Chapter 502: the end of the Constellation Leo
Leo did not reply, his amber eyes fixed on the gray flame that intensified on his opponent’s fingers. He had never thought that one day he would find himself in such a situation. He, the sovereign of fire and gravity, reduced to the rank of prey by a shadow he thought he had banished for eternity. Fear, that feeling he was used to instilling in his enemies, now flowed in his veins like a burning poison.
Suddenly, a click occurred in the Constellation’s mind. It was not hope, but a fury born from the absolute refusal of extinction. Leo let out a roar that tore through the last layers of Solaris’s atmosphere.
"I AM THE LION!" he shouted, his voice vibrating at a frequency that made the floating debris implode. "I WILL NOT LET MYSELF BE ERASED BY A GHOST!"
Leo freed himself from the metaphysical pressure that crushed him to the ground... In a surge of divine energy, he called upon the entirety of his remaining essence. His body doubled in volume, his muscles swelling until they tore his skin of light to reveal a core of pure white fire. The gravity around him inverted, sending the marble slabs upward before transforming them into incandescent projectiles.
He began to attack like a madman... This was no longer a battle of gods, but the desperate struggle of a cornered beast. Leo propelled himself toward the Antichrist with a speed that distorted space itself.
< Magie Solaire : Poings de l’Effondrement Stellaire >
He pounded the Antichrist with unprecedented frenzy. The combat zone was instantly transformed into a sphere of white fire where the temperature reached millions of degrees. The explosions followed one another without interruption, creating a deafening roar that should have annihilated all life for kilometers around.
The Antichrist was not even trying to dodge anymore. He stood at the center of the furnace, his hands tracing slow and fluid mudras. Around him, the gray flame formed a mantle of void that absorbed Leo’s attacks. Each time a divine fist came into contact with the nothingness, the heat was denied, the movement erased.
"Your agitation is in vain, Leo," said the Antichrist, his voice reaching the God’s ears clearly despite the blasts.
Leo, beside himself, ignored the warning. He used his telekinesis to seize space itself, attempting to compress the Antichrist into a gravitational singularity.
"DIE! DIE! DIE!" Leo erupted, blood flowing from his nose and ears under the effort.
The space around the possessed sorcerer began to curve violently, forming a sphere of darkness born from the pressure. But the Antichrist simply raised his index finger.
"< Magie du Néant : Rupture du Système >"
A gray fissure appeared at the center of the singularity. In the blink of an eye, Leo’s gravitational field was canceled, dissipating like a mere breeze. The backlash was so violent that Leo was thrown backward, his thoracic muscles tearing under the effect of his own dissipated power.
Panting, his body smoking and half consumed by his own flames, Leo stabilized himself in the cosmic void. He looked at his hands that were beginning to fragment into particles of light. He had only one chance left, one final attack.
Then in a last attempt he attacked... Leo joined his two hands in front of his plexus, creating a sphere of black solar mana. It was the manifestation of the death of a star.
< Art Final : Supernova de la Désolation >
Leo propelled himself forward, transforming his own body into a living projectile, concentrating his entire existence into this final charge. The light he emitted was so intense that it could have blinded gods. He rushed toward the Antichrist, ready to self-destruct to take his executioner with him.
But it was in vain...
The Antichrist waited until Leo was a few centimeters from him. At that precise moment, he opened his arms wide, as if to welcome an old friend. The gray flame that surrounded his body instantly spread throughout the entire domain of Solaris.
The contact between Leo’s supernova and the Antichrist’s nothingness produced no explosion. On the contrary, there was absolute silence. Leo’s blinding light was sucked into the pores of the gray flame. The God’s movement was stopped dead, as if reality had ceased to recognize his existence.
The Antichrist seized Leo by the throat. The gray flame immediately rushed under the God’s skin, erasing his mana circuits and divine functions.
"The world has judged you obsolete, Leo," murmured the Antichrist, his silver gaze plunged into the terrified amber eyes of the defeated. "Your role ends here."
The Antichrist killed him... With a sharp gesture, he injected a massive impulse of void magic directly into the Constellation’s core. Leo’s body fragmented into millions of crystals of light that evaporated instantly. There was no corpse, no remains. Just a void where a God once stood.
The Sanctuary of Solaris went out completely. Darkness reclaimed its rights over the domain, leaving only Konstantine floating in the middle of the nothingness.
The Antichrist let out a long sigh. He lowered his eyes toward the body he occupied. Konstantine was in a pitiful state. His muscles were charred, his bones were reduced to dust in several places, and his internal organs were failing one after another. Maintaining thirty percent of the power of the thirteenth Constellation had a price that even the gift of adaptation could not totally compensate.
’This vessel has accomplished its task,’ thought the Antichrist. ’But it is now broken.’
The Antichrist looked at the black sky of Solaris. He knew that for his plan to work, he had to disappear from the sight of the other Constellations. Until he reincarnated.
Then at the end decided to commit suicide to reincarnate...
The Antichrist joined his hands one last time. A technique of controlled molecular dissolution. A silver aura enveloped Konstantine’s body, starting from his feet.
The process was rapid. The star-shaped runes on his skin shone with one last burst before going out. In a few seconds, the athletic body, the long blond hair and the heterochromatic eyes disappeared into a vortex of pure energy.