Chapter 57
As Luna charged the Queen of the Underworld, she covered her fist in a forceful surge of gravitational energy which would destroy the girl's crystal on impact. At top speed, she shot forward and attacked, but in an unpredictable show of agility, the girl dodged. As Kowa moved, her hand turned dark, and she lightly touched Luna's elbow.
Screaming in pain, Luna fell to her knees on the stone floor. She examined her elbow to find the cloud of darkness still attached to her. It burned as though it were cutting through her arm.
"It seems my 'evil', as you call it, can affect you." Kowa said proudly, as the darkness slowly began to spread. "This is the Touch of Death. I'm afraid there is nothing you can do. You will die soon. It is the inevitability of the slow decay of death. Once my energy covers your entire body, it will capture your soul, and you will become part of my army."
There was no response to the threats of the girl, only the sound of struggle. Fighting through the pain, Luna pushed herself to stand. She breathed heavily as sweat poured down her face. Finally, she managed to rise shakily to her feet, but the darkness had already covered her entire right arm.
Still wordless, she raised her remaining arm as her dark purple energy flowed from her. The cover of night encased the entire room. She had initiated her signature technique one last time.
"What do you think you're doing?" Kowa asked. "What could you possibly hope to accomplish with this. I've already told you, I can see perfectly in the dark."
With obvious relief in her voice, Luna responded, "Perhaps, yet it seems to have eliminated the pain of your attack."
The girl furrowed her eyebrows, "What you say is impossible! There is no reason nighttime should have any effect on my energy."
"You rely on information which is outdated, dear queen. During my battle with Kinzoku, my power had been drained due to a long absence from my home. Now, contrarily, you have the privilege to oppose me at full strength. The actual benefit of the Kingdom of Luna is not only a little darkness, the very notion is absurd." Luna assumed her attack stance, "Dear queen, I am the moon. There are none to challenge me under the cover of night."
Despite Kowa's perfect vision, she lost sight of her opponent. She had a brief moment to experience the fear and doubt she had loved to create in others. In an imperceptible flash, Luna attacked. The Queen of the Underworld fell...her crystal broken.
As the nature energy flowed from the girl's body, the Touch of Death she left on Luna's arm vanished with it. Just when the small warrior finally had a chance to relax, she noticed a portal open behind her.
***
The invisible walls closed in around Ignis leaving him very little room to move. He threw one last punch, but he could not convince the cage to budge. Disappointed, he hung his head.
"I hoped to break your energy with my fists to spare us both the possible injuries. Now that I see how these walls are constructed, I know they can only be destroyed one way. If you value your limbs, you should stand back."
Chisei laughed ruefully, "Fool, do you really believe I will let you out so easily. These walls are your demise, accept it." With those words, he collapsed the cage increasing the pressure on his enemy.
Holding the walls back with his arms, Ignis looked up. His eyes burned red as his energy enveloped his body and the invisible prison around him. Chisei could no longer see his opponent, but his eyes were drawn elsewhere. The very air in the room began to drip with molten magma. It seemed as if Ignis were melting reality itself.
Suddenly, with a deafening percussive wave, the cage exploded throwing Chisei through the stone wall behind him. Soon after, the rest of the walls followed suit and crumbled. Luckily, the room did not stand on the outside wall of the temple, rather it was an interior section built as an afterthought. Being as such, the Imperial awoke to find himself lying in a hallway on the other side of the temple.
Shaking his head, Chisei attempted to regain his focus, but his head pounded terribly and a ringing in his ears proved that the situation had indeed taken a turn for the worse. He stood to see the rubble that previously made up his office. He hoped it meant the end of his enemy, but in his heart he knew Ignis would not be defeated so easily. Watching the rubble carefully, he began to draw in his energy and prepare for the emergence of the large warrior. To his dismay, it came.
The stones began to shake, then in a brief moment, they melted. The lava wielder stepped out seemingly unscathed. His energy still flowed wildly sending waves of heat from his body. As he walked toward Chisei, the air began to melt once again. However, to his surprise, Ignis didn't appear angry.
"A very close call," He laughed, "I certainly do not envy you the receiving end of it. Imagine my surprise, activating Volcanic Ash for the first time since I discovered it as a child only to find I can control it perfectly. Although, I would advise you not to move. The magma dripping from the air is random."
