★255
"You're the first Hypergod brat… Adhara, yes?"
She asked, her gaze fixed on him, sharp enough to cut through the space between them.
"That's me."
"You've gone beyond expectations."
She said, studying him more carefully now.
"I never thought a Class beneath O-Class could hold their ground against me… let alone expose who I am and draw my blood."
Her finger brushed across the wound, dragging through the blood as though testing it, her expression unreadable as she watched him.
"I am chosen, I am blessed."
Without a word, an aura spilled from Mors's body.
This time, it was not death in its lesser sense. It was Death itself. The presence alone was enough. Her obsidian armour around her gave way, stripped apart as though it had no right to exist in its presence.
Adhara answered immediately. His own aura surged outward, meeting hers head-on, pressing against it in an attempt to assert dominance.
For a moment, the two forces clashed in silence.
Then her aura receded. With the armour gone, black clothing was revealed beneath. It was simple, unadorned, yet carrying the same oppressive weight as before. Darkness gathered in her hand, condensing with purpose until it formed a long, slender blade.
"I don't need an armour nor do I need an actual blade. I'll beat you to a pulp and make you a living servant."
"Such overconfidence. You clearly couldn't do much with the God Class..."
She moved faster than before, closing the distance in an instant and catching him off guard. Aequilibria made a single anticlockwise turn. She noticed it and smiled.
Her blade slipped from her grasp, and she stepped in, fists clenched, unleashing a relentless barrage aimed only at his face. Each strike landed with precision, leaving no room for recovery.
'Only the damage within the last second is rewound… so he's not getting out of this.'
Chronotheon steadied itself and turned three times anticlockwise, attempting to undo the last two seconds of the exchange.
'It's already been over a minute, she thought, her smile widening. You're subtracting seconds from something far beyond that. It changes nothing.'
The effect took hold, but just as she expected, it wasn't enough. The assault continued without interruption.
Chronotheon vibrated again, forcing balance before turning ten times anticlockwise. This time, the battlefield itself shifted, dragging everything back twenty seconds. Time fractured under the strain, and in the moment just before her next strike, they slipped into the past.
Adhara staggered for a fraction of a second, the memory of what had yet to happen still fresh in his mind. Pain lingered, her movements remembered and patterns revealed. For this brief window, he knew exactly what she would do.
Aequilibria tilted halfway to the right. A Heavy Verdict fell upon her the moment she moved to attack.
Nonetheless, she did not stop. Her fist drove forward regardless, slamming into his jaw with full force.
'I've seen this before.'
From her back, Death surged outward, swallowing the divine lightning entirely. The Heavy Verdict vanished, undone by something that stood outside it. She continued her assault, reducing him to nothing more than a target under her fists.
'H… how?'
There was no concept to grasp, no rule to follow. Yet something beyond their understanding was shaping these very laws.
'Meta… the wheel lies beyond what we know. Then this… this is possible.'
Chronotheon steadied once more and turned seven times anticlockwise, dragging past trauma into the present.
Mors remained unaffected by her deeds. They was no trauma, just death and pleasure.
Without pause, Chronotheon corrected itself again and turned ten times clockwise, preparing to force the future into reality.
With that, he struck it out completely, erasing the humiliation as though it had never taken place, wiping the past clean without leaving a trace behind.
Adhara steadied himself, his gaze fixed on Mors, who still carried that same careless look, as though none of it had ever mattered.
"That won't help you."
She said with a faint grin.
"What will you do when I rush you again?"
Adhara did not answer, the anger already tightening within him as he snapped, and Aequilibria came crashing down in response.
"Eat this."
In that instant, Mors' fate rested entirely in his hands, whether to erase, seal, or end her however he pleased. This only works after a deep confrontation, giving the relic the time to understand and steal the target's vital code. The rest is up to the user.
"Get lost… and be forgotten."
She tried to move but could not, as azure rods struck and immobilised her.
Her form beginning to dismantle under the weight of judgement. She laughed softly, unfazed, almost amused even as her existence unravelled.
"So this is what you are."
She said.
"You can't even finish it with your own hands. You rely on tricks. All of you… cowards."
In a single breath, she was gone, not merely slain but erased, her body dissolved, her concept torn apart, her story removed from the Starverse entirely, leaving no trace behind.
Adhara trembled, fury tightening through him at her final words, but there was nothing left to strike, nothing left to answer, only the hatred he could no longer return.
"Diavolos is here. I'll deal with him."
He murmured.
Just as he moved, a warm hand rested on his shoulder, and a calm, almost gentle voice followed.
"Not so fast, coward… did you really think erasing me would stop me?"
Recognising the voice instantly, Chronotheon vibrated and distorted time as Adhara swung back without hesitation, yet his strike cut through empty space as she had already moved behind him.
"Too slow."
Her hand struck his back with a sharp, careless blow, sending the God of Judgement forward before he could regain control.
She cut him off mid-motion, fingers wreathed in searing death as she seized a fistful of his hair and yanked his head back. With brutal force, she slammed him into the nearest Drop, its structure detonating instantly beneath the impact, unable to withstand his weight.
Adhara's body was flung like a ragdoll, tearing through countless Drops before finally grinding to a halt, battered, his pride crushed beneath the echo of her dominance.
