***
[stigma: equal correlation — sequence 7.9]
[skill: sephiwrath — seventh gate of Hod!]
"Get him!!"
Swinging my arms the four [Naegal Whips] cracked and burned with divine fury before cutting through each opponent. Stood atop a black dome my arms kept swinging and tossing the four whips at the armies of exalted that charged me.
Aiding my destruction the ink-spirits wrecked havoc across the already ruined planet. Mauling the gods i missed to death with furious madness.
[aspect: taken devourer — telekinesis!]
[skill: autumn kings conquest — horizon thunder!]
Coursing aether down through the feathery cores of the whips they then spiralled up into the atmosphere before blasting a black cloud into existence thousands of miles wide that immediately rained orange thunder hundreds of thousands of times across several seconds. Creating deep craters with each bolt that incinerated an exalted being from existence.
Pulling my arms down the whips sagged back to my side and i forced in a heavy long breath to rejuvenate my lungs. "They just keep coming don't they?"
"My liege!" Taul screamed and my focus snapped to him being bound by a hundred deities of the seventh and sixth ring sequences while a lone exalted touched the exterior black wall of the strange dome.
Immediately the dome shifted, beginning to disintegrate along with the deity that touched it trying to force his way in. Painfully disintegrating as their body turned to ink and had no time to let out a final scream before death.
Plummeting to the ground with the dome underfoot gone now i landed atop a wrecked warship that had crashed from the initial invasion with a loud metallic bang.
"This dome is a fake! Its one of the others!"
Spreading out immediately the millions of exalted that were assaulting my position started spreading out. Going after the tens of other black domes you could see in every directions.
Sathuna had set this fake-dome strategy to keep interlopers from disrupting her ritual in pursuit of Arthur Moonleaf. Clearly its worked. But there's only so much myself, my apocalyi and the other crusaders can do to keep them distracted from the real one.
"Behold!!" Entering the planet like a pink star, an annoyingly flashy presence entered. "I am Amorion! The Kralscell of flowers!!"
Spreading his arms out a beautiful man in loose robes showing almost all parts of his desirous body and plump hair presented himself like an art exhibit, forcing all beings within hundreds of millions of miles to look at him and only him in his grand display. Using his powers as the kralscell of flowers and archon of beauty to force feelings of attraction to him from every unwitting exalted he could influence.
"He must have no idea I'm right below him." I muttered, snapping my left wrist to send a single [Naegal Whip] into the atmosphere after him like an ambushing serpent.
[aspect: full moons constellation — star disgust]
Firing from beyond the horizon a silver beam of radiance came at full force aimed directly at the Kralscell of Flowers with enough power to melt a small planetoid.
With a mocking gesture the crystal knight that followed the vain kralscell floated in the beams path. Raising its shield to block and disperse the silver beam with immense effort as the beams sparks went off to decimate the frozen armies enthralled by the kralscell of flowers. Too lust-bound by him to save themselves without him telling them to.
"How naive of you, eclipse flower—" the smile on the kralscell of flowers sparkly face quickly went pale. Looking down at his chest my [Naegal Whip] had pierced his spine and gone through his chest. "...dying... like this? Its not... fair... or beautiful."
The end of the whip turned into a serpent mouth and ripped the kralscell of flowers sparkly head off from its neck. Ripping back out through his chest the whip slithered back down landing by my side on the ship wreckage and tossing the kralscell's corpse aside.
"Without the guardian the kralscell of flowers is the weakest of all kralscell's. Distract the guardian and the kralscell is easy to kill." Saluting to the dark distance that the silver beam came from i thanked my distant helper. "Thanks for the help, Vita. I'll send some help your way as well then. Taul, go help my wife."
"Yes, my liege!" Breaking free from his confused captors Taul dragged his bound arms in pulling in the exalted with the ropes they tried to hold him down with before reducing each one into a red stain on the ground. Bolting to the distant black horizon immediately after the naga vanished. "I am on my way to assist, her highness!"
"Their numbers only keep increasing." Ingrik said as he approached my side walking up the deformed metal. "This planet will be lost in under an hour even with three ninth-sequencers defending it. The planet would have broken apart long ago if yourself, Lady Vitrena, and Lord Wukong were not focusing your attacks outside the planet. Its likely there have been supports built into the planet to prevent a splitting which must be why it hasn't already fractured."
"This was a planet the old kralscell of invention used to make his toy trains. Wouldn't surprise me honestly." Tossing my arms out I unleashed the four [Naegal Whips], manipulating them with my telekinesis to wreak havoc and death across the planet as they extended and changed size. "Only need to hold out for thirty more minutes at least before the ritual is done. No need to panic, Ingrik."
