Chapter 495: Constellation Leo
The domain of the Constellation of the Lion did not belong to any geography known to mortals... It was a dimension suspended at the summit of the firmament, where the air was nothing more than a pure essence of solar mana.
The floor of the Constellation’s Sanctuary consisted of white marble slabs veined with gold, so polished that they reflected the glow of distant stars like an infinite mirror. All around this colossal platform, cascades of liquid fire poured into the cosmic void, creating a perpetual golden glow that made any shadow impossible.
Corinthian columns of dizzying height supported a celestial vault where nebulae seemed to dance to the rhythm of an inaudible music. The atmosphere was saturated with a natural gravitational pressure, a force that would have instantly reduced the bones of an ordinary human to pulp.
At the center of this majestic panorama, seated on a throne carved from a single block of stellar stone, stood Leo... The Constellation of the Lion was a vision of raw power and divine perfection.
Measuring exactly two meters in height, his body was a work of art of massive muscles. His long hair, of an immaculate white, fell in a wild mane over his broad shoulders, contrasting with his skin tanned by the radiation of the stars.
On his right arm, a dragon tattoo snaked from his shoulder to his wrist, its black lines seeming to pulse with a life of their own at each beat of his divine heart. His face, of perfect symmetry, bore an expression of sovereign boredom, his amber eyes staring into the void with the contempt of a being for whom time no longer had any meaning.
In a certain way, he bore a striking resemblance to Kris Donoghan but with an aura of majesty and terror that no mortal could ever equal.
Suddenly, the silence of the sanctuary was broken... The space a few dozen meters from the throne tore open in a crackle of white light. A dimensional fissure appeared, vomiting a silhouette before closing again in a hiss of void.
Diavolo Star Giovanna straightened up slowly, his leather boots clacking against the sacred marble.
Leo did not stand up. He simply rested his chin on his right hand, his amber gaze settling on the intruder with manifest weariness.
"So, you are yet another mortal that my colleague sent to kill me?" asked the Constellation, his voice a deep vibration that made the columns of the sanctuary tremble.
Diavolo smoothed his blond hair back, a mocking smile stretching his lips. "The term ’mortal’ has become obsolete concerning me... Let’s just say that I am here to settle a debt to the balance of the world."
"Balance?" Leo let out a short and contemptuous laugh that echoed like thunder. "You are nothing but a grain of dust that imagines itself to be a storm. I do not even need to leave my throne to erase your existence."
Leo simply extended his left hand, palm facing the ground. Instantly, reality distorted around Diavolo.
"Feel the weight of your insolence."
A gravitational shockwave crashed down on Diavolo. The marble beneath his feet exploded, pulverizing into fine dust under a pressure of several hundred tons. Diavolo felt his knees crack, his entire body being pushed downward by an invisible and crushing force.
"Mystic Art: Aegis of the Void! & Frequency Inversion!" exclaimed Diavolo.
His fingers traced a complex Mudra at lightning speed. A gray aura manifested around him, creating a zone of energetic neutrality that deflected the lines of gravitational force. He straightened up.
Leo frowned slightly, intrigued by this resistance. With a nonchalant gesture of his index finger, he used telekinesis. A dozen marble debris, each weighing several tons, rose from the ground and were hurled toward Diavolo at supersonic speeds.
Diavolo did not try to flee. He activated his "Eye of Spirit". The world turned into a monotonous stasis where he saw the kinetic vectors of each projectile.
< Mudra: Space Rupture! >
Diavolo struck the air in front of him. A gray energy fissure appeared, acting as an immaterial shield. The marble blocks crashed against the fault, shattering into a thousand shards that flew everywhere in the sanctuary. However, Leo did not stop there. Without even moving his arm, he manipulated the air itself.
A colossal atmospheric pressure compressed Diavolo from all sides, preventing him from moving even a single muscle. Then, Leo performed a rotating motion with his fingers. Diavolo was lifted from the ground and violently slammed against a column, the impact so powerful that the millennial stone cracked along its entire height.
"You are robust for a human," noted Leo, his tone remaining desperately calm. "But you cannot cross the distance that separates us. Between a God and a man, there is no fight, only an execution."
Diavolo spat a trickle of golden blood, his eyes shining with cold rage. He tried to launch himself with a "Dash", but each time he accumulated energy in his legs, Leo increased the local gravity, multiplying his weight by a hundred. Diavolo collapsed to the ground, digging furrows in the marble, unable to approach within less than twenty meters of the throne.
"Your Mystic Arts are ingenious," continued Leo while levitating Diavolo once again before slamming him back to the ground with the force of a meteor. "But they rely on aura. And here, the aura belongs to me."
Leo clenched his fist. Diavolo felt his ribs break under the effect of telekinesis concentrated directly on his torso. Blood spurted from his mouth while the runes on his body pulsed frantically to try to regenerate his tissues.
"Mystic Art: Esoteric Transfer!" shouted Diavolo, his hands moving despite the atrocious pain.
He redirected part of the pressure toward Leo’s throne. The shockwave made the divine seat waver for the first time, but Leo did not move a millimeter. He simply dissipated the attack with a simple sigh laden with solar mana.
"Pathetic."
Leo leaned forward, his amber gaze fixing into Diavolo’s with unbearable intensity. "The thirteenth constellation sent you to the slaughterhouse. You are nothing but a diversion, a toy meant to amuse me before the great cleansing of your world."
With a gesture, Leo used telekinesis to tear the star runes from Diavolo’s skin, provoking screams of pain that were immediately muffled by a wall of gravitational silence. Diavolo was suspended in the void, his limbs spread apart by invisible forces, unable to approach this God who dominated him without even needing to set foot on the ground.
Diavolo’s scientific incomprehension clashed with the brutal reality of divine power... He had the techniques, he had the aura of Genesis, but facing the Constellation of the Lion, he was nothing but an insect trapped in a web of gravity.
Leo, with his long white hair floating in the solar energy, observed his prey with icy indifference, waiting for the moment when the mortal’s will would finally break completely.
"Die in oblivion, Diavolo Star Giovanna," decreed Leo, finally raising his hand to deliver the gravitational coup de grace that would erase the sorcerer’s soul from the fabric of reality.
But deep in his heterochromatic eyes, despite the imminent defeat, a spark flashed in his eyes....
The strength of humanity resides in its capacity to adapt, and Konstantine had just adapted.
< Mystic Arts: Adaptation >