"You believe you can defeat me? You were impressed that I made quick work of your entire clan. I'm sure your clan could rival that of actual gods and goddesses correct?" I asked and softly flapped my wings.
"The Clans of the Divine Beasts are all often infused with slight amounts of Divine Aura. Blessings of us, the Five Guardians of the World. Defeating an entire Clan would require an entire army of superpowered soldiers! Even a normal God wouldn't be able to take them all down alone." Baiko said.
"Hmph. Why did you attack Ashelia? Obviously she doesn't want to become the Queen of a clan who is beyond reasoning." I said.
"It is her duty to continue as the Queen of the Clan! She can't run away from responsibilities plus her father will be stepping down soon. I will not have anyone interfering with tradition, especially...you, Lucerian Scum..!" Baiko growled.
I smirked and my weapons appeared around me then looked at Baiko. "Hmph...I'll beat you with my own power."
Baiko watched me as I constructed not one, but two new weapons for me to use. I constructed an tachi and a musket that followed the same color scheme as the other weapons.
I pointed my tachi at him. "Let's get this party started..."
I jumped backwards and a light breeze hit against our faces. The trees rustled as the breeze blew and a leaf began to float down. The leaf fell on the ground then Baiko dashed straight to me and grunted. I aimed my musket at him and fired multiple energy bullets at him. Baiko deflected each one then jumped in the air. He roared as he came down with a slash. I blocked his attack with my blade and he growled as we were in a blade lock. I kicked him back and dashed to him then began to swing my tachi at him and we clashed multiple times before I flipped backwards and fired three shots in the air.
He looked up and noticed a wave of lasers crashing down and he roared and an energy barrier blocked and deflected the lasers, causing massive amounts of smoke and dust to form around him. The wave ended and he let down his barrier and groaned when I appeared in front of him hitting him with the butt of my musket. I kicked him into the air then flew above him. I went for a downward kick, but he flew out of the way and punched my face. He looked surprised as he noticed I didn't even flinch. My clone disappeared and he looked around.
I appeared above him and aimed my musket at him and charged up a massive beam. I fired the beam and Baiko looked up then groaned as he was hit and blasted to the ground. The magic meter on my musket went back down to empty and I placed it on the holster on my back. I looked down at the smoke cloud then noticed Baiko flying up at me and bellowing.
"I will not fall to you!" He bellowed and slashed at me.
I blocked it and we began our battle in the skies. We slashed multiple times before he parried my next attack and grabbed my face and threw me to the ground. He roared and lightning crackled around his arms. He rose his hand at the sky and a lightning cloud formed in the sky. It began to rain and the Tiger Clan watched in awe.
I landed on my feet and lowered my head. I smirked and let out a roar at the sky and made the clouds disappear and my aura caused the sun to shine brightly.
"What the- He can manipulate the weather as well?!" Baiko asked in shock. He glared at me and growled. "I won't be made a fool by this stupid God-Emperor!"
I stopped roaring and chuckled. "It's amazing how you still wish to fight despite your efforts being wasted. Are you done wasting your aura now that you see what I can do with my presence alone or do you need to see more of my power because honestly...I am just toying with you." I said then looked at Baiko who was in the air.
"How can the God-Emperor be stronger than the current Ruler of the West..? He's trained for many years to get to this point. How is one man able to be this strong..?" Sirius asked and looked at me then looked at Baiko.
"There's no point in holding anything back now huh. If my base abilities aren't breaking through, I'll just go into MY God Form!" Baiko bellowed and transformed into his God Form. He began to bare his fangs, his claws grew even more sharp and emitted divine aura, and his white fur began to shine and his stripes shined purple. Twelve orbs floated around his body and shined gold.
"Baiko is in his True Form now, there's no beating a Guardian in their True Form!" Sirius laughed and bellowed.
Baiko grunted and flew to me at speeds of light and caused a sonic boom. He went for a punch and hit my face. He bellowed and sent me flying backwards.
"God-Emperor!" Merla screamed out.
I landed on my feet and slid backwards. I looked up and Baiko was already in front of me. He sent the orbs flying at me and they latched onto my body then exploded. He roared loudly and caused time to stop for me, freezing me in the air.
"It's over!" Baiko bellowed and ran to me and transformed into his tiger form and flew up to me then chomped on my body.
"No!!" Merla cried out and banged on the barrier around her.
Time resumed and Baiko landed and slammed me on the ground. He reverted to his humanoid form and looked at me. He smirked.
"The God-Emperor is dead!" Baiko bellowed.
The Tiger Clan cheered and bellowed in triumph.
"Is that how you believed I would die?" I asked.
Baiko looked at my body on the ground and noticed it pointing to the real me. Baiko looked surprised and his eyes widened. Sirius and the other Tiger Clan members looked surprised as they looked at me. Merla and Ashelia looked surprised as well.
"H-How..?" Baiko asked and watched my fake body turn into a murder of crows.
"Do you like my Hallucination Technique..? I call it the Live Dream Effect. What you experienced was nothing more than a mere dream, an illusion. A figment of your imagination and everyone else." I said then clapped my hands together with my fingers interlocked. "Now I'll show you...My power."
