A second satellite, one of the remaining ones that were sent by the higher officials of the Austronesia Empire, captured the scene. The first thing they witnessed was a literal hell and pure destruction in Marawi City and its surroundings, which is now beyond recognition.
They were even shocked by the transformed Famine's strength when she split the mountain apart.
As for Melian, none of them had expected her to be this incredibly strong and cause such destruction.
"Should we help?" one of the officials asked.
Hearing this question, Emperor Maximo narrowed his eyes and let out a sigh.
"No… not yet."
With those words, he and the rest of the nation's most important individuals could only watch the battle through the live satellite feed.
It was a battle that would determine the fate of their nation.
As time passed, both sides slowly backed away from each other. As soon as they stopped, the three flew towards each other at blinding speed, and their weapons clashed, creating massive crimson and golden flaming explosions that incinerated the area around them.
"Unbelievable."
As the battle begins, Emperor Maximo and the rest of the officials watch in stunned silence. They didn't want to believe their eyes on what they were seeing, but it was like they were watching a superhero film or one of those Japanese Cartoons.
However, what they were seeing was real.
"With this destruction, I doubt anyone in the 19th Black Armored Division will surely survive this," A politician remarked.
"Pfft! I don't pity these scums," one of the military generals sneered.
"Fernandez, General Sethlord Rogan, can you all be silent?" Emperor Maximo muttered, fixing them with a sharp gaze. "This is a fight that will determine the fate of this nation. If the Elf Queen loses, it will all be over."
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The entire city of Marawi was in ruins. Every building in the vicinity was crumbled. Fires, unchecked by the forest's natural magic, smoldered in parts of the battlefield. Pools of lava, poisonous clouds of fog, and patches of frozen ice marred the landscape, some contaminating the surroundings. Animals, beasts and demons lay dead, victims of the three combatants' unintentional attacks.
Rasera stood on one side of the devastation, still on her feet and seemingly unscathed. She had not sustained any injuries.
However, the injuries Melian had sustained before her transformation were beginning to take their toll. It seemed her current form had limited time left. Continued hits from powerful attacks would cause it to crumble, leaving Melian defenseless.
On the other side stood her two opponents, which were two Archdemons known as Death and Famine.
"Come at me, demons! I will purge all of you from the souls of this world!"
Spreading her wings that radiated divine presence, she quickly launched several waves of golden flames from her Divine Sword towards the two approaching demons.
[IMAGES]
"Hahahaha!! This is the thrill that was missing!" Death laughed as he and Famine quickly shattered and deflected all the attacks with their respective weapons, closing the distance between them and the Goddess.
As the two sides were about to collide, Rasera swung her sword horizontally and the three weapons clashed, producing a stream of lightning strikes and pushing them back from each other.
Rasera morphed her flaming wings into the heads of three dragons, which spewed a large torrent of flames towards the two demons at a terrifying velocity.
"Little Goddess whore!"
Without missing a beat, Famine stood in front of Death and simply swung her spear down at the oncoming attack, completely splitting the flames with seemingly minimal effort.
The now divided attack veered in separate directions from each other. One went to the left, and the other to the right.
The fire blast destroyed two different mountains they made contact with, reducing them to smoldering rubble and rendering the environment uninhabitable.
"Go for it!"
Death pointed his hand towards Rasera, and a small black magic circle appeared at the tip of his palm.
"[True Death]"
As Death casted his magic, a pillar of darkness was unleashed towards Rasera.
"Bloody demons!"
Morphing the dragon heads back into wings, Rasera used them to block the beam of darkness, failing to notice Famine teleport behind her and slashed her back. At the same time, Death flies towards Rasera and punches her chest before grabbing her face and throwing her towards a building at mach speeds, crashing into its middle section.
"They do not call me the master of Death for nothing," he said calmly, grinning as two dark orbs the size of SUVs appeared in his hands.
"[COLLAPSING CHAOS]!"
As he shouted, he hurled the orbs toward the building while Famine sent a pink sword slash. Both attacks hit, causing a massive explosion that could be seen across the city.
"USELESS!"
Like a bullet, Rasera flew out of the explosion and swung her sword horizontally, sending a flaming slash towards them, but the two quickly flew over the attack, which hit dozens of buildings, cutting them in two and igniting a golden flaming explosion that destroyed them completely.
"Hm, her power is no joke." Death remarked.
In the following moment, Rasera's wings morphed into long, stretchable arms and grabbed the two before swinging down and slammed the two into the ground, splitting it apart.
"You will not win this!"
As Rasera landed on the ground, Death pulled out his scythe and sliced the flaming hands holding him and Famine into pieces, freeing themselves.
"Curses," Rasera muttered as her arms shifted back into wings.
