The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 50: Celestira

Chapter 50: Celestira

Argh dammit…! 

I groaned, I was healed but that didn’t remove the pain. This bloody awful pain.

Dealing with pain became easier when you got used to it, but there were times when the pain could be too much. 

My soul itself was aching, thankfully no damage, but every movement of my body and even the flow of my mana and Starlight caused constant pain–as if simultaneously I was being stabbed with billions of needles while being beaten with a ten-tonne blunt hammer.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the pain that was caused by smashing the orbs was still there. Normally bearable–even if that pain was getting worse–but added to everything else and the pain I still felt in my stomach after it being torn about was… exhausting.

“Time to start the next round…” I said to myself.

I was hurt, but I couldn’t escape this situation because running away seemed impossible. I was too low on resources, the monster was overall faster than me, and going on the defensive would put me too much at a disadvantage in this situation.

The one place where I could hide would be Earth, but that would require me going through the crack, which the commander bastard could just follow with his beast. Attacks wouldn’t go through that portal but… that beast, I had a feeling it could pass. No evidence, but just based on my experiences in this fight and my gut reaction, I wasn’t going to take that chance.

Name: Ceella Stella (Celestira Luxpoir) | Race: [Human?]

Level 302 | Awakened

Mana: 10% Starlight: 33%

Vocation: [Stargazer]

Skills:

- Blazing Solar (VI | IV)

- Starlight (V)

- Gazing Upon The Stars

- Disruptive Starlight

- Star Mapping

- Sleepless Nights

- Fortified Stomach

- Quiet Step

Bonded

- Primal Guardian Lord [Lv 169]

- Unleashed Awakening

“Look at that, I levelled up, what changed? Nothing… great….” 

There were no new skills and the mana increase didn’t help because it only increased my max, so my current supply was still low. I did have three [Solar Orbs] which contained a decent deal of energy, but it was risky using them for a non-guaranteed attack.

While I was standing back up, the commander relaunched his attacks. The monster turned to face me and shot straight down at me shredding through everything in its path.

I looked up and saw that the commander decided to double down on his defence.

A multicoloured shield of red and blue wavy energy appeared all around him, it was transparent enough that I could still see through it.

Before I stared at it for too long the monster came crashing down.

I [Burst] to the left and created a Starlight chain around my arms, each chain could stretch five hundred metres and I anchored one into a massive rock and pulled myself towards the rock. 

The area had fully become a temporary asteroid belt now, with large chunks of the moon being the centrepiece. Whether gravity pulled it all back together later or it orbited around something else didn’t matter, because at the moment it was a great location that provided me the advantage. 

I swung and [Burst] around the field avoiding the monster's attacks.

I got halfway to the commander again and fired a [Star Arrow].

The monster tried to grab me when I slowed for a moment but I created a large hand of Starlight to push back the monster’s hand. I was able to dodge, but the Starlight construct shattered in only two seconds.

Then my attack collided with the commander's shield, but the [Star Arrow] just vanished upon contact with the shield. 

Just lovely, well if that doesn’t work!

I grabbed a large rock and stabbed my left hand into it, dropping the payload I threw the rock, stabbed another rock with a chain and swung it at the commander. 

The two rocks flew towards the commander, the one swung by the chain flew faster and passed through the shield first. 

A small blue light appeared around his arm as he parried away the boulder, and then the second boulder entered. As he tried to parry it, a blue light began to shine from the boulder, which caused him to panic and raise his other arm to guard.

Boom!

I guessed the shield held similar properties to the large crack, but not the exact same properties. I seemed to have been proven right. Mana constructs couldn’t pass through, but a physical object with mana could. Which was probably why he had an arsenal of flying weapons.

Once the light faded I could tell that his armour had partly shattered. From what I could see of his face, he looked like a corpse, his skin was mostly pale and stuck to the bones 

I rudely said to pick at his nerves, “Still surviving? Wow, and I was called the monster.” 

Offended, the commander yelled, “I don’t know who you are!” The commander gripped his teeth, the skin on his face had now almost lost all of its colour, “But I won’t let you disrupt our operations any longer!” 

I mocked him and ducked under a grab, “I don’t think you have any say in that.” 

The monsters clawed through space and began chucking boulders to collide with what I was trying to grapple.

Now it decides to throw!

The added range attacks were dodging tricky and I was quickly getting concerned it was going to catch me soon.

