Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Tanya placed her hand beneath the stone and grabbed it.

The moment she did so, she imprinted on the Stone and felt the remnants of her Ancestor\'s use.

The fact that they were in a Pocket dimension did not have any effect on the stone\'s abilities or uses and already, Tanya began to feel empowered by the faith of various individuals on the Continent.

It began with all those in her information-gathering network- all those dedicated to her dreams and then stretched to many other denizens of the continent who did not exactly have faith in her personally but rather in the Bloodline she belonged to.

Faith came in two forms (More or less); either having faith in a specific individual or having faith in a particular group of people.

No family or bloodline was more iconic on the Haron continent than the Harons and as she felt her ability to tap into the faith the denizens had in her family, Tanya felt all the more sure of her decision.

She felt all the more convinced of the ideology she had been born into and grown up with; the Ideology that the Haron family was Supreme and no family could ever come close.

Their hegemony was destined to forever stand and she would inherit that power... That authority.

She would rule the Empire.

Hal watched her as she paused and appeared in a trance while cradling the stone in her arms although she was strong enough to lift and hold it in one hand.

And then,

*BANG!!!*

An attack struck Hal from behind and while it appeared mighty sudden, it was just so for Hal who had been alerted by his instincts long enough for him to protect himself with Cosmic energy with minimal effort.

The attack had been from Aliya who took on an attacking stance and released the pressure of her Cultivation to the limit while also arming her newly discovered Elemental Ordinance with a readiness to push on with her attacks.

While Hal still had his eyes on Aliya, Reality within the space was warped so that the portal leading back to the outside world was covered to deny him an escape.

The was fine though as Hal was not seeking an escape.

Hal slowly turned his eyes to Tanya but there was no surprise in his eyes.

This was a scenario that he had never truly ruled out.

Tanya was making her choice clear...

She had resisted his temptation and kept to the path that she had chosen long before she ever met him and she stuck to an ambition she had had since she was grown enough to think for herself.

Becoming Empress and ruling to Haron Continent as the supreme monarch who would go on to conquer the Dystopian Continent was her destiny and the mere fact that Hal\'s advances and touch had made her rethink her ambitions was the most major reason she could proclaim a dislike for the blue-eyed fellow. A dislike that moved very close to hatred.

Don\'t get her wrong, she liked Hal.

Even as she prepared to take him down, she still remembered how it had felt to be touched by him.

How it had felt to be whispered to by him.

He was the perfect man in all counts except submission.

He would never submit to her and lay down his obvious ambitions in favor of hers and she feared to even try convincing him.

Every moment she allowed him to get close to her was more time for him to manipulate her into his way of thinking and she would not have that.

"So I guess this is the official end to our professional relationship huh," Hal said with a wide and nonchalant smile.

He had just spoken that Aliya made use of a cosmic skill that summoned spiked chains that all struck at him and promised deep and wicked lacerations.

Hal caught the chain with barely an attempt and right on the spot, he refined the cosmic energy within it and made it his own but rather than absorb it into his body to be a drop in the ocean of his energy requirement, he just turned it around on Aliya in a mighty cosmic attack.

The sheer speed of the attack surpassed what Aliya could dodge or react to but she did not have to as reality was warped by Tanya so Aliya\'s position changed to one where she was coming down from above to strike Hal down.

Hal caught her and swung her toward Tanya... Specifically towards the Nexus stone which Tanya was still holding and displaying without worry.

Before there could be contact, Tanya warped reality once again and before Hal could react, Aliya was striking him with her attack from behind.

*BOOMMMM!!!*

She hit him at point-blank range with her palm slamming against his unprotected back and as she let loose an attack of such magnitude, it shook the apace they were in.

"Oh, the joy it gives me to wipe that smug grin off your face" Aliya cackled while she put all she had into that attack and backed it with Ordinance.

She was not going to hold anything back.

Alas, it was all for naught.

Hal just chuckled and remained unmoved by her attack.

"I warned you once that you would regret starting a battle with me. I stand by those words" Hal\'s tone was callous as he canceled out the attack and then smacked Aliya with his cultivation might which he backed with his Dao.

That drew a groan of pain from Aliya\'s lips as she was smacked a few feet away from Hal but before she could get too far, Hal grabbed her with a fist he formed with Devil energy and drew her closer so that he could sink a knee into her jaw.

*Crack!*

The sound of breaking bone was heard but the pain Aliya felt was so much worst than that sound.

The impact of that hit against her jaw and the relative ease with which Hal had accomplished it was definitely the highlight of the exchange.

Even then, Aliya sucked it up and resisted the urge to yell in pain.

The plan with Tanya had been simple and she(Aliya) had been very well informed on what her role was to be.

She was to be the one to occupy Hal and give Tanya time to bring an end to the menace that was Hal.

And Hal was a menace.

That exchange at the border of the Haron Continent had showed Tanya that there could be no in-between.

Hal was either on her side and using his strength to help solidify her reign as Haron Empress or he was the greatest threat to her and the Haron family\'s bloodline superiority and she was inclined to believe the latter was the most accurate.

The display Hal had given at the border(for she knew for sure that it had been him whether he admitted it or not) had been an eye-opener on how much she had underestimated the perfect man who had managed to make her heart flutter.

Right under her nose, Hal had gone from a weak country bumkin she could kill with a nonchalant smack in the face into someone who could negate the use of an Abstract Ordinance!

The change in status and the power shift was annoying and disorienting.

Anyway,

Whatever Tanya was planning, she was either already done with or had to pause as Hal had stretched out large Devil wings and took to the air where he continued hiring Aliya.

*BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!*

Hit after hit in quick succession to the point where Aliya was not able to mount a defense or a counterattack.

Alita could feel that she was well out of her depths which was why it was a welcome relief when she felt Tanya reach out to her with a reality warp.

The reality warp was meant to free her from the clutches of Hal\'s wicked and determined blows.

Hal, who had decided to not question the action of these ladies and just show them hostility since they showed him hostility, sneered and negated the Ordinance use as he delivered a final hit to Aliya with absolutely no trouble.

Tanya gritted her teeth but then ignored her Friend to finally arm herself with the faith she had access to through the Nexus stone.

The preparations were over...

*ZWUUUUUUMMMMMM!!!*

There was an eerie sound as Tanya made use of the Nexus stone and then released her attack.

The blowback alone brushed her hair back and stuck her tight clothes even more to her body than they already were.

The attack hit Hal before he could move.

Hal felt as though he had been hit with a building and Tanya watched the success of her attack with satisfaction before engaging the critical aspect of her plan to bury the threat that Hal posed to her rule and the continued rule of the superior Haron bloodline, on this very day.

She commenced the implosion of the Space.

The space was basically a ticking bomb that would not last long the moment it became empty and Tanya only expedited the eventual destruction process... All so she could trap Hal in a closed void.

She collected Aliya\'s weak body and reversed her first reality warp to make the exit portal visible once again.

She leaped through the portal with Aliya and the Nexus stone just as the first imploding blast sounded and collapsed a part of the space. The very part in which Hal was getting wrecked by her Nexus stone-fuelled attack.

When Tanya arrived back in her office a second later, the implosion was complete.

The portal collapsed upon itself and the floating Orb fell to the ground, now rendered useless.