Skyfire Avenue

Luo Xianni’s face was almost excited. If this creature was as strong as Jue Di, its vital crystal would be enough to extend his life! She wasn’t worried about her lover’s ability to defeat the alien. In her heart, Jue Di was invincible.

Jue Di nodded. His voice was low and solemn. “When we make our move, the rest of you try to escape. I’ll catch up with you at the teleport base.”

He saw the hesitation in his son’s eyes. “Don’t imagine yourself immune. If there’s one of these things around, there’s likely to be a second not far behind. Safety for everyone has to be our first priority.”

He didn’t wait for a response. Jue Di’s body was consumed in a flash of light and disappeared. Reality reacted, becoming brighter. A torrential flood of golden light surged in every direction with Zeus-1 as the center. The oppressive and terrifying aura of the alien was pushed back.

Lan Jue looked at Luo Xianni and the Wine Master. He nodded. Now wasn’t the time to be cheap with their resources, they had to go – especially with so many alien crystals on board.

His father had spoken true, they had to keep everyone safe. They didn’t dare involve themselves in a battle between two demi-gods. Not to mention, if the Violet Princess or others like her joined in, they would have no way to flee.

Luo Xianni’s eyes glimmered with pale pink light. A silver halo sprang up around the Wine Master. Skyfire Avenue’s Photographer placed her hands upon her nephew’s shoulders and channeled her own powers through him while he traced intricate patterns in the air with his scepter.

Waves of enigmatic silver light flooded the ship. It radiated out through the hull, creating a pocket of interdimensional power. Pink light shined down upon it like light from a cherry blossom sun. Zeus-1 erupted into a shower of pink sparks, and was gone. All that remained was a shell of silver light and shadows of mystical runes.

Jue Di stood proudly in the purple universe. The aura of his power covered Zeus-1’s escape. The alien paid the fleeing ship no mind, all of his attention was on the newly arrived Jue Di. They looked at one another warily.

“You are… human?” The violet-hued man queried.

“That’s right!” Jue Di replied.

A strange expression crossed his face. “You are the strongest prey I’ve met.”

Jue Di answered with a haughty sniff. “We’ll see who is whose prey.”

The creature lifted a hand and pointed at itself. His words were jerky, like he found them to be unnatural. “I. Violet Prince!”

Jue Di looked at him with hard eyes. “And who is the Violet Princess?”

This caused the alien to tilt its head to the side and pause to think. After a small while, he answered. “Little sister!” After he said it he thought again for a moment, but eventually nodded. “Yes. Sister! This is what humans say. We were produced from the same…. Parent. She is my sister.”

Jue Di continued. “You do have parents, then?”

Again there was a moment of consideration before the Violet Prince answered. “Factual. King, Queen. Second Queen.”

Fear gripped Jue Di’s chest. They were emulating humans, and if the prince was this strong what could he expect from his parents? He could see some of his own fear reflected in the eyes of his adversary when he made mention of his parents.

“Why do you act like humans?” Jue Di asked.

The Violet Prince glanced at him, then as though he’d thought of something, said, “This I must not say. It is secret. You are food, and when I eat you I will be strong like Queen.”

He was no longer interested in conversation. The creature moved on Jue Di, and the world they found themselves in suddenly became the eye of a terrible tempest. Surges of purple energy lashed out at the human champion. Reality rippled in protest as the burst of power grew closer.

A brutal pressure descended on Jue Di from all sides. Space around him collapse, and the Paragon found himself in the center of a vacuum that was gobbling everything up.

The Violet Prince reappeared among the buffeting winds. He stretched out a hand that had grown to ten times its original size. The center of his palm was a jet black orb like a black hole, swallowing everything in its path.

Jue Di watched him come, unmoving. But when the Prince lifted his hand, Jue Di charged at him with a fist pulled back.

In contrast to when he attacked the alien horde before, there weren’t any flashy lights or images. All of his strength was contained in that gnarled fist, turning it a radiant gold. It bore the same mysterious power, but it somehow felt different.

The vortex of energy from the alien stopped suddenly. His oppressive aura shattered like a pane of glass. Surprise widened his eyes as Jue Di’s golden fist came right for his chest.

