Arpious of the Planes

"No wonder, you were able to beat that selfish phoenix… but that doesn't mean I can't beat you," the queen says grinning.

"Yada yada yada… are we going to fight or talk…" I say provoking her.

Her grin turns into a glare as I know she fell for my taunt.

Getting ready in a fighting stance, I bend my knees and dash towards her with my sword cocking back. The Queen places her hand on the ground and creates a thick gold wall that I was only able to cut through halfway.

Trying to pull it out, I notice she trapped Raiu with the gold wall causing me to immediately retreat, but…

"That's not enough Queen of Golden Mountain Bears,"

Deactivating [Fire of Deaths Sword: Raiu], the sword trapped by gold dissipates into black flames but reapers in my hand as I activate the soul equipment again.

Of course, the queen wasn't idle, as I saw her charging towards me with a golden sword in one hand and a golden spear in the other. What seems like broken bones made of gold appear beneath my trying to hold me down but I jump up avoiding them. Seeing this, the queen jumps towards me trying to strike me in the gut and the head.

Using my wings I activate [Kingfishers Flexible Wings] allowing me to shield myself with my wings which were as hard as steel. She was capable of cutting right through my wings even though they were so tough so I deflected both weapons opening up her chest.

Lunging Raiu right at her chest, she used the momentum to rocket back to the ground.

Not letting her rest, I quickly activate [Liquid Fire Secretion] which drips from my hands, and then I use [Fires Will] to teleport it above the queen.

She dodges the liquified fire effortlessly and jumps back at me but instead of aiming for my body, she aims for my wings, trying to drag me down from the sky. Instead of trying to dodge, I decide to confront her head-on by rocketing towards her with Raiu pointed towards her.

She sees this and slightly smiles as she narrowly dodges my attack while creating a plate of gold on her hand, allowing her to grab Raiu. Tearing Raiu out of my hand she then reaches towards my wing. Not letting her touch one of my only advantages towards her I quickly moved it out of the way but she anticipated this and grabbed onto my arm while I focused on my wing.

My arm slowly turned to gold as I quickly deactivated and then reactivated Raiu plunging the sword towards her. She instantly retreats after seeing my Raiu disappear allowing her to land back on the ground satisfied at the damage.

Grabbing my partly golden arm, I activate [Ichimei] which slowly reverts it to its normal state but the pain was immense as I did it. Each second was like my cells were being rearranged to destroy the gold in my arm.

Seeing this she clicks her tongue and places both hands on the ground and muttered,

"[Forbidden Magic: Midas],"

The ground around her turned to gold like a wave washing over the beach. Then the golden ground suddenly liquefied turning into a tsunami that could swallow a city. The wave flowed down the mountain turning the vegetation all to gold. Not only did it swallow part of the mountain but it also swallowed the queen but she seemed fine since she manipulated the gold to not touch her. This meant she can breathe easily while being protected from every single angle, leaving no weak spot.

Panicking, I activated [Amaterasu] which created a wall of black flames that clashed with the liquid gold. Even though the was blocked and part of it flowed down the mountain it started to grow as if trying to conquer the wall of black flames.

Eventually, I reached my limit on controlling [Amaterasu] since putting your concentration in multiple places is insanely hard, causing me to have a raging headache.

BOOM

Thankfully I readied [Forbidden Magic: Zeus's Nimbus] above the wave in hope that it will buy me some time to conquer the wave.

The sound shocked her hindering control a bit causing some liquified gold to flow down onto her that was filled with lighting. The electrified liquid gold paralyzed her for a split second causing the wave of liquid gold to go down for a split second.

I utilized this chance to fly high into the skyway above the golden wave.

Seeing how I got out of the corner she planned, she withdrew the wave which soaked back down into the ground leaving a thin coat of gold on the ground next to her.

"It's a stalemate… at least for now," I mutter to myself.

If this fight continues like this I will lose eventually because of my lower status. She has much more stamina and mana.

