Chapter 41: Defilement of Godhood
There is a paradox, named the irresistible force paradox. It is what happens when two absolutes clash, for instance an immovable object standing in the way of an unstoppable force. Neither side gives in, and if one does, it nulls an absolute.
That was what it was like when their blades clashed, the insatiable heat against an all ceasing cold. In such a scenario, the one with more mana to draw from would inevitable emerge as the winner. But it would be a hollow victory, leaving neither side satisfied. So they broke off, each taking their own side in the battlefield.
The two watched each other silently, ready to move at the slightest hint of movement. The shadows behind Ashton began to fester, and he felt the tingling oncomings of his sixth sense. Without looking behind him, he jumped high in the air, completely evading what would have otherwise impaled him.
Fayden took this opportunity, warping right in front of Ashton, his sword ready to pierce him through. Ashton barely had enough time to put the flat of Twilight's blade in between them, and the tip of Void Edge clanged harmlessly against the coldness infused blade. Ashton was flung back, away from Fayden by the force of his attack.
Twilight flashed black, it's shape melting away to form a bow, yet retaining the coldness around it. Ashton nocked an arrow and waited, feeding it more and more mana as he drew the bow. His aim was true, and he let the arrow fly. As it left the bow, the singular arrow multiplied into dozens of arrows, all coated in the dark water mana.
Fayden knew he could not disintegrate them with Void Edge as soon as he laid his eyes on them, he could see the mana clinging on to it. Earth mana flowed through his veins and condensed into a black sphere over his palm, with the time he had, he could only make a basketball size black hole, and he hurled it at the rain of arrows. The attractive force of the black hole pulled in the arrows in it's vicinity, while the others soared past. Fayden did not need to move as the remaining arrows missed him and made a ring on the ground around him.
Fayden exhaled deeply, letting the fire mana around his sword to disperse before he recalled it. Ashton raised an eyebrow at the sudden decision, but remained wary nonetheless. Fayden raised his arm, and the nacht responded. In each corner of the nacht infused domain, blades of every shape and size arose, all pointing towards Ashton. Each one was sharp enough to cut through entire buildings with ease. He flicked his hand, and they shot forward, moving like a massive blur.
Ashton snapped his fingers and an equal number of blades formed around him, blurring away they met each of Fayden's head on. The weaker of Ashton's blades, those made by lessers, shattered against the nacht blades, forcing him to weave between them even having to parry some with twilight. Still, some of the nacht blades had grazed him, slowly getting healed by his nox wind infused spells.
Nox coalesed around Ashton's hand as Twilight flashed away, a staff of nox formed as dark flames and water wrapped themselves around the staff. Black lightning crackled to light mixing within the flames as dark ice formed across the murky water. With a final touch a gale of dark winds kicked up along the hilt of the lance. And then it was gone. Ashton had flooded his legs with mana forcing them to move faster then they should, blurring faster than any blade yet, he appearing in front of Fayden attempting to pierce him through his heart.
Fayden flinched back, in a flash of black, he warped away. Reappearing midair, he held his arm out by his side, willing the nacht to the shape he wanted it to. The cosmic fluid like substance took the shape of a lance, much like Ashtons own, but unlike his, it was made purely out of nacht. In a split second, he hurled it downward, right at Ashton, who held up his own spear to block.
The two forces of nature clashed, holding their position for a moment before exploding in a shower of nox and nacht. The explosion had heavily affected the landscape, where it used to be a green meadow, was now nothing but a massive crater. Ashton had to stand on his rusty sword to avoid falling in.
"Care if we move to a different location?" He asked, looking up at his opponent, "Or would you rather fight me while I'm surfing on a sword?"
Fayden shrugged, "Normally I would, but I'm feeling generous today." He waved his arm, and a floor of Nacht covered up the hole. He floated down to the ground, "What say we forgo magic and test out our swordsmanship?"
Ashton stepped onto the platform. "Well, normally I'd say fuck no, but I might as well see where you're at with your blades." In a flash of black and white Daybreak had formed taking the shape of a shortsword, while Twilight took the form of a normal long sword.
Fayden summoned Void Edge back, and separated the blades again, pulling out the golden core from the black exterior. This time, both swords took on a more solid shape, leaving behind two featureless blades, one black and the other gold.
They met in a clash of swords, Fayden parried Ashtons attack while going for one of his own. Ashton did the same, rendering a stalemate. Taking the opportunity, Fayden kicked Ashton in the abdomen, throwing him away.
Ashton reoriented his body midair, and rolled to a stop. He lunged forward, and the clash was the same as before. This time, Ashton took the initiative, headbutting Fayden and disorienting him. While Fayden recovered, Ashton had already begun executing his next move. He maneuvered his sword around Fayden's and hit his wrist, cutting his hand clean off.
Fayden's facial expression tensed, and the pain was visible in his eyes, but he withheld from screaming. He jumped away, making distance between them as Tartarean Vitality begun working it's magic. Within moments, he had replaced the hand he had lost, and his sword flew back into it.
Ashton raised an eyebrow, "I thought you said no magic."
"Healing doesn't count, besides I can't really dual wield with one hand." Fayden replied, as the two circled each other.
"You sound like a kid making rules as he goes." Ashton remarked.
"Yeah, well," Fayden said as the two clashed once again, "You should never believe what I say."
The floor under them vanished, and Fayden void stepped away. For a moment, Ashton was completely defenseless as he free fell into the hole. A terrible pain blossomed from his chest, and he could see the tip of void edge sticking out from under his ribs.
