Cherreads

Chapter 46 - Pushing limits

I don't waste any time and fly to Louhi. Lilith doesn't even look at me when I fly past her. Before I can do anything with this body I'm pushed away from the finish line. A hand grips my throat as we fly far away from the battle into the clouds. I soon recognise Artemis from the large rags she wears, somehow staying on even at hypersonic speeds. A light emits from her hand for a moment before releasing, burning my neck away. I finally break free just like we break free of gravity. I can't appreciate the view from space because I have to avoid her lasers. I quickly figure out that wings don't work in space, so I start using some fizzard parts to propel myself with fire. I make sure to modify Naga with the same propulsion before sending her at Artemis. But she's clearly done this before as she's already behind me. But I'm used to people faster than me after so much blunt and sharp trauma. That's why Raven and Norbert are there to rip her arm off. The blood flows out like little purple bubbles. Like always she doesn't display any signs of emotion, she just pulls into herself before growing. She releases a wave of orange energy before simply floating there. What emerges from the cocoon of light is like a manta ray. It's smooth white tail flows up to a blue spikes back. A purple horned skull covered in jagged flaps of skin glares at me. I can sense it all the clearer up here. Her soul and mine mimick earths, even so far away that we couldn't channel it if we wanted to we're still in equal footing with our home. Or anywhere else we could go for that matter. She roars but I obviously can't hear that in the vacuum of space so I just focus on those lasers. I lose a leg while backing away but dodge the others. I have Norbert chuck an iceberg in retaliation but it just breaks on her barrier. I forgot how annoying that thing is, and it's definitely gotten stronger now that she's transformed. Already she's rammed through Norbert, destroying his body, but I at least use the remains to make a Norbert shield to take the hit on the next ramming. It breaks though and I'm sent flying into the surface of the moon. I punch the ground in frustration, I really didn't want to do this so soon but I clearly overestimated myself. My body sheds off as new cells take their place at super speeds. The wings and scales and fangs have already formed in the raging pink inferno. So when she's hanging over me for a point blank laser I'm able to raise a claw to block it. She flies a mile back while I examine the burns left on my hand. We face off, an endless expanse of grey rock beneath us and the ever changing colours of earth above us. We propel towards each other and collide. My fist against her barrier. The ground around us shakes and crack, flying everywhere like a nuke went off. We dart around the moon, two glowing lines drawn all across its surface. Every attack leaves a crater, every summon leaving a new lake of purple blood. My pink flame expands and struggles against her barrier, neither giving an inch. I send some massive drill centipedes to burrow beneath her. When they emerge I hoped they would distract her and give me an opening. But she just zooms away into space. I know I can't let her get away when she has this sort of firepower so I boost off after her. We enter open space, meeting each other briefly for a single physical clash before breaking off to try again. I move at speeds I didn't think were possible, feel the suns rates at an intensity I never expected. It only continues to increase as we get closer to the Titan of fire. Raven barley manages to keep up to make it through a small gap in the shield. He draws blood with his sword before Artemis unfurls the wraps on her face. The rotting flesh that barley covers her skill vibrates wildly as a huge ball of orange energy grows in front of her mouth. Raven tries to stab it but just the new sun growing in size was enough to vaporise his body. Even from hear my scales and wings get slightly burned. I try and fly away but at every turn she appears in front of me. It's all I can do to just keep away from the radiating heat. I quickly decided that I need to end this now. I'm halfway through my time limit, so I have a little over two minutes to get home. I shouldn't have let her lure me all the way out here. Well whatever, I'll just overpower her with everything I've got! I summon Saphire next to me and share as much of my power with her as I can. We both nearly burst from the sheer power of the fire we build up. After a few seconds we release the double supernova. The blue and pink fires joining together in a double helix. It clashes with the oncoming orb but only for a moment. We overpower her attack and she is caught in the trail of fire. It completely burns her titanic body and keeps going, eventually reaching a distant jewel of a planet that think might be mercury… and completely destroying it. I'll leave that detail out if anyone asks. The kaiju floats in the vacuum of space, huge chunks of flesh missing and unable to regenerate. I can still sense the faintest hints of life. With that in mind I nod to Saphire as she disappears. I fly over to her and place a hand on her back to heal her slightly. I just hope I can make it home in time.

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