Waves of force mixed and sloshed around in front of them, eventually crashing against the humming barrier of Malloon. Behind Westrisser, his daughter spoke in a surprised tone. “Nether King Hungry Eye is moving against the Nether Ritual? I had thought… he would remain aloof.”

Westrisser almost cackled out loud. Keh, Hungry Eyes wishes he could remain separate and then pick at the corpse of whichever side loses, canny carrion that he is. But no, it is not to be. His interference is the result of Swacc’s plots. Heh, detesting a foe and still having the presence of mind to use the Nether King as a knife against our enemies…? Perhaps I underestimated the Undersecretary.

Limited he might be, but not unwilling to learn.

In the end, however, the movements of Nether King Hungry Eye were just a distraction. Convenient for delaying the opposition’s work on the Nether Ritual, but the real thrust of their resistance focused on the overwhelming actions of Fatia Cerulean.

“Predation!” The raptor cackled, his body pouncing forward with enough momentum that the suppression of Bleak Sky’s Domain gave a little bit of ground. Yet just as soon as Bleak Sky conjured blades of wind and slowed Fatia’s advance, the power of the Domain reasserted itself. The greyness of the sky wavered slightly before remaining blandly implacable. Both Aether and Nether not condoned by Bleak Sky moved sluggishness underneath his Desolate Horizon.

“Annoying fucking ability,” Grettic loudly sucked on her lip and then spat over the edge of the wall. Her saliva sizzled and disintegrated upon touching the barrier. “Westrisser, I hope you don’t believe I can overcome that. Not my style. These sort of foes are exhausting.”

“Not your style,” Westrisser agreed easily. But he didn’t need to speak more than that, because situations on the battlefield developed quickly.

First, one of the Nether Kings managing the Nether Ritual flew out and attacked Hungry Eye. The massive pillar of Nether those beings conjured slowed in its assemblage. But much closer, Cerulean pulled up short right before Bleak Sky. His aura hummed with image power, strong enough to pierce through the Domain. “Well, this has been interesting, but I will not allow that Nether Ritual to form. Let’s accelerate your demise. Hunter’s Boon, Hunted’s Bane.”

Bleak Sky’s cloak had been torn several times over the last two minutes, with several deep wounds across his body oozing blood. Yet at Cerulean’s words, those wounds vanished. Bleak Sky himself seemed surprised and glanced down at his body. He made several small movements, as though checking his condition, and found nothing amiss. Nether surged around his hands and he conjured powerful winds with the same sharpness as when he had started.

Yet Cerulean grinned and approached with an echoing step. When he slashed his claws, the wind shattered into jagged pieces that pulped stone and accomplished little else. And when his attack landed on its target, it opened Bleak Sky’s body from hip to shoulder.

“Do you truly believe you rival me in physical attainments?” Bleak Sky spoke with a voice heavy with scorn. “You might inflict small wounds, but they will not threaten-”

“Hunter’s Boon, Hunted’s Bane,” Cerulean chanted again. Once more, the wounds he had given to the Nether King vanished. Yet the image version of the raptor construct seemed to swell within the sapphire aura of its body. The claws it contained were long and bloody, humming with the power of the wounds it had inflicted and ‘forgiven’ upon its prey’s body.

“Predation,” Cerulean crooned. The image Cerulean shivered with pleasure. He cut with his long claws… and tore away Bleak Sky’s entire left arm.

For the first time, the Desolate Horizon Domain shook to the point it seemed about to collapse. Bleak Sky scrambled backward, pulling huge amounts of Nether into his body. Unfortunately for Cerulean, the environment had already been thoroughly flooded with the dark energy. The Nether King was able to recover his composure relatively quickly and steady himself.

But the raptor construct didn’t even care; most of his attention was on the arm he had taken away, which he very purposefully chomped with his sharp jaws. His unnaturally thin body shouldn’t be able to, but he swallowed the entire limb in a few bites. Then when he grinned over at Bleak Sky, blood leaked through his jagged teeth. “Are the legends about you truly nonsense? If you do not have more than this, we shall soon slaughter this farce of an assault. Is Wyndaos truly so toothless as this?”

“You goad me purposefully,” Bleak Sky narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

“You waste my time purposefully.” Cerulean countered. “Surely, that’s the greater sin?”

Bleak Sky clacked his beak in annoyance. However, he was completely unphased by Cerulean’s bloody display of dominance. Instead, he wove Nether and soon recreated the devoured limb without any fanfare. Considering the strangeness of Nether King bodies, he might not even experience any adverse effects from the replacement. The heavy pressure of Desolate Horizon once more settled across the battlefield.

“Your arrogance-” Bleak Sky began, but Cerulean had been waiting for him to speak before he moved; as the image version of the raptor construct gained more power, his cruelty became more obvious. He lunged forward with his legs raised, aiming to take the Nether King in the chest. His body moved like greased violence.

