Chương 299: Chapter 298 - Strength Meets Magic

Caroline had sensed the threat the moment she passed through the layered metal and concrete of the fortress's ceiling. With a set of abilities focused only on enhancing herself, her Domain was entirely internal. She couldn't affect the world directly with her superpowers except through pure physical force. Strength. Durability. Flight. The classic trio. Nobody back home, not even the monsters hiding among the Space Force, could challenge her when it came to raw, physical power. Not anymore, at least.

Not since the death of the First. Caroline wasn't stupid. She knew her directness came with downsides. Every power did. She just embodied the belief that personal strength could overcome all other paths to power. Strength was her Aspect. It was her purpose. More importantly, it was her right. Which meant that even with an internal Domain, the moment anyone so much as looked at her and tried to claim, even to themselves, that they were stronger than Caroline Delvane, the Matriarch of Strength, she knew about them.

She'd wanted to fly into the sky and shatter the palace overhead, tear through layers of what she assumed would be enchanted armor and floors full of fodder, all to reach the sweet center where she would find a challenge. But some things took precedence over even the desire to grow stronger. She was here for her daughter. For the wayward leader of Grimnir. And, though she'd only known her for a scant few weeks, the feisty ball of metal blades. A mother knew when something mattered to their child.

And Julia had never wanted anything more than she had in that moment when she'd asked for her mother's help. Caroline took a deep breath. The sounds of battle rang out from every direction. Julia and Annette had raced off to rescue the fool, while the others worked to secure the fortress, buying time for Mr. Greaves to open a portal that would allow a safe retreat. Now there was a man who knew how to take care of a lady. Intelligent conversation, cooked meals, and a connoisseur of cold beers the world over.

Dozens of screams rang out and died a moment later as dragon-flame tore through the ranks of the army. Even Franklin's boy was having fun. Caroline sighed. Sometimes being a parent was such a chore. She glanced around at the battle, then up into the air where Julia and her basically-betrothed were fighting a pair of would-be wizard gods. At least Rooke knew how to throw a punch. She'd been worried that with all those external powers, the boy would be a wimp. But she'd been worried for nothing.

He was more of an all-rounder. She could appreciate versatility. And he fought well with others. That was a point in his favor. Maybe it wouldn't hurt if she stepped out for a moment… Caroline shook her head. Nope. She'd promised. She turned back to the massive structure hanging in the sky. And narrowed her eyes. It was opening. A smile slowly formed on her face.

The figure that descended through the opening was small, nothing more than a dot against the enormity of the palace which continued drifting slowly overhead. Then the Empress's Will blanketed the battlefield. It pressed against everything and everyone, even from several kilometers away. A declaration of absolute authority, delivered not through words but through the sheer weight of one woman's presence imposed on reality. Caroline's arms unfolded from behind her back. The woman's reach was vast.

Greater than her own. Perhaps as far reaching as Franklin's, and that charlatan's Will was the strongest she'd seen put on full display. Which meant the Empress had to be nearing Tier 4. And if not, her Will at the very least had already hit the limit. She exhaled. Her smile transformed into a grin. Now she had a reason to play. Caroline launched. The fortress fell away beneath her as she aimed herself at the descending star and accelerated.

Her Will pushed ahead of her, but not wide, not like the Empress's blanketed pressure. She'd always preferred precision herself. Her Will was a blade. She drove it forward in a narrow line, carving through the Empress's declaration. The sound barrier broke around her in a fraction of a second. Air compressed, then shattered around her in a cone. Two seconds later, she was halfway to her target. The Empress swept out her arms. A spellbook appeared to her left, pages already turning.

A staff materialized to her right, ancient wood and gemstone catching the light. Then the palace fired. A beam of light erupted from the same opening the Empress had descended through, swallowing the woman in an instant. It was wide. Wider than the fortress below. A column of raw magical energy that rained down toward Caroline. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. And everything beneath her. Caroline inhaled. She threw a punch.

Her fist drove upward into the descending beam, and she Willed reality to bend. To recognize her strength. To see the truth within her fist. That her fist was as large as the beam itself. Strength met magic. A shockwave erupted outward from the contact, rippling through the atmosphere in a visible wave that distorted the sky in every direction. The sound that followed was beyond mere noise. It was a pressure that turned the air into a weapon of its own. Caroline laughed.

The roar swallowed her voice before it reached her own ears. She could sense them. The Wills of a thousand wizards, channeled through the palace's conduits and focused into a single beam of concentrated power. A thousand minds, united in purpose, pouring everything they had into the attack. It wasn't nearly enough. She shoved harder, rising against the tide of magic. Then the beam exploded. Magic shattered outward in every direction.

Hundreds of smaller bolts and fragments of energy tore free, streaking past her, raining down toward the battlefield below in a cascade of burning light. For the briefest moment, she considered turning back to protect Julia. And the others. She didn't. Her daughter was strong. Her friends were, too. And if they weren't capable of surviving at least this, then their Dreams of becoming demigods were already dead.

