The World's most Overpowered Side-Character

She was supposed to be punching, she was sure that was the action she had been set on accomplishing, Ikaris was certain her fist had connected with Lars's face, but her thoughts and intentions betrayed her when she suddenly felt the ground pressing up on her back and found herself looking at the sky, guarding the back of her head with one hand and holding on to the man's other hand which was fastened to her face as he drove her into the ground with a roar.

"What the hell just happened?" She questioned her senses a secomd time, twisting her body and kicking him in the side of his head, breaking free and leaping out of his arm's reach.

"I'm sure I hit him, what happened?" Ikaris mused, confused, holding her nose and wincing from the pain of it being smashed in so hard her eyes were watering. "He got stronger again, are all these perfect casts against him amounting to nothing?

I have already stacked enough power to defeat three ninth Generals simultaneously, yet this man before me..." Ikaris flinched when he slowly looked up from the crater she had just been in and stared at her, his irises were lighter yet, and the aura around him had become more tangible; more dense. "He is still getting stronger!"

"No," Ikaris shook her head and swiftly caught it in a ponytail, standing properly and scoffing. "It seems I can't keep this up, I have to end the fight faster than I intended to, no more dillying around; so..." She balled her fists and went into a stance while the mana slowly seeping from her pours became visible and turned from white to golden.

There were no more words left to be spoken, no snarky exchanges, no more insults, just one warrior to the next; an exchange of power to rapidly determine the winner.

"Come, Emporium dog!" Ikaris went into a lower stance showcasing her elasticity and flexibility as she went nearly parallel to the ground and then launched herself at him, spinning right before impact and dodging his arm that had reached out to intercept her like the last time and stepping on his shoulder.

"Again!" Lars thought, raising his hand and blocking the kick Ikaris had aimed for the side of his head, and then raising his other hand and blocking the follow-up kick that was meant to counter his counter when the goddess spun, attacking with her heel.

Seeing her second attack fail, Ikaris who was upside-down spun herself several times, delivering a whirlwind of kicks against his guard then grunting in surprise when her final kick was blocked and the General grabbed her leg, pulling her into a punch which landed right in her unguarded abdomen leaving ripples across the land behind her before she was sent crashing through the terrain out of control.

Before she could right herself again Lars caught up to her mid-crash and spun, matching her speed and stomping against her torso, this time though she was guarded, not that a guard from her light frame was enough to stop his mammoth strength, she was halted immediately, planted by his foot in the ground and left speechless when the man raised his foot a second time determined to crush her in that crater.

Ikaris swiftly parried his descending foot to the side next to her head and spun out of the crater kicking the back of his leg and following up with several short jabs against his rabcage before ducking beneath the swipe of his hand and raising her fist in an uppercut that caught his chin and threw him into the air, but like a persistent boomerang the General only spun once before suddenly righting himself mid-air and coming at her again with his fists balled together and another roar.

"This is starting to get tedious, his attacks are getting faster and stronger while he is ignoring the majority of mine!" Ikaris shook her head and roared right back at the General raising her hands and tanking the full brunt of his double-fist slam causing the entire terrain they had considered a battleground to smoothen when her mana and his energy clashed and started sending ripples all across the lands, flattening all the unique structures and rooting up some ancient ruins in the process, revealing that the deserted planet was once habitable by some species or another.

"OOOORRAAHH!!" Lars exclaimed gaining yet another boost in strength and overpowering Ikaris after mere seconds of a stalemate between them.

He forced his hands downwards with so much power she hit the ground and spun in place resulting in her being disoriented and confused once more, and the man took advantage of that brief confusionpressing his hand against her abdomen as a wide grin appeared across his face and a light began brigltly flickering between his palm and her exposed abdomen.

On instinct, Ikaris focused all her defences on that sole point stacking layer after layer of barriers before and beneath her skin, and it was a good idea in the end when he unleashed a beam of raw energy from his palm so devastating the mere shock it created ripped the entire planet in half, though just like her fight with Saleos; the demon-god prince, it was not apparent that there was a rift across the desert planet.

