Telluris exhaled and inhaled deeply, the lush forest of the realm was always a treat. She found comfort in feeling the grass on her bare feet as she sat against a pine tree. Her nose picked up on the array of different flowers, their smells and textures. In her 'human' form, she sacrificed much of her power for sharper senses.
"I've spent much time in desolate areas; I did not think such places would provide much comfort," she hummed, though as the Beast of the beginning, it was in some part thanks to her. Her natural mana engulfed all and ensured the dawn of new life in most areas. Though there were a few places she did not have hold of, much has changed with the realm after all.
But still, even if the realm currently prospered in some places, ruin was coming to all eventually, the seven calamities. She knew them well and by heart; she has not seen a sign of the first one as of late. But with the existence of Mikoto Yukio, then the first calamity is sure to follow.
("Oh, Octavia, to think you would involve a mere boy in this calamity the realm is to fall to.") Among her Divine Beast brethren, she was the most 'humane'; she loved the new denizens of the star once called Aethel. Of course, conflict brewed at every waking moment, and there was rarely any peace, but she did see the beauty the people could conjure, a flicker of light that deserved more brilliance. A light she did not want to go extinguished. ("You were always brash, Octavia, but if Mikoto is to be the outsider, then I bid you know what you are doing, old friend. He has steeled himself to save this realm, yet I still worry.") A frown tugged at her lips. ("Yet this battle is not-") She cut off her train of thought as she all but shot up into a standing position, her eyes narrowed dangerously as a streak of gold light raced towards her. It broke through the air and sound as it came to a stop mid-air a bit of ways away from her.
"Ancestor of Chaos." No venom when declaring the title yet no joy either, Telluris's eyes turned blank as she stared at the grinning floating figure. Ever clad in her eccentric golden armor that shielded her form and only kept her otherworldly beautiful face visible.
"Beast of beginning," Rhiannon greeted back, a wide grin on her face yet it did not diminish her beauty. "And I thought myself mistaken when I sensed your mana." She chuckled in glee. "You should be honored I came here to meet you; you are one of the few entities worthy of welcoming me to this new era."
"I've no quarrel with you, Ancestor. And I certainly am not here to serve as your entertainment." She leveled a steely gaze into Rhiannon's red eyes.
"Oh, you think you've a choice?" The Ancestor gave a low chuckle. "Normally I'd threaten to blow away this realm, but with Astraea's annoying blessing, that seems even more impossible now. Oh well. Face me, oh Beast of the beginning, or the denizens of this realm will know true chaos."
A deep frown settled onto the Divine Beast's lips, "You used your clairvoyance to gauge what might draw me to a fight?"
"Of course, I've only seen little that interests me in this world. Many here are weak, a far cry from even the Fate Walkers. A few individuals caught my eyes, but that is all. I only live for my pleasure, and I will indulge in it, and one of the things I derive pleasure from happens to be battle. Satisfy me, and I shall leave you be and seek new prey."
"Such narrow-mindedness." Telluris scoffed. "Even after eons of sleep, you are still a harbinger of Chaos." She heaved a sigh. "Then we shall battle, but not here; I'd rather not put strain on Astraea."
In a sudden burst of coiled tension, they took flight, their bodies enveloped in radiant gold auras, propelling them into the sky with incredible bursts of speed that chirped against the silence of the space. As they soared through the atmosphere, leaving behind the vibrant planet once called Aethel—an orb of rich emeralds and blues lurking beneath swirling clouds more majestic than any earthly visage—they panned their gaze to their enchanting realm below, framed by an anomaly of otherworldly planets and a sun that shone unlike any other—warped into a fiery dance of hues, hovering over an enormous moon pulsating with arcane energy. The scene, a breathtaking one of interstellar wonders, set the stage.
"This is your world, Telluris," Rhiannon taunted, her voice echoing through the void. "A world you claim to cherish."
Telluris remained calm, her expression serene. "It is a world worth protecting," she replied, her voice carrying the weight of eternity.
