Now that everyone else had dealt with the High Gods and I could rest assured of their safety, I focused back on Avarice as we stood around a mountain of rubble. The pre-dawn breeze felt chilling as my hair was brushed back.
Avarice looked moderately vexed.
"To think that not one of you was killed..." he sighed, "Regardless, they did well to push The Primordials so far despite your mysterious gains of power."
"Now they're all practically drained, yet I remain," he laughed, flexing his power. "I'll acknowledge your new strength as well, but even combined, I'm far more powerful than any of you."
I eyed the wound in his chest as he clad himself in his Armor of God, then reinforced it with stronger harmonized spirit energy.
"Don't worry," he chuckled as he tapped his chest, "we'll be finished before this becomes an issue."
"You'd think you'd stop underestimating us by now," I remarked as I took a stance and began slowly channeling more energy from my mark.
Avarice grunted and then charged at me. He fought with more tenacity than I expected.
Did what I said get to him? I wondered as I barely blocked and dodged. In my current state, I was pushed to my limits as I avoided several lethal scrapes of his claws. I'd roll out of the tragedy of his blasts of sonic waves and leap out of reach from his gold that crept close. He certainly kept me on my toes. Even though I was focused on defense, the battle was incredible as it scarred the Earth in our wake.
"Whoa!" I huffed as I side maneuvered from a projectile shot at me.
"I commend you," Avarice said, slightly breathing heavily, "You may be on the defensive, but you're still alive. You've matched me up to this point; however, seeing as you've reached your limit and I still have much more power to spare, you've lost."
"Huh? Lost?" I said, steadying my breathing.
"Haven't you noticed," I said, revealing my ascension mark, "I haven't even transformed yet..."
Realizing the implications, Avarice's eyes widened, and he tried to attack me again, but my transformation had already begun. He was blown back by an incredible force as a beam of turquoise energy shot into the sky. My hair changed from its natural brown luster to a silvery appearance as the streak of greyed hair began to glow turquoise like my energy. My eyes glowed completely, unlike everyone's usual glow, which was just the irises.
Unlike the others, my transformation was more refined and left me still appearing primarily human, but its power was unlike anything we'd felt up to that point. I stood as my body radiated power I found difficult to contain.
"What's the meaning of this?" Avarice stood, baffled by my presence that dwarfed his own. "You can't be this powerful. Even the others couldn't gain this much power in such a short period. Something like this shouldn't be possible for a human."
Avarice's slitted, golden eyes scanned every inch of me. A look of familiarity was suddenly shown on his face.
"No..." he shook his head. "But that's the only way it makes sense...a direct descendent...you're a vessel capable of holding our power?! I nearly died, but a human accomplished it!"
Avarice's eyes began to look crazed as he ran his hands through his once-smoothed hair and laughed maniacally. Suddenly, the air started to vibrate as he lost his cool and yelled in frustration, and golden pellets formed from the ground. As he continued his release of anger, they shot toward me at incredible speeds, but I weaved between them unscathed.
"You don't deserve that power. It wasn't meant for you," he stated as he formed a pike of gold and shot it at me, but my stasis field stopped it. I held it there and smirked as he tried to force it through. Then he formed multiple golden pikes and tendrils around me to attack from all sides.
This is a first, I thought, as my stasis field held them all in place. I had to spread more power throughout the field to prevent it from being penetrated.
Be careful, Viraa warned.
Avarice must've noticed what she saw, too, as he quickly changed tactics and focused most of his power into one quick, spinning golden drill that broke through while I was still balancing my power throughout the entire field instead of focusing on reinforcing one spot.
In that moment of opportunity, Avarice lunged forward and unleashed a flurry of relentless, precise slashes with claws armored in his special gold. I could see the tips of the claws wriggle with seemingly live gold as he swung. It reminded me of Kaila somehow, and I knew that getting hit by them wouldn't just leave a scratch. I used future sight to foresee his attack patterns, which helped me dodge until I saw an opening and kicked him away.
Even while being forced back, Avarice almost landed a fatal wound as he sent out a lightning-fast golden projectile at my head. Still, with one spirit-enhanced hand, I grab the golden extension, stopping it in its tracks before sending violent rotations of telekinetic energy permeating through it, causing it to shatter between my fingers.
Pulsing veins became visible on Avarice's face as he became more enraged.
"No, no, no, no, nooo! I didn't spend over 8,000 years making sure I'd never be below anyone again just to be bested by a mere child!" he shouted as he became disheveled and slightly unhinged. He sent out powerful vibrations so intense it felt like the sky shook before he abruptly stopped.
"...no, not yet. I can still win...I haven't lost..."
He looked at me with hatred.
"You think you've surpassed me...? You're still just a weak human who can be easily manipulated. I know your greatest weakness," he proclaimed as he darted off.
I realized he was headed toward a nearby populated area and chased after him. Being faster, I was quickly closing the gap between us when he suddenly changed course and rose higher into the sky, where he sliced off a wing of a fully loaded commercial plane that was flying overhead.
Avarice grinned wickedly and motioned to the plummeting plane before turning and taking off again.
Seriously? I thought as I diverted my attention to the plane. I knew, even for me, it was too heavy to lift as it fell, so I slowed its uncontrolled descent with my telekinetic energy. Lifting something that heavy proved more difficult than I anticipated. It almost felt like its weight was dragging me down, too, but I managed to slow it down enough to land it safely. I quickly assured everyone was still alive without getting too close. Then I popped off the plane door so everyone could escape before I raced after Avarice.
When I arrived at his location somewhere in Mongolia, he was floating a few hundred feet above the ground between skyscrapers in a heavily populated city now covered in gold. Despite it being very early morning and the sun barely being out, there were tons of people out who were mostly encased in gold, too.