Chapter 603.2: The Final Resort (2)
Chapter 603.2: The Final Resort (2)
“Peytra.”
“Hm?”
“Stone Gaze! Don’t let it interfere in the battle.”
“Understood.”
A golden speck of light fell from Roel to the ground before morphing into a humongous golden serpent that shook the desert. The golden serpent looked toward the massive egg floating in the sky with glowing eyes.
Stone Gaze was an authority exclusive to the Primordial Earth Goddess. It was a curse that was extremely difficult to be dispelled, and it was the most powerful restrictive ability Roel could think of aside from the Crown’s Stones.
Under the sinister gleam of Stone Gaze, a gray color started to creep across the surface of the massive Egg of the Beast God as it underwent petrification. The egg let out a piercing roar, as it was forced to stop the black sludge it was preparing to spew and instead focus its strength on fighting against the petrification.
This should be fine for the time being, Roel thought before turning to the Deviant Sovereign.
He finally understood why his previous attacks against the Deviant Sovereign using the Crown’s Stones had been ineffective. Banjol must have inherited the traits of the Egg of the Beast God in the countless years he had been incubating it, such that the power of the Six Calamities couldn’t hurt him anymore.
But now that Roel had Grandar on his side, he wasn’t completely reliant on the Crown’s Stones anymore.
Now that he had dealt with the Egg of the Beast God, Roel unhesitatingly dived toward the Deviant Sovereign.
Banjol retaliated by manifesting his pitch-black mana into countless black spears and sending them at Roel. Grandar immediately intervened by throwing out another punch reminiscent of a crimson comet. 𝚋ｅｄ𝚗𝚘𝚟ｅ𝚕．𝚗ｅｔ
The two devastating attacks gave rise to a cataclysmic explosion in the sky, but much to Roel’s surprise, Banjol’s mana actually pushed through the shockwaves to wreck his body.
Puchi!
Roel spewed a mouthful of blood as his left arm was twisted out of shape. The excruciating pain that followed brought a frown to his face, but it only served to clear his mind as well.
“I see. Is this the power of his ‘Recreation’?” Roel looked at his own body, which had been twisted as if it was no different from a toy, and he murmured grimly.
He quickly released a burst of mana outward to dissipate Banjol’s mana in the surroundings so as to stop the latter from causing any further damage.
Roel had learned from Grandar that Banjol was the Beastmen’s strongest-ever magician, but he had never been too concerned about that. Instead, he was more worried about Banjol morphing into a giant. It now appeared that he had been severely underestimating him.
Banjol’s ability to deal disproportionately severe damage as long as his attack landed meant that it was unwise to trade blows with him. This forced Roel to go on the defensive.
But Banjol’s attacks only became more intense.
As Banjol raised his hand and pointed his finger forth, the world around him began to rumble. Mana from the surroundings surged in like a hurricane and converged at the tip of his forefinger, forming an intense pulse of energy.
So terrifying was the amassed energy that the soldiers beneath subconsciously looked over, and Roel narrowed his eyes too.
This isn’t good.
Roel felt fatal danger from the converging pulse of energy—it was a feeling similar to what he had experienced back when he faced the Magician King, just that Banjol’s powers were far older and more powerful than what Priestley was capable of.
The surroundings seemed to darken in the face of the intense mana pulsation. It was only at this moment that Roel truly felt the gap between a god and a mortal.
It wasn’t just about the fact Banjol was stronger; it felt like he was a different being altogether. Roel wouldn’t even have been able to stand before him if not for the Kingmaker’s powers and Sia’s blessing.
Banjol channeled his spell for a brief moment before releasing the cataclysmic pulse of energy. Unlike other powerful spells, the pulse of energy surged with surprising calmness—there was no noise nor shockwave at all. Yet, all of the mana in the surroundings had been concentrated into this single spell.
This was the strongest spell Roel had had to face to date.
He drove his Crown Origin Attribute to its limit, gathering an unceasing stream of mana into his body. He murmured a name, and the white-haired Witch Queen appeared before him.
Artasia’s aura as Sia’s enforcer brought a frown to Banjol’s face.
“Cogs of Time.” Artasia shouldered all of Roel’s trust and unleashed her spell.
A clock made out of golden wheels manifested in the sky. Twelve runes could be seen on its surface, and it shielded the crowd as if an insurmountable obstacle. A split second later, the Deviant Sovereign’s pulse of energy crashed right into the clock.
Boom!
A deafening explosion rattled the world. It was such a cataclysmic attack that it dealt damage even to areas outside the battlefield. A blinding burst of light dissipated the clouds and the dust, looking as if a second sun was shining upon the world.
The blinding light forced both warring parties to halt their footsteps. Many of the soldiers were forced to their knees by the downward impact of the explosion.
Somehow, the ticking of a clock hand could be vividly heard through the deafening explosion. Roel was attempting to neutralize the shockwaves of the explosion as far as possible using the swiftly revolving Cogs of Time.
Peytra’s anxiety peaked out, fearing that a mishap might have befallen Roel, but she couldn’t afford to turn away from the Egg of the Beast God. Artasia’s expression was unprecedentedly solemn, as she stood in front of Roel while keenly eyeing the enemy’s movement.
To their relief, the Deviant Sovereign’s pulse of energy slowly died down as time passed, but just as the attack was finally about to come to an end, the Witch Queen’s face suddenly darkened.
“No!” Artasia shouted.
It was only then that Roel realized that Banjol’s pitch-black mana didn’t dissipate into the surroundings after striking the golden clock, instead tightly encircling Roel like a dark cloud.
He modified his own mana to grant it physical properties!
The moment Roel and Artasia noticed Banjol’s scheme, Artasia instantaneously invoked her Teleportation spell with a flicker of light, but before the spell could take form, Banjol clenched his hands together.
“…It’s over,” Banjol said hoarsely.
The pitch-black mana surrounding Roel abruptly converged inward to squeeze down on him. There was no room for him to escape at all; the pitch-black mana was omnipresent around him. Grandar had no choice but to step forward and deal with this attack.
The skeleton giant raised his arms and formed a barrier of crimson lightning to keep the pitch-black mana at bay. The crimson lightning neutralized most of the pitch-black mana, whereas the remainder that breached the first barrier was neutralized by Artasia’s Cogs of Time.
They had successfully fended against Banjol’s attack for the time being, but neither Grandar nor Artasia looked relieved. Both of them knew that the Origin Level 2 Roel couldn’t possibly stand a chance against a god if this turned into a battle of attrition.
“Damn it! His mana is interfering with my Teleportation spell!”
Artasia tried to teleport Roel away from the encirclement of the pitch-black mana, but it was to no avail. Grandar also found himself unable to do anything but hold his ground. Seeing that they were cornered, Roel let out a sigh, knowing that he had to use his final resort.
“Edavia, it’s time to make a move.”
“Fufu. All right. Let me savor your flavor, then,” Edavia replied with a light-hearted tone as she manifested before Roel.
She stared at Roel for a brief moment before abruptly raising her hand and slicing his soul.