Chapter 200: Overwhelming Power

Clarissa’s eyes widened, her voice trembling as she looked at Celestia’s pale face. "Then... how can you say that so easily?" she said, her tone wavering between fear and frustration. "You’re poisoned, and you still tell me not to worry?"Celestia gave a faint smile, though her complexion was still ghostly. "Because worrying won’t heal me any faster," she replied softly. "And I’d rather see you safe than see you worried."

Clarissa bit her lip, her eyes glistening. "You idiot... how can I not worry about you?" she whispered, gripping Celestia’s hand tighter.

Celestia winced again as Clarissa instinctively squeezed her hand, the pain flaring through her bandaged arm. Clarissa immediately let go, eyes wide. "I’m sorry!" she blurted out.

Celestia forced a small smile, shaking her head. "It’s alright... don’t worry."

Beatrix adjusted her glasses with a sigh. "If they had managed to bring me the centipede’s corpse, I might’ve been able to create an antidote. But that’s no longer possible, the creature’s body has already fused into that chimera."

Clarissa’s expression fell, but Celestia spoke gently before the mood could sink further. "It’s fine. Don’t rush on my account," she said, her voice calm but resolute. "I know they’ll win out there. Let’s believe in them."
ic light. Metal scrap and splintered rebar answered, orbiting him like a second skin. He hurled them in a buzzing hurricane, steel rods, shards, twisted rebar, aiming to shred the wing-swarm that protected Leo and to pelt the god himself.

The metallic storm struck true, tearing through insect-proxies and battering Leo’s flank. He staggered, the chink they needed opening like a hinge.

Julian slammed his foot down and bent gravity into a knife. The field twisted, tugging on the ice shards and the metal in Rafa’s storm, bending trajectories, pulling the smaller pieces to collide with the larger ones in a cascade. The pressure pinched at Leo’s stance for a second the god’s grin thinned into concentration.

Leo roared and answered with a charge, horns lowered, blue scales flashing. The impact of his body hitting Julian’s gravity field was a physical thing, the air exploded outward, pressure waves slamming into Joe where he lay. Julian’s shadow-shield tore at the edges as the god’s momentum drove a gouge through the makeshift defenses.

Joe coughed blood and cracked a grin through the pain, half-insane defiance. His arm spasmed, regenerating already, but slow and stuttering. He pushed himself up one jaw-clench at a time and spat ash. "You hit like a child," he gasped, voice ragged. "You’ll pay."