SHK CH 780: Divine whooping (Patreon)

A hush swept the battlefield. The ease of what just happened made their earlier struggle seem almost meaningless.

Ambrosia stared. Lilith blinked. Even Euphoria, somewhere beyond, had gone silent. The only one that seemed nonchalant was Echidna. Her eyes were entirely on Euphoria, never leaving her. 

Sol let his hand drop to his side, the light fading from his eyes.

“Done.”

Ambrosia crossed her arms with a huff, eye twitching. “I really, really hate Dimension Mages.”

Lilith winced as she sheathed her sword. “Show-offs,” she muttered through a half-smile, blood still trickling down her lip.

Sol grinned, utterly unapologetic. “You love it.”

Ambrosia’s eye twitched again. “I’m starting to miss the days when you could barely form a stable Gate without collapsing.”

“Growth is painful, I know. I had to become cooler, after all.” He snapped his fingers playfully again, “Can’t let my girls down.”

“You are growing so fast.” 

“Am I? I feel like I am not doing it fast enough given the current situation.” The smile slipped from his face. 

"How touching."The voice didn't come from one direction. It came from everywhere at once—a cacophony of joy and madness woven together. The sky rippled, colors bleeding into one another like watercolors on wet canvas.

You think your little tricks impress me, Dimension Mage?" Her laughter was wind chimes made of shattered glass. "I am the embodiment of ecstasy, the apex of sensation. I am a goddess!”

Her voice, while still powerful, carried an edge of strain. A tremor that hadn't been there before. Blood still dripped from where Lilith's blade had carved through her divine flesh, and this made her all the angrier. 

She was angry that Sol had managed to erase her attack so easily. The world was starting to reject her, and the amount of divine power she could use was dwindling since she had no believers. The speed at which she could replenish it in the Mortal realm was simply too slow.

The wound Lilith inflicted on her was also more troublesome than she had imagined. Even now, they were reopening.

I need to leave. At the end of the day, her goal was ultimately to find a way to get back her Divine Kingdom.

Sol's expression hardened. The playfulness evaporated like morning dew under a scorching sun. "Yeah? Well, I've got a sensation for you to feel."

Ambrosia's hand shot out. trying to stop him "Sol, wait—"

But Echidna was the one to stop her instead. “Just watch.” 

Sol ignored their actions. “You know, using the law and everything is fun. Bending space, opening portals, playing with the fabric of reality. It's all very impressive.”

His voice was calm now, almost conversational. The mana around him began to coalesce, visible to the naked eye as ribbons of pure power wrapping around his limbs like chains of starlight."

He cracked his knuckles, each pop echoing like small explosions.

"But what I like the most—"

His aura exploded outward, a pillar of radiant energy that pierced the broken sky.

"—is punching things hard."

It was time to test his new martial arts.

<<Mana Burst: Overdrive Ignition>>

The world screamed.

Every particle of mana in a hundred-meter radius rushed toward Sol like iron filings to a magnet. His body became a furnace, heat waves distorting the air around him. The ground beneath his feet cracked and crumbled, unable to withstand the sheer pressure of his power.

Sol gave a wild and feral grin as he shifted into position.

His left foot slid behind his right in a perfect martial stance, weight distributed with absolute precision. His right hand followed suit, pulling back until his fist was level with his hip. Every muscle in his body tensed instantly, from his calves to his shoulders, creating a kinetic chain of devastating potential energy.

Euphoria's expression shifted. For the first time, something other than manic joy crossed her features.

Uncertainty.

"What are you—"

And just before the goddess could close or widen the distance, Sol threw a punch.

<<Collapsing Fist: Super Nova>>

A punch aimed at empty air.

A punch aimed at no one, yet capable of striking anyone.

Echidna knew this technique well.

Because she had seen it before when he trained in his dimension.

With one second, it could shatter the ground.

With five seconds, it could break the sky.

With ten seconds, it could overturn the world.

The fist was swung with perfect form. Hip rotation, shoulder engagement, and the full twist of his core. But the real mastery wasn't in the physical strike.

It was in the mastery of space and dimension itself.

Two portals opened at the exact same instant. One directly in front of his fist, and another right before Euphoria, expanding to the size of a dinner plate.

The goddess's eyes went wide as the fist went through space and connected perfectly with her face.

!!!

With a deafening roar, everything was swept away.

The portal acted as a force multiplier, compressing and accelerating the punch's kinetic energy through a dimensional tunnel. What emerged on the other side wasn't just a fist. It was the physical manifestation of destruction itself.

The ground burst open as if its shell had shattered, chunks of earth the size of buildings launching into the sky. The air vibrated, creating a rough explosion sound that rolled across the battlefield like thunder from an angry god. The world within the range of his punch momentarily became a vacuum, all air molecules ripped away, leaving nothing but absence.

Euphoria's head snapped back with sickening force, her ever-shifting form solidifying just long enough to register the impact. Her expression froze in shock, mouth open in a soundless scream.

And then—

Boom—!!!

Following the delayed, ear-splitting explosion, gray dust scattered in all directions, creating a mushroom cloud that blotted out the already fractured sky. The shockwave rippled outward in visible rings, flattening what little remained standing on the battlefield.

When the dust began to settle, Lilith lowered her arms from her face. "This is unbelievable."

They could see it.

The world, utterly obliterated, with nothing left where Sol's fist had struck.

A massive cone-shaped crater formed in the ground, perfectly symmetrical, as if a giant ice cream scoop had carved away the earth. The walls of the crater were glass-smooth, the rock and soil superheated into obsidian by the friction of displaced air.

