Before the words had even faded, the most agile of the tentacles, its tip shaped like a massive pincer, shot out like a striking venomous snake. It ignored the hastily erected layers of Magic Power shields and, with terrifying precision, seized Ian once again!
The strength of that tentacle was overwhelming. It constricted instantly, and Ian felt every bone in his body groan under unbearable pressure. His Magic Power was completely sealed; even breathing became difficult. He was lifted high into the air like a lamb awaiting slaughter, suspended directly before the sixteen perfect faces of the evil god.
"Struggle!" The evil god sneered. The tentacle gripping Ian began to move slowly, delivering him toward one of the faces, toward a gaping maw filled with razor-sharp teeth. "Let fear seep into your soul! Let despair devour your mind! Savor, in eternal agony, the foolish choice you made today as you become part of my 'perfection'!"
Ian was tightly gripped, like a small bird caught in the coils of a giant python. He struggled with all his might, Magic Power surging, body twisting, but the evil god's strength was like a mountain, utterly unmoving. The tooth-filled mouth drew closer and closer. A foul stench washed over him, and he could even see deep inside the mouth, the dark purple, pulsating flesh walls, like living organs.
Never had the shadow of death felt so clear.
At the very instant the jaws were about to snap shut, when the teeth were about to bite down, Ian, who seemed utterly cornered, suddenly stiffened.
Then, on his face twisted with pain and suffocation, the corner of his mouth slowly, strangely, curved upward.
"Heh…"
A low, hoarse chuckle, filled with indescribable mockery and calculation, squeezed out from his crushed throat.
The evil god's movements paused, less than half a second, disrupted by this ill-timed laughter. A flicker of confusion passed through its purple-red eye.
"Still laughing at death's door?"
A trace of unease flashed through its mind so it tried to suppress that instinct with a furious roar.
Still inexperienced. Lived too short a time.
In that instant of hesitation…
"I am the bridge between reality and illusion."
All of Ian's remaining Magic Power, together with the "Prince" Power of Bloodline ignited by Sun God Ra, now completely unleashed under the pressure of certain death, erupted like a collapsing galaxy! The massive pincer holding him could not stop this transformation born from the essence of life itself, transcending physical form!
Poof!
With a soft sound, the "Ian" clenched in the giant pincer instantly turned into a flurry of black feathers! The real Ian, concealed within that storm of feathers, slipped through the gaps in the pincer in the form of a Raven, like a streak of black lightning, breaking free in an instant!
He phased into the void.
Then reappeared in reality.
In the blink of an eye, he escaped his restraints.
Using the evil god' own pulling force, he shot forward like an arrow released from the bow, straight toward the nearby Eye of Ra!
"What?!" The evil god was horrified, but it was already too late to stop him.
"Damn it!"
The giant maw snapped shut violently due to the sudden turn of events, crushing nothing but a useless clump of feathers with a hollow kā chā sound. Its purple-red eye instantly filled with rage and shock!
Ian, that black Raven, did not hesitate for even a moment!
From the very beginning, his goal was never to escape!
His trajectory was straight, resolute, carrying the determination of mutual destruction, as he launched his final, and deadliest, dive toward the "Eye of Ra," now just within reach!
From the moment he was seized by the tentacle and pushed toward the mouth, Ian had already abandoned meaningless resistance. Enduring immense pain and suffocation, he waited for this exact moment!
He gambled on the arrogance of the "victor", that the evil god would personally deliver its "prey" close to the core of its power!
Risking his life, using himself as bait, he completed the most crucial step with the enemy's own hands, closing the distance to the Eye of Ra using the evil god' own strength!
"No…!"
The evil god wasn't entirely witless. At last, it realized Ian's scheme and let out a thunderous roar. All its tentacles went berserk, rushing back in defense!
But…
Too late!
Even as the evil god frantically tried to stop him, everything was already beyond saving. Ian was already extremely close to the Eye of Ra, and with the added pull from the evil god itself… This strike was unimaginably fast.
The black Raven was like a moth flying into flame, like a blade thrust toward a heart. At a speed beyond limits, with all his strength, he drove his iron-hard beak…
Fiercely, precisely, into the pulsating, pus-covered core of the Eye of Ra!
