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This was no longer merely a rescue operation!
It was a battle against a God!
Even if it was a Fallen God, a God in a weakened state, it was still an existence possessing Divine Power, standing far above ordinary lifeforms.
For the first time in a long while, Ian felt a tiny bit of pressure.
Of course.
It was only a tiny bit.
After all, it wasn't as if Ian had never slain a god before. Before arriving in this timeline, he had already killed one. Now, he was simply challenging another evil god.
Although he no longer had allies like the Netherworld Gods to assist him, who said he couldn't fight such an existence alone? Besides, even if he couldn't win, he was absolutely confident that he could escape.
The advantage lay with Ian.
The right to choose also lay with Ian.
While victory was not guaranteed, he was certain he would not suffer a disastrous defeat. With that confidence, Ian naturally wanted to see just how far he could push himself.
"Submit! Become the support that sustains my existence!"
The Fallen God's roar was not produced by vibrating vocal cords. Instead, it manifested directly as a shriek that assaulted the soul itself. It was like countless shards of broken glass scraping against the inside of one's skull.
The terrifying sound was so powerful that even the incredibly sturdy obsidian walls around them, reinforced with multiple layers of protective magic, began to crack like spiderwebs, stone dust constantly falling from their surfaces.
To be fair, the voice was impressively vigorous.
Beneath that seemingly withered humanoid shell lurked an abyss-like reservoir of filthy and overwhelming Divine Power.
At that moment… The Fallen God raised an arm as thin and dry as a dead branch. Yet with that simple motion, the energy flow of the entire underground space shifted.
"Submit or Die!"
As it bellowed those twisted words, a gray, decaying Corruption Domain rapidly expanded outward from its body like a living organism.
This was not a simple magical effect.
It was the manifestation of a law.
The ground was not being corroded. Rather, the very concept of its existence was being overwritten by the law of decay.
Before Ian's eyes, solid rock silently melted and collapsed like snow beneath sunlight, transforming into bubbling swamps that emitted a nauseating mixture of sulfur and rotting corpses.
The air ceased to be a medium for sound.
Instead, it became a deadly blade.
Every breath carried scorching pain that tore through the lungs, along with a chilling force that directly eroded the origin of the soul.
Countless translucent ghostly hands formed from pure resentment and cursed energy began to proliferate wildly from every corner of the void like underwater weeds.
They possessed no fixed form.
Only endlessly twisting fingers accompanied by mournful wails capable of driving minds into madness.
Attacking from above, below, left, and right, they ignored physical distance altogether and reached directly toward Ian's soul core, seeking to drag him into an eternal abyss of torment.
"As expected, another evil god."
Since stepping into the Legendary realm, Ian had rarely experienced such an intense sense of mortal danger.
This was no longer a contest of power. It was a direct clash of understanding, rules, and will.
The magical core within his body began spinning at an unprecedented speed. His vast Legendary magic power was no longer gentle and restrained. Instead, it surged forth like an enraged galaxy, roaring as it burst from his body.
Then… Ian gripped his wand tightly with both hands.
Rather than making a graceful flourish, he raised it as though lifting an immense weight and slammed it heavily onto the dissolving ground beneath him. The instant the wand tip touched the surface, an incomparably complex magic formation unfolded around him.
It was not inscribed upon the ground.
Instead, it was directly branded into the surrounding fabric of space itself.
"Finite Incantatem: Sole Law!"
A deep chant imbued with supreme authority echoed through the chamber.
In the next instant, a brilliant radiance of absolute purity erupted forth, seemingly composed of countless microscopic runes of law.
Like the first ray of light born at the dawn of creation, it exploded outward.
This light was not merely energy.
It was the manifestation of Ian's understanding of the fundamental principles of magic… Order, Stability, and Existence itself.
The radiance expanded into an ever-growing hemispherical barrier. Within a region already dominated by the law of decay, it forcibly established a territory that belonged solely to Ian…
An Order Domain.
The light and the Corruption Domain collided violently. At their boundary, harsh sizzling noises echoed continuously, like droplets of water falling into boiling oil.
Wherever the Light of Order passed, the dissolving earth was forcibly stabilized, returning to solid stone covered in a crystalline magical sheen.
The poisonous air was purified and driven away, creating a safe zone where one could breathe freely.
As for the ghostly hands lunging toward him, the moment they touched the Light of Order, they became like evil spirits exposed to the blazing midday sun.
They released even more piercing shrieks, now tinged with unmistakable fear.
Their forms rapidly blurred.
Then they vanished completely.
As the ghostly hands were purified, they reverted into their most basic negative-energy particles.
At the same time, Ian compressed and wove his vast ocean-like mental power to its absolute limit. Within the Order Domain, he constructed another barrier, a mental shield as solid as the purest crystal, its surface flowing with countless intricate ancient silver runes.