However, I stayed on the offensive. I started throwing rocks towards him, they weren’t doing much, but he had to be careful about each and every one. He never knew if one had a bomb inside, which was funny but it was also my issue because I only had two bombs left. 

Okay good, now Espr what items is that bastard currently using? We both know he should’ve dropped dead ages ago.

It was a simple indisputable fact that he should’ve been dead by now and that his mana long reached zero. There were the injuries, multiple artefacts, the costly skills and the sword in his stomach that was draining his life.

Teleportation was mana-intensive, and even the commander's unique and powerful version of it should be no exception. But Espoiramissa decided to give me a useless answer.

(“ Well for a price ”)

Okay well I don’t care then, it doesn’t matter.

I wasn’t going to pay additional levels for knowledge that I already had some inkling about.

Espoiramissa already called him a ‘cheater and a min-maxer’ so there being a couple of extra dangerous items on him that weren’t weapons given to him was likely. Dominous Hood loves their equipment after all.

I dodged the spear that flew by and chucked a rock at the monster to see if I could knock its arm when it threw.

The boulder just vaporised when it touched its side. Not that I was surprised, but I really needed a way to interrupt the monster's movements.

The chain of Starlight stabbed into another boulder and I pulled myself towards it. Not letting go of the boulder I crashed into it, stabbed my hand inside, then jumped and [Burst] forward with the boulder in-toe. Moments later I threw the boulder at the barrier.

The bomb boulder accelerated extremely fast towards the commander’s face.

However, after it passed through the barrier, I could see a look on the commander's face that indicated he knew there was a bomb inside.

A small blue diamond crystal appeared out of his armour pocket and blocked the boulder, creating a barrier between both of them and when the boulder exploded–it left the attack ineffective. He only seemed to notice after it passed through the barrier, so I figured he now had a detection skill up.

One bomb left…

I was running out of options again.

Look Espr, I’m going to ask. Is that orb in the monster a weak spot or not? And please, I don’t need bullshit right now.

I had mostly come to the conclusion it was, so me asking Espoiramissa right now was just for additional confirmation.

(“ Yes ”)

Espoiramissa simply answered without any fanfare or demands, which was a great blessing.

Now knowing that the core was a weakness and taking advantage of that weakness were two different hurdles entirely.

The issue was the outer ‘skin’–or whatever it was–of the transparent creature was extraordinarily tough. Even touching it caused me to be sent flying and none of my attacks had broken through either.

The front and back were open, but the front devoured everything it touched and it never had its back turned to me for more than a millisecond.

But I have to aim for it.

I smiled.

(“ You got a plan? ”)

Kind of, but I don’t see it not working.

(“ So no backup plan in case this fails? ”)

No, I do have a backup, but I’m confident this is going to work.

I decided to yell at the idiot some more, “I hate damn fuckers like yourself who don’t want to die alone!” To keep him focused not on my actions but more on my words.

The commander yelled back with a childish response, “Look who's talking!” 

“I have no plans on dying?! Has your brain and eyesight corroded that much under the costs you have to pay to maintain your friend?”

“You….!” He growled back.

“I bet you so badly want to deactivate all those payments, but you can’t, because you know there is no chance against me otherwise. How sad. Poor commander, can’t even deal with one intruder. Every limb and joint of your body looks like it’s on the verge of collapse. I wonder, would you die if the average force of Earth’s gravity was applied to you?” 

I dodged the non-existent head of the monster, grabbed a [Solar Orb] and poured its power into me, I could feel my blood and muscles burn. This was by far the most inefficient way to use a [Solar Orb], but I needed a boost to my physical strength. This did recover my mana slightly as well though which was also needed.

He tried to argue back, “You must be in more pain than me! Your strength, your power, and resilience are impossible for someone of your rank, you will die soon yourself.”

The commander made his assumptions, and he would be right about me being in more pain, but everything else was laughable. “Well lucky for me, I have good comprehension skills and would never agree to something that was guaranteed to kill me.” 

I poured a large chunk of my mana into my legs and [Burst] upwards.

Then I flew up, higher and higher. 

“Looks like you need to start using your neck to look up to see me. That’s if you can move it!” I yelled as I flew past the commander.

He growled, as his eyes could barely turn to face me and his body could only slowly turn around to look at me.

The last spear flew to stab me once more, but I shifted to the side and as it was going to pass, I grabbed it.