As momentum stilled, Rhiannon summoned her weapon—a golden greatsword seemingly wrought from the essence of fallen stars, a magical artifact Telluris noted. Known as the Radiant Dior, its blade pulsating with golden mana that surged with an ethereal resonance. With her pride evident in her stance, Rhiannon charged forth, slashing through the cosmic silence towards Telluris, who stood resolute and calm, ready to face the onslaught. Their bodies collided in a wake of energy—Telluris's bare hand met Rhiannon's blade with a resounding clang that echoed across the stars, sending tremors through the solar system. Each clash spawned shockwaves that rippled through the fabric of this existence.
As Rhiannon pressed on, her golden armor glimmered under her swift motions, and though Telluris maneuvered with unmatched speed, Rhiannon's sword arced with a quick fervor, she had a slight upper hand with every devastating swing. Telluris executed swift deflections and counterattacks with equal speed, each of her bare hands glowing as she drew energy from the universe around them.
Rhiannon coalesces her energy, her blade shimmering with mana, exploding into motion as she lunged forward with blinding speed. Every muscle in her form contracted, her stance low to the space, allowing her to channel all her power into the initial thrust aimed directly at Telluris's midsection. The blade arced through the vacuum, slicing through air with an audible whoosh, yet Telluris, read Rhiannon's trajectory. In an elegant response, she sidestepped using a simple glyph as a stepping board, to her right, her fingers weaving through the air in a fluid motion, summoning tendrils of bioluminescent vines that erupt from the space below, aiming to ensnare Rhiannon's ankles as she passed.
Rhiannon anticipated the counter, the momentum of her lunge propelling her into a somersault, her body twisting through the air as she narrowly evaded the creeping vines. As she spun gracefully, her blade gleaming with her energy. She pivoted, launching a flurry of strikes, each arc of her blade designed to create openings in Telluris's defenses. Each swipe was telegraphed but executed faster than a fleeting thought. Yet Telluris responded in tandem; with fluidity, she channeled her mana, raising her hands to absorb the impact. With a sweeping motion, she redirected Rhiannon's strikes, her palm meeting the blade with a gentle force that sent shockwaves through the fabric of space around them.
Telluris momentarily destabilizes Rhiannon's footing by summoning a surge of floral spores that danced through the zero-gravity environment, their shimmering trails momentarily obscuring Rhiannon's view. Rhiannon, however, grinned. She twists mid-air, performing an elegant barrel roll that allowed her to deftly clear the mesmerizing onslaught of spores. As she did so, she rebounded from an invisible point in the space above her, soaring high into the cosmic expanse, drawing in energy for a powerful overhead strike aimed squarely at Telluris.
But Telluris was ready; her eyes ignite with a glare, her hands intertwining , a gesture that conjured a protective barrier of entwined vines and radiant golden mana. As Rhiannon's blade descended, it collided with the barrier, an explosion of color and light erupting in all directions—rippling energy cascading through the celestial backdrop. The force reverberated, sending shockwaves that momentarily disrupt the bioluminescent flora surrounding them, creating a swirling maelstrom of color and energy.
In a sudden burst of initiative, Rhiannon capitalizes on the split-second distraction, using the momentum from her strike to somersault backward, floating with profound grace with her golden aura, and positioning herself strategically amidst the thicket of glowing plants. She locked her gaze on Telluris, whose hands now hover warily, prepared for the next move. With an almost imperceptible shift, Rhiannon lunged at a diagonal angle, spinning her blade to a vertical position as she targeted Telluris's shoulder, anticipating a defensive maneuver.
However, Telluris's intuition shone through; she dropped low, the mana at her fingertips flickering like the radiance of distant stars, and swept her right palm horizontally across her body, unleashing a wave of pure kinetic energy that caused Rhiannon to veer off her path, the unanticipated shock sending her off-kilter. As Rhiannon recovered her balance, she flew backward, propelling herself away from an imminent counterattack, her blade tracing the space behind her as she moved.
But the intensity of their melee became too torrential, prompting Telluris to gracefully disengage, a frown adorning her face as she prepared to unleash her own brand of magic. But then in an instant, a red rift splintered space behind Rhiannon, a tear through reality itself, from which monstrous, planet-sized red appendages birthed forth in a seething embrace, jettisoning toward Telluris with an unholy velocity, like grasping claws in the night.
"Oblivion's Grasp." Rhiannon bellowed with a savage grin.