The barrier enveloped him from head to toe.
The lingering curses and wails that had pierced through the weakened Light of Order and still sought to invade his soul slammed into the mental barrier, producing a series of crisp ding-dang sounds like heavy rain striking banana leaves. Yet they failed to shake it in the slightest.
Ian remained as immovable as a mountain.
However, the Fallen God's methods were bizarre and unpredictable.
A flash of light mixed with madness and cunning flickered through its crimson eyes.
Its withered hands suddenly clasped together before its chest.
A grotesquely twisted rune, seemingly formed from countless anguished faces, flashed briefly within its palms.
"Echo of Pain!"
A strange and inexplicable wave of power swept across the battlefield like ripples on water.
To Ian's shock, he discovered that the corrupted energy he had just purified, the remnants of the dissipated ghostly hands, and even part of the pure magic power naturally leaking from him while maintaining the Order Domain and Soul Barrier were all being forcibly captured and extracted by that mysterious force.
These completely different and even mutually conflicting energies were violently fused together under the influence of the twisted divine magic.
It was as if an invisible giant hand had forcibly kneaded them into one mass.
The result was a series of chaotic arrows, their colors a turbulent mess, their internal energy wildly unstable, radiating pure destruction.
Even more unsettling, the arrows seemed to possess a malicious will of their own.
Locking onto Ian, they shot back toward him with greater speed and even more power than before.
To be fair, this move was exceptionally vicious.
Not only did it exploit Ian's own power, but it also incorporated Divine Power infused with pain and chaos, multiplying the strength of the counterattack.
And it was extremely difficult to defend against through conventional means.
Much like how hypersonic missiles were nearly impossible for Muggles to deal with.
"Hmm. It seems his mind hasn't completely broken. It's merely been corrupted. He still retains enough intelligence."
Ian's pupils contracted slightly.
His thoughts raced like lightning.
Meanwhile, his wand had already traced two intersecting arcs through the air, each following profound and mysterious trajectories.
"Mirror Reflection! Magic Power Disassembly!"
A massive magical barrier instantly condensed before him.
Smooth as a mirror and edged with a mercury-like sheen, its surface was not flat but composed of countless microscopic reflective facets that continuously adjusted their angles, seeking the most efficient way to redirect and scatter the energy of the incoming Chaos Arrows.
At the same time, another exquisitely refined disintegration spell spread outward.
Like countless invisible threads possessing minds of their own, it wrapped around the incoming arrows.
Rather than confronting them head-on, it acted like the world's greatest bomb-disposal expert, searching for the fragile nodes within each arrow's energy structure before detonation.
Then, one by one, it quietly unraveled the magical connections holding them together.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions thundered one after another, deafening in intensity.
The Chaos Arrows slammed into the Mirror Barrier in rapid succession.
The first several arrows were successfully deflected and redirected into the surrounding walls, blasting enormous craters into the stone and sending debris flying everywhere.
At first glance, the defense appeared highly effective.
Unfortunately, it did not last long enough.
There was no helping it.
There were too many arrows and their energy was simply too violent.
After enduring attacks far beyond its limits, the Mirror Barrier emitted a mournful cry and shattered like broken glass.
Meanwhile, Ian's disassembly magic had only managed to neutralize roughly one-third of the incoming arrows.
Several still remained.
Seven or eight streams of Chaos Energy, like rabid dogs unleashed from their chains, crashed violently into Ian's Soul Barrier and the outer layer of his Order Domain.
"Urgh!"
Ian's body shook violently, as though an invisible warhammer had smashed directly into his chest.
The Soul Barrier flickered intensely.
The silver runes flowing across its surface brightened and dimmed erratically, as though it might collapse at any moment.
The outer Order Domain suffered even more severely.
Ripples spread throughout the domain, while several clearly visible cracks appeared along its edges.
Its overall radiance dimmed noticeably.
The Law of Chaos contained within the energy invaded his body, causing his blood and magical power to churn violently.
Even the circulation of magic through his pathways became sluggish and painful.
"Heh-heh-heh... Excellent! Excellent!" The Fallen God released a hoarse and triumphant cackle.
"A Legendary soul and Legendary magic power truly are supreme nourishment! They're far superior to those muddle-headed Spirits of Nature!"
Greed nearly overflowed from its crimson eyes. It could clearly see that although Ian had barely managed to withstand the counterattack, the effort had cost him greatly.
And he had already suffered a number of hidden injuries.
Just as Ian had said, the creature had merely fallen, it had not lost its mind.
This outcome was exactly what it wanted.
By using this nearly shameless attack that combined corruption with reflective properties, it intended to slowly wear Ian down, torment him, and eventually devour this rare "tonic" completely.
