The Carver wasted no time formulating a response to Zadok. Immediately it began analyzing the situation, something that took mere fractions of a second for the magic being's incomprehensibly quick mind. The Carver had two tremendous advantages. The first was the simple fact that the Ripper was preoccupied, attempting to simultaneously fight and pierce the Source's core. The second was that this put the Carver in a much more flexible position, free to move around and try to avoid attacks, whereas the Ripper was forced to encompass the Source's core at all times and continue breaking it down. Otherwise, what little damage had been done to the core would quickly repair itself.

However, the Ripper possessed an advantage as well. By encompassing the core where this universe's magic originated from, the being was fed an unending flow of more magic. What wasn't assimilated into the Ripper's form in order to rejuvenate it was corrupted into the crimson energy of destruction and then spewed out into the Source.

The Carver could similarly rejuvenate itself by absorbing magic from its surroundings and from the fabric of this universe itself. However, as time went on the local magic was becoming more and more corrupted. The Ripper's foul aura and energy of destruction was like smoke to the Carver, building up in his proverbial lungs, unable to leave quickly enough. This was slowly but surely crippling the normally indefatigable guardian. The Carver's nemesis was sure to be victorious if this battle continued to stretch on as it did.

So it was vital for the Carver to switch strategies. Clearly the duo's current attacks were ineffective, with the two simply hurtling small amounts of their magic into the other in an attempt to neutralize a larger portion of their foe's power. The Ripper had been stripped of all its holy duties and powers on Outremar's final day, leaving him with only the capacity to destroy. The Carver, however, could reshape and create nigh anything that existed in its domain, which happened to be this entire universe. Though to use such powers in battle was akin to sacrilege, failing to exploit this advantage would spell certain defeat.

The flying blasts of vernal magic abruptly ceased. The Carver concentrated, feeling the ebb and flow of this plane's energy, tracing the grains of its shape. The Ripper hurtled a wall of scarlet magic. The Carver remained still, letting the red light surge into and wash over him. The amount of damage one such burst could inflict was miniscule, at least to the Carver. At last, the guardian identified a soft spot, an easy place to sculpt at and break away. A brilliant light appeared as the Carver summoned its most holy magic. The brilliance coalesced into the shape of a divine, glowing, carving knife of massive proportions. 

The tool flew forward at the speed of light, effortlessly pushing through the metallic, pressurized gas and plasma. The tool came into contact with the Ripper, and then it was met with resistance. It shook violently and slowed as it attempted to force its way through pure hatred and destruction, yet it succeeded. The tool had cleaved the Ripper in twain, separating a massive chunk of red magic from the main, spherical cloud of energy that was the Ripper.

The severed piece flew off in an arc, before meeting a volatile end. A thousand times as potent as the mere bursts that the Ripper was capable of emitting, this lifeblood of destruction exploded with a force that shook the Source and stirred up even more violent storms on the gas giant's surface. The ethereal Carver was unscathed, where any physical being would have been disintegrated by the sheer force.

The Ripper howled in pain. Ten thousand of the capricious voices cried out telepathically, and yet not one of them was legible. They shrieked, hissed, roared, and clawed at the mind of the Carver. The guardian tried to shield Zadok from this, but his efforts were largely in vain; the anti-keeper would be exposed as well, through the telepathic link. The guardian pulled back his knife and prepared to slice off another chunk from its adversary; that would be one step closer to silencing the Ripper and sparing this realm. The Ripper would have none of it.

Out of nowhere, thousands of them emerged. They split and replicated themselves, until there were millions. Billions. An infinite number of needles appeared, connected to the Ripper by tiny threads of vermillion. Once, when the Ripper was known as the Weaver, these needles created new things and stitched the very fabric of Outremar's universe. They had been akin to the Carver's knife. But now, the needles had threads of hate and destruction. They could weave no more; however, they could now gouge and cut.

Untold amounts of these needles wrapped themselves around the Carver, strangling the being with their threads of destruction and perforating the guardian with their infinitely sharp points. The Carver wildly swung his knife, not at the Ripper but at the threads that connected the needles to their vile master and controlled them. The implements vanished the moment that their threads were hacked away, but it was in vain. With naught more than a thought, the Ripper conjured millions more. They wrapped around the Carver's knife, wrenching it away and preventing it from being used as a weapon. 

