Warriors draw their strength from the bodyâFrom raw physical power, indomitable fighting spirit, surging blood, and an unyielding will to battleâ
Mages, on the other hand, draw strength from magicâFrom intellect, relentless study, unrestrained imagination, and flashes of boundless inspiration.
A mageâs advantage is not purely overwhelming offensive power.
It lies in control of the battlefield.
When faced with a powerful enemy, a mage weakens them, restrains them, traps themâforcing them to fight at anything but their full strength.
Frost.Flame.Thunder.Stone.Light.Darkness.
Each is a tactic.
Strike at weakness. Cripple strength.
Through ingenious spell combinations, a mage breaks through impossible situations.
Bang!
In the span of a breath, the two were already fighting at point-blank range.
Bangâbang bang bang bang!
Knees.Fists.Headbutts.Elbows.Kicks.Shoulder strikes.
He wasnât merely swinging his battle-axeâevery part of his body had become a lethal weapon.
Every blow was a killing strike capable of punching through layers of shields.
But upon Reiâs "True Barrier of Protection," a massive wall condensedâAn icy lake formed across its surfaceâThirty-six layers of repulsion magic shoved outward simultaneously!
At the same time, Ice Bees, Penetrating Body Thunderquake, and a chain of direct offensive spells detonated at point-blank range.
BOOM!
The body of the War God Kaiâga burned with white flames.
Within the dense fog and darkness, dazzling elemental light erupted from every direction.
Once.Twice.Three times...
Rei began blocking more and more of the attacks.
He was no longer simply throwing out every spell he had.
Ground-type spells were used to limit Kaiâgaâs movement.
Debuff and binding spells wrapped around his body.
Offensive spells clashed directly with himâ
And defensive spells served as the final safety net.
Spells were not only cast on enemies.
They could be cast on oneself.
If repulsion magic couldnât push the enemy awayâ
Then push yourself away instead. The result was the same: distance.
With every exchange, Rei grasped countless techniques.
Those techniques transformed into instinct almost immediately, executed within the battle itself.
After only a few dozen exchangesâ
After exploding into corpses dozens of timesâ
Rei had begun to grasp the rhythm of fighting him.
The attacks that once seemed impossibly fast...
Now felt no different from those of an ordinary opponent.
My thinking speed has increased.
In truth, Kaiâga had never been moving at an utterly unreactable speed.
Reiâs casting speed was simply not inferior to his.
"You!!"
"Youâre getting stronger!!"
"Interesting!!!!"
BOOM!
Another clash.
The two slammed together again.
But this timeâ
While Kaiâga attacked Rei, Rei successfully defendedâand at the same time, a faint speck of colored light adhered to Kaiâgaâs abdomen.
"...Just as I thought."
His defense did not rely purely on his physical body.
The instant he sensed an incoming attackâ
He condensed a momentary Qi shield over the surface of his body.
That tiny speck of colored "Origin" lit up on his body.
His razor-sharp instincts issued an immediate warning. The moment he sensed Rei preparing to unleash an attackâ
A defensive Qi shield instantly condensed around him.
It was like a thin, invisible layer of air covering his body.
Yet the defensive power of that layer was absurdly difficult to break through.
It only existed for a single instant when struck.
Extremely low margin for errorâ
But the defensive strength was terrifying.
ăOrigin · Inner-Piercing Void Crystală
Pfft!
Howeverâ
Rei didnât use some overwhelmingly destructive spell.
Insteadâ
He used Inner-Piercing Void Crystal, a spell that forms directly inside the shield.
Pfft!
This attack produced a ridiculous effect compared to before.
The void crystal stabbed directly into Kaiâgaâs body.
Previouslyâeven sacrificing 500,000 souls for Convergent Explosion had only barely scratched his skin.
The moment the void crystal formedâ
It instantly transformed again.
ăOrigin · Convergent Explosion â Sacrifice: 500,000 Soulsă
BOOM!
Soul-light surged skyward.
The explosion detonated.
But at the same momentâ
A fist hurtled toward Reiâs face.
Rei defended simultaneously.
BOOM!
Fist and magic collided.
Brilliant elemental fireworks erupted.
Rei failed to block itâhis body exploded, replaced by another corpse far away.
Through his senses, he looked toward the War God.
Blood dripped down Kaiâgaâs body.
"...Youâre really tough."
Even after taking a 500,000-soul Convergent Explosion, he still hadnât died.
And this time the explosion had detonated inside his shield.
"Looks like youâre not truly invincible after all."
If Rei hadnât discovered the nature of his defense, he might really have believed Kaiâga was an unkillable monster.
Even soâ
That defense was absurd.
And that instant-release Qi shield...
It was almost too precise.
