Something akin to a meteor crashed through three skyscrapers in a row. As that something started to lose altitude and fall through the sky, the Disastrous Malum Monstrum, watched from the sky with an unimpressed look smeared across his face. Uncrossing both arms, Monstrum scoffed, before vanishing.
Digging the bottom of his talon-clawed feet into the road he crashed into, Malum stumbled into a sprint, before lunging down the road. The breakneck speeds the Disastrous was moving at surpassed humanity's limit and reduced him to a black ball producing lightning, sending him across the air. After curving up the base of the third building, Malum reappeared below the object, which was none other than Talen Amit's bloody and bruised beaten body.
The Disastrous slammed his leg into the Unconquerable's chest. As space momentarily distorted and corrupted bits of black lightning burst all around, Talen's ribs shattered under the pressure. The following impact erupted a shockwave turned sonic boom, shooting Amit through the large grey cloud lingering above them.
Just as Monstrum rematerialized above Talen's helpless gory figure with of his fingers interlocked and both arms raised, his eyes widened and lips parted. The hammer fist he intended to smash into his victim the Unconquerable bounced back once the knuckles hit the weapon defending him. An axe of light.
Reeling back with the claws on his fingertips resounding from the impact, Monstrum glared at the Unconquerable's savior.
"You… wretched woman—"
Lily swung her hatchet with a trail of purple stars following the trajectory. Thrown from the Celestial's slash, the Disastrous bounced across the clouds and inevitably fell to the ground into a crater leaking smoke into the air from the epicenter.
Lily glanced at the Disastrous, then looked down at the Unconquerable falling to the ground. She flew down and quickly caught him in her arms before he could splat on the street. Carefully landing on the road below her hand, she held his body in her arms, sitting upright so she could examine the depth of his wounds.
'I don't even know how he's still alive. An unusual sensation protrudes through the body of flesh protecting his soul deep within. One devoid of cerebral manipulation. Talen's conscience isn't controlling his body. His life is lingering on the verge between life and death. I wonder…'
"WRETCH!!"
Lily looked up at the Disastrous Monstrum falling from the sky—each of the fists on his eight arms cocked back. She squinted up at him, releasing Warlord from her bust so it could extend its arms forward and clone them, interlocking all of their fingers with all of Monstrum's.
Leaning close, Malum's teeth clenched, groaning in frustration at the sight of one of the First.
"You bothersome First always intervene at the worst TIME!"
Warlord spawned another version of itself from its chest that uppercutted Monstrum into the air. Blood flying from his lip, the Disastrous spun around in mid-air, pointing down at Warlord.
"Veil!"
With her right hand on Talen's chest busy healing his plentiful wounds, she placed her left palm on the road. As a barrier deployed around the three of them, it was instantly cut apart from Monstrum's cleave and imploded from the slices into numerous black shards.
Talons dug into his pale white face leaking blood from the punctured flesh, Monstrum cackled manically into the air.
"I DESPISE YOU ALIEN FREAKS! I'LL TEAR THE FLESH FROM THAT HUSK OF A HUMAN BODY AND SHOVE IT DOWN MY THROAT!"
The Disastrous destroyed the road behind him with the advance he made in a single step. Stomping into the concrete while charging at the Celestial, Lily extended her arm, making Warlord copy her and aim its palm at the incoming attacker. She wasted no time releasing an enormous burst of plasma from the center of Warlord's palm.
As the beam detonated from the Celestial familiar's hand, the structures around Lily and Talen's unconscious body melted away away from the explosive shockwave.
Monstrum's pupils shrunk into pricks at the familiar sight of the First's cosmic blast and, for the first time in a thousand years, his face perspired from the skin's innermost pores. At the last possible second, a shadowy portal opened beneath him, swallowing the Disastrous before he could disintegrate.
Lily sucked her teeth and threw Talen over her shoulder, jumping into the air as a misty dark gateway opened below her. Monstrum resurfaced from the depths of the void in an attempt to grab the Celestial by the ankle before she could leap away, but after failing, groaned as he sunk back into the dark.
The Celestial took but one glance back at Talen over her shoulder before sighing longly.
