Page 208

Mid Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer

-For his presence alone to bend light... Just what am I about to fight...- Too nervous to give him the first move, I created a heavily strengthened steel dart, with a pocket of hexane and hydrogen in the middle, behind a wall of light magic right next to me.

"You have truly impressed me over the last few years, Nott.

You have shown me all kinds of spells I had never heard of and used incredible martial techniques that even I, the god of strength, couldn't fathom.

But even with the unfathomable growth you've experienced and the commendable amount of divinity you managed to acquire, you are limited to a mortal body. "

Wanting to buy a bit more time, I finally spoke to him. "Couldn't I say the same about you then?" But my uncertainty only grew as I spoke. "Even if you are the god of strength, you can only do so much in a damaged body..." -Where.. is his aura...-

He paused for a moment like he didn't believe I was serious.

"Hahahaha! You are quite right! No matter how much of my own divinity I use to strengthen this body, it will still be that of a mortal human.

" His gaze turned hostile in an instant.

"But this much is more than enough to deal with you, even in your wretched dragon f-"

*CRRAACK* The sound barrier ripped apart as I launched the dart at the man's chest.

But even though he seemed to notice and react to it almost instantly, he wasn't remotely fast enough in that body to dodge the Mach 15 hunk of steel.

*CRUNCHHH* The echo of his ribcage getting pulverized filled the air, but just when I thought he was dead, I saw him digging his fingers into the side of the dart, preventing it from flying straight through his body.

But his body was still that of an elf. *fwip* The instant he managed to stop the dart, his feet were swept off the ground, and he was sent flying back toward the opening in the side of the room.

His face turned serious for a moment as he repositioned himself to use air resistance to press his feet back into the ground, but it was already too late. *crackle* The hexane and hydrogen mixture I left inside the dart had already ignited. *BAAANG*

The whole tree shook violently from the explosion, but even though it was nothing to scoff at, after hearing him mention that he knew of my dragon form, my lingering confidence vanished.

-If he knows about my dragon form, my humanoid one definitely won't be enough...- *flash* Filling the room with a blinding purple light, I hastily changed to my dragon form without regard for the 3 other people who were watching the scene from the sidelines.

"To use that spell right off the bat... Talk about some truly frightening magic..." Confidently walking out of the smoke while holding his neck, the man made his way toward me with melted skin and exposed flesh all across his upper body.

He looked like a zombie or some skinless monster from a video game.

-How is someone who looks like that.. still confident.

..- Unable to hold onto my confidence in keeping my eye on Ilios's internals while also protecting him, I gently nudged him out of the beam of divinity and quickly stabilized his condition.

-Ilios.. If you could wake up quickly.. that would be great. ..-

Lowering my stance, I sneakily moved my reserve over the beam of divinity and started absorbing all I could, even when I knew it wouldn't be enough to change anything.

"Haha! Are you really clinging onto that pitiful beam of divinity thinking it'll save you?" He casually lowered himself to the ground before lunging at me. *CRACK* He smashed through the sound barrier instantly.

-If he has the mobility advantage, I'll need to take advantage of his confidence...- I waited until he got close, before darting forward and throwing a casual kick at him, hoping he would dodge.

Which he did. *fwip* Darting around my paw, he got directly under me and threw a punch into my stomach.

*psh-FWOOOSH* I blasted a thruster into his face, thinking I could slam him into the ground and use it as a chance to impale him with a claw, but instead, I felt his fist, aimed at my reserve, meet my gut.

*CRUNCH* My scales shattered like brittle stones as I was launched into the air, but unbeknownst to him, my reserve wouldn't break from blunt force trauma. -My reserve isn't a brittle orb like everyone else's...-

"Ugh..." Closing my eyes and gritting my teeth, I made it look like I was in pain so he'd think his attack was effective.

And it seemed to work since his arrogant look returned immediately.

-Arrogant f*cker...- *flap-FWOOSH* Raising my wings to the ceiling as fast as I could, I threw myself toward the ground and slammed a claw straight into his chest, but before I could get to the ground and drive it through him, he slammed his hands into the opposing sides of it and snapped it like a twig. *crack*

"Ow!" Keeping up my speed, I quickly landed before him and threw a thruster-backed kick into his side. *psh-FWOOSH-CRRRAAACKK* It sounded like every bone in his body broke as he flew into the wall like a beam of light.

But little did I know, the breaking noise wasn't from him.

-What the f*ck?!- When I glanced down at my broken claw, I saw that the scales where I hit him were all shattered. -What the f*ck is this guy made of?!-

*crackle* Pulling himself out of the splintered wall once again, he looked nothing short of a tortured, dying man, yet he was still smiling. "It feels like you just kicked a wall, right?"

Ignoring his taunt, I glanced behind myself to see Ilios still unconscious and the three other apostles still standing at their respective entrances, completely dumbfounded.

But before I could turn back around, the man darted back into my aura and leapt at my head. "Listen to me.. WHEN I'M TALKING!" Putting his whole body into it, he tried to drive his fist into the side of my head.

But now that I could have more confidence that Ilios would be alright without me, I could clear my clouded thoughts.

*VWOOOM* Using my aura to pressure him, he was promptly slammed toward the ground, but that still wasn't enough.

Lining the back of my front leg with hyper-reactive cubane, I planned to use the recoil from the explosion to drive the back of my wrist into his head like it was a soccer ball.

*sizzle-BAAANG* My paw ripped through Mach 10 instantly, driving my several-thousand-ton leg straight into his upper body and popping his head like a balloon. *Cr-r-r-RACK* The sound started to warp as he ripped through the air.

-To think you'd really only have raw strength going for you...- Darting behind him with the help of a cubane-fueled thruster, I launched myself back at him with my jaws wide open. -You created a really disadvantageous matchup for yourself...-

*CrUnCh* His body crunched like a cracker as my teeth were driven into him.

But he still didn't give up.

In the next instant, the headless body went to punch and shatter the inside of my jaw, but I interrupted it by throwing him toward the entrance he came from. *fwip-CRACK*

He flew through the air as a headless, mangled body, but still seemed to be controlling it and trying to land.

But I wouldn't give him that chance. -Even if you use your divinity in that body to control him like a puppet, YOU CAN'T DO THAT IF HE DOESN'T HAVE A BODY!- In a wave of unbridled anger, I instantly created nearly a gram of antimatter in my breath gland and opened my mouth.

*flash-brRRRRRMMMM* Almost instantaneously, the several-million-degree beam of pure energy that left my mouth vaporized his body and everything behind him for dozens of kilometers.

*tssss* The moist wood beneath my feet sizzled as I stood there and let out a deep breath. "Hooh..." -I guess it's to be expected that a god would be overconfident...-

*tap* *tap-tap* *tap* The sound of his remaining, charred, and ashen limbs hitting the ground brought me an incredible sense of satisfaction, but that didn't last long.

*VWOOOOM* Instead of the body and the ridiculous warp vanishing together, the warp remained untouched and unaltered.

It was a cloud that took the shape of a tall and muscular man wearing some sort of armor, but before I could even start to use my space mana to clean him up, he vanished.

"Tch..." -To think such a haughty mother f*cker would run away...- I looked around the room with great haste, simply trying to find the figure again so I could shred it with gates like the female specter told me a few days ago.

But before I could find it, one of the other apostles came charging into my aura with the familiar heavy warp around them at a speed incomparable to before.

-What the?!- My instincts screamed at me and made my thoughts go blank immediately.

In a futile attempt to defend myself, I tried to turn and block him somehow, but I simply couldn't move fast enough without a premade thruster spell.

But after another moment, when I finally noticed where he was aiming his fist, time began to slow and my thoughts returned while carrying a memory I had almost forgotten.

The memory was of an attack I used on accident when I woke up after fighting the lurkers. An attack that mixed an explosion with space mana to shred the fabric of space.

Just being reminded of it made my already growing confidence increase even more. -You better hope and pray that this hit cripples me...- *CRRRRUNCH*