AN:

  Yo, how are you doing my fellow readers? I hope you are all alright.

  This week was quite interesting for me. I finally got around to pying Space Marine 2, and I am now pying Operations. I have almost all the achievements as well(84%). The game is pretty fun, and my favorite csses are Tactical and Assault. I totally recommend it if you have some time on your hands.

  Question of the week:

  If you could have one nature-reted power, which one would you choose?

  Here is the chapter:

  ~Razen Antares Gremory~Floor 51- Day 197 - After their sincere talk yesterday, Antares could see that the group dynamics had become much more harmonious. Many secrets and hidden circumstances were revealed and expined, things that had been weighing on everyone's minds, and now they had some free headspace, so they all felt lighter, more natural, more like themselves.

  They even decided to sleep together in one single room. Nut Pyra was still a little bit shy about sharing a bed. Midna didn't have this shyness, however, as she simply picked another pillow, put it above Antares' head, and fell asleep almost instantly.

  The next day, they finally decided to proceed toward the next floor, the first floor of Morpheus Furnace.

  As its name indicates, it is a fire floor.

  A floor that made Muspelheim look inviting –Rivers of va, basaltic rocs, fire geysers, ash pins, and volcanic rain.

  The ceiling was almost as bad as the ground. It consisted of bck rocks with shining rivers of magma that looked akin to veins, creating a terrifying sight.

  On the horizon, volcanoes rose from the ground like mighty cursed spires, vomiting bck smog and volcanic ash by the millions of tons every second.

  The air was hot and heavy, making breathing borious. Ash permeated the atmosphere, and fire was the norm. It was a veritable hellscape that only a Red Dragon, a Demon, or a Fire Giant would enjoy.

  But the worst of all, there seemed to be a very strange ball of fire and va spinning in the middle of the ceiling –it wasn't a sun, Antares held one in his own hands, and he knew whatever was in the middle of the ceiling was just a ball of fire, magma, and death.

  Antares felt chills, his body locking up and refusing to move for a moment. In these st months, he had thought his issues with fire had been resolved after working as a bcksmith and practicing his fire powers.

  Entering Morpheus' Furnace just taught him they didn't.

  Seeing Antares frozen in pce, Eu instantly became worried. She exchanged a gaze with Neptune, who nodded her head seriously. The duo approached their lover carefully and wrapped him in a tight hug.

  ""Are you okay?"" Asked the duo simultaneously.

  Getting out of his funk, Antares blinked owlishly. He had just exited a constant loop of him reviving the events of using Shamash. It wasn't pleasant.

  "Kinda…" he mumbled, a little distracted.

  "… Do you want to go back to the previous floor?" asked Midna, looking visibly concerned.

  Antares closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "No. If I do not face my fears, they will keep tormenting me. Always."

  "Are you sure?" Asked Pyra, expressing her own worry about her Lover?

  The Devil closed his eyes. "Did you know I used to be afraid of the dark?" Antares sighed sentimentally. "It was so bad that I couldn't even sleep with the lights off –and going to the kitchen in the middle of the night was one of the most terrifying things for me."

  "It started when I was a child, but I never seemed to get over it." He gritted his teeth. "It sted until adulthood." He lowered his head in shame at such a memory. "Can you imagine it? An almost two-meter-tall 150kg adult man afraid of the dark?"

  "It was pathetic." He snarled, Wrath bubbling to the surface. Eu and Neptune flinched.

  "One day, I had enough." He sighed, remembering one of the worst days of his life. "I decided that I simply couldn't continue like that. So, I exited my house deep in the night, closed the door, and tossed the Keys over the wall."

  "I spent the entire night walking in one of the darkest and most dangerous pces in the entire state." He ughed self-deprecatingly. "I shivered, I hesitated, I wept… but I did it."

  "The Dark… didn't feel that scary after that."

  Summoning Shamash with a flicker of his will, Antares snarled, "So I will not hesitate, I will not fear, I will not falter." His scowl deepened, and he ignited his bde. "I will conquer my fear –and use its fyed skin as my new armor."

  .

  .

  .

  Antares was a man of his word.

  Brandishing Shamash as his new weapon, he fought and fought and fought –Fire Giants fell, Drakes, Samanders, Lava Golems, Bzing Zombies, and everything else that stood in his way.