'As expected of an O-Class Dark Star. She's way stronger than me however. If I have to win, I have to use that.'
Slowing descended into the half-destroyed Drop like an angel or a devil perhaps, Mors explained.
"I'm not your regular death bound by the shackles of the Transpeon Essence. I'm Death beyond that. Death from a True Unshackled Absence. Though the Silver Essence gave birth to Reality, Existence and Nonexistence. I'm not there yet, but soon, I will acquire the power to turn not only the Star Realm but the Beta Omega Layer and the Shell itself into black ashes."
She paused, looking down on him.
"With the assassination of the Star Dragon being my first, this is my second-longest battle ever. Rejoice, coward, for your death was earned."
She swiped her palm and Chronotheon turned to black ash and disappeared.
"Just because it's existing in the Meta Plane, doesn't mean I cannot be kill it."
She grinned.
"You'll regret this!"
With Chronotheon gone, Adhara snapped and let his feelings take control. He snapped his fingers calling forth his Divine Will.
At that very moment, Aequilibria slightly tilts to the right side for the first time. Its effect was to drain his energy faster. This means he's heading down the wrong path when delivering Judgement.
"Scantum Judicium."
The moment his arm fell, a court took form around them.
Mors stood at its centre as divine tribunals of light emerged, surrounding her, their presence nigh omnipotent in this space.
Aequilibria tilted halfway, sealing one of her Arts, yet Adhara pressed on regardless, forcing the judgement further than he should have.
"By the Will of the Supreme Star God… taste judgement from the God of Judgement. Grace Beam."
With Mors held in place, the Grace Beam gathered without delay and fired straight at her.
Then, at the final moment, Aequilibria dropped fully to the right. And this time, the shift was absolute. His judgement was cut off instantly, the Grace Beam collapsing as the scale released a counterpulse that swept across the battlefield, clearing away the Scantum Judicium entirely.
The court dissolved faster than it had appeared.
This was not Mors's doing. It was his own failure.
Adhara had allowed his emotions to take hold, pushing his judgement beyond its limit, and the right side of Aequilibria answered as it was meant to, intervening to restrain the Judge himself and prevent him from acting without balance.
Even though Mors is a formidable for, the Star God's relics had to obey their rules.
"I see. I still have something else."
Nonetheless, Adhara pushed further.
"You Arts betrayed you and you still wanna fight me? I'll gladly deliver you to death."
This is a war of course she won't stay put and let him do as he pleases.
With a snap of her fingers, the thin, long sword from earlier solidified, slicing through the air at incredible speed, though time seemed to slow around her as she closed in.
"Die."
The word came from nowhere, sharp and commanding. A blade forged of pure lightning met hers, clashing in a shockwave that split the surrounding air.
'How is he subjecting me to time flow after destroying the wheel?'
He gathered his strength and pushed her back, but it wasn't enough, and Mors had to discover the source disrupting her movement.
She struck again, yet a time lag delayed the landing of her attack.
'Nothing seems odd, so…'
She flipped backwards, creating distance between them.
She swung her the Death Rapier in a casual practice form before launching another attack at incredible speed, yet the temporal lag persisted.
"I see. Do you think you're some great swords-star? I'll teach you a lesson."
She taunted, still not taking the fight seriously, forcing him into a swordplay duel.
After five clashes, the result was clear: while Adhara's swords-star-ship was insanely superior, Mors matched her completely. She drew blood from his skin five times while defending against his strikes, emerging unscathed each time.
"Oops, you've lost."
She swung to finish him, but her blade seemed to meet nothing, not because of the temporal distortion, but something else entirely. Adhara seized the opening and struck, and she barely escaped with a fresh wound on her cheek.
"Not bad."
She said, wiping the blood trail.
"Honestly, not bad."
Not wanting to give up, she gave her all, and Adhara did the same, resulting in a fierce clash of swords.
The same as before, Mors was frequently being subjected to a time lag the moment she struck him personally, and out of ten strikes, two were unable to manifest.
Despite his advantage, Mors was taking the lead here. She drew more blood from him with each eight strikes while Adhara was able to deliver two clean blows at minimum thanks to his hidden skill.
"What? You're still losing with your sword's ability to delay my strikes as well as erase my ability to act? A coward is a coward even with a causality manipulating trick."
She mocked him, and his anger only grew.
'Looks like Cronostrike Verdict is no longer useful.'
After drawing more than enough blood and gaining superiority over Adhara, Mors was about to end it all.
With her thin sword, its edge steeped in death she swung down, tearing through the time distortion and killing causality outright. Adhara raised his lightning sword to intercept, but it shattered instantly.
She didn't pause. The second strike came before the fragments turned to ashes. He threw both arms up next, the blade carved clean through them.
Only then did she twist her blade for the finishing cut, the killing line aimed straight for his neck.
With nothing left, he forced his body forward, trapping the sword between his head and shoulder, buying himself one second.
'Looks like I have no choice!'
Mors channelled her death to decapitate him, but when he opened his mouth, it was too over.
Just above his tongue was a wheel of time that resembled Chronotheon but had only two turns.
"Meta Time Stop."
He murmured, and everything froze. The Time about time was commanded, and it had no choice but to cease every movement.
To be continued...