Chapter 275: A Robot Speaking in Latin Is Never a Good Sign
Across the world, large chunks of rocks kept randomly disappearing. Small mountains, large hills, boulders in the middle of nowhere, even rocks underneath the sea were seemingly vanishing without a trace. The truth of the matter though was that Terros had taken them into his body, AKA the planet itself, and was about to repurpose them. The amount of earth he needed to create a Bulwark sufficiently bulky enough to stop Astraeus was monumental and so he was taking an even spread of earth from across the entirety of Sheryashka. As the missing rocks and landmasses sunk down into the core of the planet they were filed into an orderly line and sent straight towards the coliseum in Red Sun to act as pillars and block whatever it was Astraeus was going to do. They all breached through the surface of the arena with grace as Terros' divinity sunk into them, merging together and giving what would otherwise be dull earthen pillars a glossy shine. These pillars rose upwards and curved, forming intricate patters in and around the coliseum near the base of Astraeus who was hovering up in the sky.
The pillars created a multi-layered dome as well as few extra walls coming off it to double down on the defences and make it hard to even get to the dome, let alone penetrate it. Offshoots of pillars forming out of the dome would be used to attack whatever attack it was that was coming and slow down / halt the progress of the art. The dome looked small and, for now, it sort of actually was. The underlying truth, however, was that the roots of the dome were long and existed for miles underneath the floor of the arena so the second the dome was destroyed, which would take a considerable amount of effort to begin with, another one would just rise up from the ground and take its place. Terros could form upwards of two hundred domes over and over again in the same spot, each as 'impenetrable' as the last. If this were any other God except Astraeus, just the first dome would be enough to keep them busy until their summon duration ran out. The entirety of the Bulwark, if cast by Terros' true form in this same manner, could block out a God for a few thousand years and, even then, the eventual breakthrough would mostly just be a case of the earth's divinity fading.
If Terros' used Bulwark exclusively for defence, nothing should ever realistically get through and, yet, Astraeus spared it no more than a quick glance before looking to the sky and doing his own thing. He wasn't impressed but, then again, he wasn't expecting a miracle just because Terros was a God. If Terros could keep Mako and himself safe from the incoming art, and live through it without any significant injuries, then that would be considered a job well enough done in Astraeus' gleaming red eyes. That was as far as Terros would go but it was the best he could possibly achieve here, that was the result Astraeus had calculated and was now ensuring would come to fruition via his own machinations. Astraeus raised his hand skyward, gesturing with an upturned palm towards the countless dimensions hidden all around in the void behind reality. Each and every single one were all at his command and he could feel their existence even if they weren't currently tangible or visible in any way. That was about to change, however, as it was high time he summoned his arsenal and kicked things off in a way that only he could.
"C.r.e.a.t.i.o E.x M.a.t.e.r.i.a."
The deeply ingrained robotic stutter in Astraeus' emotionless voice articulated quite nicely the computational power needed to cast an art of this scale as even merely chanting it caused a few hiccups in his circuitry... That or his accent was just poking through again as he'd forgotten to fix it. In this case, it was more likely the former, though. See, it wasn't just mana or cultivation needed to actualise this art. In addition to those 'ingredients', enough mental strength to process the location of multiple thousands of dimensions, as well as the remote Teleportation used to summon each and every single one of them, were all strict requirements to get this art off the ground let alone everything that came after. A while back, Ares was thinking about how it was impossible for large scale Teleports down in Sheryashka because nobody possessed the mana for it. Meanwhile, Astraeus was simultaneously Teleporting upwards of tens of thousands of planets inside their respective dimensions at any given moment during this art. One of two things were required to do this; either A; an affiliation for the space-time pillar that was simply unfathomable, greater than even Enyo's affiliation for the pleasure pillar, or B; the sum of all of Astraeus' parts that existed and refined themselves over the course of billions of years for the sake of carrying out such functions.
