"Round two?"
Tāwhirimātea’s voice, echoing directly into my mind, was laced with an unmistakable blend of arrogance and burgeoning fury.
"Do not let your petty tricks delude you into thinking you can stand against a God, Usurper!"
As if the heavens themselves were answering in anger, the vortex of the storm surged, doubling in ferocity. Yet, within my 'Garden,' there was only a chilling stillness. The Altar of Petrification had manifested as a perfect spherical barrier centered around me, a void in the middle of the apocalypse.
"I’ll show you it’s no delusion. You’re the one who wandered into my garden without an invitation. I think I’ll collect an entry fee."
Unlike before, when I had my eyes squeezed shut, I stared straight at the God of the heavens with eyes glowing a dull, ashen gray. I extended my hand forward.
Will follows the gaze. My vision was no longer a mere focal point; it was my 'Will' made manifest. This time, I didn't just intend to defend. This was a strike backed by clear, unadulterated hostility. I spat out the incantation befitting my stolen Authority.
"O you who behold me, and all who stand against me. Succumb to stone and be silenced."
My will lanced toward the sky. My target: the true form of Tāwhirimātea—a colossal amalgamation of swirling black clouds and concentrated lightning.
Krrr-ack-rack!
Accompanied by a sickening, grinding sound, the base of the massive storm began to turn gray. The living, breathing clouds lost their vitality, transmuting into massive, jagged slabs of rock. The curse of petrification didn't stop at mere matter. Lightning, wind, even the moisture in the air—everything my will touched was reduced to inorganic silence.
"You...! How dare you defile my divine body!"
A cry of sheer shock erupted from Tāwhirimātea. Feeling part of his very essence turning to stone, he writhed frantically. The gargantuan vortex covering the sky heaved violently, and the petrified sections broke away, plummeting like massive boulders.
A localized meteor shower of stone rained down upon Waikiki Beach. Of course, the moment those rock fragments entered my 'Garden,' they lost their momentum and thudded harmlessly into the sand.
"It's working."
But the price was higher than I could have imagined. To petrify even a fraction of a God of the Heavens, I felt the power within me draining away like a river breaching a dam. Cold sweat slicked my forehead, and my breath turned ragged.
"Vermin...! Do you truly believe you can withstand my wrath?"
Tāwhirimātea no longer looked down on me as a mere insect. He recognized me as an 'Enemy' who had inflicted a direct wound upon his body. The nature of the assault shifted. If before it was indiscriminate bombardment, now it was a refined, focused destruction designed to kill me and me alone.
A single pillar of light fell from the heavens.
This was pure white lightning, a celestial fire of a different caliber than the previous black bolts. The moment it touched the perimeter of my petrification domain, it didn't turn to stone. Instead, it radiated a heat so intense it threatened to incinerate the barrier itself.
Ssssssssst!
The sound of the barrier’s surface melting filled my ears. The speed at which the God’s lightning was dismantling the field far outpaced my rate of petrification.
"Urgh!"
I funneled every ounce of concentration into maintaining the boundary. The consumption of my power grew exponentially. It felt like trying to plug a hole in a dam with a tiny bucket.
The white lightning didn't end with a single strike. Dozens, then hundreds of beams poured down, relentlessly hammering my Garden.
Boom! Crash! K-BOOM!
The barrier buckled under the weight of his divinity. Each time, the shockwave was transmitted directly to my body. My innards vibrated with the impact, and my bones felt as if they were screaming. My 'Garden' was being ruthlessly trampled by divine fury, yet I held on through sheer desperation.
"If this falls... I'm dead!"
I gritted my teeth. It was a brutal tug-of-war between petrification and destruction. A God’s Authority rained from above, while a lone Devil King on the ground desperately tried to turn it back into stone.
"How long can you hold, Usurper? My storm is eternal as long as the sky and sea do not run dry!"
Tāwhirimātea moved beyond a simple contest of power and began to probe for my weakness. He perceived that my barrier wasn't a perfect, uniform sphere—that there were microscopic fluctuations in the reach of my will. Amidst the ferocious bombardment of lightning, he slipped in a single gust of wind.
It wasn't an ordinary breeze. It was a vacuum blade that could shear through anything. This stealthy strike, hidden by the blinding flash of lightning, dug into the weakest point of my resolve. I was focused entirely on petrifying the descending lightning storm. In that split second, I failed to intercept the attack flying in from outside my field of vision.
Clang!
With a sound like shattering glass, the blade of wind tore through the barrier and grazed my cheek. It wasn't a deep wound, but a vivid spray of blood scattered into the air.