  He was on a warpath, not only to conquer his fear but to conquer himself as well.

  With each swing of his bde, he was burned from the inside out, a fme bzed through his veins, and his nerves were set on fire.

  But he went on.

  The girls even grew a tad bit scared for him, as they had never seen Antares so serious, so determined to get something done. He barely rested or ate, focusing only on the grind.

  A single-minded focus that even seemed to strike fear into the hearts of the monsters inside Morpheus' Furnace.

  Antares' control over his own fire powers grew exponentially, and not only did he learn to wield fire better, but he also learned how to control Shamash better.

  So with each swing, with each stab of the scary greatsword, his control improved. It reached a point that he started to not burn himself anymore, albeit that was more of a combination of his Herrscher of Ice Powers, Authority, and Herrscher of Fire Powers working together with his ICHOR to form an absurd combination that was much more than just the sum of its parts.

  Antares became an unstoppable monster. Almost like he was the natural predator of all fire-aligned monsters on this floor.

  .

  .

  .

  ~Razen Antares Gremory~Floor 60- Day 317 – Boss Battle Thrusting his fming sword into the heart of the Red Dragon, Antares snarled and jumped back. His wings carried him even further away.

  Imvaernarhro, the Inferno of the Red Mountains, and the boss of the 60th floor, roared and fpped his wings, sending a massive wave of fire towards Antares.

  The Devil huffed and stomped on air, his Epic Rank boots shining brightly for a moment and boosting his next ability.

  A wave of Ice exploded from Antares' feet, matching the Red Dragon's own scorching fmes. Before the Dragon could react, Antares sshed forward, splitting the battling elemental waves in half. He took another step in the air and a manda of Force Spears spun behind him –and with a single flourish of his hands, the spears flew towards the Dragon.

  Already seen this trick before, Imvaernarhro huffed arrogantly and waved his front cws, which shone in a red light for a heartbeat.

  The Force Spears exploded in a bze of pure fire and shards of force. The massive force of the explosion and its shockwave affected the whole battlefield, briefly halting the other battles.

  On the left corner of this immense battlefield, Eu fought against the Bck Dragon Shargoshalnax –his very movements a curse, and his breath, pure death. White flowers made entirely of ice swords bloomed and spun, shredding through the Bck Dragon's breath attacks, and when he dared to get close, a building-size sword of Ice would be thrusted at his face.

  The Cryo user danced and spun around the Dragon, controlling her Ice Constructs while constantly pressing the beast with repeated flying-ssh attacks.

  A Few kilometers behind Antares' battle, a Heavenly Beast made entirely of Lightning roared at the heavens before galloping toward a paralyzed Green Dragoness. Celeratohnnax, the Rot of the Jade Forest, snarled towards the lightning construct and countered with her own poisonous green breath.

  A titanic explosion of lightning washed over the Dragoness, making her hiss in anger and ssh her shining tail upwards, creating a flying ssh of one of the purest poison attributes Neptune has ever seen.

  The purplette cpped her hands in a praying motion and took a long, deep breath. Slowly separating her hands, a spiraling blue sphere started to form between her palms. The sphere was composed entirely of straight blue lines of lights –it wobbled and distorted for a moment, as if just a single breeze could make it explode.

  Neptune gritted her teeth and pumped even more Demonic Power into it, making the sphere stabilize and start to grow.

  Before it became bigger than a basketball, she mumbled, 'Lightning Rasengan' and tossed the sphere towards the flying ssh, creating another explosion.

  A few kilometers from Eu's fight, Pyra fought against lightning itself –the Dragon Ballukhraxx, the Storm's Sultan. This mighty Dragon was just like its moniker, a veritable force of nature.

  With a swipe of his cw, lightning and water rose, and with a single fp of his wings, the ashy clouds that flowed throughout the battlefield turned into storms.

  Pyra jumped to the side using her own Fire Abilities to mimic Antares' Mana Burst skill, which allowed her to evade a meteor of lightning that crashed just where she was a moment previously.

  The Legendary Bde swung her sword, sending a flying ssh of pure fire energy toward the dust cloud that hid the flying meteor.

  A cw covered in lightning parried her flying ssh with a swipe, but Pyra was relentless; she sent ssh after ssh towards the cw's general direction.

