Since things had already reached this point, I saw no reason to hold back. He clearly didn't intend to reveal anything, and since there was a chance that he would be able to use any time he bought with his bluster,
I figured it was better not to give him any time.
To a schemer like him, someone like Satannish was the most annoying kind of opponent.
A brute that couldn't be reasoned with, that couldn't be tricked or bargained with, that was his weakness.
Naturally, most people didn't qualify to become that kind of foe, even the Hulk was nothing more than a toy in front of Mephisto's full power.
But me?
I qualified.
"It is time to awaken, my spear!"
Rhongomyniad vibrated in my hand, responding to my call. The lance, once a weapon of the mortal king, now a conduit for a divine concept, began to change. The intricate carvings along its shaft glowed with an inner light, and the spearhead seemed to dissolve, replaced by a whirling vortex of pure, compressed energy that was blinding to look upon.
"Light, may you be released from the ends of the world.
Split the heavens and tether the earth, anchor the storm!
Beyond the skies, the far side of the earth.
This is the wedge of light that stands at the end of the world!
Rhongomyniad!"
Despite how long the chant was, it was spoken in less than a heartbeat. My divine mana, true ether, exploded out of me as I unleashed my upgraded version of Mana Burst, Torrent of Light.
My entire being was bathed in the golden glow of pure divine might; it burned against the energy of Hell.
Under the effect of the Torrent of Light, my mana took on anti-evil and anti-chaotic properties.
Too bad for Mephisto, he and his dimension had both of those.
Still, he roared, the sound shaking the entire dimension as he felt the deathly threat coming off the weapon in my hand.
He called upon the endless and infinite power of his realm to defend himself.
To fight against him was to fight against the entire dimension itself, which was his privilege as the Ruler of this place.
Too bad for him, I had Anti-Ruler ATK Up.
As for his defenses? Rhongomyniad's light cut straight through the layers and layers of magic and dark hellish energy. Mephisto gathered as many souls as he could, using the countless damned souls that filled his realm as a shield.
His shield of souls was far thicker than the shields of magical energy he had used before; for the lance to break through this would take some effort, even with my full power.
It was a true, desperate defense from Mephisto.
Yet it wasn't enough.
The lance of light, a tower that connects the stars, the pillar that holds the world together, it was unstoppable.
The shield of countless tormented souls held for less than a second, the light of the lance washed over it, and the souls vanished, not into destruction, but into a peaceful oblivion, freed from their eternal torment by the divine power of the lance.
Mephisto was thrown backward, a look of pure, unadulterated terror on his face as the lance of light continued towards him, an unstoppable force that he could not hope to stop.
The light of the lance was not just a physical attack, it was a conceptual attack, an attack that targeted the very concept of Mephisto, the very concept of evil.
Mephisto was a being of pure, unadulterated evil. He had no redeeming qualities, no good in him.
This wasn't just the good and evil of human perception. No, this was on a far deeper level, a matter of nature, of matter, a state of being.
His very essence was evil; the fact that he did evil deeds had nothing to do with that. It was simply a result of his nature.
The light of Rhongomyniad was not as pure and good as that of Excalibur, but it still had anti-evil properties, and given that it was a divine weapon, powered by a Goddess, by genuine True Ether.
Its power was beyond incredible, and its brilliant light was like a sun that had suddenly appeared in Hell, its light burning the souls, freeing them from their torment, while demons turned to ash. Bedivere and Lucan were forced to shield their eyes, the light so brilliant that it was painful to look upon.
This was the power of the lance that held the world together, the power of a goddess, the power to end the world.
I couldn't help but admit that I might have gone too far as I watched the lance move.
Mephisto's very being was unraveling, his form flickering, the black fire that composed his body being burned away by the divine light.
He was dying.
Not just his physical form being broken, no, this was far beyond that.
Hell Lords were nearly invincible, too bad for him, Rhongomyniad pierced invincibility.
As the tip of the lance touched him, for a brief moment, I could see into his soul. I could see the endless, endless hunger.
It wasn't just hunger for power, it was something that went even deeper, a hunger for life, a hunger to be whole, to evolve.
The same innate desires not of a person, but of a thing, a system. He was the realm, and the realm was him.
Which also meant that while he was dying, he also wasn't.
To truly kill him would require the complete destruction of this realm.
Something that, while technically possible, wouldn't be easy, not worth the time and effort. After all, if he were to die, the other Dimensional Lords would also feel the threat, and wouldn't hold anything back like today.
No, that would unleash a full war of Realms, one that would be far more devastating than this one.
But just because I couldn't end him... didn't mean I couldn't end him as a threat.
At least for now.
As the light of Rhongomyniad continued to burn away at Mephisto's form, I saw the fear in his eyes, the terror of a being who had never known fear, who had always been the one to inspire fear in others.
It was a strange, almost satisfying sight.
His roar was no longer one of power, but of pain and fear, the sound shaking the realm down to its very foundation. The fear, the terror, the wounds inflicted on Mephisto were equally inflicted on his realm.
As his form was torn apart, so was the realm.
A brilliant tower of light, a beam of pure divine might, cut across the landscape as it blasted apart both Mephisto's defenses and him himself.
Mephisto was wounded, hurt, truly and deeply.
He had suffered a true defeat, a devastating loss, and worse yet, it wasn't just a wound to himself, the light of Rhongomyniad cut across his realm, and displayed its power fully.
Just as it was designed to be the wedge of the world, connecting two sides of it together, holding up the sky, so it could divide the world.
That was my true intention, my real plan.
I knew that unless something major happened, they wouldn't give up easily, and neither would the other Hell Lords. They had put down their differences for profits, and they wouldn't blindly ignore Earth to go back to fighting among themselves for no reason, at least not for a while.
They were timeless, ageless, and eternal.
So even a short truce for them, might last centuries.
And Earth couldn't easily withstand that, not when I knew there would be other threats coming in the future.
Thanos was still out there, and he was waiting for his chance to invade and claim the Infinity Stones. He would cut down countless people, and if the Earth's defenders were all focused on this battlefield here, who would be left to stop him?
And he was one threat to come; there were others, and I didn't want to be unable to respond to them.
Which meant something had to break the Hell Lords' unity, and what better than easy profits?
There were no friends of Mephisto; they had been fighting against him for countless years, an eternal back and forth for souls. They might have allied with him for this great prize, but the second that prize was no longer guaranteed, that the costs were getting too high, they would go right back to fighting each other.
And what better way to signal weakness, than to carve out a piece of a lord's domain?
The lance of light didn't just injure Mephisto, no. It did something far greater.
The light of Rhongomyniad, the pillar that held the world together, divided Hell.
A great chasm, a wound in the dimension, was cut into the landscape. The rivers of lava boiled over, the ground cracked and crumbled, and a great chasm, a wound that split the realm, was created.
From this new wound, something else leaked out.
Not the endless screams of the damned, not the sulfurous fires, but something else. It was something faint, a whisper, a shimmer in the air.
It was the energy of the souls that Mephisto had collected, the energy of the souls that he had been hoarding, the very source of his power.
And that energy, now unbound, now free, leaked out of the realm. And that energy was no longer under Mephisto's control.
The other Hell Lords would sense it.
They would sense a tempting prize, the energy he had painstakingly collected for years, and more than that, they would sense that Hell itself had been divided, and only one half remained fully under Mephisto's control.
The other half?
It could be claimed. It wouldn't be easy, but it would be far easier than if it hadn't been cut off from the rest. They would have to fight over it and control it long enough to bind it to their own dimension.
Difficult, yes, but worth it.
(End of chapter)
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