The first clean hit.
"I have found it! Your opening!"
The God did not miss the opportunity. Not for a heartbeat. Seeing my concentration falter, he focused hundreds of white lightning bolts into a single point. He pierced through the exact spot where my defense had dipped while I was distracted by the wind blade.
"No—!"
I tried to repair the barrier, but the God’s strike was faster.
Cr-cr-crack!
The domain of petrification—my absolute defense—developed a spiderweb of fractures. And through those cracks, a blinding white flash that seemed capable of burning the world itself surged inward.
"Dammit!"
There was no time to dodge, and no time to focus my will to block it again. I barely managed to twist my body by instinct to avoid a lethal blow.
"Gah...!"
A searing pain lanced through my left shoulder. My vision pulsed white, accompanied by the smell of scorched flesh. A God’s lightning was more than just physical impact. The divinity packed within it disrupted the flow of my internal energy and shook the very foundation of my existence.
I stumbled, dropping to one knee. As my grip on power slipped, the petrified domain protecting me grew faint, flickering like a mirage in the mist.
"How unsightly, Usurper," Tāwhirimātea said, his voice dripping with the satisfaction of impending victory.
"That stolen power of yours has reached its limit. Water that exceeds the capacity of its vessel is destined to spill. Pay the price for the folly of a mortal trying to wield the Authority of the Heavens."
The storm began to converge on me once more. This time, he intended to finish it.
"...Haa... haa..."
I panted heavily, clutching my bleeding shoulder. It hurt. It felt as if every single cell in my body was screaming in agony. Yet, simultaneously, my mind turned as cold as ice.
'A battle of attrition is a losing game.'
I had expected it, but not to this extent. My Authority was undeniably powerful, but its fuel efficiency was abysmal. At this rate, I wouldn't last ten minutes before I was completely tapped out.
Conversely, the God showed no signs of exhaustion. If anything, he was growing more triumphant by the second.
If I stayed on this path, I would die first. 100%.
I forced my staggering body upright. The blood dripping from my shoulder soaked the sand, staining it crimson. My ashen eyes, though clouded with pain, never lost their light as I looked up at the God of the heavens.
"Still haven't given up? That gaze of yours... how pitiable."
"Give up? ...I don’t think that word exists in the Devil King’s dictionary."
I spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and grinned. Then, I squeezed out every last drop of power left in my body. I swallowed the pain of my shoulder wound tearing further and suppressed the scream wanting to burst from my lungs.
"This power... it isn’t a blessing. It’s a curse that drags everything down into the abyss."
My ashen eyes began to glow with an eeriness that surpassed anything I'd shown before. I condensed all my remaining energy for a single purpose. Not for defense, not for evasion—a final struggle intended solely for conceptual obliteration.
I whispered the final Verse, the one that touched the deepest essence of this Authority. My voice was low, yet it echoed with bizarre clarity through the cacophony of the storm.
"Time shall cease its flow, and sound shall lose its existence. Under the serpent’s curse dwelling within my eyes, let all that lives become a headstone named Eternity."
In that instant, Tāwhirimātea’s movements faltered.
The storm blanketing the sky and the lightning surging toward me slowed down as if time itself had ground to a halt.
"...You, just now...! That Authority... it isn't just petrification!"
For the first time, bewilderment colored the God’s voice. Tāwhirimātea wasn't merely a god of natural phenomena; he was a manifestation of laws. And he felt it. The power this mortal was about to unleash wasn't merely transmuting matter; it was interfering with 'Concepts.' It was an attempt to subjugate the very laws of time and existence—the foundations of the world—under his curse.
My final Verse wasn't a bluff. It was a declaration of mutual destruction. Even if I couldn't kill a God completely, I would drag his very existence into my curse and turn him into a statue that would never move again. It was my ferocious will as a Campione made manifest.
"You might kill me. But in that same moment, you'll become a headstone of eternity right alongside me."
I wasn't lying.
Tāwhirimātea felt it instinctively. This mortal would actually do it. The Devil King who had taken a seat by slaying a god was a being who would gladly offer up his own life as a sacrifice if it meant dragging a deity down with him. His own arrogance had led him to underestimate this vermin’s final act of desperation.
"...Is this the Authority of the Abyss? You killed a god, and the only path you found was one of mutual ruin!"
A hint of understanding and wariness seeped through the God’s rage.
Between heaven and earth, the confrontation between the God of Storms and the newborn Devil King continued in a taut, heavy silence. I was screaming with my entire being that the price for ruining my vacation would be much, much higher than he could ever afford.
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