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In the eyes of the evil god, the scales of victory had completely tipped in his favor.
His laughter was unrestrained, filled with a twisted, almost Cthulhu-like malice.
"HAHAHAHA…!"
A thunderous, maniacal laugh erupted, brimming with the arrogance of survival after disaster and absolute mockery toward a mere mortal. After that brief moment of being suppressed, the evil god's colossal body began to display even more terrifying recovery and power.
Severed tentacles regenerated at a visible speed. The purifying light of the starlight spears was quickly smothered by oozing ichor. Even the impact of the wailing soul hymn was dampened by layers upon layers of writhing flesh.
Not only had his power not diminished, it had become even more violent and unpredictable after devouring Ian's Paradox power.
"Do you see that, insect?!"
All sixteen of the evil god's faces twisted into sinister grins, their voices merging into a piercing chorus of countless screaming souls that stabbed directly into Ian's spirit.
"Is this the pitiful 'blessing' you received from that long-dead remnant? With such crude tricks, unable to even truly grasp 'concepts'... you dare dream of shaking my 'perfection'?!"
"If you had chosen me before, I could have given you far more! Infinite power! Eternal life! Understanding beyond all limits! And yet, you chose a failure who couldn't even preserve his own divine body!"
Its massive purple-red eyes locked onto Ian, filled with naked temptation and disdain.
"You don't understand what it means to choose a side! Open your eyes, blinded by ignorance, and see clearly! I am the future! I am order! I am 'perfection'!"
"Had you followed me, you would have gained power beyond mortal imagination! Your bloodline would have been 'perfectly' elevated! Your magical talent would have been forged in this 'perfect' flame into a miracle surpassing even the gods! And yet, you chose a relic destined to be buried by time! Foolish! Pathetic!"
With that manic laughter, the evil god stopped defending.
All its power converged inward. The Eye of Ra erupted with an unprecedented purple-red radiance, enough to devour everything.
Countless new, thicker, more grotesque tentacles burst forth like giant serpents, carrying an overwhelming aura of destruction. No longer merely targeting Osiris and Isis, the evil god redirected everything, forming a vast, purple-red torrent of pure annihilation energy that surged violently toward Ian and the divine couple behind him.
Within that torrent, Ian could even see distorted traces of Conceptual Annihilation, like venomous fangs glinting with ominous light.
Apocalyptic pressure descended.
The torrent of destruction crashed down like the sky collapsing, carrying the force to erase all existence. The air compressed to its limit, shrieking violently, while space itself fractured into spiderweb-like cracks.
Ian could clearly see those twisted remnants of conceptual annihilation within the torrent, like venomous snakes, aimed directly at his soul.
"Block it!"
Osiris pushed his Wailing Souls hymn to its absolute limit, forming a massive black sonic shield condensed from countless wailing spirits, crashing head-on into the torrent.
Isis crossed her hands before her chest. The starlight around her body suddenly condensed, then exploded outward, forming a celestial barrier of rotating rings inscribed with ancient sealing runes, standing alongside the sonic shield.
"BOOM…!!!"
An indescribable explosion!
At the point where divine powers collided, a lethal flash of light erupted. The sonic shield trembled violently under the impact, its wailing soul phantoms being torn apart and annihilated one by one with piercing screams.
The celestial barrier shattered layer by layer. Sealing runes cracked apart. Isis let out a muffled groan as a streak of starlight-like blood spilled from her lips.
Before the evil god's full-force, destructive strike, their defenses crumbled like sandcastles in a storm.
"Now! Ian! This is your chance!"
At the moment the sonic shield was about to break, Osiris used the last of his strength to push its remaining force toward Ian, creating a powerful propulsion.
At the same instant as the celestial barrier collapsed, Isis condensed her final trace of starlight into an arrow, firing it at an energy node near the Eye of Ra, creating a fleeting, almost negligible opening.
Like an arrow released from a bow, Ian seized that one-in-a-thousand-of-a-second gap bought with the lives and divine power of the two gods.
He squeezed out every last drop of his magic and boiling bloodline power, turning into a streak of black light as he shot straight toward the pulsing Eye of Ra at the evil god's neck.
At the tip of his wand, the rippling force of Conceptual Annihilation gathered once more, interwoven with flickering golden-silver chains of logic, locked onto its target.
However, the evil god's reaction was faster than imagination.
At the very instant Ian shot forward, that massive body, still being restrained by the underworld couple, twisted violently at an impossible speed. Several thick tentacles, long lying in wait like giant serpents, lashed out from cunning angles with a shriek that tore through space itself.
Their target wasn't Ian, but his path.
The tentacles slammed into space, generating distorted force fields and chaotic energy currents, like invisible walls that forcibly knocked Ian's trajectory off course.
"Pfft…!"
Ian was struck head-on by the turbulence. His magic shield shattered instantly, and his body was flung like a broken kite, crashing violently into a ruined temple pillar in the distance. The pillar collapsed with a thunderous crash, half-burying him beneath the rubble.
The "Conceptual Annihilation" ripple he had condensed to its limit scattered upon impact.
"Hahahaha! Naive! Did you think I would be unguarded?!"
The evil god burst into triumphant laughter, its purple-red eyes gleaming with cruel delight. It gave Osiris and Isis no chance to recover, countless tentacles surged like a resurrected forest, wrapping and crushing down with overwhelming force.
"Damn it… this thing's power is completely unreasonable."
Ian clenched his teeth, rapidly switching spells in an attempt to find a weakness. But just as he feared, any magic lost its effectiveness after only a few uses. Set-Apep's learning and adaptation had reached an absurd level.
"Useless! Useless!"
The evil god roared with laughter, its wings of light scattering destructive energy like rain.
"I have already fully understood your magic system! Now, witness what true power is!"
Set-Apep's body suddenly began spinning at extreme speed, forming a massive energy vortex.
All energy between heaven and earth, light, darkness, life, death, even time and space, was forcibly drawn in, merging into the vortex.
Osiris and Isis both changed expression.
"He's extracting the world's origin! Stop him!"
But it was already too late.
The vortex had formed, and was expanding at a terrifying rate. Everything it touched was broken down into its most primitive energy particles and absorbed.
Ian felt his magic being forcibly drained, even the bloodline power ignited by the Sun God Ra began to fluctuate unstably.
The situation for Osiris and Isis was even worse.
As gods, their essence was tied to the world's origin itself; what they were experiencing now was unprecedented agony.
"Enjoy your final moments, foolish beings!" Set-Apep's voice echoed from the center of the vortex, filled with berserk delight. "When the vortex expands to its limit, everything will return to unity… and become part of me!"
The energy vortex expanded like a growing black hole, devouring everything in its path.
Pyramids, temples, the waters of the Nile, even light itself could not escape its pull.
Ian and the underworld couple were forced to retreat continuously, but the vortex expanded far faster than they could move. Countless thoughts flashed through Ian's mind, but none offered a solution to a disaster of this scale.
Just as despair began to take hold, a voice echoed in his mind.
"The Eye of Ra… must be destroyed…"
It was the voice of the Sun God Ra, weaker than ever.
"That… is the key. The only key…"
Ian suddenly lifted his head, staring toward the center of the vortex.
Within that violently spinning storm of energy, the Eye of Ra remained clearly visible, like the calm eye of a hurricane, radiating an ominous glow.
But how could he break through this vortex?
How could he reach that berserk core?
As Ian struggled to find an answer, the edge of the vortex was already closing in.
The aura of death pressed down upon them, true annihilation, from which even gods could not escape.
Set-Apep's laughter resounded across heaven and earth.
"Embrace the void! This is your end!"
The vortex swelled like a cosmic black hole, consuming everything in its path.
Ian Prince, Osiris, and Isis were forced back again and again, but the expansion speed far exceeded their ability to escape.
Massive stones from the pyramids were uprooted. The waters of the Nile surged upward into the sky. Even light bent and twisted at the vortex's edge.
"Hold your ground! Endure it!"
Osiris roared, slamming his hooked staff into the earth. The waters of the River Styx burst forth from the cracks, forming a black barrier that temporarily resisted the vortex's advance.
But the barrier was visibly collapsing; it wouldn't last long.
Isis raised the Ankh Cross high above her head, pouring down life energy like a waterfall to reinforce the Styx barrier.
"This won't work! We have to reach the core!"
Ian gritted his teeth, feeling the surging power of the Sun God within him…
The ignited Prince bloodline granted Ian the temporary power to stand shoulder to shoulder with gods, but even so, in the face of an energy vortex of this magnitude, he still felt overwhelmed.
"I'll try to carve out a path!"
Ian pointed his wand toward the vortex.
"Paradox Path!"