  With her free hand, she summoned a magma sphere and unched it toward the Dragon, covering the blue-scaled beast in an entire ke of extremely hot magma.

  The Dragon Roared and summoned a torrent of water, quickly cooling the magma and breaking it with his sheer physical power.

  Pyra took a deep breath and started to accumute a lot of Fire at the tip of her sword, an idea quickly forming in her mind.

  She knew she couldn't compare to Mythra when it came to controlling the higher levels of Fire Manipution, but she was no slouch either.

  The ball of fire started to get denser and denser and denser –an almost uncountable amount of fire was being compressed into a shape smaller than a tennis ball.

  With a silent shout, Pyra swung her sword forward, turning the small tennis ball of psma into a ser beam that rushed directly toward the Dragon.

  The Storm's Sultan didn't have much time to react to the beam, but its sharp draconic instincts still saved it from being cleaved in half.

  But while the dragon managed to avoid the worst part of the beam, its right wing was still severed, making it roar in pain and anger at the small woman before it.

  Pyra huffed tiredly. This st attack took a lot out of her. But when her helmet shone in a purple light, all of her reserves were filled to the brim again. The red-eyed woman smiled confidently at the arrogant dragon and prepared another Psma Beam attack.

  A little far from Pyra's fight, there was a white Dragoness' body. She was dead, her beautiful ivory-like scales almost immacute save for those close to the wound that split her massive body diagonally in half.

  It was an ugly, charred thing, a product of an act of great violence upon the arrogant creature. It also had the Cleaver of Shamash's signature all over it. And from the dragon's stupefied expression, it was from a surprise attack.

  Dodging a breath attack that looked more like a Death Star beam, Antares sent half a dozen Force Spears towards Imvaernarhro. The Dragon roared and swatted the spears away with ease.

  Before the beast could follow through with an attack, Antares used Mana Burst. Shockwaves of the sound barrier being broken echoed over and over again, and before the Dragon could even blink, the devil was right beside him.

  Antares cocked his arm back, his hand gripping the pommel of Shamash tightly, with a flex of his will and two of his minds, he used Weak Force and Strong Force abilities to interact with atoms and flowed it through his sword.

  With a wild and slightly maddening grin, Antares sshed at Imvaernarhro while whispering under his breath;

  "Atom Splitter."

  The moment Shamash touched the Dragon, the world went quiet.

  The ssh was so powerful, so mighty, that even sound didn't dare to exist in the same pce as it.

  The next to go was color, like an energetic dog that has been tased by an electric fence, color fled. Red, blue, green, and every color in the palette of reality disappeared, with only bck and white remaining.

  The world became just a white sheet with mismatched bck lines –as if a talented toddler was responsible for drawing reality itself.

  Sensations became confusing, and heat and energy became supreme.

  Ionizing Radiation exploded outwards like an unstoppable tsunami –it washed over everything, and it would've continued further if it wasn't for the mighty will holding it back from propagating.

  Antares felt his own attack searing at his body –but before it could start damaging him, his Chest Pte shone in a vibrant purple light, turning him completely immune to the environmental effects of his attack.

  The Dragon roared in pain –an agonizing and pitiful thing that Antares thought would never belong to such a proud and noble beast.

  Color returned, soon followed by sound. The dragon's screams became louder, the world trembled, and pieces of the ceiling fell down and shattered on the fiery ground.

  Cracks grew on the ground, the battlefield shook, magma erupted, and ash clouds spread. It was an apocalyptic scenario that almost made Antares pause.

  It was weird to suddenly be so strong. Intellectually, he knew he owned most of his current strength to the Dream Equipment he wore at the moment, it was, however, a strange empty sensation whatever he thought about it, and Antares would always say to himself; 'The strength granted by the equipment may be fake, but the skills I've acquired are not.' It became a sort of mantra that helped him not lose himself.

  Taking a deep breath and dissipating the radiation by using his Trait, Antares looked at the state of the Dragon while his five Goetias were on the highest possible alert, waiting for some kind of trick or ambush.

  The Dragon y on the ground, a massive ssh cutting it from head to toe. He wasn't split in half like Antares hoped, but that was expected from the Inferno of the Red Mountains.

