Page 209

Late Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer

The apostle's fist came blasting into my side at over Mach 7, a speed I simply couldn't dodge without thruster magic prepared beforehand.

But even though it was a strike with enough force to cripple almost any living being, I was showing hostility instead of worry. -You better hope and pray that this hit cripples me...-

*CRRRRUNCH* The scales near his fist shattered like glass before being blasted through my skin and muscle like a shotgun.

But although it hurt, when I gritted my teeth, it wasn't from the pain. "Ack!" *VWOOOOM* The shockwave slammed into the thin walls of my reserve with a horrific amount of force, but instead of it shattering like the man wanted, it morphed around the shockwave like a water balloon. "Urck!"

I felt like I needed to throw up as my reserve was stretched so much I thought it might rip apart, but the shockwave blew through the rest of my body and hurled me into the wall before I could do anything about it.

*WHAM-CRACKLE* The poor tree splintered and broke apart as it desperately tried to absorb my momentum, but I was already several meters deep before it caught me.

-Sh*t...- "Hah... Hah... Hah..." *Craacklee* I tried to catch my breath as I pried myself out of the splintered and destroyed wall, but my lower body felt too weak to stand.

*THUD* I barely managed to keep myself from collapsing when I landed on the ground, but thankfully my shaking was quickly fading away. I could already feel some of the shredded muscles in my abdomen starting to heal, but I still needed more time. -I need to stall for a few seconds...-

"To think your reserve would stay in one piece even after that..." His voice was filled with anger. "You truly are disgustingly resilient, aren't you..."

Glancing over at the voice, I saw him walking toward me with blood dripping from his fist. -Is he really going to start talking again?

- A smile crept onto my face as my confidence started building and strength started returning to my lower body.

"What.. hah.. is your name?" I tried exaggerating my heavy breathing to build up his confidence.

"Why would I give my name to a bast*rd like you?" Arrogance was oozing out of him.

"Haha..." I let out an awkward chuckle. "I just want to know whose temple I need to desecrate after I kill you."

His confident smile was replaced with an unpleasant frown instantly. "If you were trying to provoke me so I'll just finish you off quicker, it won't work."

-You think you can dictate when I die?- An easily misinterpretable, irritated look washed over my provoking smile. -You're overestimating yourself...-

"Unlike the others, I didn't have enough followers for any to still be praising my name after 10,000 years of absence. My followers all died or started following other gods before we were released from that wretched prison..." He wore a look of deep distaste as he popped his neck.

-Wait, what? Prison?-

"But I guess since you fixed this rune for me and made that exact lack of followers no longer an issue, I will share my name.

" He paused as his expression turned back to a cocky smile.

"My name is Magni, the God of Strength." He paused as he bent over.

"You should pray to that name in your next life.

If you are genuine, I might give you a blessing! " *CRACK*

The instant he lunged, he turned hypersonic, closing the distance between us and appearing next to the base of my neck in a flash.

But this time, I was ready. -You talked for too long!- *BANG* Blowing up the mass of cubane sitting in my breath gland, my body was thrown backward, letting me narrowly dodge the punch.

-Have you learned nothing?!- With a slightly crazed smile, I channeled all my upward momentum into my leg, ignited the cubane on the back of my leg, and slammed it into his underside. *Crackle-BANG-FWOOOSH*

*Crunch* He practically teleported to the ceiling before bouncing off a rounded carving and getting thrown into the tornado of fog.

But that was a mistake. -SH*T! I can't afford to lose sight of him!- *BANG-FWWOOSH*

Using space mana to create and use cubane as fuel for a thruster, I hurled myself across the room and into the fog where I expected him to be.

But instead of slamming into him inside the fog like I expected, I came out the opposite side empty-handed.

*Fwip-CRUNCH* -W..where did he go?!- Digging my claws into the ceiling, I looked around in a frenzy before glancing at Ilios still laying just outside of the fog. -He wouldn't dare...-

But that was when I saw a hand pop out of the funnel of fog, only a few meters above him.

Time paused, and my surroundings turned dark in that instant.

My mind raced through countless options of what I could do, but none of them worked. No matter what course of action I thought of, I would arrive late, even if only by a thousandth of a second.

I needed speed, enough to cover the kilometer between us in a fraction of a second, but the thruster magic using the cubane I had ready was still not enough.

That left only a single option.

*BANG* Using the remaining cubane to fold my wings inward, I redirected the space mana I had ready to make and spread nearly a gram of antimatter across my back. -You crossed the line you shouldn't have...-

*FLASH* A light, thousands of times brighter than the sun, filled the room before a wave of heat capable of melting steel ripped through the air.

*BAAANG* I was thrown across the room in an instant, arriving where Magni was in the fog faster than my instinct could even react.

But my mouth was already open. *CRRRRUNCH* My back teeth shattered like brittle stones as they desperately tried to pierce and slice through the apostle's divinity-filled body, but all that mattered was that I held him there.

-You're confident about your survivability, right?!-

*CRACKLE* Ricocheting myself off the ground, I launched myself out of the tree like a comet, with a long tail of plasma tracing my path into the canopy of the Tree of Prayer. (Around Mach 65-70 (24km/s))

But although I couldn't even remotely sustain that speed because of the air resistance, it was more than enough.

"You are truly a freak." Magni's voice was that of a dying man as his body had its limbs ripped off and organs turned to mush by the g-force, but his head that barely remained attached still smiled. "No matter what you do, I will just find another body and come back."

Completely ignoring his useless taunt, I abruptly opened my mouth and slowed down, launching his body out of my mouth like a rocket.

"No matter what you do, you won't be able to kill me!" His smile was full of arrogance and confidence, but his eyes lost their life before I could do anything.

I could only watch as the warp was slowly pulled out of the mutilated body, continuing to grow in intensity until a cloud-like figure in armor was revealed.

But that was when I opened my mouth.

His cloud-like figure glanced at me with a crazed smile, but that expression only came from ignorance.

*FLASH* A cone of light with similar intensity to Ilios's light magic exited my mouth, vaporizing the apostle's body before continuing through the canopy and lighting everything it touched on fire.

-Try surviving this, you cocky motherf*cker!- In the next instant, every ounce of energy contained in 20 grams of antimatter, laced with space mana, exited my mouth. (~450 Kilotons)

The noise it made was indescribably deafening.

*CRRRRRRAAAACCCCKKKKKLLLLLEEEE* The blinding light from the explosion vanished instantaneously as an unfathomable number of holes were ripped in the fabric of space, shredding the atoms that composed the atmosphere and sucking the energy released by them into the void.

Anything and everything in the explosion's path met its end at that instant, with the massive section of the canopy of the Tree of Prayer being no exception.

*CRACKLEEE* The blast continued without losing strength for dozens of kilometers, removing even the tiniest trace of anything in its path from reality, as if it never existed in the first place.

*Fwooosh-Tssss* The humid air sizzled as it rushed past me to try and fill the vacuum left behind by the blast, but it took several more seconds for the holes in the fabric of space to repair themselves.

I didn't just wait around to watch it though.

*CRACK-FWOOOOSH* Using some hastily created cubane, I darted back into the tree and landed next to Ilios. *CRACKLE*

The funnel of fog had become disrupted after I destroyed a section of the rune controlling it by ricocheting off the ground, but the rune was the least of my worries currently.

-If he somehow survived that.. I'm sure he will go for Ilios again.

..- A knot of unease and anxiety was still lingering in my stomach.

-I can't let him lay a finger on Ilios.. .-