Blows and claws were exchanged without pause.
My body had elongated and deformed. I didn't know at what point my legs had been replaced by an immensely long tail, but it served me to strike and constrict the Yakuruna with brutal force, even as I lost chunks of it in every exchange. Its surface was covered by a solid skin, but beneath it lay plate-like scales, similar to the underside of a snake… very much like those of my daughter, Ruby.
That detail cleared several things in my mind.
My hands no longer existed: they had been replaced by enormous, elongated claws, capable of piercing even the Yakuruna's divine skin if I found the right angle. My eyes grew, warping into the gaze of a wild beast. My hair ceased to be hair and became a living, undulating, almost viscous mass.
Added to this were the horns… or rather, sharp bony formations emerging from my skull and projecting backward.
And the blood.
Blood that gushed unceasingly from my body, splattering everywhere I passed.
Anyone seeing me would only distinguish a terrifying magical creature, a monster. In fact, that was exactly what Hannah and Tonks thought when they looked at me for an instant, unable to recognize me, searching for me with their eyes, refusing to accept that this thing was me.
But that was a matter for later.
I had grown to surpass the Yakuruna in size, and he felt it. The pressure of my presence was becoming increasingly evident.
The struggle continued and, although he was using all his powers, I didn't lag behind with my own methods. It seemed I could prolong this combat for much longer.
He even tried to attack my girls to distract me.
I didn't allow it.
Even if I couldn't help them directly, I could prevent that bastard from doing anything to them. Partly thanks to [Envy], which allowed me to copy his thought patterns. This gave me a subtle advantage: every time he tried something, I was already reacting, using that same Envy to counter him with something similar.
It wasn't cost-effective for me… but he didn't know that.
"You are what I could become..."
The words came out of me even though my mouth didn't move, while spears of unicorn blood shot toward him. He dodged them all, as he had been overconfident once before, and one of the projectiles—stronger, camouflaged among the others—had wounded him.
"Living in seclusion... hunting new women every now and then..." We exchanged wounds. "In fact, I think that was my destiny."
My tail coiled around his body while my jaw unhinged to bite him. The divine spear drove into my palate, stopping the attack… but not my voice.
"But I'm not going to end up like you."
The Yakuruna already looked desperate.
Perhaps I wasn't stronger than him in pure power… but I was an immortal cockroach, an aberration that wouldn't stop growing and only became more problematic with every passing second.
He didn't even have a chance to escape. Every time he tried to get close to the water, I pursued him, using [Envy] to copy his aquatic mobility and reach him even in his own element.
At that point, the Yakuruna decided to resort to what he had wanted to avoid at all costs.
Suddenly, his power spiked, burning his remaining divinity in exchange for a future of extreme and dangerous weakness. But if he didn't manage to finish me now, that future would be just as deadly… or worse.
A divine glow covered his body as he consumed his power.
Then, he extended his hand.
The sirens who were overpowering Hannah and Tonks—already covered in wounds, bruised, falling to the ground more times than was healthy—felt something horrific: as if their souls were being ripped out at once.
They collapsed, shivering, unable to stand. They even struggled to breathe.
The little divine power the Yakuruna had left in their bodies was extracted without mercy.
They didn't become human again—their races had already changed—but a crushing weakness settled into them, aggravated by being out of the water.
Hannah and Tonks, with swollen faces, bruised bones, and multiple cuts, could barely remain conscious. Even so, the only thing they felt was relief: they couldn't fight anymore… and they didn't want to become a burden to me.
It was a small amount, almost insignificant.
But the Yakuruna regained a hint of the divine power of old times.
His face, however, contorted as he felt his largest container failing to respond.
...
Elise had also fought without reservation, letting herself go even with her reduced power.
She wasn't an ideal physical combatant, so her magic was key during the encounter… though to say there was no physical contact would be a lie.
Her legs were damaged by bites and violent twists from the crocodile, but that was nothing compared to the general exhaustion. Her sweaty mane covered part of her face as she panted, charging more and more like an animal against the beast.
An equine and a gigantic reptile.
A wild, primitive struggle, almost impossible to see anywhere else.
In the end, Elise combined strength, magic, and agility in a final move: she flipped over the crocodile, pushed its head down while supporting herself on it, and drove her horn through its back, piercing its heart directly.
She completed the flip, taking the monster with her, lifting it into the air with only the strength of her neck.
The image was brutal.
A panting alicorn, raising her head with a crocodile larger than herself impaled on her horn, while blood ran from the wound and bathed her face.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Elise's cry was pure triumph.
...
The Yakuruna shifted his gaze to where his mount should be.
His support. His storehouse of surplus divine power.
Only to find the image of its corpse impaled on Elise's horn.
Fury hit him full force… but it didn't come alone.
There was also worry.
He had just lost not only his mount and divine reserve—whose power he now felt restricted, unable to answer his call due to Elise's interference—but she, though visibly exhausted, was still alive… and ready to join the battle.
Perhaps at another time, it wouldn't have been a problem.
But now, he was already struggling too much against me.
And he feared, rightly so, that if Elise intervened, the situation would become unsustainable.
I seized his moment of anger to attack again.
I felt his power increase suddenly, brutally, and I tried to copy that increase using [Envy]… but the price was immediate. My own energy and vitality began to be consumed at an alarming rate, forcing me to cancel the attempt.
Then I understood.
The Yakuruna was giving his last bit of himself.
Without further warning, he lunged at me, unleashing an attack with his claws.
To the horror of those who managed to see it, my body was split almost in half… and everything behind me was leveled as far as the eye could see.
I felt it.
My being was separated in two, not just physically, but spiritually. As if he were trying to erase me from existence itself.
It was divine power manifested with a single intent: to kill.
The image froze for just an instant.
Then my body liquefied again, reconstructing itself once more… although with flaws, with evident imperfections.
He hadn't succeeded.
He hadn't killed me.
It was terrifying, yes. Having been so close to real death.
But more than fear, what I felt was something instinctive.
I had prepared too many countermeasures against death back at the fief, from the lowest levels to the highest. Killing me for real was an almost impossible feat even for a demigod.
At a truly divine level… I still wasn't entirely clear on that.
The Yakuruna then entered a clear berserker state.
His attacks began to rain down without control, forcing even Elise—who was trying to join the fight—to maneuver cautiously. The violence intensified so much that I was forced to pull Hannah and Tonks out of the area.
I couldn't send them to the fief in the middle of combat, nor could I concentrate on moving them manually without opening a fatal gap.
So, I turned to one of the most powerful spells in my repertoire.
I enclosed the small space where they were in a separate, isolated dimension. They could see what was happening in a blur, as if through a veil, but without feeling anything else.
I had to get them out of there fast. If I didn't, the problems that could arise would be… much more serious.
Anyway. The Yakuruna did everything possible to destroy my body.
He shattered it again and again, but my abilities didn't stop working for a single second. Every wound closed, every loss was compensated, and with Elise supporting me, I always gained those brief moments necessary to recover.
She didn't care about the wounds either. After all, that was nothing more than an avatar.
My body was pulverized… but it only exploded into more blood, blood coming from my reserves, which my clones had been releasing restlessly from the fief. The entire area turned red, black in some spots, glowing in others, allowing me to launch large-scale attacks—clumsy, imprecise… but constant… inexhaustible.
Desperate, he even tried to escape.
We couldn't allow it: Magic, Technological Weapons, Consumables, Potions. Anything that gave even a minimum of support was being used.
And then, for the first time, terror filled the Yakuruna.
He still had time before his body succumbed completely to the burning of his divinity, but fear began to dominate him when he noticed that it was becoming increasingly difficult to hurt me.
That, apparently, I was still getting stronger.
But I wasn't.
"Who are you...?" he growled at last, his voice cracked with desperation. "How is it that you are becoming so strong?"
He unleashed a blow with everything he had left. It didn't even come close to the damage he had caused when he split me in half. He kept hitting. Claw swipes, lunges, attacks without pause.
"You're wrong..." I replied calmly.
My voice was still monstrous, but my body—as well as my mind—was slowly beginning to return to normal. Even so, his attacks no longer achieved anything significant.
"I am not getting stronger." I raised my arm and pointed downward. "Look."
Both of us observed the ground… or what was left of it.
The lagoon. The rivers connecting it. Everything completely dyed red and black, with glowing veins running through it.
The water was gone. It had been completely diluted in blood.
"You know?" I laughed softly while my body finished adopting its human form, appearing in my new clothes. "To end a god, the best thing is to take away his divine domain."
The Yakuruna's eyes went wide.
Only now did he understand.
He hadn't noticed, but his divine power had been increasingly restricted during the fight. Although a lagoon of blood could, in theory, serve as a domain… this was not just any blood.
It was blood from my reserves.
Under my control.
My blood magic had leveled up over time. With it alone, I could already consider myself a legendary mage, and among the acquired abilities was one that allowed me to increase consumption to raise my level of control.
The terrain that once weakened me... was now weakening him.
"If you were a true god, this would be almost impossible," I commented with the casual tone of a science communicator. "Your domain would be too vast. But as a demigod, you need your domain to act here, at your location." I smiled. "The only way you have a chance is to run from here to the next source of natural water." I watched him calmly. "But I don't think you'll make it."
The Yakuruna didn't hesitate.
He tried to flee with everything he had left.
I didn't give him the chance.
I reached him in an instant, struck him, and threw him back into the stage I had built myself.
To the place where he was no longer a god.
Just prey.