『Status』

[Name: Arpious]

[Race: Dark Siren]

[Status: Stressed]

[Servants: 3]

[Subordinates: 7]

[Slaves: 1]

[Level: 50/50]

[HP: 89/100 MP: 37/80 SP: 14/30]

[Strength: 15 (+5) (+25) (+15)]

[Defense: 10 (+5) (+10)]

[Magic: 25 (+25) (+25)]

[Speed: 15 (+5) (+25) (+15)]

[Luck: 1 (+1)]

[Charisma: 10]

[Skills: [******] [Forbidden Magic: Zeus's Nimbus] [Boost (2/5)] [Scratch (3/10)] [Mind Magic] [Shadow Magic (4/10)] [Berserk] [Swipe (2/10)] [Poison Immunity] [Disease Immunity] [Virus] [Commanders Presence] [Army Control] [Forbidden Magic: Medusa] [Fire Immunity] [Lightning Resistance] [Water Control] [Flying Sense] [Enhanced Senses] [Enhanced Regeneration] [Horse Beetles Extreme Senses] [Liquid Fire Secretion (2/10)] [Domain of the Night (Locked)] [Demonic Berserker] [Amaterasu] [Ichimei] [Guardians Presence] [Phoenixes Dominating Presence] [Fires Will] [Inspect] [Magma Control (3/5)] [Kingfishers Flexible Wings] [Magma Secretion (2/10)] [Gluttons Stomach] [Pickpocket] [Body Enhancement] [Seduction] [Strong Libido] [Contortion] [Wind Control]

[Body Modification: [Fangs] [Cursed Eyes] [Aquatic Lungs] [Metal Bones] [Mark of a Berserker] [Boiling Bloodline of the Phoenix] [Iron Skin] [Cursed Wings (Partial)] [Blessed Wings (Partial)] [Cursed and Blessed Tattoos]

[Mastered Weapons: [Scythe (Partial)]

[Soul Equipment: [Fire of Deaths Sword: Raiu] [Fire of Deaths Armour: Araes Dress]

[Equipment: [Queens Crown] [Green Ring of Twilight]

[Titles: [Blessed by the ********* Spirit of *************] [Savage Assassin] [Heartless] [Blessed by a Star] [Chief of the Fire Harpies] [Blessed by the Overlord Spirit of Curses] [Blessed by the Phoenix Mountain Guardian] [Blessed by the Overlord Spirit of Blessings] [Incomplete Monster (Humanoid and Intelligent Monsters Killed (43/50)]

…

Shit, I'm lower than I thought.

Racking my brain I tried to think of a way to beat her. I scrolled through my status multiple times occasionally checking on the queen who was wary of me because I pushed back one of her greatest attacks.

Seeing her place her hands on the ground again, the mountain gradually turned to gold, but…

"Oh, maybe I can use this," I said getting excited.

A normal person would be panicking... but am I not normal.

Diving towards the ground I land on the golden mountain which surprises the queen since she never thought I would do something so stupid.

"You want me to end you quickly? As you wish… my queen," The queen says mocking me.

My expression started as a smile when I landed on the ground but now it turned into a sadistic grin like when I'm massacring or about to massacre somebody or something.

The queen ignored my sadistic grin and used [Gold Manipulation] to make a large coffin around me made of gold. The coffin devours me as the queen smiles and then creates golden spikes from inside the coffin stabbing me from all directions… well that's what she thought.

"[Forbidden Magic: Medusa],"

The coffin turns to stone and then crumbles around me, while my eyes glowed with a yellow and black mist. The cheeky grin on the queen's face turned to horror as she saw the coffin crumble and then the ground below my feet turned into a gray stone.

The gray stone soon started to crack as it tried to devour the gold on the mountain. Seeing this, the queen quickly placed her hands back on the ground and tried to fight the gray cracking ground.

Both forbidden magic clashed against each other causing the mountain to shake vigorously but I and the queen were firmly planted on the ground.

My forbidden magic caused small fissures to form inside the mountain making it seem like the mountain could crumble at any moment.

The earthquake that we caused was so strong that it even shook the battlefield that took place quite far away.

The queen looked back up to see me standing still with a sadistic grin that glared at her, sending shivers down her spine.

"Why didn't I think of this earlier. I should've known from the moment I could turn things to stone. It doesn't limit at just one item, nor does it have a radius," I laugh.

Placing my hand on the ground I crumble the earth around it, creating a long scythe that was sharper than the one Aiko made. Swinging the scythe I combined it with [Amaterasu] making a curved blade, made of black flames that flew towards the queen.

"Shall we go for... round 2?" I ask, tilting my head.