In short, most of Astraeus' arts were unique and nobody would ever be able to copy them no matter how hard they tried. Sometimes you could find a unique art scroll, like the one Ares found containing Double Jump, and learn unique arts that way but if Astraeus wrote down this art on such a scroll then anyone who read it would die on the spot. It wouldn't be pretty either as their head would just blow up and create a real mess. Not of the blood and brain inside their head, no, they would make a mess of the entire planet they were stood atop and take it with them to the afterlife because the explosion would be equivalent to a large nuke. That method of transferring an art would never work and teaching it was also impossible because the steps would take hundreds of millions of years to even comprehend let alone teach. These unique arts were truly impossible to replicate... For now anyway. Now that the fundamentals were in town, when they reached Godhood themselves, one of them might be able to do it if they put their mind to it. Probably Ares, actually, with his nothingness magic as it fit the bill for what was needed so he was closest in the running. He wouldn't need to do each Teleport separately as he could overlap them all then Shift them around as he pleased, that was maybe the route he would take. not that he would ever copy someone else's unique art though, there was just way better stuff for Ares to be learning and creating revolving around his own pillar so, unless it was a useful technical or something he could learn quick via an enabler, he just wasn't going to bother... Although showing up Astraeus and stealing his art for the fun of it did tingle Ares' inner revenant...
But that was all hypothetical and not relevant right now. Whether he could or couldn't and / or would or wouldn't didn't change the fact that Astraeus was using it right now and chaos was coming to Red Sun. The sky turned a glitchy purple that was surprisingly easy on the eyes. It flowed like a wave and was neither too dark nor too bright. It was so pretty, in fact, that most people wanted it to stay like this forever if possible! This was doubly true for the spectators who'd just been swallowed up by the Mud Maiden as it was nice to see the sky again and this variant of it was a fun twist that tickled their sun-starved fancy. Anyway, aesthetic aside, this change signalled the beginning of an end to all things and was typically the kind of art that people should fear, not respect. Put in the simplest terms possible, this was the art Astraeus used to clear up dimensions that were no longer in use. Rather than have them loitering about taking up space, he would either use this art on them, or use those dimensions inside this art as projectiles as, either way, no matter which end of the spectrum they were on, everything involved was going to disappear for good. This art summoned countless empty dimensions, pulverised them into small clusters that could be fired at will, and then forced them to crash down to their target like a chain of cloudy meteors. It was a scene straight out of Ragnarök and it would inevitably come to feel like the end of days was approaching. This was especially true of what would happen at the point of impact when a dimension crashed into the planet.
Naturally, an entire dimension wouldn't act like a bog standard meteor as there was a lot more to unpack, literally! When a dimension broke apart after collision it scattered like a fragmentation grenade and fired off its contents in every which way, wreaking even more havoc after the initial impact. Everything that came out of it wasn't strictly a physical entity, like planets or relics of long-dead civilisations, and the flow of time as well as the boundless space within were also released from their cage. It transformed what was a painful explosion into a mind-bending and reality warping event horizon-esque happening that disoriented anyone caught up in it. Of course disorientation was the least of the victim's issues when a dimension worth of time was increasing the speed at which exploding stars were sent hurtling into your rib cage... But it was still a somewhat relevant factor! Of course the internal pieces of the dimensions, such as planets and stars, could have their size re-adjusted and so Astraeus was going to make sure things went smoothly here today by lowering the scale of everything. Normally this art would just unload hundreds of thousands of planets in random directions and, while it was an entertaining sight unlike anything else that could ever be seen, other than maybe a never ending pool table for giants, it was maybe a bit too much to use here in its normal form... Against Xhilihx? Perfect... Kind of. Xhilihx would stretch his mouth wide open and use its ginormous tongue to swipe up as many planets as it could while it was being pelted by stray stars and suns. It was almost like feeding a pet in some ways... This sounded cute but it was a problem because feeding Xhilihx was a serious issue that Astraeus needed to overcome if he wanted to use this art because empowering his mortal foe was a stupid move to make just because it was funny. As such, Astraeus altered the art such that he could direct all the time within the detonating dimensions to rot the planets also coming out of them and make them die, turning into a pile of ashes inside Xhilihx's maw before he could chomp on them and gain sustenance.
The clouds above parted, splitting down the middle and revealing a ghastly group of deathly white bubbles with intricate patterns inside of them. At a closer glance, those patterns turned out to be the entirety of multiple dimensions and everything that came with them, all mixed and glued together to weave a complex web of history now and forever long forgotten. These dimensions had long since run their course and all life within had failed to survive for one reason or another so the insides of these dimensions were somewhat haunting in their own barren way. Abandoned parking lots in the middle of run down planets, drifting through space meaninglessly with no destination in mind... Well, now, for one last time, they were to serve a purpose as projectile violence given form, albeit a very unusual form.
