State of Unity-Unlimited Predator!
The pillar of light beamed into the sky with destructive intent. Similarly, a star descended and made contact with it, resulting in an expansive sea of aurorae.
State of Unity-Four Steps To Nullity!
Step Four-Bolt of Transcendence!
"Heup!" His human form grunted as Inala craned his arm to the limit, condensed an Attributed Region Sphere in the shape of a Biome Bomb, and hurled it at Brangara. But unlike his usual throws, this travelled at the speed of sound, alternating between subsonic and sonic speeds, resulting in a series of vapour cones across its trail.
'It's a slow throw!' Brangara thought as he unleashed a pillar of light at the sphere and splashed its contents. 'That's weak...'
His thoughts paused when he saw the splashed water turn into sparks and rush back to form a larger spark. The spark then transformed into the same sphere and continued to fall down. The difference was that it had reformed itself right outside the pillar of light unleashed by Brangara.
'It will miss the mark.' Brangara thought and watched the Attributed Water Sphere fall past him and slam into the ground, poking in a deep dole. A second later, a water geyser rushed out as all the Attributed Water reverted into regular water, causing an amount enough to fill multiple lakes to gush out of the narrow hole.
The geyser expanded outward due to friction as its altitude continued to increase, shaping itself like a cone. A portion of the cone's wide top touched Brangara. As it was just water, Brangara didn't mind it.
But he was on guard, seeing the change in the state of the Attributed Water Sphere before. And as he had expected, the water transformed into grey sand and began to damage his Unlimited Predator barrier.
'That's pretty good.' Brangara fused himself into the body of a Tangible Nature of Empyrean Snapper and unleashed his absolute domain, easily beginning to take control of the grey sand. Right as he had begun though, the grey sand turned into sparks that flew into a Biome Bomb that had appeared on the ground.
The grey sand had expanded to a range of 400 metres during the splash from the geyser, converting everything it had touched into grey sand. And now, it changed into sparks and condensed into a miniature Bolt of Transcendence within the Biome Bomb.
Sprouting strings of Prana to behave as legs, the Biome Bomb ran across the ivory sand and moved a fair distance away. It then stared at Inala, transformed into a Bolt of Transcendence, and slammed into the latter. It had moved sideways to avoid touching Brangara or getting within his Sprit Weapon range.
The Bolt of Transcendence revolved around Inala, split into four and turned into Attributed Water Spheres. Sparks flickered across his body as Inala propelled his thoughts through Bolts of Transcendence, allowing him to operate his body at its maximum possible level.
He could operate it at an even greater level, but didn't want to go all out from the very beginning. With a spin, he launched the four Attributed Water Spheres at Brangara. They were still thrown at sonic speeds, making it easy for Brangara to evade them.
Up next, four water geysers rushed into the sky, transformed into grey sand, and upon converting a portion of the ivory sand into grey sand, turned into sparks and returned to Inala.
'He's accumulating strength using his altitude advantage.' Brangara thought and kicked the air to rush higher and blasted a series of pillars of light at Inala. One miniature Bolt of Transcendence was consumed by Inala to regenerate the melting portions of his body, reverting to a pristine appearance.
By now, the duo were at eye level, positioned right beyond the Spirit Weapon ranges of each other.
Right as Inala was about to assume his Pranic Beast form, he paused in surprise upon noticing Brangara's eyes, 'That's the same as me.'
"We're both dead men, huh?" He uttered, relaxing his tense muscles for a second.
"On the same boat, yeah." Brangara nodded.
"What made you accept it?" Inala asked, turning around upon seeing where Brangara was pointing at. In that direction, eighty kilometres away, was the Brood Mother, steadily approaching the battle location cautiously.
"That's it?" Inala tilted his head in surprise, "She's strong, but nothing on the level of what you've faced. A single hit from Unlimited Predator, and she's dead."
"I tried it a few times, but her evasive methods are great." Brangara shook his head, "I won't be able to focus on killing her until you're dead. But I've already calculated the outcome."
With a wry smile, he uttered, "I still think I'll win, but at that point, I won't have enough strength to maintain Unlimited Predator, which might make me her prey."
'Seems he's learnt about quite a few of my plans.' Inala thought and observed Brangara, 'I see, so he's left things for the tenth Astral World.'
