Ascension of the last Celestial

The void lightning-enhanced punch came fast. Goran, who already didn’t have the highest speed, wasn’t able to react or bring up his arms in defense.

And honestly, he didn’t need to. Because his [Tectonic Armor] was more than capable of defending against a punch from Valerian; it didn’t matter how angry he was, the beastman was still an SS-rank fighter that specialized in defense.

But it wasn’t the damage the punch could do that made Goran want to protect himself; it was the glowing purple eyes filled with anger that moved something inside him and, even though he could just tank the hit, made him want to move.

Alas, his speed was below Valerian’s, and the punch connected cleanly with the armor protecting his face.

As the punch connected, Goran used his kinetic affinity to divert all the force behind the punch into his own fist, causing him to not even move a centimeter. But the void lightning still did some damage, as parts of the [Tectonic Armor] protecting his face crumbled.

With all the kinetic energy from Valerian’s punch gathered in his own fist, Goran planned to counterstrike the still-in-melee-range Valerian.

But before he could catch him, Valerian once again retreated with another teleport, leaving the space he occupied empty. And when the punch landed on the empty space, all the kinetic energy exploded the air and the clouds in the air parted from the force of the punch.

Valerian, now a hundred meters away, tried to breathe and bring down this nonsensical anger he felt.

’Calm down, anger won’t magically make my attacks stronger.’

With a deep breath, Valerian once again gained his calm, and he analyzed the situation.

’My space bomb didn’t work and his kinetic affinity gives him devastating counterattacks, but void lightning seemed to work to an extent, but even then it can’t do a lot of damage. This is getting tricky.’

Valerian had to find a way to bypass the [Tectonic Armor] of Goran, but nothing in his arsenal had enough firepower to break through; even space attacks are useless.

But Goran didn’t give him enough time to think of a plan as he moved towards Valerian with high speeds, his hammer primed and ready to strike.

Valerian could outrun him; he was faster and had more mana. But he didn’t want to. His primordial pride made him want to break through the armor, not play the long game and run away.

As Goran closed in and was almost in striking range, Valerian released a large amount of his [Absolute Zero] mana attempting to freeze him.

Goran was hit by the frost mana and his armor began to gather ice crystals around his body, slightly slowing him down.

But Goran ignored the ice and swung down his hammer, increasing its density mid-air to enhance the striking power.

Instead of teleporting away, Valerian used his superior speed and closed in, narrowly avoiding the hammer.

Now standing inside Goran’s guard, Valerian let a large amount of [Absolute Zero] build up and released it in an explosion of ice and frost, before teleporting away and behind Goran.

The ice explosion released so close inside Goran managed to freeze him in place for a second. But Goran wasn’t the only thing caught in the attack; even the surrounding air was frozen, caught in [Absolute Zero], creating a pocket where nothing moved. And Valerian intended to use this opening to its fullest.

After teleporting away, he appeared a few meters above and behind Goran. Instantly, he called upon his [Cosmic Fire], but he didn’t just cover his body in the dark purple flames—he infused his mana body with the affinity itself.

His form began to flicker, and his material body turned into a shape of dark purple flames that vaguely resembled a human form. By replacing the mana that made up his body with [Cosmic Fire] mana, he turned his body into a living inferno of cosmic flames.

Instantly, he dashed towards the still-frozen Goran, intending to let him feel both extremes of the cosmos: the devouring coldness of outer space and the unbearable heat of a star.

When they collided, a statue frozen by the coldness of space and a living torch burning with the heat of stars, a cataclysmic shockwave rolled through the mountain range they were fighting in.

Through the collision of absolute cold and absolute heat, the surroundings both froze over just to be destroyed by beams of plasma that shot out from where the impact hit.

Even Arthur and Vespera, who were engaged in their fight, clearly felt the massive collision and saw the bright light and plasma shooting out.

For a moment, Arthur became nervous for his friend, but Vespera didn’t have the same thoughts about her partner as she just resumed the fight, forcing Arthur back.

