[Temple of the gods]
Blitzing past, Darganth left the developing battle to Neandra, Enilla, and Vorthos as he himself stepped into the temple.
Imdiately, he felt the ancient structure stir to life around him as the ambient mana beca active and started to flow into the walls. Simultaneously, a mana storage deep beneath the temple roared to life as the with spells inscribed pillars that surrounded its reserves drew on it for energy.
Sensing tens of spell circles inscribed into the walls flare to life each second, Darganth flicked his wrist and let a two-colored orb appear in his hand. Pointing it toward the wall with the most active spell circles, he activated the forr part of the divinity of destruction and creation with rely a thought. With it, the glow coming from the orb dimd sowhat as its power was released in an invisible wave that shot toward the spells that were aid at Darganth.
As it spread, the wave of destruction erased everything from the already ford projectiles that flew toward him, over the softly glowing spell circles that were carved into the walls, to even the mana flowing into them. In doing so it left no flashy effects, with its targets simply vanishing from existence as if they had never existed.
Quickly pivoting after this first attack, Darganth pointed his arm downward and aid a second strike at the mana storage below. Again unleashing a wave of mana imbued with the concept of destruction, he focused his senses on it and managed to barely follow it with his mana sense as it passed through soil and stone without any effect.
Surging through the storage artifact a mont later, it erased the enchantnts that gave it its function. As soon as they failed, the mana stored inside the crystalline structure went out of control, with Darganth phasing partially into the spatial realm to turn his body intangible as the stored energy erupted in an explosion of raw mana.
Funneled upward by the sturdy walls to the sides, the ensuing blast shattered the ground beneath his feet. Harmlessly washing over him along with the thousands of small pieces of debris that were sent flying, the explosion blasted through the ceiling while Darganth unfurled his wings to slowly descend through the hole it had opened.
Landing next to the now inert mana storage, he moved past the pillars on which even more of the various spells defending the temple were inscribed that stood at the bottom of the easily a hundred ter deep shaft he had descended. Instead of walking along the walls for a few seconds, he soon found the stairway leading yet another level deeper.
With the spells around it no longer being supplied with mana he easily punched his fingers into the stone slab blocking it before sliding it open with little difficulty. Behind it, a dark passage revealed itself on the other side of the doorway, with a stairway spiraling downward around a hole that stretched deeper for another twenty or thirty ters.
Not even bothering to extend his wings for such a drop, Darganth imdiately stepped off the staircase and let himself plumt toward the ground. Landing with but a light thud as he let his aura flow into the stone floor on contact to keep it from shattering under the impact, he slowly rose while letting his gaze wander around the massive treasury he found himself in.
Gold, jewels, and other valuables littered the ground, while magic items, and more importantly artifacts, stood on pedestals and hung on the walls in between the literal mountains of riches. But all of this was overshadowed by the vortex hanging above, with even the ceiling disappearing behind the dark expanse that stretched out between the swirling cone of mana that ford its edges. From it, an invisible pull swept through the room, dragging riches and artifacts alike through the portal and into the separate dinsion that is the center of the universe.
Already there were hundreds of items hovering in this weightless expanse in which Ikrus’ core also existed. With each second that passed, a handful of new items were added to this number, though Darganth couldn’t care less about this. Instead, his interest was in the direct access Ikrus’ actions opened toward its core, prompting him to casually move toward where the pull was focused at the mont.
Offering no resistance as he walked into its range, he felt himself slowly becoming lighter before his feet left the ground a mont later as he floated up. With the divinity still securely held in his right hand, he soon floated through the portal along with a sword and tal gauntlet that had been pulled up simultaneously.
Halting his montum as soon as he crossed through the portal, Darganth took a mont to orientate himself. Focusing his gaze past the clouds of coins, jewels, and artifacts that floated all around him, he slowly turned until a massive energy barrier appeared in his vision when he reached a quarter to a full rotation.