At first, there were simply one or two of these bubbles, each the size of a house or so thanks to Astraeus' tampering, but, as the sky grew a tad darker, and as more clouds gave way to reveal what was hiding behind them, multiple tens of bubbles came into view... Then hundreds... And by the end of the grand reveal at least a thousand of the things were hovering in the air like a cloud of muddy white, gargantuan bees. The purple skyline was now just a hazy gimmick, stuck behind the ominous bubbles that were all perched precariously above everyone's heads and ready to drop down at a moment's notice. Though this was supposed to be an epic and heart pounding moment, Ares couldn't help but feel like this view from below was somewhat similar to what Appa must have seen when it placed the bubble wrap he bought it over its head... Silly shade... The bubbles in the sky were considerably more dangerous than ordinary bubble wrap, however, and Terros and Mako were about to experience it first hand as the bubbles above all began to fall in sync with one another. This was not a constant and consistent, persistent, drawn out bombardment, no, it was giant clusterfuck that was impossible to decipher in the moment. You were either Astraeus, and knew exactly what was happening amidst the deluge of astral barrages, or you weren't and were like a rat, running through an obstacle course, in a maze with lights blinding you every step of the way, while music blared in your ears, and you were forced to do backflips every so often, before diving into pools of boiling water, and finding a needle in a submerged haystack... Or something akin to that anyway... It was actually probably worse. Still, understanding exactly what was happening was the far harder task compared to surviving, and also less important too, so neither Terros nor the already perplexed Mako, thanks to Astraeus' Godly presence, cared much for jotting down the details of the onslaught as it happened.
The bubbles were drawing ever nearer but all Terros could do right now was hide underneath his dome and prepare himself to keep regenerating it as fast as his golem core could allow him to. If he slipped up even once the level of damage both he and Mako would suffer was incredibly large. Hell the bombardment might dig all the way down to the centre of the planet, annihilating Terros entirely by ravaging his core and causing the minor wound he was going to suffer from dying to become something worth concerning himself over in his real form. Thankfully, Terros could roughly estimate the power of this attack and, although things were going to get ugly for a little while, it ought to be possible to get away without too many scratches... And broken bones... That was also going to happen here and there. Mako just kind of had to accept that, and whatever other injuries he suffered provided they weren't grave, but it was fine. Mako's gameplan after this didn't require anything other than for him to chant his last art. Once he did that, his fate would be out of his hands and the fight would basically go on without him. No amount of broken bones, torn open flesh, or rattled and non-functional senses would make a difference for what was yet to come. If anything it was Ares that needed to come out of this in tip top shape as he was going to struggle with this next art regardless of whether he won or lost... Although, in some ways, both outcomes were inevitable given the nature of this mysterious art...
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
It was strange... Although the thousand odd bubbles were all banging against the dome the noise it produced was only a singular occurrence before it all mellowed out and silence took hold of reality. Even now, while tiny planets, like bouncy balls, were being flung around the arena there was still no noise. Either the crash was so astonishingly impactful that reality had to cave in and mute itself so as not to explode from the screeching frequency of the scraping dimensions, or the bundles of space contained within the dimension were spreading out from their bubbles and drowning all forms of sound because there was no longer any air through which sound could travel via vibrations. It all looked and felt so surreal. The bubble explosions were a myriad of colours, sizes, and shapes and they were causing a sort of buggy slowdown effect on the world, almost like the universe's frame rate was sputtering along and trying to cope with the overload. Astraeus could process this art but could Sheryashka? the domain was chugging along slowly but more and more explosions kept piling up on top of each other, adding more strain to the world as countless crimson void tears started opening up. The void was actively sucking in some of the explosions and miscellaneous objects flying around so as to reduce the burden on this dimension and help keep it stable. Not that this was intentional or by design, the attack was just naturally powerful enough to have this side-effect come attached with it.
Down under the dome, Mako was dazed and stuck in a stupor as he lay on his bloody back and stared at the ever cracking ceiling. He'd been hit by some planet shrapnel in multiple places already and was floored before he even knew what hit him. To be precise, a condensed forest, that had over-run an empty planet, was launched from a dead dimension and shot through both Mako's legs which left him in this current state. That and the skyscraper that pierced his abdomen were his major wounds, leaving him bleeding out on the floor. He managed to sort out his head for long enough to patch himself up but then he just went back to watching the pretty lights above. The dome provided shade but, the split second it was destroyed, before it could return, a hypnotising array of bright lights danced to and fro in his eyes. It was something that should have caused an epileptic fit in even the most unaffected of people but something about the light show was mesmerising. The duality between darkness and incomparable brightness had effectively knocked Mako out and he was going to be half-conscious half-unconscious for the foreseeable future and, as it turned out, the disorienting effect was relevant after all! Mako could no longer protect or heal himself so Terros had to double down and make sure his important organs were all impossible to touch. The extremities? Well, they were getting pounded by small objects even now so it was pretty self-evident Terros had to make some sacrifices here and there. Even if Mako made it out of this with nothing but his torso and head it was still fine as that was all he really needed!