Turning his head to glance back Ashton grunted, "You honorless bastard,"
Nox surged around the two as Ashton muttered "Alterforce," the red runes grew far more complex overshadowing the black ones, his sclera darkened into a void like black as his left eye took on a burning, blood like crimson that was fully focused behind him. His nails had sharpened into claws as his bones grew denser, his hair growing longer and gaining red tips and white patches.
With an explosion of nox and a new substance, a golden particle similar to nox, Fayden was flung down into the ground. As Ashton righted himself before landing on his rusty broadsword. "Well, this is gonna be fun." He muttered before looking at the night sky like field of nox and lux.
"He has a fourth phase, of course he has a fourth phase," Fayden grumbled, "And it had to be similar to my integrate phase."
Letting Void Edge seep back into his body, Valen looked up at his adversary, "Lemme guess, you've got a deus ex machina power up that puts you on a whole another lev-"
In a blur Ashton stood in front of Fayden, his hand on his face, "Just shut up." slamming him into the ground Ashton applied thousands of times of gravity on his opponent. Using every ounce of control he had on the ground to stop it from shattering under them Ashton dragged Fayden across the crater.
Sliding to a halt he threw Fayden up into the air far above the natural ground level, in a flash of black flames Ashton appeared above Fayden, a sphere of purple and black tightly compacted into his palm as he drove it down into Fayden's back. Aether and nox exploded, completely engulfing Fayden's form.
Fayden flew through the air like a ragdoll, his spine now exposed as most of the flesh at his back had been disintegrated. Tartarean Vitality flared across his back, already beginning to heal his injury, and nacht condensed around him in a humanoid form. Before he hit the ground, an exoskeleton of pure nacht had formed around him, a hundred feet tall at the least.
He raised his arm up and fire mana obeyed his will, a ball of destructive fire formed above him, dwarfing him in size, like a mini sun. In a flash of black, he disappeared, the fireball going with him. Ashton turned back, fully expecting him to reappear from behind him, but Fayden never did.
His sixth sense warned him, and he looked up, where Fayden had reappeared, his arm pulled back as he threw the sun like a baseball. With his other hand, he grabbed at nothing, and pulled. Ashton felt gravity work against him as he was pulled towards the spell.
With nothing but a thought his rusted sword flew towards him. Grabbing it, he let himself be pulled away by it. The spell impacted the ground, resulting in another massive explosion, parts of the ground vaporized, while the rest was reduced to magma.
"Cool spell, I'll be taking it." Ash shouted from above Fayden, a large fire ball of equal proportion to the one Fayden had made above his head. In the same manner Ashton drew his arm back whilst reaching his other arm out, gravity dragged Fayden upward as Ashton threw the black miniature sun down at him.
Fayden warped away from inside the exoskeleton right before the spell hit him. He watched from far as the two exploded in a mix of black and red. He held his arm out by his side, and nacht responded to his call. Black ice materialized beside him in the form of a massive eastern dragon. Thunder roared, and arcs of lightning seemed to be leaking out of it. Inside the dragons maw earth mana condensed into a black hole. Fayden had to use wind magic to keep him from being sucked in.
"Alright then, copy this!" He yelled, throwing the dragon at Ashton.
"Why would I waste my time?" Ashton yelled back as he raised his left arm, bracing it with his right he waited till the dragon grew closer and spoke, "Rho Aias."
In a flash of pink a set of seven translucent barriers appeared from his hand, taking on a flower-like form the shield pulsed a purplish pink. As the eastern dragon slammed into the first layer it held for a moment, Ashton smiled seeing the barrier hold until a crack appeared. Quickly more spread from it, however the spell had lost considerable strength.
As the first layer shattered Ashton was certain it wouldn't break past the third. But he would never know. In an instant, Fayden warped behind him, a lance of pure nacht held in his hand. The stars in the lance had concentrated on the tip, giving it a white hot appearance while the rest was as dark as a moonless night.
"Lanza del relampago," Fayden named the spell, and before Ashton could defend himself, slammed it into his back.
As the spell hit him, Rho Aias dissipated, allowing the dragon to crash into him as well. The explosion of ice and lightning managed to damage the bandages, leaving the tanned skin under it for all to see.
Clutching his left arm he paid no attention to the other damage the spell had caused. A heavy layer of nox wind quickly formed over his arm as he struggled to stay on his feet. Slowly the black wind spread to his back, covering the fleshed that seemed to have been gouged out.
Ashton glared at Fayden as he pulled himself together. "You'll pay for that one." in a burst of flames Ashton warped far away, now holding a matte black compound bow. Suddenly, the floating golden motes shivered and reacted, aiding Ashton as he formed an arrow of condense nox, the tip made purely of lux.
Ashton drew the string back as mana strengthened the bow beyond reason, a rocket-like burst of flames lit behind the arrow only for a gale of wind to join in boosting the arrow. Letting the arrow fly it broke through the sound barrier, dead set on Fayden's head.
Warping away once more Ashton appeared on the other side of Fayden, nocking another arrow of the same design before letting it fly once more. Trapping Fayden in a pincer attack.
A bubble of aether formed around Fayden, encasing him in a layer of stopped time. It took all his concentration to maintain the spell, the two arrows had already begun cracking the bubble.
In a last ditch attempt, Fayden emptied his entire core into the spell, reinforcing the bubble. It held for a while, before the cracks began to grow once again. With what little nacht he had left, Fayden began pulling the ambient aether towards him, hoping to use it to reinforce his shield. But before he could use it, the bubble broke, and something inside Fayden snapped.
All the nacht that had covered the land came rushing back to him, and Fayden's silver runes shattered.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone