Nature Energy surged violently around her. The trees' bark began fracturing with luminous emerald veins as leaves vaporized into motes of raw Nature Energy, feeding the transformation rather than fleeing from it. The ground split open in concentric fractures. Emerald flames covered her entire body. Her eyes were barely visible through the flames.
"Genesis, Catharticum."
Unlike ordinary fire, these flames were born directly from Nature Energy, bypassing combustion entirely. They did not require oxygen. Catharticum was meant for purification. Anything Elyonari perceived as a threat was subject to purification. The flames did not distinguish between moral good and evil. It only purified those Elyonari saw as dangerous.
Her eyes, now pools of condensed emerald light, glared onto Acidia. For the first time since her emergence, the Forgotten Rank Krepsuna did not smile.
"Ah. So this is your Divine Transformation. I was wondering when you'd stop holding yourself back."
Elyonari did not respond. She raised one hand before the sky tore open.
Emerald Mystic Circles appeared in midair, rotating with clockwork precision. From each mystic circle, flame arrows materialized. Each arrow was a spear of compressed emerald fire.
Hundreds of arrows flew down, each one moving independently and correcting their trajectory mid-flight as though guided by instinct. They struck the forest like bombs. Entire sections of terrain were reduced to glowing trenches and craters. A single arrow grazed a hill in the distance that collapsed.
Acidia's humanoid form dissolved into a flowing mass of acid, slipping between arrows milliseconds before impact. Where emerald flames met corrosive matter, Nature Energy and Krepsuna acid clashed violently, neither willing to yield. Entire arrows dissolved mid-flight, detonating into shockwaves that flattened kilometers of forest cover.
Acidia reconstituted behind Elyonari. Her arm had already been reshaped into a serrated acid blade aimed at the base of Elyonari's neck.
Elyonari turned and met it head-on.
She summoned emerald flames as a construct. Where Acidia's blade made contact, the flames got brighter, attempting to purify the corrosive substance outright. Acidia hissed, tearing her arm back as chunks of her acid form were forcibly neutralized, converted into inert green crystal that shattered to the ground.
"Your Divinity really is unfair."
A continuous beam of emerald fire came out of her palm, carving a trench through the battlefield so deep the bedrock glowed white-hot. The beam chased Acidia as she fled, melting terrain and turning entire sections of land. Acidia barely escaped. Her body kept splitting apart and reforming repeatedly as the beam struck her again and again. Each regeneration took longer now. Each reconstruction left her form less stable. Still, she laughed.
"Oh, I missed this!"
Acidia jumped on pillars of solidified acid. She retaliated with acidic spikes fired in seconds. One struck Elyonari's side. The impact tore through emerald flames. Elyonari staggered as her healing struggled to keep up. Unlike Acidia's grotesque regeneration, Elyonari's healing was not as strong.
Emerald blood spilled onto the ground and Acidia noticed instantly.
"Oh? So you do bleed."
Elyonari managed to endure despite the pain. She raised both arms. From the ground erupted emerald flame pillars, forming fire beams that charged toward Acidia from every direction. The Forgotten Rank Krepsuna countered with tens of thousands of acid using her manipulation that deflected, corroded and dissolved flame after flame.
Above Elyonari, who was currently floating right now, summoned a giant Mystic Circle manifested. It was vast enough to cover the canopy. Its circumference stretched across the sky. Elyonari stood beneath it, looking down at Acidia with a murderous expression.
A beam of emerald fire descended.
A vertical beam slammed into the earth with a force so absolute that sound ceased to exist within its radius. The impact excavated a massive crater kilometers wide. Shockwaves flattened distant hills and tearing past of the massive forest apart.
Acidia barely escaped.
Her body split into countless acidic shards, each one sacrificing itself to slow the beam's advance. Even then, the fire purified entire portions of her for, leaving almost nothing behind to regenerate from. She reassembled at the crater's edge, kneeling for the first time since this battle began. Her breathing was uneven and her regeneration was visibly lagging. She wiped corrosive residue from her face.
"Divine Transformations consume obscene amounts of energy. Even Deities burn out if they overextend. How does she still have that much Nature Energy?"
She searched for signs but found none. Elyonari's Divine Presence remained inexhaustible. The realization struck her immediately. Acidia's pupils contracted.
"Wait. That's not it."
Genesis was not consuming her. That was the truth Acidia had missed.
