Chapter 626.2: The Third Choice (2)
Chapter 626.2: The Third Choice (2)
Exactly how strong was Alicia?
Roel didn’t have the answer to that question, since he was of the mindset that he would have already lost the war if he allowed Alicia to step onto the battlefield.
While Alicia had been keen to contribute to the Ascart House wherever possible, Roel had always stopped her because he didn’t want to put her in danger. His overly protective attitude resulted in him not having the chance to properly examine and analyze her strength and spells.
Who could have thought that would backfire on him one day?
On the nighttime plain, Roel stared at the flood of raging mana rushing at him with bulging eyes. Faced with such a furious onslaught, he had no choice but to make his retreat.
He knew that his greatest weakness against Alicia was his mana quantity, and that would most likely become the reason behind his downfall.
Alicia, as an Origin Level 1 transcendent, was bound to have more mana than Roel. As if that wasn’t enough, she had inherited a portion of the Mother Goddess’ powers and soul, making her stronger than most Race Sovereigns. On top of that, she could further raise her prowess by paying a heavy price.
Roel hurriedly retreated, took out the Lobor Restoration and Enhancement Serum Type III, and gulped it down.
As he swallowed the serum, he felt a searing heat spreading from his stomach to the other parts of his body. His heartbeat hastened, his limbs became stronger, and his mind became sharper. His fighting prowess had been raised to another level.
What a potent medicine! Roel thought.
He figured that the burning sensation he felt was the serum’s effect. The moment it died down, he would enter a period of exhaustion. By then, he wouldn’t stand a chance against an enemy of Alicia’s caliber. He might even lose his life as a result.
I need to end things fast, or else things might get dangerous.
Roel couldn’t even escape via Silver Devourer, as Alicia could chase him with Shrouding Fog. He would be losing his blood with each teleportation, whereas she wouldn’t have to pay any price at all.
His golden eyes lit up as he channeled his mana toward his Crown Origin Attribute, and a pillar of crimson light surged into the sky. A humongous skeleton giant manifested out of thin air, and it raised its palm to tank the incoming deluge of mana from the sky.
The deluge of mana devastated the surroundings, but it was unable to overcome Grandar’s protection at all.
Alicia narrowed her eyes as she beckoned the Calamities behind her. She knew about the Kingmaker Clan’s ability to contract with the ancient gods, which was why she had chosen to engage helpers of her own too.
A billowing white fog charged at Roel under her command, and the flickering aurora converged together before unleashing an inescapable rain of light beams.
In retaliation, Roel raised his palm, and the earth shook. Tapping into the power of the Crown’s Stones and the Primordial Earth Goddess, a surge of searing lava rushed into the sky as if an explosive firework, clashing with the descending light beams.
Boooom!
An intense explosion ensued. The ground shook as if the earth was groaning. Lava spilled from the sky as light diffused into the surroundings, bringing about yet another wave of calamity.
Graaar!
The Egg of the Beast God was torched by the scattered lava and light, making it scream frantically, but neither Alicia nor Roel paid any heed to it.
Meanwhile, the crimson skeleton giant began its showdown with the white fog.
Shrouding Fog was an overwhelmingly powerful enemy; it was the culprit who had cornered him into entering the Witness State back then. In order to bring back a loved one, he had to stand up against this old enemy and overcome it.
“Crown,” Roel murmured with an unwavering voice.
He infused a steady stream of mana into his Crown Origin Attribute, which manifested a shard of the crown’s fragment. With the crown’s fragment, he crowned the noble Sovereign.
A mana crown formed on Grandar’s head, and his crimson aura intensified like a rising sun. This was the power the Giant Sovereign had wielded in his peak.
Similarly, Shrouding Fog also bared its fangs. 𝙗𝒆𝒅𝒏𝙤𝒗𝒆𝙡．𝙤𝒓𝙜
The entire mass of white fog swooped downward, with a howling face vaguely appearing in its ever-changing form every now and then. It was so expansive that it covered everything else in Roel’s sight, be it the scene of the other battle or the floating remains of the Egg of the Beast God.
Nothing could stop Shrouding Fog’s advancement, just like how countless civilizations before humankind had failed.
Roel’s face turned grim. He raised his head to look at Grandar, only to see that the latter was unmoved. The Six Calamities were foes to be reckoned with, feared even back in the days of the legends, but the Giant Sovereign showed no fear whatsoever.
What did he have to fear when he had personally crushed the depraved Savior? Compared to that, other enemies were not worth a mention at all.
