The quicksand-like Origin of Calamity in Victor's hand slowly flowed, as if it had gained a mind of its own, gradually spreading through the air.
Just as the sand was about to wrap around Victor's body, Hermes' voice from behind suddenly interrupted him.
"Are you... Habika?"
Victor frowned and turned to look at Hermes.
"Who are you talking to?"
Victor was puzzled. Vega on his shoulder was fast asleep.
The pitch-black crow had long since been covered in a pale white color. Every feather had lost its original shade.
Now Vega looked no different from an ordinary bird, even somewhat like a pigeon.
Yet without Vega revealing anything at all, Hermes had spoken Vega's divine name.
Habika, Vega's divine name.
To be honest, although Victor was used to planning everything carefully and understanding every detail, even things he had never directly encountered in the game, as long as there were clues, he could infer the truth behind them.
Only Habika's identity remained completely unknown to him.
He knew Habika was an Evil God because this deity had once appeared in the game's background lore.
"Erased half the world's population."
That was one of the few descriptions of Habika.
After that, this deity never appeared in the game again.
When Hermes spoke Vega's divine name, Victor became curious for the first time.
While thinking, Victor lightly moved his finger, magic flowing around his fingertips.
A chain twisted through the air, passing around everyone nearby and completely enclosing him and Hermes.
[Silencing Chain Ring]
This spell was enough to ensure that no one else could hear their conversation. Only Victor and Hermes could hear each other's voices.
To everyone outside, the two merely appeared to be staring each other down without moving.
From time to time, phantom images flickered between them to mislead anyone watching.
Sure enough, after Victor cast the spell, the two of them appeared to everyone else to have fallen into silence.
They looked at each other calmly, but the powerful pressure between them still made it seem as though they were engaged in an intense confrontation.
At the same time, Victor stared at Hermes, looking into those colorless eyes as he said, "How much do you know about the name you just mentioned?"
At this moment, he even gave up absorbing the Earth Origin. He only wanted a clear answer from Hermes.
However, Hermes seemed to have fallen into utter madness.
His golden eyes trembled constantly, as though he were struggling within his own memories.
"Habika...?"
Victor narrowed his eyes, his deep gaze fixed on Hermes, as though trying to see through his mind.
Were his memories in chaos?
Or had they been disturbed?
Victor felt somewhat helpless.
If that was really the case, there was nothing he could do.
Because simply put, these "gods" who relied on faith were weak.
They had only become gods because they had gained the faith of more humans.
A god like Hermes, in Victor's eyes, was nothing more than...
"A divine-level boss that happened to gain immortality."
Of course, that was only in Victor's eyes.
Gods also had ranks. A god like Hermes was only at the very bottom.
Compared to an Evil God like Vega, who could wipe out half the world's population just by appearing alone, he wasn't worth mentioning.
If Hermes had really been affected just now because some of Vega's divine power had leaked out, then that wasn't impossible.
Victor simply stopped paying attention to Hermes, casually dismissed the spell, and called for Cocotte instead.
"Cocotte."
Hearing him call, Cocotte floated over on her cloud, swaying from side to side.
"Haa... what is it this time?"
Cocotte yawned, looking completely lazy.
After all, she hadn't slept all night either.
Although she was no longer as lazy as she used to be, the exhaustion from lacking proper rest was obvious.
After yawning, she lowered her head to look at Liya, who was lying on the cloud.
Liya had already been asleep on the soft cloud for nearly a dozen hours.
Looking at her now, Cocotte couldn't help feeling that she might have overdone the hypnosis spell she had cast on Liya.
Looking at the tired Cocotte, Victor spoke as briefly as possible.
"Notify Haim Horn. Hermes can be taken away now."
Hermes was no longer a threat. With his mind completely broken, he wouldn't resist anymore.
Because he was destined never to win.
Next, the Mage Council would seal Hermes away just like the Dark Archmage, ensuring that this god would never appear in the world again.
A god existing in the mortal world was dangerous after all, and the existence of gods also ran counter to Victor's goal.
As long as no other gods appeared in the world, it would only be a matter of time before Vega regained his former divine power.
Hearing Victor's words, Cocotte casually waved her hand.
"Got it."
She patted the fluffy cloud beneath her and was just about to fly off to notify the other members of the Mage Council.
However, just as she was about to leave, she heard Hermes behind her repeating the same words over and over, as though possessed.
"Habika... Habika..."
"Habika... Habika..."
Because of that, Cocotte stopped.
She turned to look at Hermes, whose expression was absent-minded, and frowned.
'What was going on?'
'Did Victor hit him so hard that he became stupid?'
'But Victor hasn't even touched him, has he?'
"So this is a god? Doesn't seem all that impressive."
Cocotte couldn't help muttering.
Just as she was about to ask Victor, she saw that he had already turned and was walking toward the remains of the Earth Calamity.
Seeing this, she immediately understood what Victor intended to do and decisively kept quiet.
Victor stretched out his hand toward the mountain-like remains of the Earth Calamity.
His black coat fluttered in the wind while flying sand swirled around him.
The originally black coat seemed to be covered in dust, taking on earth-yellow patterns.
The Earth Calamity's Origin slowly dispersed in Victor's palm before finally becoming countless grains of sand that surged behind him.
