LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 325: Godslayer's Fist.
"Beat her, don't let up!"
"Show that imposter the power of our people!"
"Get her, Clan Head, take her down!"
Their voices arose and fell in rhythms, shaking the ground beneath them and at the forefront of the Vatui forces Hudor had taken a seat with his hands folded beneath his nose and his eyes closed as he watched Cecelia relentlessly shoot at Dr'ul who was dodging most and parrying a few of the endless projectiles fired at her.
"Just listen to them," He sighed while his ear twitched and his brows fidgeted in agitation.
"They are so eager to see Cecelia win, that they have forgotten she is facing an ally, they cheer the same as they do for the defeat of an enemy, but the Arkadian Queen is as much Vatui as she is a Divine; she is also of our people, descended from the lineage of royalty, directly from Her Highness the Princess, Ikaris," He shook his head.
"Have we already begun to lose the humility that the Emporium has forced upon us who thought ourselves invincible?"
Zara for one couldn't believe she was listening to the same Hudor of the past; the arrogant and offish, the proud and senile, the cowardly, there was not a single shred of any of those traits within him, in just a month after they parted ways in Keele's homeworld the man had made a complete turnaround, he was humble, valiant, and though still proud his pride was generous.
"You speak wisely," A woman sat next to him, aside from Keele and Jenifer nobody else had ever seen her, she resembled Dr'ul with hair seemingly aflame in crimson, though there was not even a glow of mana coming from her, her eyes were black though and she unlike the naturally large goddess of war was the avreage height of a woman barely 5'5".
"What is your name?" She asked, and without being presumpuous, Hudor gave her his regards with a small bow.
"I am Hudor, milady, and who might you be?" He returned the question and she smiled and pointed at Dr'ul.
"I am Renia, Dr'ul's younger sister; Goddess of Chaos within the Arkadian pantheon." She responded with a slight incline of her head and this was when Hudor turned to meet her fully and noticed Keele and Jenifer already having their heads lowered in respect.
"Renia, I was not expecting to see you here today, is there some kind of emergency?" Keele asked with a smile, raising her gaze to meet the goddesses.
"I am always readily available when my sister decides to raise her hand in battle, we are synonymous, after all," Renia replied with a chuckle. "It benefits me to follow her around."
"It benefits you?" Hudor raised his brow. "In what regard?"
"Dr'ul is the goddess of war, whenever great battles are fought you will find her on the sidelines or in the fray, where she goes there is Chaos, thus, I will follow, and wherever there is chaos there will also be Destruction, which is where my older brother S'mael will emerge, and after destruction comes Creation, the essence of our oldest sibling, Adonai; the four of us do well together we are strongest at each others' sides, so we are the closest amongst the seven gods who rule Arkadia."
"That is fascinating." Zara mused. "I imagined that gods were selfish beings, from myth and elsewise, gods generally always fight amongst each other, are petty, and ruthless."
"Generally, yes, but nobody would dare start any unnecessary conflict under Dr'ul's watch, she may be the goddess of war, but she detests a pointless fight, everything must have a purpose, we follow her because despite there being various gods who are smarter, our eldest included, she has proven to be the most powerful, and the wisest amongst us, even though she plays such traits low and never admits them," Renia smiled fondly as she stared at the fight intently.
"Dr'ul simply seeks the meaning in existence a little differently; to her, power determines everything, and her concept of power varies in so many different ways that not even our god of wisdon can figure her out."
"She sounds like an amazing person." Hudor continued watching the fight as well. "She also sounds like she has dealt with this kind of situation before."
"Indeed, many times in the past many gods lost their way and were put down, others were punished, and others cursed into exile and eternal decrement," Renia thought of the most recent being Diablos, the god of dragons who thought to conspire against Sol and was cursed into eternal suffering as a bottom feeder, he who survived the destruction of Arkadia and still exists in his suffering.
"My point is, that your leader is in very good hands, my sister will reach her heart."
***
"... How long has it been?" Cecelia huffed, the planet was in ruins from one pole to the next, her arm was starting to tire from using her weapon in an unfamiliar manner to adapt to the fight, and yet despite being constantly injured, Dr'ul only closed the distance between them, as though she had a suicide wish she tanked attacks meant to destroy her and recovered from them without breaking stride.
Even though she was the one on the offensive, she was also the one retreating the whole time. "What's your deal!?" Cecelia roared in outrage. "I have already proven myself the superior, so why are you still pursuing me?!"
"You have yet to see me attack so why are you still assuming yourself superior?" Dr'ul raised a brow, flashing the golden blood from her hands and revealing herself unharmed once more. "If you give up then just say so, there is no need to throw a second tantrum inside of your tantrum, Dr'ul lightly chuckled and pointed her fist. "Or, do tell, is that all you, the superior one are capable of?"
"Why you...!"
At Dr'ul's taunt, Cecelia felt power like she had never experienced before rush to the surface, her ego had been directly insulted and she meant to correct that right there and then, she raised her weapon and aimed at Dr'ul with the intention of blowing her, and everything behind her away in an attack similar to the one she had tried destroying the Sol Collective with. "How dare -"
Before her eyes again Dr'ul exhibited speed the likes of which she had never encountered, she raised her weapon defensively to the side of her head out of instinct and prediction as there was where the goddess had attacked her the first time, to her surprise Dr'ul indeed came from that side, but to her shock the weapon which was supposed to bare the brunt of a black hole imploding was cratered when Dr'ul's fist collided into it.
The knockback of that attack slammed Cecelia into the ground so hard that the surface failed to register it as an impact, causing her to make a perfect indenture into the soil with her body while her opponent placed her heel in her side and yanked the broken weapon from her grasp with a huff.
"Unexpected, I will have Union create a more durable one." Dr'ul made a half-assed apology and pulled Cecelia from the ground with a smirk placing her to stand and resting the weapon in her hands again. "Continue or face me without it, the choice is yours, but know, if you continue from this point on I will not be lenient, rather, I will drive you into the depths of defeat, Éloén Cecelia."
Experience more on empire
Dr'ul retreated several paces away and raised her hand in an invitation of battle towards the woman who was staring at the weapon inher grasp in disbelief.
"What the fuck just happened, it has never suffered a scratch for all the years I have used it, I have had it since I was a child, how did she break it in one hit?" Cecelia stood there too shocked to react, not her alone, but her sister who had a similar weapon was of the same mind on the sudden breaking of a weapon which could devastate entire universes and destroy galaxies in one shot.
"What did she do?"
"Do you truly wish to know?" Dr'ul answered the woman as if she was hearing her thoughts. "It goes against me saying earlier that I would only fight but as it seems precious to you I will explain briefly why you are about to get the shit beat out of you," Dr'ul raised her other fist and assumed a fighting posture that had the Arkadian pantheon silent as they witnessed it.
"Oh my, she is mimicking the fight between Sol and Sorath," Renia huffed through her lips making a bubbling sound and clapping her hands. "It seems this fight will be a hard lesson."
"I only learned this when I challenged and lost to Sol Vestic, but as the goddess of war I have no tether to any specific kind of power like my brothers and sisters do, I do not solely possess the divine powers of chaos or destruction, yet I do, my power bends the laws of reality itself the same as the Godslayer, I am defiant of every tether the same as Sol Vestic is, I do not adhere to the laws of reason."
"I may be a Vatui descent of Divine Royalty, but my power is more like his than hers; my fist is the same as the Godslayer's, only absolute power can defeat me!"