"Bastard!!" Set-Apep let out a terrified roar.
Kā chā!
A crisp, glass-shattering sound echoed throughout the entire War of Gods space! A crack appeared on the Eye of Ra, and golden light burst forth from within it.
"No! Impossible!" The evil god frantically tried to repair the amulet, but the crack spread rapidly, soon covering the entire Eye of Ra.
At the instant it fractured, time itself seemed to freeze. The golden amulet embedded in the evil god's neck erupted with a blinding brilliance, like countless suns exploding at once. The cracks spread like living things, quickly covering its entire surface.
Hōng lóng!
The Eye of Ra exploded completely, shattering into countless golden fragments. From the center of the explosion surged an indescribably vast power, like a volcano dormant for ages suddenly erupting.
The energy vortex began to collapse. The tentacles binding Osiris and Isis snapped apart one after another. The evil god roared in pain and unwilling fury as its body began to disintegrate at high speed. Without the Eye of Ra, the anchor that stole the Sun God's essence, it could no longer sustain such a massive form.
"No…!!!" Set-Apep roared, his voice filled with disbelief, terror, and rage. "Impossible! My perfect plan… !"
That roar carried curses toward Ian, toward the Underworld couple, toward the entire world, but even more, it carried despair at the complete shattering of his so-called "perfection."
From the center of the explosion poured out an immeasurable torrent of power, the long-stolen, long-imprisoned essence of the Ra.
The golden flood swept across heaven and earth like the first light at the dawn of creation. As the core of a sun suppressed for billions of years, it erupted violently from the shattered pupil!
Under the impact of this pure Divine Power, the energy vortex collapsed entirely.
All the matter and energy that had been devoured were released.
The light was no longer gentle sunlight; it was liquid, surging, carrying supreme authority and purifying might! It roared like a golden tsunami.
Then came the most shocking sight, Set-Apep's abdomen suddenly swelled violently, as if something inside was about to burst out.
His skin turned transparent, revealing a curled figure within, awakening.
"Damn you, Ra!" The evil god howled in agony, trying to hold down his swelling abdomen, but it was useless.
At the very moment his core collapsed and his body twisted in pain, his huge form was torn open from within by an invisible force!
A massive hole ripped open across his abdomen, its edges burning with pure golden flames.
And from within that wound, amid churning pus, blood, and golden fire, a small, barefoot figure slowly, firmly tore its way out.
It was the little boy who had been curled up at the center of the Vault, the one with golden eyes.
He was, indeed, Ra himself.
But now, he was completely transformed.
He floated in midair, his small body bathed in the torrent of Divine Power erupting from the Eye of Ra, like a river of golden stars. Those once light-devouring black eyes had now become two eternally burning golden suns, radiant beyond measure, illuminating the cosmos.
"Y-you… how dare you…!"
Set-Apep stared in disbelief at the Sun God emerging from his own body, his already shattered form collapsing even faster.
Ra hovered in the air, enveloped in golden light. The Divine Power released from the Eye of Ra gathered toward him like bees returning to their hive, merging into his body.
With every trace of Divine Power absorbed, his form became more solid, and the pressure he radiated grew stronger.
"I… have returned."
The tattered white robe on the Sun God dissolved under the cleansing flow of Divine Power, replaced by a sacred armor of pure light, resembling a Pharaoh's crown and a scarab chestplate.
Streams of golden Divine Power surged from the Eye of Ra like rivers returning to the sea, like birds returning to their forest, fierce yet orderly, as they converged into his small form.
His existence stabilized, ascended within the light.
Divinity radiated outward in waves from his body.
Where that light passed, even the dark red clouds in the sky, polluted by the evil god, thick like coagulated blood, were rapidly purified and dispersed.
At last, the long-lost, pure, warm blue of the sky began to reappear, spreading across the heavens like a freshly cleansed canvas.
The unsettling golden hue gradually faded, replaced by the warm and pure color of true sunlight.
The "Sun" of the universe itself was being forcefully corrected, returning to its rightful essence, the origin of life. The false sun in the sky completely dissipated. Though the true sun had not yet fully risen, its light had already begun cleansing the world.
Ra spoke, his voice calm yet filled with authority.
Within those golden eyes burned the fire of eternal wisdom.
