Chapter 571 – The Seal of Chaugnar Faugn
The silence of the council chamber broke as Nyx finally raised her voice again, her calm tone drawing every eye back to her.
"The first location I will tell you," she said, "is where Chaugnar Faugn sleeps."
Several gods exchanged wary glances at the name. Even for those who had lived for thousands of years, this Great Old One was a myth that few dared to speak of.
"It is sealed," Nyx continued. "For now. Deep in a forgotten cavern beneath the mountains of Central Asia. Mortals built temples above it long ago, but they have all crumbled. Only the seal remains."
Her gaze turned to Alex. "It is not like Nyogtha. Chaugnar Faugn is… different. It holds the Law of Strength. The longer it fights, the more its power multiplies. If it awakens, and if you fight it here on Earth, the consequences will be severe."
Her expression hardened, rare emotion surfacing in her eyes.
"I fear the earth itself would not withstand it. The ground would crack. Continents would tremble. A single battle with it could trigger global earthquakes."
The council fell silent again, the enormity of her words sinking in. Even Odin's single eye narrowed slightly.
"It is still sealed," Nyx said. "But for how long? I do not know. If its seal breaks, the first strike must be absolute. If not, the planet itself may be ruined before you can finish the battle."
She glanced at Alex once more. "Will you go?"
Alex didn't answer Nyx with words. The moment she finished speaking, he vanished.
Far away, in the silent mountain range where Chaugnar Faugn slept, a ripple of blue light appeared above the jagged peaks. Alex stepped out of the fold in space, boots touching the stony ground, the wind cutting around him.
Without a pause, he pressed one hand to the earth. Mana surged outward from his palm like water, and thin, glowing lines began to spread in all directions. They etched themselves into the rock, carving vast circuits across the surface. The lines bent into patterns—circles, spirals, runes—each one a precise formula.
There was no movement from him. He stayed kneeling, his hand never lifting from the ground. The circuits spread wider and wider, like a growing web, until they covered the entire mountainside, snaking across cliffs and valleys.
Most of these patterns were teleportation formulas, but they weren't the ancient symbols other mages used. These were something else. He was rewriting them, refining every single one into a new structure, his own design. Each formula was strengthened with something beyond magic: the Law of Mana.
Where the old runes were limited by tradition, his rewoven circuits were alive. They pulsed, adjusted, and adapted as he shaped them.
Back at the council, the gods who had been watching him through scrying mirrors could no longer remain seated. Several of them vanished from the chamber, reappearing above the mountains.
Odin, Freyja, Hermes, and more arrived, but Nyx was the first to land closest to him. She said nothing, simply watching silently as the circuits expanded.
Even she was curious. She could see how different these formulas were. They weren't just spells; they were a domain, a living trap built for something that could not be allowed to move freely.
The entire mountain was soon covered in light.
The light from the circuits illuminated the entire mountainside. The lines pulsed like veins, drawing intricate shapes until the rocky ground looked as if a second, glowing sky had been laid across it.
Alex finally stood, brushing the dust from his hand. His visor turned slightly when he noticed Nyx and several of the other gods watching from a short distance away. For a moment, there was only silence, the hum of the circuits filling the air.
Then he spoke, his tone calm and matter-of-fact.
"These circuits are for one thing," he said. "When the seal breaks, this mountain and everything under it won't stay here."
Odin's eye narrowed slightly. "What are you planning to do?"
"I'll move the entire mountain into space," Alex replied. "The moment Chaugnar Faugn tries to emerge, it will appear in orbit instead of here. It won't be able to cause any damage to the earth, and there won't be a single crack on this planet."
Several of the gods glanced at one another. The idea itself was simple, but the scale of the teleportation array—moving an entire mountain in an instant—was something even they could not imagine.
Alex continued, "If there are others still sealed, I'll do the same to them. Move the battlefield somewhere where the planet isn't in danger. No earthquakes, no disasters."
Nyx tilted her head slightly, her violet eyes fixed on him. "That's why your formulas are so different."
"They aren't the old runes," Alex said, glancing at the glowing lines under his feet. "I rewrote them. Refined them into something stronger, faster. The Law of Mana makes sure they can't fail."
He turned his head slightly toward the mountain's peak. "If the seal fails while I'm not here, this will trigger automatically."
As the last of the glowing lines connected and the mountain range pulsed like a single enormous circuit, Alex stood and looked over the patterns spreading out from where he had been kneeling. The light ran across the earth in thousands of threads, forming a lattice that enclosed the entire range like a second skin.
Nyx, standing a short distance behind him, finally spoke. "What are you building?"
Alex turned his head slightly, his voice calm and direct. "A teleportation array. The biggest one I've made on this planet."
Her violet eyes narrowed. "Teleportation? For what?"
"I'm going to move the entire mountain," he said, "and everything sealed beneath it, into space. Away from Earth. That way, when the battle starts, it won't destroy the world."
The gods who had come with her were silent for a moment. Even Odin frowned slightly.
"You intend to move an entire mountain?" Freyja asked.
"Not just this one," Alex replied. "Any of them. If they're still sealed, I'll remove the battlefield before the fight begins. Earth doesn't need to suffer for them."
Before any of them could speak again, the mountain beneath their feet trembled.
From deep within, an ancient, crushing presence surged upward. The ground cracked as a huge, twisted trunk-like limb tore free, followed by another. Chaugnar Faugn had awakened, its seal broken.
The air grew heavy as the enormous bulk of the Great Old One pulled itself into the open air, the strange elephantine horror turning its head to face them.
Its Law of Strength pulsed like a wave, and for a moment the ground itself began to shake.
Alex's voice didn't change. "Too late."
In the same instant, the teleportation array activated.
The entire mountain, the creature, and the surrounding range folded in a flash of blue light and vanished.
From the surface of Earth, the world returned to stillness as if nothing had ever been there.
Far above the planet, in the cold void of space, the entire battlefield unfolded. Chaugnar Faugn now hung in the star-filled emptiness, far from Earth. Its massive form twisted, confused for the briefest moment before its head turned, locking onto Alex.