Faced with the billowing white fog, Grandar let loose an earth-shaking howl. With the Crown Origin Attribute’s buff, a crimson aura surged into the sky like a comet, charging straight for the incoming white ocean.
The two forces clashed, generating a devastating shockwave that rippled across the plain. Grandar’s unstoppable might pierced through Shrouding Fog as if splitting the ocean into two halves, whereas the white fog frenziedly howled as it devoured Grandar’s body.
It was such a tremendous impact that the lava and aurora tearing at each other in the sky halted and shuddered.
The shockwave had Shrouding Fog’s body scattering in all directions, but Grandar’s body began to disappear too.
Roel channeled his mana with clenched teeth, repairing the Giant Sovereign’s body again and again. Similarly, Alicia’s crimson eyes glowed as she supplied a ceaseless stream of mana to her two companions.
Shrouding Fog and Light Devourer were conceptual existences that could be healed with the Mother Goddess’ power, making them equivalent to Roel’s contracted ancient gods. That was also the reason she was without fear.
Alicia and Roel would inevitably have their mana swiftly depleted over the course of this battle, and this would be beneficial to Alicia, who enjoyed the greater mana quantity and superior mana regeneration.
However, Roel thought differently.
A battle of attrition was advantageous to Alicia, but Roel and Grandar’s goal, whenever they fought alongside each other, had never been to outlast their opponent. Victory was the only thing they had their eyes on.
“Grandar!”
“Yes.”
Roel’s golden eyes lit ablaze as he channeled the mana he had been charging thus far into his soul, invoking a transformation. The world before him fell silent. The explosions came to a halt, and he suddenly seemed to see an order to the chaos happening around him. It felt like he had been liberated from the laws of the world.
Under this sudden burst of power, his black hair lost its color and turned silver. The powers that had been unique to Goddess Sia began to manifest inside him.
At the same time, Grandar raised his head to the sky and roared. His body began rising toward the sky with a burst of crimson light, emanating brilliance that outshone the cold silver moon. The scenery of a sunset plain appeared behind him like a mirage, as giant warriors roared war cries to praise their indomitable Sovereign.
Grandar’s Divine Domain was the glorious battlefield where he and his race had sacrificed themselves to save the world. It was an unstoppable force that brought down even the depraved Savior, the greatest triumph of the Giants. How could Shrouding Fog possibly hope to suppress something like that?
“Go!”
“Mm!”
The Sia-fied Roel raised his hand to bestow a holy light imbued with the Genesis Goddess’ power upon the Giant Sovereign, pushing the latter’s strength a step further.
Grandar was so overflowing with power that shockwaves rippled from his body.
Shrouding Fog shrieked in terror before its enemy’s intimidating presence. Behind it, Alicia’s eyes widened in disbelief when she sensed a familiar aura coming from Roel and Grandar.
“Run away right now!” Alicia ordered.
She channeled all of her mana, but her effort was futile. The inevitable couldn’t be changed.
By the time Grandar raised his fist once more, the aura he emanated was no longer crimson but holy white. It was a pure light that embodied neither the sun nor the moon, but the genesis light from the creation of the world.
On this day, the Giant Sovereign was going to light up the world with its grandeur once more.
Roel’s and Grandar’s roars converged into one, the latter’s fist rushing forth as a colossal pillar of light that separated the world into two.
The aurora in the sky quickly retreated, and the remains of the Egg of the Beast God fell completely silent out of fear.
Shrouding Fog, with the support of Alicia’s mana, became so concentrated that it was almost corporeal, but its thick and boundless body proved to be inadequate before the attack that was almost like divine retribution.
Boom!
A white light inundated the plain, turning the night into day.
Shrouding Fog’s cries of agony were silenced by the explosion, as its tattered white body was blown into the surroundings. The white ocean was finally split into two.
After countless years, the seemingly invincible Calamity had finally tasted defeat.
Having lost half of its body, Shrouding Fog anxiously billowed away in a hurry. The white light that had pierced through its body continued to whiz into the distance, looking like a comet flying beyond the horizon.
Roel watched the enemy who had once brought him despair flee as the whiteness in his hair receded. The sunset plain mirage behind Grandar faded, as the Giant Sovereign exchanged gazes with the young man beneath. Then, the two of them looked forward at the same time.
A moment of silence lingered on the plains.
Alicia, wrapped in Light Devourer’s aurora, glared at Roel with a contemplative glint in her eyes, while Roel fearlessly met her gaze. Slowly, Alicia’s eyes turned sharp, and she quietly raised her hand. Under the moonlight, she murmured her next move.
“Divine Domain.”