Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 242

Chapter 242: The Tide Turns

Alan laughed as he and Solanna stared one another down.  “You petulant upstart!  You couldn’t even Hope to defeat me a century ago, and I’ve only grown that much more powerful since then.  Why are you in such a hurry to throw your life away like this?  Run off and I promise there will be no pursuit.”

“More of that false Hope I’ve heard so much about.  To answer your question, I’ve been told by a reliable source that your so-called lord is trying to end this world, and that means you and I are going to have a problem.  You see, I don’t much care for all this bickering and warring and politicking over power and control, but I do love this world quite a bit.  It’s where I’ve lived for the last two centuries.  Where I met my late husband and raised my daughter.  Had a lot of fun making her too.”

“Get to your point, Solanna.  I don’t need to hear an account of all your amorous encounters.”

“The point is, seeing all these soldiers here, fighting with such Passion and Devotion to causes and nations they believe in, even against such harrowing odds.  It really fills an old woman with strength.  Makes me feel young again.  And feeling my blood surging through my veins, I’m reminded that it’s fun sometimes to just cut loose and go all-out.  Especially against one of the rare people who can actually take my punches long enough to really enjoy myself.”

“Well, if you are offering your life to my Lord, I shall simply have to take it.”

Solanna grinned as she charged at Alan, and the two began engaging in close-range fisticuffs.  Meanwhile, the battle between the human soldiers all around, which had before tipped in the Elithrians’ favor, had now returned to a deadlock.  But that deadlock just meant that yet more soldiers on both sides were dying, succumbing to a war that no one could truly win.

As the two centuries-old demigods fought in the skies over the borderlands, Mirae rushed in and rubbed their hands along Lysette’s back.  The touch was cool and soothing, helping to ease Lysette’s pain as they helped her back to her feet.

“I’m so sorry, Lyse.  Sorry for being late.”

“Don’t apologize, Mirae.  We all had to do our part, and you two got here just in time.”

“Are you ready to fuse?” Mirae asked.

“No.  I’m spent.  Even with your help, I can barely stand.  Everyone’s silent prayers are helping, as are those from everyone back in Ciricu.  But I’ll need two or three minutes before I’m recharged.”

“I understand, love.”  Mirae picked Lysette up and flew her back to the base, setting her down in the middle of an emergency medical camp set up in the middle of the garrison.  “I’ll be back.  Going to try to save as many of our allies as I can while you rest and Solanna and Alan fight.”

“Stay close and don’t draw too much attention to yourself, love.  Despite her boasts, Solanna isn’t as strong as Alan is, and both of them know it.”

“She’s going to sacrifice herself?” Mirae asked.

“She’s buying us— and Saffron— time.  Now go, Mirae!  Don’t let her time go to waste!”

“I love you, Lyse.”

“I love you too, Mirae.”

Mirae flew off, leaving Lysette among the wounded.  Cries and shudders of pain added to the cacophony of distant blows as Solanna and Alan continued their duel now high above the borderlands.  Lysette hobbled over to the nearest building, sat cross-legged, and focused her being on the task of restoring her avatar to fighting shape.

The sensation was not so dissimilar from the time she stitched Jules’s and Katie’s Cultivation back together, only this time with the facsimile of her own spirit that rested within and piloted her avatar.  Threads of Essence wrapped around both her mangled avatar and the invisible strands of Essence which connected the two bodies together.  Muscles and tendons and ligaments were being slowly repaired by her regeneration technique already, but Lysette sped it up further by directly manipulating Essence to stitch together her torn muscles and fuse together her crushed bone fragments.

Thirty seconds passed, then a minute.  The surge of prayers had slowed somewhat, and Lysette understood.  She was, in her weakness, her hubris, and her general incompetence, allowing the people who prayed to her, believed in her, empowered her, all to die.

Her rage built.  Her desire to see the Elithrians pay exploded out of her.  And yet, as she was, she had no ability to impose her will upon Alan, upon Asterion, whom he served.  Even manipulating Omnia’s system by influencing the prayers of the other fighters wasn’t enough.

But, from another perspective, this was the way it should be.  The best way to stop her demonic impulses from ever breaking free and subsuming Lilit’s one-time role as scourge of all life on Aimarion.  Not her fighting by herself.  Not her doing it all herself for some sense of control or pride or self-satisfaction.

She was doing her part.  Doing the things only she could do.  Just as the generals led from behind, beating back Alan’s Aura of Despair.  Just as the soldiers were fighting back the Elithrian forces, sacrificing their lives for their families and country.  Mirae was rallying soldiers even as she healed.  Serrena was back on the homefront rallying the people there.  And Solanna was buying them all crucial minutes now just as Lysette had done before.

After all, this wasn’t a battle just for vengeance.  Not anymore.  It was a battle for survival against annihilation.  A battle against the devotees of a mad god who still, despite everything, Hoped and prayed for salvation.  For a better world the next time around.

Lysette stood up after one hundred and forty seconds of accelerated healing.  She rotated her right hand.  It was still sore, but not painful to move about.  And her Divine Essence stores were significantly replenished with everyone’s help.