A silver pathway was forcibly opened within the raging vortex. It both existed and did not exist, cleverly bypassing most of the destructive force. But it was extremely unstable, on the verge of collapse at any moment.
"Move!" Ian shouted. "It won't hold for more than a few seconds!"
Without hesitation, Osiris and Isis rushed into the path, Ian following closely behind. The three sped forward along the Paradox path, with berserk energy currents churning violently on both sides, one misstep and they would be reduced to nothing.
Just as they were about to reach the center of the vortex, Set-Apep's mocking laughter rang out again.
"Naive!"
Countless energy tendrils suddenly shot out from the vortex walls, targeting the trio. These tendrils were formed entirely of pure energy, possessing both physical impact and conceptual corrosion.
"Watch out!"
Osiris swung his hooked staff, severing several tendrils, but more surged forward endlessly.
Isis cast an intricate defensive spell. The Ankh Cross spun, forming a protective sphere around the three of them. Yet the tendrils continuously slammed into the shield, producing deafening explosions.
"This won't work!" Ian said urgently. "Someone has to draw his attention, while another gets close to the Eye of Ra!"
"We'll create the opening!"
Osiris and Isis exchanged a glance, nodding in perfect understanding.
The Lord of the Underworld suddenly dropped his defense, pointing his hooked staff toward the vortex core.
"Judgment of the Underworld!"
A jet-black beam shot straight into the center of the vortex. Wherever it passed, even the raging energy flow froze momentarily. This was one of Osiris's ultimate authorities, the power to halt the flow of energy itself.
At the same time, Isis cast:
"Bloom of Life!"
Countless golden flowers blossomed within the vortex, each absorbing surrounding energy and converting it into pure life force. They spread rapidly, temporarily suppressing the vortex's expansion.
A perfect opportunity!
Ian instantly transformed into a streak of light, rushing toward the vortex core at maximum speed.
But just as he was about to touch the Eye of Ra, the unexpected happened.
"I've been waiting for you." Set-Apep's cold voice echoed.
Dozens of energy tendrils shot out from the void, forming a perfect trap.
Caught off guard, Ian was instantly entangled. The tendrils didn't just bind him, they continuously drained his magic power.
"Ian!"
Isis cried out, trying to rescue him, but she herself was ensnared by other tendrils.
Osiris cut through several tendrils with all his strength, but more immediately replaced them. It was clear the evil god had prepared this trap specifically for them.
The energy vortex began expanding again, faster than before.
The River Styx barrier completely collapsed. The life-flowers withered one after another.
Osiris and Isis were forced to focus entirely on defending themselves, no longer able to assist Ian.
"Pathetic insects." Set-Apep's voice dripped with mockery. "Did you truly believe you could defeat me? How laughable."
At the center of the vortex, the evil god's face gradually emerged, a massive visage formed from pure energy, vast enough to cover the sky. The Eye of Ra was embedded in the center of its forehead, like a third eye gazing down upon all beings.
"Look at yourselves now," the evil god sneered. "Lord of the Underworld? Goddess of Life? And that self-righteous wizard? Before my power, you are nothing more than slightly larger insects."
Osiris struggled, but the tendrils tightened further, even wrenching the hooked staff from his grasp.
Isis was in an even worse state, her life force continuously drained, her face pale as death.
"Especially you, Ian Prince."
The evil god's gaze shifted to the Raven bound tightly in its grasp.
"You had the chance to obtain more. I could have given you power beyond the gods, eternal life, infinite knowledge… yet you chose that failed Sun God."
In Raven form, Ian struggled desperately, but the energy tendrils were like unbreakable shackles. The more he fought, the tighter they bound him.
"But it doesn't matter." The evil god's tone suddenly turned almost cheerful. "Once I devour your soul, once I absorb all your knowledge and talent, those powers will still be mine. And you… will suffer eternally within me, regretting your choice."
The tendrils dragged Ian toward the evil god's enormous face.
Its mouth slowly opened. Inside was not a set of teeth, but a swirling energy vortex, radiating terrifying suction.
"Become part of me!" Set-Apep laughed madly. "After that, you'll have all the time in the world to regret your decision. I promise you that."
At that moment, Ian felt his consciousness beginning to blur.
His soul seemed on the verge of being torn from his body.
He could feel the evil god's power seeping into every cell, trying to devour everything he was.
(End of Chapter)
PS— I will post 1 Bonus Chapter for every 100 Power Stones