End of a Grudge

Julian rushed at the murky polikinnate, Distortion. Both of them clashed, their energies flying out wildly. Trees were uprooted and bushes scattered against the wind. The escaping energies from the clash had various effects on the environment.

A wisp of energy warped and distorted a tree beyond recognition. Another wisp of energy just deleted a large portion of the ground.

Julian swung his arms and legs, all coated with his universal energy, his wings and tail splayed out behind him for stabilization. Distortion met each of the attacks by warping and enhancing his murky body. Both clashed fiercely, wind gales gushing out from them, destroying the surrounding environment even more.

Splitting its body, Distortion started to attack Julian from two bodies. Orbs of pure distortion aimed at Julian to destroy his body.

Julian dodged by blinking behind one of the bodies. Alas, he was met with a wave of distortion at point blank range. Julian calmly used his universal energy to warp the spatial layers around the wave and the body. Crushing the wave with the layers, he tried to crush its body as well, but the body emitted a dense aura of distortion that started tearing the spatial layers that Julian was using.

Julian let go of the spatial layers and distanced himself for a moment to breathe. The spatial layers were an incredibly strong and versatile weapon. But they were prone to be torn when exposed to powerful energies. In exchange, they could repair themselves almost indefinitely due to the near infinite spatial energies present within the spatial layers.

Distortion split himself once more. Now Julian was facing four murky purple bodies that almost disappeared into the dark sky. But due to his draconic eyes, Julian could see the polikinnate perfectly.

Distortion started another attack, this time flanking Julian from all sides. Multiple waves, orbs, and now beams of distortion that started to cut into the spatial layers to prevent Julian from teleporting properly. As Julian felt the damage to the spatial layers, he decided to execute his most powerful attack. At this point, unless Julian could kill the polikinnate he was just a sitting duck until all the spatial layers were too damaged to use or to move through.

'Are you sure?' Nova asked in confirmation.

'Yes, it's the only way to finally kill this fu****' Julian replied coldly. Nova went silent, but in the end, he started to prepare for the move.

Julian flapped his wings and dodged one of the beams of distortion. Speeding towards the body that was shooting beams, he tried to cut it with the spatial layers, but the being just started excluding its distortion aura to damage the spatial layers. But this was according to Julian's plan as he coated his claws with his universal energy and slashed the body when it was preoccupied dealing with the spatial layers. Cutting into three parts, the body started to disintegrate as Julian's universal energy had overcome its divided energy.

Distortion realized Julian's plan and commanded all the remaining bodies to join back together. Distortion reformed, missing a portion of its body as it was smaller than last time. It activated its distortion aura and started to warp the spatial layers around it heavily. Julian had trouble keeping track of the polikinnate as the meager rays of light started to bend around the polikinnate giving the illusion that nothing was there.

Not trusting his physical senses, Julian closed his eyes, and finally activated his spatial aura. In his mind's eye, the spatial layers of the area around him mapped out, and he 'saw' an anomaly heading towards him. Reacting just in time, Julian coated the point of collision with his universal energy. He prepared another strike using the spatial layers when suddenly the distortion aura vanished. For a split second, Julian became confused and paused in his movements.

Suddenly his senses screamed of danger and Julian tried to blink away. But it was of no use as Distortion had taken the damage from his universal energy in order to latch onto one of Julian's arms.

Julian opened his eyes to the sight of the polikinnate's murky liquid body turning solid around his arm. Making an instant decision, Julian cut off his arm using his universal energy before anything could happen to his body.

Reddish violet blood splurted from his wound as Julian backed off.

"....haha.....I finally got you....." Distortion rasped with glee.

"Don't get cocky with just an arm," Julian snapped while he stopped the blood flow from his wound. He was now missing his right arm from the shoulder down. Julian's drastic decision was proven to be correct because as soon as he cut off his hand, the portion held by Distortion warped and started to mutate and change rapidly becoming a monstrosity very quickly. While Distortion could only cause an overall distortion in his liquid state. But in his solid state, it had much more power and was accurate on a whole other level. Meaning that Distortion could target something extremely microscopic as the target's DNA in his solid state. The portion of the arm finally bubbled into a liquid and dissolved away.