Overwhelming power.

Sol stood at the edge of the crater, his arm still extended, steam rising from his body in visible waves. His breathing was heavy, but his eyes remained locked on the center of the devastation.

Ambrosia watched the result of the destruction Sol caused. In terms of pure power, this was actually weaker than his Prototype Light of Destruction. But this was a power resulting from the manipulation of Law and Concepts. 

What happened here, though, was different. Pure physical power. She did not even know that this was possible for anyone outside of Titans.

Echidna, meanwhile, simply massaged her brows. The chimeras had already long fled the surroundings. Survival was etched in their genetic code. But it still felt bad seeing her capital getting erased from the map.

Then again, Lilith and Ambrosia had already erased more than two-thirds.

For a long moment, there was only silence.

Then, from the depths of the crater, a sound emerged. Euphoria, her face smashed and slightly disfigured, rose. Her expression was filled with even more confusion than Ambrosia's.

Since Sol had not mixed with punch with any particular concept, she was able to heal. But a pure physical hit should not have managed to even go through her defense in the first place.

Sol did not give Euphoria the chance to think further.

He was already moving, his body flickering between positions as he opened small portals with each step, turning a simple dash into a teleportation dance. One moment, he was at the crater's edge, the next, he was airborne, the next, he was behind Euphoria, fist already cocked back.

Euphoria forced a laugh and spun with inhuman grace. Her arm extended, fingers trailing ribbons of iridescent light that solidified into whip-like tendrils. They lashed out, each one singing with a different emotion—joy, sorrow, rage, love—all weaponized into pure sensory overload.

Sol's portals opened reflexively, swallowing the tendrils and redirecting them back at her from six different angles. She danced through them like it was a game. The punch she received had hurt a lot. But if that was all, then she had nothing to worry about. She could just heal if necessary.

Sol snarled, opening a portal beneath his feet and dropping through, emerging from another directly above her. His fist came down like a meteor, wrapped in compressed spatial energy that made the air itself scream.

<<Collapsing Fist: Falling Star>>

The impact cratered the ground again, sending shockwaves that knocked Ambrosia and Lilith off their feet, even from their distant position. But Euphoria had caught his fist—actually caught it—her fingers wrapped around his knuckles with impossible strength.

Her face was inches from his, eyes blazing with manic delight.

“You can fight as much as you but you cannot win. You are just a King.”

Sol's other hand came up, palm flat, a portal already forming in front of it. “Your brother thought the same, and now he is dead.”

<<Collapsing Fist: Point Blank>>

The blast of compressed air and mana erupted at zero distance. A sphere of annihilation that would have torn anyone apart. The explosion sent Euphoria flying backward, her body carving a trench through the devastated earth for hundreds of meters before she finally skidded to a stop.

Sol landed, steam still rising from his body. He clenched his hand and nodded.

The test is done. This martial art fits me well. It’s worth developing and mixing with concepts later.

He had always been jealous of Lilith and Lilin's sword arts. So he has been working on something that would fit his fighting style. It was still crude, but it would evolve with time.

As for his opinion on Euphoria after punching her a few times?

She is getting weaker. 

“You are less troublesome to deal with than Asura. I guess the world's rejection is growing?” He taunted her a little, but he was being sincere.

Though Euphoria was a goddess now, she was less a counter to him than Asura, who had only been a demigod when they fought. In fact, Sol was the perfect counter for her.

Asura's ability to adapt and evolve mid-combat, to copy and counter techniques in real-time, had been a nightmare. He was also a madman who loved struggle and combat.

Euphoria, for all her divine power, relied on making the world itself fight for her. And against someone who could bend space, causality, and fate itself?

That meant very little.

Now should that she is underestimating my attack. Should I use the End? Sol mused even as he watched her stand up, golden blood streaming from dozens of wounds.

Revealing that he lost his blessing was one thing. The goddesses would doubt him, but they wouldn’t make an enemy out of him. 

Revealing the End, though, was different. 

Can I capture her in my dimension? He immediately dismissed the notion. Euphoria could affect the world with her concept. Pulling her would be hard enough, and he didn’t know what consequence bringing her in would cause. 

His dimension was still unstable, still growing. Introducing a hostile divine entity could corrupt it, destroy it, or worse—give Euphoria access to the very foundation of his power.

Then there was only one thing left.

"Lilith, Ambrosia." His voice cut through the settling dust, clear and commanding. "We are jumping her."

Ambrosia's eye twitched, but a savage grin spread across her face. "Finally. I was getting tired of watching you show off."

Lilith simply drew her blade, the Dragon-Scale Sword singing as it left its sheath. The molten gold in her eyes had spread further, consuming more of the purple. "About time."

She was still wounded and tired. But she was ready to fight.

Euphoria rose to her full height, her form solidifying into something more stable. More desperate.

"You DARE—"

"Yeah, we dare." Sol's rainbow eyes locked onto hers. "Welcome to the Mortal Realm, goddess. Where even gods can bleed."

The battlefield shuddered beneath their power, air bending around them. Sol’s grin sharpened as he added, almost cheerfully, “Remember, this all started because you crashed my wedding. And I’m a very vindictive man.”

For a heartbeat, everything went silent— then, in the same breath, they moved.

(AN: Next chapter is the end of this long fight. Is it actually the longest fight arc so far? I think the Dragon War arc and Fight vs Lupus were longer. Hum. What did you think of this arc? I hope you liked everyone's skill.)