Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Apart from a groan, Aliya did well to handle the hammer strike and she retaliated with a shot of the Monument energy within her gauntlet.

The energy struck Amelia but she appeared to have absorbed it.

That made no sense to Aliya who had at the very least expected an evasion but then she realized her perception had been screwed with again. The energy she had seen herself shoot out against Amelia had all been inside her head.

She never actually attacked Amelia just as she had not actually stabbed her earlier.

Aliya tried her absolute best to break through all that Amelia was doing to her mind and her perception but she soon found that there was a reason Amelia had brought their battle into the Perceptive Domain.

Aliya could trust nothing. Every time she appeared to have succeeded, Amelia would show her that she had failed before punishing her.

That was another detail that followed their change in battle region which was that Amelia did not seem to want the battle to end just yet. The grey (presently violet) eyed beauty wanted to really hammer in the futility of Aliya's every attempt at victory. The word 'hammer' is used deliberately because that was Amelia's weapon of choice and she never shied from striking it against Aliya.

Going after multiple body parts and crippling them while also driving the flames of the lust demon bloodline into her body for the added torture.

At some point, Aliya gave up attempting to resist or retaliate since it was all being turned against but her giving up did her no favors especially since it made little difference as Amelia had comfortably controlled the pace of the battle so far.

Amelia just had Aliya outclassed in too many aspects for Aliya to have ever reasonably had a chance.

Cultivation, Amelia was ahead,

Ordinance, she was ahead...

Bloodline, she was ahead...

Incorporating all three into the wonders of incredible battle prowess, Amelia was ahead.

Eventually, Amelia grew bored and with her hand holding on to Aliya's head, she prepared to finally put an end to the battle. At this point, a bleeding and wounded Aliya's life appeared to be hanging by a thread but she still found the strength to cackle,

"That bastard sure has so many capable whores at his disposal,"

As soon as the last word left her lips, Aliya destroyed her own cosmic pearl, the very center of her cultivation, and the destruction set off a self-destruction of every bit of power that Aliya had armed herself with or had been armed with.

*BOOOOOOOOOMMM!!*

The explosion was massive and shook the Perceptive Domain and had she been able to cackle with her body in pieces, Aliya would have done so with the joy of having managed to take Amelia down with her.

A second or so after the explosion happened, it froze in place and it was all reversed until Aliya's body was reformed and back in the hands of widely grinning Amelia.

Aliya was completely paralyzed and the only part of her body she could move or even control mentally or otherwise was her eyes which were widened in horror.

"And who said you had the right to take your own life and much less the right to choose to die a somewhat honorable death?

You die by MY terms and I will end you like the impetuous moron I see you as.

Hal indeed is a bit of a bastard but you are not among those who can call him that and much less in such a condescending tone.

See what I have reduced you to and I am not even worth half of the magnificent power Hal wields. If you ever faced him and survived, which seems to be the case on account of the personal spite coating your words, then it was because he wished to spare you.

For what reason, I have no idea.

But you see, whatever reason he had to spare you, you will not find with me,"

Amelia summoned a sword and with one hand still holding Aliya's hair, she decapitated her which was followed by the lady's body falling to the ground while her head remained in Amelia's hand.

The battle was won... The war waged on.

...

There were three locations, excluding the Imperial Palace, where the war was quite heated in the sense that it had the involvement of the forces of the Sapphirine Cult;

The Doxon Duchy, the Dane Duchy, and the Dreg Duchy although in the case of the Dreg Duchy, the most concentrated aspect was focused on the Silver Moon sect.

The ladies of the Silver Moon sect were a strong force in their own right already but of course, they still had the support of reinforcements such as Valerie who was armed especially with her Elemental Ordinance of Nature.

Anyway, the Imperial Palace was where the bulk of the Haron forces was gathered in solemn readiness while the Emperor was in a structure that had been quickly put together to house his throne which only he knew doubled as a sacrificial Altar.

Amador's eyes were closed in his silent consultation with the force who he could thank for how ready he felt today.

All Harons who had gone out to do battle against the Sapphirine Cult's strongholds had left behind imprints within talismans and a good number had broken already including the talismans of two Elders or so.

As the Patriarch of the Haron Family, Amador was connected to the talismans and could feel them break before any report was even sent to him but he pushed all that aside and focused on the instructions he was receiving. He focused on the glory he had been promised.

"May I inquire, perchance, what troubles plague your Majesty?" said an especially false voice putting on a very fake act.

The Emperor heard the voice being in front of him and it was only after he opened his eyes that he could clearly sense the presence of another individual in his pseudo-Throne room.

Despite the differences in Hal's appearance compared to how he had looked when last they met, Amador, recognized his opponent the moment he laid his eyes on him.

Amador did not bother to ask how Hal had gotten so close to him and that was because, while he was baffled by his inability to sense the blue-eyed subversion seeker, the Emperor was confident that said blue-eyed fellow could not bring about his death even if he tried.

Hal had a bit of a mocking smile on his face while he addressed the fairly comfortably seated Emperor,

"Are you prepared?" He asked.

"Prepared for what?" Amador asked.

"Prepared to die of course. What else would I be referring to?" Hal said immediately after which explosions began to sound at multiple regions of the Imperial Palace grounds.

The roar of war sounded after that and the sound announced the commencing of what all Haron experts had been eagerly expecting.

"What can you sense?" Hal asked the Emperor with a grin.

"You brought help," Amador said in an emotionless voice.

"Of course I brought help, but can you sense what help I brought exactly?" Hal asked with a knowing smile of mockery that would have easily gotten under the skin of anyone not as emotionally controlled as the Haron Emperor.

Amador reached out with his senses but he did not have to stretch too far or search too hard to sense the distinct signatures of not one, not two but three Demi-gods. Demi-gods whose innate flavor he could instantly sense as Dystopian.

"It can't be," Amador said.

The very idea that the Dystopian heads could cross the Continent to get involved in a skirmish that they would be much better off avoiding and taking advantage of later on was mind-boggling to the Emperor.

"Surrender! Surrender all of you to the rule of the Sapphirine Prince," yelled a smirking Orlon, the Dystopian Serpent Chief,

"If you surrender, you will still meet your end but at least it would be without the hassle of trying and failing to resist,"

Unlike the very vocal Orlon, the duo of Alvira and Elenor as well as the other Dystopians that had come along were silent. This was because Orlon had spoken for them all.

When Hal came to them for an attack against the Haron Imperial Palace, he had spoken of it like a suggestion as opposed to an Order and just as he had predicted, every single one of them happily accepted.

Sure, Hal was now their Lord and they had accepted that it was not their destiny to rule the Nexus World, but they still wished to get rid of the Haron family, and now they believed they were locked in to succeed because they had Hal on their side.

Hal had considered bringing an army of Dystopians to the Haron Continent but eventually decided that bringing a select and extremely powerful few with him to the Imperial Palace had more merit.

The army of Dystopians could stay back as support in the case where the members of the Sapphirine cult were truly overwhelmed.

The Cult needed the battles... They needed the struggle and until they could handle no more, they would fight and reap incredible benefits.

The select and powerful few Hal had brought were Elenor, Alvira, Orlon, the sisters Reyna and Addilyn Gord, the Phoenix Princess Aspasia and Phaedra and it was they who launched the first strike that threw the Haron army into action and called the Haron Elders to rise against the attack on their family's hegemony.