Stretching far and wide across his entire field of vision, Darganth could only tell from is knowledge that this barrier ford a sphere that encased the entire pocket dinsion in which the universe’s center was. The exemplar before him anwhile appeared as perfectly straight wall, standing as a testant to how powerful the universe of Ikrus has beco thanks to millennia of Irsyr’s presence.
And with it being made up of swirls of energy from all sixteen elents, it almost completely blocked sight to the outside. Only occasionally would an opening appear where the characteristic colorless and see-through shimr that pure mana looked like replaced the ever-shifting colors of the various elents.
Through these openings, Darganth could catch glimpses of the Locis dragons fighting on the other side. Though rather than it being the battle he had shown during the elven assembly, they were acting almost entirely unopposed, with only a handful of beams of energy flying toward their ranks each second while they continuously cycled in and out of the first row of their lines to keep a constant stream of at least a hundred dragon’s breaths slamming into the barrier at each mont.
As Darganth’s attention briefly stayed on the Locis fighting on the other side of the barrier, a voice suddenly sounded out from behind him, “Coming here is a level of stupidity I hadn’t thought you capable of. Though it matches the headstrong bravery I’ve co to expect from your kind, so I shouldn’t be as surprised as I am.”
Grinning with a light laugh at Ikrus’ words, Darganth turned around toward the universe will’s manifestation in amusent.
“Can’t have you getting a win over .” He responded.
Shaking its head at his confidence, Ikrus let its power flare up. Crashing into Darganth, the wave of energy this unleashed shattered his shield spell in an instant before impacting his chest with what felt like the force of a sledgehamr.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood as he was thrown back by this, Darganth reacted quickly and didn’t let himself be in a conventional exchange of attacks. Just like how a mage could cast spells in his control radius with practically no opposition, the already extensive power a universe will wields in its territory is even further increased in its center, reaching levels that bordered on being almighty.
Practically the only thing outside of Ikrus’ grasp here were his own body and mana, as well as the spells ford from the latter. As such, Darganth quickly raised the divinity in his hand and let its power flare up.
Upon seeing this, Ikrus’ avatar imdiately froze. Cautiously eyeing him, it hesitated with continuing its attack, with the energy surrounding Darganth frantically pulsing as Ikrus kept switching between confidence and fear.
“Let help with that decision.” Darganth said after watching its uncertainty for a few seconds.
Lifting the divinity, he this ti drew upon the concept of creation that made up its other half. Through it, he reached across the easily tens of kiloters separating him from the minuscule light in the distance that was Ikrus’ core and manifested a mass of stone there in spite of the absence of ambient mana required for a spell to act over such a distance.
Imdiately, the avatar before him twitched in pain as the boulder slamd into the core, shattering in the process but also shaving off the upper layer of its target. Though minor damage in the grand sche of things and comparable to a cut on the palm, Darganth’s intention was to shock Ikrus instead of trying to cause lasting damage.
Barely a mont later he achieved this desired effect, with Ikrus hastily dispersing the pressure weighing down on him a mont later.
“Better.” Darganth said in response, rolling his shoulders to stretch after the pressure that had squeezed him in vanished.
Ikrus anwhile floated closer to him, coming to a stop re ters in front of Darganth before it spoke, “Then say what you have to say.”
“My offer is very simple, once I return through that portal, you’ll close and seal it. In return, I won’t unleash the entire destruction energy stored in this divinity at your core.” Darganth said.
Raising an eyebrow, the universe will looked at him in astonishnt.
“You only want to stop from taking more of the artifacts? And for that, you’re willing to use up such a powerful weapon.” Ikrus asked in confusion.
“Well, for one it won’t be used up, Irsyr will just have to recharge it for , his powers are closely enough aligned to the divinity for that. And as for the artifacts, I might need them in the future considering I’m planning to build an empire, so it would be a sha to lose them.