Caroline rushed through the vacuum the beam had left behind, tearing through the empty space faster than the atmosphere could return to fill it. The Empress hung in the air above. The grin on her face matched Caroline's.

"We are pleased to meet you," she said.

"I am Empress Clarissa Veshara the Third." Caroline didn't bother responding. She wasn't even certain how she could understand the woman's words. The Empress multiplied. Six copies of her appeared, spread across a wide arc around the original, each one identical. White gown. Golden armor. Wooden staff. Spellbook. Caroline didn't slow down. She targeted the original and drove her fist through its chest. Her hand passed through empty air, the image vanishing in her wake as the rest of her body followed.

Then the others attacked. Fire erupted from every direction, streaming toward Caroline in converging lines. As the first splashed against the side of her face, it was immediately obvious that it was real fire, not illusory. It stung. Her hand blurred, open palm sweeping toward the nearest target, faster than the sound it created. The displaced air hit the nearest illusion hard enough to destroy it. She spun and slapped the air again. Another copy vanished. The attacks kept coming.

Bolts of energy and streaks of fire. Caroline took them on her chest and shoulders and neck. They burned. They didn't matter. She clapped. The shockwave exploded outward in a cone, scattering the fire before it, and the remaining illusions disintegrated. One figure remained, bracing against the wave. She closed the distance, leaving another shockwave in her wake, only for the Empress to vanish. Caroline stopped instantly. The Empress had reappeared over a hundred meters away.

She was already casting her next spell, the gem atop her staff glowing bright against the sky. Caroline gave chase, still holding back. Keeping to two-thirds of her top speed, no more. She needed to see what her enemy was capable of before she revealed her full capabilities. The air in front of her twisted. Her flight path bent. Suddenly she was angling downward and to the right, her momentum carrying her in a direction she hadn't chosen.

She tried again, angling straight toward the golden-armored woman, only for her trajectory to again shift off course. Caroline punched the air in a fit of annoyance, and the distortion shattered. Even surprised, she didn't hesitate to put on another burst of speed, closing to within a few meters in an instant. The Empress's expression remained calm. Her arm had come up, palm out. A portal opened between them. Caroline's fist drove through it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the portal's exit appear.

At the same time, her own fist connected with the side of her own face. Her head snapped sideways, and she went tumbling through the air. For a few dumbfounded heartbeats, she let it happen. Caroline Delvane, the Matriarch of Strength, had just punched herself in the face. With her own strength. Through a hole in space, placed with the precision of a surgeon and the timing of a trickster. She might have just found someone worse than Franklin. Caroline snapped back into focus.

She broke the sound barrier in an instant, driving straight at the Empress. The Empress cast another spell without incantation, or gesture, or even moving her staff. Threads of force materialized around Caroline. Thousands of them, spiraling outward from the Empress in a web that latched onto her arms, her legs, her torso. Each one pulled, dragging against her momentum, slowing her. The Empress used the half-second the web had bought to cast another spell.

She uttered three guttural syllables, sweeping her staff left then right, and the air between them distorted strangely. Caroline unleashed her Flight at full power, shattering the threads, and raced toward the Empress. The air tore around her, leaving overlapping shockwaves in her wake. The clouds shifted. But her target continued drifting farther away, the distance between them growing slowly, as though space itself was stretching faster than Caroline could cross it.

The Empress tilted her staff forward and chanted another spell, sending a black beam lancing directly toward her face. Caroline twisted in the air, evading to the left. Nothing happened. She went right. And still the beam raced right toward her. At the last instant, she threw up a hand and caught the beam against her palm. It burned. The energy ate at her skin, consuming the outer layers. Her flesh bubbled where the beam pressed against her palm. Corrosive and hungry, the magic was somehow bypassing her Durability.

Caroline raised an eyebrow. Then she crushed the beam in her hands. The spell shattered. The fracture raced backward along the beam's length, breaking the magic apart in a chain reaction that reached the Empress in a fraction of a second. Her staff bucked in her hand. Her spellbook's pages fluttered wildly. The Empress's eyes widened. The first genuine surprise Caroline had seen on her face. Caroline clapped again. The shockwave tore outward. The stretched space collapsed along with it.

When the distortion cleared, the two women hung in the sky, facing each other. Caroline's palm was red and raw. The Empress's forehead was wrinkled in a frown. Caroline spoke for the first time.

"I get it now. You're warping space. How annoying." She flexed her hand. The skin was already healing.

"But your spells are fragile, huh? The magic can't withstand external force." Clarissa's eyes narrowed.

"That is not true at all. We have never met someone like you before. You clearly believe you can punch your way through everything." She tilted her head to the side, and smiled.

"We look forward to adding you to our collection." Caroline grinned.

"I think it's time we stop playing around." The Empress nodded.

"We concur." They both vanished at the same time.