The chains shattered with a gesture, as if they weren't even there to begin with ... her counterpart smirking even as power seemed to flood back into her; and in feeling it ... seeing it, Ishtar could only nod in understanding.
"A test ..."
The Oni sighed, before looking up at the stars, and moons above. "I knew it was too good to be true." At the least however, there was some pride to be had in the fact that she had succeeded in aggravating her alternate self. Yet knowing it would amount for naught ... "Oh well." Deep down she had always known, after all; and though the tidbit about her failing to make Hakai her own was worthwhile ... that similarly meant little when even now, Ishtar was at a power disadvantage.
Though ... she had suffered the same, with Nergal; and she had been much weaker then ... when she had ... A thought occurred, and the Oni brought her eyes back down toward the Goddess of Ruination and met the smirk with one of her own. If she was to die here, she would make sure it was a night to remember.
"No reason to hold back ... now that death is all but guaranteed, yes ?" The burgeoning Goddess exhaled slowly, before lifting targeting one of the moons over her shoulder. "
Starapateñti ... Paņca."
Not bothering to see how the Goddess of Ruination reacted as chunks of a Moon began to rain down around them, Ishtar cast yet another spell -- to facilitate empowerment through pain, via
Araska -- as she lunged forward and threw herself at the woman.