Chapter 501: There are those stronger than oneself.
Leo roared, a pure frequency of solar rage, and burst his golden energy outward... The explosion was so violent that it pushed back the darkness for miles. Filaments of fire-type and gravity-type mana burst from every pore of his skin, turning the air into an unbearable furnace. Gravitational pressure multiplied by a hundred in a fraction of a second.
Before this onslaught of raw power, Antichrist stepped back a few paces... It was not a gesture of fear, but of curiosity, he wanted to see what Leo was preparing so he could break it more effectively; after all, he was in no hurry.
Suddenly, a seven-headed dragon emerged from the dust and marble debris... The creature was a direct manifestation of Leo’s will, a monster of pure solar energy whose stature exceeded thirty meters. Its body was composed of solidified magma and pressurized light. Each head, with feline and reptilian features interwoven, roared with an intensity that tore the sky of Solaris apart.
The dragon soared into the blackened sky, its wings of fire unfurling clouds of sparks that fell like acid rain upon the sanctuary. Leo, standing at the foot of his creation, pointed a muscular arm at the usurper.
"Burn in the void you hold so dear!" ordered the Constellation.
The seven-headed dragon opened all seven of its maws simultaneously. As it hovered above the devastated clearing, it sent seven beams toward Antichrist... Each beam possessed a different frequency: one was pure heat, another concentrated gravity, a third devastating gamma radiation. The seven trajectories converged on the precise point where the possessed sorcerer stood.
Antichrist did not move. He remained still, arms dangling, as the rays struck his body.
The resulting explosion created a dome of golden light so intense it would have vaporized any mortal or lesser angel. Leo watched the scene with a triumphant smirk, awaiting the sight of his enemy’s ashes scattering across the cosmos. However, as the smoke cleared, the God’s smile froze.
Antichrist took the attacks without flinching... His clothes were reduced to tatters, revealing star-shaped runes now glowing with ink-black light across his athletic skin, but his body was intact. Around him, a thin film of gray flame undulated. Void magic had simply erased the impact of the rays before they could cause molecular damage.
This sensation...? thought Antichrist, analyzing the energy vectors he had just absorbed. An inefficient waste of resources.
"Is that all?" asked Antichrist, his voice remaining steady despite the hell that had just rained down upon him. "You summoned a chimera to do the work you are too cowardly to accomplish yourself?"
Leo clenched his teeth so hard that a cracking sound was heard. He did not wait. He lunged forward, merging his movements with those of the dragon diving down.
Leo charged, his fists wrapped in mini-suns, unleashing blows of lightning speed. Each impact produced detonations that cracked reality. Simultaneously, the seven heads of the dragon harried Antichrist, attempting to tear him apart with their crystal fangs.
Antichrist began a macabre dance. He moved with an economy of motion that rendered every attack from Leo futile. With a fluid gesture, he seized one of the dragon’s heads by the throat. The gray flame surrounding his hand spread instantly to the creature. Where the gray fire touched the golden energy, spiritual matter simply disappeared, leaving no trace. The dragon’s head was erased from existence with a hiss of vacuum.
"You son of a...!" roared Leo as he attempted a roundhouse kick charged with gravity.
Antichrist blocked the attack with his forearm, a shockwave of void canceling the gravitational pressure. He retaliated with a direct palm strike to Leo’s chest. The touch of the gray flame instantly erased a portion of the God’s divine armor, leaving a gaping wound of nothingness on his right pectoral.
Leo, despite his transformation, could not gain the upper hand... His power, though colossal, collided with a force that did not seek to fight, but to deny. Every time he increased the temperature, Antichrist adapted, the gray flame consuming the heat to reinforce the barrier of void.
The six remaining heads of the dragon dove again, spewing white flames. Antichrist used a space-manipulation technique.
A bubble of gray transparency formed around him. The dragon’s flames poured into it and vanished, as if sucked into a cosmic siphon. Leo, taking advantage of the diversion, appeared behind him, his hands clasped for a hammer blow meant to shatter his spine.
Antichrist did not even turn around. He used aura repulsion to propel himself forward, dodging the blow, then executed a three-hundred-sixty-degree rotation. His arm, enveloped in a blade of void, cleanly severed two more heads of the dragon that were attempting to bite him as they passed. The energy limbs dissipated into particles of dead light before evaporating.
"Why do you keep going, Leo?" asked Antichrist while parrying a new series of punches. "Your worldview is outdated. You persist in fighting knowing it is futile."
Leo stepped back a few meters, gasping. The dragon tattoo on his right arm pulsed with a fading glow. He looked at his hands, seeing traces of grayish erasure that refused to heal.
"I am the Lion!" he screamed, foam at his lips. "I am the light that guides the lost! You are nothing but a mistake... a parasite!"
The dragon, reduced to four heads, attempted one last desperate attack, concentrating all the remaining solar mana into a frontal charge. Antichrist simply raised his index finger. A tiny gray spark appeared at its tip.
"End of demonstration."
He projected the spark. Upon contact with the dragon’s chest, the small ember of void spread like a virus. In less than three seconds, the colossal creature was devoured from within, its roars dying out as its energy vocal cords were erased. The dragon disappeared completely, leaving Leo alone and exposed in the middle of the crater.
The Constellation of the Lion trembled. The stress within him had transformed into an icy certainty: he could not win. Despite his divinity, despite his domain, he was being systematically dismantled by an entity using only thirty percent of its strength.
Antichrist stopped two meters from him, the smell of ozone and void emanating from his silhouette.
"So..." he murmured with an almost scientific curiosity. "What does it feel like to sense the darkness approaching your heart?"
Leo did not reply, his amber eyes fixed on the gray flame that was intensifying. He had never thought that one day he would find himself in such a situation.