Chapter 855: Zeras vs. Lilian

"So she is related to Zeras and the Astral Emperor!"

"And not only related, but is another child of the Astral Emperor!"

"And she just requested a battle to the death? What is going on? What history occurred between these two to get to such a level of hatred?"

A commotion was caused outside the divine realm, as those watching the stone stele heard the brief conversation between Zeras and Lilian. The conversation had answered a lingering question, but also created many more.

Curious eyes darted towards the Astral Empire camp, but none dared to directly ask about it. This issue was clearly more of a sore spot for the empire than anyone could have initially guessed.

"I refuse," Zeras replied calmly yet succinctly, clearly expecting Lilian to request this at the start of their battle.

"Oh? Are you scared you'll lose to me? It seems you've grown quite pathetic over the last decade," Lilian replied mockingly, as if trying to goad Zeras into accepting.

"You can't provoke me into accepting," Zeras replied calmly, yet with a tinge of amusement. "If I accept and you win, I die. If I accept and kill you, father kills me when I leave this realm. It's a lose-lose for me no matter how you cut it."

"Tch," Lilian clicked her tongue in slight disappointment, but hadn't really been expecting another outcome.

"It was worth a shot," she said and then shrugged. "I'll have opportunities after we leave this realm to kill you, so today, I'll embarrass you thoroughly instead, until you know just how weak and pathetic you are."

"So much hate," Zeras chimed, "it's not good for you to hold all that hate in. You should really learn to let go sometimes."

Lilian remained silent, as she had said what she needed to say. Her expression was calm, cold, and confident. She was clearly prepared for the battle to come, mentally and physically.

"Do you know," Zeras said in a drawn out fashion, "that although you kept all your memories when you split, Laia inherited your instincts, your feelings, your fears."

Lilian's gaze narrowed even more, as if she wanted nothing more than to cut Zeras down immediately. However, the battle hadn't yet started.

"And so she lives in fear of me and father, every single day, living in dread, but not knowing the exact reason why," Zeras continued, his words causing Lilian's gaze to waver for an instant. Zeras' smile widened.

"You've created a nightmare for Laia, one she has no hope of escaping. Quite cruel if you ask me."

"Begin" the golem suddenly said, and then disappeared from the arena.

Boom!

The arena shook as an aura erupted outwards with furious intensity, as if it wanted to rip the world apart. The aura was thick with the Dao of Death, which spread and instantly covered the entire hundred-mile wide arena in its power.

Lilian's scythe appeared in her hand and her body changed, becoming lined with a unique energy that shimmered and constantly shifted colors.

'The Dao of Space. She's going strong from the very start,' John mused as he furrowed his brow with concern as Lilian's fight had finally begun.

Zeras felt the deathly aura crash against his body, which began to slowly wither and rot. He smiled.

"Not bad," he said as his own aura exploded outwards, brimming with the profound astral energy he had shown in his previous battle. The astral aura pushed the deathly aura backwards, stopping it from directly assaulting his body. The deathly aura ate away at the astral aura, which constantly replenished itself, resulting in a stalemate of the two auras.

Zeras' smile suddenly disappeared, and his eyes widened slightly as he watched the deathly aura penetrate his astral aura, as if it didn't exist. The deathly aura quickly spread forward and landed on his body, once again resuming its assault on him.

"The Dao of Death and Space huh?" Zeras mused out loud, indicating that Lilian had used her Dao of Space to penetrate Zeras' aura. "Not bad, not bad," he added, as if truly impressed with his little sister.

"I have to admit, I don't have much of an answer to stopping this technique of yours," he said, his words causing some hope to rise within John and the others rooting for Lilian. "But then again, I don't really need to stop such a technique either. Instead, I'll just withstand it," he added, causing that hope to fade as fast as it came.

"There's few things in this universe that can alter and affect the spatial Dao," Zeras said smilingly, "and the astral Dao just happens to be one of those things. Even space must bend when confronting the might of the stars!"

Upon saying this, Zeras' body began to glow brightly, as if he were becoming a star himself. The energy emanating from him climbed rapidly, until it reached a level that even John found impressive. The energy stopped climbing, but had already reached a horrifying level of power, as every single inch of Zeras' body was covered in that powerful energy.

It was as if Zeras had become a star himself. And that stellar energy stopped the Dao of Death in its tracks, even with the help of the Dao of Space.

'Withstanding this much energy within his body is only possible due to him having an Innate Variant Body. Even I would need to use my Supreme Battle Art to withstand this level of energy. This Zeras' is truly a frightening individual."

"Hmph, I figured as much," Lilian scoffed, not deterred by her initial failure. "Since aura's wont' work, then let's make this personal, shall we?" she said as she shot forward.

She appeared before Zeras in an instant, and her scythe cleaved towards him, infused with terrifying Dao's of Death and Space. Zeras' smile widened with battle lust, as the fight was finally starting to get to a point that could entertain him.

His bizarre looking weapon appeared in his hand, which he slashed out against Lilian's scythe. One of the two curved blades on his weapon collided against her scythe.

Bang!

The collision of weapons shook the entire arena, as if two titans had exchanged attacks. John's gaze narrowed as he watched his master be knocked backwards hundreds of yards, while Zeras stood firmly in place. Lilian landed on the arena and skidded backwards even further before coming to a halt, and stared at her distant opponent.

In the battle of strength, Zeras was unsurprisingly the victor.

'How are you going to win this battle, master?'

As if answering John's question, Lilian's Dao of Death rune began to glow brightly, and a dozen swirling portals of pitch-black energy appeared on the floor of the arena around her. John's eyes widened with shock as he watched twelve skeletal figures emerge from within the portals, human and towering beast alike.