Vines emerged from the ground and wrapped around Baiko's body. Baiko groaned as thorns began to pierce into his body. The vines began to absorb Baiko's energy and he groaned in pain. Baiko growled and roared as he began resisting the vines' power. He bellowed and broke out of the vines and panted.
I smirked. "That was only the start.."
Baiko noticed small vines around my legs and looked surprised. "What the-"
I warped into the sky and the sun began to shine brightly. I raised my hand in the air then a ball of solar energy began to grow above my palm. "Solar Shower!" I bellowed and a wave of solar beams began to rush at Baiko.
Baiko dodged each of the beams the best he could and grunted. He jumped backwards and a vine tripped him and the beams began crashing down onto him.
"You thought that was all?!" I laughed.
"There's more?!" Sirius asked in shock.
The ball of solar energy grew and I looked down at Baiko then smirked. My eyes shined and I bellowed as I threw it down at him. "Sunshine Bomb!"
Baiko noticed the massive ball of solar energy crashing down at him. He roared and flew up to it and caught it. He tried to pushed it upwards and bellowed. "I won't let you win! I won't let you defeat me! You must pay for everything he's done!"
"Your logic baffles me!" I said then noticed him pushing the attack upwards then glared. I snapped my fingers then gravity became ten times heavier.
Baiko groaned as he fell to the ground and the ball of solar energy crashed down on him then exploded. Sirius and the Tiger Clan looked surprised as a bright light shined because of the explosion. The light dimmed and the smoke cloud cleared. Baiko was on the ground and he reverted back to his normal form.
I landed on the ground then stepped on Baiko's stomach. I looked down at Baiko and glared. "Even then...I was still holding back. You lose, Ruler of the West." I said then got off him.
Baiko sat up slowly and noticed my hand. He looked up and noticed me holding my hand out to him.
"I'm not the fucking Fourth God-Emperor. I'm not even the Ninth. I'm me. I'm Ares Luceros and I'm not your enemy." I said. "Would a Tyrant offer his hand out and leave you alive?"
"A Tyrant most certainly would." Baiko glared.
"Well would a Tyrant do this?" I asked then summoned healing winds to heal him, Sirius, and the rest of the hurt Tiger Clan members.
Baiko looked surprised and looked at his body. It was like we never fought to begin with. All of his wounds were gone. "Maybe the Twelfth would do something like that. She was a very nice Ruler..."
"I don't want to hurt you or any one of the Guardians. My only enemies are those associated with Dark Lord Rudolf. The Dark Lords basically. I want us to have a new start, it is what the First would've wanted." I said.
Baiko looked at me then smiled a bit at the mention of the First God-Emperor. "I guess. Yeah.." Baiko took my hand then I helped him stand up.
"Aww~ What a sweet reunion." A familiar voice said.
Baiko and I looked back and noticed Sareth with Merla and Ashelia in her hands.
"God-Emperor..!" Merla grunted loudly.
"H-Help please!" Ashelia whined.
"You...Sareth how are you alive?!" I yelled.
"A certain Queen resurrected me. Now I'm even greater than before. Just like Venus, I too am a Demon Queen and I've come to relay a message to you, Ares. The Queen of the Reval Empire awaits your arrival. If you don't show up within two weeks...She will launch a strike upon Luceros itself and destroy the entire kingdom. If you want these two also, you'll have to come to the Reval Empire...and take them back!" Sareth laughed and warped away.
I clenched my fists and my left eye twitched. I warped us back to Rosehome Woods and Baiko and the others looked around. I walked ahead and bumped into Venus.
"Ares!" Charlotte said then ran to me and hugged me.
"Oh My Emperor, you are alive!" Venus said as she hugged me as well.
"Charlotte...Venus.." I said then hugged them back. I let them go and sighed. "We need to go back to Exalos and prepare."
"Prepare for what?" Charlotte asked.
"Prepare to match to the Reval Empire." I said.
"Oh no...Empress Anastasia is attacking..?" Venus asked.
"Yes, and they kidnapped two people that I need to get back. I won't stop at nothing until I kill that stupid Empress and her advisory, getting Merla and Ashelia back!" I said.
"I understand. I know the way to Reval. I'll take you there." Venus said.
"Thank you." I nodded.
"We are joining the cause as well. You may not know it but Ashelia is more important than you realize. You see Sirius is her Guardian that acts as her father, but he's just a place holder as King. He can't be King for too much longer because he's not of the Royal Lineage of the Tiger Clan. Ashelia needs to take the throne to reach her exact prowess. If you get her back, we can allow you to marry her and we will join your cause in creating peace once more." Baiko said.
I looked at Baiko. I nodded then walked ahead. "Let us hurry. We only have two weeks to get there before a war crime is committed. How long will it take to get to Reval?"
"About 13 days from Exalos. From Idrisid it will only take ten days. From Luceros it'll take 14 days. From Vitalis it will take only three days." Venus said.
"What about from Aevum?" I asked.
"One day." Charlotte said. "Reval Empire is the one who directly finished off my kingdom and killed everyone I loved there. I have a personal vendetta against them."
"You will get your revenge. Now let us head back to Exalos, prepare for departure, and save Merla and Ashelia. I'll deal with the Empress myself." I said.
"Okay." Venus said.