When two gods of equal power fought, it was a battle of philosophy. The one with the greatest understanding of their own self, their enemy, and the universe around them typically won. In the Four Realms, such a thing could be considered a matter of pitting one’s Dao above another’s. I had seen it many tis, and understood the chanics of such a fight to a fine degree.
A fight between dragons was different. Dragons were pure in intent and purpose. There was nothing to argue or doubt, just a war to be waged. In such a situation, at our power level, it beca a matter of Will.
The very Primordial Chaos itself cracked with our every clash, claws sparking against each other, scales shattering beneath mighty blows. Elents pooled beneath Sehuyun’s wings, rocketing toward with twenty tis the might she had used against Alexander – I surged upwards, above the maelstrom of power, each flick of my long tail churning up a rising tidal wave of elental energy that ca crashing down upon Sehuyun.
She did not dodge, laughing as water and ice thundered against her, digging in her claws as he held herself against the tide, unfazed by the power – I clicked my tongue in annoyance, an odd sound in my draconic form, eyes narrowing.
I felt powerful like this. Strength surged through my limbs, power crackled beneath my scales, erupting from my sinuous body in bolts of screaming lightning. The Prival Dragon roared her laughter as she charged, aura eting mine before our claws ever touched. Through it, I could feel her argunt. The root of her will.
REPEL. FIGHT. It was simple. I was an invader. I was in her territory where she was supre. I was a rival. And she would show her dominance.
My argunt was simple as well.
MY SON. REJECT. I DO NOT BOW. Our clashes were brief, but explosive. Reality bent when claw t scale, only to be fused back together from the heat of Sehuyun’s flas. Our roars trembled the realm, and for the first ti in a long ti I was allowed to truly let loose, no fear of harming reality holding back as I charged forth, tail thrashing, space and ti shattering before my might. The Prival Dragon’s laughter was t by my own as we clashed once again, an explosion of primordial chaos sparking through our clash.
We were sent flying away from each other, my very bones rattling from the force of the explosion. I righted myself and snarled, finding Sehuyun as she, too, dug her claws into the fabric of her own reality to arrest her montum. She was powerful. More powerful than I, for certain, though the distance between us was not insurmountable, even with my injury.
Yet I was not just fighting her. The entirety of the Dragon’s Domain fought against . Every inch was an inch I had to fight through, pushing my aura and will outward to combat that which pressed down upon from every direction. My eyes narrowed, a growl rumbling out through my chest, white and black light spilling from . The Will of the Dragon’s Domain was fighting against , recognizing as a foreign threat.
“You are a million years too early to be challenging ,” I growled to it, pressing my aura outward. How dare this re will try to hold back? I am the very heavens themselves, I am the [HEAV – and I was stopped. Never had I been so easily shut down before, my intent pushed back into my body and suppressed with hardly a blink.
“No trying to subvert another Origin’s control, Statera. Even if accidentally.” Mr. Boxes chided, voice echoing in my ears. Sehuyun growled, eyes fixated on what I assud to be the boxes.
“Do not interfere.” She demanded.
“Then learn to control your Will better. It’s attacking Statera because you are.” Boxes said. Sehuyun blinked, then scowled, wings flaring as her power shot through the entirety of her realm, a roar echoing through all of creation. And the will of her realm was cowed, pressed into subservience through sheer might. I bared my teeth.
Savage. Brutal. I –
I coughed up blood, the golden liquid seeping from between my jagged teeth. My form flickered, purple lighting crackling even as my transformation began to fail.
“Seems this form is a bit too much to maintain right now,” I grumbled, swallowing my blood, pain lancing through my chest where my lungs should be. “A dragon without lungs…my injury is more severe than I realized.” That would not stand for any longer.
“No!” Sehuyun shouted, wings flaring and teeth bared, even as my body began to shrink, returning to my Fae form. “Not yet! This cannot be all you have!” I let out a breath, more a sigh of relief as I fell back into my more familiar body, my power relaxing as the strain of holding that form was lessened. My soul ached, having forcibly maintained that form longer than I should have with the injuries it had sustained. With a sigh I reached up to run a hand through my hair with an arm that wasn’t there – I frowned, and glared at the stump. “Bah! Useless! Worthless!” Sehuyun continued to rage. Only, I wasn’t done. Rage still bubbled within , urging to clash once again.
I was part dragon. I recognized that now – to be a dragon ant a certain quality of soul. But that wasn’t all I was.
“Have you ever heard the saying ‘dragon amongst n?’” I idly mused, clenching and unclenching my one good fist. Sehuyun stilled in her tantrum, fixating with a disappointed glare. I knew how gods fought gods. I knew how dragons fought dragons. Now, how did a god fight a dragon?
