Chapter 604: Genesis (X)
Time passed in the quiet of the floating bed.
Eventually, we both rose.
I created a simple set of dark clothes with a thought.
She did the same, reforming her combat attire into something cleaner and sharper than before, though it still hugged her figure closely.
The golden blood and other traces of our earlier activities had been cleaned away with a casual use of authority.
Now we stood facing each other once more in the middle of the ruined cosmic battlefield.
I held both of my swords, the Heaven Swallowing Sword in my left hand, the Midnight Sword in my right.
Across from me, the Creator Woman held a single weapon of her own: a long, elegant spear made of pure purple chaotic energy, its tip gleaming like a collapsed star.
The weapon pulsed in rhythm with her aura, the same ominous purple energy from before now fully restored around her body.
Neither of us spoke at first.
The space between us felt heavier than before.
The playful tension, the exhaustion, the intimacy, all of it had been set aside.
What remained was the simple, sharp focus of two equals who had already decided how this would end.
I rolled my shoulders once, feeling the familiar weight of the swords in my hands.
She spun her spear lightly, the tip leaving a faint trail of purple light in the air.
"Ready?" she asked calmly.
I nodded once.
"Yeah."
Fwoop!
As soon as I replied, she moved.
In a single step, she crossed the distance between us, her spear thrusting forward with enough force to pierce through a galaxy.
I twisted aside and parried with the Midnight Sword. The impact rang out like a supernova exploding.
CRAAAAASH!
The shockwave flattened several newly formed star clusters around us.
I followed up immediately, swinging the Heaven Swallowing Sword in a wide horizontal arc while thrusting the Midnight Sword toward her heart.
She spun her spear with impossible speed, blocking both attacks in one motion before countering with a sweeping slash that forced me to leap backward.
The moment my feet left the "ground," she raised her free hand.
Authority of Gravity.
A crushing force slammed down on me, strong enough to compress an entire solar system into a single point.
My body was driven downward, but I answered with Authority of Chaos, warping the gravitational field and redirecting it back at her.
The reversed force hit her like a collapsing black hole. She skidded backward through the void, her boots leaving trails of shattered space in their wake.
I didn’t give her time to recover.
I charged, with both of my swords glowing with black-and-white energy.
"Moonlit Ice Lotus Sword Art..."
『 Third Move! (✦ Moonlight’s One Flash ✦) 』
A silver line cut through the void as I appeared behind her in an instant, both blades already swinging.
She barely managed to block with her spear, the collision creating a shockwave that erased three nearby galaxies and birthed two new ones from the leftover energy.
Golden blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
She licked it away and smiled.
"You’re faster than before," she said, her voice filled with genuine delight.
"Good. I was getting bored of people who couldn’t keep up."
She vanished.
I felt the space behind me fold a fraction of a second too late.
Her spear stabbed toward my back. I twisted and caught the shaft between both swords, locking her in place for a brief moment. Our faces were only inches apart.
"Still not exploding the Trumpets?" she whispered, her red eye glowing intensely.
"Waiting for the perfect moment? Smart. But if you wait too long, I might kill you first."
It was clear to me that now she was truly fighting to kill, as she probably already got what she wanted.
Taking the opportunity, I headbutted her.
CRACK!
Her head snapped back.
I used the opening to slash across her torso with the Midnight Sword while the Heaven Swallowing Sword drained a surge of her power.
Splat!
Golden blood sprayed across the void.
"Pwhahaha!" She laughed through the pain and kicked me square in the chest, sending me flying through a cluster of newborn stars.
The stars exploded around me as I crashed through them.
I stabilized myself and immediately countered with Authority of Space.
The distance between us folded. I appeared above her and brought both swords down in a devastating overhead strike.
She met the attack with her spear raised high.
The collision was so violent that the fabric of reality tore open, creating a massive rift that swallowed several star systems whole.
New galaxies began forming along the edges of the rift almost immediately, as if the universe itself was struggling to repair the damage we were causing.