In the vacuum of space, there was no air to carry sound, no ground to shatter under their feet. Only the silent expanse of stars surrounding the massive, alien form of Chaugnar Faugn. The thing turned its distorted, trunked head slowly toward Alex, strange muscles shifting under its grayish, rough skin as if preparing to speak.
Alex didn't let it.
The instant its mouth began to open, he moved. There were no words, no warning—just action.
Space around him bent inward. Mana poured out, weaving itself into a single point that collapsed tighter and tighter until the stars distorted. Fire, ice, lightning, and every elemental force he had mastered gathered, swirling like a storm into the singularity. Each one was strengthened: the Law of Fire searing hotter, the Law of Ice freezing deeper, lightning charged with the Law of Mana's precision. Poison, Web, Darkness—all his Laws were woven into the strike.
Every rule he carried reinforced the form until the magic condensed into a spear the same size as Alex himself. Its edges shone white-hot, space flickering around it like broken glass. It was the purest, most absolute weapon he had forged since the battle with Nyogtha.
He raised his arm back and hurled it.
The spear tore forward at a speed that made the stars blur. For a fraction of a second, the space between him and Chaugnar Faugn collapsed into a straight line. The spear smashed into the center of the creature's massive chest before it could do anything but flinch.
The impact was silent, but the light was blinding. Elemental energy erupted outward, folding and bending the void around it as the reinforced strike drilled through flesh and bone. The Laws within it ignited like a chain reaction, tearing a burning hole straight through Chaugnar Faugn's upper body.
The enormous creature shuddered violently, its body twisting as it recoiled from the attack, the glow of the spear's aftermath still expanding outward in ripples.
The spear didn't stop after tearing through Chaugnar Faugn's upper body. The sheer force behind it drove the massive creature backward, spinning through the void. Space warped around the trail of energy it left behind as the Great Old One was hurled away like a broken comet.
Ahead of it, a large asteroid drifted silently through the black, its surface pitted and jagged. Chaugnar Faugn struck it with all the momentum of the spear still embedded in its body.
The collision was catastrophic.
The asteroid shattered on impact. Cracks split its surface in an instant, and a split second later, the elemental power of the spear detonated inside the creature and the rock at once. A silent bloom of fire, lightning, and freezing energy burst outward in the vacuum, tearing the asteroid apart into a billion fragments.
What had been a mountain-sized rock was reduced to drifting debris, glowing faintly from the heat of the explosion. Chaugnar Faugn's vast, alien body floated amid the fragments, its trunk curling, its long, unnatural limbs twitching from the force of the blast.
The wound left by the spear had burned through it completely, and its massive frame was still trailing vaporized blood that crystallized into glittering shards as it froze in the void.
The floating mass of Chaugnar Faugn twitched, then stiffened. From the hole blasted through its chest, a deep, rumbling vibration echoed out into the silence of space. It wasn't sound—it was fury made tangible. The long, trunk-like appendage writhed, and the alien creature's limbs curled inward, pulling in every fragment of strength left in its body.
The Law of Strength began to radiate from it like a storm. The void around it seemed to twist as its massive muscles swelled, its blood freezing into jagged crystal shards that spun around its wounded form. Each moment that passed, its presence grew heavier, as if the entire starry expanse was being pulled into it.
With a sudden, violent motion, Chaugnar Faugn lunged. Its enormous fist, thick and gnarled like a pillar of stone, shot forward. Space warped around the punch as the Law of Strength poured into the blow, amplifying its power again and again.
It collided with Alex like a meteor.
The force shook the void, scattering fragments of the destroyed asteroid in all directions. For an instant, the stars themselves seemed to bend under the impact.
But Alex did not move.
He met the strike head-on, his own body bracing with a strength that no mortal could imagine. The muscles in his arm tensed as his hand caught the fist, stopping it cold. Numbers echoed silently in his mind—389,544—a strength that, combined with his Laws, matched the monster's amplified blow.
The two forces pressed against each other in the vacuum, locked in a silent clash. Energy rippled outward in invisible waves, and the shattered debris around them was thrown farther into the black.
Alex's feet didn't move an inch.
For a moment, the two remained locked together in the silent void, Chaugnar Faugn's massive fist straining against Alex's hand. Its alien eyes widened in disbelief, if such a creature could show expression at all.
Its attack had been enhanced by the Law of Strength, a blow that should have pulverized even the mightiest of gods, yet Alex had stopped it cold with nothing but his own raw power. The fragments of shattered asteroid spun around them like a field of frozen shrapnel, lit by the distant glow of the stars.
Then Alex moved.
He pushed the creature's fist aside and drove his own fist forward.
It wasn't just strength. His physical strike was wrapped in layers of spells, each one sharpened and reinforced by the Law of Mana, amplifying the raw kinetic force into something far greater. Lightning surged along his arm, fire blazed in his knuckles, and ice formed a biting edge around the strike. The Laws he carried—Poison, Ice, Fire, Darkness, Web—all layered onto the blow, flowing through him as naturally as breath.
The punch connected with Chaugnar Faugn's torso.
The impact was like a planet colliding with another. The airless void lit up as the force of the strike shattered the creature's reinforced body, sending cracks tearing through its already damaged chest. Poison seeped into the wounds, ice froze the muscles solid, lightning raced across its alien flesh, and darkness from the Law of Darkness burrowed into its core, unraveling it from within.
The Great Old One's massive form was hurled backward, spinning uncontrollably through space. Segments of its grotesque, trunk-like head were torn apart, and more fragments of its body drifted away like broken pieces of stone.
Watching from a distance, the gods who had been teleported with Alex stared in pure shock. Even Nyx's normally serene expression shifted slightly.
He had not used magic to overpower the Law of Strength. He had met it directly, with his own body.
The moment Chaugnar Faugn's body began spinning away, Alex didn't hesitate. He vanished from where he stood, space folding around him, and reappeared directly above the tumbling mass. Before the monster could regain control of its limbs, his fist was already descending.
