Within seconds, the intensity increased exponentially.
As the Marionette Lord became serious, they instantly used Acian to kill Jerome for good while sending Helen and Treya to constantly pressure Iris.
Iris was originally someone who fought from a distance. She swerved through the atmosphere, avoiding the two puppets who constantly tried to close the distance while attacking.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Star Formation wasn't the only move she knew, but it was the most effective in the current circumstance. Instead of forming massive stars like the one she used at first, she compressed their area to the size of a basketball and maintained as much force as possible to create projectiles.
They exploded through the atmosphere and caused space to tremble like the strings of a guitar. No matter how much the Marionette Lord tried to push her puppets closer, they weren't able to unless they wanted them to burn to cinders.
Acian would soon rejoin the battle, but until then, they had to rely on the Insect Lord.
The Demigod finally entered the mix instead of standing at the back.
His swarms were filled with poisonous and venomous bugs, as well as those with bite force far exceeding the toughness of a Demigod's outer protection.
Some of them even ate mana, making his repertoire a truly terrifying thing to face.
When he first entered the battle, he started with a swarm of locusts.
Before Acian could return to combat, Helen and Treya needed a way to reach Iris, and that's exactly what he provided.
Through his locusts, Helen could project her lightning energy far faster and further than she could on her own. She could create ranged attacks with far more power than the Marionette Lord could force her to produce even by drawing out her life force.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The lightning strikes were severe. Iris was forced to put up several barriers and start moving more carefully because of them, but this was also her intention.
'As long as he uses those…'
There was a specific insect in the Insect Lord's arsenal that Iris wanted to draw out, but the circumstances weren't right yet.
'Even if I kill everyone else, he won't use it. I have to pressure him personally.'
She had to make him eat a loss.
And the best way to do that?
'Naturally, it's overload.'
Iris clenched her fist and removed her defenses.
BANG!
An arc of lightning instantly hit her chest, but while wincing in pain, Iris forced that energy into her body and rapidly understood its structure.
She clenched her fist tightly, and arcs of rainbow lightning of her own appeared on its surface.
'Good.'
She didn't realize how versatile Creation was before. She used it to control the elements and create constructs out of thin air, but she never realized she could do something like this.
Pressing her arm forward, she shot out thousands of lightning spears that precisely struck Helen's incoming lightning.
The combined force created a chaotic mana wave that spread through the Insect Lord's locust swarm, and as the locusts absorbed more and more of the mana, they began twitching strangely.
Iris didn't let up.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Every shot Helen took was stolen and redirected by her, forced into the locust swarm for absorption.
With the passing of only a few seconds, it reached a level they could no longer bear.
From behind the swarm, the Insect Lord grinned widely.
"Expel!"
He ordered them to let loose the energy however they could.
Instead of breaking them down, the energy Iris supplied would be used to strike her back!
Or at least, that was the goal.
But Iris didn't look the least bit worried.
Because she knew exactly how these locusts operated.
Once they were ordered to expel what they'd absorbed, it was impossible for the process to be halted.
Iris gathered her mana and thought about Damien. More specifically, the power he'd used to fight these past years.
"Seclude."
The command she gave was different, but the effect was the same.
Space solidified into a massive cube that encompassed the entire locust swarm, including the Insect Lord.
The cube compressed several times, forcing them into a space they could barely inhabit, and, within the second, the inevitable happened.
The locusts that couldn't expel the Divine Energy within them properly were forced to explode.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The explosion was isolated and couldn't be heard from the outside world, but it shone so bright it blinded everyone nearby.
Iris didn't waste time appreciating her work.
She was already doing many things she'd never expected possible just moments ago, so this was nothing.
Creation wasn't an inherently offensive law.
It held power over pure energy, and could be used to create anything, but it could not be used to spread destruction, as that was a job held by its sister law.
Instead, a user of creation had to be intuitive.
Using the opponent's force against them, creating natural offenses through exploding creations like Iris did through Star Formation, or mobilizing constructs formed through the law.
Iris was currently learning.
She was able to only use a few abilities because she still had to realize how to mobilize her power destructively.
After all, she couldn't always maintain a passive stance in battle. She couldn't just let the enemy pressure her because she was waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
So, while she kept the Insect Lord in mind for her final plan, she stopped hesitating and approached Helen and Treya.
A close combat battle began between them.
Helen used a lightning spear, while Iris didn't particularly use any weapons. For the sake of the battle, she summoned several weapons that she could cycle through, but it was only a temporary measure.
Naturally, Iris lost in terms of pure skill. Her power was enough to bridge the gap, but as she looked for opportunities to utilize her new abilities, she showed many openings that could've been prevented.
And those openings were abused by Treya, who hid in the shadows.
The clanging of metal against metal, the guttural tearing of flesh ripping apart; the sounds of pure battle filled the air.
Both Iris and her opponents took damage, but none of them experienced anything fatal.
And at some point, Acian was brought back into the equation. Jerome was left as a corpse on the cold ground, and the Marionette Lord was clearly trying to pay back the humiliation they received from being forced to destroy one of their own puppets.
Iris was once again surrounded and thrown into a blood world, but this time, she was ready for it.
She was separated from external forces.
Even if the Marionette Lord wanted to do something to interfere, they could only do so by using one of the three remaining puppets or taking down the blood world.
Both of which were situations Iris was ready for.
She had a thought after completing Star Formation a few times.
Of the energies of the universe, which ones could she use as effectively as that, to create impacts like that, but while lowering the casting time and increasing the output?
She was searching for a "perfect" move.
And though she hadn't found it, she had an idea.
She raised both arms into her hands and chanted it into reality.
"Personal Reality."