Julian was surprised that the polikinnate had enough power to go into its solid state. But he understood that it came at a cost. Distortion wasn't looking very stable at the moment. Its overall size had reduced and its state started to smoke slightly, indicating that it was turning into a gas. Its body was turning more volatile with each second, and Distortion was starting to get weaker.

"You're weakening," Julian noted trying to demoralize Distortion and trying to buy time for Nova.

"....a small price.....to pay...for your death...." Distortion answered hatefully. By this point, it was already consumed by hate and anger. It didn't care if it died. As long as Julian died with it, it could fulfill its wish.

Julian just glared at it coldly. Readying his energy, Julian prepared to clash one last time. He was sure it would end here. Rather he had to end it here. Nova had informed him that other polikinnates were fast approaching. Julian had to take care of the biggest threat before the other polikinnates arrived.

Distortion gathered its remaining energy and forcefully solidified itself. It had understood that since Julian knew, there was going to be no use in trying to surprise Julian. Distortion solidified into a murky purple humanoid. But since this form was forced, it started to smoke and emit a purple vapor. Around Distortion, the spatial layers started to rip apart, leaving the space very unstable. The ground beneath the polikinnate caved in, while around the crater, the ground began to rise steadily.

Julian condensed all his universal energy around him to use as armor and as a way to attack. Using the spatial layers was out of the option because of the fragility of the layers around the area. Due to repeated tears and resealing, the spatial layers had become increasingly weak.

Rushing towards each other, Distortion thrust its hands forward, trying to break through Julian's coat of energy and ultimately give Julian a gruesome death. Julian reinforced his torso with energy and slashed at the polikinnates outstretched arms, tearing out chunks of its body which dissolved immediately.

The arms collided with Julian which shoved him back. Distortion followed up with a knee back towards Julian's torso. Catching the knee, Julian tried to inject his energy into it, to break it down. Distortion acted quickly and grabbed Julian's horns to try and distort him. Swinging his tail and folding his wings, Julian sent them into a spiral as the polikinnate couldn't support both of them in the air.

Seeing flying as a lost cause, Distortion converted all its efforts into Julian's horns, trying to break through the layer of universal energy covering them and finally kill Julian.

Feeling his energy deplete, Julian gazed at the polikinnate calmly. He could finally execute the move that Nova had prepared. The polikinnate was now stuck to him with no chance of escaping.

Letting go of the polikinnate's knee, Julian grabbed the polikinnate's body. Feeling something was wrong, Distortion tried to let go, but Julian held tight.

Opening his mouth wide, Julian released a condensed orb made of the spatial energies from the spatial layers. The orb seemed to travel at an infinitesimal speed, yet it reached the target immediately. Coming into contact with Distortion, the orb got absorbed into its body. Inside, the orb lost its tranquillity and started to rage violently. No matter how hard it tried, Distortion couldn't distort the condensed orb of spatial energies. The energies which were only meant to reside between the spatial layers were unleased inside Distortion. Its near infinite energy ripped apart the polikinnate from the inside. The dark and vicious energy consumed Distortion and tried to escape the material world, back into the spatial layers.

Julian had already let go of the polikinnate and was watching its death with an indifferent face. At least on the outside, that is. On the inside, a sea of emotions churned in turmoil.

"Jul...ian...!..." Distortion tried to rasp out, but its voice faded away while its body finally was consumed by an ever-growing orb of very dense spatial energy. In the end, Distortion finally died, killed by the spatial energies destroying its body from the inside.

Julian created a small rift and allowed the energies to escape back into the spatial layers.

Sighing, Julian floated down wearily. Unwanted memories emerged from the depths of his mind. In the end, Distortion had remembered his name after all...

Finally, a grudge that had lasted for centuries had been put to rest.

Shaking away his thoughts, Julian entered the pillar, which only repelled beings with harmful intent, to reunite with the twins finally.