Chapter 500: The Antichrist
Leo clenched his fists, his dragon tattoo glowing a violent blood red. "Do you really think a mere mortal host and a fraction of your power will be enough to bring me down?" he asked, his voice trembling almost imperceptibly despite his defiant tone.
The Antichrist, occupying Konstantine’s vocal cords, let out a laugh that sounded like a growl. He ran a hand through his receptacle’s blond hair, pushing it back in a gesture dripping with insulting nonchalance.
"I only need thirty percent of my power to beat down the filthy traitors who locked me away..." replied the Antichrist.
Leo, whose stress was now palpable, snapped his fingers. He could no longer afford arrogance. The gravitational pressure he emitted increased abruptly, but the Antichrist did not even seem to notice, walking toward him with predatory slowness.
< Solar Magic: Summoning of the Zenith Chimeras >
The marble floor, or what remained of it, erupted. Under the influence of solar mana and gravity, ten gigantic creatures emerged from the cracks. They were three-headed lions, five meters tall, with manes that were crowns of white fire and eyes that were pearls of pure magma. Each head roared simultaneously, a sonic frequency capable of pulverizing the organs of a normal human.
The Antichrist stopped, observing the monsters with obvious boredom. He extended his right hand, palm open. A small gray flame, almost colorless, appeared at the center of his palm. It emitted no heat, no light... on the contrary, it seemed to absorb everything around it.
The chimeras charged simultaneously, a wave of fire and divine muscle. The first creature lunged, its three maws open to devour the possessed sorcerer. The Antichrist simply made a horizontal sweeping motion with his hand wreathed in gray flame.
< Void Magic: Erasure >
The contact was instantaneous and terrifying. Where the gray flame grazed the creature’s chest, matter simply disappeared. There was no explosion, no blood, no ashes... The three-headed lion was bisected, and the parts touched by the gray fire ceased to exist within the fabric of reality. The rest of the body collapsed in a deathly silence, dissolving before even touching the ground.
Leo’s eyes widened, his amber pupils contracting in terror. "Void magic... you managed to stabilize it in that body?"
"This kid has an adaptability you couldn’t even imagine in your wildest dreams..." replied the Antichrist as he advanced.
He vanished in a spatial translation and reappeared in the midst of the other nine chimeras. In a fraction of a second, he became a blur of brutal movements. He did not strike with precision. Each punch, each backhand left behind a trail of gray flame that devoured the monsters. In less than ten seconds, the Sanctuary of Solaris was once again empty of any enemy presence. Leo’s divine creatures had been erased from existence.
The Antichrist turned to Leo, his heterochromatic eyes, black and gold, gleaming with icy satisfaction. He began closing the distance, each step shattering the gravitational force fields that Leo was desperately erecting.
"Do not come any closer!" roared Leo as he triggered a shockwave of solar fire.
The Antichrist did not even try to dodge. He extended his left arm and literally caught the white fire blast between his fingers. The gray flame enveloped his hand, and the divine fire of the Constellation was consumed, turned to nothingness in an instant.
Suddenly the Antichrist disappeared, only to reappear in front of Leo and seize his face with a force that made the bones of his divine jaw crack.
"Is this all the great Leo has to offer?" asked the Antichrist as he lifted the God off the ground with one hand.
Leo tried to counter with a gravity-charged knee strike, but the Antichrist blocked it effortlessly. He replied with a direct punch to Leo’s solar plexus. The shockwave tore through the divine armor and the Constellation’s muscles, shattering part of his thoracic ribs. Leo spat out a spray of golden blood, his eyes rolling back in their sockets from the sheer pain.
’This is impossible... how can he dominate me like this with only thirty percent of his power?’ thought Leo, panic clouding his judgment.
The Antichrist slammed him into the ground with such violence that the marble pulverized to a depth of ten meters. Before Leo could stabilize himself, the Antichrist was already on him, landing a series of blows with lightning speed. Each impact left marks of gray burns on the God’s skin, areas where divine regeneration had become slower.
"You spent two thousand years basking in your own light, Leo..." said the Antichrist as he broke his right arm with a simple twist of his wrist.
Leo screamed, trying to trigger a point-blank solar explosion to free himself. The heat rose to millions of degrees, but the Antichrist simply blew a small mist of void that extinguished the blaze before it could spread.
The Constellation of the Lion, the supreme predator of the zodiac, was now crawling on the floor of his own domain, searching for an escape that did not exist. He raised his hands in a pleading gesture, stress having given way to utter despair.
"Mercy..... we can negotiate..." stammered Leo, blood flowing from his torn lips.
The Antichrist crouched beside him, looking at him with an almost scientific curiosity, reminiscent of Diavolo’s original personality.
"Negotiate? With a traitor..." the Antichrist gave a mocking smile. "The only negotiation I accept is the price of your soul. And it is not worth much in its current state."
The Antichrist grabbed Leo’s hair and slammed his head into the ground, creating a small crater at the point of impact.
"Die knowing that your domain will be the first home you will see..." declared the Antichrist. "And that your brothers will soon follow the same path toward oblivion."
Seeing that he was cornered, Leo gritted his teeth. Although his condition was miserable, he had no intention of dying here.
"Damn it, this is bullshit," he cursed. "You don’t really think I’m going to stay here waiting for death, asshole," said Leo in a roar of rage as he burst forth with his golden energy.