Then, she flies towards them and swings her sword, but Death and Famine parried the attack. However, Rasera used her wings to sweep their legs before morphing her wings into massive hands and slammed them into a wall.
Snap!
With a snap of her fingers with her other flaming arm, she created a combustion explosion out of thin air in front of the two Archdemons, sending them flying through several buildings and crashing into a tank, which exploded in a massive fireball.
"Hahahaha!"
With sinister laughter, an unknown black substance emerged from the flames and formed back into the demon in a suit.
"Combustion fire explosions by snapping your fingers. Not bad."
At that moment, Famine materializes above Rasera by teleportation and aims a vertical swing with her spear, which Rasera blocked with her wings.
"So can I."
As he spoke, Death's arms covered themselves in glowing crimson-red, filled with arcane symbols.
He snapped his fingers, and Famine teleported away just as a crimson combustion explosion ignites beneath Rasera's feet, sending her soaring into the air, where Famine reappeared mid-flight, spinning and kicking her back toward Death, who caught her and flies forward, ramming her through several buildings before slamming her face into the ground.
An orb of darkness formed on his palm, and he slapped it into Rasera's face, sending her crashing into a nearby building.
"I am still not done!" Rasera shouted, stepping out of the wreckage.
"You will be," Death replied with a shit-eating grin, and his shadow, which seemed squirmed creepily, as though they were countless creatures living in it that was waiting to be released.
As Famine landed beside Death, countless nightmarish creatures surged out of his shadow and rushed towards Rasera.
"Out of my way!"
Holding her sword firmly, the weapon's size suddenly expanded to twice her size. She swung it in several different angles, slicing her way through the horde of abominations.
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Meanwhile, Emperor Maximo and the rest of the governmental officials observed the battle from a satellite feed.
"When did she become this strong? There are no reports saying this level of strength," a government official spoke.
"She must have been blessed by some higher entity, a divine intervention, I assume," Emperor Maximo replied.
"What makes you say that, your Majesty?" asked one of the politicians with a frown.
"I know you want to deny this due to your atheist views, Noelle. But what we are witnessing defies scientific explanation. This is literally something divine unfolding before our eyes," Maximo said as he returned his gaze at the television screen, where Melian morphed her wings into flaming whips and swinged at the monstrous shadowy entities, cutting the horde in two as well as the two Archdemons.
"She got them!!" a staff member shouted.
But at this moment, the two demons suddenly dissipated into particles.
"What?!"
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"Tch, illusions," Rasera clicked her tongue in annoyance as she spotted the two demons on top of the roof of a small building with dozens of other replicates of Death on nearby rooftops on other buildings, all staring down at her with killer intent.
"But this won't stop me. I can just kill all you at the same time and wipe the real one out!!"
"Not unless we roast you first!" The replicas shouted in unison as they sent forth a massive pillar of black flames towards Rasera, who quickly formed a multi-layer magical dome, blocking the flames, which scorched the area around her.
As the flames dissipated, all of the replicas rushed forward from all angles. With a ferocious roar, Rasera unleashed everything she got from decapitating a huge number of them at blinding speed to raining heavy punches, shattering bones, sending blood and bites of muscle in all directions.
Shing!
Rasera suddenly kneeled down as a replica managed to slash her leg with its scythe, even more showing up jumping on her, sending more attacks and injuries for the Elven Goddess. In absolute annoyance, Rasera growled as she punched the ground with her flaming arm, summoning massive pillars of golden flames beneath the demon clones and incinerating them to nothing. However, Famine vanished, and even Death that was next to her was destroyed by the flames, meaning none of them were the real ones.
"Damn it!"
Famine suddenly appeared right next to the dome and executed a powerful 360-degree spin slash with her spear, slicing through the dome and slashed Rasera in the chest, cutting through her magical defenses and armor, leaving a massive gaping wound.
"GRAAAH!!"
"Accept your fate, you parasitic god!" Famine laughed maniacally.
With a stomp of her foot on the ground, she launched herself around Rasera, creating almost a hundred afterimages she created.
[GIF]
Within seconds, she slashed at Rasera's body and armor, while Rasera tried to block the attacks with her wings and weapons.
"[Light Field]"
Activating her Light Domain, Rasera was able to predict Famine's next position, seeing her appear to her left.
"Got you."
Before Famine could react, Rasera punched her in the gut, causing her to cough up blood. As Famine tried to scream, Rasera silenced her by stomping her face into the ground and pointing her sword at her head.
"You're finished now, demon! [Corruption of Sta-"
Just as Rasera was about to unleash her ultimate attack, Death manifested himself at the end of the street behind the Goddess and pointed his index finger at her in a finger gunpoint.
[Void Bullet]
"Bang."
Shooting out of the tip of his index finger was a black projectile, smaller than an ant and darker than the night itself.
Bang!
Not even a millisecond had passed, the bullet struck Rasera in the back, somehow piercing through her multi-layer magical barrier, multiple resistance, and armor without an effort.
"Argh!!"
"Hahahaha!! Bang!"
Another bullet pierced through Rasera's armor and flesh, causing her to wince in pain and feel her power is slowly draining, but was getting hit by more invisible bullets as she walked backwards and getting pushed back by them.
"BANG!"
A bullet obliterated her left flaming arm, and somehow prevented from regenerating.
"HAHAHAHA!! BANG!! BANG!!"
Two more bullets struck her wings, destroying them and forcing Rasera to kneel down on the ground while Death and Famine stood in front of her, preparing to strike her down with their weapons.
"Anything to say, you divine whore?" Death said as he and Famine sneered at her state.
However...
"[Corruption of Stars]"
Widening their eyes in horror, the two Archdemons used everything they had to either block or evade the attack.
But it was too late.
BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!
A massive pillar of white light that split heaven and earth was unleashed upon the two demons point-blank.
However, Death was able to be fast enough to unleash his most powerful attack.
"[Judgement Bullet]"
Pointing his finger at the incoming beam, he then used a bullet which is a combination of all of the bullets with various effects into one with devastating potency and speed.
"Bang!"
The moment the bullet appeared, the entire landscape shook and space cracks were trailed from the bullet's path.
BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!
Everything within kilometers was completely destroyed and the three were blasted back several kilometers away.
Although most of them suffered severe injuries, they were able to survive but were sent flying and crashing into a building with half of their bodies gone.
"This is unexpected," Death said as body began to regenerate.
"You think!?!"
In the next moment, Rasera fired several flaming spheres into the destroyed building, causing a massive explosion and destroying the structure entirely.
But Rasera knew they would survive this.
Just as she predicted, the two Archdemons flew out and charged at her, kneeing her face, But Rasera regenerated her left flaming arm and wings, then punched them in the face with both fists and slashed their chest with her wings.
Famine retaliated by slashing her shoulders while Death struck her back, but Rasera grabbed both their heads and headbutted them before slashing their abdomens.
In the next course of a few seconds, the three continued exchanging blows with fists and weapons, not caring for defending themselves as their blood dripped steadily on the ground with each hit they made on each other.
And the higher officials of the nation watch this.
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"I know we are desperate to stop them from reaching the stage, but they aren't even caring about how many hits they take. Unless one of the two parties stands victorious, they won't stop," Emperor Maximo observed.
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As the three paused, they caught their breath as blood and sweat drenched their exhausted bodies.
"Are you two done already, or should we call this a draw?" Rasera asked.
"Shut it!" Death spat, panting heavily. "I haven't shown my entire power, but I will now! I'm ending this here and now!"
Purple sparks of energy began to surround him, and the crimson glow in his eyes turned the same hue. The energy radiated, pulsating forth until the litter of demon corpses throughout the city began to exhibit the same color.
The white sigils on the backs of his black gloves lit up with a deep purple light, as numerous glowing purple eyes began to open among the shadows that were swirling around him. His hands wove back and forth, tracing an intricate pattern in the air, before his fingertips came together to form a square in front of him as a larger blood-red eye opened in the center of his chest.
"Releasing Control-Art Restraint..."
For a moment, Death's entire shadow seemed to rip itself apart, dissolving into a storm of red-and-black shadows, a shadow-type ethereal essence, a twisted amalgamation of flesh with numerous red eyes formed as they scattered around and attached to any nearby corpses they saw.
"Level 7..."
The world held its breath as it waited for him to complete his words.
"...Compound Corpse."
The moment he uttered those words, the meaty flesh and bloodied entrails of the demon corpses began to jerk to life.
All the blood around them swiftly started to converge, all of them seeping into the distorted forms of men. It happened so quickly that only a few could process the occurrence.
Once the blood vanished, all of the plump flesh began to merge into just one target, the skinless form of the one who was yet to die.
Soon, its body was covered in the flesh of everyone.
"Fshuu..." It gave heavy breaths as it rose to its new, towering form.
It was at least two-hundred feet tall, with a plump body that showed the combination of countless life forms being merged into one.
One could still see toes or some heads sticking out of the robust abomination that stood tall and mighty.
This thing could not be called a human.
It was... a being of horror.
[IMAGES]
"I thought, as an appetizer, you could enjoy your first battle of the night with this," the Archdemon of Death said, stretching his hand towards the flesh monster.
He had a tone that oozed pride. It almost seemed like the man thought his actions warranted thanks and reverence from the audience.
This is also being witnessed by the higher officials of the nation, and seeing its appearance alone made them all cowered in fear.
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"Dear God," one of the politicians muttered in complete horror.
"What in the Lovecraftian is that!?"
"Why do they get the big monsters and we don't?" another added.