Cain and Cipher were being forced back-inch by inch, breath by breath-by the overwhelming might of the High Lord of the Root. The duo fought with everything they possessed. Cain unleashed sundering force with every punch, collapsing space-ti with his strikes while weaving the power of the Flow, Entropy, and Nihility into each motion. Cipher, in contrast, carved through the void with blows as heavy as words and as dense as black holes, each attack carrying so much power that they distorted the fabric of space-ti around him.
Yet none of it was enough.
No matter how many tis their attacks landed, no matter how much damage they inflicted, the High Lord's advance simply refused to stop. Every wound they opened only made him stronger. Every tear in his flesh swelled his muscles.
The cosmic powers that Godfrey commanded made it so that every second the battle pushed forward, the duo was in more and more danger.
With a sudden slap of his hands, Godfrey unleashed a shockwave of primal root energy. The blast caught Cain and Cipher off guard and hurled them across the void like rag dolls.
Before either regained control of their bodies, the abomination was already upon them-diving through the collapsing space with a speed that shattered the fabric of reality, his massive hands raised high.
Cain and Cipher clenched their teeth, as they could not dodge or do anything else but raise their arms and swing their swords to shield themselves, enduring the crash of the High Lord's arms.
The pressure over them felt like the weight of an entire universe collapsing inward. They knew perfectly well that if they were blasted away again, they wouldn't recover fast enough. Godfrey would finish
them before they even ford a thought.
A cold smile twisted across the High Lord's alien face. He could feel their bones straining beneath his strength-could taste the essence of their deaths.
Then his eyes narrowed as he detected sothing, but it was too late.
Four titanic fists slamd into him simultaneously. The impact detonated like four suns being born at once, sending his towering body flying away from Cain and Cipher. The crushing pressure vanished instantly.
Cain exhaled sharply, steadying himself as Cipher did the sa, and both turned toward their unexpected savior.
Towering before them stood a mber of the Legio Eldrich Race, a red-skinned behemoth sculpted entirely for war. His body was a fortress of corded muscle, a living weapon. His skull-like face and jagged teeth radiated predatory threat, but it was the runes etched across his body that shocked the duo: a complete rune-set forged at the Alpha Oga Overgod Tier.
The titan glanced at them. Despite Cain and Cipher belonging to the Light Races, he displayed no hostility-only a cold, determined focus.
"I am Uriel," he said. "Let's do this."
Cain and Cipher exchanged a brief, fierce smile and nodded.
Their auras erupted simultaneously.
Three blurs of light streaked through the void and converged on Godfrey before the High Lord could fully stabilize himself. The resulting explosion reverberated through the cosmos, shaking the fabric of reality itself.
Uriel collided with Godfrey's right arm, eting overwhelming force with pure brute strength. Cain took the left, channeling space-ti and gravity through his body to reinforce his endurance. Cipher
appeared directly before Godfrey's distorted face, swinging his sword with every ounce of power he possessed.
The blade carved a deep gash across Godfrey's skull-like visage, tearing through both flesh and essence. Blood and Root energy sprayed into the void as the High Lord was blasted backwards.
Of course, he recovered control instantly. The Gift of the Root made his fra swell larger, more grotesque, more powerful. With a roar that cracked the void, Godfrey lunged at them again.
But now the trio t him head-on.
Explosion after explosion thundered across the collapsing battlefield. Their clash devoured entire sections of the void, erasing space and leaving behind yawning black vacuums capable of swallowing a weak ArchDeity whole. None of them cared. Structural damage to reality ant nothing compared to the monster in front of them.
More and more wounds appeared on the High Lord's body-gaping rents, shattered bones, vaporized flesh-but each only fed him further. His strength rose like an unending tide.
Then, with a single furious roar that manifested as a sonic wave, he halted their montum. The next heartbeat, his fist sank deep into Uriel's chest, sending the Legio warrior tumbling back as he spat a mouthful of blood.
Godfrey moved instantly, preparing to finish Uriel with a killing blow. But soone else reached him first.
Cain.
He grabbed Uriel by the arm and shoved him out of the strike's path just as Godfrey's devastating attack landed-not on Uriel, but against Cain's raised index and middle fingers.
The blow was strong enough to annihilate a lesser world.
Cain not only caught it-he redirected it.
He twisted, channeling the destructive energy through his body, then unleashed it with a spinning kick directly into Godfrey's temple.
"BOOM!"
The explosion shattered the void, tearing the High Lord from the battlefield and sending him rolling through the emptiness. His body was ripped apart. Once again, he was forced to regenerate, collapsing back into his base state.
Watching him constantly heal was unsettling, even infuriating-but Cain had already deduced the chanism.
The Champions and the High Lord of the Root were, for all practical
purposes, immortal. They possessed no vital organs. Killing them through conventional ans was impossible. In that sense, they resembled the Deprivatas.
However, unlike the Deprivatas, they could not regenerate on their own. Each ti they healed, they consud vitality from the Heart of the Root. Every injury they inflicted was also a wound to the Heart
itself.
A small advantage-yet still far from enough.
Because the true problem wasn't Godfrey.
It was the world-sized tumor at the center of all this-the Heart of the Root-which continued its ceaseless advance toward the Nine Empyrean Suns Universe. Every second it grew closer. Every second the universe itself moved one step nearer to the apocalypse.. Even if they prevailed here-even if they defeated every Champion and every monstrosity the Root spawned-it would an nothing unless they could stop the Heart.
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