Chapter 482: Clash of Celestials
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The evolution was complete. In his new, majestic form, he hovered outside the Temple of Equilibrium, as a cosmic entity imbued with the essence of the universe.
However, he was immobile. His eyes saw everything in this realm, but he couldn't move. He was wondering why. His newly attained form of cosmic grandeur and draconic majesty failed to respond to his will.
To aid his understanding, the Gamer System flickered a prompt into his view. A holographic message floated before his star-filled eyes.
[The Celestialsapien evolution is done. As per its effect, two additional personalities are attempting to manifest within your sea of consciousness. Sisty is busy destroying them. Please wait.]
A surge of frustration should have welled up within him, but it didn't. His emotions felt strangely distant, he was unsure if it was a side effect of the transformation or the new personalities trying to emerge. To his mind, the vast expanse of the cosmos he now embodied felt… bland.
However, he wasn't allowed to wait In peace. As the Will of the Omniverse had warned him, he had enemies now. That must be why it had sent him out of the hut, as the enemies might have attacked the hut if he stayed in there. In the distance, the enemy, the Mother Celestialsapien whose baby Neji has just sacrificed, lowered her arms.
She has just moved. For the first time in eons. Her decision was made.
A more optimistic outcome would have been if she began to see him as her son. But optimism hasn't ever been Neji's good friend.
Her head slowly turned toward him, and then she blurred. Like a comet streaking through space, she charged towards Neji. Her movement was a graceful and elegant yet ferociously ballet across the cosmos.
— Ghhing!
The air made a sound that Neji couldn't hear before. His newly evolved senses let him feel the tear in space and time by the mere movements of the mother.
As she approached, Neji grew nervous. He was unable to move, in front of a being that could erase him with a thought. Then again, could she do that to the current him? These beings, capable of altering reality with a mere thought, should be equal to him in power. So their directly harming powers shouldn't work on each other.
Could they simply erase each other from existence, or was a physical confrontation necessary? Probably the second. Otherwise the mother had no reason to fly here, she could have just thought him erased and he'd be gone.
As Anodi has explained earlier, when two same-dimensional entities fight against one another, they're like human boxers. Their reality-defying power doesn't influence each other as much.
Still, it's not as if it wouldn't hurt. The Mother's fist connected with Neji's face, a collision of cosmic forces. Neji was sent cutting through the air like a meteor.
He was sure he didn't have any form of pain receptor left, but here he was, his jaw hurt like hell. She could kill him if he was unable to move for too long.
Another punch came, just about to land on where his nose used to be. But at that precise moment, a system prompt flashed.
[The emergent personalities have been resolved. Sisty says there isn't enough space for more of us in your head.]
"...Hahaha," that made him laugh a little.
In a fluid motion, as if time itself had bent to his will, Neji's arm rose, effortlessly blocking the Mother's powerful strike.
Neji could move now. The game had just been balanced. Perhaps a little too much on Neji's favour.
A flicker of surprise passed through the Mother Celestialsapien's starry form, and although Neji remained calm, he too was a little surprised at how easily he blocked the attack.
Far off, Anodi was watching the battle from behind a cover. Her eyes widened in realization and awe as she recognized Neji and admitted to herself that it truly was him. Neji had become something beyond comprehension, just as his quest had told him to.
And so, the first Celestialdraconicsapien narrowed his eyes at the last mother of Celestialsapiens.
Then the battle really began.
The mother leaped back from him before he could attack her. Then she began by a barrage of energy beams as they both wielded their omnipotent powers.
The Mother Celestialsapien took a short back step when both of their energy attacks ended. Then with a mere thought, conjured realities that twisted and folded around Neji, attempting to trap him in layers of dimensional paradoxes.
In response, Neji tested the limits of his newfound draconic-celestial prowess. He waved his hand and tore through these fabricated realities, his movements a blur of cosmic light that shattered stars.
In this battle between her, a matriarch of creation, and him, a newly born mutant, she had more experience but he had more powerful abilities due to the mutation of dragonification. It was a battle that defied the limits of imagination.
The combat escalated as they clashed in physical combat, their fists connecting with the force of supernovas. The Forge of Creation was an extremely strong realm, anything other dimension would have crumbled like glass.
Each punch Neji delivered was countered by the Mother's own, their strikes resonating through the fabric of the Omniverse. The Mother Celestialsapien's form flickered with the energy of creation and nothingness, her attacks landed with a blend of elegance and ferocity.
While Neji tapped into his two mastered Class' abilities. All that was light bowed to him, as did the absence of it. The concept of omnipotence helped further increase that power. His draconic heritage was also unleashed like a barrage of cosmic fire, his breath a stream of starlit flames that engulfed the Mother Celestialsapien.
Although Neji was a new Celestialsapien, even if a mutant, his Levels hadn't gone away. He still had all the other abilities he had before the evolution. Not that his enemy couldn't copy them with ease, but it helped that he had them anyway.
Yet, the mother emerged unscathed, her own energy creating a shield that reflected the inferno back at him.
The fight transcended mere physicality as they both manipulated time and space. The Mother Celestialsapien warped the flow of time, attempting to age Neji into oblivion. Stars could die of old age, so the stars in Neji's body too began to blink out.
But Neji flexed his celestial might to reverse the temporal assault and restored himself to his prime state.
Indeed, this was an endless battle.
….
As the battle raged on for weeks, Neji found an opening. It was an opening he created. These entities were not humans, they never had human emotions. Although she was acting on her motherly instincts to take revenge, it was different from the instinct of a human mother.
So Neji bombarded her existence with fortified human emotions, the emotion of losing her child. She froze on her spot and her movements became sluggish.
Before she could remove the emotions with a thought, Neji, with a burst of speed tore through the spatial continuum.
He floated over her and delivered a series of rapid, decisive strikes. His fists, cloaked in cosmic energy, hit her constantly until they shattered the Mother Celestialsapien's form into a dozen fragments of starlight.
The mother exploded in a brilliant display of celestial light, wronged and tricked, her essence scattering across the cosmos…
[Ding! You have killed a Class 2 entity. You have leveled up 5,600 times.]
It was a cause of celebration, but Neji had to wait. Because in the aftermath, the other Celestialsapiens in the vicinity turned their gaze upon Neji.
Although they were all statues until now, there was a day when she was their comrade in arms. They couldn't just sit still.
Their collective attention was a weighty, silent judgment. Without warning, they surged forward, a unified front of cosmic entities moving to confront the new threat.
"Ah…"
Neji paused for a moment, feeling the magnitude of the incoming confrontation as all the Celestialsapien moved. His hand raised toward the shattered pieces of the mother celestialsapien… and he used [Mine] to devour her remains.
All the other Celestialsapiens blurred and they rushed at him with the intent to kill.
Then, with a deep, resonant roar, Neji decided to use the other side of his power. His scream started to grant a magnificent transformation. His humanoid form grew and reshaped, manifesting into a colossal dragon, his skin a tapestry of the cosmos itself.
The draconic scales glimmered with the light of galaxies, and his eyes burned like twin suns. As the Celestialdraconicsapien, Neji spread his wings, roaring out the strongest dragon's breath the Omniverse had seen at the incoming humanoid.
The result of this battle was a big and sweet 15,680 Levels.
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