  Still, the Dragon's wounds were far from being small –the cut reached bone deep and a little bit more, making it lose its right eye and wing, both completely evaporated by radiation and Antares' ssh, the wounds on its body were ugly—a poisonous cancerous thing—as if what caused them was an antithesis to life itself.

  The dragon roared and grunted, getting up by a force of sheer stubborn will, it gnced at its wounds with its single good eye and scoffed. In a move that made Antares praise the beast for the sheer ruthlessness it demonstrated for itself. The Dragon opened its maw filled with extremely sharp teeth and vomited va on his wounds.

  The va from the beast's throat quickly spread and covered the wound. The molten rock, made of extremely concentrated fire, slowly cooled and solidified into a rocky imitation almost perfectly shaped like the beast's old body.

  The Dragon then roared back once more, its mighty Fear Aura bombarding Antares like a machine gun. The Devil just smirked back—while the Dragon Aura was still mighty, Antares could feel his attack really did a number on it—there were cracks and gaps in its Aura.

  The Dragon sucked air like a torrential whirlpool and let out a massive fire breath towards Antares, the devil could've dodged, maybe even defended if he felt so inclined.

  But his instincts told him it would be a mistake to do so, he needed to fight against this fire-breath head-on, to let it wash over his body like a waterfall of fire and death. Antares first wanted to ignore his instincts, as no matter how you look at it, being purposefully hit by an attack without gaining anything is a very dumb idea.

  But he is an Aethermorph CHIMERA MANTIS Devil –if there is one thing he trusts, it's his instincts.

  The protection from his Chest Armor had long since run out, but Antares didn't hesitate and let the fire wash over him.

  Memories of his time in Morpheus' Furnace resurfaced in his mind: the hesitation of the start, the many instances where he had to drag his feet, and the uncountable number of times his fear of fire was triggered over and over and over again. The literal torture he subjected himself to so that he could overcome his weakness.

  It wasn't easy, nor was it smooth. But feeling that breath of fire washing over him—burning his hair, eyes, and skin—Antares felt nothing, it was just like he met an old friend, or felt the morning breeze upon him. It still hurt a lot, but he wasn't overcome with fear anymore; he wasn't paralyzed, nor did he flinch.

  Gripping Shamash with his right hand, he thought about partially awakening the weapon, and nothing happened –no memories of the first time he used it, no freezing due to phantom pains, nothing…

  Since he entered this floor and decided to fight his fear of fire with fire, Antares has been slowly chipping away at it, but now…

  He is finally free.

  "Finally…" Whispered the Devil under his breath, feeling like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He felt extremely light, free, and unfettered.

  Using his ICHOR and Herrscher of Fire powers, Antares slowly diminished the effect of the fire breath on himself, to the point it affected him less than the typical morning shower.

  Seeing his prey completely unaffected, the Dragon frowned, rarely, if ever, did it find someone completely unaffected by one of its strongest weapons–

  Antares didn't let the Dragon recover from its attack and quickly pressed his advantage. Igniting Shamash and partially awakening the weapon, he sshed forward twice, sending a cross ssh of pure psma that left a trail of fire in its wake.

  The dragon tried to react, but Antares' use of the Divine Key was leagues better than it was at the start of Morpheus' Furnace. So before it could even raise its guard, the cross ssh hit the Dragon squarely in the chest.

  The beast roared, but more of a spike in its rage than any pain it might be feeling. While the Dragon was busy roaring, Antares 5 Goetias were working in unison to find a way to execute this Dragon.

  He couldn't exactly use Atom Splitter again, as that attack requires some preparation, and neither did the cooldown of his Chest Pte protection skill come back. So he had to find an alternative.

  With a shine in his eyes, Antares summoned two small metal spheres from his Pocket Space. He grabbed one in each hand, pointed both index fingers towards the Dragon, and mumbled under his breath, "Railgun."

  *Boom!*

  *Boom!*

  The sound barrier shattered twice, but this time, Imvaernarhro managed to react. Before the Magnetically propelled projectiles could reach his hulking form, the Dragon waved his cws and created a rotating sphere of fire around him.

  The metal spheres hit the sphere of fire and, like a cube made of foam, they completely dissipated the moment they touched the sphere.

