Book 9, Chapter 5
Two-Man War
When Julian popped out from the void, he was a few hundred kilometres away from Faust.
“YOUR MAJESTY!” he screamed in alarm, zipping back towards the city at top speed. However, tears quickly lined his face as he realised that the battle would be done by the time he got there.
From the moment he’d seen Richard today, he had felt fear piercing deep into his heart. It made him conscious of the fact that Richard’s powers had grown to an unbelievable degree, to the point that Apeiron judged that he would require her full power to contend against.
Such a battle would shred him to pieces if he so much as made contact with any of the combatants, but Julian pulled on all of his power to head towards Faust at mind-numbing speeds. He knew clearly that Richard and Apeiron would fight until one side was dead or close to it; there would be no way for either to calm down until then. He wasn’t afraid of his own death, only that he would be of no use to the woman he served with all his heart.
He had always considered himself a mere servant, and would be happy if he could distract Richard for even a moment before dying. However, Her Majesty had used precious energy to vault him away just as the battle started. At such levels of power, this was a momentary gap that could allow for a fatal attack. Even in the depths of his heart, he had never even hoped for such care from her, but now he felt like stabbing himself for it.
……
Back in the palace, Richard remained motionless and let the opportunity slip away. He raised a brow towards Apeiron, “Didn’t think you were the type to show concern.”
"I’m better at showing death, especially to trespassers."
“Heh, I want to show death too. Especially to the one who came up with this stonelord nonsense.”
Apeiron’s eyes turned purple, “Come on, what are you waiting for?”
"Alright, I’m coming." Richard stood up, casually throwing his swords to the corners of the hall. He walked towards Apeiron unarmed, his muscles throbbing as he gathered strength. A piece of armour surfaced on his body with every step, before sinking back within. By the time he was before her, armour had covered all of him before melding into his skin.
“Midren?” Apeiron raised a brow.
“Specially improved, just for you.”
“Doesn’t seem like much.”
“You’ll know when you—”
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!* Without any warning, the two struck each other at the same time. Three strikes were released in an instant, dark cracks appearing in the space between them. However, the explosions weren’t strong enough to force either side away.
Apeiron’s fists turned purple, her next punch heading straight for Richard’s chest. However, Richard didn’t even attempt to dodge as he held his hand straight open, the fingers jabbing towards her forehead.
Danger! Apeiron instinctively waved her hands to push away the attack, abandoning her own as she was launched a dozen metres away into the walls. She walked out without much damage, her gaze now fixated on the red line that still hadn’t vanished from the sky. The surroundings of that beam started trembling, as did her own soul in fear of pure destruction.
"What is that?”
“Lifesbane, 36 layers. How does it look?”
“Even 300 would be useless,” her eyes flashed purple.
“You’ll know when you try it,” Richard finished this time, retreating to one corner to pick up Moonlight and slash into empty space.
Apeiron’s figure appeared right as he cut down, as though she was delivering herself to his blade. She grunted and reached out to deflect the blade, but a red flash blinded her for a moment and the sword was quickly coated with fresh blood. The Empress shrieked and retreated, but not in time to dodge Richard’s kick.
Caught in an awkward position, Apeiron could only block the leg with a fist. Muffled groans rang out as they made contact, Richard’s face flushing with blood while a purple hue flashed across her own as she was flung away.
He hissed and brandished Moonlight once more, starting to send out a torrent of attacks that seemed to have no purpose. However, Apeiron’s figure flickered right next to each attack, barely able to dodge the bright red lines in time.
She eventually gave up, retreating and disappearing entirely from view. Her figure started to blur as she reached speeds that even Richard couldn’t track, only phantom images left in his vision. However, Richard stood motionless and tracked the disturbances in the laws all around, timing each strike just as they started to fluctuate.
The attacks missed her by mere inches, threatening to cut Apeiron into half if she made the slightest error. Similarly, her counterattack would claim Richard’s life in an instant if he made an error in judgement. Tens, hundreds… they quickly reached thousands of strikes a second, the red lines forming a large net that covered every corner of the hall.
Richard’s heart was calm as ice, his own conscious mind retreating and allowing instincts to take over. However, it was only moments after entering this state that he felt no disturbance in his trajectory, forced to take back control and thrust behind himself instead. The edge seemed to near Apeiron’s skin this time, but he suddenly felt like a dragon had swatted him with a paw, groaning as he staggered forwards.
Debilitating pain assaulted his organs, as though there were sharp disks cutting all the way through his body. Apeiron’s attack was tyrannical as always, ripping his barriers apart and wreaking havoc within his body. He activated the abyssal heart, a pump of vicious energy extinguishing whatever was left, but without his other hearts tempering this strength he only added to his injuries. His cheeks quickly flushed red, blood starting to trickle from the corners of his lips.
Flashing back into existence, Apeiron sneered at Richard. A thin red line had formed on her arm, bearable even by commoners, but she had inflicted serious damage in return.
However, her laughs only rang out a few times before her face warped from joy to shock, snapping down to look at her injury. It seemed like a pair of invisible hands were tearing the wound apart by force, breaking the flesh down into a bloody mist. The tiny scratch quickly turned into a bone-deep wound!
Apeiron’s bones were a deep purple in colour as well, filled with symbols upon them. Richard immediately recognised the symbols to be from the divine tongue of chaos, a realisation that left his expression grave. Her control of laws had reached a point where she had managed to rebuild her entire skeleton!
Apeiron stared at the terrifying wound that had torn off half of her arm. She had thought she was dominant mere moments ago, but this flipped the tables entirely. She was clearly worse off from this exchange.
It was Richard’s turn to sneer, “How does that feel? Oof, looks like you’ll be dead in one solid hit.”
Her eyes blazed at this taunt, “But can you actually hit me?”
“Why not try?”
Richard brandished his blade once more, and Apeiron’s figure quickly dissolved into nothing. The palace started to quiver from each exchange, the fight lasting a few more seconds before they sprung apart. This time, he was the one sent flying, tracing an arc of blood through the sky. His back was mutilated, with a piece of flesh torn away to expose the bone underneath.
He only glanced at the blood dripping from her fingernails, ignoring her sneer as he stabbed Moonlight into the floor and moved towards the Judge. He shot around with a wide slash, almost shearing Apeiron’s nose off in the process. The Empress barely dodged and appeared behind him, but he unleashed a barrage of chaotic attacks that left her unable to predict his next move.
Apeiron grew a little apprehensive, but when she reappeared at the end of the hall Richard groaned as another large wound was opened in his abdomen. His body started leaking flesh and blood, but he paid no attention as the Judge continued to send dozens of attacks her way. She was quickly cut into pieces, but that turned out to be a mere phantom as the real one had escaped.
Richard stabbed right into thin air, pulling Apeiron out from the void. She grabbed the back of the blade with a hand to try and pull it away, but her face suddenly changed and she recoiled in fear. The brief contact had felt like her soul was bitten into, dropping her speed as well. A whirlwind of attacks took a hold of this opportunity, almost managing to strike her a few times as well. Although this tangle ended with Richard getting hit as well, caution was starting to crawl up her face.