The deluge of power had hidden the alien’s attacks from Jue Di’s view, but the Violet Prince had had enough time to pull him arms in and press his palms together. A crackling sound filled the air, the Violet Prince’s body was painted with threads of gold. In a blink he he was a hundred meters away, fast as a golden bullet and out of harm’s way.

Jue Di grunted. His own body swayed and in the next instant he was chasing the Violet Prince, right on his heels. His lifted his right hand, and a staff appeared in his calloused grip 1

“Big!” With the word of command, his staff exploded to several times its size. Likewise the Paragon’s own figure stretched to over a thousand meters. The staff was gold at the ends with a silver body, and as it swung through the air toward the Violet Prince it seemed like it could pulverize anything it met.

Spectral images of the staff exploded through the purple universe, obliterating asteroids in its path. If the Wine Master or Epochrion could see this power, who knew what the shock would do to them.

Boom–! The strike hit the Violet Prince head-on, but his reaction was not what Jue Di expected. The human form of the alien dissolved into a purple mist. Not only did the staff attack fail to knock the creature away, its gaseous form simply parted around the attack.

However this lasted only for a brief moment. As the gas tried to intertwine itself around the staff, it erupted with power to rival the creation of the cosmos.

For the Violet Prince, it was as though everything around him changed. He no longer was in a purple universe of his creation, but on the surface of some unknown planet. When the golden light receded he saw a clear and bright sky, a deep blue sea. But as he looked on the picturesque scenery melted together.

“Ahhhh….” The Prince’s blood-curdling scream tore through the air. Its gaseous form tried to escape, desperate to flee in any direction, but the golden aura of the staff kept it contained.

Jue Di’s body changed, too. His hair and eyes had become gold, his muscles bulged. The muscles of his jaw corded as he strained, body bowed like he was bearing the weight of the universe.

This strike had a name; UpEnder. One of the most forceful attacks in Jue Di’s arsenal. There was enough force behind that single attack to completely destroy a planet! Even when he was in his prime, it was rarely used. However today, facing this mysterious Violet Prince, he pulled no punches. He started the fight with the full force of his abilities.

The alien prince was on the verge of destruction. Suddenly, a terrible roar arose.

A beam of magenta light erupted from the distant alien planet. It was headed right for Jue Di’s staff.

Jue Di scowled. His enormous body fractures in to hundreds of golden mirror images that spread across the heavens before recombining. The destructive power of his UpEnder attack was gone, like it had never existed.

The beleaguered Violet Prince reconstituted himself from the mists. He no longer bore the composed, heroic bearing he had had. His features were monstrous, his maw large and stilted. What was a perfectly proportioned human body swelled grotesquely, culminating in a hideous magenta beast over ten thousand meters long.

The Prince’s new form brought to mind the ancient Tyrannosaurus of old Earth. However, the features of its head were grossly exaggerated. It took up almost half its total mass.

Its great mouth opened wide, revealing an all-consuming blackness. Hurricane-force winds tugged at Jue Di as the beast approached to swallow him up.

When the myriad copies of Jue Di recombined he did not pause. The Paragon shot backwards in retreat so quickly he became a golden light. Soon that, too, disappeared.

The Prince bit into thin air. When it discovered its target missing, it let loose a bellowing cry. It was so intense nearby asteroids were shaken apart and reduced to dust. A large swath of space was cleared. A creature of this size and strength could likely clear the Shattered Starfields if it stayed in the area for a thousand years or so.

“Aaaagghhrrrrrrr!” The creature’s roar ripped across space like a wave of force. Its whole body shook in rage. Not yet ready to give in, it bristled as beams of violet light were spewed from its armored form. The area attack was grandiose and far-reaching, a burst to flush his enemy from hiding.

In the distance, the beam of magenta from the alien planet deepened to a pitch black. The sickly hue quickly spread over the celestial body until it was almost invisible against the dark backdrop of space.

When that tyrannical power enveloped the Violet Prince, both it and the creature vanished. Everything became silent, still. Nothing remained to speak of the battle, and all that was left was a pocket of empty space in the middle of an asteroid belt.

1. The Monkey King bore a staff he took from the Dragon King. This is likely Jue Di’s astrum.