Like he was predicting attacks before they happened.
Nearly every defense overlapped perfectly with Reiâs offense.
It appeared to exist for only an instantâ
Yet somehow it blocked everything.
Because the duration was unbelievably short, and it clung tightly to the skin, it looked as though his body itself was enduring the blows.
Without extremely high spiritual sensitivityâand having already grasped the essence of combatâ
Rei would never have discovered this secret.
But once discoveredâ
It proved Kaiâga could be injured.
As long as the shield could be bypassed, his body wasnât strong enough to completely ignore all attacks.
"HAHA!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
"Interesting!! This is how it should be!!"
"This is what a true battle feels like!!"
Rei replied calmly,
"What a coincidence."
"I feel the same way."
That Qi shield technique really was impressive.
If he could learn such a powerful defense, that would be ideal.
Rei thought this as he quietly began experimenting with his own shield structure.
Reduce duration.
Increase strength.
Sacrifice everything else to focus power on a single instant.
It resembled Kaiâgaâs philosophy of unleashing full force in every strike.
But no matter how he adjusted his shieldsâ
They still couldnât reach that level.
When Iz returns, Iâll ask him about it.
The two stood roughly 100 meters apart.
At their level, that distance meant nothing.
ăInstant White Flashă
In the middle of their standoff, Rei suddenly launched a sneak attack.
Whoosh!
But Kaiâga turned his head at the exact same moment, dodging itâand closed the distance instantly.
Close-quarters combat.
Rei now had ample experience.
He could see the movements clearly.
Magic formed instantlyâ
At the same time:
ăOrigin · Inner-Piercing Void Crystală
When Kaiâga defended Reiâs attacks, he would activate his Qi shield.
Using Inner-Piercing Void Crystal at that moment allowed the attack to form inside the shield layer.
"Interesting!!!"
This wasnât the Void Spike (Tier 3) (LV50) once used by Xu Zhou.
This was its evolved versionâ
A Tier 4 spell, LV301.
The void crystal pierced Kaiâgaâs flesh.
Then instantly transformed againâ
Turning into dark runes branded across his body.
ăOrigin · Bone-Seeping Corrupt Devour (Tier 4) (LV301)ă
ăSacrifice â 100,000 Soulsă
Shhh!
His bare upper body was instantly covered in black-colored curse glyphs.
BOOM!
To land this attack, Rei didnât defend at all.
His substitute body was blown apart.
But he could feel itâ
Kaiâgaâs strength had weakened slightly.
So it worked.
Which meant previous debuffs had simply been blocked.
As long as the attack struck his actual body, Reiâs dark-type weakening spells would work.
So this is the key to defeating you.
Bang!
His body shattered again.
Another Origin · Inner-Piercing Void Crystal erupted inside Kaiâgaâs body.
Thanks to the root magicâ
ăOrigin · Myriad Lawsă
Otherwise, even attacking from inside the shield wouldnât have worked.
His physical body was simply too powerful.
The Qi shield would still block external magic.
The only attack capable of striking inside was Inner-Piercing Void Crystal.
But that spell alone lacked the power to damage his sturdy body.
Howeverâ
With Origin transformation, the magic could seep directly inside the defensive layer and strike.
This was exactly why Rei had been so interested in Xu Zhouâs spell before.
On its own, the spell wasnât very lethal.
At best, it was just an upgraded version of an earth spike.
But in Reiâs handsâ
It became something entirely different.
ăOrigin · Shadow Weaving Netă
Pfft!
The void crystal instantly transformed into countless dark threads.
In an instant, they bound Kaiâga from the inside like a wrapped dumpling.
The Shadow Weaving Net wasnât made of physical threads.
It was made of shadow.
Physical attacks couldnât break it.
A mageâs true power was not raw offenseâ
But flexible battlefield control.
The moment the Shadow Net bound Kaiâgaâ
Rei fired another Origin attack.
Again, detonating inside the shield via Inner-Piercing Void Crystal.
ăDeep Frost Water Sphere (Tier 3)ă
This was the evolved form of Eternal Frozen Deep Lake.
It condensed the freezing lake water into a sphere that wrapped around the enemy.
Now Kaiâgaâs body was bound by shadow threadsâ
And completely encased in a thick layer of extreme ice.
"Underhanded tricks!!"
Kaiâgaâs body shook violently.
He tried to shatter the net, the freezing water, and purge the curse inside his body.
BOOM!
The twelve spells shattered instantlyâ
But they reformed immediately.
Heh...
You can shatter magic.
But can you shatter Origin?
Even after breaking, the spells remained attached to his body, reverting to the essence of Origin · Myriad Laws.
Almost simultaneously with their destructionâ
They had already regenerated.