"I'm sorry, Tal, but…" Liliana withdrew the Unconquerable's limp body bloodying her attire and opened a portal beside her in mid-air. She threw Talen in there without a second thought. "…I have to do this on my own."
Liliana burst forth. Abandoning a trail of rainbow exhaust from her feet while soaring above the streets at breakneck speeds, the Celestial's starry eyes darted around the environment, searching through the haze her swift movements created for the smallest trace of Monstrum's signature.
Her search was fruitless, for the Disastrous emerged from an idle shadow cast over the side of a skyscraper. Sinking the talons at the end of the arms extending from his back into the building, Malum used his base arms and interlocked all of the fingers.
"Area Empowerment."
Lily instantly located the source of Monstrum's signature. Diving through the air like a torpedo through the sea, the flesh over Lily's human form peeled away, revealing the bright white Celestial build hidden underneath her skin. Monstrum's red eyes widened after the luminosity encompassing her form temporarily blinded him. In the blink of an eye, she closed the distance between them and shot through the building he was perched upon, making the Disastrous dispel his domain.
Falling to the street down the length of the building, white hair flying about, Malum's lips lowered into a frown while staring up at Liliana soaring down at him.
"You don't even care, do you? You BOTHERSOME First always find a way to make things worse…" Monstrum charged at Lily. Widening her eyes and reeling back, his fingers clenched around her throat, slamming the Celestial back into the scraper behind her. "...and you DON'T EVEN GIVE A SHIT!"
Malum punched her face into the wall. Spawning Warlord from within her bust to uppercut the Disastrous into the clouds, Lily propped her soles against the building, launching herself from the surface to charge at the Disastrous Monstrum. She slashed the axe at the side of his head, striving to behead him in one fell swoop. He ducked under the swift slice from the edge of her weapon and punched Liliana in the gut, grabbing the sides of her head to smash her face into his knee.
Stumbling from the blow into a flip, the First warped into a sparkle, making Monstrum's eyes widen as Warlord materialized above his head and th rew its fist into his skull. He wasted no time firing dual refined beams of Fate from the quartet of pupils plastered across his face, cutting the incorporeal familiar of the Celestial Liliana in two. It faded into nothingness as the Disastrous turned around, the weight of Lily's axe smashing into his skull and sending Monstrum toward the road.
Tumbling down the street before finally flipping into the air and digging his soles into the concrete, the Disastrous leaked blood from the crack on his temples. The Celestial held the axe behind her while approaching Monstrum at the end of the street.
"Has anyone ever made you bleed before me?"
He snickered. "You're not special…" Malum stood from his posture on the ground and wiped the red leaking from his forehead. "You Celestial freaks never were!"
Releasing individual sparks of lightning from the Fated aura ablaze around them, Liliana and Monstrum dashed at one another. Crossing her right arm wielding the ax's handle over the right one, Monstrum cocked back his left fist. Liliana's plasma light of ax and the Disastrous Monstrum's fist charged by Fate fell through space, closing toward each other inch by inch before one finally colliding against the other.
The convergence of Monstrum and Liliana's energies produced otherworldly black and white lightning. A tiny electric sphere appeared in the middle space between their heads. Eventually, after gaining enough thermal energy, the ball exploded—destroying the buildings and streets serving as their environment, reducing it all to rubble.
A smoke cloud erupted from the demolished surroundings around them, clouding the outside world from the conversion of Lily and Monstrum. Bursting from within the mist, they shot into the air, one continually spiraling around the other while flying through the sky.
Lily slashed down at Malum with a heavy cleave. The Disastrous split into shadows, manifesting as the darkness behind the Celestial to kick her in the back of the head. Defending her back with the blunt side of her ax's edge, she quickly spun around, kicking the Disastrous in the chest.
Now that he was on defense, she wanted no time. The slashes that immediately followed Monstrum's stumble after the kick were merciless. One aimed at the side of his head, another overhead, and then a third downward cut aimed at his shoulder. The blurry flash of Liliana's movements was beyond anything he could process.
