Weapons were useful tools for not only mortals but gods alike. One also had to remember that upon becoming a god, one went through a fundamental change. No matter if one was a monster, enlightened, or anything else before achieving godhood, all gods shared certain circumstances after evolving.
One of those was the ability to use weapons and many forms of equipment or tools. A mortal dragon wouldn’t be able to wield a staff the same way a human would, but an ascended human and dragon god would both be able to wield a staff on equal terms.
This resulted in weapons being incredibly important in the realm of godhood. Artifacts of legend were born based on the weapons gods used, with some of the most famous being the hammer of the Starseizing Titan and the axe of Valdemar. Of course, the use of weapons did assume the god fought using a humanoid form in the first place.
Another common trait among divine weapons was their tie to the god using them. Gods nearly always took an active role in the crafting process of their weapon, used a powerful Soulbound weapon they’d ascended alongside with, or even crafted the weapon entirely on their own. The reasons for this were multitude but could be boiled down to making a weapon that truly fit one as a god, and the more a god wielded a weapon, the more powerful they tended to be as the Records and bond improved.
The weapons pulled out by the Malefic Viper and Yip of Yore were both fully-fledged godly weapons worthy of being called weapons of myth. The staff wielded by Vilastromoz was made from roots gifted by Yggdrasil, metals taken from forbidden realms, and an orb from a Godking-level elemental god he’d corrupted using his malefic affinity before slaying many eras ago, the item only having been refined in the eras since.
Opposite, Yip of Yore wielded a weapon he simply named the Hero Sword. It was a weapon he’d recrafted several times and been in his possession ever since he was still a mortal, with the latest recraft coming shortly before his battle with the Viper. Each recraft specialized the sword, with the latest major one coming when he briefly battled the Starseizing Titan, managing to land a cut on the most durable of all Primordials.
At least, everyone assumed that was the latest recraft. However, it appeared that it had undergone yet another one, empowering the weapon further with the sole goal of making it more powerful against the Malefic Viper. It had been fed the Records of Yip of Yore’s legend. The conceptual energy he’d gathered throughout his conquest to face the Malefic Viper, and as he lifted the blade toward the Viper, there was no doubt who was holding the superior weapon between them.
“Nice staff,” Yip said, an undertone of sarcasm. “Looks old. I’m almost surprised it hasn’t turned rotten yet.”
“Your weapon certainly is impressive, I can admit that,” the Viper shot back as he smirked on his own. “I do find the name of your weapon laughable, though. Hero Sword? You? A hero? Do people even know its true origin?”
“Do you?” Yip of Yore asked with some level of surprise, though he clearly expected Vilastromoz not to. While much of Yip’s history was known, there were also many unknowns, primarily because the god whose Blessing he held while a mortal had been part of the Pantheon Yip of Yore had later annihilated, in the process also erasing much knowledge of his earlier years. All that now remained was the knowledge of his multiversal accomplishments that happened on larger stages.“What is the story you tell about the sword? Oh yes, that it was handed to you by your long-term friend and rival. A gift from him just before he died. Truly a tearjerker that one, though I prefer the story of what actually happened between you two,” the Viper smiled. “Altius the Blade... a talent that many compared you to in your mortal days. Your competitor in Nevermore and many other system events. You two were really close back then, I hear. It’s truly a shame that happened.”
Now, it was Yip’s turn to be quiet as he looked at the Malefic Viper with a cold gaze. In some ways, Altius could be called the Jake to Yip of Yore’s Ell’Hakan, except they didn’t have the same kind of antagonistic relationship primarily created by their gods being in conflict. If the Viper and Yip didn’t have this entire conflict, Vilastromoz couldn’t help but wonder what kind of relationship Jake and Ell’Hakan would have... though he still didn’t believe it would be a positive one.
“From what I remember, Altius was always more of a fighter than you. A better fighter. He was a prodigy with any bladed weapon, and if a system event revolved around combat, he would come out on top nearly every time. However, in the realm of politics and scheming, he was an absolute novice. Luckily, he had you,” Vilastromoz continued, ignoring Yip’s glare.
“You followed him. Helped him. In turn, he helped you, which is why I find it so damn weird...” the Viper smiled, tilting his head. “Why did you kill him, take his sword, and act the hero afterward? Did you view him as too big of a threat? Or was it perhaps jealousy?”
“Such confident words despite knowing nothing,” Yip said, his joking demeanor gone.
“Ah, but I do know,” the Viper smiled. “I also know that the only reason you beat Altius in Nevermore was because you fucked him over. I know you only killed him because he trusted you. You’re not a damn hero; you’re just an actor who would gladly kill the real heroes of the world to make yourself look better.”
