POV: Dragon God Orsted
After passing through the same scenarios hundreds of times, living the same loop repeatedly and experiencing the same events, I gradually became numb to everything.
Emotions, expectations, surprises — all of that was worn down over time.
Rudeus Greyrat tends to call this the "regressor's aura." Apparently, in the fanciful stories and tales of his previous world, those with regression powers similar to mine usually assume a similar posture.
According to him, this helps those characters stay focused on their objective and not be distracted by external things, but it usually fails.
I don't know to what extent I resemble those so-called regressors, but from the description, it's not far from my situation.
Living the same events repeatedly in search of the best way to reach Hitogami, even I ended up becoming attached to the existence of certain people.
Where I'm going is simple.
Rudeus Greyrat told me something very pertinent about my situation — and about how I was walking a dangerous path.
Rudeus is an excellent fighter, with an extremely unique perspective on combat. Still, he was at a level where I could test his full strength without any risk to my life.
In our fight, when he tried to kill me, even though I used the Godsword at the end, it was only to test the extent of that strange Magic Armor's durability.
One could say his unusual way of fighting was the biggest surprise. However, from beginning to end, he never represented a real threat.
But it was precisely he who told me that this would not happen with Rygar Adoldia. He repeatedly warned me to be careful if I ended up fighting him.
According to Rudeus, the Beast God had something he called a "protagonist's aura."
At first, knowing what I know about the future and fate, I doubted the importance Rudeus attributed to the Beast God.
In my view, even if at his peak Rygar were to become a being comparable to the Dragon Demon God Laplace, it would be just that.
A powerful destiny, coupled with even greater strength and determination — he would be exceptional. But for me, what really mattered was that Rygar was a path to reach the Man God in a few years.
You could say I was being arrogant.
Yes. I was.
But what's wrong with that?
I defeated monsters like the Demon God, the Fighter God and the Technique God hundreds of times. In a few loops, I even faced my true enemy, the Man God, at the end of the cycle. I was confident I could beat him.
Strength hadn't been the problem for a long time.
Currently, mana expenditure was the only obstacle.
However, in that moment… I began to understand a little of what Rudeus Greyrat was trying to tell me.
I was being struck by powerful Howling Magic, the air vibrating around me, while Rygar advanced, lightning wrapping his body, making him look like a true moving lightning dragon.
The blue blade called Doomsday and that Black Armor were like handing gasoline and a match to an arsonist.
"Dragon Gate, Open!"
I had barely finished summoning the Dragon Gate to contain his momentum when I felt a severe interference in my mana.
Rygar Adoldia had not only become absurdly proficient in Disturb Magic, but that Black Armor seemed to naturally interfere with the flow of my own mana, breaking my casting rhythm.
But by forcing my control, I managed to barely stabilize the Gate.
A moment before impact.
Point-blank, Rygar swung that flaming sword again. I blocked with a direct strike from the Godsword, metal against metal colliding in a dry impact — but the sea of incandescent purple fire advanced like a tide.
The Dragon Gate contained most of the attack, but the remaining heat was still enough to kill most monsters simply by proximity. The air distorted, the ground melted, and the thermal pressure made even space itself feel unstable.
Then, proving his skill once more, the Apocalypse Beast vanished, retreating in a streak of black light.
In the next instant, I felt a monumental pressure surround me.
It was as if I were becoming the center of an orbit.
Late, I realized what had happened.
There was a spell on my Godsword.
A small orb of purple and black light had formed, sucking everything around it. The terrain began to deform violently.
Rocks, debris, even the ground itself detached and were dragged toward me, with the clear intention of crushing me.
He intended to crush me by turning me into a walking mountain.
Another utterly abnormal spell — something I had never heard of in any previous loop.
I had already learned bitterly in this fight that allowing those spells to complete their effect would be a terrible mistake.
As the rocks came toward me like heaps and hills, I activated my Dragon Touki in an instant. My body floated, nullifying part of the attraction.
The Godsword shone with a blinding white light.
My technique pierced through space, remolding the terrain in front of me as an absolute cut swept everything within my horizon.
"Inverted Sky Departure."
The shockwave echoed once more, shaking everything around.
Even though I had cut the horizon and the power of the Godsword remained unstoppable, I knew Rygar would not give me rest.
His battle intent yearned to destroy his enemy every second.
In the end, I had no intention of killing him. If I had, I would have pressed the fight much harder from the start. I was confident in my power — if I were truly trying to kill him, he was not on my level.
But I was in a passive position because I couldn't kill him.
Rygar acted as if he had infinite mana to spend.
I knew he possessed a large mana reserve, but even so… that exceeded reason. He shouldn't be able to sustain such intensity.
The conclusion I reached was that that sword must directly influence his disproportionate mana capacity.
Before that thought could fully take hold, I felt a new attack.
Hundreds of projectiles came toward me at the same time.
Wind bullets.
No — perhaps it was wrong to call them that. I could see, clearly, that it was an extremely complex application of Wind Magic, but the result wasn't an ordinary blade of air; it felt more like Vacuum.
Each projectile carried great piercing power, far greater than conventional magic, and at a lower mana cost in comparison.
It was an extremely efficient and lethal form of attack — one of the Beast God's most dangerous weapons.
The most alarming thing was the magical control necessary to execute that. This kind of control was far beyond ordinary.
