Divine Clash

[I have so many questions.]

'They'll have to wait' Fayden could do nothing but float in the void of space. How does one even move properly in zero gravity?

Nevermind the fact he doesn't even need to breathe, a bit of mana does the job of oxygen only much more efficiently.

He glances around, his arm moving slowly to grab a shard of frozen lava. It felt like it could shut down suns and melt planets in a heartbeat.

He shook his head, he couldn't afford to let his mind wander. He moved, forcing his body to work in circumstances it had never been in before. His body answered, constantly evolving with each small movement until he was able to move properly once again.

He turned his gaze towards the center of the planet he had just been in, the being that called itself Alexander staring back at him.

It no longer possessed a human form, having forsaken its mortal confines for the body of a true storm dragon. Its icy blue scales shimmered even in the void of space. Jagged ice horns rose from his head, his wings larger than all of Dicathen.

[It will be hard fighting something that big.]

'What says we have to fight in this form?'

[Your exoskeleton armor was barely 100 feet tall.]

'I never said I was going to use that.'

[What then?]

Fayden smiled dangerously, his silver runes cracking and shattering, his body absorbing the fragments.

[No! We do not know what will happen if you enter that form now! Stop the process, complete transformation is beyond y-!]

'Either way I'm dying, might as well go out with a bang.'

[...Dumbass.]

His core began spilling out Nacht in incomprehensible amounts, it began painting the very universe in black, snuffing out every source of light, consuming galaxies whole.

For a moment Fayden thought he saw a face in the sky, it stared right at him and looked strangely familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

He almost yelled out in pain when he felt his back shift when something welled up behind him and ripped his back apart. Two pairs of dark feathery wings ripped themselves free of his back, each feather darker than the next. His hand went back instinctively to touch them, but he pulled back.

Black mist covered his body, clinging onto his skin, fusing with his very existence. His fingers grew claws, claws so sharp that when he moved his hand they tore holes into reality itself.

A tattered cloak formed from his waist, flowing with an ethereal wind. He panicked when the mist crawled up his face, getting into his mouth, eyes, ears, and nose. He thrashed around wildly, feeling the nacht alter his body from the inside. A halo formed behind his head, like the moon in an eclipse.

When he opened his eyes next he saw with a clarity he didn't think was possible. Everything looked so clear, even in the pitch darkness of space. His eyes were pitch black, the pupils like galaxies against the bleak void of space.

He looked down, and the dragon below him roared out in defiance. The Nacht hadn't reached him, he saw the mana and aether around him fuse in a way similar, yet different to Nacht. What resulted were bluish-white particles so cold Fayden felt the chill from where he was.

He opened his mouth, its inside like a black hole, ["Nog, mgepogg dragon ot storms. C' mgah'ehye mgr'luh hh' ah superior, storm ngnah n'ghft"]

Alexander merely roared.

.

.

.

"Pardon me if I'm wrong, but did the boy just-"

Erebus cut Boreas off, "Yes, we all heard it. The boy spoke R'Lyehian."

"How does a mortal have knowledge of that ancient language?" Odin muttered to himself.

Chronos twirled his scythe offhandedly, "So what if he did, it's not like it's a forbidden language."

"Chronos, even among us only a few know how to speak it." Brigid chided, this was no laughing matter.

"That being Chronos, Erebus, me and Thoth." Odin added, standing up from his own seat.

"Was I the only one who noticed him peeking into the universe?" Ares added, it was like he was surrounded by blind fools.

Erebus shrugged, "I sensed him nearby, but I did not think he was aware of what's happening inside this particular universe."

"He is aware of everything that happens. Of course he knew of this." Silvanus moved to get a better angle for the fight.

Without warning, the space between two gods rippled, a gateway opening. And before the perpetrator could even exit the portal, two blades of ice and darkness were already at her throat.

"Ahem," She cleared her throat, gently pushing the blades away, "Is this any way to welcome an old friend?"

"Gaea?" Erebus dispelled his blade, "I thought you were busy isolating Earth?"

She nodded, "I am, I do not need to be present constantly to keep the planet isolated."

"Then why did you refuse to come to our meetings?" Boreas asked, his own blade long dispelled.

Gaea shrugged, "I didn't want to hear you guys bicker."

"We're not that bad!" Ares protested and Brigid snickered.

Erebus sighed, "Understandable. You coming here means something serious has happened, no?"

"No." Gaea denied, "I simply sensed the death of one of my worlds and came to see what caused it. Imagine my surprise when I find two god level beings duking it out. You know for a second I thought you and Boreas went down yourselves to fight."

"Well," Erebus sheepishly scratched his cheek, "They are our incarnations."

"That makes a lot of sense." She nodded, "But, I can sense one of them is not from this universe."

