"Im…impossible!" Zeras roared after recovering from his absolute shock.
His astral stars, one of his strongest and most profound battle arts, had been completely neutralized by Lilian in almost an instant. He refused to believe such a thing was possible, but the truth was laid out before his very eyes.
Stars were the pinnacle source of power! It's what his father had always taught him, and what he had truly believed. That truth had been eroded before his very eyes. Zeras suddenly felt his sanity snap, like his entire life had been a lie.
"Impossible!" He roared with unbridled fury, and as if gone mad, dashed towards Lilian without a care for his own safety, undoing his astral blade since it was proven to be ineffective against Lilian. He appeared before her in an instant, and slashed out with his bizarre weapon, which he now held in both hands, unleashing his strongest physical attack possible.
His aura flared out without holding back, enveloping Lilian with his strongest astral energy. Lilian watched as the weapon fell onto her, and then she vanished. Despite Zeras' enveloping her with the energy that had restricted her spatial powers before, she had still managed to utilize her spatial powers in an instant, as if his astral Dao meant nothing at all.
The massive weapon slammed onto the arena floor, shaking it violently. Lilian appeared behind Zeras in an instant as if materializing from another dimension. She slashed her scythe out before he could turn, unleashing another profound scythe image towards his back.
Che!
The scythe image slammed onto Zeras' back, carving deeply into his astral body. A massive wound was opened up before the scythe image eventually lost its power and faded away. The wound leaked bright astral light, and also revealed the interior of Zeras' astral form.
His true body was revealed to all, normal in size, with a gaping wound in his chest where the blade had landed. Death Qi permeated the wound, making it unable to heal. Zeras' face was scrunched up in pain and anger as he locked eyes with Lilian, who floated before him.
"Die!" He roared, instantly healing the massive astral wound, forming his astral armor anew. His hulking figure slashed out again, unleashing another attack towards Lilian. At the same time, a hundred giant stellar blades formed in the air around him, each nearly as strong in power as the one he had been using previously. Lilian's body vanished as she dodged the attack, and quickly re-appeared behind Zeras.
As if expecting the tactic again, one of the massive stellar blades suddenly shot towards Lilian before she could attack his main body, forcing her to turn to block it. Her scythe cleaved outwards and destroyed the attack with seeming ease, but the time she had spent doing so was all the time Zeras needed to recover and unleash another attack on her.
Lilian's scythe swept outwards, slamming against the massive weapon in Zeras' hand. Despite the weapon being larger than her body, neither of them budged as their weapons collided, revealing their strength in straight forward attacks to be equal. Zeras' expression wavered with anger and frustration again, but he ignored his frustrations and continued his assault.
His bizarre weapon slashed out with practiced efficiency, not a single wasted movement in his attacks. The stellar blades pierced out towards Lilian constantly, making it as if she were battling an entire army encircling her.
Lilian's scythe slashed out with equal proficiency, smooth and graceful, yet fast and precise. Each movement meant something, as she parried the barrage of attacks while also unleashing her own towards Zeras.
The two found themselves locked into heated battle once more, each revealing themselves to not only be pinnacle geniuses when it came to cultivation and comprehensions, but also pinnacle geniuses when it came to battle.
Their battle raged on as battle arts flew out ceaselessly, the dao of stars slamming against the dao's of death and space. Unlike before, Zeras found himself on the defensive, almost unable to withstand Lilian's incredible might. It was taking all he had just to keep himself alive, and he had come close to receiving a fatal blow several times before narrowly avoiding them.
John watched in a daze, his eyes never leaving Lilian for a second. It was the first time in his life that he had seen someone other than himself fight with such power, such dominance, such perfection. His heartbeat quickened as he watched her fight, his worry for her gone. He now only felt awe.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The battle between the two shook the arena, as if threatening to destroy it completely. However, thanks to the formidable formations made by those of the ancient world, the arena and the formations withstood the apocalyptic battle arts and explosions, although at times it seemed like nothing could withstand such power.
Zeras found himself pushed further and further towards the edge of defeat, doing everything he could to keep himself alive. He could concede, but he would never do that!
"This form of yours is consuming far too much energy, even for you!" Zeras roared furiously. "Even someone like you will run out of Qi far before I do!" he said, his words like a splash of cold water on John's face.
'Zeras is right. Even if it was me, the rate at which she is using Qi is horrifying. She won't be able to last much longer, at which point…' John's thoughts trailed off.
Zeras had no doubt used an incredible amount of his Qi reserves already, and was nearing his end as well, but that end would definitely come after Lilian had run out of Qi.
"You're right," Lilian's calm yet cold voice drifted through the arena, as if coming from all directions. "But you won't last long enough to see that time come to pass."
Upon saying this, Lilian's figure flashed, and she appeared above Zeras like a ghost. Zeras' gaze snapped upwards, locking onto her figure. He roared and unleashed a beam of astral Qi towards her, not caring at all about her ability to redirect it. If she did, he would use a stellar blade to deflect the astral beam when it reappeared.
The beam reached Lilian in an instant, and she did not redirect it as expected, or even block it. The beam slammed onto her body, and then against all expectations, pierced right through as if she didn't exist.
The beam vanished after piercing through her, revealing her figure to be intact and completely unharmed.
"Impossible!" Zeras roared, and pointed his weapon at her again, prepared to unleash another attack.
An otherworldly energy suddenly exploded out of Lilian's body, surging out in all directions. Her face paled and aura dropped dramatically, as if she had just unleashed the final vestiges of her remaining power.
A ripple in space formed, visible to the naked eye, which washed over Zeras. Inexplicably, the ripple stopped after traveling just past Zeras, and remained stationary in space. It was the most bizarre of things to see, once again shocking even John to his core.
'What is going on?' he couldn't help but wonder in shock, as well as awe. His gaze shifted towards Zeras, who didn't move an inch. It was as if he were stunned stiff by what Lilian had just unleashed.
"Wait, not stunned!" John exclaimed, standing up as he realized what was going on. "But frozen. Zeras is literally frozen in space!"
The spherical ripple of space, like a bubble made of space itself, enveloped both Zeras and Lilian within. The stellar blades shimmered with might all around her, but remained completely stationary. Zeras' might continued to flare, but he didn't move an inch. Even his eyes remained locked in place, his wide gaze staring at Lilian's figure that slowly floated down towards him. Nothing moved a single millimeter except Lilian herself, the space around them frozen solid, forbidding any movement at all.
She appeared before the hulking Zeras' chest, directly where his true body was encased within. Her calm and cold eyes softened for a brief instant, as if she had returned to being a little girl all those years ago.
"You were the one I loved most in life," she said, her voice soft, pained.
"Goodbye, brother!"
The giant Zeras' lips quivered, as if he were trying to speak. However, he said nothing, as if moving his lips was impossible at the moment.
Lilian's scythe slashed outwards, unleashing her most powerful scythe image battle art towards Zeras' astral-formed chest. It carved into his astral figure's chest without pause, and cleaved out the back immediately after.
Silence filled the arena, and then the astral figure slowly faded away. Two halves of Zeras' true body, cleaved at the waist, dropped to the arena floor. His trembling eyes stared up at Lilian with pain, confusion, and fear.
Lilian's pained eyes stared at her brother, and then the pain vanished, replaced by firm resolve. Her gaze shifted upwards to the barely noticeable spatial energy her father had created, and she stared firmly at it as her foot slammed down on Zeras' head. Her foot struggled for a moment against his innate variant body durability, and then broke through, shattering Zeras' skull. Zeras, the pinnacle genius of the Divine Martial Continent, was dead.