  Antares frowned slightly. The results were as he had already expected. Imvaernarhro is way too powerful to be affected by such low-level attacks. The Devil may be in the Ultimate Css thanks to the Dream Equipment he is using, but so are his enemies, and the Bosses, in particur, are always a step above the rest.

  He needed something to break the mold, something that would take the dragon off guard like his Atom Splitter did.

  Antares briefly spread his senses beyond his battle to observe the Girls.

  Eu and the Bck Dragon were still at a stalemate, flowers made of Cryo Swords, Frozen Sshes of her Greatsword, and barrage after barrage of Ice Magic hit the beast in droves, but Shargoshalnax was a Dragon, such low-level attacks could not affect his scales so easily, principally when he is actively defending and counterattacking with his extraordinary curse Magic.

  But Eu was no fool; she would never let a curse cast by a specialist hit her so easily, so she made sure to always maintain a certain distance and never let an opening for the Dragon to exploit. It made for a retively slow but extremely tense battle.

  Neptune, for her part, opted to copy Naruto in his battle against Kurama. So she has been bombarding poor Celeratohnnax with barrages and barrages of Lightning Odama Rasengans of titanic sizes.

  The Green Dragon, more specialized in poisons, illusions, and trickery, was just having a very bad time against Neptune's more pure and direct way of fighting.

  Pyra and Ballukhraxx were still in their showdown, the Storm's Sultan had lost its second wing, and now it lost access to its great specialty of bombardment, allowing the red-haired Bde to start a death-by-a-thousand-cuts scenario against the Sultan.

  Antares refocused on the Red Dragon, only to be met by a fme-covered cw just a couple of meters from his face. Gritting his teeth, he expertly cycled his Ki, before using a Mana Burst to meet the cw head on with his sword.

  The csh of Divine Key against Dragon Cw was cataclysmic –Both Dragon and Devil felt the impact traveling through their bodies, the shockwave shaking and cracking the ground even more.

  Force Constructs pelted the Dragon like a parody of the Gate of Babylon, making the red-scaled dragon scoff before waving his hand and meeting the barrage of constructs with his Fire Sorcery.

  The two backtracked, and with a Mana Burst and a wing beat ter, cshed again. The action repeating dozens– no hundreds of times in just a few seconds. Showing the sheer absurd speed and might an Ultimate Css being could achieve.

  Imvaernarhro tried sorcery, his innate fire abilities, and even his sheer impressive physical prowess. But the little ant before him wouldn't stay down.

  The Dragon grew increasingly angry with Antares' defiance. And like a patch of burning coal that received a heavy dose of Nitro Fuel, Imvaernarhro's magic exploded in potency and speed, his spells growing in power the angrier and more hotheaded he was.

  Antares' scowl grew as the battle reached a point where he started to genuinely struggle, which made his Pride quite Wrathful.

  His Pride simply could not accept the fact that he was losing a battle that he had been dominating since the beginning. It felt like the dragon was spitting on his face, and his Pride would not stand that.

  The Gremory heir then left two of his Goetias to handle the battle while the other three started to search for a solution—a way to end this fight for good.

  Antares' first thought was to dey the fight until Imvaernarhro died of Radiation Poisoning, but the Devil isn't exactly a specialist in the field when it comes to supernatural species, not to mention the fact that he doesn't even know if Dragons were affected by Radiation to begin with, so this possibility was swiftly discarded.

  He continued cshing with the dangerous beast, fist met scale, cw met sword, fire cshed against Force, and magma bsted at a fundamental Force. It was an epic battle –one in which the Dragon could only dispy a strength comparable to Antares in this situation due to its sheer mastery over the Fire attribute—so great was Imvaernarhro's mastery—that he could contend against a Fundamental Force of the Universe by using its Fire attribute alone.

  But while Antares' attribute mastery was inferior, it didn't mean he was losing in his cshes against the Dragon. His Demonic Power and Ki expenditures were astronomical, but Antares' reserves were equally so, principally when boosted by the Dream Equipment he was wearing.

  Sadly for the Dragon, Antares wasn't his typical overpowered Devil –He is an Aethermorph with Soul Talent, a being capable of learning any magical means with ease.

  Imvaernarhro is a Master of Fire Sorcery, Fire Magic, spells, incantations, and pure Fire manipution, which he has used in front of the Devil since the beginning of the fight. To say Antares' mastery over Fire has been skyrocketing would be the understatement of the century.

