"Don't look back!" Ken screamed as they ran as fast as possible to the Valerian Kingdom.
Aria took his advice because the sounds of the fight were being felt even as far as they were.
A sudden flurry of shockwaves hit them as a dust cloud stormed upon them. The air became radioactive as the power from the explosion resonated within the distance.
"That is a nuke!" Aria exclaimed. "They are casually throwing around and dodging nukes like it's nothing!"
The dust wave caused the group to be in disarray so while they got organized again, Ken took one look at the battlefield.
The air permeated with so much Divine Power that it hurt Ken to look at. Green radiation filled the atmosphere as the ground was becoming unstable down to the core. The whole battlefield was going to fall down into the earth's core if their attacks kept hitting the floor.
In the sky, orange, violet, and golden divine energies constantly clashed as entirely black spots were littered across the battlefield. Aria knew what the black spots meant. Light was being destroyed as an effect of their battle.
"Each divinity has their personality," Ken mumbled. "They are both golden but one is relaxed while determined and the other is a malicious conqueror."
Aria analyzed Ken's words and realized he was right. She could clearly tell which divine aura was Celine's and which wasn't.
A sudden silenced remained after a while. Nothing was being done by the battlefield of gods and just as Aria was questioning what had happened, she received a telepathic message.
…
"Everybody in Valeria and humanity is currently watching your failure," Malphus sneered. "Even the coward King Arthur can see you get your ass kicked. You were a fool for thinking you could beat me."
Celine was a bloodied mess on the floor with cuts and brusies rampant across her. She was low on Divine Power and her affinity with magic was at it's limit.
Nevertheless, she laughed. Celine's laugh cackled at Malphus as she remarked.
"But you haven't killed me!" She stumbled her way to staanding upstraight. "I can't beat you, but you can't kill me. It's pathetic! What number God are you again? You must be close to 10 and yet you can't even kill the weakest God!"
Frustrated, Malphus tried to kick Celine who blocked and took the damage easily with her broken body.
Celine laughed once more.
"You are almost out of divinity! Without it your magic itself is useless for battle so if I can just last a little longer I'll kill your ass."
Malphus remained silent. Eventually, he thought of something.
"You're right, I can't kill you. Your sigil is too annoying and you are far too resilient. But I can kill that mortal Princess you like."
Before Celine could even understand what he said, the figure of Malphus didappeared. Because he was gone, his divinity of conquering fading and Celine changed the distance between her and Aria.
…
Before she could react, a hand appeared by Aria and grabbed her neck forcefully. Ken and the others couldn't react as severe thoughts of suicide plagued their mind.
"Celine is resilient to this but I wonder if you will be," the thoughts of suicide plagued Aria beyond belief. She was losing grip of reality as other thoughts were being shot into her mind.
Before anything got worse though, a green ray of vitality shot out at him. Everybody turned to see Celine brimming with a green aura that let her stand.
"She's burning vitality… it must hurt like hell in her position," Ken remarked. He understood that Celine's body wasn't that strong and was in a horrible condition and that using vitality would put Celine in indescribable pain, but she did it anyways.
"You're getting desperate," Malphus prepared another attack.
"Don't touch her," Celine was dead serious this time. All of her playfulness ended in that one sentence.
Using her temporary strength, Celine tackled Malphus away from Aria and fought desperately. Pure instincts alone fueled her swings as she desperately tried to kill Malphus.
Lightning crackled as Aria tried to attack but a wall of 'conquering' appeared and she could get past it. "Damn it!" She yelled.
Celine fought on and on but couldn't hold on. She was using everything she had and was barely able to keep up with Malphus whereas he was still using divinity just fine.
She was covered in wounds, broken bones, her affinity was shattering, her lifespan was reduced drastically due to her usage of vitality, Celine couldn't keep fighting.
She fell, disheveled and broken, but with one final card.
"Stop," she mumbled when Malphus was approaching for the final blow.
"My affinity can sustain one final nuke," her voice trembled. They both didn't have enough strength to survive a nuke and neither could Aria or Ken.
"You're bluffing," Malphus walked over slowly. "If you could've used a nuke this whole time, then why didn't you? You're an immortal God, killing us both will only take us to the next life so why not do it?"
Malphus was going to kill her because he thought she was bluffing but he realized a reason why Celine hadn't used a nuke.
"It's that stupid Princess?" He scoffed in amusement. "Who cares, you'll see her in the next life."
"She won't be the same, only similar." Celine looked desperate. More desperate than Aria had ever seen before.
Aria saw Celine's tears and her pain. They both understood that Malphus would kill Aria after killing Celine, so this was the last resort Celine had come up with.
The once brilliant and joyous Celine was silently crying and grasping at straws to preserve what she wanted. Aria had never understood how much Celine loved this specific version of her.
Not until she saw how truly desperate and agonizing her pain was.
Burning vitality, nearly destroying her affinity, enduring the mental warfare Malphus played in her head. All of this was supposed to bring unbearable pain but Celine thought about Aria.
"Who's to say I don't have the strength to survive the nuclear explosion?" Malphus looked like he was about to strike.
"You're bluffing," Celine mumbled. "We are at a stalemate. You can either stay here with us and die to me or leave without what you want."
Malphus hesitated in his decision. He truly didn't know if it was better to risk dying while getting rid of the problem or just to let it be. If he stayed any longer he would use all his divinity and instantly die so he had to decide quick.
In the end, his determination didn't waver as he got ready to strike at Celine. He thought this was the best outcome but Celine only silently accepted her fate while activating her sigil once again.
However, just as everything was reaching an explosive finale, a new divine appeared across the power that made Celine and Malphus trembled.
The omnipotent and omnipresent 'control' had sent his aura here.
"I propose a deal," the voice said from above.