“I guess you’re not called the Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge for nothing... or was it Keeper of Forgotten Knowledge? Doesn’t matter either way,” Yip shook his head. “What are you trying to accomplish by showing off your knowledge? Destabilize my legend? Ruin my story? You should know as well as anyone it’s way too late for that.”
“I’m aware,” the Viper nodded. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t actually begin to think yourself a hero. You, whose entire legend is built on lies and deceit and the shoulders of your betters.”
“Lies, truths, deceit, honesty, does any of those words truly mean anything? Reality is what we perceive. It’s what we believe. Records are nothing but the memories of the system, and all living beings are part of the system... so who is to say what we remember to be true isn’t the actual truth?” Yip said with confidence.
“Who’s to say? Well, maybe someone with a transcendent memory. Someone who knows objective truths, even if every other being in the multiverse forgets,” the Viper shook his head and smiled.
“Someone like that would truly be annoying and worth getting rid of as they wouldn’t be good for anything besides ruining good stories,” Yip returned with his own sininster smile, and without any warning, he swung his blade.
The Viper wasn’t ready and failed to completely dodge the sneak attack as a crescent line was cut through the sky. His shoulder was injured, the energy blade cutting straight through his scales like nothing.
Twisting his body to avoid any potential follow-ups, the Viper unleashed a barrage of magic upon his foe from his staff, the sky instantly being filled with a green sheen as thousands of streaming lines of malefic light. Before these attacks even had a chance to land, the Viper infused the staff once more as he pointed it toward the ground of the Great Planet below.
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Yip of Yore’s blade vibrated for a moment as every streamer in the sky was cut apart by silver light. However, the attack from the Viper did its job as Yip was slightly too slow at reacting when a microscopic needle-like stone shot up from far below, piercing his foot. Several hundred more of these small needles also flew toward him, but he was swift enough to dodge every other one as he charged toward the Viper to get in melee.
Teleporting back, the Viper tried to keep his distance as he unleashed several more attacks. Yip, in turn, continued attacking, the Primordial simply unable to keep up with every blow as he found himself unmatched in pure offensive might... which was totally fine for the Viper. He never planned on winning through regular attacks, after all.
Throughout the battle, the malefic presence of the Viper bathed the world and any being in it. He was poison incarnate, and through willpower and presence alone, anything and everything in his vicinity would be infected and slowly corrupted.
That is to say, Yip of Yore was constantly infected simply by being there. The poison was subtle and slow, seeping into the other god with every passing moment, laying dormant within him. Any interaction he had with the Viper also only served to poison him further. Striking the VIper with the sword resulted in malefic energy invading the body of Yip, and the Viper had taken quite a bit of damage. There was simply no escape, and the longer the fight continued, the bigger an advantage the Viper would have.
Even as they continued to increase their power level, the effect would linger. Despite having pulled out weapons, that didn’t mean either was at their apex yet, just that the time for doing actual damage had come. The poison inflicted now mattered, and the blows Yip landed on the Viper would slowly dwindle away the Primordial’s resource pools.
From the very beginning, the Viper had only focused on infecting Yip of Yore with poison, and every attack was laced with the most powerful venoms the Malefic Viper could produce at his current level of power at the time.
Everything Vilastromoz was doing built up to one crucial moment that would come when he finally approached the peak of his power. One moment where he would unleash all the toxic energy that infected Yip of Yore at once.
This was effectively how he’d killed the Brimstone Hedgemon back then. The poisonous energy from the Viper’s presence had been enough to poison the Divine Realm of the god quickly and sufficiently enough for Touch to have something to amplify and bite unto.
Yip of Yore was far, far stronger than the Brimstone Hedgemon, so the Viper needed to build up enough toxins in the god’s body before he would activate it. If not, he risked wasting all his preparations.
The fight continued with the Viper on the defensive as he tried to minimize damage as much as possible, but for every attack he landed, he took three in return. To make matters worse, every strike from Yip dealt significant damage, far more than any other regular blow of a weapon would.
A god’s body was just a vessel of pure energy. Destroying it would not mean the instant death of a god, but it would consume their energy to regenerate. Usually, the Viper taking damage wouldn’t bother him much, but that sword left injuries not so easily healed. Its conceptual power simply countered the Malefic Viper too much, the Hero Sword a weapon made to smite evil, and currently, the Viper was the greatest evil in existence.
However, as long as he could keep up with the escalating power level, things would be fine. By now, they’d already surpassed the realm of the Boundless Hydra and most of the figures who weren’t truly at the peak of their major factions in the multiverse. The Viper felt that it wouldn’t be long before he had no more reserves to pull on, and when that time came, it would be time to strike.