  So while a few of his Goetias argued against prolonging the battle anymore, the Devil had his astronomical improvement as a very strong counterargument.

  Briefly spreading his sensing again towards the girls, he saw that they were doing exceptionally well in their battles –everything was under control, and no one was in any real danger. His more paranoid side dissuaded, Antares allowed himself to prolong the fight a bit more.

  He purposely tried to bait the Dragon into using as many varied moves as possible while pressing the beast to constantly repeat them so his Soul Talent and Aethermorph Heritage could learn.

  And learn so they did, like a thirsting vagrant that spent a week in the desert, they drank from Imvaernarhro's expertise like it was the sweetest nectar.

  Antares felt his skill over Fire rising by the millisecond, it was a rather exhirating feeling. The only pity the Devil felt was the difference in species between the two. If Imvaernarhro had been a humanoid, Antares would've learned more at an incredibly faster rate, and if the Dragon was a Devil like him? Antares couldn't even imagine just how much he could get –a thrice the result with less than a third of the effort type of deal –simply incredible. Sadly, reality can't be whatever he wants.

  Internally, the Devil was already very gd he finished forming his 5th Goetia. Besides his Core Goetia/Main Mind, he now has one Goetia of each Fundamental Force of the Universe, something that allowed him to reach incredible heights with his power, case, and point –Atom Splitter.

  Intellectually, he knows the only reason he could use such an ability was thanks to the Dream Equipment, but that doesn't mean the skill to use it is lost when he goes back to the real world.

  Sending a wave of Force Lances, followed by a massive Force sword Construct, Antares sshed forward, a flying ssh made completely of psma that flew through the air towards the Dragon.

  Imvaernarhro breathed a concentrated jet of fme, puncturing through the giant Force Sword, before he waved his cws, and all the Force Lances exploded in a shower of Fire.

  The Dragon then opened its mouth wide and let a torrent of fire seep out of it, the fire behaving more like mercury, quickly wrapped and embraced the Dragon like a loving mother.

  Seeing such a repeated attack, Antares rolled his eyes internally before igniting Shamash and sshing forward. Simultaneously, he used his ICHOR and Herrscher of Ice powers to cause a great thermodynamic variation, which caused repeated explosions every time he swung his arm..

  The dragon covered by the fire simply barreled through the explosions like a bulldozer, its massive fire-covered frame easily withstanding them. It swung its fming cws forward, its massive fme-covered talons aiming at Antares.

  The devil just spun his sword with a practiced ease, using the spin, momentum, and Shaamash's own ignition to parry the attacks.

  The two continued cshing and cshing and cshing, the battle making the whole battlefield tremble. Gargantuan strength and overwhelming magic were tossed around like cheap candy in a candy store, creating an absolute apocalyptic scenario.

  Their battle continued, and eventually, Antares' feedback from the Dragon started to diminish. Before, he was improving massively every single moment, but now, he would need a couple of minutes fighting Imvaernarhro to get even small returns –prolonging this battle was not worth it anymore.

  Taking a deep breath, Antares concentrated, his Fundamental Goetias working together to raise the Fundamental Forces of the Universe towards his command.

  He first started with Gravity, creating a gravitational core in the palm of his hand, a bck and purple sphere of such condensed gravity it even started succking the particles around it like a bck hole.

  He then added Weak and Strong Forces around the gravity core, creating a sort of pseudo-sun. It bubbled and twisted like a savage animal wanting to get free. Antares' creation was way too unstable. The Devil could see that the moment he let it go, it was going to explode instantly.

  Without hesitation, Antares added Electromagnetic Fields to compress the mini-star in his palm, stabilizing and gluing the four fundamental forces together in an impressive cohesive whole.

  Looking at Antares' attack, Imvaernarhro felt a very bad premonition, like there was a massive Dragon Sying Saber pressed against his throat. The Dragon knew if he let Antares unch such an attack, the battle would be over –and he would be dead.

  So Imvaernarhro instantly fpped his wings. Jets of fme imitating jet engines sprang at the end of his wings and at the tip of his tail. The Red Dragon reached its highest speed in but a few moments, but it was too te.

