CHAPTER 461: FLAMES AND VOID

The flames burning through Leslie’s veins dissolved every cloud in a few hundred meter radius. The raindrops evaporated while the wind died down.

The lightning illuminated the storm while the thunder echoed around them. Their eyes met through the empty air, Leslie’s burning bright as the sun, the Stellar’s cool and collected.

The young girl’s smile widened upon seeing the Demon’s angry expression.

"Now this is getting interesting! Do you truly hate me that much? I just choked you and cut off your arms. Let’s forgive each other and forget this whole debacle! What do you say?"

Leslie didn’t fall for her sarcastic words. His mind didn’t even consider their sincerity. The rage was too overwhelming, so abandoning the fight wasn’t an option.

Instead, he summoned another halberd made of pure flames and flew towards the young Stellar.

She chuckled again and lifted her scissors. Their blades parted, and she prepared to snap it shut, when dozens of giant fireballs began raining down on her.

Her whitish-gold eyes glanced at their approach, and with a swipe of her hand, she exploded all of them prematurely.

The Demon used the time to close the distance. He moved his flame halberd to the side and slashed at the young girl with all his might. A loud roar echoed from his parched lips, further empowering the blow.

The Stellar stepped back, still walking on empty air. However, the halberd sent forth a wave of fire hotter than the sun.

She raised her scissors as the wall of flames approached, and snapped them closed. Suddenly, the path of the fire changed direction, parting right where the Stellar stood... She cut their path in two...

The fire pushed forward, mixing with the storm clouds kilometers away. They dissolved under the immense heat, creating an even larger area without rain or lightning.

Through the split wave of fire, the Demon jumped through, slashing with his halberd vertically. The Stellar raised her scissors and opened them.

The scissor’s blades caught the flame halberd’s shaft. The blade’s flame tip reflected in the Stellar’s eyes, it stopped barely a few centimeters away.

The young girl continued to grin as she closed the scissor’s blades, cutting the weapon in half. However, Leslie expected this move, and so a wicked smile appeared on his face.

The condensed fiery energy after losing form rapidly expanded. The Stellar’s whitish-gold eyes turned even brighter as the massive explosion reflected in their depths.

She went flying backwards, while Leslie held his ground. The flames in his veins burned much stronger than the ones assaulting his body.

With a hateful roar, the Demon pursued the Stellar. Flames condensed in his hands again, but he didn’t summon his halberd and instead prepared to use his fists.

The Stellar’s face ripped open and got burned from the heavy blow, but a few moments later all her wound healed. Even the soot and scorch marks disappeared from her body and clothing.

A light laugh echoed from her small lips as Leslie flew towards her.

"Okay, you got me with that one. Nice job!... However, sadly for you, my patience ran out, so I’ll end this quickly."

She raised the scissors and snapped them faster than the Demon could’ve reacted. Leslie watched as the distance between himself and the Stellar disappeared... She cut the distance away...

The young girl’s grin widened as she raised her scissors and stabbed them through the Demon’s stomach. She then forced them open, cutting Leslie in half.

His two halves began falling, but soon tendrils of flame connected both pieces. More snapping noises echoed, mixing with the girl’s insane laughter.

Fingers, bodyparts, appendages, organs. Leslie’s entire body got cut into pieces. The only reason he managed to survive was because the flame tendrils, his veins, kept everything connected.

"Oh, I see! I was cutting the wrong parts! Let’s sever your lifeline, shall we?"

The scissors opened again, however, before they could’ve killed Leslie, a new arrival’s voice echoed... A man’s voice...

"Void Form One: Attraction!"

Suddenly, the scissors flew out of Stellar’s hands. She glanced around in the direction of her weapon.

Behind her, a massive sphere of pure darkness appeared. Its diameter was around a hundred meters, and the scissors flew straight into its depths, disappearing from reality.

Above the void globe, a tall man floated. His usually closed eyes now stared straight into the young girl’s own. They were darker than the void below, causing even the Stellar to avert her eyes.

"Well, this is unexpected. I never expected someone to interrupt my fun... Ah, no matter. You can join our little game if you’d like. Let’s see how long the two of you last together!"

Another giant pair of scissors appeared in the Stellar’s hands, and with a single snap, she cut the void into small dark ribbons.

