"You realize that this is hopeless, don't you? 

You're plenty strong for your youth, but you're out of your weight class. I've broken through to Spirit Soveriegn, and you haven't. You've barely gotten into the Fourth Realm yourself. 

You are no match for a wielder of the crown of stars, and you can't escape, now - that defense of yours against escape techniques is indiscriminate, isn't it? I can smell it on the air. 

You can't run, child. 

So come and face me, or await me here, it matters not. 

You will die today. 

So swears the Domineering Demon Diva."

I let out a sharp laugh. 

"Yeah. You've made it through the bottleneck. Con-fuckin'-gratulations. You probably haven't even condensed your bloody golden core from the looks of your qi. You've got what, 3 dragon marks? Don't make me laugh." 

The hologram shudders, and a wave of killing intent flows off it, the power of the netherworld seeping through the connection. 

"You've just signed up to make your demise all the more painful."

- Of course it's a bloody bomb. 

I rub my forehead, the presence repression technique hopefully hiding a manipulation of my Dragon's Horn as I charge my armor-flesh and scan a little further and - yep she's condensing it. 't'll probably be set by the time I get there. 

Ah well. 

"As if you can make good on that. You've lost your resources, your back-up, and all you've got is your stupid secrets and flunked foundation. If you could bloody hide from me, then would have never been able to get this far in." 

The work is good, but it's sloppy, rushed, scaled - too easy to brake if you know what you're doin' and can't stop someone from putting the time in, and she was leaning hard on her rank. 

I grin savagely.

"I wonder if you're naturally just that shit a cultivator or if you just decided that you didn't want to face a proper tribulation 'nd whimped out."

I growl, and it surges into an explosion of energy before being contained in the rictus of rage. 

"I will not stand this. Taste my wrath." 

It surges further, more and more spirit energy pumped into it 'til it's crackling and ready to burst, clearly not in any position to stop this time. 

I reach out a hand and snuff it out against the palm of my hand, a silver corona of Metal dancing alongside a warm brown barrier and brilliant blue of the pheonix's flame tearing it apart. 

I shake my hand, and tsk, watching the thin layer of blown apart skin knit back together a little as she shoots apart her only real connection to me and this space, despite what she thinks. 

This'll take a bit more then just botherin' to be thoughtful about this. 

I sigh as I watch the rubble starts crackling with electricity, as little sparks and trails of ionized air start forming above the compound, stretching out kilometers and kilometers into the air, Virtuoso's vision filling me in on the purpose and design as I watch it unfold. 

The techniques more of a boast then anything else - a challenge to the heavens and a display that she fears not the vengeance of heaven despite the weaknesses of her kin. There's a spider web of possibilities and lines of energy, but a casual slash across the sky fills the air with enough sword to sever most of the precision she'd want with it and break the highest flows. 

't's a Spirit Soveriegn grade manipulation on her part, a fancy lightning technique but she doesn't know a bloody thin' about stoppin' this from bein' seen though. 

That's my edge. 

For example, she's still surgin' her killin' intent into it 'cause she can't stop puffin' up like a peacock into it, so she'll be surging out of that mess with an overcharged movement technique following a pre-emptive strike in three, two - 

There's a crack of thunder, and blindingly bright surge as the entire compound is covered in lightning strikes -

One. 

I brush aside a stroke of lightning that was going to hit me right back into her stupid face just before her fist resounds against the flat of my blade, resounding out loudly as I lean back into the parry that hits me into the earth. 

Sure enough, her core has ascended past Void and into Gold, and three mysterious lights dance above her head as she starts tossing rocks at me. 

I grit my teeth as black energy twists and bends alongside the gold of my soul along my body and my tricks, enscribed stone forming the basis of an attack formation to smite her down as I dance back from the first blow, scowling. 

I raise my eyebrows as five waves of fire spew out from my hands and degrade the working enough to make it short out from the burnt-out impurities, the stroke of energy flying between them 'til they disintegrate under the assault. 

"Really?" 

A half-dozen sublime severing slashes lance out in an instant, reaching her as her back foot clacks against the stone. 

A shield of lightning rushedly forms around my hand, taking the attacks as I reel back.

Her defense is pretty scattered - the field is only half-fortified by the time that the first blow hits and it still takes it flawlessly, though the second and third slice through it enough that the rest cut into her secondary defense - some sort of shroud of netherworld qi, which means - 

My body surges with golden Yang qi as I rush forward, a riptide of lava flying out from my sword as I take advantage of her momentary weakness. 

 The defense reforms as I move to bat it away, a corona of lightning and darkness forming again to dampen it but enough of it still leaks through that she still manages to land a heavy slice on my arm. 

An instinctive twitch shows that the scalding solar strength inside the wound won't let my heal, and that I need to dampen it to keep it from getting worse. 

I lash my hand back out, a jet of energy aiming out for her blow apart her chest.

Deflect that and cling to my sword as it pulls me the rest out of the way, and flamethrower time~

I scream as my aura surges to devour it only to be dissipated by the scalding energies in turn. 

I snort, and attack, flames surging across my sword in a concealing shroud as I engage her. Her core 'll need a bit to get to the point where she match this, 'nd with the flames and defense piercing should be able to get her on the back foot enough she can't press it. 

She's still faster, but it's too fuckin' easy to rip apart anything she tries to string together and take the few hits she manages to force with an excessive surge from her foundation. 

She's burnin' it up, and she knows it. 

I pant, blood oozing from my skin all over as I growl and pant, a stupid emergency armor formation inscribed on my skin flaring as I try to recover, dealing with the paralysis effect I couldn't remove.

"You've already lost. Your foundation can't take this. It's too rotten, and you don't have anythin' I can't see through well enough to have a way past." 

My sword traces across her neck, a sickly white light shimmering as it tries to reject the sword's strength. 

A very thin red line forms as it scrapes her throat lightly, not quite penetrating usefully, but enough to show her even her last resort isn't enough as the ink flows down the fuller into a flame formation, runes and swirls of energy forming around it. 

"Fuck you." 

I surge with lightning qi, trying to wipe that smirk of that fucking bitches face. 

"Sloppy." 

The energy doesn't penetrated the shell around her reliably, and the scorches across my flesh are nothing, and the ink is fire-aspected enough to ignore a little heat. 

I take a deep breath, trying not the let the storm of energy and pain alter it and...

I snap my fingers, and her soul and body dissolves to ash. 

I groan quietly, slumping back over. 

...Yeah not doing that again 'til at least have a few more sub-realms behind me. 

Fuck. 

I dig out MMM's lovely lil life-lending lemonade, and take a deep drink. 

It's not quite ranked right for the wounds, but 't's good enough to mean that don't have to be too burntout from this shit or spend too long in recovery 'nd besides... 

It's fuckin' sweet, from the literally sweetness to the satisfying surge of life force 'nd the rich lingerin' sitrus that plays across my tongue, flittin' around all the lovely fruity tastes as I ahhh softly at the bright feelin'. 

I rub my forehead, and grin a little shakily. 

'll have to reward her properly later~

But for now, there's clean up to do. 

I sigh, and kick up onto my blade's length 'nd float off to work.