Chapter 198: The Goddess-Touched Demon King
"What do you think, Rhodes?" she asked, her voice as smooth and as cool as a polished stone.
"Shouldn't we be a little more familiar before you start calling me by my first name?" he said with a frown. At first, he had thought that she had just assimilated the memories of the Goddess of Procreation and had seen his past in her final moments. But now... it seemed to be something more.
"It seems you don't remember," she said with a look of a mock disappointment.
"You know I hate riddles."
"Of course. But it's so much more fun when you're the one telling them, isn't it?" she said with a playful smile.
"Your 'fun' seems to be at my expense."
"Then let you, and this whole world, suffer," she said, and their casual conversation, in the midst of a tense and deadly standoff, left everyone, including Serie, completely baffled.
But he, he was beginning to understand.
"The game has just begun, Rhodes. You will have plenty of time to unravel its mysteries. But for now... you have other things to attend to, don't you?"
"Are you showing weakness?"
"You can think of it that way, if you wish."
A new and terrible thought now came to him. Shurahat's death, and her own sudden appearance... had it all been a part of her plan? A cold, icy dread, a dread that was far greater than the joy he had felt at having found a new path to eternal life, now washed over him. This feeling... it was worse than when he had faced the Goddess of Procreation at her full power. The unknown... the feeling that she knew everything, and he was just a blind man, fumbling in the dark...
Seeing his hesitation, a new and terrible aura, an aura that was beyond mere magic, now radiated from her. The very space around her began to crack and crumble. Serie's own face was now a mask of a grim and terrible resolve, and her own magic now flared to life. Fight or flee?
He was silent. He could feel it, the divine power within her, a power that was still not fully unleashed.
"I see," he finally said, his own voice now a calm and level sound. "Next time, I will not hold back. And I hope... that you can still maintain this air of an omniscient superiority."
He had chosen to retreat. At least, on the surface.
"That may be a long time from now," she said, a playful smile on her lips, as if she had already seen his choice.
"Give me the 'Light of Ersten'," he said, and held out his hand.
"If you want it, then you'll have to..." she began, but then she just shook her head. "Fine. Take it."
With a flick of her finger, the holy sword, the sword for which Shurahat had planned for so long, the sword for which he had sacrificed a Sage of Destruction and even himself, now flew to him.
He took it and, without another glance at her, he turned and walked back to Serie. "Let's go," he said.
She was reluctant, but she trusted him. She gave the Demon King one last, baleful glare, and then followed him.
"Your Majesty! Why did you let them go!?"
"Your Majesty! This was a golden opportunity!"
"If you had just kept them here, the humans would have been powerless!"
Behind her, the four great demons, their own voices now filled with a confused and even a questioning tone, now spoke.
She just stood there and watched them go, and did not say a word.
But they had not gone far. He suddenly stopped, and a wave of a raw and untamed magical power, a power that was all his own, a power that he had kept hidden for so long, now erupted from him. The power of a thousand years, a power that had been forged in a hundred reincarnations, the power of a human mage.
The one who now stood before the so-called 'Demon King'... he was the most ancient of all human mages.
"Serie, hold these for me. And don't interfere," he said, and without looking back, he tossed both the 'Light of Ersten' and Org to her.
She caught them, and their weight almost made her stumble. She quickly infused them with her own mana and managed to hold them steady. What is he doing?
He turned and faced the castle below, and the mana in his own body now began to gather and compress.
"Hello," his voice echoed through the ruins. "We meet again."
He slowly raised his right hand, his palm open and facing her. And without a single incantation, without a single magic circle, the very space in front of his hand began to compress, to groan under an immense pressure. They've been so focused on my sword, he thought, that they've forgotten who I really am.
A torrent of a pure and holy light shot from his palm, and it was aimed at the castle, and at her.
BOOM!!!
In its path, the very ground was split open, and everything, the hard, unyielding stone, the few, cowering monsters, was instantly annihilated.
For the first time, a look of a genuine and sincere shock appeared on her face. She had not expected him to turn back. She had not expected him to use his own, pure magic. It was not in her script.
In her haste, a thousand dark-golden runes now appeared and formed a torrent of their own, and it met his in a clash of a pure and unadulterated power.
BOOM!!!
The two energies collided with a deafening roar, and a wave of a raw and untamed power, a storm of a pure and chaotic energy, now ripped through the already-ruined hall, and the last of its walls and pillars now crumbled to dust. Even she was pushed back by the force of the blast, a look of a new and grim realization on her face. The power of his attack... it was far greater than she had anticipated.
"Good! Very good!" she said, and the shock in her eyes was now replaced by a new and burning fighting spirit. "As expected of the one she chose. This pure, unadulterated source of magic... it is a power that can rival that of a god."