Every strike that followed was merciless.
Each punch slammed into its body with the full weight of his 389,544 strength, carrying the power of his Laws with every blow. Poison spread deeper through its wounds, paralyzing its movements. Lightning tore across its body, leaving smoking gouges in its thick flesh. Fire seared the surface while ice spread into the cracks, freezing and shattering alien muscles. Every strike disrupted its ability to regenerate.
He didn't give it a single moment to draw on the Law of Strength again.
The void was filled with silent bursts of light each time his fists connected. He drove it farther and farther away from the ruined asteroid field, each blow leaving new fractures in its massive body.
By the time Chaugnar Faugn tried to counterattack again, its body was already covered in deep, jagged injuries. One of its massive limbs hung at an unnatural angle, and its chest was riddled with holes where the poison and fire had eaten through.
Alex appeared directly in front of it, his body coiled like a spring, and with a final surge of strength, he struck its chest with everything he had. The blow landed like a star collapsing, the impact sinking deep into the creature's body.
The alien chest caved in under the force, cracks spider-webbing across its torso. For an instant, its enormous form seemed to shudder, then it began to come apart, fragments of its flesh and bone breaking free as it drifted helplessly backward.
Chapter 572 – The Fall of Chaugnar Faugn
The enormous fragments of Chaugnar Faugn's body drifted apart in the silence of space. Its alien form, once an overwhelming presence, now hung broken and still, glowing faintly from the deep cracks left by Alex's relentless strikes. With one final blow, its essence collapsed, leaving nothing but lifeless mass dissolving into the void.
The system's familiar voice echoed in Alex's mind.
Level Up!
Gained Levels: 64,242
Unused Stat Points Acquired: 321,210
New Law Acquired: Law of Strength
The windows appeared before him, clear against the blackness of space. With a thought, he opened his status:
Name: Alex Elwood
Level: 460,124
HP: 3,895,340
MP: 1,947,850
STR: 389,544
END: 389,534
AGI: 389,524
INT: 389,570
WILL: 389,418
Unused Stat Points: 321,210
Laws: Mana (3%), Ice, Fire, Web, Poison, Darkness, Strength
Without hesitation, he selected Distribute Evenly. Mana surged outward, rippling the empty space around him as the points poured into his body. The nearby fragments of the destroyed asteroid shifted from the sudden pulse of energy.
Updated Stats:
HP: 4,537,760
MP: 2,268,830
STR: 453,786
END: 453,776
AGI: 453,766
INT: 453,812
WILL: 453,660
Unused Stat Points: 0
The increase settled quickly. Even in the weightless silence, the air around him seemed denser, heavier, as though reality itself struggled to contain his presence.
The shattered remains of Chaugnar Faugn drifted silently behind them, breaking apart into smaller fragments that slowly spread into the endless dark. The battle was over.
Alex glanced at the gods who had been teleported with him to witness the fight. They were still frozen in place, their expressions blank from shock. None of them spoke; none of them even tried to. The weight of what they had just seen still pressed against them—the effortless teleportation of a mountain, the fight in space, and the way he crushed a Great Old One whose very presence could have destroyed the world.
Without a word, Alex raised his hand. Space bent outward around them, a ripple of light expanding from his palm. The world folded, and in an instant, the blackness of space disappeared.
The group reappeared in the council chamber, the icy walls of the hall snapping back into place around them. The gods staggered slightly as the ground returned beneath their feet, some needing a moment to adjust to gravity again.
For a long time, there was no sound. Only the crackle of Surtr's flame, faint and distant, and the whisper of the circuits carved into the ice.
Alex stepped forward and stopped in the same place he had stood before leaving for the mountains, as if nothing had happened. He looked toward Nyx without a word, waiting.
Nyx was the first to recover from the silence. Her violet eyes settled on Alex, and for a brief moment, she seemed to study him as if to confirm that what they had just witnessed was real.
When she finally spoke, her voice was even, calm as always, but quieter than usual.
"The next one," she said, "is Bokrug."
The name stirred a ripple of recognition across the chamber. Even among the Great Old Ones, Bokrug was whispered about—silent, patient, waiting beneath a sunken city.
"It sleeps beneath the ruins of Ib," Nyx continued. "Buried deep at the bottom of a lake that mortals have long forgotten. It has not moved in centuries. It does not need to."
Her gaze sharpened.
"Bokrug carries the Law of Concealment. That Law hides its form, its movements, and even its presence from those who look for it. When it moves, the world itself does not notice until it is too late."
She glanced around at the other gods, her voice firm.
"If Bokrug awakens, you will not know until it is standing in front of you. Its first strike will already be fatal."
Finally, her eyes returned to Alex.
"It is sealed. For now. But when the seal breaks, you will have to be faster than its Concealment. Will you go there as well?"
Chapter 573 – The Silent Lake
Alex appeared above the lake in a ripple of warped space, silent as the stars above. The surface of the water stretched out below him like a sheet of glass, dark and unbroken. The land surrounding it was barren, lifeless—no villages, no wildlife, not even a whisper of wind.
This was the ruins of Ib, or what remained of it.
There was no city now, only water and an oppressive stillness.
He descended slowly, scanning the lake. Beneath the surface, far below, he could feel it: the faint presence of a seal. The barrier that bound Bokrug still held, but the pressure was immense even while dormant.
Alex hovered above the center of the lake. If this seal were to break here, the Law of Concealment would allow Bokrug to disappear before he could strike. That was unacceptable.
A plan formed immediately.
"I won't give you the chance to hide."
He placed his hand over the lake. The same massive teleportation array he had used before began to spread across the water and the earth around it. Circuits stretched in every direction, forming a vast web of runes and formulas. When it activated, the lake, the ground beneath it, and the seal itself shimmered—and in a single flash, all of it vanished from Earth.
The water, the ruins, and the depths of Ib now hung in the cold void of space.
Alex floated above the lake, looking down. The seal still held. It hadn't broken yet. Good.