"He's a traveller, there are a few of them running amok. He is one of those who have multiple avatars." Boreas explained, "I met him when he first warped into this world, he seemed…acceptable."

Gaea raised an eyebrow, "I'm surprised you let him live. You usually do not take to intruders kindly."

Erebus rolled his eyes, "He knows exactly what would've happened if he killed my incarnation."

Boreas turned to glare at the dark god, white lightning crackling around him, "And what would that be, mutt?"

Erebus smiled dangerously, a dark mist clinging to his self. "Shall I perhaps put on a demonstration?"

Yet before either of the gods could act, a wall of golden fire rose between them.

"Fight elsewhere, not the council room." Brigid warned, the flames flaring for good measure.

Gaea sighed, "This is why I don't come to your meetings."

.

.

.

If you thought about it, the universe was mostly darkness, sure there were galaxies spread out, but the sheer amount of emptiness made it look relatively nonexistent. But it was still beautiful in its own right.

But a universe without any galaxies or stars, without any source of light, without any features bar a massive indistinct face. That would scare even the bravest of beings.

But Alexander was not a simple being. What he was seeing, the eternal darkness, did not scare him. Fear, after all, does not take hold of a shattered mind as easily as a whole one.

Alexander moved, the field of unfathomable chill moving with him. For a dragon of his side, the speed he moved at should be illegal, yet there he was, moving through the void of space with ease and fast enough to reach Fayden in an instant. But He was nowhere to be found, in the time it took Alexander to reach him, Fayden had already moved, leaving behind only an afterimage.

Behind Alexander, Fayden swiped his claws at his back, sending arcs of darkness so sharp, they cut through his bound field, and deep into his back.

Alexander roared, partly in pain and partly in rage, the mana around them condensed and a hundred different spells assaulted Fayden all at once.

Fayden reacted quickly, forming a grey shield around him that devoured all it came into contact with, an apparition of pure destruction.

Alexander turned to him, his back now completely healed, and opened his maw, charging a bluish black beam so intense, it sent a shiver down Fayden's spine.

Fayden moved, but he wasn't fast rough this time. The beam froze and shattered his shield and cut through one of his four wings.

Before the pain could even reach his mind, it had already regrown. It was a stalemate, for neither could hurt the other beyond repair, but both were unwilling to back down.

In an attempt to gain the advantage, Fayden tried to peek into his mind, but it was unrecognizable. He hadn't been in many minds, but he knew enough of them to realize nothing was right in Alexanders. For one, his memories and thoughts were completely chaotic, no memory played once, bar those containing Claire. Alexander roared, pushing him out of his head, and glared.

[He's not a psychopath, he's just broken.]

'Broken is putting it lightly.'

[How do we beat him, it's pointless to fight him, he will regenerate faster than we can wound him.]

Fayden took a moment to respond, 'I may have a plan'

[Yes, I can see it. It might work, but it might also incapacitate me.]

Alexander pulsed with energy, the coldness around him expanding at an alarming rate. Fayden was taken aback, but recovered quickly, forcing his will on the darkness further.

The two behemoths fought once more, but mentally not physically. The universe was split between the two, one side blue and white reminding one of the cold harshness of winter, the other side pitch black, containing nothing but the horrors of the dark.

'Phanes, go now'

[Way ahead of you.] Phanes said, his voice muffled for some reason.

Alexander twitched, attempting to force the foreign entity out of his mind. But he also had to maintain his field against Fayden.

Fayden almost yelled in pain when an ice spear pierced through his stomach, filled to the brim with red lightning.

Tartarean Vitality ate it away near instantly, healing the wound in moments. Something clicked back into place in Alexander's mind, and he lost concentration for a moment.

Fayden didn't waste the opportunity, conjuring a bolt of destruction and launching it in milliseconds.

Alexander reacted fast enough to keep his life, but not fast enough to completely dodge the spell, resulting in a hole carved through his shoulder, detaching one of his arms. That would take a while to regenerate.

Another piece of his mind fell back into place, and he flinched again. Phanes was merciless in his work, not giving him a chance to recover, and kept vehemently trying to fix his mind, distracting him long enough for Fayden to finish him.

And Fayden didn't disappoint. When Alexander snapped back to reality, he could feel the heat melting off his scales, and see what a million suns fused into one looked like.

He had no time to cast a shield as the sphere loomed over him, so he did the one thing he could.

He froze time.

"Not a bad idea, freezing time. But unfortunately for you, mana from a higher dimensional being becomes higher dimensional itself."

Alexander couldn't even see him as his vision was taken by the brightness of an impossibly hot star.

A/N : The R'Lyehian translates to "Come, dragon of the dense storms. Allow us to see which is superior, storms or darkness."