("Such foul power, but powerful all the same. Those tendrils hold the power to extend into the minds of foes. It infects them with a glimpse of the incomprehensible, things that should not exist or be thought of. Powerful.") She smirked. "But easily countered. Origin Pulse."
Without a flicker of doubt, Telluris summoned a blinding aura, her form emanating a pristine white light that engulfed her and the encroaching tendrils. As they collided, their color drained, transforming into shimmering motes of white that disintegrated upon contact, scattering across the darkness of the universe.
With vigor, Telluris invoked a spell that birthed immense golden spears of light, each one summoned with an intense glow, spinning and hovering in a celestial formation around her. Launching them at Rhiannon with a force that took the wind from the atmosphere, each spear pierced through the void with blinding light. Rhiannon merely grinned, twirled gracefully, sweeping the Radiant Dior in expansive arcs, systematically countering each projectile; her movements might as well have been a dance of avoidance and closing distance. Her blade sang in the silence of space, gracefully stating its avowed purpose with every parry, as Rhiannon felt the cadence of Telluris's magic pulsate in her core. In the midst of the battle, another rift—vile and grotesque—opened behind Rhiannon, birthing an enormous, dark malformed hand, stretching itself across the boundaries of the cosmos. As it reached toward them with burning malevolence, a dark sigil appeared in its palm, unleashing an incomprehensibly potent beam of energy that streaked through space like a comet. Telluris evaded its blinding path, watching as the devastating energy struck a distant planet, twisting its form into a nightmare—a living horror that writhed and pulsated under the weight of the strike.
"Origin Pulse." In that very moment, a crucible of malformation was replaced by Telluris, and it became her catalyst for creation; her magic manifested in a radiant burst as it danced through the darkness, channeling energy into the cosmos itself to rewrite reality. With a clear vision, she summoned forth her enchanted will, reshaping the grotesquely transformed planet back into its former splendor, the colors of life and beauty reinstated. This spell, executed with heavenly grace, folded the fabric of reality.
"Origin Pulse, quite the spell. Using your personal divine magic, you manipulate foreign forces like myself. With it, you rewrite the rules of causality." Rhiannon grinned as Telluris kept a blank face.
"Knowing that will not save you." With the rebirth of the transformed planet, shimmering in vivid hues once more. Yet, even with her powerful spell echoing across the universe, Rhiannon remained undeterred, her fiery red eyes igniting with a fierce glee that burned brighter than the stars around them. Breaking from the moment of disbelief, Rhiannon clenched her fists around the hilt of Dior as she channeled her mana, summoning forth the latent mana that surrounded her, swirling in hues of gold as she exuded a mana that commanded respect and dread alike.
"Voidrender." Rhiannon chanted.
Rhiannon unleashed a torrent of energy, conjuring orbs of crystallized light, each sphere bursting with radiant power that threatened to engulf Telluris entirely. With a flick of her wrist, she released the projectiles in an intricate pattern, each orb homing in on Telluris like a constellation seeking its north star. The radiant spheres zipped across the cosmos, leaving trails of shimmering gold in their wake as they traced an arching path toward their target. Telluris, sensing the impending danger, moved through space with ethereal speed, her gold aura enveloping her form while her movements were deliberate as she deftly floated away and somersaulted in the confines of space, her flowing white robes billowing behind her like waves. Each orb detonated against the backdrop of space, sending out flares of light that illuminated the void momentarily before fading back into darkness as countless stars were destroyed.
Gathering her own magic in the midst of chaos, Telluris extended her arms outward, creating a barrier of divine mana that enveloped her. The force field, a pattern of intertwined light, absorbed the multi-directional assault with resounding pops and crackling energy as more destruction bellowed. After deflecting the last orb with a fluid motion, she countered with magic of her own—a kinetic wave that rippled through space, amplified by the dance of her fingers. The spell manifested into a luminescent shockwave that surged outward, creating a spherical barrier of radiant energy that expanded like the birth of a new star.