He raised his hand again, and a sphere of power began to form beside him. It grew rapidly, layer upon layer of magic and Law compacted together: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Darkness, Poison, Web—all reinforced with the Law of Mana, bound with Time magic and Space magic.
The orb pulsed as it condensed tighter, a burning mass of energy wrapped in an invisible net of control.
When the sphere reached critical density, Alex carried it down to the edge of the seal. He didn't wait for the seal to break. He would detonate the attack the moment it did.
The orb touched the surface, and in that instant, he released it.
The resulting explosion was silent in space, but blinding. A sun seemed to ignite inside the transplanted lake, collapsing inward before erupting outward, consuming everything within its radius.
This was not a battle. It was an execution, prepared for the instant Bokrug dared to emerge.
The detonation swallowed the transplanted lake in a single heartbeat. The orb Alex had prepared did not merely burst outward—it collapsed first, compressing the violent energy into a pinprick before it expanded with a devastating force.
The blast that followed was vast.
If it had happened on Earth, the energy would have been enough to obliterate one continent entirely, and the shockwave would have spread far enough to scar two continents at once. Oceans would have boiled. The sky would have been torn apart.
But in the void of space, there was nothing to stop the release of power. The explosion stretched out in a sphere thousands of kilometers wide, vaporizing everything in its path. The ruins of Ib, the lake itself, and the great shape bound within the seal—everything was caught in the core of the blast.
Bokrug never had a chance to wake up.
The moment the seal cracked, the creature was already consumed by the roaring explosion. Its body was torn apart before its eyes could even open, before the Law of Concealment could take hold. There was no roar, no resistance. Just light.
The shockwave rippled out, scattering fragments of vaporized stone and water into the void. When the light finally began to fade, there was nothing left. No trace of the Great Old One remained.
As the last fragments of the explosion faded into the cold void, the familiar voice of the system echoed in Alex's mind.
Level Up!
Gained Levels: 52,370
Unused Stat Points Acquired: 261,850
New Law Acquired: Law of Concealment
He opened his status window, the glowing panels hovering silently in front of him:
Name: Alex Elwood
Level: 512,494
HP: 4,537,760
MP: 2,268,830
STR: 453,786
END: 453,776
AGI: 453,766
INT: 453,812
WILL: 453,660
Unused Stat Points: 261,850
Laws: Mana (3%), Ice, Fire, Web, Poison, Darkness, Strength, Concealment
Without hesitation, he distributed all of the stat points evenly. Power flooded his body once again, rippling through the emptiness around him, causing the shattered remains of the lake to scatter even farther as the airless space distorted under the surge.
Updated Stats:
HP: 5,063,460
MP: 2,531,910
STR: 506,356
END: 506,346
AGI: 506,336
INT: 506,382
WILL: 506,230
Unused Stat Points: 0
The glow from the status screen dimmed as he dismissed it. The void was silent once more, Bokrug gone without leaving even a whisper behind.
Alex looked once more at the empty stretch of space where the ruins of Ib and Bokrug had been. There was no trace left. His task here was finished.
In an instant, space folded around him. The shattered debris and silence of the void disappeared, replaced by the familiar cold glow of the council chamber's ice walls. He walked to the same place in the center of the hall, as though he had never left.
The gods and immortals fell silent again the moment he appeared. Even those who had already witnessed his battles with Nyogtha and Chaugnar Faugn could not hide the tension in their eyes. Each time he left, it seemed as if he returned faster than before, and every time, another Great Old One was gone.
His visor turned to Nyx.
"Next," he said, his voice calm and even.
Nyx met his gaze without looking away. For a moment, she didn't speak, her violet eyes studying him, as if weighing how far he would continue down this path. Then she gave a slight nod.
Nyx did not waste any words. As soon as she nodded, her voice carried clearly through the silent hall.
"The next one is Ithaqua," she said.
A quiet stir moved through the council. Even the oldest of the gods recognized that name—the Wind-Walker, a presence whispered about in the frozen north.
Nyx's tone remained steady. "It resides in the far reaches of the north, above the arctic circle, where storms never stop. Its body is like the storm itself. Ithaqua carries the Law of Wind. That Law allows it to move with speeds and force that can split mountains and tear apart cities in moments."
Her gaze shifted to Alex.
"It is sealed, deep beneath the ice. But its influence has never faded. The gales that circle that land are not natural—they are the edges of its breath."
She paused briefly, then added, "Like the others, you will need to remove it from this planet before it awakens. If you fight it here, the world will feel its storms."
Her voice softened slightly, the faintest edge of seriousness in her tone. "Its Law makes it harder to pin down. Even your speed may be tested."
Chapter 574 – The End of the Wind-Walker
The moment Nyx finished speaking, Alex vanished.
In the next instant, he appeared in the frozen north, far above the Arctic Circle. The land was white and endless, but the air was anything but calm. The wind screamed around him, a wall of constant pressure. It wasn't weather; it was a warning.
Beneath the ice, he felt it—the presence of the seal. Cracks ran through it, glowing faintly. It was going to break.
A deafening crack split the air, and from the ground below, an enormous figure erupted. Ithaqua, the Wind-Walker, emerged in a storm of snow and mist, its long limbs stretching unnaturally, its entire form made of a swirling blizzard shaped into something almost humanoid.
It turned its head toward Alex, eyes like frozen storms locking onto him. It opened its mouth to speak, an ancient sound like a thousand winter gales mixing into one.
Alex didn't let it.
The air froze around him as time magic and ice magic flared together, powered by the Law of Ice and the Law of Mana. The storm slowed to a crawl. The wild, tearing winds of Ithaqua collapsed in an instant as the cold deepened into absolute stillness. Its speed, its Law—all of it was locked down.
Alex moved.
In less than a heartbeat, he was in front of it, his fist already drawn back. Power surged through his body, every muscle reinforced with the Law of Strength, the strike coiling tighter, heavier.
He hit it with an uppercut.
The blow was so strong that Ithaqua's head snapped upward, its entire body folding backward from the impact. The force tore straight through its storm-shaped form, shattering it completely. The creature's essence ruptured, and before it could even regenerate, the rest of its body exploded into fragments.