Blowing a sight out the black knight drew its sword. "My worry is not for the ritual. Its a concern to me how much you three will continue being able to restrain yourselves before those equal to yourselves arrive."
[stigma: equal correlation —s equence release!]
Feeling the power flow through me no longer impeded by the [stigma] i scoffed. "Looks like they've already begun to arrive."
Looking into the distant dark horizon where my wife was i felt pity for the ones attacking her as the clash of powers already began tearing apart the planet on her side.
"...the attackers will hold themselves back too if they want to collect Arthur in one piece instead of forcing him to regress. Try being optimistic on your metal face, Ingrik."
"This is my optimistic face, my lord." The knight said with stoic look across his black faceplate. "The only positive in this situation is we must not wait much longer."
Taking a step forwards orange bolts of aether sparked around me as i hummed in agreement. "Let's try to improve those odds a little better then before our dance partner arrives."
***
Sat in the darkness, lit only by fading light flickering in and out of view, I plucked the petals of a silver flower. With each petal, a silver shooting star streaked across the sky—followed by shrieking explosions cascading through the atmosphere.
When the petal finally touched the ground, the night sky reclaimed the explosion, erasing its fire as debris fell like whistling meteors of metal.
[Aspect: Petulant Desire — Ultra-Violet Ending!]
[Aspect: Refracting Palace — Inverted Energy!]
In the heavens, two stars emerged: one, a radiant violet nova; the other, a blank, colourless white. They glistened from afar—then hurled their light down toward me in a unified beam of cataclysm.
[Aspect: Full Moon's Constellation — Scutum]
Above me, constellations bent to my will. They joined, forming a starry shield in the shape of a vast celestial crest that absorbed the twin beams and hurled them skyward, repelling the strike.
"Well, that was rude," I murmured, rising lazily from my starry nest with playful venom in my voice. My white-pink tail swayed as my fenghuang wings gave a gentle flap. "Such frigid greetings. I suppose that's expected—you're still bitter I won the race of love. Hah! Sore losers, the both of you."
"Vitrena Ras Felwinter!" A voice thundered, charged with white divine fury. An angelic empress emerged from the sky, her presence a suffocating mass of holy energy. "You broke the Eclipse Treaty!"
"Oh? Is that what this is about, little Neveah?" I cooed. Spinning a hand through the air, constellations weaved together and formed a radiant sculpture in the image of Strife. It wrapped its arms around me from behind in a mock embrace. "I thought you'd finally come to confess that my love chose me—not you."
"Enough games, Tyrannum of Anplagcace," growled a second voice—this one dark, demonic, leaking purple corruption into the air. Propheira, the Kralscell of Corruption. "What could possibly matter enough for you to risk the annihilation of Anplagcace?"
"Ever the circuit-heart, Prophet. So logical," I teased, letting Strife's replica dissipate into stardust.
"Answer the question," Neveah snarled through gritted teeth, trembling on the edge of releasing her full Ninth Sequence power and annihilating this continent outright.
I raised my arms, stretched, bent to touch my toes, and groaned with satisfaction before straightening with a sigh. "Kyaaa~! A midnight stretch under starlight. Would be perfect if not for two harlots throwing tantrums and ruining the view."
"Harlot?!" Neveah's patience shattered—but she froze. She couldn't risk exposing herself as a Kralscell with all eyes across the universe focused on this planet. Sixty thousand years in hiding couldn't be undone in a moment of rage.
"What's the matter?" I said with an innocent grin. "Performance issues?" Then I clapped. A seismic pulse of energy erupted from my body, echoing across the planet.
[Regalius Breaker: Stellar Rain of Stories — Prologue]
Both of them flinched, trying to make sense of the shift in reality.
"She's activating her [Regalius Breaker] so soon?!"
"...how foolishly proud of you, Zorain of White," Propheira muttered bitterly.
Tossing my arms out wide, I beamed with pride. "Just for tonight, I belong to no one—not even Anplagace. I am Vitrena Ras Felwinter, the Tyrant Fenghuang, the Star Authoring Fenghuang!"
[Regalius Breaker: Stellar Rain of Stories — Wrath Arc]
From the starlight, mirrored versions of myself appeared. Above, a storm of celestial energy coalesced. The Kralscells were still busy scanning my copies when a titanic starlight laser beam shot from the sky and split the heavens.
They worked fast. Neveah and Prophet scrambled to form barriers of order and corruption. But they never saw me swooping between them, halberd in hand.
"Crazy—!" My blade caught Neveah in the ribs, hurling her through a warship. Prophet was then suddenly left holding the defence alone and was crushed under the celestial barrage.
Neveah reoriented, her wings slicing the air as she stabilised. She looked for me—then saw the stars crackle and focus again. "Damn tyrant-types!" she spat, dodging just in time as another stellar beam glassed the continent beneath her. But she didn't see me coming a second time. Until it was too late.