  Antares raised his palm towards the Dragon, and with one of his goetias, he created a couple of Magnetic Fields in the rough shape of a gun barrel. He then used Pure Force Attribute to hold everything together where it should be, and with a slight smile, he used Force Push on his attack, unching it towards the magnetic field gun barrel.

  The Devil smiled; he basically had created a Railgun that unches stars.

  The Hypernova, propelled by magnetic fields like a railgun projectile, broke the sound barrier thrice before reaching the halfway point towards the dragon.

  Imvaernarhro tried to create many barriers and defend himself in numerous other ways, but none of them worked. He was either too slow or whatever defense he raised simply too weak, so the attack bsted right through.

  Feeling the scythe of the grim reaper ever close, Imvaernarhro scowled and roared; his Draconic pride would not permit him to give up without a fight. The Dragon did everything he could think of –rose every defense, tried every attack, and even dodged. But nothing worked. Hyper Nova was simply too fast.

  As a st-ditch effort, Imvaernarhro created many yers of fire and magma armor around his body, he then went to create–

  Hypernova hit Imvaernarhro squarely in the chest. The Dragon's eyes widened, almost popping out of their sockets. His vision got blurry and unresponsive, his draconic maw half open in a mix of an agonizing shout and a despairing wail

  The attack spun into his chest like a rather persistent construction drill before whatever forces were holding Imvaernarhro up in the air weakened enough to unch him toward the horizon, toward Imvaernarhro's precious hunting grounds, toward the Red Mountains.

  A single whisper echoed throughout the battlefield.

  "Hypernova –Disappear."

  An explosion of utterly cataclysmic proportions shook the very firmament of Dream Reality that composed the tower.

  It was like a God picked up a star from the night sky and dropped it onto the earth.

  Everything went white, its brightness capable of instantly blinding a Middle-Css being if they looked at it too much. Shockwaves and explosions that could rupture the ears of giants washed the battlefield, and tremors and earthquakes that could give someone the Divine title of Earthshaker impacted the ground and mountains.

  A veritable cataclysm that would make Deathwing's flight of death look like an April Fool's joke.

  Electromagnetic storms struck the atmosphere, making it rain lightning bolts with the width of school buses. Volcanoes erupted, spewing radiation-infused volcanic ash, radiation decay took over the atmosphere, accelerating the material degradation of the closed environment, people would've aged years biologically if they had dared to get close.

  It was simply an apocalypse, the end-of-the-world type of scenario.

  Antares closed his eyes and clenched his fists. When his brother told him that a good Ultimate Css being had the power to threaten an entire country, he just half-believed him.

  Intellectually, he knew that to be true, but in a way, his heart wasn't willing to accept it… If an Ultimate Css being can threaten a country, how about the Satan Css? Super Css? Heavenly Css? And worse… Dragon God Css?

  What kind of absurd beings are those? And how is he supposed to sleep at night when there are a couple of dozen of them skulking around in the world? What if some Ultimate Css got tired of living and commits suicide by blowing themselves up? Should he just accept his death if he is in the vicinity?

  His heart was unwilling to accept something like that, to accept that he was so vulnerable.

  But now that he wielded the power on an Ultimate Css thanks to his Dream Equipment… Antares finally understood. He finally understood how utterly foolish and helpless he was in the past.

  He can't even imagine the power his brother holds. Could Sirzechs threaten the entire world if he felt like it?

  Antares shook his head and refocused on the now. He could have a crisis ter, when lives weren't on the line.

  He took one st look at the effects of his Hypernova attack in the distance and sighed –There was no Red Mountain anymore, just one single giant crater. Sadly, he couldn't see much more, as the electromagnetic tempest and the other many aftereffects of his attack were blocking his sight.

  He then turned toward the girls, only to see Eu decapitating Shargoshalnax with a great sword lit up in an icy-blue aura. He then looked around and saw that Pyra and Neptune were also finished with their respective battles, the dragons they had fought against just simple corpses on the ground.

  Seeing that the battle had ended, Midna popped out from her hideout and floated toward the Antares.

  "Feeling better now, handsome?" she asked a little hesitantly.

  Antares sighed and nodded. "A lot, actually…" He scratched his head guiltily. "Sorry for worrying you guys, but I had to do it." He closed his eyes. "I couldn't tolerate my fear of fire to continue pguing my life."