While he managed to defend against the two initial slashes by simply clashing against them with his claws, the one aimed at his shoulder was his blind spot. The Disastrous knew he couldn't defend with Fate strong enough to deflect her attack and so, decided to jump back.
Just barely, Lily missed the cleave, causing her to stumble forward through the air and spin around into Monstrum's fist after warping away and resurfacing behind her. Warlord emerged from her bust at the moment she was hit to uppercut Malum and reappear behind where his body ended up, punching him in the face to send him down to the street.
Catching herself in midair before crashing into the ground, Liliana looked up, watching Monstrum's multi-armed build burst through the clouds like a descending skydiver. She lunged her axe ahead as he shot right at her. Catching her weapon by the edge with one of his numerous hands and leaning forward, he slammed his head into her skull, watching her reel back and hearing a groan barely escape from her throat.
Monstrum chuckled. Lily glared up at her opponent, invoking Warlord to fade into the background beside her and aim its palm at the Disastrous. As the sky was overtaken by a bright purple cosmic beam, Monstrum flew through it, defending his face from the burns by crossing both arms. He ended up on the other side of the projectile; snatching Warlord right by its throat.
Lily, on the other hand, had disappeared. But Malum took this brief opportunity to his advantage. Smirking, he shoved his hand into Warlord's incorporeal chest, grabbing the tiny spirit and clenching his fist around it.
"Veil."
"NO!!" Lily cried.
The Warlord's self-sustaining spirit, connected to its Master, was cut apart by Monstrum. Without the tether linking Liliana to its familiar, the latter of which has no footing in this world and therefore, cannot exist. However, as Liliana is a Celestial, she can regrow Warlord whenever he is destroyed—though it takes a specific amount of time.
The Disastrous Malum Monstrum's long snowy strands flowed before the bundles of red eyes scattered across his body while glaring at Liliana. Tightening her grip over the axe's handle, she sighed, looking at her opponent with a wary gaze.
Monstrum growled and pounced at her. Slashing down at her, she raised the ax, blocking his talons. She spun around the weapon and dug the end into his gut, watching the Disastrous hold his stomach before being kicked across in the face. Stopping her leg by catching it in mid-air, Malum's palm smashed into her bust, shattering the sound barrier and sending a shockwave through her to disperse the clouds behind her.
Hacking profusely, Lily looked up, watching Monstrum's leg lower into her vision. Once his heel sunk into the top of her skull, the Disastrous smirked with teeth, watching Liliana fall from above until he decided to vanish. The shadows on the street revealed their commander as he resurfaced with his head first, raising his view to capture the perfect sight of the Celestial Liliana's descending figure.
Smirking, his finger aimed up at her. "Veil," said the Disastrous.
The slice Malum shot was akin to a bullet. Using the proper technique, the slash ricocheted off the shadow Lily's falling body cast and reached up, splitting apart into different versions of Veil's attack according to Monstrum's command.
'Destroyer.'
Instead of reducing her to mere bloody chunks, the altered version of Monstrum's cuts tore her apart. Having been disconnected from her body, Lily's head, arms, torso, legs and feet all fell onto the ground before the Disastrous Monstrum. They were surprisingly devoid of an internal fluid, like blood for humans.
Monstrum walked over to the Celestial's remnants and crouched beside her head, smirking. "Damn. I thought you would've been able to withstand that. Guess I overestimated you."
Stood upright, he strolled over to the fragmented piece of Lily, specifically her torso. Eyeing the ankh about the shape of her luminous breasts, he dug his hand into it, clutching the soul his claws managed to find.
"I can't even offer you the same respect I would to Amit. Celestial freaks like you disgust me…"
Monstrum was merely a man. Nothing more than a person parading around as a wannabe monster, killing and destroying like nothing mattered to him. He cowered before the might of the Celestials when presented with Liliana despite possessing his Disastrous technique. Gods are superior to men. They always have been. But if that were true, then why? Why did Liliana feel as if the Devil himself were clutching her heart? When it was nothing more than an imposter of a demon.
'Talen. Save me…'
On the verge between life and death, the Unconquerable's soul sunk through an eternal sea of blue, where neither light nor dark existed in between.
"I'm sinking. Sinking… endlessly."