Chapter fifty: Over the Moon
Eventually, the Jungle grew silent. The Moon Lord watched as His Nemesis put away their loot, and took out their menagerie of Buff Potions, and refreshed their stock of Healing. And the Moon Lord went pale. This was too soon. The Vortex Clan had yet to be contacted. If His Nemesis managed to release the Energies stored in the Tablet, then his forces would not yet be ready to best utilize them.
His Nemesis was in their Minecart, on the way to the Dungeon. The Moon Lord did one more sweep of the stars, and even checked with Nebula. There was a lead on which area the Vortex Clan was in, but not precise enough to find them in time... Unless the Moon Lord got lucky. Tasking the Nebula Clan with the continued search, the Moon Lord watched closely, in order to send the word should the Lunar Coven fail in their task, all of the clans found or not.
His Nemesis drew the Influx Waver, sending Sonic Waves rippling through the air with every swing of the sword. The cultists worshipping the Tablet screamed as they were torn in half, with the Lunar Coven's Archers swinging around to shoot at the attacker. They met the same fate as their comrades before they could even tell exactly who it was that was attacking. The Leader, the most ancient of all the Lunar Coven, emerged as they were instructed, and shattered the Tablet, absorbing the massive quantities of magic held within, as well as the fragment of the Moon Lord's soul that had fuelled the first Skeletron Prime.
Flying up into the air, the Leader handled the energies surging through them better than expected, every fibre of their being trying to rip itself apart from the power trying to escape, and soak into the world. As the bonding process barely reached it's completion, a beam from the Influx Waver rattled through the Ancient Cultist. They responded by focusing on the power of Fire, similar to that of the Diabloists from the war long ago. Except, these fireballs were larger, and were not mixed quite as expertly, so they lacked the explosive and phasing qualities. They made up for it with pure scorching heat, and the ability to swerve through the air to try and strike their target.
His Nemesis was already flying off in the UFO though, and easily out manoeuvred the balls of fire. The Ancient Cultist cackled, partly due to the energies frying their brain, an also due to the next spell they were summoning: A gigantic ball of lightning, the spell Magnet Orb, mastered by few, and on a much larger scale. Shooting out streams of plasma thicker than most people's arms, these were dodged as well, if only barely at times.
To complete the Cultist's repertoire of attacks, after relocating via space-distortion, they summoned a massive ball of Ice, shards jutting out of the side. These shards started spraying out in waves, the force of them dislodging from the ball creating more cracks and edges to serve as the next wave of shards. These managed to clip His Nemesis, but only on occasion, never landing a decisive blow.
His Nemesis ducked, wove and jerked around the Ancient Cultist's attacks, causing them to get a little bit... Irked. And through this irritation, the power seeped, sapping away at the remaining sanity they had left. Laughing maniacally, they erected a large Magic Circle, glowing lines in the air pulsing with raw magic. Mirror Images of the Cultist appeared, to stall for time as the Magic was given new form.
His Nemesis flew closer, and swung the Influx Waver at the Cultist, cleaving them in two. And the Cultist laughed, dissipating back into the Circle.
His Nemesis would have sworn, had the majority of their attention not been directed to blasting the UFO away at max speed, and what little attention they had remaining was put towards returning fire at the REAL Ancient Cultist, now backed up by a shadowy image of themself. Oh, and a Dragon. The Moon Lord was not sure exactly why a dragon, honestly. Perhaps the energy that had bonded with his Soul fragment was close enough to that of the Wyvern's, that the Cultist had used that as inspiration. Maybe iy had been the first thing to pop into their head, in the heat of battle. Or, just maybe, they just really liked dragons, and their instability was letting it show. Regardless. it proved amusing to watch His Nemesis to desperately flee from the Phantasmal Dragon's mighty jaws.
The attacks from previous now proved harder to dodge, what with the Dragon constantly getting in the way. The sheer amount of Magic that constituted it made it a tough opponent to bring down. His Nemesis even focused their attacks on it, in order to be better able to focus on their main target. It took a few loops over the Dungeon Entrance, but the Phantasmal Beast finally fell... Just as a second Magic Circle appeared, with one more Mirror Image than before.
The Moon Lord applauded, especially at His Nemesis's expression. Oh, they were pissed now. Lunging at the Cultist, they tried attacking the right one this time. And they failed, resulting in yet another Dragon snapping at their heels, and a thunderbolt from the Giant Magnet Sphere striking them in the rear. The Cultist barely had a rip in their robe, and His Nemesis was barely clinging on, Potions not doing nearly enough to sustain them.
The Dragon chased them across the sky, snapping and snarling with animalistic rage. His Nemesis brought it down eventually, the Magic Circle not yet formed this time, but their armour covered in rents, showing wounds beneath. Summoning an even larger collection of Images, the Cultist sneered, and had trouble hiding their glee.
His Nemesis examined them all closely, and found that the light played differently on the Robes of just one of the Cultists they saw. Charging with sword in hand, they slashed, and a crack appeared upon the Ancient Cultist's Mask as the Images faded into nothing.
And they both looked down, and new that the battle was done.
What I actually did was some Terraforming on other worlds, and only the first half of this grind. But, this story only has one world, (Not referring to world as in planet, before you bring up the Martians! 
) So I improvised.
The rounds will vary hugely in length, by the way, and this is technically already round one. So, you can get a vague idea on how much is left.
