The will of the alchemical world had weakened far too much.
Rowena now actually possessed enough power to restart the alchemical world directly.
Of course, she could only think about it.
Dozens of contestants, along with Salazar, were still inside the alchemical world.
If she chose to restart it now, Salazar would most likely be fine, but the young wizards were another matter entirely.
"Salazar really did a good job," Rowena could not help remarking.
When it came to the alchemical world, Salazar had truly helped her far too much.
...
At that moment, inside the alchemical world, everyone, including the contestants, was fleeing.
For some unknown reason, disaster had suddenly descended.
Terrifying floods swept across everything, turning half the continent into a vast expanse of water. Alongside the floods came hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
At least, those were the names ordinary people in the alchemical world gave to the disasters.
Anyone with deeper knowledge, however, would understand that a battle between gods had broken out.
Those natural disasters were all consequences of the divine battle.
Existences on the level of gods were fighting!
But regardless of whether they understood the true nature of the disaster, everyone still had to flee.
The gods fighting were naturally Rhys and the so-called deities of the alchemical world, each of whom controlled one of the elements.
The battle between Rhys and the four gods destroyed half the continent, returning those lands to a state of raw nature.
Although the gods possessed the advantage of fighting on their home ground, all four were somewhat inferior to Rhys in the development and application of their domains.
These four fellows had not even fully understood their own domains, let alone achieved domain awakening.
Combined with Rhys's advantage in making the first move, this allowed him to fight four opponents at once without falling behind.
In the end, because the four gods did not coordinate particularly well, and because the Water God's domain almost completely overlapped with Rhys's own, Rhys managed to create an opening through the Water God.
He traded injury for life, forcibly killing the Water God.
After another period of fighting, he then eliminated the slightly weaker Fire God and Earth God in one stroke.
Although three of the four gods were dead, the situation did not improve.
The remaining Wind God was the strongest of them all and still possessed the support of the world's will, while Rhys himself had already suffered severe injuries.
If the battle continued like this, both sides would very likely perish together.
Rhys had already prepared himself for the worst.
But at that moment, the world's suppression of him suddenly weakened dramatically, and the Wind God's authority was also greatly reduced.
Rhys and the Wind God both cried out in surprise.
The difference was that Rhys shouted, "Rowena," while the Wind God shouted, "The world-ending calamity!"
Since the world's will no longer had the attention to spare, Rhys naturally would not let such an opportunity pass.
With Rowena assisting him from outside, Rhys finally dealt with the last enemy.
After putting away the azure world fragment dropped by the Wind God, Rhys descended back to the ground.
The moment he forced himself to land, he could no longer suppress the injuries within his body.
The wounds left by the various enemies erupted all at once.
His aura weakened at a visibly rapid pace, while large numbers of scales began growing uncontrollably across the surface of his body.
Rhys understood.
This was because the injuries to his soul had completely spiralled out of control.
He needed to start arranging certain matters.
Staggering forward a few steps, Rhys entered a forest that had not yet been destroyed by the aftermath of the battle.
He casually chose a tree and collapsed against its trunk.
Then he reached into his robes and took out the crystal ball issued by the Ministry of Magic.
Looking at the completely intact crystal ball, Rhys could not help chuckling.
This thing was surprisingly durable.
After such an intense battle, the crystal ball had somehow miraculously survived without being destroyed.
That alone could probably be considered a small miracle.
"Damn Rowena. She didn't interfere earlier, but she still had time to try making a 'call.'"
Clutching the crystal ball and leaving a bloody handprint across its surface, Rhys could not help complaining about Rowena's actions.
While he had been in the middle of an intense battle against the four gods, Rowena had actually tried to "call" him.
At that moment, Rhys really had been unable to stop himself from swearing.
Now that everything had finally settled, Rhys took the initiative to contact Rowena.
The instant the "call" went through, Rowena answered.
Then the sight of Salazar in the crystal ball startled her.
"What the hell? Salazar, are you all right?"
Rhys: "..."
"That question sounds a little too much like Helga."
Rhys could not resist snapping back at her.
Did he look all right?!
"I'm right here," Helga complained from the side.
But after she came over and saw Salazar's appearance, she was startled as well.
At that moment, more than half of Salazar's face was covered in bluish-green snake scales.
The eye within the scaled portion of his face had completely transformed into a snake's pupil.
As for the part of his face not yet covered by scales, it had no colour whatsoever, making him look almost like a corpse.
"Salazar, you..."
Helga had originally wanted to tell Salazar not to waste time talking to them and to focus on healing himself first.
But the words stopped at her lips.
She suddenly remembered that Salazar was the most skilled healer among the four of them.
And since he was the injured one himself, there was truly no need for her to say anything unnecessary.
Whatever choice he made would undoubtedly be the correct one.
"It can't be healed. The physical injuries are manageable, but the damage to my soul is too severe."
Rhys's tone was so calm that it sounded as though he were talking about someone else.
In his current state, it was difficult to say whether Rhys's soul or Voldemort's was more damaged.
The guys of the alchemical world really had been powerful.
They had left him with many injuries that could not be treated.
After his voice came through the crystal ball, Rowena and Helga both fell silent.
In the end, Rowena took a deep breath and told Salazar not to think nonsense.
"Just hold on for now. Helga and I will think of something. Once the competition ends..."
"I'm going to die."
Rowena was instantly rendered speechless.
Then a surge of anger rushed straight to her head.
"Salazar, what nonsense are you talking about?! Are you looking down on me? I'm telling you, I could casually come up with a hundred treatment methods..."
"It's a Prophet's prophecy."
"Huh?!"
Rowena and Helga both froze.
"This is fate. There's no need to forcefully reverse it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just listen to me..."
Rhys's voice continued coming from the crystal ball.
His tone remained calm and steady, which gradually eased Rowena and Helga's emotions as well.
The two decided to first listen to what Salazar actually intended to do.
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI