Chapter 318: Superior.
"Hahaha," Lars chuckled, clenching his teeth so hard his gums began bleeding and tightening his fists until his knuckles had gone white while his eyes twitched as he stared at Ikaris. "You will win?" He asked her, mocking her declaration.
"You chose to fight me on your own when offered assistance from the only being possibly strong enough to defeat me; how foolish, how naive!" The man continued laughing while the phantasm surrounding his body continued growing and raging until it had covered the whole area from every angle pushing Ikaris who had her hands at her face shielding her eyes as she slowly slid away from him.
"You continue to trample on my pride and tread carelessly, but no more, I will not tolerate this level of insolence any longer, I will destroy you, Ikaris, I will drive you to ruin and-"
"It has all been said a before, but so far none have driven me to any kind of ruin, little dog, you and the ones before you always say the same and try to do the impossible!" Ikaris stomped, dispersing the energy beating against her and stumbling forward when the winds suddenly died.
"I cannot; I will not be killed, not by you or by anyone else, I am and always will reign supreme over any who dare to raise their hands against me, so fave your death with pride dog of the Emporium, your end has come, and I am that end." She fell into a stance, slightly swaying with her hands facing him loosely.
"By the hand of a lesser being, I will never...!" Lars stepped forward displacing a continent's worth of land and obliterating half of the moon's surface in an instant in an attempt to reach her as fast as possible, Ikaris though having taunted the man into acting first countered his outstretched hand by grabbing him and heaving him weightlessly over her shoulder, spinning with a huff and a roar and slamming him into the ground causing even more displacement as the fractured moon developed an expanding ripple across a majority of its body stemming from their actions.
"You are the inferior one!" Ikaris grabbed him by his foot after he had bounced off the ground and spun with him once more, smashing him in the ground a second time and spinning out of his reach creating a staff made of mana and ramming it into his stomach while she vaulted over him and stared down with her palm pressed against one end, staring at his hand which had blocked the last attack which planted him firmly in the ground.
Their eyes made four and the General knew he had played right into her hands once more; it seemed that he couldn't predict her thoughts or patterns no matter how hard he tried; her victory at this point was starting to materialise in his mind, so he stopped trying and let everything go, the Emporium, himself, he released everything on his mind and gave in to the numbing sensation that had been gnawing at him.
"His pupils, they vanished?!" Ikaris's eyes narrowed before she could cast any more attacks, instinctively she released the spear and used it as a footing to leap away from him, luckily so too since a moment later the entire area they had been fighting in erupted out into the void, resembling an asteroid impact with a green epicentre when Lars began screaming on top of his lungs.
"I can't sense a shred of reason within him anymore!" Ikaris skipped around several mammoth-sized chunks of moon debris, leaping atop a proportionally large one and stabilizing it on the tip as she went into a crouch and stared at the core of the emerald explosion while it continued to be pushed away by the explosion, wat hung Lars ascend from the pit of his own making like a malevolent deity with his arms slightly spread at hiabaide and his hair glowing an ominous green along with the now strikingly evident Celestial energy beaming from his body like a beacon against the black canvas of the void.
"It isn't stopping," Ikaris narrowed her eyes further when she felt shivers through her body at the amount of power the man was emitting. "At this rate, he might kill me if I don't guard myself and take him down sooner...!" She leapt off the skating debris, leaping across the field of crashing rocks as she approached him, resisting his power.
"I can't imagine how strong he would have been if he had the secrets of mana at his disposal, to reach this level of power without it is simply astonishing!"
"And what's worse," Ikaris leapt onto a rock the size of a car and crouched, shielding her eyes again when she was slowed down by another spike in his power. "He isn't showing any signs of sanity right now, nor is he showing any signs of wearing, he's burning through what feels like an endless pit of power!"
Their fight had come full circle from the start.
"I have to end this before he gains another boost in power and surpasses me again!" She crossed her arms and conjured two swords made of golden mana. "Before he gets a chance to recover from that injury I left in his side!"
[Divine tier: Impact]
With a roar, Ikaris waved the first sword, slicing a path through the torrents of raw energy beating against her and then went into a dash towards Lars who was screaming still while his power grew more dense with every passing second.
[Divine Tier: Impact]
She repeated the same attack but watched shocked when it didn't even cut halfway as wide or deep as the first one.
It felt like she was wading through a raging river with nothing but her body as an obstacle, the debris from before was starting to disintegrate as soon as they were torn from the terrain, and the man at the epicentre was starting to rise above ground level, leaving her no option but to plant her feet in the ground and conjure a shield of mana with negating effects and bearing the brunt of the wave.
"What the hell is happening with him, I can see it with my naked eye, what kind of power is that?" Cecelia narrowed her eyes when the light coming from Lars finally reached them some fifteen minutes away. "What the hell?" She squinted when the light continued brightening. "Can she really...?"
"She will win," Dina responded, and at her side, Arla nodded in agreement. "She said so herself that she would, trust in Ikaris, she will win." She balled her fist and pressed it against Cecelia's chest. "Believe in her."
"FFFUCK!" Ikaris was bent and being pushed backwards by the still-increasing wave of destruction the eighth General was emitting, but then all of a sudden that pressure halted and her balance was righted just in time for her to see the general descending, his hair now emerald was spread around his head, and his expression spoke true primal instinct as she could find no trace of the man who was once in there, all that remained was the instinct to kill her; a deep grudge and dark ominous sensation weighing on her chest.
Ikaris's fright became evident when Lars's feet touched the ground and then he disappeared from her sights and senses, reappearing at her side with his fist descending and a wide feral grin on his face while he roared.
She managed to parry the attack, but the sheer force of his strike sent her cascading across the terrain and scurrying to her feet, trying to catch her balance when she saw him approaching in her roll.
"This is absurd!" Ikaris blocked the next attack bending beneath the weight of his strength and getting buried down to her knees in the ground before she had to cross her arms and block his incoming kick towards her abdomen.
She thought she'd have been sent flying with the destructive force of his kick but the large man proved to be swift as well when he caught her by her hair and slammed her face into the ground roaring and raising her head again before repeating the action several more times.
"What am I supposed to do about this kind of beast!?" She spun in his grasp and locked her legs around his arm in an attempt to break it but he raised her and slammed her into the ground with another roar, releasing her hair and grabbing her by her head and punching her in her stomach before aiming his hand in the opposite direction and firing off a dense ball of his energy, shooting it so fast that the sphere grew a tail as it raced around the moon.
"Damn it!" Ikaris began struggling when she sensed the object approaching behind her, kicking and trying to break his grip, but with a roar, Lars grabbed her leg and began spinning her so hard the terrain began tearing away from the waves of force alone.
"Die!" The Celestial's smile grew even wider as he grabbed Ikaris's other leg and used her like an anvil, slamming her into the ground once more and then raising her and spinning her before himself, dodging her flailing legs and hands as the sphere he had shot seconds prior crashed into her back and vanished with her.
He laughed and slammed his hands against the ground, baring his fangs and roaring to the skies when there was an explosion in the distance reaching the void from the ground in a destructive pillar that blew a hole straight through the large moon and travelling into the void after the tips at both the top and bottom split apart again, creating a unique six-pointed explosion with a cylinder-like belly rotating and grinding against everything that it touched.
"Ikaris!" Lars beat his chest and howled, stomping his legs as he created another small sphere in his palm.
"I AM SUPERIOR!!"