Chapter 2469: Too difficult, even for Eclipse

"You know, Avernus, I’ve always wanted to ask you a question," said Eclipse as she ignored the fact that Death was unleashing his power. A black mist spread out from his body, pushing away the influence of the Dream realm and even the universe, establishing his Caelum. Of course, the mist did not spread too far before it was cut down by Eclipse’s relentless assault.

"What the hell is up with your obsession with death anyway? Did you enter a goth phase in your childhood and just never leave it? Or do you just like acting so edgy?"

Eclipse cut down Death’s spreading Caelum as if it was nothing, infuriating him. Death, disregarding the consequences, removed all seals on his power, finally managing to push Eclipse back a little - while also managing to keep one of his realms from being destroyed in the clash.

Considering the Dream realm was Eclipse’s Seat of Power, that was already impressive enough.

"Watch your words woman," said Death, his voice far deeper and filled with his increasing wrath. But no matter how deeply he spoke, or how intimidating he tried to be, it made no difference to Eclipse at all.

"I mean, death itself is a concept that first depends on life to even matter. Without life, death can’t even exist. So like, what, are you trying to court Life? Was that the plan?" Eclipse asked.

Death was enraged and attacked again only to discover that Eclipse was no longer even clashing with him, but instead infecting him and his worlds with tainted karma. He clicked his tongue and began killing the karma itself as he glared at Eclipse.

"Of course, jokes aside, I know why you’re so obsessed with death. Maybe I know about it even better than you. Would you like to see?"

Before Death could answer, Eclipse pulled out the tip of her Enigma pillar and pulled out a black slip. The scene around them changed. In fact, Eclipse and Death too disappeared, leaving behind only a scene of a child lying at the feet of a female corpse.

The scene showed nothing else before Death exploded in anger, unleashing an air of corruption and death, eating away at the scene.

With blood red eyes Death stared at Eclipse. If she were any other Dao Lord, that look alone would have been enough to kill her.

Eclipse only smirked in response, as if she was pleased by his reaction.

"There’s no need to glare. I warned you. I told you - stay out of my way, and it’ll be better for you. But you were too full of yourself to listen. No amount of angry glaring, scythe slashing or screaming will change that. Live - live in regret knowing that after living for so long, you finally made a mistake you cannot recover from."

A throne appeared behind Eclipse, just as a gravestone appeared behind Death, their clash escalating to the next level.

Atop the Dream Arena, Destiny screamed again and again, the pressure on her body ever increasing beyond anything that any of those observing could understand. With every attack, every move, every display of power conducted between Eclipse and Death, the strain on the universe escalated, and thus the strain on Destiny escalated.

The absurd thing - the thing that would have shocked Destiny if she could clear her mind from the pressure it was under - was that the strain from Death was akin to a dozen Mature realms or so, but the strain from Eclipse was nearing a hundred. How could she be ten times stronger than Death?

The answer was that she couldn’t. So the question remained... what was it about her that caused such an immense strain?

Across the universe, the remaining 6 Archons watched the clash, and watched Destiny scream, but none of them intervened. Each of them watched with different thoughts running through their minds, but only Chaos knew that Eclipse was still baiting them.

He had glimpsed a hint of her plan, and knew that this was far from the extent of her power. She was merely portraying herself as having an opening, testing the resolve and positions of the Archon to see whether they would mess with her.

He could not speak for the others, but his personal plans lay not here, but in the next Age - nay, the next Era.

Divine didn’t even open his eyes. He simply remained in his sarcophagus, playing dead. There were too many people who wanted him dead for him to mess around in something like this.

Fate simply watched from within the Void, staying far away. She had no interest in getting involved in anything and compromising what she had been doing, so she merely watched.

Oblivion, naturally, would not interfere. Back at the tea party he had already confirmed that Eclipse was not against him, which automatically meant he was not against her. Besides, with Death finally occupied, he could complete his plans involving the Origin realm without attracting any attention.

Spirit was gravely wounded, but ironically, he was the one watching with the greatest intensity. If Eclipse wounded Death sufficiently, Spirit would not give up the chance. If he could get his hands on a wounded Archon, then it would do wonders for Spirits recovery.

That left only Life. Although she did not know the details of Eclipse’s plan, they had been aligned together for a very long time already, so there was no chance of a confrontation.

That meant that as the hours passed by, no one interrupted Eclipse and Death. Yet not only did Death not gain any advantage, he discovered that Eclipse had studied him thoroughly.

She was familiar with his every move and intention, and she already had a counter for it. He could do nothing to her.

What infuriated him most of all was that he could do nothing to her realm either. By showing him a glimpse of his own past, Eclipse had managed to steal some of Death’s karma, weakening him when he faced her.

The fight could have gone on much longer, but the universe would not allow it. Finally, the strain which Destiny had been shouldering alone suddenly fell upon Death as well, suppressing his ability and nearly causing him to collapse.

Without a word or exchange of any kind, Death disappeared. He could not face Eclipse in a weakened state - that would be akin to death, and not the kind he could recover from.

Eclipse only smirked before teleporting back to the Arena, finding that everything was going as predicted - meaning that Harriot had activated his ultimate illusion so that Nulli hadn’t been able to sense the fight at all.

If Nulli knew that Eclipse was fighting Death, she would have immediately turned pink, and what would have followed would have been too difficult to control even for Eclipse.