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*****
"A rift between two spaces... Good. I can use this as a direct waypoint to enter the Underworld later."
Upon entering the Shadow Palace, George immediately used his profound understanding of spatial laws to lock onto the coordinates of the Underworld. If he wished, he could tear through space right now and head straight into the realm of the devils.
According to his estimates, once he finished studying those ten Magic Stones, he would have mastered ninety percent of the rules governing this world. The remaining ten percent likely resided within the Underworld itself. Once he cracked that, his replication of this entire world would be complete, and he would no longer care about the attitude of this world's Creator.
Even if the Creator discovered him and fled, George would at most lose one world model. To his current self, losing one world was inconsequential; he could create a new world model just as quickly. The key was the diversity of models; that was the secret to scaling his power at a multiverse level.
Of course, that only applied to singular universe-level worlds. If this were a Multiversal-level world—even one consisting of only two intertwined universes—it would be a qualitative leap in complexity, and he wouldn't give it up so easily unless the Creator was someone he genuinely respected.
"Awaken, Licht!"
Lumiere set the final Magic Stone into the pedestal of the Shadow Palace. Patry led the elven race in chanting the ancient spells to summon Licht's soul. Julius, meanwhile, had already prepared the clone body for the Elven Leader.
As the reincarnation magic reached its peak, Licht's soul transcended space and materialized before them. He merged into the physical vessel and slowly opened his eyes.
"Licht!"
"Leader!"
Looking at Lumiere and his living clansmen, Licht's eyes were filled with confusion. His memory was still frozen at the moment he transformed into a Demon God to prevent the Word Soul Devil from taking him over.
"What... what happened?"
"Leader..." Patry rushed forward and explained everything.
Licht listened, his face pale with relief. "Lumiere did not lie to you. The true murderer was indeed the Word Soul Devil; the reincarnation magic was his snare. Thank goodness you were stopped in time, or you would have committed an unforgivable sin. Otherwise..."
"Now isn't the time for a reunion," George interrupted, pointing toward the high altar of the Shadow Palace. "Your real enemy has arrived."
A black silhouette was coalescing on the platform. It was no longer a mere fragment; it was the main body of the Word Soul Devil, finally unsealed and summoned from the Underworld.
"I have finally emerged! My plan was a success!" The Word Soul Devil was exultant. He knew that being summoned meant his fragment from five hundred years ago had successfully executed every stage of his grand design.
"Hahaha! Even the Three Pillars, even the Supreme Devils cannot enter the human world. Yet I, a mere high-ranking devil, have achieved this feat! I am the most intelligent, the most cunning master of hearts in all the Underworld!"
The Word Soul Devil slowly opened his eyes, preparing to absorb his fragment and reclaim five centuries of memories. However, he felt no trace of his fragment. Instead, he saw a sea of human mages and reincarnated elves all readying their spells.
"Wait... the elves should be full of hatred for humans. Why are they working together? And what is that? Dragons? Two of them?!"
"Black Dragon's Roar!"
"Fire Dragon's Roar!"
"Iron Dragon's Roar!"
A barrage of spells surged toward the devil from every direction, aimed at ending him in a single, devastating volley.
"A few glitches in the plan, it seems. No matter. These human insects can't hurt me, no matter how many—"
The Word Soul Devil opened his mouth, intending to use his Word Soul Magic to command the spells to disperse. His magic was so potent that even Supreme Devils praised it; with a single word, he could unmake reality. The only reason he wasn't a Supreme Devil himself was the gap in raw mana—he often didn't have the time to speak before being overwhelmed.
But he believed that if he could reach that level of mana in the human world, even the Three Pillars like Lucifero wouldn't be his match.
"Be gone!"
The Word Soul Devil barked the command, but no sound came out. No sound, no magic.
"How?!" His face contorted. He looked around wildly and finally saw the specialized squad of human mages and elves working together to maintain a massive Silence Field.
"How could they know the weakness of my magic?!"
Before he could react, he was submerged in a tidal wave of elemental fury.
"It doesn't matter... as long as my heart is intact, I won't—no... impossible..."
The Word Soul Devil, who had schemed for five centuries, was deleted from existence the moment he arrived. Under the concentrated fire of the world's elites, he was reduced to pure energy particles and scattered into the air.
"Poor guy," George remarked, shaking his head. A "special attack" type enemy like the Word Soul Devil was a nightmare if you didn't know his gimmick, but once the secret was out, he was easy to kill. Any of the Dragon-slaying captains could have soloed him under these conditions.
"That's it? He didn't seem that scary," Magna scratched his head, looking disappointed. He had been pumping himself up for a life-and-death struggle.
"That's only because he didn't expect his weakness to be exploited," Vanessa said, grabbing Magna by the neck. "Think about it: if George hadn't exposed him, if he hadn't boosted us with Dragon Force, we'd be fighting a civil war right now while the devil laughed from the sidelines. We would have been dead before the devil even showed up."
The group nodded solemnly. While George hadn't cast an offensive spell, the victory was undeniably his.
"Indeed," Julius said, walking over with a smile. "The contribution of the Black Dragons—formerly the Black Bulls—is the greatest. I hereby award the Black Dragons one hundred stars. Furthermore, every member's rank is increased by two, and George's rank is increased by four."
In the Clover Kingdom, the squad rankings were determined by stars earned through merit. The Black Bulls had famously held the bottom spot for years, largely due to Yami's habit of destroying property. With a hundred stars, they instantly shot up to second place, trailing the Golden Dawn by only one star.
Yami burst into a manic laugh. He was finally going to beat William.
"Just one star short? No matter. I'll make that up right now," George said. He turned to Julius and suddenly threw a palm strike toward the Wizard King's stomach.
"Time Restraining Magic: Chrono Stasis!"
Julius reacted instinctively, forming a sphere of frozen time around George. The surrounding mages froze in shock—why was George attacking the Wizard King?
CRACK!
The sphere of time shattered like glass. George's hand continued its path toward Julius. Given George's low mana but high-tier "authority," only physical attacks could harm him. Magic, energy, and laws were useless.
"Don't resist. There's a devil nesting inside you. I'm evicting it," George's voice rang in Julius's ear.
Julius froze for a split second, then chose to suppress his defensive instincts. He trusted George. George had saved the First Wizard King and exposed the Word Soul Devil. Even if this was a trap, Julius had a "back-up" for resurrection. Besides, Julius had long felt something "wrong" within himself that he couldn't name.
As Julius relaxed, the golden sun mark on his forehead suddenly turned pitch-black. His expression twisted into a snarl of pure malice as his secondary personality—the hidden soul—realized it was being exposed and tried to seize total control.
"Too slow. Out you go!"
Before the mark could fully turn black, George's palm landed. A soul identical to Julius's and a towering, shadowy devil were violently blasted out of Julius's body.
"Done. I'll leave the rest to you!" George stepped back, exiting the combat zone.
With so many elites around, why do the heavy lifting himself? He wanted his teammates to use this fight to further develop their Dragon Force.
"How?! This isn't the future I saw!" The secondary personality, Lucius, was forced into the body of the Time Devil, Astaroth.
In the hundreds of futures he had glimpsed, none had ended like this. In every vision, he was the victor, the one who unified humanity. To prevent any deviation, he had hidden himself within Julius to lay his foundations in the Clover Kingdom. Yet here he was, exposed and cornered.
The battle of the ages had begun, but this time, the "villain" was starting on the back foot.
(End of Chapter)