Before, the Ripper had merely been content to preoccupy the Carver. The entity had staved off the thing pestering it as if it had been a fly, by halfheartedly swatting at it every now and then. Now, the Ripper was enraged, and exercised no restraint. It would hold nothing back; breaching Elysium's core was not a priority so much as removing this insolent guardian from existence. More needles appeared. The Ripper drove them into its enemy, eviscerating and hooking the Carver. The guardian was helpless, unable to so much as move as the Ripper fired a massive beam of destructive energy. The Ripper intended to maintain the concentrated beam until the Carver exploded in a great flash and was but a memory.

Fortunately, a carving knife was not the only tool of an artisan. Weavers had only their needles and threads, but sculptors and carvers had chisels, knives, hammers, rasps, files, rubbing stones, and many other utensils in their repertoire. The Carver summoned its divine hammer and held it in place to block the beam. It works. The crimson light was met with the sheer brilliance of the divine hammer's head, and was reflected off into the gas giant's swirling clouds and whipping winds; however, the tool was not unscathed. Its white glow had been stained, and now it emanated a pallid pink. The Carver dared not bring it into contact with the adversary, for fear that the Ripper would corrupt and steal the hammer.

The Carver's other tools (the guardian shuddered at how the once-noble implements were now being degraded to mere weapons) would hardly be suitable. The Carver manipulated the hammer, swinging it wildly and too quickly for the Ripper to entangle it like the knife. There was still a small amount of uncorrupted magic in the vicinity. The Carver grasped at the playful eddy, distilling it into a more potent form. The lump of holy magic crystallized, becoming a physical object not unlike the Source's core. With a furious blow from the hammer, the asteroid sized chunk of magic was sent hurtling towards the Ripper. If such concentrated holy magic came into contact with the Ripper, the results would not be pretty.

The destructive entity no doubt knew that. The Ripper expended an inordinate amount of its own energy, visibly shrinking a small amount as it firing a beam of its own essence at the projectile. The ruinous magic and holy magic collided. The two repelled each other, and so the chunk of matter was sent flying backwards, with a small amount of the writhing, red magic stubbornly clinging to the surface. The Carver easily dodged the flying asteroid, and so the thing continued to fly unstopped. The Carver and the Ripper continued to fight with their battle with increasing intensity. 

Some time elapsed. Zadok would likely be able to catch flickers of what was going on inside the Source, though the Carver's mind would simply be too quick and the scene too chaotic for the anti-keeper to discern much. At last, the fighting began to temporarily die down a bit as the two magical beings were both exhausted. They continued to battle, though they both tried to rejuvenate themselves for a short period of time before they inevitably resumed fighting with no quarter, even more vigorously than before. During this time, the Carver had an opportunity to communicate with Zadok. Since the anti-keeper had requested to stay informed and the guardian had not thought to deny that request immediately, the Carver was somewhat obligated to have a brief conversation.

[b][i]"The fighting continues, though I believe the stalemate has been broken. Both I and this extra-dimensional demon have sustained injuries, though its are more grievous than mine. I will continue to press my advantage, though I can feel the enemy's fragmented mind at work. It is seeking to equalize us once more, and then gain the upper hand. However, I do not know how it might attempt to go about doing so."[/i][/b]

As the Carver finished, Zadok might turn to see an object approaching at an alarming rate. It was the asteroid that the Carver had tried to throw at the Ripper, though by now it was hardly a crystalline ball of holy energy. The Ripper must have expended an even more enormous amount of energy deflecting it than the Carver had thought, as the thing now glowed carmine and cackled with destructive energy.

Zadok might have had a mind to intercept the object on its path and stop it, but any effort would be in vain. As it neared Zadok, the rather large asteroid suddenly and violently exploded. Dozens of shards were scattered in all directions. Most were just small pebbles or chunks of rock, yet there were several larger ones, their red surfaces covered in magical runes and the space around them illuminated with an ominous glow. These larger asteroids all flew towards Elysium at incredible speeds, propelled by sheer malevolence. They each contained a piece of the Ripper's essence and had a mind of their own. 

As they made their descent towards the continent, the Destruction Catalysts adjusted their trajectories to seek out places of great magical power. One lonely one righted its path far from the others, heading towards the bleak, isolated tundra north of Altearx. A different one adjusted its angle to land in an equally remote, yet vastly different place, deep with the depths of the Oerwoud jungle. Further to the south, one was headed towards a black lake sitting amongst a sea of golden grasses. Three circled around each other as they soared over the Hindrun ranges, before all crashing down onto the shoreline. One fell into the great city of Paterdomus, and the other two in its close vicinity, near a village to the south where the dead walked, with the other crashing amidst a foreboding forest to the west. Many others fell down, scattered across the other far corners of Elysium.