Warriors draw their strength from the body—From raw physical power, indomitable fighting spirit, surging blood, and an unyielding will to battle—
Mages, on the other hand, draw strength from magic—From intellect, relentless study, unrestrained imagination, and flashes of boundless inspiration.
A mage's advantage is not purely overwhelming offensive power.
It lies in control of the battlefield.
When faced with a powerful enemy, a mage weakens them, restrains them, traps them—forcing them to fight at anything but their full strength.
Frost.Flame.Thunder.Stone.Light.Darkness.
Each is a tactic.
Strike at weakness. Cripple strength.
Through ingenious spell combinations, a mage breaks through impossible situations.
Bang!
In the span of a breath, the two were already fighting at point-blank range.
Bang—bang bang bang bang!
Knees.Fists.Headbutts.Elbows.Kicks.Shoulder strikes.
He wasn't merely swinging his battle-axe—every part of his body had become a lethal weapon.
Every blow was a killing strike capable of punching through layers of shields.
But upon Rei's "True Barrier of Protection," a massive wall condensed—An icy lake formed across its surface—Thirty-six layers of repulsion magic shoved outward simultaneously!
At the same time, Ice Bees, Penetrating Body Thunderquake, and a chain of direct offensive spells detonated at point-blank range.
BOOM!
The body of the War God Kai'ga burned with white flames.
Within the dense fog and darkness, dazzling elemental light erupted from every direction.
Once.Twice.Three times…
Rei began blocking more and more of the attacks.
He was no longer simply throwing out every spell he had.
Ground-type spells were used to limit Kai'ga's movement.
Debuff and binding spells wrapped around his body.
Offensive spells clashed directly with him—
And defensive spells served as the final safety net.
Spells were not only cast on enemies.
They could be cast on oneself.
If repulsion magic couldn't push the enemy away—
Then push yourself away instead. The result was the same: distance.
With every exchange, Rei grasped countless techniques.
Those techniques transformed into instinct almost immediately, executed within the battle itself.
After only a few dozen exchanges—
After exploding into corpses dozens of times—
Rei had begun to grasp the rhythm of fighting him.
The attacks that once seemed impossibly fast…
Now felt no different from those of an ordinary opponent.
My thinking speed has increased.
In truth, Kai'ga had never been moving at an utterly unreactable speed.
Rei's casting speed was simply not inferior to his.
"You!!"
"You're getting stronger!!"
"Interesting!!!!"
BOOM!
Another clash.
The two slammed together again.
But this time—
While Kai'ga attacked Rei, Rei successfully defended—and at the same time, a faint speck of colored light adhered to Kai'ga's abdomen.
"…Just as I thought."
His defense did not rely purely on his physical body.
The instant he sensed an incoming attack—
He condensed a momentary Qi shield over the surface of his body.
That tiny speck of colored "Origin" lit up on his body.
His razor-sharp instincts issued an immediate warning. The moment he sensed Rei preparing to unleash an attack—
A defensive Qi shield instantly condensed around him.
It was like a thin, invisible layer of air covering his body.
Yet the defensive power of that layer was absurdly difficult to break through.
It only existed for a single instant when struck.
Extremely low margin for error—
But the defensive strength was terrifying.
「Origin · Inner-Piercing Void Crystal」
Pfft!
However—
Rei didn't use some overwhelmingly destructive spell.
Instead—
He used Inner-Piercing Void Crystal, a spell that forms directly inside the shield.
Pfft!
This attack produced a ridiculous effect compared to before.
The void crystal stabbed directly into Kai'ga's body.
Previously—even sacrificing 500,000 souls for Convergent Explosion had only barely scratched his skin.
The moment the void crystal formed—
It instantly transformed again.
「Origin · Convergent Explosion — Sacrifice: 500,000 Souls」
BOOM!
Soul-light surged skyward.
The explosion detonated.
But at the same moment—
A fist hurtled toward Rei's face.
Rei defended simultaneously.
BOOM!
Fist and magic collided.
Brilliant elemental fireworks erupted.
Rei failed to block it—his body exploded, replaced by another corpse far away.
Through his senses, he looked toward the War God.
Blood dripped down Kai'ga's body.
"…You're really tough."
Even after taking a 500,000-soul Convergent Explosion, he still hadn't died.
And this time the explosion had detonated inside his shield.
"Looks like you're not truly invincible after all."
If Rei hadn't discovered the nature of his defense, he might really have believed Kai'ga was an unkillable monster.
Even so—
That defense was absurd.
And that instant-release Qi shield…
It was almost too precise.
Like he was predicting attacks before they happened.
Nearly every defense overlapped perfectly with Rei's offense.
It appeared to exist for only an instant—
Yet somehow it blocked everything.
Because the duration was unbelievably short, and it clung tightly to the skin, it looked as though his body itself was enduring the blows.
Without extremely high spiritual sensitivity—and having already grasped the essence of combat—
Rei would never have discovered this secret.
But once discovered—
It proved Kai'ga could be injured.
As long as the shield could be bypassed, his body wasn't strong enough to completely ignore all attacks.
"HAHA!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
"Interesting!! This is how it should be!!"
"This is what a true battle feels like!!"
Rei replied calmly,
"What a coincidence."
"I feel the same way."
That Qi shield technique really was impressive.
If he could learn such a powerful defense, that would be ideal.
Rei thought this as he quietly began experimenting with his own shield structure.
Reduce duration.
Increase strength.
Sacrifice everything else to focus power on a single instant.
It resembled Kai'ga's philosophy of unleashing full force in every strike.
But no matter how he adjusted his shields—
They still couldn't reach that level.
When Iz returns, I'll ask him about it.
The two stood roughly 100 meters apart.
At their level, that distance meant nothing.
「Instant White Flash」
In the middle of their standoff, Rei suddenly launched a sneak attack.
Whoosh!
But Kai'ga turned his head at the exact same moment, dodging it—and closed the distance instantly.
Close-quarters combat.
Rei now had ample experience.
He could see the movements clearly.
Magic formed instantly—
At the same time:
「Origin · Inner-Piercing Void Crystal」
When Kai'ga defended Rei's attacks, he would activate his Qi shield.
Using Inner-Piercing Void Crystal at that moment allowed the attack to form inside the shield layer.
"Interesting!!!"
This wasn't the Void Spike (Tier 3) (LV50) once used by Xu Zhou.
This was its evolved version—
A Tier 4 spell, LV301.
The void crystal pierced Kai'ga's flesh.
Then instantly transformed again—
Turning into dark runes branded across his body.
「Origin · Bone-Seeping Corrupt Devour (Tier 4) (LV301)」
「Sacrifice — 100,000 Souls」
Shhh!
His bare upper body was instantly covered in black-colored curse glyphs.
BOOM!
To land this attack, Rei didn't defend at all.
His substitute body was blown apart.
But he could feel it—
Kai'ga's strength had weakened slightly.
So it worked.
Which meant previous debuffs had simply been blocked.
As long as the attack struck his actual body, Rei's dark-type weakening spells would work.
So this is the key to defeating you.
Bang!
His body shattered again.
Another Origin · Inner-Piercing Void Crystal erupted inside Kai'ga's body.
Thanks to the root magic—
「Origin · Myriad Laws」
Otherwise, even attacking from inside the shield wouldn't have worked.
His physical body was simply too powerful.
The Qi shield would still block external magic.
The only attack capable of striking inside was Inner-Piercing Void Crystal.
But that spell alone lacked the power to damage his sturdy body.
However—
With Origin transformation, the magic could seep directly inside the defensive layer and strike.
This was exactly why Rei had been so interested in Xu Zhou's spell before.
On its own, the spell wasn't very lethal.
At best, it was just an upgraded version of an earth spike.
But in Rei's hands—
It became something entirely different.
「Origin · Shadow Weaving Net」
Pfft!
The void crystal instantly transformed into countless dark threads.
In an instant, they bound Kai'ga from the inside like a wrapped dumpling.
The Shadow Weaving Net wasn't made of physical threads.
It was made of shadow.
Physical attacks couldn't break it.
A mage's true power was not raw offense—
But flexible battlefield control.
The moment the Shadow Net bound Kai'ga—
Rei fired another Origin attack.
Again, detonating inside the shield via Inner-Piercing Void Crystal.
「Deep Frost Water Sphere (Tier 3)」
This was the evolved form of Eternal Frozen Deep Lake.
It condensed the freezing lake water into a sphere that wrapped around the enemy.
Now Kai'ga's body was bound by shadow threads—
And completely encased in a thick layer of extreme ice.
"Underhanded tricks!!"
Kai'ga's body shook violently.
He tried to shatter the net, the freezing water, and purge the curse inside his body.
BOOM!
The twelve spells shattered instantly—
But they reformed immediately.
Heh…
You can shatter magic.
But can you shatter Origin?
Even after breaking, the spells remained attached to his body, reverting to the essence of Origin · Myriad Laws.
Almost simultaneously with their destruction—
They had already regenerated.
Snap—
Black weaving nets once again covered Kai'ga's body.
At the same time—
Rei's other spells layered over him continuously.
Kai'ga moved.
He was still incredibly fast—
But no longer possessed that explosive speed from before.
Rei's Instant White Flash could now keep up with him.
And then—
「Origin · Penetrating Body Thunderburst (Tier 4)」
「Sacrifice — 100,000 Souls」
BOOM!
Rei's strongest close-range burst spell remained:
Penetrating Body Thunderburst.
Purple and crimson lightning exploded across Kai'ga's body.
Convergent Explosion was the strongest spell when sacrificing massive amounts of souls.
But other non-death spells could also be empowered through soul sacrifice.
They simply had lower limits and bonuses.
Before reaching those limits—
A Tier-4 spell enhanced by the same sacrifice was indeed stronger than a Tier-2 Convergent Explosion.
BOOM!
Penetrating Body Thunderburst!
Penetrating Body Thunderburst!
Penetrating Body Thunderburst!
From time to time, Rei transformed the frost sphere into Thunderburst and bombarded Kai'ga's body relentlessly.
This battlefield…
Was too favorable for Rei.
If not for this sea of corpses—
He might never have been able to defeat him.
But suddenly—
Wrapped in shadow, face obscured—
Kai'ga raised his battle-axe into a stance.
"Running around everywhere!!!"
"Is this all you can do?!"
"HAAAA—"
"AAAAAAHHHH!!!"
A terrifying aura erupted from within him.
BOOM!
A shockwave exploded outward instantly.
Countless corpses flew into the air—
Everything within a one-kilometer radius was blasted away.
Whoosh!
Before Rei could react—
BOOM!
A slash shot skyward in the distance—
Along with mountains of corpses.
The distance?
No… my surroundings changed.
Rei came to his senses.
The scenery shifted again.
Bang!
Another shift.
Wait—
He had just been attacked.
So Death Exchange Technique activated, switching him with another pre-marked corpse.
Whoosh—
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!
His field of vision changed rapidly in an instant.
Rei immediately realized the danger.
He instantly formed connections with nearby corpses—
Reserving even more as substitutes.
His speed increased.
So fast I can't track him?
BOOM!
Rei felt his shield shatter instantly—
Then Death Exchange triggered again.
His viewpoint changed.
And in that same instant—
Kai'ga chased him at a speed invisible to the eye, killing the substitute again.
BOOM!
Slashes raged wildly.
Rei switched to a distant corpse again—
Only to see a massive storm forming where he had just been.
「Battle Technique — Great Blade Storm」
In that direction, countless corpses were shredded.
Clearly he couldn't switch there anymore.
Exchange avoided damage—
But didn't grant immunity.
If his real body were touched—
He would still die instantly.
He hadn't been using his full strength before.
Whoosh!
Finally, out of the corner of his eye, Rei caught a glimpse of the opponent's figure.
That terrifying speed had finally slowed slightly in his perception.
The Combat Insight was adapting him to Kai'ga's rhythm.
But even so—
Bang!
Another body exploded.
This time, Rei teleported to a corpse 100 kilometers away.
As expected—
Kai'ga couldn't pursue instantly.
With a thought, Rei linked himself to every corpse within a 100-kilometer radius.
All of them became pre-reserved substitutes.
If Kai'ga chased him—
Another swap would send him another hundred kilometers away.
Looking across the battlefield—
It was truly an endless sea of corpses.
Just how many monsters—and people—had he killed?
Whoosh!
"Since the moment I was born!!!"
"I have lived for battle!!!"
"Even on my laziest day, I fought a hundred life-and-death battles!!!"
Whoosh!
Rei saw a fast silhouette approaching from afar.
Since birth?
Was that exaggeration?
Or truth?
If true—
Did he change classes as a baby?
No.
A god's experiences couldn't be judged by mortal logic.
"I have NEVER tasted defeat!!"
Bang!
Rei's corpse shattered again.
He reappeared another 100 kilometers away.
Thank goodness for this battlefield.
As time passed, Rei saw more clearly—
Kai'ga's body had not fully recovered.
And Origin was still attached to him.
Attached?
No.
It flowed across his skin but could not penetrate his body.
His body was like something immune to all magic.
Magic couldn't enter his body—
It could only explode outside his skin.
But why…
Why couldn't Rei's Origin magic penetrate his flesh?
Flesh…
The relationship between body and magic.
"…I see."
"In that case…"
Rei murmured quietly,
"Today will be the day you taste defeat."