Using Ian's magic power as fuel, it hoped to eliminate the corruption afflicting its own body.
At least part of it.
The fact that Legendary magic power was more effective than Divine Power at destroying corruption was a secret known only to the Fallen God.
It was also the reason why it had become so excited the moment it saw Ian.
Not giving Ian any opportunity to catch his breath, the Fallen God raised its withered hands before its chest.
Filthy Divine Power, dense enough to seem tangible, poured out of its body like black ink.
It gathered and compressed wildly within its palms.
The surrounding air emitted a deep humming sound under the pressure of the terrifying energy concentration.
Even space itself began to distort slightly.
Then… A completely black spear slowly took shape.
Viscous black droplets continuously dripped from its surface. It radiated an absolute aura of Finality and Annihilation of All Things.
Its spearhead was not sharpened metal. Instead, it was a miniature black hole, endlessly rotating and devouring all light around it.
"Spear of Silent Death! Pierce through! Return this vibrant existence to eternal silence!"
Anyone hearing that declaration without context would think the Fallen God had watched too much Bleach and succumbed to a bout of chuunibyou.
It was obvious that creating such an attack consumed an enormous amount of energy.
Summoning all its strength, the Fallen God hurled the spear infused with its core Law of Annihilation.
The instant the spear left its hand, it seemed as though even sound itself had been swallowed.
Only a clear trail of absolute deathly silence remained in the void. Its speed surpassed the limits of visual perception.
Ignoring the distance between spaces, it shot directly toward Ian's heart.
This attack had already locked onto Ian's very existence.
"Did you learn that from Odin? Throwing a spear like this is practically Odin's signature move."
Every hair on Ian's body stood on end as an overwhelming premonition of death washed over him like a bucket of ice water.
He understood clearly.
Conventional defensive magic… Even an Armor Charm strengthened to its absolute limit, or the Order Domain itself, would likely be torn apart like paper before an attack containing the pure Law of Annihilation.
"When faced with a problem, don't panic. Think a little longer and you'll find a solution."
At the edge of life and death, Ian's mind operated faster than ever before.
All the magical knowledge he had accumulated throughout his life surged through his thoughts like boiling springs.
He chose not to meet the attack head-on.
Instead, he sought a more elegant solution.
One closer to the origin of the rules themselves and Ian's extraordinary intelligence did not disappoint.
He truly found a way.
His eyes transformed.
Within his left eye, the phantom image of a silver hourglass slowly revolved.
Within his right eye were reflected countless overlapping folds of space.
His wand was no longer being swung.
Instead, he gripped it firmly with both hands and held it vertically before his chest, the tip pointed directly at the incoming Spear of Silent Death.
Drawing upon his vast ocean-like mental power and magic power, he separated them into two distinct yet interconnected streams.
One simulated the ripples of Time.
The other simulated the ripples of Space.
"Time Distortion - Eternal Moment!"
"Space Folding - A Near Distance Yet Worlds Apart!"
His deep voice carried a strange magical resonance.
The instant his words fell, the flow of time around the incoming Spear of Silent Death underwent a dramatic and unnatural distortion.
Under Ian's perception and magical influence, the spear's lightning-fast trajectory appeared to stretch infinitely.
Every tiny movement became clearly visible.
It was as though the weapon had fallen into an incredibly viscous swamp of time.
In reality, this temporal distortion may have bought him only a few hundredths of a second.
But that was enough.
Within that tiny fraction of real time, the spear was forced to experience what felt like a much longer journey.
It was a method of attrition.
At the same time, the structure of space before Ian began to undergo bizarre changes.
This was not a simple spatial barrier.
Rather, it was as though a sheet of paper had been folded over itself again and again.
Between Ian and the spear, dozens of microscopic spatial faults were instantly created.
Invisible to the naked eye.
Yet each dramatically increased the true distance that had to be crossed.
Yes.
A double layer of insurance.
Each fault functioned as an independent miniature spatial bubble.
The spear would have to penetrate every single bubble before it could reach Ian himself.
Not that these measures could stop it forever.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
But they dramatically increased the actual distance it needed to travel while continuously consuming the Divine Power contained within it.
Bzzzz…!
The Dark Spear entered the distorted region of space-time.
Its unstoppable speed visibly decreased. It was as though it had slammed into an invisible mass of elastic gel.
The annihilating aura surrounding it remained terrifying. Yet as it pierced through layer after layer of temporal slowing and spatial folding, its energy inevitably became dispersed and weakened.
Even the miniature black hole at its tip appeared to rotate just a little slower.
And that precious time…
Combined with the spear's weakened state, was exactly what Ian needed.
Without the slightest hesitation, he unleashed the final move he had prepared long ago.
"Behold my Divine Might!"
(End of Chapter)