Aera’s winds tore through the divine air she breathed, striking her son in the chest, doing minimal damage.
"For a goddess, you’re awfully weak, mother!" Carliodas moved like a lightning bolt, kneeing his mother in the face, then grabbed her hair, spinning her around before tossing her to the ground.
Aera crashed into the divine land, then quickly rolled away to avoid Carliodas slamming into her.
"You had a great life!" Aera shouted, "But you threw that all away!" Gusts of wind propelled her forward, and she headbutted her son, punched him in the gut, then gave him a solid uppercut to the chin.
However, Carliodas tanked those attacks and blasted Aera in the chest.
Aera pushed herself up from the fractured ground, her breath ragged, and light bleeding from her chest where the blast had torn through her. Wind snapped into her limbs as she stood, and she faced her son.
Carliodas was already moving, a smirk on his face. He crossed the distance in a blur, fist wrapped in rotting-black energy. Aera met it with a wall of divine wind. The impact detonated, hurling her back. She twisted midair, landed, and answered with a slicing gale that tore across the realm.
Carliodas walked through it, but the divine wind tore through his shoulder.
"Ohh, that actually harmed me? " He smiled and vanished.
"Feel scared yet?" Area huffed with a smile.
"Heh, no."
Pain exploded through Aera’s side as his knee crashed into her ribs. Primordial Decay spread on contact, crawling through her body. She gritted through it, grabbed his arm, and slammed him into the ground with a thunderous downburst.
She didn’t stop. Spears of compressed wind rained down. Carliodas rolled, leapt, and tore through them, closing in once again. His palm struck her chest. The ache was immediate and painful, causing Aera to stagger and drop to one knee.
"You see, mother, this is the result of you being a horrible goddess. Now, you will die." Purple energy focused on his fingertip, aimed at Aera’s head.
"You motherfucker!" Telia appeared, kicking Carliodas in the ribs and sending him crashing into Aera’s divine castle.
Aera was extremely happy to see her daughter. "You made it."
"Of course, mother. I would never leave you to suffer alone."
"Well, well, well. Is it a family reunion or something? I planned on dealing with you after I’ve killed our precious mother, but killing you together will be fine." Walking forward while cracking his neck, Carliodas’s energy exploded from his body.
"Try to get hit as little as possible. That primordial decay is doing a number on me right now."
Telia cursed in her head. "I should have brought Kai."
"We can’t focus on that right now. He’s coming!"
Aera moved first, wind snapping outward as she surged to Telia’s side, the realm screaming under the pressure. Telia didn’t wait, and she was already sprinting with her glaive low to the ground, and its blade hummed as divine wind wrapped its edge.
Carliodas blurred between them, primordial decay trailing like smoke.
Telia slashed, but Carliodas caught the shaft barehanded, the impact cracking the air.
Aera moved behind him, and her wind blast hit him point-blank. She then created orbs of energy and wind, causing more explosions on her son’s back.
Carliodas was driven back through a spire, the stone vaporizing from the impact. Telia ripped her weapon free and leapt after him, spinning her glaive and coming down in a brutal arc.
He raised an arm, and primordial decay flared. The blade bit anyway, carving through his flesh. Carliodas laughed and kicked her away mid-strike.
Telia had to toss her glaive away since it was now ruined, but she pulled out another one. She flipped, landed, and hurled a crescent of wind, and Aera layered it with divine energy. The combined attack slammed Carliodas into the ground, burying him.
"Did we get him?" Telia asked
"I don’t know. But stay vigilant. We don’t know what tricks he has up his sleeve."
Just then, the ground ruptured. Carliodas burst out, eyes burning, and primordial decay flooding the air. He crossed the distance in a heartbeat and struck Aera across the jaw. She skidded across the ground, the wind flickering around her. Telia was on him instantly, her glaive thrusting again and again in rapid succession.
He dodged one, deflected another, and took the third through the side. He seized the blade, yanked Telia in, and headbutted her. Decay surged from his grip, crawling up the weapon, eager to consume her divine essence, but Aera kicked the weapon away.
She drove both palms forward. Wind compressed into a roaring column that launched Carliodas skyward. Telia followed, wings of wind flaring, spinning upward, and hurling a spear of wind. It pierced his shoulder and pinned him against the sky itself.
"Now, Mom! Kill him!"
Aera used every ounce of her divine power to take the life of her son and cleanse the world of his presence. The realm itself acted with her, and when her ultimate attack touched his body, it ceased to exist.
"W-What?!"
"Hehehe, hahahahahahaha! Did you seriously think that I would fall to you two? I’ll admit, it was fun fighting you two like this, but that’s all it was, fun." He slammed the side of his fist into the air, cracking the sky, and dropped to the ground.
"Now that the fun is over, I’ll be killing you both now. And it seems that fate is on your side since you’ll be dying together."
"Ref! Ref, he’s cheating! Using Primordial Decay isn’t fair, man!" Kai shouted on top of Area’s castle.
"K-Kai!" Telia was extremely happy to see him here.
"Pwahahahaha! You know, as a demigod now, I can sense that you’re a god, but don’t think that your presence will change anything. Just like my mother, you are weak."
"Aw, man, I was really hoping to actually make a difference. You know, be cool and save these two maidens, get the good ending to this story."
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
"Jeez, man. You’re so high off your powers that you can’t even notice when you’re speaking to someone who’s far above you in the divine hierarchy." Kai’s power slammed into Carliodas’s body, forcing him to the ground.
The energy was so intense that he couldn’t even speak or move a muscle.
"Now, what were you saying about me being weak?"