Everyone was in position. Atrata gave the signal for the AIs to attack. Meanwhile, her people started directing hover containers to the quadrangle. John gave them ten minutes and then walked into the palace, disguised as a lord.

“My Lord,” one of the servants said. “We did not expect you.”

“Where is our Goddess?” John asked.

“In the throne room. Let me escort you.”

“No need. I know the way.”

John made his way to the throne room and saw Inashta sitting on a giant golden throne within. She looked at John as soon as he entered and laughed. He knew that his disguise would not have been able to fool her.

“My former champion,” she said. “Welcome.”

John unraveled his disguise and shouted, “everyone get out.”

The crowd of courtiers looked at Inashta. “Do as he says,” she waved her hand. She looked at John. “Don’t want them to get caught in our clash? I see that you still have your sense of moral responsibility.”

“Yeah, well...somethings never change.”

“Do you wish to join my court? I can give you back your old position.”

“In your dreams. Why didn’t you save me from Ir? All I wanted was to find Earth again. I would have been gone before you set the galaxy afire.”

“You are too powerful,” said Inashta, “and cannot be tamed. It would have been a risk to allow you to run around unchecked.”

“You’re the one who made me powerful. You saved my life in the past, but then you betrayed me. I owe you nothing now.”

“Did you come all the way here just to make this little speech?” Inashta stood up, her giant form glowing with a soft luminescence, like moonlight.

“No, I came here to kill you.” John threw his imli daggers at her, though he knew it would do her no harm. As expected, it bounced harmlessly off her aura shield.

“You certainly do have ambition,” Inashta laughed. “I shall capture you and make my legions drain you for all eternity.”

“Talk talk talk,” John hurled a fireball at her. It was much stronger than any fireball he had created in the past. It contained bits of darkness, that were invisible to the senses. The fireball did penetrate her aura shield, but it lost momentum soon after, spraying Inashta with a few sparks.

“Not bad,” said Inashta. “Even I don’t know how you did it. It looks like you have learned some secrets.”

She shot a Beam of Balance at him. John phase dodged, moving to the entrance of the throne room.

Inashta chuckled gleefully, “did you really think I would give you all that power without making preparations?” She waved her fingertips and pink light hit John’s body. No matter how he dodged it tracked him and got absorbed by his skin. “I planted many traps in the techniques I taught you. Your Blue Lightning Body has also been modified to allow me to control you. You may now fall on your knees!”

John fell on his knees.

“Crawl towards me.”

John crawled.

Just when he was within range, John jumped at her with an aura blade in hand. He managed to pierce her aura shield and cut her cheek. She teleported twenty feet away.

“How’s this possible? How can you resist my commands?”

John smirked, “I found the flaws in the techniques you taught me and in my physique. I fixed them a long time ago.”

“Not bad,” Inashta said. “It is plain to see why the Bright One left you his legacy.”

“He didn’t leave me any legacy,” John was puzzled. What did she think he was? The Astari holocube couldn’t be considered a legacy the way she meant.

“But...that’s the reason I chose you as my champion. It doesn’t matter. You still performed your role.”

A portal opened near Inashta’s hand and she drew out a long sword, made of what appeared to be a green metal.

John clashed with Inashta again but found that his aura was being drained away with her every parry. Her sword was special.

“You forget,” said Inashta, “That I now wield the Laws and the Authorities of all the gods; Except for Rahl who I couldn’t find. I’ll obtain his as well...eventually.”

“Good for you.”

John struck with greater determination. One of his strikes made it past her guard and he cut a bit of her arm. Her wound healed at a rate that was visible to the eye.

“Mere weaves are useless against Laws,” said Inashta. “The fire on your aura blade for example.”

John saw the fire elements on his blade go berserk. They ran up the blade and tried to penetrate his aura shield. He immediately unraveled his weave.

“You aren’t the only one who can use Laws.” John formed a blade out of Darkness.

“That should not be possible for a human. How did you do it?” Inashta looked at him, wide eyed.

“Perseverance and desperation.”

“It doesn’t matter. You know one Law. I know them all.”

“Jack of all, master of none.”

“I’ll show you who is a master of none.”

Multiple beams of balance emerged from around her and hit John. He went crashing through the walls of the throne room. He wiped off the blood from his face and then retreated. Inashta ran after him. He led her into the quadrangle. As soon as she was within range, the railguns opened fire. Diluvian bullets pierced through her aura shield, but they couldn’t get through her second layer of defense, made of the Laws of Gravitation. She was much stronger than John had realized. She had feigned to be weaker than she was when they began their fight.

“Did you really think these little toys could harm me?” Inashta laughed. “I’ll kill all your friends, and then play with you, Wild Child.”

John mass teleported everyone out of the quadrangle before Inashta could make her move.

“You’ve just made me very angry,” Inashta snarled. She unleashed vortexes of light that spun around like tops. They tried to crash into John, but he phase dodged. The vortexes didn’t relent. They came after him again and again.

Meanwhile, Inashta was shooting out Beams of Balance at him. John now had his hands full. She came at him with her sword, but all he could do was phase. He made a glaive out of darkness and struck the tops which disintegrated on contact. He immediately parried Inashta’s sword strike from behind.