  Midna sighed and kissed Antares on the cheek. "I am just gd you are okay now." She then narrowed her eyes. "But couldn't you, you know… go to a therapist or something?"

  Antares avoided his gaze. "It doesn't work."

  Midna massaged her temples. "It doesn't work… or you haven't ever tried it?"

  Antares looked at the ground, feeling four different piercing gazes lock onto him. "... the second bit."

  Midna sighed and shook her head. "Men." The other girls, who had just arrived, also nodded their heads in camaraderie.

  "To be fair, it is an effective method." Pointed out Eu neutrally.

  "If you want to be suicidal, that is." Neptune scowled cutely. Making Antares want to squeeze her with a hug and shower her with kisses.

  "Neptune, therapy against trauma like this can take years… It's a very long process that–"

  "It's less dangerous, at least." The purplette interrupted while sighing in defeat. "And it's not like you are going to run out of lifespan or anything like that."

  "Shouldn't we be h-happy that everything went well?" added Pyra a little shyly.

  "I guess?" Neptune shook her head. "Discussing it right now will lead us nowhere." She slumped and jumped towards Antares, giving him a tight hug and a deep, wet kiss. "I am happy you are alive, muffin."

  Antares closed his eyes and briefly enjoyed the phantom sensation of Neptune's lips. "And so am I." He then sheepishly scratched his head. " I am just gd you guys helped me so much. Part of me attempted something like this just because I always knew I would have you guys on my corner…" He smiled. "I would have never gotten over my fear of fire if it weren't for you guys. So–" He smiled widely. "Thank you."

  The girls practically melted, and Antares' wide, sincere, and warm smile was Ultra-Effective against them.

  Eu sighed, that Damn smile again, she simply couldn't rersist it. "More than 100 days of constantly worrying about you, mister." She scowled adorably. "Know that vengeance will be mine. You will take me on at least 3 dates as compensation."

  Neptune instantly tightened her hug. "I want 3 dates as well."

  Midna flew before Antares' face, a haughty expression on her countenance. "Then, I want four." Eu and Neptune chuckled at the imp's sheer boldness.

  Then, a usually shy voice echoed, but this time, it was filled with firmness and determination. "I want five!"

  Everyone turned towards Pyra, only to see her eyes practically burning with want and determination while looking at Antares. Everyone stayed stunned in surprise at the redhead's boldness and at the fact that she appeared to have finally managed to overcome her stutter.

  Being the first to break out of the surprise, Antares smiled widely. "Of course. You guys didn't even need to ask."

  Pyra let out a slight squeal, filled with relief and anticipation, and rushed towards Antares to hug him.

  He looked around at all the girls' happy and excited faces, enjoying the sensation of being hugged and kissed by the women he loved the most in this world and the next.

  At that moment, the Devil knew –he was the luckiest man in the world. At this moment, Antares realized exactly what he wanted for his life, his supreme objective, and the thing he found worthy fighting for with everything he has: those smiles, this happiness. He will protect it with every single fiber of his being, with everything that he has.

  He would do whatever it took to see those smiles and those happy moments again.

  Whatever it takes.

  .

  .

  .

  AN: A more fighting-centered chapter, hope you guys enjoyed it.

  With this, our boy's fear of fire is finally gone. Well… he managed to cure his trauma by simply bulldozing through it, but it still counts in this case.

  Part of me feels like this is not needed, but I will say it just in case; don't do this at home for the love of God, this is a fictional story, a fanfic, if you have a psychological problem or trauma, search for a professional, someone who truly knows what they are doing to help you.

  Our boy has also made quite a leap in his Fire abilities. Revya won't even know what hit her, hehehe.

  On another note, I hope you guys liked Atom Splitter and Hypernova. I've been cooking them since I decided to give Antares the Force Attribute, way before I started writing the fic, so I have a special pce in my heart for them.

  Answer:

  Well, I have a couple of favorite Nature abilities in my mind. One of them is the Child of Nature from DD3, something that I always thought was extremely cool. Then we have things like Marble Phantasms and even Senjutsu in its many versions.

  In the end, I think I will go with Naruto-Type Senjutsu, simply because I always thought it was an extremely cool ability. I am pretty sad it was so underexplored in the OG series, I always wanted to see more sage-Arts stuff, see Sages from other animals, etc.

  ~ClearSkySage