In all her years, Ramsa had never seen anything like this. Her arguably surrogate child had transformed into a living mass of lava and black volcanic rock. The heat in the air was enough to even make her wince. The werewolf’s eyes, entirely black and cracked like stone with red light flowing underneath like lava, were set on her.

‘What is this…’ She couldn’t help but think as the… creature grinned at her. She could see droplets of lava falling off his fur, or rather, his fur itself had become lava and was spilling. ‘This is madness, it feels like I’m standing in front of an actual star. And this feeling… he’s producing a magnetic field by just standing there. The wind is flowing down around him…’ She bit her lip. ‘His mass has reached a state capable of creating its own gravitation pole.’

Rakna laughed at her gaze and the emotions of awe coming from her. He rolled his shoulders out of habit, but he could tell that there weren’t even any bones for him to pop. His whole body had been turned into a humanoid star; just like the first time he used the Internal Release against the Dreorin so long ago.

But in contrast with the Cold Star at the time, who had granted him the ability to dematerialize his body, the Volcanic Star was doing the opposite. It was compressing everything. If the former was better for mobility, the latter was made for endurance.

❮ ◈ ❯

You have cast Volcanic Star Manifestation – Internal Release.

For the next three minutes, your magical might and defense will increase by 50%. Your mana consumption will be decreased by 50%, and you will be immune to fire and heat.

Your body will continuously behave like a star, releasing a magnetic field and producing a gravitational pull. Both magical and physical damage will be greatly reduced before even striking.

Any injury will automatically be healed no matter the severity. Whether you are bisected, beheaded, crushed, torn apart, the volcanic energy will reform your body.

Cost: 75% Stamina.

Cooldown: 120 Hours.

❮ ◈ ❯

“Are you ready, mother?” Rakna laughed tauntingly, Sonata fuming from the heat, but surprisingly unscathed from his grip due to the curse ingrained in it adapting to him.

Ramsa narrowed her eyes warily and a spear appeared in her hand. She clenched her weapon and an aura still surpassing the werewolf’s surged. She disappeared from her spot, and before Rakna could react, he felt something strike his chest.

His entire torso twisted from the impact and he was sent directly out of the moon’s atmosphere, almost entirely out of the moon’s gravitational range. The vacuum of space was a new experience for him but he didn’t have the time to consider it.

He looked down at himself and saw that there was a hole in his chest. It was instantly healed but right after, his instinct took over him and he managed to block a spear that was about to liberate his head from his neck.

He came face to face with Ramsa and from her expression, he could tell she was surprised. Not by the fact that he could sense her attack, but because his physical strength surpassed hers. Not to mention, the sheer metaphysical weight he possessed made it even harder. And that was only for her; anyone else wouldn’t have managed to make him budge by even a centimeter.

Rakna smirked and used his free hand to throw a fist over their intertwined weapons. She glanced at it and used two of her wings to block it, only to regret it afterward. Layers of dimensional energy wrapped around the werewolf’s arm and twisted her wings. She grimaced in pain and turned into a whirlpool of orange flames.

At the same time, knowing her magic couldn’t do anything to him, she slipped out of Sonata’s lock and briefly rematerialized her upper body to hit him with her palm. The sheer difference in stages between mortal and God showed once again, flouting the Manifestation’s ability and caving in half of Rakna’s body and even blowing off one of his arms.

But he cackled and retaliated with a kick. Since Rift Shuttle was still activated, his attack offended the very fabric of space and landed on the half-corporal goddess. She grunted and retreated a few steps but Rakna followed after her.

“[Artzpul,]” he intoned and his wings released a burst that illuminated the moon’s sky. His speed temporarily surpassed his limit and Ramsa, who had already reformed her body, was prepared to strike back. But she was once again shocked when the werewolf’s speed went up another notch right before she was able to parry Sonata.

“[Quintuple Burst,]” Rakna triggered his newest skill, pouring large quantities of mana into his speed attribute to catch her off guard. The blade of his Guandao ultimately found itself hitting her shoulder. Normally, this wouldn’t have done anything. Despite being reinforced with mana and possessing perks such as Oscillation Blade, a mortal weapon shouldn’t be able to hurt a God.

But Rhapsodic Sonata was far more than just a worldly item. Rakna, for the first time, decided to activate two perks of his weapon at the same time.

‘[10 000 Nights of Severance, Skulk Life Down,]’ he said internally and the miraculous ability of his matrixial spell backed up the innate power of the Skulking Angels, broke literal rules of nature, and cut through a God’s skin.

Ramsa’s mind ground to a halt when she felt the vibrating and incandescent blade cut her. She was able to release a massive geyser of solar flames just in time to separate them but the damage had been done. A gash had opened from her shoulder to her chest and her pale-colored blood flowed out.

Rakna recovered his stance after being thrown out by the flames and let out a breath to properly sort out the information he had gained on his opponent. As shocking as it sounded, not even half a minute had passed since the moment he was flung away into outer space.