"Your theft ends here."
It sounded like a final judgment, one that the evil god could not accept.
"I am the most powerful! The most perfect!"
Set-Apep's massive body, struck by the double blow of the shattered Eye of Ra and the Sun God bursting free, collapsed backward like a beast with its spine torn out. His remaining form continued to disintegrate and shrink under the wash of golden Divine Power, the purple-red glow fading to its lowest point.
Yet the essence of "evil" did not vanish. Instead, in total defeat and destruction, it was forced into its most primal, twisted, and grotesque form.
Set-Apep completely lost his divine appearance, transforming into a monster composed purely of darkness and chaos. His remaining consciousness, like a fusion of countless resentful souls, let out a final shriek filled with boundless hatred, gathering all his remaining, filthiest dark power.
The evil god became a distorted torrent of purple-black energy, formed of countless wailing faces, and charged recklessly, berserk, toward the Sun God floating in midair and absorbing Divine Power.
"Even if I lose my Divine Power, I'll drag you down with me!" he roared madly.
This torrent carried his final curse and will to destroy; its power was immense.
But it could not even touch Ra.
Just as the purple-black flood was about to reach that small figure bathed in golden Divine Power, a majestic golden barrier, formed purely from the power of the Sun God, resembling an ancient Egyptian temple, quietly appeared before him.
The torrent slammed into the barrier and vanished like mud sinking into the sea, without creating even the slightest ripple.
The barrier did not move in the slightest. Instead, it filtered and purified the evil and hatred within the torrent like a sieve, turning it into harmless specks of light that dissipated.
The Sun God did not even blink.
Those twin golden sun-like eyes gazed calmly downward at the remaining, collapsing remnants of the evil god, like a god looking upon dust.
Well… He was a god.
His very existence was an insurmountable divide. The remaining power of the evil god could not even make the hem of his garment tremble.
"Do you still not understand?" Ra shook his head lightly, a trace of pity in his tone. "You were never a true god, only a thief who stole Divine Power."
"A mere aggregation of evil over time. Now that my Divine Power has returned to its rightful owner, you naturally revert to your true form."
His words struck deeper than any blade.
The evil god' roar grew increasingly hysterical.
At that moment, far outside the Temple, on the ruins at the edge of the city, the female priest Karina, who had been staring toward the War of Gods in despair, along with the believers behind her, those who had been denied "suicide release" by Osiris and could only wait hopelessly for the end, suddenly raised their heads.
They saw it.
They saw the golden torrent of Divine Power tearing through the blood-red sky like a cascading waterfall.
They saw the small golden figure floating in the air, like a newborn sun.
They saw the nightmare-like dark red sky being rapidly dispersed, replaced by the long-lost, pure blue of heaven.
A ray, no, countless rays, of true, warm sunlight descended like golden swords, generously illuminating this land that had been cursed for far too long.
When they saw the light of the true Sun God shine once more, these devout people fell to their knees, tears streaming from their eyes.
"It worked… it really worked… that one-in-a-million chance!"
Karina's lips trembled as tears poured down like a bursting dam, washing away the dust and despair on her face.
Behind her, the believers, whether wounded warriors or dying civilians, elderly with white hair or ignorant children, all knelt and cried aloud.
"Ra… it really is Lord Ra…"
Karina sobbed as she felt the warm, pure sunlight fall upon her.
Then something astonishing happened, wherever the sunlight touched, all injuries began to heal at a visible speed. Those who had been mutated by the evil god' corruption returned to normal. Extra limbs fell away, new skin covered exposed flesh, and frenzied eyes regained clarity.
The entire city seemed to awaken.
Like being infused with the spring of life, tender green shoots broke through cracks in the ruins. Dry riverbeds began to flow again with clear water. Even the air filled with a long-lost freshness, the scent of life.
Dormant life was being gently, firmly awakened by the returning power of the Sun God.
Sunlight, like the source of all life, cleansed all filth and darkness.
Yet amidst this sacred scene of revival, one person was doing something completely out of place.
Ian Prince was lying on the ground, completely ignoring his image, groping around frantically.
"Where are the fragments? Where did all those fragments go?" He muttered to himself, his eyes scanning the ground anxiously.
(End of Chapter)
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