Two androgynous constructs of liquid metal appeared before me, their bodies covered in flowing runes I rapidly studied and mentally shelved away. They had astral wings—teal, like mine.
It was hard not to be jealous of Sparda and Eve. To craft something like this? They had to be leagues beyond me. Maybe it was time I moved past empty suits of armor and medieval weapons—however effective they were. If I could—
They attacked as one.
Hundreds of spectral swords manifested in the air and hurtled toward me, nearly too fast to perceive. Meanwhile, the second construct raised a hand, and massive circles of strange writing and energy bloomed in the air. Chains shot out of them.
Osiris snapped into my hand as I spun, using the weapon's affinity boost to supercharge my wind control. A razor-sharp twister formed instantly.
It repelled the blades and swatted aside the spectral chains pouring from the glyphs overhead.
Then came the swell of power.
My twister unraveled in an instant as a blast of pure angelic energy tore through it.
I activated Demonic Burst, rocketing upward to avoid the blast while launching dozens of vacuum blades at my attackers.
The sword-wielder met them with blades of her own, painting the sky white with colliding arcs. Meanwhile, more chains materialized, darting toward me. I twisted through the air and teleported in front of the chain-wielder, a compressed sphere of density and fire crackling in my palm.
A cocoon of chains sprang up defensively—but the fireball never touched her. A portal opened behind the sword-wielder's nape, and I sent the orb through.
The sky screamed as she was consumed by fire. Simultaneously, dozens of knives materialized around me and the chain construct and detonated, bathing us in black fire and shrapnel.
There was a flash of white light. The chains glowed just before the explosion consumed them—and to my surprise, the destruction was diverted horizontally, absorbed into the glowing chains that shielded the silver angel.
So that's what the chains did.
Absorption? Sealing?
The fire cocoon unraveled above me. The sword construct had survived, and she seemed pissed now, if a construct could do such a thing.
The two wings on her back split into four. Her aura spiked—as did that of the chain-wielder, as she copied her partner.
Their auras were comparable to mine.
Almost.
Osiris shifted into Rebellion as they charged in tandem, shattering the sound barrier.
The sword-wielder came in low, swinging two curved sabers. Twenty more blades orbited her, twisting and slashing. I shattered her weapons by the dozens, Rebellion humming with dimensional energy as I cut and wove through the onslaught, supplementing with wind blades.
The chain-wielder was just as relentless, her weapon cracking the air like a whip. I teleported around her strikes, toggling cloaks until I settled on Density and Gravity. Telekinetically controlling both Rebellion and Kurogiri, I ran minor defense while charging energy.
The build-up only lasted seconds, but that was a lifetime when you were as fast as we were.
Just before the pressure became unbearable, I struck. A sphere of rippling darkness exploded from my hand, launched by Demonic Burst. It slipped through the minefield of chains the chain construct had set up and impacted her in the stomach.
The sphere unraveled, sucking in and crushing her body with a localized gravitational field.
She died in seconds. The pull was so strong it bent the path of a descending greatsword made of light.
I parried it with Rebellion and countered with Kurogiri, channeling dimensional energy to cleave the sword-wielder in half. Her body resisted, starting to reform.
I activated Time Warp, speeding up my perception of time fivefold.
My hand blurred, and then I sheathed my katana—her body now diced into a hundred pieces.
—
The third fighter was a telekinetic just like me—but a brawler.
He charged in hard, wings outstretched, unleashing a beam of concentrated force.
I split it with Kurogiri and closed the distance with a burst, engaging in brutal hand-to-hand combat.
His punches could shatter mountains, but I parried with Eryx, countering with telekinetically charged, netherfire-infused strikes. The arena shook under us.
He got creative, generating localized storms, superheating the air with raw force. He tried to crush me with thousands of tons of stone, but I teleported out, descending on him with a heel strike enhanced by Invictus.
Half his body flash-froze. I thawed him with a half-charged Burst, sending him tumbling.
For his final gambit, I felt his power invade my mind, trying to crush my skull from the inside.
I retaliated, channeling Gravity and Telekinesis, flaring my runes.
His head popped like an overripe tomato.
That was the end of him.
Then came the fourth round. And my opponent was cut a caliber above the rest.
He was a solid silver construct with a double-bladed spear, and a body covered in rippling runes.
His body pulsed with thick, black demonic energy. A single eye glowed in the center of his face.
As he raised the spear, the world tilted.
Darkness erupted from him, blanketing everything. My demonic and angelic magic grew distant. My nearly invincible armor suddenly felt very vincible. Above, an alien sky formed, dotted with stars of pure white.
My breath caught.
A Domain?
The construct's eye glowed white. His body turned pitch black and melted into the shadows. The stars began to move, living darkness swirling around them.
I tracked them with my passive perception sphere and telekinesis. Even if I couldn't see them properly, I could feel them.
There must've been thousands of them. Thousands of stars.
Five blinked out of the sky, reappearing around me. Two descended spear-first, radiating penetrative darkness. The other three struck from all angles.
Only my cloaks and wind-enhanced speed saved me. My aegis shield flickered on just in time—
And the blades passed right through it.
My eyes widened.
Okay. That might be a problem.
I teleported out of the trap and unleashed Aquila, sending spectral blades toward each attacker. They cut through them effortlessly, teleporting toward me again.
With a roar, I unleashed a Demonic Burst-boosted breath of fire.
It blotted out my horizon and melted stone, and burned through my attackers, cutting down their numbers to two.
They barely held on, but were already regenerating, despite the corrosive properties of my fire.
I wondered how Adamantium would fare against those spears, though I had a suspicion.
They charged again. I parried one with a dagger, stepping aside. It turned out to be the right call because the blade was cut in half.
My attacker spun his spear, aiming for my neck, then went for my chest next, and my left hand. Each twist of his weapon was another deadly attack.
Ten more shadows fell from the sky, materializing around him, coming to his defense.
Alright. Now it was serious.
I snapped my fingers. My runes flared. I seized all ten with raw telekinesis and collapsed their bodies into orbs of shadow.
More came—hundreds. I punched the ground, flooding my runes with gravity.
They dropped instantly, crushed into the stone, weapons flung from their hands.
"You can't cut gravity," I smirked, hands glowing.
Eryx encased my fists, and a tiny sphere of fire formed overhead, contained by a spiral of wind.
"I always wanted to try this outside of my dimension."
Feeding it with Demonic Burst, the orb swelled in size and heat—again and again.
More stars descended. I dropped them with gravity or dodged their strikes while maintaining the technique.
By the ninth Burst, the domain's night sky began to thin. By the tenth, even I couldn't control the power.
The orb grew to the size of a stadium.
Purple fire consumed the arena.
The Domain shattered. Thousands of stars died.
And I laughed.