Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Svetlana got off the ground and took off into the air to meet Emily but as she did, she warped time to incredibly boost her speed to the point where there was no way Emily could follow or predict her actions.

But Emily did not have to predict Svetlana's movements because her surroundings were already thickly influenced by her control over reality so the moment Svetlana got close to her, the reality warp canceled out the time-warp and Svetlana's speed became normal so Emily could better follow it and retaliate or defend herself.

This was not the first time this will all happen as Svetlana had a habit of doing this ever since their battle began and they had both established to each other early on that they would only be canceling each other's Ordinance use on each other.

Svetlana could never warp Emily's time but she could manipulate the time around the attacks that were chucked at her by Emily and the same was true for Emily with her reality warps.

However, there was a difference in the expertise of the two ladies... Svetlana gained power after a sheltered life... She gained power out of necessity and while she handled that power impressively, it did not change the fact that she had never been trained as a warrior, unlike Emily.

Svetlana's skill sets relied heavily on ranged attacks and she had surpassed Emily in that aspect especially since, upon gaining power, that was what she focused on training herself in but in melee and close combat, especially when weapons come into the mix, Emily would always be better.

In the time of their youth, while Svetlana was treasured like a princess who spent her time on intellectual learning of Runes and their applications, Emily was treated as a princess of war. Engaging in batters for her sect, the Sensual Palace, as well as the occasional expeditions headed by her family for the Haron Continent against Dystopia.

Svetlana's mistake was allowing Emily to get close to her and then engage in melee with the Antonov woman. She was already determined not to make that mistake again.

When she got close to Emily and her time-warp was canceled out, Svetlana smirked at Emily's preparation to attack before she began moving her hands at a speed that was impossible to follow.

With every hand she thrust, Svetlana projected a rune and in a second, right before Emily's hammer could make contact with her as it had done before, the Blue-eyed Witch projected a thousand runes all of which came together to form rune Circles and then came together to form a construct.

The construct was in the form of an armored woman and that construct intercepted Emily's weapon.

*Clang!*

After the interception, the construct pushed Emily back and then blast her with an attack composed of tiny runes. Emily's instincts told her not to let any of the tiny runes touch her and when she began to destroy them with speedy movements of her hammer and they shattered into minor explosions that kept pushing her back, Emily understood why.

Anyone with knowledge of runes would know that what Svetlana had done went beyond simply creating a construct of runes; She gave each one of those runes substance and they came together to create a construct of substance that did not require control from her.

The construct could not reason or make decisions like a divine Array. It could only push on to fulfill the order that had been given to it but it would combat Emily as any actual human expert would.

It had taken all of Svetlana's capabilities as a Runemaster to do this. She had reached a level in Runemastering that allowed her to store Astral energy in her body but this was the most she was capable of and it had actually been assisted by her using her time-warp to give her time to harness and really pile together as much as she could but it was worth it.

For the past twenty or so years that she had had her Artifact, Svetlana had been warping time to give herself enough of it to overcome stages faster than normal.

Every one of her advancements had been done the normal way and with the normal duration required with the best cultivation technique but she had just used her Artifact to compress all that time to only a few moments of actual normal people's time.

At the moment, the Blue-eyed Witch was at the Eight stars of the Cosmic Saint Realm with her Astral sense at Rank Eight and she had also genuinely achieved Insight level comprehension into the Ordinance of Time which improved her ability to use the Chrono-spheres.

The Duchess might have been reaching the limit of what she could speedily achieve in the Nexus world but she was already decked with power.

Her Astral construct was acting independently of her without drawing energy from her. The construct would continue to naturally replenish its Astral energy unless it was genuinely destroyed.

Svetlana's plan was obviously to use the Astral Construct as reinforcement and together they would double-team Emily and defeat her but the Duchess had underestimated Emily just a tad.

Emily was not a Runemaster but she did not need one to know destroying the construct was the goal and to know that there was surely a particular point where the controlling rune of the construct was.

Emily released a blast of Cosmic energy and cleared a path through the tiny rune attacks and when she reached the construct she bashed its head in with her Hammer but that did not stop the construct from forming rune blades with both its hands and trying to stab her with them.

When she leaped away, the construct regrew its head and charged at her with more Rune attacks. Emily used a defensive spell to block the Rune attacks and that was when Svetlana took advantage by delivering a kick to the back of Emily's head.

"Ack" Emily groaned as she was launched forward closer to the construct and before she could even register the pain of the hit, Svetlana smacked her with a cosmic energy construct that she passed through her Orb-housed Chrono-spheres to boost its speed and then she backed the attack again with her Ordinance all to give Emily no chance of reaction at all.

She succeeded and Emily was sent falling towards the construct who had blunt weapons prepared to knock her out but the Antonov woman was ready.

It happened in the space of a micro-second... Reality warped... The construct struck nothing but air with its weapons and Emily took hold of it with cosmic energy and let loose an attack that absolutely rocked its entire insides.

She had figured out what the controlling rune was and realized it was always changing positions so she decided to just destroy every bit of the construct. Her attack targeted every single one of the thousand runes that made up the construct to cause them all to implode in a magnificent explosion.

*BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!*

The shockwaves of the explosion sent Emily away despite her instinctive reaction to protect herself with Cosmic energy and the same could be said for Svetlana.

The Empress watched it all transpire with a sigh.

She was now seated in a plush chair between Rita( who was also seated and lounging in her human form), and Melinda. All three women were holding goblets filled with a cultivational brew from Melinda's vat.

The Empress, Harlyn Haron, had hated being smacked into by Svetlana but she of course let go of any upset feeling she had at the realization that she had no interest in doing battle anymore.

She helped Rita up and they went over to where Melinda was seated to request a drink.

The three women had been silently watching the fight with Rita taking the time to heal and when the construct was destroyed by Emily and the Empress let out a sigh, the black-eyed beauty decided to break the silence,

"You know I was honestly just itching for a fight. I seem to have a habit of challenging those stronger than me" Rita said before taking a big gulp of the drink. It was helping to replenish lost energy.

"Apology accepted," Harlyn said with a smile and a sip,

"I wasn't apologizing. Just making conversation. I stand by everything I said" Rita told the Empress in a somber voice.

"You're really going to double down on your ridiculous words?" the Empress asked with a mocking tone.

Rita shook her head,

"But they are not ridiculous though. Lust demons, such as myself, are attuned to sense emotions although whatever they sense is always interpreted in a sexual context which is valid in your case but is not really the point I'm trying to make.

You are conflicted. You are right in saying the fate of those Haron forces is sealed but your saying so gave me insight into your emotions.

You are conflicted because you have been touched by Hal. For other ladies, it happens in a sexual context. A flirt or a trail on the arm or even a kiss but that is not your way. That is not what you indulge in.

Hal seduced you and he did it with what you value the most... Information. You want more of it... You crave more of his touch on your mind and it's affecting how you view your family's collective goal." Rita took another gulp of drink before she looked to the side at Harlyn with a smile,

"The path forward is simple. Accept the feelings you feel. Cultivate the cravings and ditch your family for the only side that counts; Hal's side... The side of the Sapphirine Cult. Nothing can ever be more satisfying" she said.

Before the Empress could say anything in return, there was a loud *boom* sound that announced that Emily and Svetlana might not be done with their battle.