Chapter 218: Battle of Great Power

(Updates will be sparse today; between a full schedule of classes and a bout of the flu, I am both exhausted and drained. I fear that writing more might cause the plot to collapse, so I have managed four thousand words for now; I will provide a bonus update for you all tomorrow.)

"What is that!?"

"Is it the God of Light? So bright! The God of Fear's domain is being torn asunder—such immense power! Our previous attempts couldn't even make a dent in the God of Fear."

"She has struck at the God of Fear, and the God of Fear is moving. This is the first time It has ever moved. Could this thing actually pose a threat to It?"

"Is it friend or foe? If another opponent on the level of the God of Fear appears, the Royal City and Alastair will be completely finished!"

"Why worry about that now? She has attacked the God of Fear, so for the moment, she is our ally. This level of combat is not something we can participate in; let us observe from afar and stay clear of the zone where they clash!"

In the communication devices of the Night Blades, the City Guard, and the Royal Guards—every organization involved in the defense of the Royal City—screams and questions were echoing incessantly.

They could not comprehend what this "angel" was, having suddenly torn through the "Divine Kingdom" of the God of Fear, shattered the plaza's foundation, and soared into the sky amidst countless radiant, shimmering stones.

Few truly knew what lay beneath the abyss, and even fewer were aware of the mission to descend into the depths to activate something.

In Rudolph's home, Zig stood by the window, watching the holy figure rise from beneath the Royal City. His eyes narrowed slightly as he compared the perfect, winged female form to the contents of ancient texts in his memory.

"Is this a divine vessel manifested in the material world by a god who fell during the War of the Abyss?"

Zig asked Rudolph, who stood beside him, his brow furrowed.

"Precisely. It is truly miraculous, is it not? She is so powerful; this vessel itself contains unimaginable strength. It simply lacked something akin to a soul to drive and manipulate it."

"In a sense, she is a god—or rather, a miracle of a god revealed to the mortal realm. As long as the power within this vessel holds out, she will possess strength beyond comprehension."

Rudolph's eyes burned with fanaticism and excitement. This unprecedented novelty struck at his deepest passion: the exploration of secrets and the pursuit of the unknown. This was the very meaning of his life.

"The Divine Remains of the End..."

Zig tasted the name of this ultimate royal weapon. So, the Royal Academy's research had long since shifted in this direction. The immense power of gods was, after all, something mortals had always been curious about and craved.

"The existence of the Shadow of the Royal City is surely not so simple. If those countless ugly polymers beneath the abyss were inverted using the Reflection of the Stars, the resulting 'soul'—a convergence of thousands of hearts—would indeed have the capacity to drive a divine vessel that possesses power but no will."

With his keen intellect, even without being directly told the purpose of the Shadow of the Royal City, Zig had deduced most of the truth.

"Have the Royal Academy and the Royal Family truly considered this? Our use of artifacts has always been superficial; we have never understood their principles or their true functions. Are they really pinning their hope for solving the God of Fear on an artifact they haven't fully grasped?"

Zig's scholarly nature made him deeply skeptical of this "god" created by the Reflection of the Stars. Yet, for now, it seemed that this ultimate weapon—the "Divine Remains of the End," whose controllability remained unknown—was the only thing capable of suppressing the God of Fear.

Zig knew Rudolph must understand this as well, yet he showed no trace of worry or contemplation, only undisguised delight and excitement.

"This guy... was his interest in those historical secrets all along just to satisfy his own curiosity and thirst for knowledge? Serving the royal intelligence agency was merely a means to this end. A truly dangerous man. Compared to being a royal lapdog, someone driven purely by his own desires is far more likely to bring disaster."

Zig shifted some of his attention to Rudolph. The things this "friend," with whom he had collaborated for so long, revealed at this moment made Zig realize exactly what kind of person he was.

Compared to his earlier thought that Rudolph was a royal pawn, Zig now saw him as a bastard who would stop at nothing to satisfy his own cravings.

"Once I confirm Noelle's status, this kingdom will no longer be a suitable place for me to dwell..."

With a heavy heart, he planned to leave this human kingdom where he had spent so many years, and Zig turned his attention back to the clash between the Perfect One and the God of Fear.

"Whoosh!" The Perfect One hurled a spear of light that radiated brilliant splendor. It pierced the dark, enveloping domain formed by the God of Fear's materialized terror, dragging a dazzling tail of light as it shot toward the pitch-black giant shadow in the sky.

"Hum..." A low sound, like the call of a giant whale in the deep sea, resonated. The giant shadow in the sky, which had remained motionless until now, swung its deformed arms. Black chains snaked out from its limbs, overlapping and coiling into a sphere, which it then thrust toward the spear of light.

The spear and the black sphere collided and vanished instantly, seemingly suppressed, extinguished, and devoured into nothingness by the power of the God of Fear.

The black sphere continued its flight toward the Perfect One, showing not a single scratch or sign of wear after consuming the spear.

The giant shadow in the sky, having moved for the first time, seemed to notice the Perfect One—holy and pure, the absolute antithesis of Itself—and began a continuous barrage of attacks.

On its head, which resembled a twisted, deformed walnut, countless dense eyes of varying sizes locked onto the Perfect One, who hovered within the domain of the God of Fear, wings beating.

Close, open. After this simple blink, reality began to warp in the area covered by the God of Fear's power. Within the Divine Kingdom, the god is supreme.

Within the range where the Perfect One's radiance replaced the darkness, countless black vortices manifested in space. Ugly, terrifying things—the embodiment of the fears of sentient beings—crawled out from within.

Unseen plagues, rotting and festering undead corpses, demonic blades stained with blood and flesh, withered children with hollow eyes singing eerie ballads...

