Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

"I get it now… I was inside that thing earlier," Rain thought. "Anyway, this motherfucker is supposed to control space… why is he able to use gravity?"

"That is right… I had decided to test the defenses of this body for the first time and made some adjustments thanks to your help."

"Stop reading my mind, you're psycho," Rain said. "You're just a pile of circuits and scrap metal, hardly worth the effort of swatting away. You're about as intimidating as a malfunctioning toaster. I've seen more advanced AI in a children's toy. Are you sure you're not a knockoff? Is that the best you can do?

I've faced malfunctioning vacuum cleaners scarier than you."

It seemed that the machine god understood those insults… in the next moment, its eyes began to flow, and the atmosphere began to shake. This time, the gravity of the entire planet began to increase.

As the air thickened and grew heavy with the ominous weight of increased gravity, the planet itself seemed to shudder in protest. A low, ominous rumble reverberated through the ground, signaling the impending chaos about to unfold. With each passing moment, the pressure intensified as if the very atmosphere itself was bearing down on the earth below.

Suddenly, with a deafening roar, the ground beneath began to convulse, sending shockwaves rippling across the landscape. The earth groaned and shifted, unable to bear the burden of the heightened gravitational force. Massive fissures tore through the ground, splitting the once-solid surface into jagged chasms that seemed to reach down into the very core of the planet.

From these gaping wounds in the earth, plumes of smoke and molten lava erupted forth, painting the sky with fiery hues of orange and red. The ground shook violently as volcanic eruptions rent the air, sending ash and debris high into the atmosphere. Rivers of molten rock flowed like fiery veins across the scarred landscape, consuming everything in their path with relentless fury.

"... Are you trying to make the planet explode in front of your face, retard?" Rain thought while his body was sinking deeper into the ground.

Little by little, Rain's bones began to crack… he healed them as fast as he could, but eventually, that wouldn't be enough. Even if he tried to fly, the pressure would eventually crush his body… he should have learned gravity resistance or something.

Learning that on the fly was impossible, but Rain expanded his domain to fight back the attack launched by the enemy… it didn't take long for him to notice some differences. The mana inside his domain began to get compressed, but at least it fought against the gravity.

"Hahaha, what now? Asshole?" Rain asked. "Bring it on. I can do this all day."

The aura of the machine god began to change once more, and then Rain saw the enemy suddenly moving its head to the side… that was a weird movement, but then eventually, Rain saw another massive shadow approaching from the side and heading toward the planet… It was the machine god's palm.

"You and your big mouth," Elisabetha said. "I shouldn't have expected anything less from you. I guess I am also dumb for expecting something else in this kind of situation."

As insane as that looked, Rain still assumed his fighting stance and then prepared to attack the massive palm… even though the palm probably could cover half of the planet.

When the palm of the machine god landed… the entire planet shook. A massive cataclysm took place as the fissures on the planet spread around endlessly… the earth sank, and then a mark of the giant palm was left in the world…

In the next moment, a weird sound began to echo around as the machine god raised his hand. It was an eerie sound that was hard to describe, but it felt like the planet itself was shaking in agony and screaming as well…

"We never had the chance to do this directly. The planets always died instantly with our attacks… so this is how a planet cries."

The machine god soon tried to look for Rain since he didn't feel his life force vanishing… still, the readings of his presence vanished somehow. The machine god checked the hand for any signs of blood, but he didn't find anything, but he found a large hole in the palm of his hand…

"I felt a vibration… did he truly try to stop my attack?"

The machine god assumed that it had been faint… he began to repair the hole that was several kilometers wide while looking for Rain. For a moment, he thought that he would have entered his body, but that seemed unlikely. The interior was filled with corrupt energy to make the massive body easy to control. Even Rain wouldn't last inside…

"Where are you? There is no point in hiding…"

The machine god couldn't help but get a bit annoyed… it seemed that while powerful and durable, that body had a set of problems. It was supposed to be easy to find someone of Rain's level; he couldn't leave the planet yet, after all.

The machine god considered leaving that body for a moment to look for Rain, but reallocating himself inside the body was quite annoying and consumed a lot of energy to restart the whole thing and make it move smoothly… Still, eventually, Rain revealed himself. All of the cold and ice of the planet began to leave and head to the body of the machine god from all directions.

The machine god soon realized that and wondered how Rain was controlling the elements of that planet that was on the brink of death.

"Destroying it will be a bit troublesome, but he won't be able to hide anywhere…"

In the end, the machine god moved both of its arms and then eventually put them together and smashed the planets with both palms. The entire world quivered and shook once again… the scales of the battle were simply too insane.