Ikaris bearing the full brunt was sent cascading so fast that the gravitational pull of the large planet failed to keep her grounded and she was slingshotted around the surface once and then escaped the pull altogether still reeling from shock all the way until she crashed into a neighbouring moon.

[Ikaris,] Sol spoke in person causing the others to look at him while his voice relayed into her head. [That was bad, you're aware of what I'm talking about, right?] He asked, watching her wince as she violently dislodged her arms and pulled her head free of the sunken body-shaped indenture she had ended up in.

Her blouse had been torn up from the attack, and her hair was once again a mess as she groaned, arising and casting [repair] on her clothes to mend the fissures, then she cast [Heal] on herself and winced when she felt her ribcage adjust.

"Master, that was my fault," Ikaris groaned once more, seething when the residual pain came crashing against her abdomen. She coughed and tapped herself several times, leaning forward and coughing up a mouthful of residual blood that had escaped her. organs being damaged.

"I failed to anticipate that he had any kind of projectile oe energy-based attacks; I let my guard down adn ended up losing the advantage that the stacked casts had given me by casting dozens of imperfect barriers around myself on a whim..." She spoke aloud.

"Even for me, focusing on a perfect cast when an attack was about to drive a hole through my torso proved a bit ...difficult," She huffed and wiped her mouth. "But, it was not in vain!"

"What is she even saying right now, the only reason she has been able to stand up to his absurd strength is because she had the stacked casts working to empower her, what can she accomplish without that level of power once more?" Cecelia asked, confused after listening to them both, and what is with the scale of their attacks, they are both beings that can survive so much more than the damage they have been receiving -"

"Any single one of those attacks, even Ikaris's simple jabs from earlier are enough to kill you several times over, Cecelia, not every fight needs to destroy a universe to showcase how powerful they are, they are simply so strong and evenly matched that even fighting in such a small space they are able to untilise their absurd strengths to the max," Dina answered, thinking back to how Dr'ul had been able to keep her and Arla on a singular ialsnd on Arkadia when all three of them had enough power at that point to destroy the entire planet, and yet her and Arla had been able to go all-out without consequence.

"Besides," Dina added, staring at Ikaris with a knowing smil, as was Sol and Arla. "The goal of those many perfect casts weren't supposed to be simply giving her an advantage."

"They weren't?" Jenifer looked away and stared at Dina, while Ikaris far away from them oblivious to the conversation leapt off the small moon and stopped in the void, staring down at the desert planet with a glare absent of mercy and dry of compassion, it was indifferent and seemed alien on her face as she inhaled a large amount of the mana surrounding her and then began descending.

"Not at all," Dina folded her arms. "Like master, Ikaris and I have the capacity to house Living souls within ourselves, this is the reason something like a perfect cast would be so important, it goes beyond a temporary boost in mana output, density and overall strength," She started her explanation and then paused.

"What is the reason then?" Keele asked, curiously.

"At current, the mana we have access to is nigh infinite, but out bodies, our vessels, can only handle so much of that power without breaking, you saw it after master's fight with Umbra, even with all his power there is a physical limit on his body preventing him from using it all at once, Ikaris has the same limit on her body," Dinalooked at her hands with a downcast expression.

"I have the greatest limitations of the three, obviously, but that is where a perfect cast is important, this is exactly where an [Unknown Tier] cast shines the brightest, those casts are specifically designed to bypass someone's limiters and forcefully make them stronger!"

"I see, Cecelia closed her eyes and took s seat as she gave Ikaris all of her attention. "I get it now, the constant breaking of limits is forcing your bodies to adjust to greater amounts of power each time you use those casts," She summarised and Dina nodded.

"That's right," Sol answered. "As of right now, Ikaris is seven times more powerful at base than she was at the start of her fight against the eighth General, another stack of one hundred times that power is going to make her next attack a brilliant display, she is after all; a flamboyant goddess."

[Clockwork Stack]

[Clockwork Stacked x30]

[Unknown Tier]

[CLOCKWORK: DOMINION]