Reading the fears of the Alastair souls swallowed into the God of Fear's domain, these manifestations appeared one by one under the influence of the God of Fear's power within the "Divine Kingdom" of materialized terror.

These "manifestations of fear" emerging from the vortices roared, emitting strange sounds, and scrambled toward the Perfect One, who had remained motionless after throwing the spear that was instantly swallowed by the sphere of black chains.

The God of Fear did not stop there. Materializing fear was merely the first step of Its unfathomable will. Its twisted, grotesque limbs swayed, and the giant shadow's arms danced in the air, striking poses that filled one with unease.

The power of fear within the Divine Kingdom began to converge under the influence of these strange gestures. The Alastair people outside were astonished to find that the God of Fear's domain was contracting toward the center, its coverage shrinking.

The total amount of power remained the same, but as the volume decreased, the power became highly compressed. A ring of black mist now shrouded the giant shadow—the power the God of Fear had reclaimed from the shrinking domain.

"Hoo..." It sounded like the reluctant sigh of the dying, filled with the terror of death.

The black mist surrounding the God of Fear converged into a torrent, surging toward the Perfect One, who was now surrounded by the manifestations of fear.

Facing the black sphere of chains flying toward her, the endless, overwhelming manifestations of fear, and the torrent of mist condensed from the God of Fear's power pouring down like a waterfall, the Perfect One's eyes remained indifferent...

Beating her snowy-white wings, she looked up at it all, radiating pure light. The "divinity" displayed by the Perfect One was even greater than that of the God of Fear, who was merely venting its power.

She lifted her right hand slightly. On her expressionless, beautiful face, the light in her eyes flickered for a moment. Then, the approaching sphere of black chains erupted with blinding, dazzling light.

Endless white light projected outward from the gaps in the black sphere's chains. Without warning, the sphere was filled with light, and then, near the Perfect One, it shattered into a sky full of light spots.

The light spots drifted in the air, possessing a will of their own, dancing and circling. As they flowed against the backdrop of the black Divine Kingdom, it was as if a galaxy from the starry sky had descended—a river of stars in broad daylight, flowing ceaselessly.

This galaxy swirled around the Perfect One, forming a barrier. When the manifestations of fear approached within a certain range, they naturally collided with these "Morning Stars."

The next moment, every light spot that touched a manifestation of fear erupted with unimaginable power. Pillars of light that pierced the sky rose from the spots, breaking through the boundaries of the Divine Kingdom until they reached the highest reaches of the heavens.

Countless pillars of light erupted within the galaxy surrounding the Perfect One—unspeakably beautiful, and utterly lethal. The rising pillars expanded, annihilating everything within their range from top to bottom.

Before this galaxy, those manifestations of fear were as insignificant as an individual before the universe; in an instant, they were lost, extinguished, and utterly obliterated within this river of stars.

Heaven-splitting—that was the best way to describe it. Those rising pillars of light truly tore the sky, rending the firmament of the God of Fear's domain and tearing through the clouds outside the Divine Kingdom, leaving behind only a long-lingering white radiance.

"Good thing I ran fast enough. This isn't the first time I've witnessed a battle of such terrifying power that I couldn't possibly participate..."

Wang Yu ran and leaped between the floating stones, doing his utmost to distance himself from the battlefield of the God of Fear and the Perfect One.

He didn't know where these two ranked among the powerhouses he had witnessed before, but he knew this was definitely the time he was most likely to be caught in the crossfire.

No one was protecting him, and he had no way of knowing if he was in a safe zone. All he could do was run, getting as far away from this battlefield of colliding greatness as possible.

A wave of unknown power arrived from behind, passing through Wang Yu's body. The Ripple sensed this power—a force he had never seen before. Swept by this energy, Wang Yu felt a sharp pain in his viscera, and some organs ruptured instantly.

"Pfft!" A mouthful of blood sprayed from his mouth, only to be forced back down by the secret technique of the Bloody Rage Knight.

Wang Yu's running form stumbled, but he adjusted in the next instant, unleashing every ounce of speed he could muster, for he knew that something even bigger was coming.

That wave of power was likely just a precursor to the buildup, yet even so, this intangible energy fluctuation had directly affected reality, causing tangible destruction.

Though it wasn't visible, anyone else would likely have died from that impact.

The fluctuation had ignored all his defenses, shaking his internal organs and causing them to rupture and hemorrhage. That was Wang Yu's state just now; if not for the Bloody Rage Knight technique, he would have collapsed on the spot.

The sound of rocks shattering and buildings collapsing behind him confirmed his suspicion: it wasn't just him; a vast amount of physical matter had been destroyed by that wave.

The river of stars flowed, and countless light spots converged once more. Something even more dazzling than the original spear of light appeared in the Perfect One's hand.

It was a longsword, a blade of pure white light so magnificent it defied description. One could not see the details, but its form alone was enough to make one marvel at its perfection.

"Pat." Her wings beat behind her, and the powerful energy fluctuation emanated from them. The Perfect One was charging up.

Rings of light, visible to the naked eye, appeared behind her, overlapping, rotating, and combining—they were pure energy.

The power continued to scale up. Its mere presence caused the buildings beneath it to collapse and shatter, turning the floating stones nearby into powder—and, of course, giving Wang Yu, the unlucky runner, a brutal jolt.

Raising the radiant blade in her hand, the Perfect One looked with indifference at the torrent of black mist descending from the sky and beat her wings.

"Hum!" The halos gathered behind him vanished in an instant, their contained power unleashed simultaneously, propelling the Perfectionist forward at a speed exceeding that of sound by a hundredfold.

A white arc of light cleaved through the torrent of black mist, surging against the tide; before any observer could discern what had transpired, the colossal shadow of the God of Fear was severed in two, starting from the shoulder.