'Right, even if I end up killing him here, Brangara is still alive technically, since the tenth body of his stack still exists. So, once Turnip becomes Astral World, he'll remember everything that has happened here.' Inala analysed the situation completely, 'That means, he'll have the experience of facing a State of Unity, which will allow him to develop his Unlimited Predator even further.'
"I understand, Brangara." Inala said as a pillar of light boomed out of him, "Let's put an end to this war here."
"Likewise," Brangara said as a pillar of light erupted out of him, "I just wish to have a proper fight, as equals."
"Cast aside everything and just come at me with everything before you die."
"Before that," Thunder rumbled in the region as Inala listened in on the sounds, asking upon reading Brangara's surface thoughts through the Skill of Piezo Response, "Where's the Minor Treasure of Zinger?"
"Away, executing my plan." Brangara expressed, "You won't be able to control it against my wishes."
"I see," Inala nodded and smirked, "So, you've sent away all your Minor and Major Treasures
to retrieve Turnip?"
"Scared they'll succeed?" Brangara taunted.
"That's the Quip Clan's headache, not mine." Inala shrugged, "The Inala you know will be dying soon. The future Inala and every subsequent version will be born a Deity of the Quip Clan and move for their benefit."
"A restrained Deity, huh? Similar to the Empyrean Tusks." Brangara muttered with interest.
Empyrean Tusks were omniscient, able to treat all Mammoth Clansmen part of their Settlement as Bone Slips. Through this, they were reading the thoughts of every Mammoth Clansman. Even though an Empyrean Tusk influenced its Mammoth Clan into behaving in its best interests, as the Empyrean Tusk read the minds of its Clansmen every moment, it too was influenced by their collective thoughts.
Eventually, the Empyrean Tusks became receptive of the very influence they generated upon their Mammoth Clansmen. The Quip Clan worked pretty similar.
The higher the Royal Zinger genes in them, the more a Quip Clansman thought and behaved
like Inala. They moved like a ship, with the lot of them behaving more or less like Inala as a collective. And the Royal Zinger, upon revival, will be placed in the centre of the ship, fuelling
its motion.
Every command the Royal Zinger gave shaped the Quip Clan, which in turn created an environment that shaped the next Royal Zinger, repeating the cycle. Therefore, the Royal Zinger would end up being influenced by their own influence in a sequential fashion.
"So, this is the last time I'll be fighting you?" Brangara eyed Inala, letting out a sigh upon seeing the latter nod contently, "No wonder you tried to focus all my attention on you."
"Yeah, I've already ensured everyone involved in this war is either dead or dying." Inala let
out a sigh, "Therefore, I'll be the only one alive to face your wrath. And once I'm gone, you won't have anyone to hate."
"What about Gannala?" Brangara raised an eyebrow, "Surely you didn't kill your own daughter...man, you're cruel."
"I've done exactly what you had to do," Inala casually wiped a tear that streamed out his eye,
"It's to ensure you have nothing to fight for even if you survive this, not that there's a chance of that happening anyway."
"Then, the Mammoth Clan is dead?" Brangara asked, surprised to see Inala shake his head,
"They'll continue to exist?"
"You know Grehha?" Inala laughed, "Did you forget how much he obsesses over Yarsha
Zahara?"
"What are you getting at?" Brangara frowned.
"The female body has something called an Ovum, which is basically the egg." Inala began to explain, "You know about his Empyrean Incubator. Put one to one..."
"When did he steal one?" Brangara sighed, understanding exactly what Inala was getting at,
covering his face in exhaustion upon learning the truth, "That time? He managed that even while being controlled?"
"Work for me and we'll build a better Mammoth Clan together," Inala laughed, "If Yarsha Zahara had said this one line, Grehha would have defected to your side spontaneously. He obsesses over only two things, and that's Yarsha and the Mammoth Clan."
"Dammit," Brangara landed on the ground, clumped the ivory sand into a chair to sit upon and gazed blankly at the sky, "Let me guess...his daughter somewhat like me?"
"Actually, no." Inala landed nearby, made a similar chair and took a seat, "But she'll have a striking resemblance to your wife. And she'll create a new Mammoth Clan from scratch, using the Free Humans of an unfortunate...or fortunate Kingdom, depending on how you put it."
"Basically," Inala stared at Brangara and laughed, "You won't even feel hatred towards the new Mammoth Clan."
"You'll only feel awkward when meeting them, similar to how you feel when facing Ruvva."