“John,” he got a communication from Sevens. “We have a problem.”

“What problem?” John growled. “I have my hands full here.”

“Droth is coming. She wants to take part in Inashta’s destruction as well.”

“The more the merrier.”

“The problem is Droth doesn’t follow plans. When she fights, she goes all out.”

“I’ll try my best to hold Inashta back.”

John and Inashta clashed hundreds of times in a few seconds. John then swept the whole quadrangle in pitch darkness. He had learned the Laws of Darkness within his two thousand year imprisonment. Within the darkness John was king. Inashta cast a beam of light around her, but it could not penetrate far into the dark. John darted around her moving from one side of the large quadrangle to the other in milliseconds. He used the vast amount of momentum created to cut at Inashta. Her aura shield was very fragile in the dark, and she got little cuts all over her body. Golden blood dripped down her skin.

“Enough,” she screamed. “I’ll take care of you later. I’ll see to your interesting allies first.”

This was what John was afraid of. Inashta made to fly out of the quadrangle but John caught her leg with a tendril of darkness. He pulled her down with all his might, but it was useless. She severed his hold of her with her sword and flew into the sky. John followed as quickly as he could, looking like a black cloud. They made their way to space where Inashta’s fleet were being annihilated by Droth and the AI. It looked like the AI had decided to destroy their enemies now that Droth had messed up the plan.

Inashta flew to the dragon who breathed out fire at her. The fire could not harm her. She slashed her sword across space and blood fell from the dragon’s neck. The dragon was wounded but her fighting spirit was soaring high. Droth flew towards Inashta at breakneck speed, covering a thousand miles in a second, and attacked with her claws. Little circles of light appeared around each of her claws as she sent them swinging at Inashta. The goddess dodged with ease.

Meanwhile, John reached the scene of the battle. He covered Inashta in a massive cloud of darkness and attacked. He could move so quickly in the darkness that it was almost as good as teleportation. Inashta couldn’t handle John and the dragon together. She fired at a Beam of Balance onto Droth and John was able to cut her. The big dragon disintegrated into particles of light. The AI fleet, riled up by the death of Droth, began firing everything they had at Inashta. They couldn’t make so much as a scratch on her. Their weapons were useless.

“Retreat,” John ordered Sevens through his chip. “I’ll handle her myself.”

A glow now surrounded Inashta, illuminating the entire area while the AI ships escaped into the aether. The glow could only penetrate the darkness for a few feet, but it was more than enough for Inashta to nullify John’s attacks. John summoned more darkness. He felt his control over the Law of Darkness slipping. This was getting more than he could handle. He used the demonic technique Energy Drain. John became one with the dark cloud. The cloud hit Inashta from all directions, stealing energy from her with each hit. Divine energy was different from aura or demonic energy, but the star within his realm could refine it.

Inashta suddenly stopped defending. John could see that she was tired. Using Laws was different from weaving elements. It required a lot of energy, and John was absorbing her energy with each passing second. Inashta then screamed and a pulse of golden energy spread outwards from her. John couldn’t phase dodge. The aether had been sealed by this energy. The golden energy was spreading everywhere. One of Adan’s moons made contact with the energy and disintegrated.

John got hit. Half his armor got dissolved by the golden energy and it was starting to tear away at his skin. He used all his might to absorb the energy and refine it. He felt like he would pass out at any moment.

“Just hold it together, John!” he shouted at himself. He was John Smith, the Star Eater. He roared as he absorbed more power than he could refine. The star within him imploded and then transformed into something new. Light and Darkness lay intertwined on each other, moving continuously in a spiral. “Keep going!” John forced himself to move. A strange new energy pulsed through him. It felt like breathing, but he was taking in energy instead of air.

“No!” Inashta gaped at him. “Impossible. How could you have formed a divine core?” She tried to fly away, back to Adan, but John caught up to her with ease.

“We haven’t finished yet,” he said, throwing a punch. She was hit, and got pushed a few hundred miles away. He moved towards her and enveloped Inashta in his cloud form, absorbing her energy at a rate much faster than earlier. The refinement was much faster now.

Just when he was about to give her the finishing blow a tear appeared in space. Out of it stepped a golden giant.

“You must be Rahl,” John said.

The golden giant nodded, “I have come to plead for her. Please spare my sister’s life. She will be imprisoned and the galaxy shall be fully restored to how it was before.”

“No!” John absorbed the last of Inashta’s divine energy. She kept putting up a struggle but he easily overwhelmed her. Rahl moved to attack John, but it was too late. A spear of darkness pierced Inashta’s chest, destroying her realm in the process. Colored orbs issued from her dead corpse, which was already withering away. These orbs must have been the Authorities.

“Take your authorities,” John said to Rahl, stopping his attack with one hand, “and go. I don’t want to fight you.”

“She was my sister,” Rahl said sadly. Her corpse had withered away into nothing. Not even bones were left.

“Deep down you know that this was the only way to save the galaxy,” said John. “Imprisoning her wasn’t a solution.”

“It might have been,” said Rahl, “but now we’ll never know.” The god gathered the orbs of authority and disappeared into the spatial tear.

John called Sevens and Atrata. “It is done. The goddess is dead.”