The ground split beneath them as the impact of the strike launched the shattered remains upward. The entire mass of the Wind-Walker was thrown into space, spinning wildly until it struck the surface of the moon, scattering across it like shattered ice.
The wind stopped.
The Arctic was silent.
The Arctic winds fell silent. The only sound was the faint crackling of ice as the fractures in the ground slowly froze over again. Alex stood still for a moment, watching the last trace of Ithaqua vanish into the empty void of space.
Then the familiar chime echoed in his mind.
Level Up!
Gained Levels: 48,880
Unused Stat Points Acquired: 244,400
New Law Acquired: Law of Wind
The translucent system window appeared before his eyes.
Name: Alex Elwood
Level: 561,374
HP: 5,063,460
MP: 2,531,910
STR: 506,356
END: 506,346
AGI: 506,336
INT: 506,382
WILL: 506,230
Unused Stat Points: 244,400
Laws: Mana (3%), Ice, Fire, Web, Poison, Darkness, Strength, Concealment, Wind
He chose Distribute Evenly. Instantly, the new stat points surged through his body. The ground beneath him cracked again as the frozen air vibrated from the sudden release of pressure, then calmed as the energy sank into him completely.
Updated Stats:
HP: 5,552,260
MP: 2,776,310
STR: 555,236
END: 555,226
AGI: 555,216
INT: 555,262
WILL: 555,110
Unused Stat Points: 0
The window faded from view. The frozen north was quiet again. Only Alex stood there, calm, as if nothing had happened.
Alex took one last look at the frozen land around him. The winds were gone, and the presence of Ithaqua had completely vanished. Without hesitation, he opened a rift in space and stepped through.
A blink later, he was once again standing in the middle of the council chamber.
The sudden silence that spread across the hall was almost the same as before. The gods, immortals, and ancient beings who had been watching through scrying mirrors had barely processed what they'd seen. Less than a few minutes had passed since Alex left. Yet another Great Old One—one whose Law had made it a nightmare to track—was gone.
Alex stopped at the center of the hall, his boots silent against the frost-covered floor. His visor turned to Nyx.
"Next," he said calmly.
Her violet eyes met his. For a moment, she simply studied him, and even though her expression was calm, there was a subtle change in her gaze—something like acknowledgment.
Nyx didn't waste a second. The moment Alex spoke, she answered.
"Tsathoggua," she said, her voice as calm as ever.
The name echoed through the chamber, drawing a tense reaction from several gods. Even among the Great Old Ones, Tsathoggua was spoken of with caution. Its presence was as old as some of the deepest mountains of the world, a thing that slept for ages and rarely moved.
"It is sealed deep underground," Nyx continued. "Far below what mortals call the Ural Mountains, in a forgotten cave system. Tsathoggua does not wake often, but when it does, it brings with it the Law of Earth. That Law gives it dominion over everything underground—stone, soil, and the weight of the world itself."
Her gaze was fixed on Alex. "It is slow, but its Law makes it impossible to corner if it's allowed to merge with the earth. If you intend to destroy it, do it away from this world. Otherwise, every mountain and cavern will answer its call."
The hall was silent again. Nyx's words carried no urgency; it was as if she already knew he would move the moment she finished.
As soon as Nyx finished speaking, Alex disappeared without another word. The icy stillness of the council chamber was replaced, in the blink of an eye, by the rugged slopes of the Ural Mountains. The wind here carried the smell of stone and deep forests, but beneath that was something heavier—a presence that had been dormant for untold ages.
He stood motionless for a moment, sensing it. Far below, deeper than any mine or tunnel had ever reached, the seal pulsed faintly. Tsathoggua was there, waiting.
Without hesitation, Alex placed his hand on the ground. Mana burst outward in thin, glowing lines, racing across the slopes. The same intricate network of circuits he had woven before spread outwards, tracing every rock and ridge. They wrapped around the mountain like a net, and soon the runes covered the land in every direction.
When the final line connected, he activated it.
Light flared, and in the next instant, the entire section of the Ural Mountains—stone, soil, and the seal deep beneath—vanished from Earth.
It reappeared in the cold vacuum of space, far above the world. The massive weight of the mountains now floated silently, casting a long shadow across the stars.
Alex stood on the rocky surface, looking down into the deep, black fissures that led to the sealed cavern below. Here, there would be no chance of the Law of Earth turning the planet itself into a weapon.
Alex moved to the center of the rocky surface, directly above the fissure where the seal pulsed. His hand lifted slightly, and mana began to gather in front of him, spiraling inward. The sphere grew rapidly as he poured layer upon layer of magic and Laws into it—fire, ice, lightning, darkness, wind, poison, all compressed by space and bound by time. The Law of Mana made each thread precise, no power wasted.
The moment the sphere stabilized, the seal below cracked.
From deep within, a pressure began to rise, slow but heavy, like the weight of the mountain itself pushing upward. The cracks widened, and a great, bloated form emerged—Tsathoggua. Its body was massive, squat, like a grotesque toad made of stone and shadow. Even in the vacuum of space, the weight of its presence was crushing.
The instant its eyes opened, Alex released the orb.
The explosion hit before Tsathoggua could fully emerge, a compressed star of elemental energy collapsing onto it. Fire and lightning ripped across its thick, stony skin, and the void around them blazed with destructive light.
But Tsathoggua didn't die.
The Law of Earth surged out from it, forming thick plates of stone and density that shielded its body. The explosion shattered chunks of its outer form, tearing away layers of hardened skin and breaking parts of its body, but the core mass endured.
Its slow nature betrayed it—it couldn't avoid the hit—but its Law made its body far tougher than anything Alex had faced so far.
The attack left it seriously injured, massive cracks splitting its rocky hide, but it still moved.
The creature's enormous limbs dug into the floating mountain, pulling itself forward even as parts of its form broke apart.
Alex didn't give it time to recover. The moment the explosion faded, he teleported, appearing directly in front of Tsathoggua's massive form. Before the creature could rise from its crater, his fist came down with devastating force.
