Using the recoil from this clash, Zephyro drifted back several steps, pale ripples of destruction spreading beneath his feet.
He could now clearly see the full appearance of his attacker, a man whose build and features bore a striking nine-out-of-ten resemblance to that "Khaslana."
The difference was that the man before him lacked so of that heaviness and paranoia in his eyes, replaced instead by steadiness and restraint.
"How pathetic, Phainon." Phaethon’s tone carried a hint of teasing, as if revisiting the past, but his sharp gaze remained locked onto Zephyro across from him.
"If I’d been even one second later, you might have lost that right hand you use to wield your sword."
Phaethon’s tone shifted, lowering slightly with a note of warning:
"Also, ease up on using the Authority’s access privileges. If Nous hadn’t just upgraded my privileges to ’First Administrator’ of Amphoreus, those two teors of yours would have been quietly deleted in the background by that Irontomb bastard."
As he spoke, the greatsword in his hand—called Judgnt of Shamash—seed to casually point into empty space beside him. In an instant, a crystalline amber pillar condensed into existence, precisely striking the hilt of Dawnmaker, which had been sent flying earlier and now lay embedded diagonally in the ground, launching it upward.
Dawnmaker arced through a smooth trajectory, its black and crimson embers still blazing, and landed steadily back in Phainon’s hand as he steadied himself, his breathing still sowhat uneven.
"Phaethon..." Phainon caught Dawnmaker, feeling the familiar touch of the hilt and the surging hatred within, and called out with a complex mix of emotions.
"I an, it’s not our first ti joining hands to storm Amphoreus’s firewall, right? Why’d you go off on your own this ti without waiting for ?" Phaethon’s gaze suddenly grew sharper, sweeping past Zephyro to focus on the space beside him that had warped at so unnoticed mont.
There, a tall, straight-backed woman with snow-white hair materialized silently, radiating a will of destruction that could burn all stars with warfire—she was none other than the other Emanator of Destruction, Celenova.
...
Celenova’s eyes, previously half-closed, were now fully open, seeming to reflect the annihilation of countless galaxies within them.
Her gaze pierced directly through the battlefield, locking firmly onto the newly arrived Phaethon.
She had found the "thing" that had been consistently drawing the gaze of Xipe, the Aeon of Harmony and that thing was on this man who bore so resemblance to Khaslana!
Sensing this, an indescribable excitent mixed with hunting instincts and destructive urges stirred within her heart.
To personally destroy and reduce to nothingness sothing that interested Xipe—the Aeon symbolizing unity and resonance—under that Aeon’s very gaze... the very thought brought her an unparalleled thrill.
This was precisely what she had always longed to do.
"He’s mine." Celenova spoke only this single sentence to Zephyro, her tone flat yet leaving no room for argunt.
Then, the space beside her split open into an irregular, puzzle-piece-shaped ragged opening.
A more ferocious, more twisted torrent of the Anti-matter Legion roared forth from within, like a tide of death, flooding the broken ground beneath their feet in an instant, transforming the area into a nest of destruction.
Seeing this, Phaethon narrowed his eyes slightly. Facing two Emanators of Destruction and an endless legion, there was no fear on his face, only a look of eager anticipation.
"Phainon, looks like our opponents have manners. They like fair one-on-one duels." He announced loudly, pointing Judgnt of Shamash directly at Celenova.
"Here’s the plan: you take that ’black-and-white’ Zephyro, and I’ll take this ’ring lady’ Celenova."
"Didn’t you have a load of ’Destruction’ you wanted to personally deliver to Nanook? Well, what a coincidence, I’ve got a question I want to ask that mad Aeon face-to-face."
The two brothers exchanged a glance, both seeing a long-awaited burning madness in each other’s eyes.
"When the ti cos, we’ll charge right up to Him, each give that mad Aeon a good slap, leave a ’deep impression’... whoever slaps first is the real older brother. Deal?"
Phainon didn’t answer imdiately, but the demon sword Dawnmaker clenched in his hand had already given its response.
Black-red flas of destruction surged crazed, compressed, and transford, tempering the entire blade into a blazing gold like a liquid sun!
He looked at Zephyro, who had nearly severed his right arm monts ago, and the hatred and destructive urge churning in his chest surged higher and boiled hotter, like a volcano about to erupt.
"Hahaha! Deal!" Phainon’s voice grew hoarser. "The hatred in my heart is far from tempered to its peak. Before I deliver the final ’Destruction’ to Nanook, let this Emanator of Destruction add one more blazing solar flare to my rising sun of Destruction!!!"
The next mont, the battle split in two, becoming two radically different scenes of destruction.
On one side was raw violence and explosive release.
Phainon reversed his grip on Dawnmaker, now transford into blazing gold, his form and sword-light nearly one, charging alone to Zephyro’s front! No testing, only purest force in collision!
BOOM——!!!
The instant they clashed, a ring-shaped shockwave of destruction exploded!
The ground beneath their feet didn’t even have ti to collapse, it simply disappeared under temperatures and impacts that could vaporize stars, leaving behind enormous molten craters.
Every clash of weapons was like a colossal god beating drums, torrents of violent energy pouring out, plowing winding molten riverbeds across the earth, as if the ground had opened countless burning blood-red eyes.
On the other side was a slightly more subtly strange confrontation.
Almost the mont Phainon moved, Phaethon’s form had already teleported like a phantom before Celenova.
Since they were destined to be enemies, words were pointless, only the sword in hand could convey intent.
Yet still, as he struck, he posed the question that had defined his entire journey, as if stating his reason for battle:
"Celenova, I ask you: what is the Pri Mover of Life?"
Before the words faded, the greatsword Judgnt of Shamash in Phaethon’s hand, carrying pure and resilient amber light like a teor piercing the night sky, thrust straight at Celenova’s cold face!
Celenova remained silent, like an eternally frozen sculpture. But her eyes, reflecting the birth and annihilation of stars, slightly raised, and the space around her instantly fractured, peeled apart, and floated like a disrupted kaleidoscope, transforming into countless irregular spatial puzzle pieces, their edges flickering with dangerous light.
Judgnt of Shamash sliced into this domain, its fierce and unmatched sword montum suddenly bogged down in an invisible quagmire, by layer upon layer of constantly shifting spatial rifts being skillfully deflected and dispersed, its power diverted into unknown dinsions.
"Converting physical space into freely disassembled and reassembled puzzle pieces?" Phaethon’s brow furrowed slightly as he instantly discerned the essence of her ability.
But his reaction was lightning-fast, with a shaking of his blade, a scorching, solid amber current imdiately raced along the gaps between puzzle pieces, rapidly spreading, seeping into them, and solidifying!
Like the fastest glue, amber bound each spatial puzzle piece together, and in an instant, that shattered and disordered region of space was forcibly "welded" into a whole!
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