He gazed at the Sun Goddess who was staring in shock at her bloodied clothes and Fray spoke up in his mind. “{Her blood; it has traces of red. She is only an Earthen God. You’re lucky, if she was a Heavenly God instead, her blood would be completely white and your attack right now would have at best scraped her skin to draw a few drops of blood.}”

‘Thank you for the words of encouragement,’ Rakna responded sarcastically as he kept his eyes strained on the goddess’ figure. Ceres was also putting the System windows on hold so as to not make him lose concentration but he knew that he had definitely gotten something for injuring her.

“I am… impressed,” Ramsa finally raised her voice, having finally managed to get her eyes off her own wound. “I never expected you to manage this… I always knew you had the potential but this exceeds all of my expectations. It seems I have to take you seriously.”

“Oh, gosh. Not the stereotypical villain lin--” Rakna never finished his sentence since his head was blown off by the blade of a spear. Ramsa raised her hand and an orange light gathered around it; it was divinity in its raw form.

“You can live through my flames; what about this?” She said and pointed her palm at him, his head being reconstructed by the volcanic energy. “[Surya Daha Rosa,]” she chanted and a beam of raw divinity swallowed the werewolf and carried him back onto the moon’s surface; far away from the capital.

He crashed on the ground, the divinity digging around him and causing the moon to nearly split off into two parts as a fracture spread for half of its circumference. Ramsa didn’t even wait for her attack to fully disperse and flew through its light.

She dived into the crater but before she could even see her target, a beam of bluish-silver energy forced her to halt and deflect it with her spear. Then, the Sentinel appeared in front of her with his eyes glowing golden, marked by a cross, and surrounded by grayish lines that extended to the rest of his body.

His nine tails were brimming with lunar energy and he redirected it to his mouth. He growled and produced a mix between a howl and roar. A beam of concentrated lunar and volcanic energy was launched at the goddess and she squinted her eyes.

She used her full speed and fizzled out of range, riding the wave of energy. She cloaked her spear in divinity and thrust it at the werewolf’s head. But, to her shock, he tilted his head in time to dodge it. In her mind, this was impossible.

She had already determined that his speed couldn’t match hers and even if his instincts allowed him to sense her, they couldn’t close the gap. ‘So, how?’ She thought as she saw him move his arm to counter-attack.

She moved out of the way, confident that it wouldn’t reach her but before she knew it, a fist struck her and propelled her out of the crater they had made. Her eyes widened in shock, shortly feeling out of breath, but otherwise unscathed due to her divinity-forged physique.

Rakna dashed after her and transformed Sonata into a pair of chain scythes. He threw one in her direction and she dodged it with minimal movement. She sensed the weapon move on its own and circle around her but before she could do anything about it, the werewolf once again managed to predict her movements and directly hit her with his scythe.

Unlike the previous time, the blade merely scratched her skin, but it was enough to knock her back by a few meters and be at the mercy of Sonata’s chain. It wrapped around her with startling force and locked her movements for a brief instant.

Rakna instantly took advantage of it and rushed forward, Rift Shuttle made itself known around him and the crossed pupils of Cross Sight revolved. Ramsa felt dread and tried to twist her body as much as possible to lessen his accuracy, but, for the third time, the Sentinel moved as if he knew what she was going to do and succeeded in striking her in the only focal point he could see.

The results were shown on impact, Ramsa was sure she felt something break inside her and she coughed blood. She gritted her teeth and destroyed the chains restraining her by bolstering her strength with divinity and mana.

She grasped her spear with both hands and clashed against Sonata’s newly reformed katana. Her pupils narrowed and she initiated a close combat battle that was massively in her favor. She was nearly three times as fast as him and was continuously damaging the werewolf, sometimes cutting his arms, his legs, or even his head. If it was his normal state, even with his regeneration, he would have already died a hundred times. But that didn’t stop him for even a second.

Before they knew it, their battlefield had become the entire moon. There was not even one second where they wouldn’t be miles away from their last position. After some time, Ramsa noticed two things. The first was that the Sentinel’s soul power was decreasing. The second was that she was having a harder time injuring him to the same degree as before.

‘His defense and attack power are both increasing as we go on…’ She thought. ‘I don’t know if there is a limit to this; I have to end it fast,’ she stated internally and broke the deadlock by thrusting her palm at the werewolf’s dominant shoulder.

Rakna’s arm trembled and he became unable to use one of his twin katanas. Then, he was kicked in the ribs and sent skidding through miles of the lunar terrain. Then, Ramsa pointed her finger at the sky and summoned a giant orange and white magic circle.

Eye of Symphony analyzed it in a blink and Rakna’s mind went into overdrive. Founding Intuition was starting to put a severe toll on him. He had never used it in combat before and it showed. Even if it gave him the aptitude to borderline see a few milliseconds into the future by predicting her movements, it was barely enough for him to survive.

‘Condensing runes. Channeling formation to spin energy in the core,’ his accelerated analysis of the magic circle ran through his head. ‘Powered by divinity, internal energy, and mana. Advanced fractal spell. Damage estimate; one-quarter of the moon. Time of casting… 0.945 seconds… Probabilities of defeat if cast; 99.9%. Contingency necessary.’

Rakna clawed at his face and summoned a bony red mask that blended with his fur. Ramsa froze at the emergence of the terrifying pressure but powered through. ‘Time bought; 0.165 seconds. Not enough. Activating last resort measure.’

“[All Virtues Shall Sloth!]”