Splurt!
Suddenly, I took a spear thrust to the shoulder.
The tip punched clean through, purple energy burning my flesh from the inside.
"Tsk...!" I gritted my teeth and retaliated by driving the Heaven Swallowing Sword into her side, twisting it as I drained more of her power.
"Kuygrgh... aah!"
She gasped, then slammed her forehead into mine hard enough to make stars explode behind my eyes.
We both staggered back, blood dripping from our wounds.
She wiped golden blood from her chin and spun her spear again.
"Haah... not exploding the trumpets yet, are we?" she observed, her breathing now slightly heavier.
"It’s clear that you’re waiting for the perfect moment... but I don’t think you’ll get it!"
I didn’t answer.
There was nothing to say because she was right.
I raised both swords and charged again.
This time I went all out with pure physical speed and technique, weaving between her spear thrusts while cutting at every opening I could find.
The Midnight Sword left deep gashes across her arms and thighs. The Heaven Swallowing Sword drank her energy every time it connected.
She answered with brutal efficiency, her spear moving like an extension of her will. One thrust nearly took my head off.
Another punched through my thigh, forcing me to regenerate the wound mid-combat.
Authority of Life flared around her as she healed the worst of her injuries.
I countered by flooding the area with Authority of Death, disrupting her regeneration just long enough to land another deep cut across her chest.
Golden blood poured freely now. My own black and golden blood mixed with it in the void around us.
She laughed nonetheless.
"This is what I wanted!" she shouted as she lunged at me again.
"A real fight! A real opponent! Come on, explode them Luntheris!"
I met her charge head-on.
CLANG!
Our weapons locked.
For a moment we pushed against each other with equal force, the space around us warping under the pressure.
Stars collapsed into black holes only to be torn apart by the residual energy of our struggle.
New nebulae formed and were immediately shredded by the next clash.
I broke the lock by twisting my body and delivering a spinning kick to her midsection.
The force sent her flying through a newly created planet, the celestial body exploding into fragments behind her.
I followed immediately, both swords raised for a finishing combination.
She recovered in mid-air and spun her spear in a wide arc, creating a barrier of pure chaotic energy.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
My swords slammed into it.
The barrier cracked but held long enough for her to counter with a point-blank blast of purple annihilation.
I crossed my swords in front of me and tanked the blast.
The energy tore through my defenses and burned across my arms and chest, but I pushed through it and closed the distance again.
We were both bleeding heavily now. Both regenerating as fast as the other could inflict damage.
As she said... we were perfectly matched.
Evenly matched.
"Haagh..."
Not yet, thought.
I need a perfect moment.
Looking at her, she suddenly switched styles completely.
Instead of the spear, she discarded it and fought with pure hand-to-hand combat infused with authority.
Her fists carried the weight of collapsing stars.
Her kicks could shatter the foundations of reality. I answered in kind, sheathing one sword temporarily so I could fight with blade and fist together.
We traded blows that would have erased lesser gods from existence. My fist connected with her jaw. Her knee slammed into my ribs.
I cut a deep line across her collarbone. She drove an elbow into my temple hard enough to make my vision blur.
The battlefield around us had become unrecognizable.
What had once been a relatively stable cosmic expanse was now a constantly shifting storm of creation and destruction.
Galaxies were born and died in the background of our fight.
Entire timelines flickered into existence only to be erased by the next clash of power.
She grabbed my wrist mid-swing and tried to throw me into a newly formed black hole.
I reversed the momentum with Authority of Karma and slammed her into the event horizon instead. S
he tore herself free with raw power, golden blood trailing behind her as she launched herself back at me.
"You’re still not using them!" she shouted as our weapons, or rather, my swords and her reformed spear, collided once more.
"What are you waiting for?! An invitation?!"
I locked eyes with her as our blades pressed against each other.
"The right moment," I answered simply.
Her smile widened, fierce and exhilarated.
"Then you better find it soon. Because I’m not going to make it easy for you."