Chapter 499: The Usurper
Leo began to compress Konstantine’s skull. The sorcerer felt his temporal bones cracking, the pressure threatening to explode his eyeballs. In a final gesture of survival, Konstantine injected the entirety of his remaining mana into a frequency rupture Mudra directly against the God’s plexus.
The explosion was so violent that it hurled both adversaries in opposite directions, sweeping away the last vestiges of Solaris’s throne in a whirlwind of stellar dust.
Konstantine collapsed at the edge of the sanctuary’s cosmic precipice, his body now nothing but a broken carcass, but his gaze remained fixed on the Sun God. He was on the verge of death, every fiber of his being screaming for surrender, but The Wizard of the Constellation had no intention of fading without biting the hand that crushed him.
Leo stood up, his torso marked by a slight burn from the last attack, his amber gaze now burning with sincere hatred.
Leo approached, his long white hair floating like a crown of cold flames. He raised his massive foot, ready to crush the sorcerer’s skull to end this anomaly.
Just as the Constellation was about to finish him, a silver energy, of a frequency so pure that it seemed to absorb the surrounding sound, suddenly leaped from Konstantine’s body. It was not a simple blast, but an eruption of nothingness that violently repelled Leo’s gravitational pressure. The Constellation recoiled with an instinctive leap, his amber eyes widening before this manifestation of primordial power.
"So... you have finally come?" murmured Leo, a hint of nervousness finally piercing his arrogance.
Konstantine rose slowly. His movements no longer had anything of human fragility; they possessed a predatory fluidity.
With his new appearance, it was easy to see that he was possessed. His golden and black pupils had faded in favor of a uniform silver white that reflected no emotion. The star-shaped runes on his skin had dilated, turning to absolute black and seeming to pulse like autonomous hearts. The air around him distorted, each breath of the host causing micro-fissures in space-time.
...
A few months earlier: Domain of the Void
In the oppressive silence of the gray void, Diavolo Star Giovanna, who had not yet adopted the name of Konstantine, observed the silhouette of the Antichrist near the gray fire.
"I am 100% sure that I could not defeat him... you are just sending me to my death, right?" Diavolo asked while meditating.
The Antichrist turned toward him, "Not really," he replied in a voice annoyed by his protege’s lack of vision. "Survive as best you can to become powerful enough with the adaptability mystic art. And then you will yield your place to me and I will do the rest."
Konstantine narrowed his eyes. "I see... I hope you will be able to use all your power."
The Antichrist shook his head, a gesture filled with contempt tinged with pragmatism. "Your body would not withstand it and it will not be necessary... 30% of my power is enough to crush these filthy traitors who locked me here."
"I see..." murmured Diavolo, finally understanding that he was only a receptacle in the process of being forged, a weapon meant to be drawn at the right moment.
...
Back to the present
The entity now occupying Konstantine’s body fixed Leo with its gaze, its voice resonating with a double tone: that of the sorcerer and that of the fallen god.
"Leo... I have decided that you will be the first to die..."
Leo let out a nervous laugh that quickly turned into a roar of defiance. "Hahaha! You stayed in your hole for a long time, I am no longer the same. You are no longer the sovereign Usurper, Antichrist!"
The Sun God struck his hands together, triggering a shockwave of solar mana meant to vaporize the intruder. But the Antichrist did not move. He simply snapped his finger.
Instantly, the sky of the Lion’s sanctuary, once bathed in perpetual golden glow, became completely black. The cascades of liquid fire froze, then went out. In this sudden nothingness, shooting stars began to appear in greater and greater numbers, followed by comets falling with regularity toward the sanctuary.
"< Supreme Mystic Art: Fall of the Firmament >"
Leo raised his hands, attempting to manipulate gravity to deflect the stellar projectiles. "This is my domain! You cannot make the law here usurper!" he shouted, his bulging muscles vibrating under the effort.
He used telekinesis to hurl marble columns toward the comets, but on contact with the silver energy, the divine matter disintegrated instantly. The Antichrist appeared before him in a translation of reality so fast that Leo did not have time to activate his combat vision.
A direct punch, enveloped in 30% of the power of the 13th Constellation, struck Leo’s plexus.
The shock was so violent that the dragon tattoo on Leo’s right arm briefly lit up before cracking like old paint. The shockwave passed through the Constellation’s body, breaking his thoracic vertebrae in a sharp sound that echoed throughout the domain. Leo was hurled backward, crossing three columns before crashing at the foot of his own throne, golden blood spurting from his mouth in a sacred fountain.
"This is... not possible..." stammered Leo, trying to get up while his intestines, partially emptied by the impact, began to consume themselves in mana vapor. "Your host... he is only a mortal!"
"He was a mortal," replied the Antichrist as he walked toward him, while a comet crashed behind him, pulverizing the Lion’s throne in a thunderous crash. "But with his < Adaptation >, he has made his veins a conduit capable of withstanding my Authority. You spent eons basking in the sun while I forged my hatred in the dark."
The Antichrist seized Leo by his long white hair. With a sharp movement, he pressed his hand against his face.
"< Mystic Art: Soul Eclipse >"
The silver energy rushed into Leo’s pores. The Lion God screamed, a tearing cry that shook the very foundations of Solaris. His skin began to peel, revealing the solar light that constituted his essence, which evaporated under the influence of the Void. His amber eyes began to melt, flowing down his cheeks like hot wax.
"Surrender... or I will consume you to the last," ordered the Antichrist, his silver gaze shining with cold satisfaction.
But Leo, in a final surge of divine pride, used his own essence to trigger an explosion of concentrated gravity. "NEVER!"
The explosion hurled the Antichrist a few meters away, drawing a mocking smile from him. Konstantine’s body, though possessed, was beginning to show signs of extreme fatigue; red fissures appeared on his arms.
"Your body is starting to give way, Usurper!" noted Leo, even though he himself was reduced to a bloody wreck.
"No matter," retorted the Antichrist while invoking a new comet directly above Leo’s head. "This body has already accomplished its mission"
With a sovereign gesture, he brought down the projectile of nothingness and the entire Sanctuary began to tremble...