★254
Already tamed most of the God Class weapons, Mors spread his palm and the God Class Sword of Absolute Severance, Absolith, materialised on it. He held the blade, and it began to glow.
"Oh, so I see. You came here to destroy me. How brave of you. In that case..."
Adhara raised his hand and conjured an azure lightning bolt.
"You've been found guilty, taste Judgment. Decree of Lightning."
'Arc of Severance.'
Mors countered. The arc that can cut the Ethereal Filaments should've been enough to parry the bolt and destroy Adhara but...
With a thunderous roar, the bolt was released and it effortlessly struck down the arc striking Mors once again.
"It doesn't matter how strong you are. Your sins are recorded and you'll be punished based on your moral weight. Additionally, the more guilty I assign, the more devastating the strike."
The divine thunder did not fade. It continued to build, layer upon layer, as though it would not stop until its target was erased, or until the Judge chose to end it.
But Mors stood apart. He was an anomaly, something that did not fit within the order this power was meant to enforce.
Within the storm, his form remained. Cracks spread across his obsidian armour, but not from the lightning. The force striking him was immense, yet it was not what broke him. It was omething else.
From within, a dark, oppressive aura began to leak out, seeping through the fractures, pushing against the divine thunder itself. It was heavy, suffocating. The armour continued to splinter, not under judgement, but under what was trying to escape.
"It's useless, the more you resist, the more it adapts and crushes you."
The sound of vibration escaped within the divine thunder and in one gulp, death overcame divine judgemet
Mors stood before Adhara, his armour was fractured, pieces barely holding together, yet what remained of it felt heavier than before. In his hand rested a black scythe, its form unstable, shifting with a chaotic presence that refused to settle.
'The S...scythe of Unwritten? Lightness, it's oo late to dodge.'
Adhara's eyes widened for a brief moment before Mors brought the scythe down.
With a single thought, the void around them flooded with azure energy, bending to his will as he prepared for the impact.
The scythe struck abd his arm was severed instantly.
He forced himself back, flipping away to create distance, but Mors did not relent. Another strike came at once, relentless and precise.
Adhara steadied himself. He knew what that weapon was. The Scythe of Unwritten did not simply cut like normal weapons. Panic would only make it worse. So he stayed calm.
Each swing came faster than the last, yet he avoided them, shifting just enough each time, his movements controlled.
'Impossible… not a single hit?'
Mors paused, clearly unsettled, and when he finally took in his surroundings, he realised that his body had been lined with arcs of azure energy while the space around him had already been torn apart, with numerous rifts quietly forming within reality itself.
'That's to be expected. The Scythe releases rampant Energy arcs, severing anything. Due to its nature, even the wielder is not exempt from its danger, as the arc of its strike could just as easily turn back and land upon them. Now, how the hell does he remain unscathed? It cannot be luck.'
"You're an O-Class, you should be familiar with the Supreme Art, God's Patience."
'If that's the case then it'll be hard to land a solid hit but...'
His grip tightens and the scythe responds to his power, giving off a dark violet glow.
With that, he took off attacking Adhara but unlike before, he's been cornered. With Mors releasing ten arcs per second, no matter how fast Adhara is, he won't escape unscathed. He simply kept dodging while taking minimal damage thanks to God's Patience.
'The Scythe releases unblockable arcs made of Energy forces. This was a void moments ago, but I just created azure energy, and the Scythe is using it as a medium to strike me. I can tip this outcome anytime I want, but we're short on time so I prefer to end this quickly.'
Having a feeling that everything is in control, Adhara allowed himself to be cornered on all sides with invisible arcs descending on him.
(I'm not interchanging anything. It uses both energy[star, magic, azure...] and Energy itself to create arcs.)
He spread his arm and countered.
"Azure Mandate."
The arcs themselves are made of energy, azure energy to be precise. With this, he's able to convert all hostile attacks into his own with ten times the original effects into divine lightning spares.
Each spear has a divine writ that tracks down its target across space and time. There is no way out for Mors. However, Mors isn't your regular Dark Star though. He's not the type to run away.
The lightning spares were hurled at Mors, but he simply repelled them with his death, which is superior to energy.
'Ineffective, as expected.'
He called off the spears and with his unmatched speed, he appeared behind Adhara releasing his intimidating death aura.
