Dao Ma roared as he poured everything he had inside him without holding back. The space inside the Eternal Flower was special, every action made here was a million times harder, and with every move you made, the strain increased until it would crush even a Major god under its weight.
Only the bold and the fearless would ever choose to battle on it. Today Dao Ma added a new candidate to this short list; only those without hope would battle here, and only those who were about to die would battle here.
His scales turned purple and his face shrank, assuming a more humanoid form, he may have failed his Ascension to become a Major god, but he had gained some benefit, certain insights about that level of power came to him and certain truths were understood.
Purple hair burst out from his scalp and he roared as he attacked.
Rowan paused for a short moment observing the god, and he sighed internally, if this god had survived, his human form would have been beautiful. His purple scale glinted in the light and his features were even more beautiful than those of Rowan.
"I shall not go quietly into the dark!" Dao Ma screamed.
"It matters not," Rowan responded, and he received the attack of the god, and the Angels above went still as they watched the first of the many battles that would occur soon.
The death of Dao Ma would spark a war that would raze across the galaxy, and they stood as witnesses as the Creator began his move on this galactic chess board.
Dao Ma made thousands of moves every second, his whip and short spear moving with such quickness that they left countless trails in the air, and even Rowan could not keep up using Envy even as he burned his vitality using Eruption, if not for the assistance of his Ouroboros Serpents that served as both his shield and spear, he would have lost in the first two seconds.
Countless moves were made and countered and Rowan tasked his Many consciousness to activate Eruption at the precise moment he needed it, else he would have burned through his time limits in the first few seconds of battle
A display of amazing martial intricacy followed. Dao Ma's whip covered every angle, assaulting the six Ouroboros Serpent and Rowan at the same time. His spear was like lightning bolts, fast and unpredictable, it was as if he could not feel the growing strain of battling on the Eternal Flower, and his beautiful face lit up in pure excitement.
At the moment of his death, he was living life to the fullest!
Rowan's eyes glowed and he could not help but praise out loud, "This is how a real god should battle!"
Rowan twirled Envy deflecting thousands of blows in every passing moment, not even trying to attack, he called up an entire fifteen Consciousness pillars to learn and follow the pattern of Dao Ma attacks, while he did his best to keep himself in one piece as he weathered through the storm.
The structure of the Eternal Flower aided and abetted him also. Dao Ma's moves were powerful, but lacked enough strength to shred through Rowan's defense, even while backed with Intent, and every cut that reached Rowan's flesh was healed in the blink of an eye, yet Rowan had to push more conscious power to find ways to resist against the constant growing pressure the Eternal Flower exerted.
His Ouroboros Serpents were the key to him staying stable for the first three seconds as they did not attack much for Rowan forbade them from doing so, as it would defeat the purpose of this battle, but they deflected the strikes that he had missed and sometimes pushed Dao Ma back in order for Rowan to adjust his footing.
Dao Ma's weapons could not even cut through their scales, only making loud metallic sounds and bright flashes of light that resembled exploding suns.
Rowan was slowly pushed back, and he was approaching the edge of the Eternal Flower, but although he was presently disadvantaged, his footing was still steady, it would take more than this to break him.
At the ten seconds mark, Dao Ma made an impressive combination with his spear and whip, thrusting his spear a total of seven times that targeted Rowan from his head to his groin, and with his speed, it was as if there were seven spears attacking Rowan at once, his whip scattered into a thousand pieces and they wrapped around the Ouroboros Serpents giving the god valuable moments to intensify his attack.
Rowan who had been defending for all of eighteen seconds suddenly shuddered, his eyes glowed so bright it resembled two suns, and he brought Envy to the top of his head and sliced, parried, and swept the attack of the spear to the side.
Knowledge Well had finished analyzing, and now all the proficiency of Dao Ma's attack pattern that he had developed over countless millennia rushed into Rowan's consciousness pillars and was sublimated.
Rowan took a single step back and stopped, he was at the very edge of the Eternal Flower, and then he attacked, taking the first step forward and for the first time unleashing his Berserker Aspect that was at the Immortal level.
Envy became mysteriously silent, but that was not the case that this God Killer weapon was reducing her presence, but it was the opposite, she was now so excited that a Mortal would not be able to comprehend this degree of fanaticism.
She had only begun to make noise in a smaller spectrum of sound below the physical hearing of most mortal creatures, and anyone who could hear it would ascribe it to the scream you heard when a world dies.
A flood of red granules that resembled maggots flowed out from Rowan's body and encircled his weapon turning Envy blood red, and he made the first stroke, and the universe seemed to halt.
