Chapter 203: The End Of It All (1)

"Setsuko!" Li Yang gawked as the energy source of the World Warper disappeared. 

It was gone in the blink of an eye and his chances of leaving the World of Telriah went along with it. Although that wasn't exactly true as long as they managed to survive this incident now with the goddess.

That was perhaps the biggest if in this situation.

"Is… Is she supposed to eat the stone?" Mitsuko stammered for a moment. Thousands of years of rich culture and history of Kaeli Kingdom went down the drain and into Setsuko's throat. 

"No." 

Regardless, Li Yang reached out to Setsuko in concern. The woman recoiled away from him and buckled over to her knees. She grabbed at her stomach and tried not to regurgitate the stone that was now inside of her. 

Her body tried to expel the additional power to no avail.

"Do you dare ignore me at this hour?" The Goddess Aurora glared at the trio. Light spilled from her eyes like beams as she gathered up power in her palm. Multiple beams of light whirred and flew into the air like birds.

It shot at them from different ranges.

They were currently indisposed with only Li Yang being the one armed properly. The man stepped forward and sliced into the air with his sword. Invisible to the naked eyes, his sword qi flew out and struck them down before they reached him and the two women.

Except that some of the birds flew past them—multiple dark trees imploded and shot shards of wood at them. It was an intentionally missed shot.

Mitsuko dodged without any problems. Heading towards the right, she side-stepped against the razor-sharp cuts of wood and other elements of the entire forest.

Setsuko on the other hand was still preoccupied. 

Li Yang reached out and grabbed her by the waist and rushed away from the trajectory of the rain of shadows. He felt something dig into his back, the Ao layer he had weakened, but he kept moving and ignored the searing heat that burned.

The two of them ended up on the other side of the forest, separated from Mitsuko by several feet. He shook Setsuko and looked down at her with unease. She was currently prone and he soon realized that she was catatonic. 

"Setsuko—"

"Throw her to me!" Mitsuko shouted. "My attacks can't do anything, but yours—"

"I'm okay now." Setsuko raised her head. The usual red or even blue shade in her eyes was now of a duller color. It was something more akin to Li Yang's own eye color—dark and spiralling like the abyss.

It had always been something that drew her to him.

Setsuko however held a hint of whiteness in the center of it. The man's sturdy grip hung about her waist, but for now, Li Yang let her go with a concerned look on his face and felt their energy bond unravel for a moment. 

Static was ringing in his ears. Sometimes he couldn't hear anything at all, but right now it was as if the world around him greyed over. Why did Setsuko do this? The power of the stone coursed within her and acted as a catalyst for her Ao core to well up in power. 

Maybe it was because she was aware of what would happen once Li Yang used up the stone and selfishly wanted him to stay here with her—even with a goddess seeking for his death. But that wasn't just it either.

Perhaps it may have been a part of it, but now Setsuko raised her finger up towards the Goddess and blasted her with another ray of Ao. 

The Goddess Aurora took the blow without even faltering and shook her head. The pink-haired Priestess may have been weaker, but unlike this woman, at least she had a head and knew how to read this atmosphere.

This one however—this wench that had her energy core opened by a man seemed to have lost function in their head. The Goddess Aurora focused on another wave of Ao to blast the entire three of them away until they finally wished that the domain around them stopped.

"This is pathetic. You can't hurt me at all, woman. You are—"

Aurora felt something wrack in her throat and she coughed up blood.

The Goddess blinked down in her vessel and stared at the blood in her fingers. It was a rare thing to see—she almost forgot what it felt, smelled and even looked like. Her body was supposed to be perfect, untouchable and cut apart from time. 

But this woman managed to strike her after only encountering once.

"Bitch," Setsuko said and simply grinned at her. 

Li Yang stared at Setsuko who managed to get back on her feet. She pointed at the Goddess again to strike her down once more. Li Yang immediately felt the churning in his stomach as he felt Setsuko's unstable aura. It didn't exactly hurt him, but something went down his spine. 

"Setsuko, that's enough. We can go—"

"I can do this!" Setsuko shouted.

This time the energy bursted way faster than she expected and Setsuko recoiled backwards. She found herself landing back against hard debris, another layer of Aseroth's domain that couldn't be explained at all. The portal behind them was flickering in response to the several bouts of energy. 

Setsuko's own attack was giving her injuries as well.

She felt the power of her own Ao coursing within her body and the infusement of the Kaeli Kingdom's artifact. It burned within her blood and boiled every second of it. 

But Setsuko's attack only worked because of the link between her and Li Yang.

It wasn't obvious to anybody else except for Bao and probably the Heavens, but the Goddess' rambling about how tainted Setsuko was because her powers were unlocked by Li Yang held some truth in it.

Mixing in two clearly opposite energy and forming a bond over it—

The woman didn't even bother standing up, as if the pain never registered in her body. She only pointed at the Goddess. Setsuko shot a ray of light, a mocking appearance of what Aurora gave earlier, the same brilliant white plume only mixed in with a dark center within it. 

The Goddess Aurora heard the explosion behind her and raged. She may have dodged it, but she wasn't liking how things were turning out right now.

It was unfair.

So unfair.

Nobody should have power like this! Aurora was the Goddess here! 

The Goddess Aurora's white hair fell across and covered her face, only a singular eye appearing from it. She was going to kill everyone here. That Princess, the Fox and most importantly the guy that was with them.

Especially him, him—him!

How Li Yang appeared in her mind's eye was of a clearly different person entirely. Possibly sharing just some similar features, but it was of someone in another age and with dark hair much longer than this current one. That didn't matter at all when he was going to wind up dead.