48 The final battle!

-Crunch!

"Enki!" Ryuu screamed as she saw Antares close its mouth. A loud crunch reached her ears, not being able to see him her heart raced.

Terrible memories flooded the surface of her mind and her breath hitched as she dashed forward.

"Come, wandering wind, the wandering traveller. Cross the sky and run through the wilderness, run faster than anything else. Imbue the light of stardust and destroy the enemy!"

The wind picked up around her wooden blade and shined blue with light the effect of her skill aero mana.

Antares screeched and its torn appendages bulged and began regenerating faster than ever expected, all the while it was covered in a dark red aura.

...

"Is that!?" Hestia said, worry in her voice."

"Antares is using whatever piece of divinity is left to force itself to regenerate faster," Artemis said, confirming her thoughts.

"It doesn't seem to be that much divinity," Hermes commented.

"Maybe it's saving whatever it has left," Artemis said with a frown as she clenched her fist, wanting to help, but she couldn't.

...

Antares, "REEEEEH!" screeched its body fully regrown it swung down at Ryuu.

'Insect,' she hissed and jumped over its swing, the wind bending around her. She stabbed into the pincer's joints and ran, slicing it off.

-Thud.

Its pincer fell hard as Ryuu drew close to its mouth. She shouted, "Luminous wind!" She launched a concentrated stream of energy orbs towards its mouth.

-Crunch!

"Gh!" Enki inside its mouth grunted. His arms were stretched apart, each holding shields of Ice that he held keeping Antares's sharp teeth from skewering him alive.

Every inch of him mentally and physically was in pain. 'I have no more elixirs on me.' He looked to his sides, seeing its sharp teeth breaking through.

He reached his limit suffering from Mind Down after using his "torrent" so much and another pain was ending from within his body.

-Crunch!

"Fuuck!"

-Boom!

The walls and teeth around him exploded, splattering chunks of teeth and flesh everywhere. "Huff," Enki fell to his knees, letting go of his ice shield.

"Enki!" Ryuu dashed to him, grabbing him in his arms.

The joy in her voice didn't go unnoticed as she lifted him by the shoulder and jumped back, granting space between them and the screaming Antares.

It screeched as the red aura around it almost vanished completely. It was using its remaining divinity to evolve its regeneration its, severed pincer and mouth regrew at a visible rate.

"Here, take this, it's an elixir," Ryuu placed him against a rock and fed him the potion.

Enki gulped greedily, feeling his mind and body calm down. He leaned back, giving a small smile to the elf. She sniffed and smiled back, pulling him up.

"Are you good to go?" She asked, inspecting him.

Enki opened his mouth only to freeze and fall, "Gaah!" Enki clenched his teeth.

"Enki!" Ryuu got down worried. "What's wrong!?" she asked, not seeing any visible marks of damage.

Enki couldn't answer. His whole body was shivering his teeth clammed shut, 'what is happening to me!?' That was all he could think.

His body tore itself from the inside out with foreign blood and unknown energy inside his body. It reacted to the foreign forces in a negative light, his body regarding it as a sickness.

Antares, "OOOOOH!" howled raising its regrown pincer, and brought it down.

The shadow covered Ryuu and Enki. The elf gasped and tried to pull Enki up, but he wouldn't budge.

"FIREBOLT!" Bell's voice reached them as Ryuu looked up.

A large blast of fire slammed into Antares's pincer, knocking it back.

-Swish! -Shunk! -BOOM!

An arrow flew by, stabbing into the monster's eye and exploding.

"We're here!" Lilly shouted, preparing another arrow with a red potion attached. Asfi beside her was tieing one of her potions onto her arrows.

Bell stopped next to Ryuu and Enki. "What's going on?" He asked, keeping his eye on the boss.

"I don't know. I fed him an elixir, and he seemed fine before this," Ryuu said, motioning to his current state.

"We'll take care of Antares, you make sure he's alright," Bell said, raising his spear. "Keep him safe."

Ryuu nodded and focused on Enki, who was still writhing in pain.

