Thrashed and drowning in the waves, the swamp water that caught Bubastis in its violent currents slowly spread out across the murky lands, allowing her to come out of it burnt and bleeding in some areas. Divine Skills were nothing to scoff at, especially if they were cast by a god.
Ningikuga, who thought to have defeated the Divine Beast, furrowed her muddy brows.
"So you live."
Bubastis coughed violently as black water spilled from her mouth, forcing herself onto one knee. Her body shook as she slowly stood back up.
"Unfortunately for you..." Bubastis said, planting her kopesh into the mud to keep herself upright. "...I'm very hard to drown."
Ningikuga clicked her tongue.
"Tch. Stubborn to the very end. Your body should have dissolved! Your will should have broken!"
[[Special Skill activated — Hastened Regeneration]]
All of Bubastis' wounds slowly started to heal, even if she was missing a limb—it'd be restored back to normal.
"My corrosion resistance is max, so your Divine Skill didn't have what it took to kill me, Goddess of Swamps."
Bubastis gritted her teeth as anxiety was masked behind her gaze.
("Tch. Even if my corrosion resistance is max, gods have the power to overcome all resistances with their divine authorities. The only reason I'm alive is that I'm blessed by Lady Bastet.")
"How annoying." She raised her hand and the swamp responded at once as the mud and water rippled all around her. "But I suppose that is the nature of Divine Beasts." Ningikuga said angrily. "Always clinging to borrowed authority."
Nothing in the Axis Mundi had the power to harm a god. All of their resistances were completely maxed. The only thing that can truly pose a threat to them is beings possessing some form of divinity in either physiology, weapons, or skills.
Bubastis was the only one in the swamp capable of taking Ningikuga down for good.
"!!!"
The Blessed of Bastet was fully healed, wasting no time charging back into battle and slashing at the Goddess of Swamps.
"Futile!" Ningikuga manipulated the mud around her before forming a shield that blocked her attack. "You cannot defeat me, beast." The shield launched spikes of mud toward Bubastis as she jumped away to gain distance, dodging and weaving each attack.
"You can run all you want, but I'll keep you bound in my swamp. You'll be unable to escape!"
Bubastis sprinted to the left, dashing away from the countless muddy spikes that tracked her down.
"I am omniscient here! I know all things, for it is my domain."
Bubastis kept running, even deflecting most of the spikes until one of them managed to get through her defense.
"Nghhh!" Gasping in pain, she widened her eyes, as down below, a spike was driven into her stomach.
"How does it feel?" Ningikuga grinned menacingly. "This is how a rat feels to be locked in a cage with a lion. Despair, hopelessness... perhaps even regret?!"
Bubastis staggered as the spike made her breath hitch in her throat. There was mud and blood pooling beneath her feet as she gritted her teeth in frustration.
"...Lion?" Bubastis muttered.
She wrapped one hand around the muddy spike embedded in her stomach, and with a harsh grunt, she tore the spike free before more blood spilled out as the wound began sealing itself almost instantly.
[[Special Skill activated — Hastened Regeneration]]
The flesh knitted together before Ningikuga's eyes.
"...You talk too much for a goddess." Bubastis said, lifting her kopesh again. "If you were truly untouchable, you wouldn't need to convince me."
Ningikuga's grin faltered as a powerful aura surged around her body.
"Tch!"
The swamp started rumbling violently in response to her irritation. Mud walls rose high into the sky as the water compressed, and her anger increased.
"I am the swamp!" Ningikuga yelled. "Every root, every drop of filth, every corpse that rots beneath the water answers to me!"
The ground beneath Bubastis suddenly opened wide.
"Abyssal Grasp!"
Hands of mud erupted from below, seizing her legs, arms, and even tail before dragging her downward. Pressure mounted on her body instantly; crushing and suffocating Bubastis.
("If I let myself be restrained again, it's over.")
"Now... PERISH BY MY POWER!!"
Ningikuga cast another magic circle to end their bout, but seemingly out of nowhere, a large magic circle of gold spread across the swamp, and underneath Ningikuga's feet, forming a magic barrier around them.
"What?!" Widening her eyes, the Goddess of Swamps tried to manifest outside the barrier into another mud clone, but nothing worked. "Huh?! I-I can't teleport?!"
With her concentration faltering, and her attention off of Bubastis, the Divine Beast took her chance to break free.
"Flame of the Sun God!"
Using her Epic Skill to coat her kopesh in the flames of Ra, Bubastis burst herself free from the muddy hands in a fiery explosion before hopping back onto her feet.
"You... what have you done?!" Ningikuga lifted her hand and cast another magic circle, but it vanished instantly. "M-My magic won't work in this barrier?"
Bubastis furrowed her brows.
"You may possess max resistance to nullification, but that doesn't matter to the power of Ra himself."
"...The Primordial God... Ra?! You lie!" Fear was plastered on her muddied expression.
Bubastis' golden magic circle grew larger as the temperature in the swamp rose instantly, but there was a sign of hesitation in the Divine Beast's actions.
She seemed... scared.
Almost regretful even.
"This Divine Skill halves my lifespan if it is used at full capacity..."
Closing her eyes, Bubastis thought of everything; her friends who had died, her children, and even Sasobek before he became a tyrant. She was doing all of this for a good cause.
"This will be my only time using it at its full power to defeat an enemy. But with you destroyed, I'll be able to obtain the title of Heavenly King."
"How?! How can someone like you possess the power of Ra himself?! Everything you do defies natural order! You are a virus to natural law! You must be eliminated at all costs!!"
Ningikuga's scream echoed through the wetlands, reverberating through mud, water, and roots alike. The swamp writhed in response as it panicked alongside her.
"You are a flaw!" the Goddess of Swamps shouted with her form swelling, as layers of muck piled onto her body. "A deviation that should not exist! Divine Beasts were never meant to wield Primordial flame!"
Ningikuga hurled herself against the magical barrier as her body splashed and reformed, trying her hardest to break free.
"Let me out!" She yelled desperately. "This domain is mine, this world is mine! I will not die here!"
Bubastis stared her down and said nothing. She prepared to shorten her life for the sake of Animalia, and the Axis Mundi. She truly believed that Sasobek must be defeated at all costs, and this proved it.
"If you kill me, swamps will cease to exist! This world will experience a massive change that will alter history forever! You will only dig your grave by angering the gods, you fool!" Ningikuga tried reasoning with her.
"I'm afraid that's where you're wrong."
Bubastis remained stoic in her expression.
"If a god is killed by another divine being, or weapon, the world won't suffer the backlash of their death. Eventually, a new god will rise up and take their spot, and then natural order will continue as it always has."
Ningikuga froze. For the first time since her awakening, there was no laughter or mockery... only disbelief that this mortal knew how the heavenly hierarchy functioned.
"No... no, no, no! You can't do this to me!" Her voice started to crack. "I am the Mother of Murk! I am ancient! I am worshiped! I am necessary! If you kill me, my worshipers will find you! They will remember me even if history is altered! You will be hunted for the rest of your life, insolent beast!!"
"It's time to end this." Muttered Bubastis, pointing her kopesh into the sky."
"Nooooooooo!!!" Ningikuga ran after her, holding her hand out.
"Great Pillar Flame of Ra."
All of a sudden, a massive pillar of golden fire erupted from beneath her feet and expanded outwards in the barrier, swallowing everything in light.
"Aaaaaghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!"
Ningikuga screamed in horror as she was engulfed in infinite heat and infinite light.
All molecular, atomic, and subatomic structures were destroyed in an instant as spacetime itself destabilized within the barrier. She writhed in the infinite power of a Primordial God, feeling her Information and Essence be washed away into nothingness and removed from the equations of existence.
It all happened so fast—she could only curse the Divine Beast before vanishing.
"You... IMBECILEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
It continued for quite some time as the pillar of flame slowly vanished along with her voice. Thus the barrier shattered into specs of golden light that drifted upward like dying stars before fading from the sky... and now what remained was silence.
The swamp still existed, but it felt... empty, as if it was no longer watched.
Bubastis stood alone at the center of scorched, muddy earth. Steam rose from the ground as her kopesh slipped from her hand and embedded itself into the soil with a thunk.
She suddenly started to sway, feeling the toll of using such a skill at its full power.
"...Hah!"
Her legs buckled as she dropped to one knee, then both, clutching her chest as agony tore through her body.
"It's... over..." She said, closing her eyes as she lowered her head. "That was my first time using it at its full power... but it was needed to defeat her. I stood no chance."