★276
THIRD POV
Somewhere within Solaria, she stepped out onto the balcony after finishing her experiment. The air was calm, yet something about it felt unsettled, as though the space itself had been disturbed. She paused mid-step, her brows tightening before her eyes widened slightly in recognition of something wrong.
At first, it was faint, almost indistinguishable, a trace of mass void and death flickering at the edge of perception before vanishing entirely, leaving no residue behind. She focused harder, her expression sharpening as she tried to confirm whether it had truly been there or if it was just an afterimage of her senses.
Then she saw it properly. An armed Star had entered Solaria.
(Thanks to the Crimson Moon and Phoenix, Elara wasn't able to detect the void and death. Acamar noticed it but didn't intervene.)
It was Mors, the God Class sword, Absolith. A blade that embodies pure, absolute truth. So absolute that it severs everything false, bound, or incomplete.
Absolith is a transcendent sword forged to embody Absolute Severance, the power to cut through all forms of connection, existence, and essence. With Ontologions supporting its powers, severance is inevitable. Even if it's not, it is.
"Black Sun."
Her sword ignited in jet-black flames as she brought it down.
The strike severed through space itself, reducing Belenos's palace to ash in an instant. The destruction did not stop at the structure. The flames spread outward, erasing everything they touched and turning it into nothing but dust. What had taken billions of years to form was undone in seconds.
Belenos stared at her, irritation burning in her gaze.
"How dare you… Grace from Heaven!"
She roared and began forming a spell, but Mors had no intention of prolonging the fight. She moved first. A single swing of Absolith released a clean shockwave that neutralised Belenos's attack completely, cancelling it mid-formation.
It was a perfectly neutral strike, neither destructive nor defensive in nature, only absolute cancellation.
Caught off guard, Belenos hesitated for the briefest moment, and Mors immediately used the opening.
"Serpent's Maw."
Mors lunged forward at impossible speed, her blade aimed directly for Belenos's heart.
The moment their powers collided, a violent surge of energy erupted from Belenos and forced her back, pushing her out of range.
"Unbound."
At the command, a dagger formed in Belenos's hand. She brought it down in a clean motion, dispersing the surrounding aura instantly. But Absolith reacted just as fast. Its edge cut across Belenos's shoulder, narrowly evading her counter.
The Diety of Sun's aura flared violently, the star within her igniting with rising intensity, yet the wound did not close. It remained fixed, irreversible, as though that part of her had been permanently erased.
"I don't understand… why are you attacking me? Are you Voidlings making a move?"
"What I'm doing doesn't matter. Containing you does."
Mors replied without hesitation, shifting her grip as she swung her sword again with controlled precision.
"Just know I'll take extreme measures to remove you. I will await judgment for it."
Belenos summoned her lance, and Mors made no attempt to deactivate it this time.
The two closed distance instantly. Their weapons clashed mid-air, force against force. Belenos wielded a lance of immense power, yet it still fell short of the God-Class blade in Mors's possession, a weapon forged by the First Light himself. In pure technique, Mors also held the advantage. And gradually, Belenos was pushed back, step by step, until she was forced into a corner.
"Enough!"
Her voice cracked through the battlefield as she unleashed the energy she had been gathering in secret. It surged instantly to the tip of her lance, fully manifesting at last.
"That again? But will it actually work?"
"I'll hear it from you once you've resurrected. Light of Destruction!"
The attack was unleashed, flooding the entire space in overwhelming brilliance. Light swallowed everything in its path, erasing distance, colour, and definition itself.
In the middle of it all, Mors moved without haste. She slipped off her right glove and stood perfectly still, waiting. Two seconds passed exactly, nothing more, nothing less, as she held her ground within the blinding radiance.
"Taste inevitability. Embrace of Silence."
A black fog charged towards the light despite the short distance.
By the slightest touch, the light exploded and the next second there was silence, no light, no sound, no distortion. The Light of Destruction was gone. Belenos asked, unable to grasp reality.
"Wh...what just happened?"
Belenos asked, surprised. She'd never seen anything like this before. Something so catastrophic to be silenced with a single gesture.
"It died."
"Died?"
Mors calmly nodded.
"Don't give me that crap!"
Frustrated, she was triggered, releasing her aura and energy at the same time.
"Arc of Severance."
Mors whispered softly as her hand swept downward, disabling her aura field, energy, and Arcanocysts. In the very next instant, she was before her, a blur of calm precision and touched Belenos with her now-gloved palm.
Belenos's body convulsed, crushed under invisible chains, because she was chained. Without a word, Mors turned and began to walk away.
"Defeat?"
Belenos questioned, her voice no longer on edge. It was as of she'd given up already.
"Deathbound, your fate is in my hands. But I'd be a coward to kill you at your weakest. I am not a coward."
She said.
"I've indeed used up a lot during my spar with the Star Dragon. So you took that opportunity and attacked."
"Perfect timing it is."
Mors added calmly, her voice carrying a quiet finality before she snapped her fingers. In that instant, Belenos's consciousness froze, her mind locked, her body collapsing to her knees, chained, motionless, and unaware. Neosis itself had been affected.
"Cleared."
She reported mechanically & Kenos replied telepathically.
'Good. We meet on the other side.'
"Got it. Just like Phoenix, I have a few Arts to test."
She cracked a smile and her sword released jet black flames.
...
..
.
To be continued...