The bombardment only really came to a halt a good five minutes later after it begun. In reality, the process only took about one minute but the slowdown that caused the world to operate at a sluggish pace had been rather severe due to Astraeus limiting the scope of the explosions. Had he just let the dimensions explode as they pleased then the universe wouldn't have had to accommodate his bizarre clumping of multiple objects into a single, tiny space and could have handled it better... Although, if he hadn't done that, then this entire country, and parts of the ones neighbouring it, would have all been turned into a wasteland filled with the corpses of asteroids, planets, and snuffed out suns. Something had to go wrong either way and, as this was clearly the lesser of two evils, the universe had to toughen up a bit and feel the burn for a while.
Over by the other side of the arena... Well it was pretty hard to tell because the size of the pit over there was rather large. Ares had to use his divine sense to go and check it out as understanding the depths of the despair Astraeus wrought, from where he was sitting on the floor and healing currently, was impossible. Terros had successfully fended off the attack but he was now not even a quarter of his original size, as he had to dedicate some of his current body to the defensive plight near the end as Mako had been in a spot of danger, and he was riddled with holes that had bits of various worlds stuck in him. This was a rather unpleasant experience even for the God of earth himself. He was usually effectively a group of planets clumped up into one giant landmass and, yet, having other, foreign worlds inserted into him and lodged in his body without permission was uncomfortable as they just didn't fit right, like trying to put a square block into a circular hole. Plus the uninvited planets came attached with their own time-space laws still intact that Terros couldn't interface with so his body was a mish mash of times and places that kept trying to draw away his conscience to their respective abodes. If he succumbed, his mind would be stolen away to another planet while his body remained lodged here in this reality. Being a God meant his will power was more than strong enough to avoid this and he could ditch this body to create a new one anyway so it wasn't the end of the world. If anything, his current size was the biggest issue not because of how much damage it meant he'd sustained but because it was indicative of how close things had gotten and how very nearly Mako lost his life. Terros' core was safe, though, so he would be able to keep Mako in this fight by blocking the next attack too with what little power he had remaining after reforging his broken body.
As for Mako... Both his legs were gone and so too was one of his arms as he was propped up against what was left of the arena wall on his side of the coliseum. The other arm, the one that 'survived', was bent backwards. He'd also lost an ear and his lip was cut with blood leaking out and trickling down his neck. One of his eyes was scratched and his chin had a ton of flesh scraped off, so much so that part of his jaw could be seen peeking out of the gap. This was definitely the biggest injury he'd ever sustained throughout his entire life but he was still kicking thanks to Terros' efforts. His wounds would have been a lot more dire if Terros had been lazy or if Mako didn't manage to clear his mind once more near the end and throw up some pressure to block a few extra attacks here and there. His eye would have been squished and crushed instead of merely crushed if he hadn't and his jaw wouldn't just be hurt, it would be flat out gone.
Both Mako and Terros were winded and struggling to recover but that didn't mean they were going to be given time to sort themselves out before Astraeus continued his assault. Furthermore, Astraeus was about to unload an even more powerful attack than the one previously unleashed so they were going to have to figure things out quick or this would be the end of the match without exception. Either way, it seemed Astraeus was convinced this was the end of the road for Terros as he didn't hold back his tongue anymore. Though the words that came out of his mouth could be construed as smack talk and / or being incredibly unpolite, he only really meant them in the sincerest way possible to his junior God. "F.e.a.r n.o.t l.i.t.t.l.e o.n.e, I s.h.a.l.l m.a.k.e t.h.i.s q.u.i.c.k." Though his words were a blow to Terros' pride, the earth God would have much sooner heard it a thousand times over than the next few words that came out of Astraeus' mouth as he was already chanting another art.
"C.o.m.m.a.n.d.m.e.n.t: V.u.l.n.u.s S.c.l.o.p.e.t.a.r.i.u.m"