The impact caved in part of its rocky hide, and a shockwave rolled across the surface of the floating mountain, sending chunks of stone drifting into space.
Tsathoggua roared silently, the vibrations of its Law spreading through the ground beneath them. The entire floating mountain cracked as the Law of Earth surged. Spikes of stone erupted upward, jagged pillars striking toward Alex from every direction.
Alex didn't flinch. He dodged through the spikes with instantaneous teleportation and answered every defense with another blow.
Each punch was amplified by the Law of Strength, his strikes hitting like meteor impacts. The stone shields shattered on impact, fragments breaking away from Tsathoggua's body. With every strike, poison flowed into its wounds, creeping deeper into its flesh. Flames licked through the cracks, lightning burned through the exposed inner flesh, and ice spread like veins, freezing and breaking apart anything it touched.
The creature tried again and again to raise walls of stone around itself, to cover its core with the earth, but every defense was destroyed with a single hit.
One fist slammed into its lower jaw, breaking half of its face into fragments. Another strike hit its torso, cracking its thick chest until it sank inwards. The combined heat and cold coursed through its body, burning its organs and freezing them all at once.
The massive form of Tsathoggua began to falter, chunks of its body peeling away as the internal damage spread. The poison took hold faster than its regeneration could counter, and the Law of Earth, once solid, started to crumble as its body betrayed it.
Tsathoggua's huge frame staggered, its rocky limbs dragging deep cracks through the surface of the floating mountain as it struggled to stand. Its eyes, dim and buried in folds of stone-like flesh, glared at Alex with rage, but its massive form was already splitting apart from the inside.
Alex didn't stop.
He appeared directly in front of it one last time. His body lowered slightly, coiling all of his strength into a single motion. The Laws within him—Strength, Fire, Ice, Poison, Darkness, Web, Concealment, Wind—layered into his arm, each one threading together, woven into a single devastating strike.
The airless void bent around his fist as he struck.
The blow connected with the center of Tsathoggua's chest.
The impact was like a collapsing star. For an instant, the entire floating mountain warped from the force. Tsathoggua's thick chest caved inward, its cracked body splintering into thousands of fractures at once. The poison burned deeper, fire erupted in the cracks, ice shattered what was left of its core, and the strength behind the strike carried all of it through.
The creature's body burst apart.
Chunks of rocky flesh and broken limbs flew in every direction, scattering across the empty void. What remained of Tsathoggua's torso crumbled, breaking into dust before it even finished spinning.
The mountain itself split from the impact, large slabs of rock drifting slowly outward. Nothing of the Great Old One remained.
Alex lowered his fist and stood silently in the stillness of space, watching the fragments drift farther away.
As the last fragments of Tsathoggua drifted into the dark, the system's voice rang clearly in Alex's mind.
Level Up!
Gained Levels: 53,240
Unused Stat Points Acquired: 266,200
New Law Acquired: Law of Earth
A translucent window appeared before his eyes, displaying the results.
Name: Alex Elwood
Level: 614,614
HP: 5,552,260
MP: 2,776,310
STR: 555,236
END: 555,226
AGI: 555,216
INT: 555,262
WILL: 555,110
Unused Stat Points: 266,200
Laws: Mana (3%), Ice, Fire, Web, Poison, Darkness, Strength, Concealment, Wind, Earth
Without pausing, he selected Distribute Evenly.
Energy surged through his body again, rippling out into the void. Cracks spread across the floating slabs of rock around him as the power settled into his body, his presence growing heavier with every second until the void itself seemed to still.
Updated Stats:
HP: 6,084,760
MP: 3,042,510
STR: 608,476
END: 608,466
AGI: 608,456
INT: 608,502
WILL: 608,350
Unused Stat Points: 0
The glow of the window faded, leaving only Alex floating above what was left of the mountain, the Law of Earth now resonating faintly inside him.
Alex cast one last glance at the shattered remains of the mountain and the drifting fragments of Tsathoggua's body. With a thought, space folded around him, and in less than a blink, he was gone.
The council chamber shuddered slightly as the fold of space opened again in its center. In an instant, Alex stood where he had been before, boots touching the frost-covered floor as if he had never left.
The room fell completely silent.
Every eye was on him—the gods, immortals, and ancient beings who had been watching through their scrying mirrors. They had barely been able to keep up with the rapid pace of the battle; many of them still hadn't even processed the moment the mountain had vanished from Earth before it was all over.
Alex raised his head slightly, his visor facing Nyx.
"Next," he said, his tone as calm as ever.
Nyx's violet eyes did not waver as she answered immediately, as if she had been waiting for him to ask.
"Cyaegha," she said.
The name stirred a faint whisper among the council. Even among the Great Old Ones, this one was strange—rarely moving, but dreaded by those who knew of it.
"It sleeps beneath the mountains in Europe," Nyx continued. "Deep in a hollow where no light ever reaches. Mortals built a town above it long ago, unaware of what they lived upon. The town is abandoned now, but the seal is still there."
Her voice softened, though her words carried an unusual weight.
"Cyaegha holds the Law of Sleep. That Law forces everything around it—mortal, god, or even beast—to fall into a deep, unending slumber. When it awakens, even your senses may be affected. If it begins to spread its Law unchecked, an entire continent could fall silent in a single night."
She fixed her gaze on Alex.
"Like the others, you will need to move the battlefield before you strike. But beware—the Law of Sleep does not care about distance. It can spread with only a thought."
As Nyx finished speaking, a strange heaviness settled over the council chamber. It was faint at first, like a subtle change in the air. Then, slowly, a few of the gods shifted uncomfortably in their seats.
One yawned.
Another rubbed at their eyes, trying to keep them open.
"Already…?" murmured Odin under his breath, his single eye narrowing as he noticed the effect creeping in. Even some of the immortals and envoys who had been standing at the edges of the hall began to sway slightly, as though the room itself had grown heavier.