The self corrupted Propheira slammed into me from behind, knocking me back, but not before my tail cut across her cheek, spraying divine blood into the wind.
She didn't react. She just watched me fall away as my wings caught air again.
"Such a furious stare. Hahaha!" I laughed—then my smile twisted into a glare. "That hurt, bitch."
[Aspect: Full Moon's Constellation — Orion]
Blades of starlight rained from above, descending as swords that tore through sky and divinity alike. My halberd found their weapons—Neveah's glass flail and Prophet's violet flamberge—in a storm of metal and myth.
We danced in my starry domain. Sparks scattered, beams detonated in midair, and every blow threatened to erase continents.
Until they struck together. A combined blast of white and purple hurled me from the battlefield. I hit the earth like a meteor, gasping, blood running from my nose.
"Urgh... I'm stretched too far," I choked.
Holding off two Kralscells and a planetary invasion? Even for me, that was pushing the limits of godhood. The falling stars had turned fleets to ash and pinned my foes in place, but the mental strain clawed at the edge of collapse.
"My head's already cracking..."
Neveah didn't give me a second. She burst through smoke and fire, flail bouncing off my halberd as I blocked just in time.
"What was that you said earlier. About being chosen over me?!"
Through grit teeth, I forced my grin. "Exactly what I meant, pretender. All my husband's love is mine. And I must say... it's a very delicious attachment."
She seethed. Swung wildly. Her flail slammed Prophet by accident as she tried to circle behind me, dragging them both down.
I looked down at them from above, smirking. My fingers pointed like a gun. "Bang~." I winked.
[Regalius Breaker: Stellar Rain of Stories — Ending Arc!]
The sky tore open. A rupture in the atmosphere erupted into a supernova as a colossal fenghuang made of constellations descended from the heavens.
The titan snapped its beak around them and curled in on itself before immolating light blew away everything. In the next instant, mountains vaporised from the shockwave. Rings of divine fire spiralled into orbit, tearing apart fleets above the planet like confetti.
Huffing and panting, I could barely remain airborne, unable to relish the desperately performed victory. My wings faltered, the agony twisting deeper than bone, deeper than flesh—into the soul itself. I grit my teeth, trying to push through, but it was no use. The pain was too sharp. My focus too shattered.
And I fell.
[Aspect: Taken Devourer — Telekinesis!]
Before I struck the earth, an invisible force caught me. Gentle, cradling, familiar. The pain across my body dulled instantly in its embrace, and for a moment, I exhaled in grateful relief.
Settling softly into the unseen grasp, I sighed, "So... you do remember how to repay a favour, my consort."
"My Lady!"
Rushing toward me as I descended, Taul reached out with both arms, panic flashing across his serpentine features. But before he could touch me, I swatted his hands away with a sharp flick of my wrist.
"My Lady, the Liege sent me to—"
"And did your Liege grant you permission to touch me?" I interrupted coldly.
The naga flinched, immediately dropping to the ground with his face buried in the dirt. "I was foolish!" he cried out, trembling with remorse. "Forgive my thoughtless concern, Your Highness!"
Using his scaled back as a seat, I rested my weight against him. Taul didn't protest—he merely sobbed happily beneath his posture of punishment.
"Such an incredible wife to the liege you are!"
"The only man allowed to hold me like that," I whispered, "is my love."
I looked to the distance. There, across the blackened horizon, a golden lightning bolt jumped in zigzagging motions between the sky and continents. Dragging behind it immense, writhing chains that cracked like titanic whips across the clouds.
My breath caught at the sight of him. The weight in my chest bloomed once more. A quiet sigh escaped my lips. "In the next life... maybe I'll be able to be with you properly."
Neveah and Propheira weren't dead. Not yet. They had survived the detonation of my [Regalius Breaker], but it must have cost them dearly. The damage alone should cripple them long enough for the ritual to reach completion.
But I couldn't finish them now. Not while I still had to hold the invaders back on this side of the planet.
Something shifted. I didnt know what it was, but i could tell something unnatural had entered the planet.
In the far corner of the sky—one patch of night that hadn't yet caught fire—I felt something wrong. An absence. A silence. My gaze snapped to it.
A thunderbolt of amber fire streaked toward that untouched void. To meet whatever this... wrongness that was coming from that untouched gap in the sky.
And then, I felt it. A nausea so deep, so wrong, so profoundly unnatural that it clutched at my throat and pulled a gag from me.
"No... that's impossible. The Outer God returned?" My voice wavered. "But... I thought my husband dealt with it already—"
"He only sent it away temporarily, Your Ladyship," Taul answered, still on the ground while i was sat on him. "It was never defeated. Just delayed. It was only a matter of time before it found its way back."