Westrisser raised his head in anticipation of a quick conclusion to this farce. Every time Cerulean removed a wound he had inflicted on an opponent, he gained an extra bit of capability to inflict it. It was a rather tasteless method of playing with his victims, but even Westrisser couldn’t deny the raptor was an excellent hunter. Already, his two activations had proven effective by how he could easily sever an entire arm. This current strike-

A soft grey flame flowed around Bleak Sky’s body. He raised an arm and fully blocked the raptor construct’s onslaught. For the first time in the battle, the blood claws were stopped.

The entire area in front of Malloon began to collapse from the implosion of force. For about thirty seconds, stone and dust settled, revealing two figures floating opposite each other. On the one hand, Bleak Sky remained proud, his head raised. Opposite him, Fatia Cerulean crackled with electromagnetic discharge as he floated, his images grappling directly with his opponent’s Desolate Horizon Domain.

“If you had simply wielded your full powers from the beginning, you would have spared yourself much suffering.” Cerulean pointed out. His teeth remained stained with blood, but wild glee began to radiate off of his body. More resistance meant the strife would last longer.

“Before duty, suffering is nothing.” The Nether King sneered. “But what would a scavenger such as yourself know about responsibility?”

Cerulean chuckled. “You know, I think we will never be able to accept each other. It is just as well, I intend to make you one of my trophies.”

Within his body, the constructed version of Cerulean leaned back and spread his arms wide. A pulse of his image forced back even the power of the Desolate Horizon. Because he didn’t attempt to actually affect the surroundings, but simply to allow his own inner powers to manifest themselves. It was more like a limb unfolding than any energy working. Three distortions squeezed the air, steadily expanding until the three trophies that Fatia Cerulean had taken from powerful prey were revealed.

Westrisser narrowed his eyes, trying to read the three auras released by Westrisser. The first is from the Violet Spear. Legends about that duel were widespread even in my father’s day. The second… I believe he must have been the one to slay the Gracetaker. That old monster snuck into the Nexus in the Second Wave and was a thorn in the Southern Aether Lands until the day he abruptly wasn’t. Considering how cantankerous that bastard was known to be, it is nonsense to think he abruptly decided to live out his days peacefully. But that third distortion… who could Cerulean have hunted who was on the same tier as the others?

“No more games then,” Cerulean straightened, his limbs unnatural and almost inflated at the end of his wireframe torso. The blue flames around his constructed body reached higher and higher. The grin of his joy was as infectious and sickening as a virus. “Let us duel, Bleak Sky.”

Bleak Sky didn’t answer, but the grey flames around his body grew to rival the raptor construct’s Yet as the tension stretched, something else snatched away the attention of the battlefield: above them all, the Nether RItual finally settled into the fullness of its power. A massive pillar of woven black currents reached toward the sky.

And a second later, the Nether King Hungry Eye roared in fury. A wave of power exploded from his body. To Westrisser’s surprise, that power punched against Bleak Sky’s Domain and created the slight flaw. A crack ran through the universal energy suppression.

Cerulean reached up and grasped a bloody, red-violet weapon out of the first distortion of power. In a smooth movement, he leveled the weapon and slid forward. “Vicious Violet Sting.”

The duel rushed into its second phase, the two participants finally barring their true fangs.

*****

Randidly’s heart pounded as he raised his head and forced back the Domain another hair, manifesting more of his Animation Nova Authority. An almost endlessly pure wave of life erupted through his body, using the small path he created to affect the surrounding environment. The rich energy fought directly against the Witherballs thrown at him by the emerald dragon, the two forces furiously colliding and canceling each other out.

For several long seconds the two struggled, both in energy and Willpower. Gradually, Randidly felt himself gaining ground in the latter; this being might be a Nether King which had enjoyed the gradual accumulation of Phaea runoff for a long time, but Randidly had Grey Monarch’s Authority sharpening his every intent. With his evolved specifications, the struggle dragging on would inevitably benefit him.

Yet Randidly felt wariness toward it, that reserved lake of power, as the emerald dragon grew increasingly desperate. It had roared and generated another wave of brown/black Witherballs to throw at him, drawing only a handful of that force.

Dangerous to push Nether Kings too far then, Randidly clenched his jaw. Especially if they’ve been alive for a long time.

Underneath the second wave of the withering onslaught, Randidly’s Authority began to falter. He currently bore too much; with the disparate impact of Bleak Sky’s Domain, Randidly couldn’t endure for much longer. So he quickly gathered up all the Nether he could muster, rotated it several times through his body in order to reinforce the density of the energy, then slammed it against the Domain pressing against him.

To his great relief, the Domain gave the slightest bit.

However, even as he recognized that thirteen Witherballs were shooting toward him and his Fourth Authority Animation Nova ran dry, his eyes scanned through the suddenly concrete Nether Ritual above him. Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Moirae transformed the relatively bland sight of the pillar of black energy into a swirling, lively masterwork of craftsmanship. For a split second, he lost himself in the admiration. This, too, was a working he would need to study and interpret later.

Then he realized what he did and paled.

“Holy shit,” Randidly whispered. “This Nether Ritual doesn’t target Malloon at all, not directly. The Nether Kings are trying to build a bridge to the sky. To connect this place with the place where Pine waits.”