He was already preparing his next attack. A thousand light arrows now appeared in the sky, and she met them with a thousand dark-golden spears of her own. And then, she raised her own hand, and a thousand chains of a pure and dark energy shot from all sides, a cage of a deadly and binding power.
But he just clenched his fist and brought it down on the empty air. And the very space around him shattered, a thousand tiny, invisible cracks that now spread out and consumed the encroaching chains. It was a spell he had created after his first encounter with the broken and shattered space of the Godfall Land, a spell inspired by a certain old man who had liked to collect sons.
He then reached out with his other hand, and the space around her began to shatter, a cage of a thousand razor-sharp edges that was now closing in on her.
Her own face changed. The dark golden lines under her skin flared, and a new and ancient power, a power of life itself, now erupted from her. A thousand dark-golden vines and flowers, all made of a pure and vibrant energy, now grew from the shattered space, and they not only withstood the cutting edges of the broken reality, but began to mend it, to pull it back together.
The battle had now entered a new and terrifying phase. The very hall around them was now a swirling maelstrom of a pure and destructive creation, a place where the floor was being constantly annihilated and then regrown in a crystalline and grotesque form, where the very fabric of space was being torn apart and then sewn back together.
The Sages of Destruction watched, their minds unable to even comprehend the level of the battle that was now unfolding before them. Riwal's own fists were clenched so tightly that his nails were digging into his palms. His own strength, his own power... it was nothing before this.
Serie, her own heart a whirlwind of a pure and utter shock, held the two holy swords in a death grip, her own attention now a laser-focus on the four great demons, to prevent them from interfering. The spatial magic he was using... it was more powerful than she had ever imagined. She had known he had been studying it, of course. Their own teleportation spell had been his creation. But this... this was something else. I have to have him teach me, she thought, after this is all over. And the Demon King... her own power was strange. It felt so... familiar.
After a final, titanic clash of their powers, they both retreated, and he, he was still in the air, his breathing still steady, but his eyes... they were now a dark and stormy sea. The corrosion of the Goddess of Procreation... it was more than just a simple fusion. The way she had used that power, her understanding of magic, and that faint, almost imperceptible, aura he had felt when she had mended the broken space... "Who are you!?" he demanded. "What is your relationship with the Goddess of Life!?"
She, for her part, was also a little shaken. "You want to know, Rhodes?" she said, a playful tone now back in her voice. "Then you will have to defeat me first." She raised her hand, and a swirling mass of a dark-golden liquid, an energy of a pure and unadulterated assimilation, now appeared in her palm. "Come. Let me see if the most ancient of human mages can touch the truth."
"As you wish."
He did not hesitate. He unleashed his strongest spell, the very first spell he had ever created with her.
An absolute domain, a sphere of a pure and unadulterated darkness that consumed all light, now expanded from him and, in an instant, it had swallowed her. Her face, for the first time, was a mask of a true and genuine shock. The dark-golden matter in her hand... it was being consumed. The very light of the runes on her skin was now fading.
"Your Majesty!"
The great demons, seeing her now in his dark domain, rushed forward.
"Stay back!" Serie roared, and with a swing of Org, a golden blade of a pure and holy energy appeared before them, and they were all thrown back. "Anyone who takes another step... dies!"
Her voice was an icy command, and the sheer force of her own magical power now held them in place.
And in his dark domain, her body was now beginning to turn transparent. She tried to fight back, but her own essence... it was light. And he... he was the very antithesis of it. Her own power of fusion, her greatest strength, was now useless. A pained gasp escaped her lips, and her body began to tremble violently.
And in that moment, as her own power flared, he saw it. The core of her being, and in it... the last, lingering essence of the Goddess of Life, an essence that had been so thoroughly corrupted that it was now a dark and twisted thing. I can't let that get out, he thought. If that were to be released... it would be a disaster far worse than anything else.
He made his decision. And the dark, all-consuming domain, it just... vanished.
Thump.
She fell to her knees, panting, her face as pale as a ghost, the dark golden lines on her skin now almost completely gone.
"You really... don't have the stomach for it, do you," she said, a faint smile on her lips.
He just stood there, his own breath a little ragged. He looked at her, at the being who was now on her knees before him, and a look of an utter disbelief came over his own face.
"You..." his own voice was a hoarse and raspy sound, "you..."
"Hehe..." she laughed, a low and quiet sound. She struggled back to her feet, the wounds on her body, the faded runes, now slowly beginning to heal. "You win, Rhodes," she said, and her gaze went past him, to the Sages who were still held at bay by Serie, and then back to her. "You can go now, can't you?"
He stood there for a long, long time, and then he turned and walked away.
(End of chapter)
~~~
Get early access to 20+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
~~~
Every 150 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter