BXBX NOVEL Chapter 84: To The Last Drop Of Mana.
"Why exactly are we agreeing to not finding out what\'s happening over there?" Han looked at Arla confused, and Ikaris turned to him with her brows furrowed in annoyance.
"Han, you have no dealings in the events taking place there," Lyra had a look of shock and horror as she watched the last of the flames vanish into the sky, looking across the other direction where she could still see the trail of fire Sol\'s approach had left. "This is a quarrel between the gods!"
"Indeed it is," Ikaris agreed.
[True Goddess Ikaris remains impressed, but cautions warranted restraint, a fight this close to the barrier will undo what has been done]
Sol saw the message after landing and huffed.
"Sorry, I didn\'t expect that the fight would drag all the way over here." Sol walked toward the intense heat, stepping across the lava and stopping when the heat started turning his repaired armour red at the tips. "Sorath, get up we can\'t continue fighting here." He stared at the goddess on one knee breathing heavily as she bled from her nose and eyes. "Can you move?" He asked.
[I am capable] she raised her head, and with her body shaking she stood and stumbled forward, causing the heat she was exuding to wash across him. [That was the most impressive thing I have seen you do thus far, it immediately reminded me of Ikaris attacking the Queen of the heavens, even if I was on the recieving end, it was still impressive,] She blew blood from her nose and smiled at him.
[I am rattled]
"But you will not concede." Sol replied balling his fists again with a frown.
[No, you win only if I am unable to fight, and I am still bustling with energy, I want to keep using the challenge system just as much as you do, I will not abandon this fight] Sorath raised her fists, and with them another wave of heat erupted into the sky before the System closed the space around them and teleported them elsewhere again.
[The imminent threat has been lifted, your life is no longer in immediate danger from a clash between deities]
The system announced to everyone who was observing the mountains from afar except for Ikaris.
"We were in danger?" Eris asked, and Arla let out a sigh of relief and fired off another flare into the air.
"I felt my age increasing with every breath," Idria let out a sigh as well. "Why were the gods fighting on Arkadia?"
"Who knows," Ikaris smiled as she watched what would be their fourth and most important round. For once she had trust in another god as Sorath had proven through her actions that she would honour her part of the deal, and the wager was a fair one as well. For her this seemed like the least dangerous fight he had ever been in, he had no intention of killing and neither did his opponent.
It was strictly a battle of attrition.
The system was working overtime to keep the dimension intact and protect it from shattering as Sol and Sorath started their final round, what remained of their resolves had been stripped down to the very basic desire to overpower and defeat the other at whatever cost.
And so a spectacle of explosions continued to erupt as Sol held his ground and tanked every blow while Sorath did the same.
Their attacks were mostly too fast to follow, but the resulting destruction to the environment around them had the god of destruction on the edge of his seat with a face full of glee as he watched with pure joy.
\'how much more!?\' Sol thought, continuously delivering precise attacks to the goddesses chin to rattle her with maximum effect while he was punished for every attack with devastating blows to his body.
The only upside to his situation was the fact that the [Tandava] had run its course, and so he was not being hammered by a constant apocalyptic flame with every punch, but that only seemed to make her attacks heavier as she forcefully increased the output of her hits to keep up.
"Come on!" Sol grabbed the goddess by her hands and pulled her toward himself smashing his forehead into her nose and raising her off the ground spinning and dropping her again causing the terrain around them to explode outward, but now beneath him the goddess kept hold of his arms and spun a second time raising herself and slamming him several times into the ground before releasing him with a kick to his abdomen that he barely managed to block at the last second before it sent him flying.
Sorath approached Sol first, aiming to finish the fight with one grand strike, but Sol raised his hands and tanked the blow, countering with a palm strike to her stomach that left her winded as the two of them fell before each other with one hand on each others shoulder, heaving and sweating.
"I... haah... won\'t stop, not even if I lose consciousness!" Sorath tried standing but failed when Sol weakly dragged her back down.
"I have plenty of energy to spare!" Sol raised his left hand and threw a weak punch that barely hurt her at all but still sent her falling on her back. "I just need to force a forefeit out of you!" He stood up, but fell again when she swung her leg and kicked him in the side of his knee.
"Never!" Sorath raised herself on top of him and straddled his waist. "The sun never forefeits!" She raised both of her hands and dropped her fists in his forehead causing the ground around them to shake and burst from the pressure. "Know this!"
"I am also the sun!" Sol caught her next attack and spun with her raising her by her waist and dropping her in a suplex before rolling to his hands and knees again and then forcing himself to stand while she heaved on the ground.
[Mana: 3%]
"Forefeit!" Sol created a small sphere of rotating mana in his grasp, and the goddess of the sun went on one knee with a similar looking ball of violently rotating fire.
"Never!" Sorath pounced before he did and collided the sphere in his abdomen, breaking his armour, but only a second later, she was sent falling to her face again when Sol\'s attack dropped in her back.
[Mana: 1%]
[Arkadian mana: 0.1%]
[Your mana has been exhausted, you can no longer control or suppress the emergence of your demon-god transformation]
The system warned Sol, and as if a chime went off in his head he retreated away from Sorath and stood a safe distance away, staring at his hands as his skin slowly grew darker.
[Haha-] the goddess chuckled upon seeing him transforming. [I... was so entranced by the battle that I forgot about that accursed power, now with this, you will surely win...]
"I don\'t want to win like this," Sol\'s voice slowly distorted as his wings grew from his back, though unlike the other times where another magic was factored in, this time with the pure demonic energy his wings grew with thick white blood and slime covering them, as did his horns.
"I definitely lost here, I can\'t claim to be the winner of this fight," Sol\'s wings grew out and opened flashing the slime and blood away as he felt energy brimming within himself, and along with it a desire to kill.
[What are you talking about?] Sorath asked confused as she stared at him and felt the foreboding energy.
"This...
Form, it eats away at me every time I use it, we were having a battle of willpower, to see who would emerge victorious if we went toe to toe, to keep my claim on the challenger right for the system, but the moment I felt this change I lost that will, it was replaced with the will to kill, to torture and torment, truly like a demon, so you are the victor here, I don\'t want to lay a hand on you knowing I lost the reason I was fighting in the first place.
[A winner has been decided, congratulations!] The system announced, and Ikaris held an expression of confliction as she watched Sorath stand and approach Sol with a slight limp while heaving.
"Admirable, honourable, I have confirmed that you are a man to your word, to go and forefeit because your code of honour was violated is something that not even most gods would have done." She extended her hand and placed it against his chest.
[The goddess of the sun has entrusted a tiny fraction of her divine mana to you]
[Mana: 2%]
[Demon-god transformation is being suppressed]
"Why?" Sol asked watching his disgusting transformation vanish with a flash of flames across his body.
"You are different, I thought you had malicious intents toward the gods because of your previous actions, but it seems you only acted according to the situation..." Sorath smiled.
"Your decision to forefeit this duel has given me the confidence that your bout with the gods will have far greater benefits than it will disadvantages, that is why I forefeit before you did." She kissed his cheek and then rested her cheek against his in a warm hug.
"The sun never fofreits... I do not accept this as a loss, but a compromise." She chuckled at the irony of her words. "I will see you again, Selfish god," She whispered in his ear before the system whisked her away.
[Sol Vestic is the winner of this challenge, the challenger Sorath; goddess of the sun has forefeit her right to use the challenge system]