward: Sovereignty over Lyka and Aeon]

[Failure Consequences: Lose claim to Lyka and/or Aeon]

[Optional Goal: Delegate your Authority]

Serenity stared at the quest information. “Really? What the hell. I hope no one else saw that.”

:Congratulations, Serenity. You good in there?: Rissa’s mindvoice told Serenity that the first two messages must not have been limited to him.

Serenity sighed. :I’m fine. A little low on mana but Lykandeon wasn’t able to hurt me more than I could quickly heal. Or at least he didn’t; he started out trying to control me and that cost him badly. By the time he started fighting, he was weakened. Did the Voice really send that message to everyone?:

:I think so,: Rissa admitted. :Sillon and I both got it, at least.: