Chapter 2363: Command the Skies (1)

The feathered Serpentes’ fury finally broke through the careful politeness he had maintained from the beginning, and as his emerald-gold feathers lifted one after another, a faint pressure leaked from his body that did not belong on the Demi-God Plane at all.

Sylas immediately understood how he had broken free of the command that sent him crashing toward the ground before. Because of Gentrixaul’s interference, the restraints had loosened enough for this God to draw upon a fraction of his true existence. Even that small amount was enough to change the quality of the skies around him, making the atmosphere feel heavier and more obedient with every breath he took.

"To think I would have to go this far against a mortal." Violet facets flashed across his feathers as he looked down at Sylas with undisguised contempt. "I’ll squash you like the ant you are."

Sylas didn’t bother to answer, because there was nothing worth saying.

He stepped into the skies while the world continued changing around him, the clouds twisting and the earth rumbling beneath the weight of his anger, then reached a hand over his shoulder as his scythe ripped free under telekinetic force and slapped into his palm.

The moment his fingers closed around the shaft, the atmosphere churned and Sylas cut outward in a single smooth motion.

Far above them, Yamero watched the slash tear across the sky before clearing his throat. "We should probably make some distance."

He flickered beyond the atmosphere before Vaelith could even respond, carrying her away from the Mesmeryx world in a distortion of space, only to look back once, reconsider, and vanish again toward the broad ring of ice and stone circling the planet.

Yamero still didn’t seem satisfied.

"Too close."

Space folded a second time, and by the time he finally settled his massive Rune-built body onto one of the planet’s many moons, the Mesmeryx world looked like a distant sphere suspended against the darkness. Yamero stared down toward it for several seconds before nodding to himself.

"This should be good... I hope."

Vaelith’s lip twitched, but she didn’t answer because her attention was fixed entirely on Sylas. She had seen him angry before, though it had taken her time afterward to understand that the fury she witnessed then had been connected to his sister, and that memory made what she was seeing now far more unsettling.

Sylas wasn’t someone who lost control over meaningless provocations, which meant whoever waited within that cave carried far more weight to him than she had initially assumed.

Back below, Sylas’ slash crossed the distance toward the feathered Serpentes.

The God roared, and the skies answered him.

Air condensed around the incoming blade of force as though it had received a direct command, gathering in invisible layers that wrapped around Sylas’ attack from every direction. The slash slowed, its structure became rigid, and then the entire thing froze in place before shattering into fragments of emerald Will.

Sylas’ eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the process unfold. Runes had begun blooming across every feather on the Serpentes’ body, but they weren’t being consciously drawn or constructed, because each feather was already a complex Rune Armor unto itself, intricate patterns manifesting spontaneously across emerald-gold surfaces like something written there by the heavens from birth.

When thousands of those individual Runes resonated together, they formed a greater whole that strengthened every aspect of the Serpentes’ physical body while also extending his authority across the surrounding skies.

It was a natural form of Heaven Rune Creation, but it lacked the comprehension and deliberate construction Sylas associated with true Rune Mastery. The feathered Serpentes didn’t need to understand every individual Rune, because they appeared as an instinctive expression of his bloodline and divinity, and the closer an attack came to him, the deeper it entered the region those Runes governed.

Once that happened, structure itself began to weaken beneath his command.

Light gathered around the Serpentes’ mouth, then erupted outward in a concentrated beam.

Sylas folded space and shifted aside, but the beam changed direction with him as the atmosphere itself warped beneath the Serpentes’ control. It tore across the horizon, carved through distant mountain ranges, and vaporized a section of ocean before Sylas opened a slit of void between himself and the attack, allowing the light to disappear into nothingness.

The counter came almost immediately.

Wind, Aether, atmospheric pressure, and light poured toward the region where Sylas had opened the void, filling the emptiness so violently that the passage collapsed beneath sheer force. The feathered Serpentes couldn’t control the void itself, but he had found an inelegant and effective answer to it, because if nothingness threatened to exist, he would simply force something into that space until there was no room left for it.

Sylas stepped through another fold before the beam could reform and appeared above him with his scythe descending.

The Serpentes’ tail snapped upward.

BOOM.

Metal struck Rune-armored feathers, and the shockwave tore apart the clouds across an enormous stretch of the planet. Sylas rotated with the recoil instead of resisting it, his free hand opening as several layers of space compressed around his palm, while the feathered Serpentes spread his wings and caused every Rune across his body to flash at once.

"Fall."

The heavens pressed downward with enough force to drive Sylas several kilometers through the air, but his foot came down against folded space and turned that fall into another step upward. His scythe cut through the pressure in a crescent, this attack hidden behind a thin layer of void until the final moment, and for the first time the feathered Serpentes failed to dismantle the strike before it reached him.

The blade appeared beside his neck.

His feathers shifted, the Rune Armor screamed beneath the impact, and a thin line of blood appeared.

For the first time, the God’s expression changed.

Sylas was already gone before he could retaliate.

Emerald lightning split through the atmosphere as Sylas reappeared at his flank, thrusting the scythe forward instead of slashing, while the Serpentes twisted between the attack and exhaled another beam of concentrated light from point-blank range. Sylas raised one hand and opened the void again, swallowing the beam, but the Serpentes immediately forced the surrounding atmosphere inward and collapsed the opening before Sylas could redirect the energy.

His tail followed through the distortion and struck Sylas across the ribs.

The impact launched Sylas across the skies, but he caught himself after several kilometers and looked forward to find the Serpentes already descending toward him. Claws of condensed light had formed around his feathers, every motion strengthened by thousands of interlocking Heaven Runes, and Sylas met him head-on with the scythe as their next collision sent a ring of pressure around the planet.

They separated only long enough to attack again.

Void tore open holes through the atmosphere while light and Aether rushed to fill them, space folded around Sylas only for the skies themselves to resist, and brief distortions of Time were answered by the Serpentes strengthening the present around himself through layers of Runic authority. Neither managed to hold an advantage for more than a few exchanges, because every answer created another opening and every opening was immediately punished.

Sylas finally released the scythe with one hand and drove his fist forward.

The Serpentes’ tail met it.

BOOM.

Their collision split the clouds from horizon to horizon and sent both of them sliding backward through the air, Sylas several hundred kilometers in one direction and the feathered God in the other. They came to a stop almost simultaneously, their gazes locking across the torn skies for only a brief moment before both surged forward again.