PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

647 Chapter 647 Just A Spectator

Katya, Archangel of Balance, a being that Desmond both appreciated and feared. Although Desmond had learned about the inability of the Celestials to commit evil, this still did not allow him to lower his guard against this woman. The reason was very simple, being a completely different life form from human beings, Desmond’s views on good and evil couldn’t be the same as Katya’s. Therefore it was difficult to predict if the archangel of balance was dangerous or not.

On the other hand, Desmond knew that Katya could be incredibly cunning in her way of doing things, so he didn’t believe for a second that Katya was here by accident or coincidence; her calling Lilith by name only confirmed Desmond’s suspicions.

Unlike Desmond, who knew Katya, Lilith took the archangel’s interruption much less kindly, especially since she could sense some kind of unknown force interfering with her blood spell casting. Though it was beneath her to flash her a smirk, Lilith’s contempt was still evident in her voice when she questioned Katya’s intentions. “My, my, look what we have here; a Celestial is coming to save the day, the best joke I’ve ever heard.”

Indifferent to Lilith’s scorn, Katya emitted a powerful pulse of energy that further disturbed the magic circle in the sky. “I can’t let you destroy this world; you must stop Lilith.”

This time, anger reached Lilith’s beautiful face. “I don’t take orders from anyone.”

A second later, Lilith appeared right next to Katya, brandishing a saber made of blood. Despite Lilith’s sudden movement, Katya remained calm, calmly blocking Lilith’s saber with her arm covered in silver armor as if she had seen that blow coming from miles away.

The shock wave destroyed the entire corresponding side of the city and everything as far as the eye could see, showing what happened when two beings on the level of Katya and Lilith collided. They completely escaped any notion of power that Desmond previously had; they were just apocalyptic forces. The only reason Desmond wasn’t dead right now was that he was currently being protected by two different energy fields, one gold, and one red.

Muttering under her breath, Lilith finished chanting a spell, enclosing Katya in a sphere made of magic circles, which soon shot a million halberds of blood in the archangel’s direction.

Rather than panic at seeing her escape routes sealed off from her, Katya kept her stoic countenance, materializing a crystal spear in her right hand. With a single casual sweep, the space collapsed like a broken mirror, tearing apart Lilith’s blood halberds and magic circles.

.....

Annoyed, Lilith gathered her arcana and cast one of her most powerful spells. A red moon made of blood runes in Lilith’s hands gave off a malevolent light that gave off a feeling of death and desolation. Being struck by the light of the cursed blood moon, the glow on Katya’s armor dimmed, but the archangel didn’t flinch.

Scorching sunlight shot out of Katya’s eyes, dispelling Lilith’s blood moon in a blink, which left even Lilith dumbstruck. Katya’s white wings, filled with fine silver patterns, flashed, teleporting the archangel right next to Lilith.

Alarmed, Lilith summoned a sea of blood that covered the sky, trying to use it to pressure Katya away from her. Still, the archangel was not in the least intimidated. Silver flames covered Lilith’s spear, and with a single thrust, the sky above the world was split in two.

A line of silver fire and fissures in space split the world in two, leaving Lilith with cold sweat pouring down her forehead as she realized that that attack would have been enough to severely injure or even kill her had it not been for Katya who had deflected it at the last second.

With her pride wounded, Lilith blew whatever restraints she had left. Lilith could have been more patient or calculating had she had another opponent. Still, she just couldn’t tolerate a Celestial coming to lecture her after everything that had happened to her.

Lilith knew what a Celestial was, she knew of their role as forces of good and light in the universe, and it was precisely for this reason that Lilith despite them. Where were the celestials when her world was drowned in blood after millennia of war? Where were they when she was betrayed and imprisoned by an Oscuras, the eternal enemy of the Celestials? Where were they when her world fell to the depravity and corruption of the Oscuras?

The answer was simple, the Celestials were nowhere to be seen. Now that Lilith was free and set to deal with her world, as part of her duty and responsibility as the last empress of this place on the brink of destruction, now a Celestial had the nerve to get involved in the affairs of Lilith.

Enraged, Lilith released all of her power, creating a huge magical formation from which chains sprang out, something Desmond recognized. It turned out that Lilith had studied the blood curse used to imprison her, likely adapting it for her own purposes since the original had been explicitly designed to suppress her lineage and her arcana.

“Celestial or not, you still have blood running through your veins. I don’t care if it is silver or white; now it is under my control.” Thousands of chains lashed out at Katya like intelligent serpents studded with red runes that sought to completely suppress the Celestial.

Showing what could only be attributed to the gift of precognition, Katya moved as if she saw each attack coming, using the minimum possible movement, disappearing and reappearing between flashes of silver. However, Katya’s countenance seemed more serious than ever before; one could imagine that it was because the archangel tried to destroy the chains with her crystal spear but failed miserably.

“You’ll need more than physical power or the law of space to destroy my chains.” Lilith exclaimed proudly.

“Then, I’ll try something else.” Katya replied calmly, almost seeming grateful to Lilith for giving her a hint that helped save her time. Out of nowhere, Katya stopped moving, covering her body with her three pairs of wings, letting Lilith’s chains bind her and cover her completely.

Despite having trapped Katya, Lilith didn’t seem happy. It was clear that Katya had let herself be trapped on purpose, and Lilith didn’t like where this was going. As if to test Lilith’s suspicions, blindingly bright silver fire began to seep from between the chains. Within the cocoon of chains, the silver patterns on Lilith’s wings burned brightly, emitting silver flames that threatened to purify and incinerate even space itself.

With a single push, Katya spread her wings open, creating a wave of holy cleansing fire that annihilated Lilith’s ultimate move. Now free, the archangel was looking unkindly at the blood mage. On the other hand, Lilith seemed fearful of Katya’s silver fire. Something in the holy essence of that fire made Lilith’s blood tremble unpleasantly.

“I was planning to be nice given your circumstances, but you refuse to obey and listen.” With one sentence, the whole atmosphere around Katya changed. Although she doesn’t give off an even more powerful vibe, she now looks more dangerous. Katya was like a lion who got tired of playing and now went hunting seriously.

Genuinely fearing for her safety, believing that because of her resemblance to an Oscuras, Katya might murder her outright, Lilith made a move, unaware that Katya and Desmond knew each other.

With a quick movement, Lilith casts a blood spell that she designed a long time ago but that she had never used before due to how peculiar it was. Out of nowhere, Desmond, who had been helplessly watching the entire battle in front of him, felt a tremor coming from the depths of his being, suddenly feeling homesick for him.

Using Desmond’s nostalgia and tracing his blood to its source, Lilith’s spell took effect, teleporting Desmond beyond the barriers between planes and worlds all the way back to his home planet.

Stunned, Desmond appeared back on earth, explicitly in his backyard. To say that things were abrupt and anti-climactic was an understatement. Still, Desmond could only console himself with the thought that he had freed Lilith and that knowing Katya, Lilith would be fine… well, at least she would live to tell the tale.

Lilith had been too impatient in attacking Katya; Desmond couldn’t pretend that Lilith’s actions were justified. On the other hand, Katya resisted rather passively from the start, something Lilith would have noticed if she hadn’t been so angry.

From start to finish, Katya did nothing but defend, dodge, or counter Lilith’s attacks, so it was obvious that whatever her intentions, she wasn’t looking to fight. Unfortunately, Lilith had taken things too far, angering the normally stoic archangel, and now she was going to deal with the consequences.

“Still, I feel pretty pathetic for just being a bystander in the whole thing.” Desmond commented, realizing that his presence was totally ignored throughout the entire fight.