Obviously unwilling to heed a warning from his most hated enemy, Chisei vanished from sight. Invisible attacks came from every direction, but each one faded from the pressure of the heat Ignis produced. Soon, Chisei stopped in his tracks. Magma had accumulated on his body to slow him down. It pulled him from his dimension anchoring him to the ground.
Ignis sighed, "I must stop you before you hurt yourself."
He cast the liquid magma away from his opponent and crushed his crystal in one movement. Feeling the fatigue of using so much power, Ignis stopped the flow of his energy. He turned to find a dark purple circle forming behind him.
***
Viewing his opponent in genuine surprise, Solis understood the gravity of what he had been told. He knew he needed to end this soon, or the battle would get out of hand quickly. He thought to himself and estimated that Yukann's power just barely exceeded his own at this point. If he watched carefully, he could still slip past his defenses.
Not waiting for his opponent to make a plan, Yukann rushed forward with his multiplied speed. Before he reached his target, a swift throw from Solis sent a hunting knife straight for his face. He caught it at the last moment, but wasn't thinking clearly enough to remember all of his enemy's abilities. The knife exploded as the strain from its enhancements reached the limit causing the Imperial's senses to be overwhelmed. At that moment, two light blade attacks shot for his chest in the form of an 'x'. As they approached, he narrowly dodged by sliding underneath them. Regaining his feet, he was met by a varied-style attack aiming to end the fight. Solis attempted every tactic for taking the enemy by surprise. Unfortunately, he failed to land a successful hit.
Catching a closed fist aimed for his crystal, Yukann laughed, "You're so slow now, but you still almost got me. They warned me of your cleverness."
Then, he countered with his own barrage of attacks. This time every punch landed. He struck enough to more than triple his current power. The ruthless onslaught ended in a powerful jab to Solis' midsection sending him backwards to collapse on the cold stone floor.
Once more, the energy running up his arms glowed brightly, then Yukann spoke again, "Are you dead yet, guy? Well, you fought an honorable fight as far as warriors go. Now, I need to go test myself against the lightning user before my blessing fades." Satisfied with his victory, he turned to leave.
Solis struggled to lift himself. Wiping blood from his mouth, he said, "You will lose."
The imperial turned around with a look of surprise, "So you're not dead? How strange, I thought that would've been enough to end it. Alright, I can hit you some more until you keel over."
Standing to his feet, Solis smiled, "Impossible."
"You're just trying to be irritating now, aren't you?"
"Not at all. I am simply informing you of the facts. My energy is as limitless as the sun so I will never stop. I will show you the extent of the sun's reach."
Holding his hands out to the sides, Solis' eyes began to glow with a fierce yellow light. His energy began to flow freely from his hands into the air around him. The wild energy took on the shape of a sphere. It shined as if the surface of the sun had taken up residence on Atlas. Yukann was forced to look away to protect his eyes. Suddenly, giant bursts of energy shot out from the sphere like solar flares.
Still unable to see, Yukann evaded to the best of his ability using his wealth of battle instinct. However, even he knew it could not last forever. A small part of one of the flares hit him almost tearing one of his arms from his body. Recovering as quickly as possible, he considered running headlong into the violent sun of energy to attack, but the force from the blasts pushed him backward yet again.
Limitless indeed, Solis' energy did not dwindle. The sun only grew more powerful, taking up more and more space until the imperial had nowhere left to run. Then, in the blink of an eye, it collapsed altogether leaving only a glowing person standing where the sun had been.
Yukann stood and marveled at Solis' glowing form, "What sort of laws of nature did you break to gain this power?"
Walking forward, his skin shone like the surface of the sun, "There are no laws of nature which govern the Primis. Surrender now, and I will not destroy your crystal."
The imperial laughed, "I think you've gotten ahead of yourself. Right now, I am several times stronger than you'll ever be."
Shooting forward to demonstrate his power, Yukann attacked with every bit of his explosive power. Gliding under his fist, Solis shattered his crystal with two fingers. In a brief moment, the fight had ended.
As the Imperial lost his nature energy, Solis explained the process he used to enhance his own body as he would a weapon. It gave him an increase beyond anything Yukann had ever imagined. Finishing his explanation, Solis turned to see a dark purple portal form behind him.