…no. How did I fight a dragon?
Sehuyun lashed out, in her anger. Fire roared towards in a stream of all-consuming heat, boiling the primordial chaos itself. It was far stronger than it ever had been while fighting Alexander – she’d been holding back, to enjoy the fight more. Even while fighting my dragon form, she had been holding back due to my injury. Now she was annoyed and no longer playing gas. I could see it in her head, the disappointnt, the annoyance. And Mr. Boxes would do nothing to stop the fire from burning to a crisp.
I smiled, in the split seconds before it struck.
The fire was too much of one thing. Destruction. It was too…unbalanced. The mont the heat touched the scales were tipped, cooling down the flas to a more pleasant heat that nded and destroyed the primordial chaos in equal asure. Black and white swirled beneath my feet as I stood in the middle of the fiery maelstrom, untouched and unhard.
I closed my eyes. [Silence.] That had been my first word. Why that…? No – I didn’t have the ti to delve into the philosophy. Instead I let the word fill , quieting my surroundings so I could only hear my soul. What was the other word I had almost said, before Mr. Boxes interrupted ? No – I couldn’t use that either. It felt cheap. I was more than Mr. Boxes understanding of the Heavens. Not greater. But different. I would not debase myself by using Mr. Boxes understanding as a crutch.
Like Xing Wu was to , I was to Mr. Boxes.
“I am the heavens.” Golden light exploded from , expelling the dragon’s breath as I stepped forward. Bronze armor fell over my chest, a helt appearing atop my head. A spear of bronze light found itself grasped in my hand, a shield of brilliant purple hovering where my left arm should have been. The Dragon’s Domain split as my very being expanded, calling upon echoes of my past to power this symbol.
It flickered and shook, the situation not quite right, but close enough that I could at least manifest it, nascent though the technique was.
Sehuyun roared, hurling herself forward with manic glee, eyes gleaming as my own battle-intent rocketed skyward. I hurled my spear, the golden light slamming into her shoulder and cracking scales, her blood pouring from the wound.
Her claws swiped and I blocked with the shield and was sent skidding backward from the force. I raised my head, white and black sparking into existence to form a bridge between myself and Sehuyun. She growled, claws digging into the planks, confusion on her face.
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And my body grew, rising in height and size to match her form – so we were not fighting as an ant versus an elephant, but two titans. This, at least, was easier to maintain than the dragon.
I roared out a laugh, ripping a short sword from where it appeared at my side to clash with Sehuyun once more. The blade bit into her scales and flesh, drawing blood, and she tore into my side with her claws, wings battering at my helted head. Our wounds nded themselves in seconds, only to be torn open again monts later by our continued battle.
“A re god fighting a dragon?!” Sehuyun laughed as I forced her back with a shove from my shield, wings flared. She tried once to lift off, to attack from the skies, but the magic of my summoned bridge kept her in place, forcing her feet to the ground. I would keep the bridge now, as I had in the past. “How dare a re god try to keep a dragon from their very own skies!”
“I am no re god! I am the heavens – there is no sky above my own!” I roared back, laughing in equal asure. The joy of battle set my heart to thundering in my chest, the roar of my blood in my veins echoed in the bellow from my chest.
“I am an existence to defy the heavens!” Her declaration was punctuated by a charge – her claws shattered against my armor, and my sword broke against her horns.
“I do not care for your obedience!” I punched her in the face, a tooth breaking off in her maw as she tore my shield from my control, the construct fading away.
“I AM A DRAGON! I DARE YOU TO CHALLENGE !”
“I AM THE HEAVENS! I DARE YOUR FANGS TO REACH MY HEIGHTS!”
Armor was shredded, scales were shattered, and blood was spilt as we raged against each other, laughter echoing through the Dragon’s Domain. Our very souls were laid bare, philosophies and wills battering against the other just as our flesh did.
And neither was found wanting.
Reilly fully expected to find the eting room absolutely trashed when they got back from Sylphina’s Chaos Universe. Or at least, barring that, to find Statera and the Dragon in tiout because the Overgod got annoyed at their antics. As such, he was wholly unprepared to be t with uproarious laughter the mont he stepped through Sylphina’s portal and into the eting room.
Statera, calm, cool, wise, all-seeing Statera Luotian was laughing like a drunk soldier in a tavern. He was dressed in a light purple toga draped loosely about his tall, muscular body – the god now easily rose ten feet tall, even sitting down as he was – his one good arm draped leisurely over the Dragon’s neck. His other hand, this one a prosthetic made of golden energy, gripped a steel tankard of beer, the foamy liquid sloshing as he wheezed out his joy. The Dragon herself had a barrel of wine gripped in her claws as she, too, died of laughter at so joke Reilly had missed.