Bell charged off with his spear, Antares having regrown its eye glanced down seeing more people growled before focusing on Bell and his spear.

With the little divine energy it had, it could sense that the weapon was dangerous.

-Swish! -Swish! -Boom!

It moved its claw to block incoming arrows. "Firebolt!" Bell roared, launching the blast of fire towards it.

Antares roared, smashing its claw against the flame, resulting in an explosion. Another claw came towards Bell.

-Bam!

It struck against him, sending him skidding back. Bell recovered and reeled his spear back. The divine weapon glowed the runes engraved brimming with bright light, "GO!"

-SWISH!

He hurled it with all his strength! It soared through the air, picking up a massive gust of wind. Antares, "REEEEH!" screeched, forming a magic circle using some of the divinity it had left and forming a spear of light.

The spear clashed with the light spear. The clash lasted for seconds before resulting in a massive explosion!

-BOOM!

...

"Orion! He did it!" Artemis celebrated with a bright smile.

The massive smoke that covered the top half of Antares's body was fading, and the smile on Artemis's face fell.

"It deflected the spear with your divinity," Hermes said, tilting his head.

The spear was no longer in Bell's grasp but embedded in the wall above Antares. They had no way of getting it.

The distance was too far as there was a deep gap that separated the platform they were on from the one with the wall that they would need to reach.

...

"No, it deflected it!?" Bell was in shock, seeing half of Antares's eye torn apart. Seconds later, it healed.

"Bell!" Lilly shouted, snapping him back to reality.

Antares swung its claw. Bell reacted in time. Pulling out his knife, the claw slammed into him, and he went flying back towards Lilly and Asfi he, coughed blood crashing into the ground.

-Swish! -Swish! -Swish! -Boom!

Lilly and Asfi were the only ones working together, stalling. Arrows flew, slamming into the boss scorpion's eye and shell, cracking it and forcing it to regenerate buying time.

Asfi, 'This is bad, it deflected the spear, there's no way to receive it none of us can fly, Enki!' Asfi looked over to Ryuu and Enki while she attacked her flasks with Lilly's arrows.

Enki, "Ah!" groaned as his body was still shaking.

Antares, "REEEEEH!" Screeched, unleashing its pressure once more.

Ryuu, Bell, Lilly and Asfi fell on one knee, clutching their heads in pain. Enki, feeling a new sense of pressure, coughed up blood.

He took in a deep breath, his body screaming at him to not move, his fingers dug into the dirt, drawing blood.

His eyes turned red like a monster. The wave of pain in his body reached its peak with a deep voice, "RAAAAAAH!" He howled back.

King's aura burst forth from him, overwhelming Antares's pressure like nothing, Enki rose forcing his body to listen to his will. The pain fading, he finally stood up on both legs.

As his skill vanished, a strange aura covered him like a second layer of skin. The aura was dark blue with light violet sparks trailing on the edges.

Enki breathed in and out, "hah, I feel," he said looking at his hands, "brand new? Is this what enlightenment is? Weird..."

"My head," Ryuu grunted, standing up. She looked to her side, seeing Enki finally up. She gasped and moved in for a hug. "you had me worried," she muttered.

Enki, "Yeah, I'm sorry I'll make it up to you," whispered.

"Why isn't it Antares attacking us?" Asfi asked, having recovered.

As she said that everyone looked at the monster, but it didn't move. It was fixated, staring intensely at them. Enki knew it was towards him.

Whether he could communicate with Antares, he could feel the chimera was shocked and furious. Also, it wanted him dead. That last was obvious.

"We are finishing this now," Enki said, walking ahead. "I'll grab the spear. You guys make sure Antares doesn't catch me."

"How are you going to grab it when it's so far?" Lilly asked, not refuting his orders.

Enki chuckled, "haha it's simple, I'm going to fly, torrent!" He shouted. The ground beneath him cracked, and the water climbed up, covering his body.

'Access to all water magic, let's hope I can do this,' Enki moved his hands, drawing a circle of water and then a square within. He continued drawing a circle.

Antares, "SCREEEEE!" screeched and charged toward them with the full intent of killing.

