BAAAAAAAAAAANG!

Planets in the distance cracked and broke apart from the shockwaves of their clashes.

A gas giant in the far distance had its rings shattered when a stray blast from Horae’s scepter clipped it.

At this point in the fight, Aestrea was clearly gaining the upper hand.

His karma authority kept reversing any damage Horae managed to land.

His swords found their mark again and again, cutting deep gashes across her body, severing tentacles of time energy she tried to summon, slicing through her defenses.

Golden blood sprayed across the void in glittering arcs.

And Horae’s elegant gown was already torn to shreds, her body covered in cuts and bruises. Yet she kept laughing, her eyes widened with complete excitement.

She truly resembled Zeva when Aestrea had first met her.

"Yes! YES! This is it! This is what I’ve been waiting for!" she shouted, her voice echoing through space.

"Fight me! Break me! Show me everything you have!"

She swung her scepter with insane speed, creating dozens of time-delayed afterimages that attacked Aestrea from every angle.

Swoosh!

He cut through the afterimages one by one, his swords flashing so fast they left trails of black light.

He closed the distance and drove the Heaven Swallowing Sword straight through her stomach.

SPLURT!

Golden blood exploded outward into the vacuum.

"Kyaanghh...!!!" Horae gasped, but her smile only grew wider.

She grabbed the blade with both hands and pulled herself closer, eyes manic.

"More... give me more..." she whispered hoarsely.

Aestrea twisted the sword and kicked her away.

She flew backward, crashing into a small planetoid. The celestial body cracked and broke apart from the impact, chunks of rock floating away into space.

She quickly recovered and spun her scepter again.

ZOOOOOOOOOOM!

Aestrea dodged the golden beam by a hair, the heat of it singing past his cheek.

In the same motion, he countered with a powerful horizontal slash.

Swoosh!

A wave of black ice and raw chaos energy erupted from the Midnight Sword, hurtling toward Horae like a frozen tsunami.

The wave sliced straight through a passing comet, freezing half of its rocky body solid in an instant.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the frozen section before it exploded violently, sending millions of ice shards and debris flying in every direction.

The explosion lit up the void like a miniature supernova.

Horae laughed wildly and spun her scepter, creating a swirling vortex of distorted time that tried to swallow the incoming wave.

The two forces collided with a deafening sound wave that rippled across nearby star systems.

He appeared right in front of Horae and unleashed a brutal combination.

Left slash with the Midnight Sword, cutting a deep gash across her collarbone, golden blood spraying out in a wide arc.

Right thrust with the Heaven Swallowing Sword, piercing straight through her stomach and out her back.

Spluurt!

The blade devoured the flesh around the wound, causing chunks of her divine body to crumble into black dust.

Horae screamed in pain and ecstasy, but she grabbed the Heaven Swallowing Sword with both hands and yanked it deeper into herself, pulling Aestrea closer.

"Yes! More! Hurt me more!" she shrieked wildly.

Aestrea twisted the blade viciously, then kicked her square in the chest.

CRUNCH!

Horae was launched backward like a cannonball.

She smashed through three small moons in a row, each one exploding into glittering debris as her body tore through them.

Golden blood and chunks of her flesh trailed behind her like a comet’s tail.

Aestrea chased her relentlessly through the destruction.

’Tsk... this woman is truly tenacious! It’s getting annoying at this point!’

He stored both swords with a flick of his wrists, causing them to dissolve into black mist.

’I’ll just beat the shit out of her until she finally gives up.’

He caught up to her as she tried to stabilize herself in open space. His fist slammed into her face with the force of a collapsing star.

BOOOOM!

Horae’s head snapped back.

Her nose shattered, golden blood exploding outward in a misty spray. Before she could recover, Aestrea grabbed her by the throat and drove his knee into her ribs repeatedly.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Each impact sent shockwaves through space.

A nearby planetoid cracked in half from the force. Horae coughed up golden blood, but she was still smiling, that same annoying, manic, ecstatic grin.

Aestrea growled and hurled her downward toward the surface of a large, barren moon.

She crashed into it like a meteor, carving a massive crater on impact. Dust and rock exploded upward in a giant plume.