Both looked like they’d been put through the wringer. Statera had a black eye, bruises slowly fading as his body sought to nd itself. The Dragon had a few cracked scales and so swelling in her face, though nothing too serious either.
The sight was so odd, and so at odds with the glares he’d seen the two shooting each other prior to leaving for Sylphina’s realm, that he almost missed the fact that MR-10 was still there, as well as the great white dragon on the Prival Dragon’s other side, nursing a small barrel of his own liquor.
His energy was clearly similar to Statera’s own, marking him as one of the god’s “children,” and he looked relatively hale and hearty compared to the other two. Most importantly, however, was that he was well and truly stronger than pretty much any other resident of a universe that he’d t so far, save for the origin deities themselves.
Just how many powerful beings did Statera have in his universe?! This already made three who would match his own strongest subordinate!
“Oh hey! Welco back!” Statera cried, raising his tankard to the newly arrived group with a dopey grin. “How was the trip?”
“I…am at a loss for words,” the Emperor admitted as he appeared, crossing his arms across his chest. “I thought Statera was one of the rational ones.”
“Hey, Reilly. Didn’t you say they’d be at each other’s throats when we got back? Maybe, a trashed room? In tiout? And didn’t we make a bet on it? I believe it’s ti to pay up.” Yueya taunted. Reilly didn’t have to look at her to know she was smirking, the tone of her voice said it all. He was too baffled by the situation before him to be annoyed at her, even, and quietly handed Yueya the promised wager – a particularly potent gin he’d been saving for a special occasion, made of bad luck and bad decisions – while Statera muttered sothing low enough that only the Dragon could hear.
The two devolved into another round of laughter, the white-scaled dragon shaking his great head.
“Apologies for these two. I have never seen Father like this before.” The white dragon admitted, rainbow eyes eting each of the origin deity’s own in turn without flinching. It spoke volus of his composure. “It is shaful to admit, but I was unable to keep up with their battle and am thus unsure what made them like this.”
“Oh co now, Alexander, you were great! Yeah, you were knocked out for a bit, but you tangled with an origin god! No more sulking from you.” Statera chided, not unkindly, as he craned his neck to look over the Prival Dragon at the now-identified Alexander.
“Indeed. He’s a fine dragon! In another few eons he’ll be worthy of being a true challenger! He’ll be even better than you.” The Prival Dragon growled out, pulling away from Statera’s arm to smile a toothy, almost nacing smile at Alexander. Said dragon huffed, and avoided her gaze.
“Well that’s fine. I might make a decent dragon, but even more than that, I am the heavens themselves!”
“And I defy the heavens.” The Dragon laughed, earning another roar of laughter from Statera, even as he tossed back the tankard to take another long draught.
“What, exactly, happened here?” Reilly asked, throwing his hands into the air helplessly.
“Statera did sothing completely unexpected. She befriended the Dragon.” Yueya said smugly. “Even if I didn’t expect that, I knew it wouldn’t be what you said.”
“They had a fight.” MR-10 piped up, light flashing. “The pent-up aggression both were feeling was worked out in the process, and I believe the battle made them respect each other. The Dragon seems to have taken a liking to Alexander as well. Hence, their attitudes now. I recorded the entire thing; I suspect there is sothing deeper than a re battle involved with how our powers may evolve."
“I want to see it!” Yueya said. Reilly nodded his head in agreent, stepping eagerly toward the inverted pyramid.
“For a price.” MR-10 beeped once. Reilly narrowed his eyes at it, glancing over at where Statera was still drinking gaily from his tankard, then back at the machine. “A diagram of your systemized Luck will be a sufficient price for you, Reilly.” It said. He scowled and crossed his arms, tapping his fingers against his arm.
“…damn it, fine. I want to know what the hells happened,” he snapped, clasping his hands together to focus his power and create the diagram for MR-10. The other origin gods were told their own prices, and most hesitatingly agreed to the terms. MR-10 seed to have figured out the line not to cross when asking for a price, and Reilly could honestly respect the hustle. Besides, the prize was too enticing.
Sylphina’s universe had been fascinating. The Chaos Butterfly and its butterfly effect made Reilly want to implent a few of its chaotic features into his own universe imdiately; the way a single step could ripple through all of reality, creating massive changes far down the line was both terrifying and thrilling.
But this? A battle between origin deities? Well, that was a whole other side to the coin. Just how many chances would he get to see sothing like this?
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