Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

With control over a three-star Divine Artifact such as the Monument Of Ordinances, Hal was in the best position to manipulate Divine physiology for the benefit of himself and his forces.

Once the Array was completed, there came rays that shot and pierced through every one of the godly forces on the scene except Karmit.

Karmit was excluded because Hal felt it would do better for the Array and the control of the Array if the strongest of the bunch, a General (considerably weak compared to other gods but a General nonetheless) was excluded and did not disrupt the equilibrium.

All the Astral energy that Hal had used to create the Array had come from him but the bolstering that allowed it to pierce and impact the gods was from the Monument. A partnership of sorts.

Anyway, the gods that had been struck by rays from the Array directed their perceptions internally to view the impacts that had been made in hopes of rectifying all damage but search as they might, they saw no changes. Whatever the Array had done escaped their senses.

And then, beneath every one of the forces belonging to the Sapphirine Cult, from Isabella to Emily to Rita to Marla to Amelia to Karmen to the Blood Knights, to Makena, to the duo of Lillian and Olivia to the Emissaries and to the Commander of the Legion, Melinda Dane, rune circles appeared with every one of said rune circles powered by Infinity.

The forces first started to feel a strengthening imbuement of energy from the Monument and then they began to feel an imbuement of Divine energy that they could all tell was from an external source... From the very army of gods that had been sent to destroy them.

The Devil beasts who had been exempt from bolstering of Divine energy were told to cease their attacks as their killing intents were quenched or otherwise transformed into energy that added to their strength in a dangerously savage manner.

The Devil beasts could feel that they had become, or were on their way to becoming something more but now was not the time for their evolutions.

With the Devil beasts' constant attacks taking a break, the gods were better able to observe that those that had been attacking and had so easily killed were now bolstered with divine energy whose signatures they all felt as familiar.

Melinda who was already above ground grinned widely and then let out a yell of command that only confirmed what the forces were already planning to do,

"ATTACK!"

Obeying the orders of the long-accepted second-only-to-Hal, the forces charged and engaged in spirited warfare against the gods who found themselves not only outnumbered but also quickly overwhelmed on account of their enemies being on a fairly equal playing field to them.

Gone was the time when they could so easily slaughter the forces of the Cult.

The likes of Rita, Emily, Isabella, Makena, Karmen, Marla, and Amelia identified lieutenants or otherwise those in higher ranking as opposed to the average godly expert and it was to them they took their fight and while that was ongoing, Melinda turned her eyes to Kermit.

The Asura god general had finally quenched the disruption of his Ordinance and had healed from the damages it had done to him from the inside... General Karmit was ready to get back to fighting and believed he was better prepared to avoid getting attacked that way again.

Hal exited the Monument with his radiance as a Sovereign but his eyes were on Amador who remained the channel that kept the crack open.

Other than simply killing Amador and closing the crack, Hal had other intentions for the energy powering the Emperor and that was his focus and not Karmit who wished to go after him only to be stopped by a prompt smack by Melinda's Ankh.

*BANG!*

Already, Melinda had Divine energy within her and had incorporated it with her Bloodline but now she was sharing in genuine god energy and having a small taste of what it meant to be a god. It was a small taste but a taste nonetheless.

Karmit shook off the hit and retorted with the conjuring of green portals that gave off the visage of a hamada of vengeance and to that, Melinda slammed her palms together and created a shield stamped with her Ankh.

The Sheild pushed away a good bit of the attack but got destroyed before it could get rid of it all... The residue of the attack struck at Melinda who weaved to the side and charged at Karmit to swing her sword at him.

The godly general conjured a shield that gave off the signature of an Armament as opposed to a spell but then Karmit went on to conjure a spear that also gave off the feel of an Armament.

Melinda furrowed her brows but with her hair billowing behind her and her giving off the feel of the warrior that she was, she pushed on for the attack.

Karmit caught her sword against his sword and pushed Melinda back but as he did and with his shield-bearing arm still in motion, the white-eyed beauty somehow took advantage to get behind his defenses and stab her sword at his chest.

With dexterity and a split-second powerful reasoning ability, Karmit was already moving his spear toward for a stab but Melinda's Ankh appeared to smack the spear aside so that she could continue with her attempt at a stab.

Karmit appeared to be wide-open, his fate sealed and he let out a blast of godly might out of his chest but Melinda just smiled as her sword, coated in divine energy as well as Life-sundering properties cut through the attack continued on its way.

Finally, there was contact but it was not the sort of contact that Melinda wanted as a chest plate Armor Armament appeared to protect Karmit from getting stabbed.

The chest plate Armor Armament was not only imbued with Karmit's superior Mid-World God energy but also imbued with his Ordinance.

Karmit's Ordinance was Elemental compared to Melinda's Abstract and while Melinda had comprehended hers to the Impressive level of Ordinance Harnessing, Karmit was already an Incarnation of his Ordinance and one level away from becoming its Paragon...

That one level higher comprehension coupled with his cultivation made him the superior in the clash,

*CLANG!*

Only the sound of her sword clashing with Karmit's armor was heard and loud as it was, it was nothing compared to the blowback that Melinda felt racking through her body but she recovered quickly enough from that to be in awe at how many Armaments Karmit had access to.

Barring special circumstances such as gaining an inheritance, mortals were only allowed one cultivational Armament which got stronger the more they progressed in their cultivation but it would appear that this limitation did not apply to gods.

Anyway, Karmit wasted no time following up with a pillar of Asura rage to strike her with and Melinda avoided getting hit with a specific borrowing of Svetlana's time Ordinance to boost her speed.

*BANG!*

It says a lot about Karmit's attacking speed that, despite her use of time-warping, Melinda only escaped by a hair's breadth and the force of the attack sent her sailing.

The Monument, reacting as any subject of Hal's would, primed yet another Ordinant disruptive attack to strike Kermit with but Melinda ordered it to hold.

"Let's time this right," she told the Monument telepathically as she escaped yet another strike to send a life sundering attack at Karmit.

The godly general split it aside only for his eyes to widen when the attack did not slice in half but rather into ten pieces which all took the shapes of Ankhs to reach and grab hold of Karmit's life energy to lock him down.

The lock only lasted a second before Karmit broke free but the second was all Melinda needed to get close enough to swing her sword to lop off the general's head.

Karmit began to move out of the way but fast as he was, he knew his movement speed would not save him and so he relied more on his shield and chest plate Armor, and when they had defended him from Melinda's strike, he planned to end it all with his spear...

Alas, his plan hit a snag as Melinda finally let the Monument strike out...

*BANG!!!*

As the Ordinant Disruptive attack struck him, Karmit's eyes widened as he had forgotten about the Monument in favor of putting all his attention on Melinda.

Once again, Karmit's Ordinance was disrupted and as it attacked him from within, he failed to keep the required hold on his divine energy so his shield and chest plate armor defense slipped.

They began to fluctuate... Sometimes there and sometimes not...

It was one of those times that they were not that Melinda's sword made contact. However, Karmit, while not fast enough to totally avoid getting hit by the sword did manage to move his head away from the line of attack and Melinda had to settle for a massive gash in his chest instead...

"Arrrrggggggggghhhhhh!" 

As his blood was spilled, Karmit's yell was not only due to the pain of getting cut but also due to the Life sundering that Melinda's attack had let loose on his Life Force.