"Alchemy, magically don't fail me now!"

-Clap! -Bubble!

He clapped his hands around the circle, moving to his backwater gathered into a ball before bursting open into a set of wings. It was shoddy and incomplete but resembled the shape enough.

"Get ready guys!" He shouted, making them focus. He bent down wind picking up at the bottom of his feet. His water wings opened.

-FWOOSH!

He kicked off higher than before, already soaring as high as Antares. The monster roared, launching a blast of fire toward Enki.

It was close, but he flew around the blasts of fire, narrowly avoiding it. As he did that, an arrow flew by and stabbed into its eye.

-Swish! -Boom!

Antares, "REEEH!" It screeched, regrowing its eye and focused down, swishing its scorpion tail wildly, trying to his Enki.

"FIREBOLT!" Bell roared, launching a blast of flame towards Antares.

"Luminous wind!" Ryuu shouted. Finishing her chant, she unleashed her green orbs that exploded against Antares and Bell's flames burned the flesh beneath the skeleton.

-Swish! -Swish! -Boom!

Lilly's arrows with Asfi's potions attached soared, always aiming for its eyes from a safe distance. Antares roared and went to swing at Ryuu, who was closest, but she was faster with her skill and dodged in time, clashing at its claw.

Bell launched more firebolts, aggravating the boss. As Antares moved its attention to him, more arrows came and Ryuu hacked at its legs.

Enki was flying fast, but its scorpion tail was right behind it and could somehow follow him while fighting the others.

-Swish!

He dived and moved right, the tail slashing past him, Enki clapped his hand with "torrent" and alchemy he formed an ice glaive.

As the tail moved up to strike him, he glared, releasing his king's aura. It stunned Antares for a second. The mysterious dark blue aura around his skin extended to his ice glaive as he slashed down!

-Shunk!

He sliced its tail off, and Antares, "ROOOOOH!" howled in pain.

Enki turned and flapped his water wings and with his boots flew faster, reaching the wall.

-Thud! -Crack!

He slammed into the wall, making a crater with the spear in the centre. "Don't give me your not worthy bullshit or I swear to god." Enki touched the spear.

Enki watched the runes glow as he pulled it out with ease and grinned, "let's finish end!" He shouted, his wings flapping as he soared through the air right above Antares.

"Wait, he's holding the spear!?" Lilly shouted from afar.

"Artemis must've allowed it, we have to move back!" Asfi spoke quickly, "does it matter where can kill it!"

-Dong!

A loud chime resounded in the area. Bell's hand glowed with blue light. "Ryuu, get back!" He shouted as he thrust his hand forward. "Enki! FIREBOLT!"

A large blue blast of fire crashed into Antares as the force of the explosion pushed the monster back!

Antares screeched, regaining its footing. As Enki was right above it, he flapped his wings, plummeting down.

Antares felt a foreboding sense and looked up, seeing the angel of death descend, "SCREEEEEEH!"

It screeched with all this might, unleashing its pressure one more time, opening its mouth and pouring all its power into a beam of fire, using all the divinity it had left.

This was it.

The pressure reached Enki. He grinned, a vein popping on his head, and he unleashed his aura clashing with Antares's for the last time, swinging the spear down as the beam of fire slammed into the spear.

There was a clash between the two forces. Lightning surged, and the heat evaporated Enki's water aura. 'fuck no!' he tightened his grip. The dark blue aura around him extended to the spear.

Enki, "Fucking Die!" He roared, splitting the beam in half and descending onto Antares.

-BOOM!

The collision shook the platform, followed by a sickening appeasing crack. Smoke covered the areas where Enki and Antares clashed.

Everybody helps their breaths.

-Poof!

A minor explosion of smoke cleared it up. In the centre of a massive crater was Enki, standing on top of a shattered magic stone.

His water aura disappeared and the thinner, dark blue aura around him vanished as well. He looked out the crater, seeing Ryuu and the others running up to him with smiles on their faces.

Enki focused mostly on Ryuu as he opened his arms when they got close, embracing each other for a loving hug.