Back at the explosion site, a large chunk of the mountain got completely pulverized by the thermal explosion; parts were covered by frost and right next to it lay plasma, burning the air.

And in the middle, the point where the explosion happened, stood Goran. His armor, which seemed impenetrable, was now half-broken and looked like brittle earth; parts of his torso were open, the power behind the attack even destroying the enchanted armor he wore underneath his unique skill. He had both burns from the heat and frost covering his exposed skin. His helmet was cracked open and his right ear was missing; blood streamed from his wounds. He collapsed onto his knees, coughing up a mouthful of blood. But he was still alive and kicking.

Far away from the impact, Valerian lay in a puddle formed from the same dark purple liquid filled with stars that escaped him earlier, his life essence. The very essence of his existence was escaping him at a rapid pace, but Goran was too hurt and exhausted to go over and finish him off. If Goran was gravely injured, then Valerian should be long dead: half his head was gone, more than half of his torso ceased to exist, and his legs were gone altogether. But somehow, he was still alive, barely.

So he just lay there, slowly bleeding the very essence of his being onto the dirty rocks.

Because he technically didn’t have a brain, the loss of half his head didn’t stop him from thinking, and the only thing he could think about was that he was afraid.

He was afraid to die, to lose everything and everyone. He didn’t want to die, yet he couldn’t. What would Helias, Freya, or Elena think? Would they cry if he died here? Yeah, they would.

It made Valerian a bit happy that there were people that would cry when he died, and he wanted to laugh, but that wasn’t possible, so he just accepted the small glimmer of happiness with open arms.

What about Arthur? If he died right now, Arthur would not have to only win his fight, but then also have to fight against Goran. And Arthur didn’t have the needed firepower or abilities to get through the armor; he would surely meet him in the afterlife. And it would be Valerian’s fault: he wanted to attack the camp and fight the beastmen. It would be his fault that his friend lost the chance at a second life right after earning his right to life against the elemental.

Valerian hated it. Even though they only met days ago, Arthur already attached himself to Valerian’s heart like a parasite unwilling to let go, a brother-in-arms that could keep up with him. And Valerian would take it from him.

And then there was Seraphine. Her existence was even stranger than Arthur’s; they only met once and spent only a few hours together, but this short time ignited something inside him, something he thought he lost back at the orphanage. And she did it so effortlessly: she simply looked at him, smiled at him, and it made his heart beat, his blood flow. It made life worth living, and he would lose her today.

’How would she react?’

How would the girl he met once react if she learned that he died? Would she be sad, would she cry? Valerian didn’t want to find out.

But what can he do? His body was destroyed, his life was literally flowing out of him, and the enemy was only a few dozen meters away and could finish him right now.

What can he do? He didn’t want to die, not yet, not ever. He was the universe’s favorite child, the last celestial, the hybrid created by the fusion of the two strongest races in the universe! He was the owner of what is probably the most powerful unique skill in existence. He had all these advantages; there had to be something, some way to survive this.

And like an enlightenment, it hit him, flooding his brain with information, the desperate will to live burning away all the doubt, all the fear.

Deep inside him, his unique skill [Law Breaker] hummed in recognition, like he finally came to the right conclusion.

The skill was always weird; it had almost no description and the description it had didn’t tell a lot: This skill allows you to break the fundamental laws of the universe. That’s all it said, but it didn’t need to say more, because that’s what its purpose was: to break the universe.

There was no limitation to what it can do, only to how much Valerian could take out of it. It was the perfect tool to rewrite reality. And Valerian used it for things like stealing affinities. Sure, it was powerful, but using the tool to rewrite the rules for something like affinities was like using a god-slaying blade to cut bread: sure, it worked, but it’s not the point of the object.

And so, Valerian activated his unique skill and the universe witnessed its fundamental rules being broken for the first time since its creation, and a new set of rules took over.