He descended like a falling god, landing hard on her chest, pinning her to the moon’s surface. The ground beneath them cracked and buckled under the pressure.

Then he started punching.

His fist came down like a hammer.

THUD!

Her cheekbone shattered.

THUD!

Her jaw cracked.

THUD!

Her eye socket caved in, golden blood spraying across the gray lunar dust.

He didn’t stop.

Punch after punch rained down on her face, each one heavier than the last.

The moon trembled violently with every impact.

Cracks started spreading across its entire surface, with chunks of the moon sliding off and floating away into space.

Horae’s face was a mess, with broken bones, golden blood covering her features, and one eye swollen shut.

But every time he pulled his fist back, her wounds began to regenerate.

The bones snapped back into place, and her flesh knitted together. And through the gore and blood, that same annoying, ecstatic smile remained on her lips. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

THUD! THUD! THUD!

"You just... won’t... stay... down!" Aestrea growled between punches, his knuckles dripping with her blood.

Horae laughed wetly, blood bubbling from her mouth.

"Hah... hahaha...! Yes! This is it! This is what I’ve been craving! Hit me harder, God of Karma! Break me! Destroy me!"

Her voice was hoarse and broken, but the excitement in it never faded.

Even as her skull cracked under his fists, even as her face was being pummeled into a bloody pulp, she kept smiling.

Aestrea grabbed her by the throat, lifting her slightly off the crumbling moon surface, and drove his fist straight into her stomach.

CRUNCH!

Her body folded around the punch like wet paper.

More golden blood sprayed from her mouth in a thick, glittering arc, splattering across Aestrea’s face and chest.

The viscous fluid burned slightly where it touched his skin, but he ignored it.

The moon beneath them finally gave out completely.

Massive fractures spiderwebbed across its entire surface with loud, groaning cracks.

Huge chunks of rock and ice broke away, floating off into the void as the celestial body began disintegrating around them.

Aestrea didn’t wait for it to fully collapse.

He grabbed Horae by the hair with one hand and hurled her with all his strength toward another nearby moon.

She flew like a comet, trailing golden blood and broken flesh behind her. She slammed into the moon’s surface with catastrophic force.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The impact created a crater the size of a small country.

Dust and rock exploded upward in a massive plume that expanded into space like a nuclear cloud.

The moon’s surface cracked and splintered from the epicenter, deep fissures spreading outward like lightning bolts.

Golden blood pooled in the bottom of the crater, steaming in the vacuum.

Aestrea descended slowly, black chaos energy trailing behind him.

He landed at the edge of the crater, his red slit eyes glowing coldly as he looked down at her broken form.

Horae lay in the center of the destruction, her body twisted at unnatural angles. Her elegant gown was shredded, barely clinging to her blood-soaked skin.

One of her arms was bent backward, bones protruding through golden flesh. Her chest rose and fell unevenly, ribs visibly cracked.

Yet that damn ecstatic smile was still plastered on her bloody face.

Aestrea walked down into the crater, his boots crunching on the shattered lunar rock. He stopped right above her and raised his foot.

Then he stepped directly onto her massive breasts, pressing down hard.

SQUELCH.

The soft, heavy flesh compressed under his boot.

Golden blood oozed out from between them as her ribs creaked audibly. Horae let out a choked, ecstatic moan, her body arching slightly despite the pain.

"...Give up," Aestrea said in a bored tone, grinding his heel down a little harder.

"This is getting boring for me already."

Horae looked up at him through the blood and dust coating her face. Even with a broken nose and split lip, she managed to wink at him playfully.

"We still don’t have a winner~" she rasped, voice hoarse but dripping with excitement.

"So you need to continue beating me until I’m satisfied that you’re stronger than me~"

She laughed wildly.

Aestrea’s eyes furrowed in clear annoyance.

"You damn masochistic bitch of a Goddess..."

He reached down, grabbed her by the throat with one hand, and lifted her up effortlessly. Her feet dangled above the cracked lunar surface.

Her face reddened in pure excitement, her eyes glazing over him with actual lust.

Her hands reached out eagerly, touching his face and chest, her fingers tracing his blood-stained skin like she couldn’t get enough.

Aestrea rolled his eyes at her actions.

"...You’re so fucking lucky that I can’t kill you yet."