Time passed as this moment grew ever-close, and Yip of Yore closed in once more, aiming to land a solid blow. Reality warped as his blade seemed like it was coming from every direction simultaneously, and the Viper chose to use this opening where Yip was focused on offense to strike.
Without any warning, he unleashed all his latent energy as the crystal ball at the end of his staff exploded, sending out a wave of pure toxic energy that had been festering for several eras. The wave destroyed all the sword auras and struck the unprepared Yip of Yore, washing over him, making the entire front of his body begin to rot and turn gray and dead instantly as the powerful malefic affinity permeated his body. Even the sky and a massive swat of land below were left desolate and colorless wherever the wave had passed, and had this been the real world, energy would more than likely never return.
At the same time, the Viper didn’t let up as he raised his hand toward Yip, with his entire body burning with power and the hand glowing a familiar dark green.
“Touch of the Malefic Viper,” Vilastromoz spoke, infusing the skill with Words of Power to further amplify it.
He took hold of all the poison he’d infected Yip of Yore with during their entire battle and brought it all to life while amplifying it. A dark light lit up the sky and enveloped Yip of Yore’s body, corrupting and corroding everything. Even as he tried to use his skills and concepts to nullify the Viper’s attack, those concepts ended up simply adding fuel to the fire as they, too, were corrupted and eliminated.
Channeling even more power into the skill, the Malefic Viper pushed himself to his limits as everything all around them began to break down. Space shattered as the concept was destroyed by the malefic light; time felt as if it slowed down, and for a brief moment, the world was still.
Then, the Viper felt something... a hint of poison hidden deep within Yip of Yore. Poison the Viper recognized but could no longer control. Poison that had once been his but had been claimed, and just as that realization struck, a loud crack sounded out.
A vertical cut split the malefic light apart as it struck the surprised Malefic Viper. Blood splurted out as he was cut across the chest, and the outstretched hand channeling Touch was severed at the wrist. Scales shattered in the process as the Malefic Viper stumbled back, his hand falling toward the ground below, but he didn’t have time to focus on any of that.
He looked up with wide eyes and saw the light slowly fade as Yip of Yore walked forward, his entire body rotting and corrupted from the overwhelming amount of poison, with all but one limb gone, only half a head left, and likely less than a fifth of his total body mass remaining. However, within seconds, he began to rapidly heal as the Viper felt the poison lose its effect at a far too rapid pace.
“Are you surprised?” Yip asked despite his jaw not even having fully regenerated yet. “You shouldn’t be... you helped me accomplish this.”
The body of Yip healed more as his bare chest was shown, and on his body, a clear dark green handprint appeared, glowing dark green.
“You remember the little parting gift you gave me last we met, right? Well, to me, it truly was a gift. An unforgettable and invaluable opportunity,” Yip smiled, his body now nearly entirely fully healed as the poison in his body was eliminated.
“I relived that moment of infection... re-experienced it over and over again. Whenever it faded in power, I revived the story to be infused again and again as I slowly began to understand. Understand and make countermeasures as my body and soul adapted. For years now, I have lived infected with your poison, having built a tolerance that makes me near-immune. Seriously, did you really think your poison was anywhere near enough to stop me, let alone kill me?” Yip of Yore said in a mocking tone.
“I wanted you to infect me back then, and you played right into my hands. Perhaps you thought you were the one that had gotten one over me, as the poison allowed you to always keep track of where I was, no matter where I went in the multiverse. Oh yes, I understood that aspect of the poison, too. Now, I will give credit where credit is due; that was quite the attack, and without my preparations, I would not be doing that good right now... but I did prepare,” he continued as whatever remnants of the poison in his body dispersed for good.
The Malefic Viper assessed his own situation, knowing things weren’t good, far from it. It wasn’t that he was weaker than the current Yip of Yore... it was that Yip of Yore walked a Path that directly countered whatever the Viper did. The Primordial was like a fire mage facing a flame elemental that had trained against his particular brand of flames beforehand while wielding being able to use powerful water magic. Meanwhile, the Viper had nothing besides more fire spells – or poisons, in this instance. As things were looking, he had nothing.
At least he didn’t have anything else in his current form...
“If that failed...” the Viper sighed. “I guess we’ll have to change things up.”
With those words, he took a step forward as his body began to morph. The small humanoid body changed from that of a mage to the creature known as the apex of magic, and he assumed a form he hadn’t in a long time as wings sprung from his back, his hands turned into claws, and a tale grew, his aura growing alongside his physical bulk.
Yip of Yore looked on with a serious gaze as he prepared himself, a sly smile forming on his lips, as the “hero” prepared to face off against the evil dragon god.