The ominous green light tried to eat away at me because I didn’t break it immediately, but that light was overtaken by crimson orange and sparkling purple, and then my second last [Solar Orb] flew into the spear.

I could still feel a connection to the commander in the spear, but my mana was overpowering it for the moment and he was far too exhausted to take advantage of it. I used [Solar Reinforcement] on the spear to increase the strength of the item, and [Shooting Star Fall] as an extra precaution. I could feel the spear rattle under the pressure but it would hold together.

With the spear in hand, I still flew higher and higher. The monster closed in as it was faster than me.

“You are going to need to be faster than that to catch me!” I yelled back, even when it was only moments away from devouring me again.

Then I converted the last remaining [Solar Orb] into a [Solar Bomb]–my greatest knockback magic skill.

I flipped around, faced the monster, and… kicked the [Solar Orb]-[Solar Bomb].

Boom!

A blinding light exploded forth throwing the nearby dust and rubble far away, along with sending me all the way straight down right past the monster and I could see straight up its body.

I wasn’t disoriented and made use of [Star Mapping] to keep focus. I was below everything, with a spear brimming with energy. My muscles were hurting from the fall and the excess power that was flowing through me, but I only needed to throw the spear once.

I heard Espoiramissa begin to laugh in the background.

(“ Haha! Yes Celestira, Do IT! ”)

I aimed the spear, my intentions clear, I would throw it along as it was sure to land.

The deep crimson monster turned, and as its fold began to turn the window to strike was closing, but the core was still in sight.

Then at the last moment while the core was still visible. I tensed my muscles and poured my energy into the throw. The mana inside me roared with excitement and then–

–I threw the spear… reaching its target in less than a moment. Leaving behind a trail of embers and stardust, right into the commander's stomach.

The sword in his stomach shattered and was missing along with most of his body, leaving behind a metal mana heart and skeleton that was connected to his head, but both of those prosthetics began to slowly disintegrate as well.

My mana and Starlight were both nearly non-existent, any left had to be saved for movement and survival, but at least I didn’t have to worry about the monster anymore.

It had stopped moving and began to slowly disappear. 

I slowly flew up towards the commander. I was ready to finish this, but then I heard an ominous noise echo throughout space.

Huh Huh Huha Huaaa

The commander was shocked as well, “W–h-t?” Still able to speak, he quickly shook his head, broke out of his pained trance and refocused on me, but the laugh continued.

Huha Huha Haaa, Celestira

…I whispered back to the vanishing monster behind me, “Don’t call me that name.”

Huha Huh Huaaa Huh Huha 

The laugh continued, even seconds after the monster vanished.

The commander came to a realisation and was filled with a little bit more energy, then he closed his eyes, “Celestira… is that your…”

I just shook my head and replied “No.”

(“ Lying is bad you know ”)

Quiet.

I flew towards the commander ready to finish this, my soul pressure didn’t detect any skill activations and he looked like he could barely move his body. His body sat there adrift in space, but once I got close his eyes shot open.

I saw the resolve in his eyes, I [Burst] back, but I was too late. But truthfully I was already in range before I even started moving.

“May we vanish together Celestira!” The commander laughed, “[ESSENCE FOLD]–[TOTAL COLLAPSE]”

A powerful skill suddenly activated at full power in an instant from his heart. The crack between the moon and the Earth faded black and the other side could no longer be seen, and a new crack emerged.

Splitting the dying commander in two, it shot out in all directions devouring everything in over five hundred kilometres in under five seconds, before it vanished only a moment later.

By the time the crack in the sky darkened and turned black, Dominous Hood had already finished their operation. There was still plenty of panic in the city, but it was now just up to the authorities to calm everyone down.

There were no signs of Dominous Hood after the incident. They had quickly disappeared after they got what they came for, not even a single drop of blood remained of their involvement.

Some escaped through the city, while others were sighted jumping back through the portal, where they ended up would be anyone’s guess.

Investigations were done to understand what caused the incident, and weirdly at the same time, large boulders of moon rock appeared throughout the universe in various locations.

The crack in the sky above Earth remained for another hour before it finally faded away in a matter of seconds. To many this extraordinary incident ended without much drama, however, to others in the know, it felt like the reins had finally been let go and many began preparing for a conflict.

However, for a certain family, this event left them with a large amount of concern and worry. Even after a month, there was no sign of the eldest daughter.