At this moment, he was completely focused on absorbing the Earth Calamity's power.
Erika, standing beside Victor, saw the scene as well.
Watching Victor's actions, Erika gradually became entranced.
From what the Crown Prince had just said, she clearly realized that Professor Victor had saved her once again.
And now, seeing Victor covered in elemental power, his elegance, his strength, every movement of his seemed to draw her in.
It felt as though fate itself wanted her to become one with Professor Victor.
She couldn't understand this feeling.
So Erika could only stand quietly to one side and watch as Victor gradually absorbed the Earth Calamity's Origin into his body.
As the quicksand merged into his coat, the back of the coat gradually took on the color of yellow sand.
It looked like an earth-yellow overcoat covered in dust.
At the same time, as Victor moved, the ground beneath his feet began to tremble.
Rocks cracked with deep grinding sounds while dust swirled around his feet.
Uranos' mountain-like rocky remains gradually sank back into the earth.
It was as though they had returned beneath the land, hiding themselves once more.
Calamities would not die.
Even if their Origins were absorbed, the world itself would not be affected.
Otherwise, when Victor defeated the Fire Calamity for the first time, the sun should never have risen again.
When the rocky remains completely merged into the earth and disappeared, the sky was finally revealed before everyone.
Countless residents embraced each other and burst into cheers of victory.
Their faces were filled with joy, their eyes with excitement.
But soon, their gazes shifted outward, where they saw that the royal capital beyond the plaza had become ruins.
In that instant, their emotions plunged from their peak to the bottom.
The surrounding ruins had almost all been cut apart. The entire royal capital had nearly been leveled, leaving only empty land in every direction.
Their excitement was like having a bucket of cold water poured over it, becoming as desolate as the world around them.
The Crown Prince also stood among the crowd, looking at the barren land as he let out a sigh.
In the end, the royal capital had still been destroyed.
This kind of loss could no longer be made up with just a few hundred million Geo.
Even if Victor and the Cassidra Chamber of Commerce eventually negotiated compensation, the economic losses during the reconstruction of the royal capital would still be enormous.
But after something like this had happened, everyone could only accept it.
"We'll have to build some temporary shelters and houses first."
Just as the Crown Prince was immersed in gloomy thoughts, two worried voices suddenly rang out behind him.
"Victor!? Victor, what's wrong?"
"Pro... Professor!? Professor Victor!"
'Victor? What happened to Victor?'
The moment he heard those voices, the Crown Prince's heart shook.
He hurriedly turned around and immediately saw Erika and Cocotte.
Both of them were staring at Victor, their eyes full of anxiety and concern.
'What happened?'
The Crown Prince was confused and quickly turned his gaze toward Victor.
Then his eyes widened.
Victor's figure was gradually becoming transparent, as though he were about to merge into the air.
"Hm...?"
Even Victor sensed that something was wrong.
Frowning, he raised his right hand and looked down at his palm.
That hand was gradually being covered by a layer of illusion.
Then a golden light slowly surrounded his body, making him feel as though his body were becoming lighter and lighter.
At that moment, several illusory lines of text appeared before his eyes.
[You are obtaining the power of "Nature."]
[You are obtaining the status "Intermittent Phantasm."]
'Intermittent Phantasm?'
Victor was somewhat puzzled.
But while the golden light flowed around him, a pitch-black shadow suddenly appeared.
Like a sharp axe, it forcefully split the light down the middle.
Bzzz!
Crack! Crack!
A burst of electrical static rang out, and Victor's illusory body suddenly froze in place.
[Failed to obtain status: "Intermittent Phantasm."]
[Detected "Ha＊＊"!!!!! Unknown error. Searching database.]
[Passphrase accepted.]
[Detected "Habika" virus. Proceeding to next stage.]
[Forcefully removing target...]
At that moment, Victor stood completely still, like a robot that had crashed.
"Vi... Victor?"
Cocotte cautiously stretched out one hand and waved it in front of Victor, unable to believe what she was seeing.
But Victor gave no response.
Black phantom images constantly flickered across his body like electric currents, twisting his form.
'What is happening?'
Likewise, as Erika watched Victor's body become more and more transparent, an ominous feeling rose in her heart.
It was as though...
Professor Victor was about to disappear before her eyes.
"No..."
Erika anxiously reached out a hand. Her legs moved toward Victor almost beyond her control.
She could only watch helplessly as Victor's body became more and more transparent... Until it became nothing.
"No!!!"
Erika rushed forward in panic.
But her body passed straight through Victor.
At this point, Victor's body had already become nothing more than a phantom.
Erika could only turn around weakly, her trembling eyes filled with disbelief.
As though refusing to accept it, she reached out with both hands, trying to touch Victor.
In the end, both of her hands passed into Victor's "body."
It felt as though she had touched nothing but air.
Her pupils trembled, her eyes filled with disbelief and sorrow.
She watched helplessly as Victor's figure vanished before her eyes, dispersing into nothing like air.
From the sky, a coat drifted gently down and landed in Erika's trembling hands.
Lowering her head, she stared at the coat lying in her hands.
She could only collapse to her knees, feeling the unbearable pain of what she could not believe.
Victor had saved her again and again.
Yet she couldn't save him even once.
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