Unlike most Divine Transformations, which cannibalizes their user's internal energy reserves in exchange for godlike output, Genesis did not draw from Elyonari at all. It was not powered by her Nature Energy. Genesis used the Nature Energy of the surrounding world. As long as Elyonari stood within any environment that could be classified as nature, she would siphon Nature Energy directly into itself. All this time, she had not been exhausting herself.
"Unbelievable. You're not burning out because you can't. You turned endurance into a weapon."
Even Acidia, a Forgotten Rank Krepsuna who could rival Deities, felt it now. This fight was no longer about who hit harder. It was about who would last.
"Damn it. If I don't get serious, I can actually die here."
For the first time, the Krepsuna did not grin.
She exhaled slowly, letting the corrosive energy within her settle into a lethal equilibrium. She raised her hands, causing her acid to surge violently around her.
"Alright, High Priestess. You win. I'll stop underestimating you."
Acidia disappeared.
Elyonari twisted on instinct with her bow already in her hand. The string was pulled back so hard but the arrow never reached its target. The moment it entered the space Acidia occupied, the arrow head sizzled as corrosive vapor ate through the divine material like wet paper. The arrow collapsed into a hiss of green smoke mid-flight.
Acidia appeared behind her as her fist connected with Elyonari's back.
Elyonari's body carved a deep trench through the forest floor, destroy the forest further before finally crashing to a halt kilometers away. Her flames flickered violently as she forced herself to stand.
"Okay. So that's how serious looks."
Acidia rolled her neck once with acid dripping from her knuckles.
"You rely too much on distance. That's an archer's bad habit."
Elyonari fired hundreds of flame arrows that filled the canopy, moving toward Acidia in trajectories designed to leave no angle of escape. Acidia flew walked through them.
Every arrow that came within a meter of her body collapsed into black haze. They were eaten away by a corrosive presence. What shocked Elyonari that Acidia was an expert in martial arts. Her footwork was tight. Her center of gravity was flawless. She slipped inside Elyonari's guard, ducked under a sweeping flame-enhanced kick and drove an elbow into Elyonari's ribs hard enough to crack her Divine Transformation.
Elyonari retaliated instantly.
Emerald flames exploded from her forearms as she swung, turning her punches into blazing arcs of purifying fire and causing a sonic boom from the impact. Acidia blocked with crossed arms. Acid met flame in violent reactions that created shockwaves, flattening what little remained of the forest.
They exchanged blows at point-blank range.
Each strike landed with enough force to reshape terrain. Acidia's blows were precise strikes aimed at joints and weaknesses in Elyonari's stance. Elyonari answered with overwhelming force. Her emerald flames got stronger every time her fists blocked or hit, trying to burn through Acidia's regeneration faster than it could recover.
But Genesis Phase One had limits. Catharticum was only the fire element. She can't use any other elements unless she got to Phase Two. No matter how powerful her flames were, Acidia's acid was adapting. Her regeneration was recalibrating after every exchange.
Her body shook as another punch slammed into her abdomen, sending her skidding backward, She clenched her teeth.
"Damn it."
She couldn't keep this up.
Acidia vanished again, reappearing above her this time. Her leg came down in a brutal axe kick. Elyonari raised both arms with her flames reinforcing her guard. The impact drove her into the ground, creating a crater so deep it exposed the bedrock. Elyonari gasped. Her flames flickered wildly as she forced herself to breathe. Acidia landed lightly at the crater's edge, watching her.
"You're durable but you're held back by your own phase."
Elyonari pushed herself up slowly. Her breathing was heavy now. Her body hurt.
"Yes. Good."
The earth trembled. Everything beneath her feet surged as Genesis responded to her will. She drew more Nature Energy through herself. Acidia felt it immediately. Her eyes widened slightly.
"You're switching..."
"Second Phase, Terrium."
She kicked the air.
The ground beneath Acidia erupted. Massive slabs of earth tore free and launched themselves upward. Acidia leapt back but Elyonari was already moving. With her fist ignited with both flame and earth, her move was two elements spiraling together in perfect synchronization. She crossed the distance in a single step.
Her punch connected.
Earth and fire hit Acidia through the landscape, carving a massive trench that stretched across the horizon. A horizontal beam of fire—residual force from Catharticum—tore through the air behind the punch, shearing through the hills and turning everything in its path into ruin. Acidia slammed into a distant cliff, causing the rock to liquefy on impact.
For several seconds, nothing moved. Acidia pulled herself free after she adjusted to her situation. Her regeneration was slower now but her smile had returned.
"There it is. That's what I wanted to see."
Across the shattered forest, Elyonari was floating above her, surrounded by green flames and dust.