Lysette burned off what spare Essence she had to replenish her stamina as she walked back in the fray.  And with that burst of strength, she pulsed her regenerative aura.  She flared her aura out through the medical encampment and imposed her healing will upon the injured soldiers.  And she repeated that process several times in succession.  Even if it wasn’t enough to save anyone’s life, if it could ease the pain of even one soldier in their dying moments, her sacrifice would be the very least they deserved.

“Mirae, it’s time.”

“I’ll be right there, love.”

Lysette took a single step out of the crowded mass of combat casualties.  She sprouted her wings and closed her eyes, and took in the sights of every soldier and corpse through her aura.  Let every anguished face and mauled corpse sear into the innermost recesses of her mind.  Made sure that even if the world forgot the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice on this day, that she would remember them to the last.

She leapt over the ruined battlements and stared at the battlefield.  Mirae had done good work in disarming and incapacitating large swaths of the Elithrian forces.  But even still, the stench of sweat and shit and death and yet more war raged on.

Ari and a trio of other officers continued to rally and encourage the waves of Domarian soldiers, and the battle on the ground slowly tipped toward the Domarians for the first time.  But the battle high above, between Solanna and Alan, was deteriorating at the same slow pace.

Solanna was fighting valiantly.  Her flames, emboldened with her Passion for battle and love for her family, clashed against the light of Alan’s Hope.  On the surface, she was holding her own.  Each volley, each battle of hundreds of blows and counterstrikes all in the span of a dozen seconds, seemed to be a draw.  But Solanna was tiring out.  Her breath quickened and her forehead glistened with sweat refracting the glow of fire and moonlight exploding in the sky.  Her fire grew dimmer, while Alan’s remained unchanging.

Mirae leapt back to join her, taking her hand in their own and slipping their rings on each of their fingers.

“Are you ready?” they asked.

Lysette let dissolve the barrier that separated her ego from that of her betrothed.  Her eyes closed and she focused herself inward, feeling every bit of her body.  She allowed Mirae in to share that sensation just as Mirae did the same for her.  She felt their two hearts beating as one, their mouths and lungs beating in perfect sync, and even their muscle twitches perfectly mirrored as they stood side by side, fingers interlaced, betrothal rings grating against one another.

“I give my entire self to you,” the two lovers said in sync.  “And I to you,” they each responded,

Their bodies glowed as Mirae’s thoughts were laid bare for her.  As the two— now one— thought and felt and experienced one another’s entire being as themselves, their single shared desire filled the entirety of Mirette’s being.  To be a protector and defender of the injured.  And to be an avenger for those whom they could not save.

Mirette stood up and looked around.  Unlike their previous incarnation, which was feminine, with long, flowing honey-blonde hair, this form— the fusion of Mirae with Lysette’s avatar— was far more masculine.  They had ashen hair flowing down to the back of their neck, thick, broad, chiseled shoulders and pectorals which didn’t even try to masquerade as feminine breasts.  And though this form was not nearly as powerful as the fusion with Lysette’s primary body, Mirette knew they were exactly as powerful as they needed to be to finish this battle alongside Solanna.

“Cadet Tronete?” Vice Commandant Bertrand said.  “What in the Infernal realm did you two do?”

“I am sorry that I deceived you up until now.  I had hoped, in vain, that by obscuring who and what I really was, I could forestall this moment a little longer.  I had worried that had my true identity been known, this exact situation would have happened even sooner than now.”  Mirette shook their head.  “There will be time for a more exhaustive debrief later, but I can only maintain this form for five minutes.  I must go.”

Mirette sprouted a pair of double wings like those of a butterfly before leaping into the air.  They flew at a speed that left shockwaves in their wake as they powered high into the sky where the other two demigods were battling.

Alan launched yet another barrage of his favored Lunar Bolts, but unlike Lysette before, this time, Mirette could see them.  All of them, in their entirety, including the ones that were previously obscured with his illusory techniques.  Hundreds, thousands of them flew in every direction toward the rapidly ascending demigod, assailing them from the front and reversing course to chase them from behind as they dodged the preliminary assault.

A few of them scored grazing blows upon their flesh but with their fused strength, Mirette felt no more than a sizzle as they blunted the brunt of Alan’s attack.  They countered, launching hundreds of shards of ice from their hand.  Most of the attacks annihilated against their opposition, light and heat evaporating the frigid projectiles on contact.  But one shard no larger than a fingernail slipped through Alan’s defenses, passing harmlessly along as it narrowly missed his cheek.

But that was enough.  The necklace around their neck glowed and with a mental impulse, Mirette activated their Ice Teleportation technique that they inherited from Mirae.  They appeared right next to their prey, grabbed their shoulder, and used Lysette’s Essence Siphon, burrowing their needles into his flesh and pulling out the Divine Essence which made him a deity.

Alan countered, wresting himself free and sending Mirette flying back with an uppercut to their stomach.  Mirette seethed from the damage dealt, but for the first time, Alan sweat and his breath grew heavy for a mere second.  Solanna and Mirette looked at one another and shared a nod as they turned back to their enemy.

Chapter 241: https://www.patreon.com/posts/114177483

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101896170

Chapter 243: https://www.patreon.com/posts/114317895