"Hello, Heru-jiji. So glad you turned out to be the Weaver's First Devotee. And some devotee you are, a perfect fit for that thing.
To think you wouldn't fight me for your boss yet rushed head-first into my Mandala for your spoiled chosen. The ancients didn't deceive me. Lust will make a man nosedive into death with a smile on his face."
[Solar Blood Field]
Mithras didn't mince his words, starting his offensive with a burst of Solar Blood Field. A hurricane of solar flames blasted through the Mandala, hitting Heruka point blank!
One of the pesky characteristics of Mandalas is that the Templar rank and Sid level of the foreign entities inside can never exceed that of the Mandala's owner—incomplete Mandala or not, that law is absolute. In other words, Heruka now had the same rank and level as Mithras, the gap in methods, skills and abilities becoming the Red God's only advantage.
A shroud of violet flames coiled up Heruka's form, and he vanished, reforming in the burning heavens with his arms folded below his chest.
"Poor child, my bastard idiot of a son did a godawful job raising you. So now we start over and fix you at the root.
Lesson number one: the average man wants beauty, peace, fulfillment, love, a reason for his sufferings, and the promise of a better tomorrow—together the six pillars of ecstasy. Give a man these six pillars, and you can do with him whatever you feel like. Gods are no different.
The Weaver has been providing me with my pillars from time immemorial, and as long as he keeps doing so...I am his First Devotee.
As for you, boy, there seems to be an awful misunderstanding here. The one I fear is the force stirring inside you. The Mithras now crossing my bottom line and disrespecting my venerable master...is of absolutely no concern to me...the Wrathful God of War." Heruka declared, his quiet words rumbling as he raised his right hand, lowering it with a derisive sneer.
[Outer Alteration]
With that one move, the Red God activated the Fifth Secret, expanding upon the flawed structure of Mithras' Mandala to spread the Fifth Secret across the scene…and reshape this replica of the Astral Paradise…into Heruka's own Red Cloud Paradise.
The most dreaded of the first seven secrets, Outer Alteration enabled Dark Preceptors and above to control the elements and reshape their environment, turning inanimate objects into whatever they fancied as long as their souls could bear the mental toll of the transformation.
The bigger the shift, the more extreme the backlash. But while no doubt overpowered, the mental toll of the Fifth Secret was so overwhelming that most Dark Preceptors didn't dare to reshape their surroundings with the Fifth Secret alone, relying on their Palace of Indulgence instead.
Six-secret Sages had more flexibility, but only Gods, Sage Kings and above had the soul tier and mental fortitude to abuse that skill. Heruka was born beyond that level and possessed supreme compatibility with the Divine Secrets—meaning that just like Mithras, he never had to consider the mental strain and side effects of the various secrets.
Fifth Secret and Divine Fantasy fired at once, expanding within Mithras' Mandala, and rejecting its authority!
The current scenario was far from ideal. Mithras' body had no doubt reached perfection, but his soul and abilities were still far from that level. Some of the strongest still vulnerable to an expert's exploitation.
Same level...so what? Backed by transcendent forces and perfection? So what?! Before the monarch of the War Pantheon, what are you? A presumptuous child, that's it!
Or so Heruka thought, at least. Sadly for him, in his rush to rescue his chosen, he'd forgotten a critical piece of info:
Mithras is Mithras.
[Holy Sacrament: Solar Extinction]
Unfazed by Heruka's overbearing powerplay, Mithras clenched his fists, a charming and disarming smile on his lips as pillars of colorful flames formed and lined up in his Mandala, extending into…the Red God's Paradise!
The rays, sunlight and flames…all dissipated on the spot—wiped out as Mithras' purple eyes turned gold and scarlet. Here, Heruka's Pyrogasmic Genesis, the Inner Flame on which he built his glorious paradise, shrank piece by piece, quickly dying out as well!
Even the Flame Elementals dancing by Heruka's side weren't spared, consumed, and wiped out instantly!
The Red God's eyes widened in disbelief, and he backpedaled in the air, retreating alongside his shrieking paradise as the last spark of Pyrogasmic Genesis...vanished altogether.
Heruka's greatest fear had become reality. Pyrogasmic Genesis had died—its abilities stored in Solar Genesis, and now reserved for Mithras and Mithras only!
"You can eat divine flames already? Impossible! It shouldn't have been possible before at least a century! How...how can you already use that Holy Sacrament?!" The Red God barked in confusion, refusing to accept the facts of the matter.
But again, so what? Reality doesn't change because one refuses to face facts. And the fact of Mithras' fist now crashed in the Red God's face with an ear-splitting blast!
The Mandala regained its rights, replacing the void and crumbling monuments of the Red God's decrepit paradise. It was only a copy of course, but without the spark of Pyrogasmic Genesis to keep it standing, even the real Red Cloud Paradise wouldn't survive much longer. Not without horrifying and continuous sacrifices!
[Astral Recomposition: Solar Extinction]
To Mithras' surprise, as Heruka flew back, blinding golden rays shot out of his pores, piercing through Mithras and targetting his Inner Flame!
A futile attempt. Solar Genesis is the king of the tyrant class, the world's strongest flame! Its light eternal, and its power unmatched. To say nothing of Heruka, Mithras himself would have no chance at erasing Solar Genesis' light.
That...is someone else's privilege.
But fueled by Heruka's Wrathful God Fire, that trick was more than enough to contain the tyrannical power of Mithras' Inner Flame...and that was all Heruka needed.
"Mhm...interesting. You basically copied my Holy Sacrament and turned it into a weaker but more accessible tyrant-class Mantra. Nice. Real talk. Turning Holy Sacraments into Mantras is remarkable at the very least.
Heru-jiji, you might yet end the day without ruining your grandson's expectations," Mithras said, and with a playful smile, activated...his Vanity!
All the tricks, variations and attributes behind Heruka's self-made mantra appeared in Mithras' mind, his comprehension of that forbidden skill becoming so thorough that he could replicate it if he felt like it.
Mithras did much better, building on the flaws of Heruka's incomplete copy...to infect his body and reverse the flow of his Wrathful God Fire.
All mantras rely on Inner Flames. Without at least one active Inner Flame, gurus were no different from templars. Mithras couldn't rob the Wrathful God Fire that Heruka and others received from the Lord. He could, however, play a few tricks here and there, abusing his Authority over Life, Light and Flames to make the Wrathful God Fire...work in reverse.
It only took one instant, and the very mantra the Red God had spent an eternity working on to outshine the Sun...now consumed his internal organs in a furious rampage!
'The Lord has always envied the Sun. The Sun is free, unshackled, and unfettered. The Sun lives as he pleases and would rather experience one glorious day than spend an eternity in golden chains. Even the Fundamental Principles…cannot keep the Sun in chains.
The Sun's freedom…and the Lord's admiration…gave birth to the Idols of Vanity.
This also makes the Sun the only entity outside the Ba'al and the Lord able to wield a Vanity. So if you one day meet a man that can wield a Vanity, you're either facing the Avatar of a Ba'al or...our arch-nemesis backed by the Lord this time around!' The Weaver's voice boomed in Heruka's mind, and as his light suffocated, his body...combusted from inside out!