Yet despite the devastation spreading around us, my attention remained fixed on the woman standing before me.
Our fists remained locked together in the center of the expanding chaos while streams of soul force continuously collided between us.
At first she had charged toward me with complete confidence. Then confidence became concentration. Concentration became surprise. Because as the seconds passed and the pressure between us continued increasing, she gradually realized something she had not expected.
I had not yielded and she was weaker.
The force behind her attack continued growing while my body remained exactly where it was, suspended in the air as though rooted to reality itself. No matter how much strength she poured into the clash, no matter how violently the surrounding soul force surged around us, I did not move backward by even a fraction.
"Do you want to die as well?" I asked.
"Arrogant," She scoffed.
The silver soul force surrounding her suddenly changed.
Until now it had been flowing around her body like armor, but now the currents began gathering toward her right arm. Layer upon layer compressed together while strange runes ignited across her skin. The surrounding space distorted violently as the soul force became denser and denser until it resembled a miniature star trapped inside her fist.
Then she moved.
Rather than pushing against me, she suddenly released the clash entirely and twisted her body sideways. The gathered soul force erupted forward as a spiraling spear of silver light that crossed the distance between us instantly.
The attack was elegant. And completely ineffective.
I simply raised my free hand.
The silver-violet soul force around my palm expanded slightly before closing around the attack itself. The spiraling spear continued drilling forward for a brief moment before cracks spread across its surface and the entire construct shattered apart into countless fragments.
Her eyes narrowed.
Before the fragments had even finished dispersing, she was already moving again.
Dozens of silver circles appeared around her body and each circle released a storm of condensed soul force projectiles. Thousands of attacks crossed the battlefield simultaneously, transforming the sky into a sea of silver streaks.
I watched them approach. Then I stepped forward and the surrounding soul force shifted and thousands of shields started blooming matching the attacking projectiles.
The attacks entering my vicinity simply collapsed. Some disintegrated and others were crushed beneath the pressure of my own soul force.
The rest were absorbed directly into the currents surrounding me. Within moments the sky cleared once more.
The woman floated silently opposite me. For the first time uncertainty appeared in her expression.
Then the armada moved.
The giant ships below us had finally completed their preparations.
Across the fleet, thousands of runes ignited simultaneously. Massive formations emerged above the vessels while streams of soul force rose from every ship and converged toward the woman before me.
The commanders surrounding the battlefield began channeling their own power into the formation as well, their soul force merging into an enormous network that stretched across the entire armada.
The sea below reacted immediately. Silver waves rose toward the heavens.
The sky darkened.
Even the natural soul force currents flowing through the realm were being dragged toward the formation.
The woman looked toward me.
"Living one," she said while silver light illuminated her face, "you have already killed three commanders. Whatever your purpose here was, it ends now."
I glanced toward the formation.
The attack gathering there dwarfed anything the fleet had displayed previously.
The entire armada had become a weapon.
Countless streams of soul force merged together above the ships until they formed a gigantic spear suspended over the fleet. The spear continued growing larger and larger while layers of runes rotated around it like celestial rings.
Even from a distance, I could feel the pressure. It would have easily destroyed ordinary Saints. Perhaps even stronger beings. The woman thrust her hand forward.
The formation activated and the spear descended. The thing was so large that its movement resembled a world falling from the heavens. The surrounding space cracked apart beneath its weight.
The Soul Sea below began collapsing inward. Countless souls throughout the fleet watched silently as the attack descended toward me.
I simply raised my hand and activated my skill.
"Eternal Consumption."
A familiar rune appeared before me. The moment it manifested, the surrounding soul force reacted violently. The gigantic rune expanded rapidly until it dwarfed even the incoming attack. Strange symbols spread across its surface while a dark vortex formed at its center.
The descending spear struck the rune.
BOOM!!
A shockwave strong enough to push the surface of the ocean a kilometer deep blasted from the contact and then the attack simply... broke apart.
The countless layers of soul force composing it fragmented instantly. The enormous spear lost cohesion and transformed into millions of separate streams that were dragged toward the vortex at the center of the rune.
The armada watched in stunned silence. The formation that had taken thousands of souls to create was being devoured.
The soul force disappeared into the rune in vast quantities. A portion was refined and absorbed directly into me.
The rest vanished into the consuming vortex. The gigantic attack shrank visibly. Then shrank again. Then disappeared completely.
Silence settled across the battlefield. The ocean calmed and the winds stopped.
Even the alarms that had been screaming throughout the fleet seemed distant now.
Every commander, every sailor and very soul aboard the armada stared toward me. The woman opposite me no longer looked uncertain.
Shock had replaced it. And beneath the shock was terror. Because she finally understood something.
Everything that had happened so far. None of it had been a battle. It had been an inconvenience.
I slowly lowered my hand.
The Eternal Consumption rune dissolved. The absorbed soul force flowed through my body while the surrounding currents settled back into place.
The woman remained frozen.
For several seconds neither of us moved.
Then I pushed my palm forward.
The air exploded.
The force struck her instantly.
Her body became a silver streak shooting backward across the battlefield before crashing directly into her flagship. Layer after layer of defensive barriers shattered upon impact before she tore through the outer hull and disappeared into the vessel itself.
The gigantic ship shook violently. Several sections collapsed.
The sea beneath it surged outward. I took a single step. The distance vanished beneath my feet.
A moment later I landed atop the damaged flagship.
Broken metal and shattered soul matter surrounded me while cracks spread throughout the deck. At the center of the destruction, buried within the remains of what had once been a command structure, the Saint commander slowly pushed herself back to her feet.