"This is its influence," Nyx said quietly, her voice cutting through the drowsiness. "Even while sealed, Cyaegha's Law leaks into the land around it. Those who come too close to the seal cannot stay awake for long."
Several gods clenched their fists on instinct, forcing their willpower to keep them standing. The faint aura of drowsiness spread across the chamber, though it bounced harmlessly off Alex as he stood still, completely unaffected.
Nyx glanced at him. "You will need to move quickly."
Chapter 575 – The World Begins to Sleep
It began as a subtle wave, unnoticed by most.
In the cities of the world, people rubbed their eyes. In the middle of the day, workers at desks and on factory floors began to yawn. Students in classrooms nodded off one by one, heads resting against their arms as if gravity itself had become heavier.
Within an hour, it was everywhere. Across every continent, people stopped what they were doing. Cars slowed, trains halted, planes changed course. On sidewalks, in offices, in homes—everyone wanted to sleep.
Pilots reported sudden drowsiness. Surgeons in operating rooms had to be dragged away from tables. Entire schools went silent.
News cameras broadcast the scenes live: entire streets of New York and Tokyo where people simply sat down on the pavement and dozed off, unable to keep their eyes open. Even animals began to collapse—dogs curling up on the ground, birds falling from the air in slow, spiraling drops.
In the oceans, fishing vessels reported whales and dolphins floating to the surface, asleep and unmoving.
The Magic Association, the Vatican, the world's militaries—every emergency line began to light up at once. No spell, no medicine, no force of will seemed to break the effect.
And all of this was happening while the Great Old One was still sealed.
In the council chamber, the gods could see it on the scrying mirrors. The drowsiness they had begun to feel was nothing compared to what mortals were enduring. It was spreading fast.
"Cyaegha," Nyx said, her voice firm. "It has begun to stir."
Alex didn't wait for anyone to speak.
Before the gods could react to the images on the scrying mirrors—the entire world falling into drowsiness—he disappeared. One step forward, and space folded around him.
In the next instant, he was standing in the abandoned town above the seal.
The place was silent. Buildings leaned against each other like drunks, their wood and stone decaying from centuries without care. The ground was overgrown, but even the weeds seemed wilted. A heavy, suffocating pressure hung in the air.
Everywhere he looked, he saw the signs: sleep. Dead leaves lay over the cobblestones like a blanket, birds were huddled in stillness, and the wind itself felt slow, dragging. The air was thick, pulling at his senses, trying to make him close his eyes.
Deep beneath the town, the seal pulsed weakly. It was fracturing.
Alex didn't move slowly. He raised his hand and began tracing glowing runes into the air, his mana sinking into the earth. Circuits spread from his position outward, covering every broken roof, every empty street, every square meter of soil.
As the web completed, he triggered the teleportation array.
The entire town—buildings, ground, and the cavern beneath—vanished from the Earth and reappeared in the silent emptiness of space.
The moment it unfolded in the void, the seal cracked completely.
From deep within the torn ground, Cyaegha stirred, its enormous body shifting, coiling, still half-asleep, yet radiating a Law so heavy that even space around it trembled.
The seal shattered completely, and from the cracked earth in the void, Cyaegha rose. Its form was vast, a mass of twisting, slug-like flesh with uncountable tendrils that pulsed faintly, each movement sluggish as if even its own body was trapped in a dream. Its single, enormous, lidless eye opened halfway, glowing with a dim, sickly green light.
As soon as it emerged, the Law of Sleep spread outward.
A wave of drowsiness surged through the void like a slow-moving tide. Any ordinary mind, mortal or god, would have fallen instantly. On Earth, entire populations had already collapsed under its influence.
But Alex did not slow.
The Law pressed against him, but his WILL of 608,350, reinforced by the sheer stability of his Laws, was immovable. The sleepiness rolled off him like rain against an unshakable wall.
Cyaegha noticed. Its vast eye widened slightly. It tried again, pouring more of its Law into the wave, but the result didn't change. The Void Knight stood untouched.
In a voice that was like a whisper from a dream, the creature began to bargain.
"Wait… listen. There is no need for this," it murmured, its tendrils twitching. "I can give you knowledge, I can—"
Alex didn't let it finish.
In less than an instant, he was in front of it. His arm drew back, muscles coiled, every Law he carried—Strength, Fire, Ice, Poison, Darkness, Web, Concealment, Wind, Earth—gathering into his fist.
The punch connected directly with the center of its massive eye.
The impact tore through its body like a star collapsing. Cyaegha's form rippled outward from the strike, its body folding and shattering as cracks exploded across its soft, fleshy mass. The entire creature broke apart in a single instant, its Law scattering before it could even react.
The remains of its body drifted into space, torn into fragments no larger than dust. Cyaegha was dead before it had even finished speaking.
The remains of Cyaegha scattered silently through space. Its enormous form dissolved into dust and fragments, leaving nothing but stillness where the creature had stood.
A familiar chime echoed in Alex's mind.
Level Up!
Gained Levels: 49,630
Unused Stat Points Acquired: 248,150
New Law Acquired: Law of Sleep
The transparent window unfolded in front of him:
Name: Alex Elwood
Level: 664,244
HP: 6,084,760
MP: 3,042,510
STR: 608,476
END: 608,466
AGI: 608,456
INT: 608,502
WILL: 608,350
Unused Stat Points: 248,150
Laws: Mana (3%), Ice, Fire, Web, Poison, Darkness, Strength, Concealment, Wind, Earth, Sleep
Without a pause, he selected Distribute Evenly. The stat points flowed into him like a storm, the void itself trembling from the surge. Fragments of the town's ruins drifted away in slow arcs as his presence expanded.
Updated Stats:
HP: 6,572,960
MP: 3,286,160
STR: 657,206
END: 657,196
AGI: 657,186
INT: 657,232
WILL: 657,080
Unused Stat Points: 0
The window faded, and silence returned. Even the faint echoes of Cyaegha's Law were gone, leaving nothing but cold emptiness around him.
The moment Cyaegha's presence vanished, the effect on Earth was immediate.
