Chthon was not sitting idly by. From beginning to end, what he worried about, what he feared, was only that mysterious and unpredictable suction power from Lucas. He was afraid that in close combat, he would be caught off guard and devoured alive by Lucas.
That feeling...
Just thinking about it made him afraid.
As for a magic duel?
He was the first master of Black Magic, the creator of the Flickering Realm, and in his own domain, naturally had no fear.
In fact, he wished to change the battle's style to a long-range magic duel.
A sorcerer should act like a sorcerer.
Close-quarters combat was too undignified.
Boom!
Crimson light flashed around Chthon's body, instantly connecting with the entire ground.
The next moment, the ground undulated, its amplitude like waves, as if it had come alive.
Five stone pillars slowly emerged from the ground and gradually converged.
Finally, they formed a fist.
The gray fist rose from the ground, meeting the brilliant white palm descending from the sky.
Boom!
The moment the fist and palm collided, time seemed to freeze for a moment.
Immediately after, the air exploded, scattering wildly. A terrifying shockwave swept out, dispersing the clouds.
The result of the fist and palm collision also followed the rules of rock-paper-scissors.
The palm was greater than the fist.
Boom!
Under the pressure of the brilliant white palm, the gray fist began to retreat downwards.
The struggle between the two caused the ground to tremble, and soil continuously peeled off from the fist.
"Damn it!"
Within the ground, Chthon roared, crimson light flashing around him again.
The next moment, another fist emerged from within the ground, jointly resisting the descending brilliant white palm.
But...
Chthon had two fists, and Lucas also had two palms.
The second brilliant white palm pressed down, breaking the stalemate.
Boom!
First, the fists could no longer resist and shattered. They transformed into showers of meteors, falling from the sky, plummeting towards the ground, smashing deep craters into the ground.
Adding more scars to this continent, which had been ravaged today.
Immediately after, the brilliant white palm pressed down, with an unstoppable momentum, heavily striking this continent.
In an instant, the ground cracked, and mountains shattered.
This boundless continent, with no end in sight, under the pressure of the brilliant white palm, began to break apart from its center into countless fragments, falling into the void below.
Having dismembered the continent that had previously stood in his way, Lucas felt not a shred of excitement.
Chthon had run away again!
This continent could be described as boundless, its area countless times wider than Asgard. It was equivalent to the surface area of a planet spread out.
But the Flickering Realm was far more than just this piece of land.
Lucas transformed into a brilliant white stream of light and pursued Chthon in the direction he had vanished.
Before long, he caught up to a planet whose surface was covered in ice, but whose atmosphere was furiously burning.
This was Chthon's new hiding place.
And such hiding places...
Lucas gazed into the distance of the Flickering Realm, seeing countless twinkling points of light.
Symbolizing continents or planets.
"Chthon, if you pay back the money, I can let bygones be bygones and leave immediately."
"Heh."
Lucas was met with a sneer, and a planet hurtling towards him.
Lucas knew he couldn't do anything to Chthon, who was determined to flee, and he had also tested his approximate power level, wanting to extract some energy from Chthon before leaving.
Chthon also knew that, with his home-field advantage, Lucas couldn't harm him. Given this, he naturally had no need to pay reparations.
As for whether the damage from their battle to the Flickering Realm would exceed Lucas's demands, Chthon didn't care about that.
Compared to these losses, his dignity was more important.
Moreover, he had been trapped in the Flickering Realm for many years and hadn't had a good stretch. Having someone to spar with him wasn't bad.
At worst, the main parts of these shattered continents and planets were still in the Flickering Realm. With a little more time, they could be restored.
Boom!
With just one punch, the hurtling planet was shattered by Lucas, and Chthon once again disappeared without a trace. However, this time Lucas did not pursue him.
Lucas had figured it out.
Energy was everywhere in the Flickering Realm.
If Chthon liked to hide, then let him hide. Getting the energy into his hands was the real business.
Opening the passage connecting to the brilliant white space, Lucas absorbed the shattered remnants of the planet one by one into the brilliant white space.
For now, the efficiency of converting these substances into energy was extremely low, but he would take what he could.
If Chthon didn't come out voluntarily, Lucas would continuously move the contents of his Flickering Realm into the brilliant white space until he emptied the Flickering Realm.
The matter from the Flickering Realm entered the brilliant white space, and after a brief resistance, was quickly converted into brilliant white energy.
Lucas's eyes lit up.
What is a surprise?
A surprise is...
The matter of the Flickering Realm was not real matter, but elemental energy.
It was just that under the special rules of the Flickering Realm, these energies did not exhibit their elemental aspect, but rather their material one.
This had misled Lucas.
Thus, Lucas completely gave up on chasing Chthon and switched to being a miner.
No one could stop him from mining.
No one!
In the distance, Chthon, who had been watching Lucas, changed his expression.
Just as Lucas began to move the matter of the Flickering Realm into his brilliant white space, waves of piercing pain continuously surged from the depths of Chthon's soul.
The next moment, Chthon's wails echoed, spreading throughout the entire Flickering Realm and the hundreds of nearby dimensions.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
Chthon cursed, actively flying towards Lucas.
His relationship with the Flickering Realm was not just that of creator and creation.
As one of the victors of the Elder God war, Chthon's power had been greatly enhanced by devouring other Elder Gods.
But he could not freely control these external powers. And the result of power that could not be freely controlled by himself was 1+1 < 2.
To this end, he used these external powers in conjunction with himself to create the Flickering Realm, attempting to thereby completely control these powers.
Chthon succeeded but he also failed.
The Flickering Realm became his haven from Atum's pursuit. It also became a cage that imprisoned him and prevented him from returning to reality.
To some extent, the Flickering Realm was him. This was the fundamental reason why he could not leave the Flickering Realm.
How could a person separate from himself?
What Lucas was doing now was equivalent to cutting flesh from Chthon's body and then eating it on the spot.