Snapâ
Black weaving nets once again covered Kaiâgaâs body.
At the same timeâ
Reiâs other spells layered over him continuously.
Kaiâga moved.
He was still incredibly fastâ
But no longer possessed that explosive speed from before.
Reiâs Instant White Flash could now keep up with him.
And thenâ
ăOrigin · Penetrating Body Thunderburst (Tier 4)ă
ăSacrifice â 100,000 Soulsă
BOOM!
Reiâs strongest close-range burst spell remained:
Penetrating Body Thunderburst.
Purple and crimson lightning exploded across Kaiâgaâs body.
Convergent Explosion was the strongest spell when sacrificing massive amounts of souls.
But other non-death spells could also be empowered through soul sacrifice.
They simply had lower limits and bonuses.
Before reaching those limitsâ
A Tier-4 spell enhanced by the same sacrifice was indeed stronger than a Tier-2 Convergent Explosion.
BOOM!
Penetrating Body Thunderburst!
Penetrating Body Thunderburst!
Penetrating Body Thunderburst!
From time to time, Rei transformed the frost sphere into Thunderburst and bombarded Kaiâgaâs body relentlessly.
This battlefield...
Was too favorable for Rei.
If not for this sea of corpsesâ
He might never have been able to defeat him.
But suddenlyâ
Wrapped in shadow, face obscuredâ
Kaiâga raised his battle-axe into a stance.
"Running around everywhere!!!"
"Is this all you can do?!"
"HAAAAâ"
"AAAAAAHHHH!!!"
A terrifying aura erupted from within him.
BOOM!
A shockwave exploded outward instantly.
Countless corpses flew into the airâ
Everything within a one-kilometer radius was blasted away.
Whoosh!
Before Rei could reactâ
BOOM!
A slash shot skyward in the distanceâ
Along with mountains of corpses.
The distance?
No... my surroundings changed.
Rei came to his senses.
The scenery shifted again.
Bang!
Another shift.
Waitâ
He had just been attacked.
So Death Exchange Technique activated, switching him with another pre-marked corpse.
Whooshâ
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!
His field of vision changed rapidly in an instant.
Rei immediately realized the danger.
He instantly formed connections with nearby corpsesâ
Reserving even more as substitutes.
His speed increased.
So fast I canât track him?
BOOM!
Rei felt his shield shatter instantlyâ
Then Death Exchange triggered again.
His viewpoint changed.
And in that same instantâ
Kaiâga chased him at a speed invisible to the eye, killing the substitute again.
BOOM!
Slashes raged wildly.
Rei switched to a distant corpse againâ
Only to see a massive storm forming where he had just been.
ăBattle Technique â Great Blade Stormă
In that direction, countless corpses were shredded.
Clearly he couldnât switch there anymore.
Exchange avoided damageâ
But didnât grant immunity.
If his real body were touchedâ
He would still die instantly.
He hadnât been using his full strength before.
Whoosh!
Finally, out of the corner of his eye, Rei caught a glimpse of the opponentâs figure.
That terrifying speed had finally slowed slightly in his perception.
The Combat Insight was adapting him to Kaiâgaâs rhythm.
But even soâ
Bang!
Another body exploded.
This time, Rei teleported to a corpse 100 kilometers away.
As expectedâ
Kaiâga couldnât pursue instantly.
With a thought, Rei linked himself to every corpse within a 100-kilometer radius.
All of them became pre-reserved substitutes.
If Kaiâga chased himâ
Another swap would send him another hundred kilometers away.
Looking across the battlefieldâ
It was truly an endless sea of corpses.
Just how many monstersâand peopleâhad he killed?
Whoosh!
"Since the moment I was born!!!"
"I have lived for battle!!!"
"Even on my laziest day, I fought a hundred life-and-death battles!!!"
Whoosh!
Rei saw a fast silhouette approaching from afar.
Since birth?
Was that exaggeration?
Or truth?
If trueâ
Did he change classes as a baby?
No.
A godâs experiences couldnât be judged by mortal logic.
"I have NEVER tasted defeat!!"
Bang!
Reiâs corpse shattered again.
He reappeared another 100 kilometers away.
Thank goodness for this battlefield.
As time passed, Rei saw more clearlyâ
Kaiâgaâs body had not fully recovered.
And Origin was still attached to him.
Attached?
No.
It flowed across his skin but could not penetrate his body.
His body was like something immune to all magic.
Magic couldnât enter his bodyâ
It could only explode outside his skin.
But why...
Why couldnât Reiâs Origin magic penetrate his flesh?
Flesh...
The relationship between body and magic.
"...I see."
"In that case..."
Rei murmured quietly,
"Today will be the day you taste defeat."