Rhiannon, undeterred, propelled herself forward, the void behind her suffused with her escalating power as she launched herself through the shockwave with unparalleled ferocity. A golden glyph blazed beneath her feet, allowing her to momentarily harness the cosmic energies sustaining her, propelling her against the expected opposition while she brought Dior crashing down in a powerful arc. Telluris twirled aside, feeling the mana thrum with energy as Rhiannon's blade grazed past her, sending vibrations coursing through space that rattled distant stars.
Recovering swiftly, Telluris seized the opportunity to retaliate; her hands carved sigils in the air, weaving strands of golden light into formations that screamed of divine power. Each sigil coalesced into diamond-shaped constructs that hovered in the space around her before launching forth at Rhiannon. The projectiles shimmered with brilliant light, each one infused with her will, turning into brilliant arrows of energy that shot toward Rhiannon like streaks of lightning.
Rhiannon responded with deft reflexes, lifting her sword high as she struck each arrow with exacting precision, Dior glowing with a ferocious heat as she redirected the spells back to Telluris. Each deflected arrow burst into blossoms of golden light, raining down like fireworks as the two continued their combat. Stars twinkled in admiration as their abilities clashed with spectacular brilliance.
Then, a flicker caught Telluris's eye from the corner of her vision—a rift opened once more, but larger than before, pulsating with malevolence. From its depths, a horde of unnatural creatures, manifestations of shadow and chaos, surged forth, each the size of a small moon, their twisted forms writhing with a hunger for destruction. The rift unfurled like a maw of darkness, threatening to take her captive. As the flickering shadows closed in, Telluris frowned, extending her hands towards the eldritch abominations, but before she could use a spell, the enormous creatures were halted in place, a shimmering blue aura around them.
"I wouldst asketh the two of thee to standeth down this hurlyburly," a soothing voice cut through the cold space. The two combatants turned to see a woman floating towards them. 'Ethereal' was the first word that came to mind when looking at the woman. Her hair was long and smooth, a pale blue in color. She had gleaming dark blue eyes that seemed to hide untold knowledge. She was unparalleled beauty, thin but lushful lips, and a set of eyes that could captivate anyone. Her attire was much more plain, a simple white dress that tightly hugged her body showing off all her curves and an ethereal white veil on her head.
"Oh? Now isn't this a surprise." Rhiannon's eyes gleamed at the woman. "A Goddess, but I've never seen you before." She noted, intrigue lacing her tone.
"I am Rheya, Goddess of the moon," she introduced, her tone still blank. "I am a new God born some timeth ago."
"Oh? Even so you must know who I am?" Rhiannon questioned, a brow raised.
"Forsooth, thou art Rhiannon. Ancestor of Chaos. Wielder of the eldritch power from beyond," Rheya confirmed.
"And yet you still dare to interfere with my bout? Cur, I should cut you down where you stand," Rhiannon threatened with a leveled glare.
"You overestimate yourself, Ancestor of Chaos, powerful as you may be, even you would lose to the combined efforts of us," Telluris warned.
"Yond is true, though I careth not for thy bout. Thy destruction puts all here at risk enwheeling the moon," the moon Goddess explained. "I pray thee taketh thou bout elsewhere."
"Hmm, normally I'd cut out the tongue for one who would speak this way to me. But I am well aware of what that moon contains, what it seals. It would be quite troublesome should it be released. Oh well, this little scuffle was a bore anyhow," Rhiannon conceded, snapping her fingers, a red tear scraped against the confines of space.
Telluris frowned, "You are smarter than you seem at the very least."
"Save your meaningless yammering. You disappointed me, and I have lost interest, and that is all. I hope my brethren in the North is more fun." She stepped into the tear, it closing behind her, and her form disappeared.
"Quite the fearsome one, nay wonder the Gods art in an uproar," Rheya mused as she turned to Telluris. "I supposeth not coequal the strongest of the divine beast couldst maketh short work of her."
"Nay, a battle between us would last eons," Telluris admitted. "The Ancestors, their abilities are more vague than even the dragons, and this is especially true for her. The sheer complexity of her foreign power is something even I cannot wrap my head around. No wonder the Gods and my brethren had trouble with her. Now I fear the realm is in peril."
"I supposeth there may yet be those who can standeth 'gainst her, nay?"
A smile crept onto Telluris's face; her mind went back to a certain boy. "There may yet be."