Despite his best efforts to keep a straight face, Adhara's instincts failed him, and he was forced to turn around to defend himself. His face was full of surprise, shock and fear.
Due to his current expression, God's Patience which can only work when the user remains calm in the presence of an overwhelming adversary was deactivated, and the Art can no longer protect him.
He raised both arms and braced for impact.
'As expected of an O Class...'
His thoughts were cut short the moment the Death Rapier pierced his arm. Mors, who had been on the offensive, looked up in surprise, his gaze drawn to a golden scale that had appeared above them, its balance tipping to the left. In the next instant, an unseen force struck him and hurled him away.
Adhara remained where he stood, his left forearm dripping white blood.
'If I had activated Aequilibria even a moment too late, I would have been finished. Thanks to Chronotheon, I barely made it out of that.'
Behind him stood an enormous golden Scale of Justice, Aequilibria and the Wheel of Time, Chronotheon. This is the peak Battle Form of the God of Judgement, Adhara.
Mors, thrown out into the void, recovered at once and surged back through the non-distance space at a speed that defied measure.
"Don't keep me waiting."
Adhara said, his tone steady, almost provoking.
Everything shifted in an instant. Chronotheon pulsed, a sharp vibration running through it, and Mors' speed surged beyond his own control, dragging him forward faster than he could react, closing the distance before he even realised it.
"You have violated Divine Law and attempted to kill the Judge. You are hereby found guilty."
Adhara raised his palm towards him. Aequilibria tilted slightly to the left, and unseen chains formed at once, binding Mors mid-charge.
Adhara stepped in without hesitation. His fist, wrapped in azure light, struck Mors' mask, the impact cracking it and sending him hurtling back.
Chronotheon settled, returning to its original state before making a single, deliberate turn clockwise.
With his power amplified tenfold, Adhara surged forward. In moments, he closed the gap, finding Mors suspended in the air, held in place by the unseen restraints.
Mors answered with force. A dark aura spread from him, heavy with death, before he fired a void beam directly at the Scale of Justice but it was ineffective.
"These two relics exist in a plane beyond what you can influence. You are simply looking at its reflection."
Adhara explained looking back at Aequilibria. This was an opening and Mors took advantage of it. Chronotheon vibrated slowly before taking three anticlockwise turns.
In reality, the distance Mors could cover instantly took him two seconds to reach Adhara and with that, he had fallen into the latter's trap unknowingly.
Mors was about to strike down Adhara when all of a sudden he found himself in his previous location before moving.
Surprised as to how a being like him who's unbound by time falls into such tricks, Adhara took hold of the situation and attacked. Not to mention this is a void, concepts are inapplicable and there's no time to stop.
Chronotheon turned twice anticlockwise before steadying itself, then followed with three deliberate clockwise rotations as it regained balance.
(Regaining balance means returning to 0 with moving +1 or -1.)
Wreathed in azure lightning, a blazing bolt crackling in his grasp, Adhara lunged forward, but Mors's reflexes were flawless. He caught the strike barehanded, then drove his other hand straight into Adhara's chest, unleashing death and void in one devastating surge.
'This will end him…'
Mors held onto that thought, certain that this strike would settle everything.
Before the moment could complete itself, something unseen struck his face. The impact came with the sharp crash of metal, sudden and precise, as though it had already happened before he could react.
Mors's focus broke, as he remained frozen in place. Adhara stood before him, untouched, his expression unchanged as he looked down.
'The first anticlockwise turn rewinds any damage taken within the last second. The three clockwise turns manifest an attack from my future, placing them beyond your ability to react.'
Selling his trump card only means his death so he stayed silent.
"If you cannot see what comes next, you cannot escape it."
He remained still, watching Mors closely, waiting for whatever lay beneath the mask to finally reveal itself.
Amidst the storm of crackling lightning dancing across his face, Mors exhaled a single breath that snuffed out the tempest. Her bloodshot crimson eyes rose to meet Adhara's gaze, burning with restrained fury as her pure white hair drifted softly in the still air. A fresh wound marred her flawless skin, streaking it with vivid crimson.
'A..a woman? Mors was a she?'
All along, everyone thought Mors was a masculine figure due to the armour but in reality, she's not.
To be continued...