But also, that isn’t what I ant by sealing the path out. I an that you’ll completely seal yourself off from the outside, that ans you’ll stop supplying your avatar with energy.”
Watching the avatar’s expression closely as he reiterated his demand, Darganth almost sighed out loud when he saw its dismissive reaction. Though still listening as it answered a mont later, he simultaneously already prepared himself to launch another attack.
“Why would I abandon one of my avatars.” Ikrus snorted.
“Because you’re a different avatar and I had assud that you’d place the continued existence of your will above a single of your incarnations. But it appears that I was wrong to do so.” Darganth said. Though slightly annoyed by this outco as the destruction of a universe will would leave the universe vulnerable to incursions and would thus delay them slightly, it was the outco they had assud in their further planning.
“Yes, but I agree with it. Irsyr has outlived his usefulness. Back when it had been only his kind that was allowed to ascend I was more than willing to accept losing control over the almost five percent of the central continent that his territory encompass. But with him making exceptions to that I no longer see any reason to keep the implicit agreent we had.”
Nodding along with a sigh at the avatar’s words, Darganth briefly waited before abruptly launching an attack. Not risking a prolonged exchange, he imdiately activated the destruction divinity with enough power to not leave the avatar any chance.
Also not leave it the option to dodge by directly attack the avatar through formless magic despite the lower efficiency compared to launching a wave of destruction, he caused its body to imdiately disintegrate. Though briefly contesting this through the elentally attuned mana that made up its body, Ikrus’ avatar ultimately had little success in fighting back against his sudden attack.
Within seconds its body started to disappear, with its arms and legs being first to be reduced to nothingness. No full second later its head followed, leaving the destructive energy a path to also attack its spiritual body. Caught unprepared, the avatar’s equivalent of a soul quickly beca ravaged by Darganth’s attack, causing its resistance to crumble as its mind was overwheld by intense pain.
With its physical form as such completely destroyed re monts later, the destruction imbued mana was then free to flow through the main connection between the physical and spiritual form that was linked to the heart. Once this happened, the already ineffective resistance Ikrus’ avatar offered before completely crumbled, leaving it to be completely erased from existence re seconds after Darganth started his attack.
Sighing over the wasted effort, Darganth only briefly let his thoughts linger on the matter and instead started to check the charge left in the divinity soon after. Finding it to still have enough energy left to go through with his initial plan of attacking Ikrus’ core, he only needed to briefly consider it before coming to a decision.
Extending his senses toward the core of the universe floating kiloters away, he took a few seconds to charge and aim his attack before unleashing such a concentrated burst of destruction that it damaged the world around it with its re presence. Through the resulting contrast, the arrow-shaped projectile beca visible to the naked eye as its edges appeared as shimring lines that traced through the air.
Needing a few seconds to gather the full energy that remained in the divinity into this attack, Darganth unleashed it at Ikrus’ core before quickly dashing toward the portal. Not willing to still be in the pocket dinsion when the universe will lashes out in wrath, its power undiluted by the channeling through its avatars, he didn’t wait to look before jumping back through the opening.
Landing amid a pile of gold, he just glanced behind himself as he rose to his feet when the entire room suddenly shook. Like a raging animal, Ikrus’ influence pulsated throughout the pocket dinsion, shaking even the portal and causing the vortex to wobble before ultimately collapsing in on itself under the strain.
But while the dinsion shook in response to Ikrus’ pain, the rest of the universe remained completely unaffected. Even Darganth didn’t receive as much as a furious glance from the universe will itself as it knew through its avatar’s conversation with him that he exhausted his capabilities to hurt. And as it, unlike its avatars, lacked the concepts of revenge, vengeance, or rather the emotions necessary for them, it saw no reason to pursue him.
Due to this, Darganth was free to start gathering the artifacts that Ikrus hadn’t managed to gather in ti without worry. Using his dragon eyes to check in on the fight in front of the temple as he started transferring them into his own pocket dinsion for storage, he moved without any hurry to return to the surface.
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