I immediately used a movement technique, accelerating my body beyond the trajectory of the bullets.
My displacement created a sequence of air explosions behind me, as the projectiles failed to hit me and collided with the mountain chains where the fight had extended.
But the Vacuum Bullets did not cease their pursuit.
I moved evading each projectile, but they chased me as if Rygar had some kind of tracker fixed on me. The projectiles adjusted their trajectories mid-flight.
However, I knew the origin of that was the Beast God's own vision and supernatural senses, tracking every micro movement of mine, predicting my route even before I completed it.
Rudeus Greyrat was right, after all.
Even fighting seriously from the start, this battle with Rygar Adoldia was different from anything I had ever witnessed.
Rudeus's fighting style was unusual, but it could still be framed within the limits of what this world had already seen.
Rygar's was not.
Rygar Adoldia's fighting style was from another world — literally. He did not fight conventionally, and even when he used known techniques, he altered them and left his own mark on them.
I'm almost certain that even the Fighter God and the Technique God would be defeated by him.
I cannot say the same about the Demon God, since he is a supreme master of magic, a natural counterpoint to Rygar.
Still, give the Beast God a few years to grow even more, and he would be able to defeat even the Demon God.
His swordsmanship could only be described as overwhelming and demonic.
Although he did not fight like the Sword God Style, seeking to finish everything in a single blow, his style was extremely aggressive, yet at the same time indecipherable and absurdly versatile.
His speed was staggering — greater than that of any combatant I had ever witnessed.
Speed was, without a doubt, his greatest strength.
From what I observed so far, his technique far surpassed geniuses like Gall Farion, Reida Reia and Kalman III in their own styles.
If he could train hard for another ten years, it was possible he would even reach monsters like the Technique God in swordsmanship ability.
That alone was inconceivable.
It was unthinkable that such a combat genius could exist.
And yet, as the fight unfolded, Rygar proved to be a magical genius as powerful as — or perhaps even more than — he was in swordsmanship.
He demonstrated God-level magical feats one after another.
God-level Lightning Magic, capable of providing an overall boost to his physical, defensive and offensive capabilities.
It was as if he himself were a walking lightning bolt, crossing the battlefield at high speed, impossible to track.
Even when a sword light hit him, I felt his instant regeneration, correcting the damage almost at the same moment it occurred.
His Fire Magic, amplified by the sword he calls Doomsday, was so destructive that, if he truly wanted, he could destroy the entire world with those flames. Within days — or weeks at most — he could consume the entire world in fire.
Vacuum Magic, with its unparalleled penetrating power.
Gravity Magic and Barrier Magic, with strange and deeply complex effects, to the point that not even I could comprehend them.
But the most problematic elements of all were two.
The Black Armor and his Demonic Eyes.
Those two factors were what allowed the Apocalypse Beast to use all of his strengths at the same time, without visible restrictions.
His understanding of battle, coupled with that absurd set of abilities, made his enemies feel as if they were fighting the world's own will.
As I analyzed him, coming from the sky, I felt lightning falling like incessant tribulations. Each impact made the very atmosphere tremble.
Our fight had reached such an extreme level of speed that, without noticing, we had moved close to the Red Dragon Mountain Range, far from the capital.
The scenery had completely changed.
As the lightning fell, the Beast God advanced once more.
His body moved using a mixture of sword styles, alternating postures and rhythms so that his figure looked like a bolt of black light cutting through space.
Blue lightning always accompanied him, enveloping his silhouette as an extension of his will.
We engaged in a direct swordfight.
I had the advantage in technique and raw power. Each strike of the Godsword was immensely powerful and destructive, capable of remolding the surrounding terrain.
However, the lightning that fell upon me created momentary gaps.
Wounds began to accumulate on both sides.
They weren't fatal, but they were constant.
At that point, I abandoned any thought of holding back my mana.
"Gravity Inversion!"
With a single thought, my magic unfolded violently. The world was turned upside down.
The effects were immediate, the sky and the earth swapped places, orientation was lost, and even the incessant lightning was dissipated by the sudden change in the forces governing the battlefield.
That certainly disconcerted and shocked him.
It was sudden enough.
At the same instant, I brandished the Godsword.
"Ephemeral Dragon Laceration!"
A white and green light covered my blade. The cut traversed space in a straight line, striking Rygar squarely.
The blow split him in two as he barely managed to block part of the impact with Doomsday.
At the last moment, a mysterious Barrier also appeared, reducing the damage enough to avoid his complete annihilation.
Even so, the world brightened.
The green light exploded, destroying everything in its path and hurling the Beast God kilometers away in an instant. The impact reverberated through the mountain range, making mountains shatter and tremble.
Initially, I still hoped to be able to defeat him and retain some amount of mana.
But gradually, I realized the truth.
To deal with the Beast God, I needed to be even faster than with the Fighter God. To subjugate him, it was necessary to use a force even more overwhelming than his.
Moreover, the longer this fight dragged on, the more mana I would have to spend.
Rygar Adoldia was not an opponent who could be worn down slowly.
As I decided to subjugate him, I had to do it with brute force.
My wounds healed in an instant.
The Dragon Touki circled my body again as I wielded the shining Godsword, advancing with a ferocity that few in the entire world had ever witnessed.
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