In the streets of Tokyo, where cars had stopped in the middle of intersections and pedestrians had collapsed onto sidewalks, people began to stir. One by one, eyes fluttered open. Confused voices filled the air as they sat up, looking around as though waking from a deep dream. Horns honked as drivers tried to figure out what had just happened.
In New York, people who had been asleep on benches, crosswalks, and stairways suddenly woke up, blinking at the daylight. Phones that had been dropped during the strange slumber started buzzing again, and emergency responders, who moments ago had been unable to stay awake, were suddenly back on their feet.
In classrooms across Europe, teachers and students rubbed their eyes, trying to remember why they had all fallen asleep at the same time. Hospital staff and patients awoke in the middle of surgeries, corridors, and waiting rooms, shaken but unharmed.
Animals too began to rise. Birds shook themselves and took to the sky again, flocks scattering. Dogs stood, wagging their tails in confusion, while whales and dolphins deep in the ocean began to swim upward, breaking through the surface as if waking from a long dream.
A few minutes later, global communication lines came alive. The internet filled with live broadcasts, panicked questions, and shaky videos.
"What happened?"
"Was it a gas leak? A global spell?"
"No… it felt like I was dreaming… but I can't remember what about."
Governments, the Magic Association, and the Vatican all scrambled for answers, but no one had any explanation. All they knew was that for a brief moment, the entire world had fallen asleep together.
In the council chamber, the scrying mirrors that had shown countless sleeping cities now showed the opposite—people standing, alive, bewildered, their fear replaced with relief.
Far from Earth, Alex stood silently in the void for a moment longer, confirming that not a trace of Cyaegha remained. Then, without hesitation, he opened a rift in space and stepped through.
In the blink of an eye, he was back in the council chamber.
The temperature of the hall seemed to drop even further as the blue light around him faded. All the scrying mirrors that had been showing sleeping cities now displayed images of people waking up, the crisis over. Still, the gods and immortals could not look away from him.
Alex walked to the center of the chamber and faced Nyx again.
"Next," he said, his voice as steady as ever.
Nyx inclined her head slightly. Her violet eyes focused on him as she spoke.
"The next one is Eihort," she said. "It is sealed beneath an ancient network of tunnels in the depths of Europe. Unlike the others, this one does not bring storms or collapse mountains. Instead, it corrupts."
She paused briefly, her voice colder than usual.
"Eihort holds the Law of Parasites. In the past, it made contracts with living beings. When they refused, it killed them outright. But those who accepted…" Her gaze sharpened. "It implanted its parasites inside them. These things grew, fed, and eventually took over the body, turning them into nothing but a vessel."
She glanced away, as if remembering.
"In my time, when it last stirred, we had no choice but to exterminate every living being that had made a contract with it. It took centuries to cleanse the damage it caused."
Her eyes returned to Alex.
"Even sealed, Eihort is dangerous. If that seal breaks, those parasites will spread fast. Kill it before they hatch."
Alex stepped forward, and the chamber vanished around him. Space folded, and in the next moment, he was deep underground in a vast labyrinth of twisting tunnels. The air was thick, heavy, and alive with an unnatural stench. Deep beneath Europe, Eihort had already broken free of its seal.
Its massive, translucent, worm-like body shifted through the cavern. Its surface pulsed, full of grotesque egg-like sacs, each one writhing faintly as if something inside struggled to get out. It stopped the moment it sensed him, its enormous, lidless eye turning to fix on Alex.
In a voice that crawled into the mind rather than the air, it spoke.
"Void Knight… I can offer you a deal. Serve me. Let me plant my seed inside you, and I will share with you everything I know."
Alex's voice cut through the cavern, steady.
"No."
The creature hissed, the tunnels shaking as its body coiled. "Then die."
It lunged, the ground trembling as it swung a mass of tendrils toward him.
Alex moved first. He appeared directly before its swollen head and drove his fist forward, every Law he possessed flowing into the strike. The impact tore through its flesh, spraying translucent fluid across the tunnel.
In desperation, the sacs on its body burst, releasing swarms of parasites that rushed at him like a living tide. They never made it close. The Law of Fire ignited around him, burning them to ash in an instant.
Before the creature could recover, another punch followed. This time, the strike carried a heavy, searing venom—the Law of Poison. The toxin sank into Eihort's pulsing body, spreading through its translucent form. The creature screamed silently, its body twisting and collapsing as the poison consumed it from the inside.
It tried to focus, its huge eye staring at him with confusion.
"You… how… can you hold so many Laws? How…?"
Alex didn't answer.
His final punch broke through its head entirely, shattering its eye and ripping through the length of its body. The force of the strike reduced Eihort to fragments. Its form collapsed, falling in broken pieces across the tunnels, twitching for a moment before going still.
The shattered remains of Eihort's body twitched once, then dissolved into a pale, foul-smelling fluid that quickly evaporated, leaving nothing behind. The tunnels around Alex went silent. The oppressive feeling of the Law of Parasites faded instantly.
In the calm that followed, the familiar chime of the system echoed in his mind.
Level Up!
Gained Levels: 46,320
Unused Stat Points Acquired: 231,600
New Law Acquired: Law of Parasites
The translucent window appeared in front of him:
Name: Alex Elwood
Level: 710,564
HP: 6,572,960
MP: 3,286,160
STR: 657,206
END: 657,196
AGI: 657,186
INT: 657,232
WILL: 657,080
Unused Stat Points: 231,600
Laws: Mana (3%), Ice, Fire, Web, Poison, Darkness, Strength, Concealment, Wind, Earth, Sleep, Parasites
Without hesitation, he selected Distribute Evenly.
Energy surged through him, shaking the tunnels as a pressure wave swept outward, breaking apart weakened walls. The fragmented ground lifted slightly before settling as the power sank into his body.
Updated Stats:
HP: 7,034,360
MP: 3,517,360
STR: 703,446
END: 703,436
AGI: 703,426
INT: 703,472
WILL: 703,320
Unused Stat Points: 0
The window faded, leaving only silence and the faint glow of runes still etched into the earth from his teleportation.