While Yannick’s attack didn’t last long, it gave Leslie enough time to put himself back together. He summoned back his flame halberd while the lanky, dark-haired man summoned a saber, which reflected the void in his horrid eyes.

They attacked simultaneously from two different directions, with unnatural coordination. They had never fought together before, but somehow, their abilities created a perfect equilibrium...

Light and Darkness... Flames and Void... Rage and Tranquility...

Yannick and Leslie were each other’s opposites, which made their fighting styles work together perfectly.

The Demon drew the Stellar’s attention with his loud roar, giving Yannick ample opportunity to attack.

The young girl opened the scissor’s blades and caught Leslie’s halberd, farther away this time.

Yannick’s void saber came close to stabbing the Stellar. However, before his weapon could’ve reached her, the girl broke her scissors into two pieces. One for each adversary.

Both the Demon and Yannick tried overpowering her, but even put together, their strength wasn’t close to a Stellars. The young girl simply grinned at them, and with a push sent both flying in separate directions.

While they flew away from the Stellar, she put the scissor blades back together and cut the empty air multiple times.

Yannick summoned a wall of void, which promptly broke under the Stellar’s barrage. Leslie sent hundreds of condensed fireballs flying, each one exploding preemptively.

The desperate attacks failed. However, it saved them both from suffering any damage, and gave them another chance to attack.

Another, smaller black hole pulled the scissors out of the young girl’s hand, and while she turned towards Yannick with an annoyed glance, the Demon attacked with all his pent up rage.

His fists became blindingly bright as the pure heat energy condensed on their surface. The flaming wings on his back propelled him faster than the young girl could turn around.

Leslie pulled back his right arm and punched the Stellar’s face with all his power. He sent forward a giant wave of flames, burning everything for dozens of kilometers.

However, his attack didn’t stop there. He knew the flames and blunt damage wouldn’t do much against a Stellar, so while he punched her face, his long, flaming tail whipped forward.

Its dagger-like protrusion moved by the Demon’s side and stabbed the young girl in her left eye. It didn’t reach her brain, but caused enough damage to stun her momentarily.

Through the fire, Leslie glimpsed something strange, though. The young girl seemed to chuckle, while her small hand clutched the stab wound on her left eye.

Blood flowed through her fingers, or at least that’s what Leslie thought at first. However, he soon realized that instead of blood, red strings moved through her fingers. They wriggled like worms and climbed back into the girl’s eye socket.

Slowly, she moved her hand away, revealing smooth skin instead of the usual eye socket. A shiver went down Leslie’s spine as the girl lifted something into the air... A large whitish-gold button...

With a light chuckle, she placed the button where her eye used to be. The skin beneath wriggled and connected to the button, pulling it further inside.

Leslie didn’t understand what was happening. He knew only that the chance to end the fight presented itself.

"Yannick! Summon the largest black hole you can! Let’s kill this bitch!"

The lanky man didn’t word his concerns about calling a young girl a bitch. Instead, he just nodded and began the summoning process.

"Void Form Three: Total Annihilation!"

The Demon didn’t waste time either. He summoned the opposite of a black hole. Instead of an eternal dark void, he created a minor star of pure flames and contained destruction.

Both of their creations stretched for a few kilometers in diameter. This made their destructive potential near Stellar level. However, they weren’t done yet. Creating these spheres was only the first step.

The star burned brightly, illuminating and burning away the nearby storm clouds, while the black hole’s immense void-black surface sucked everything inside.

Neither needed a prompt to know the other’s thoughts. They sent their spheres on a crash course, right where the Stellar still struggled with her eye.

Insane laughter echoed from the young girl’s mouth as the whitish-gold eye turned more humane with each passing moment.

The black hole and bright star moved faster than such large objects were supposed to. Their opposing destructive powers began breaking down reality in the area between the two. Even a Stellar couldn’t escape their interlocking self-destruction.

Moments seemed to stretch towards eternity. Time slowed down in the eyes of Leslie and Yannick as the star met the black hole’s event horizon.

The star continued burning brighter and brighter, while the black hole turned darker. Nothing happened for a second, but all the sound disappeared, as if sucked in by the singularity.

Yannick and Leslie glanced at each other in concern, the same thought popping into their minds...

’We should’ve moved farther away.’