POV: Rygar Adoldia
Although not everything was going exactly as planned, overall this mission was basically a guaranteed success.
Even if not all objectives were achieved, the balance would still be positive. The biggest variable was the battle involving Eris, Ghislaine and the others.
Although they had a clear informational advantage over their opponents, caution was still necessary. No fight of that level could be treated with levity.
Still, everyone was equipped with protective magical items, and they also had reliable quick-retreat methods in case the situation turned unfavorable.
I knew their strength very well. That's why I decided to trust them, even though I was still inwardly worried about their safety.
Besides, I had my own danger to face, and I couldn't afford distractions. My enemy was the Dragon God Orsted.
The strongest being in the world.
When I returned from the trip to the Demon Continent, I was genuinely surprised to learn that Aisha had captured Arumanfi and managed to interrogate him. Honestly, my disciple showed herself to be increasingly exceptional every day.
Unlike me, she was a true genius in every sense.
Although she wasn't as strong physically or magically as I was, she was even more talented in other aspects.
My talent had always been geared toward direct combat — both physical and magical — plus the advantage of possessing a unique perspective, thanks to knowledge of the modern world of Earth.
I also had much keener reaction time and reasoning compared to my previous life.
Aisha was different in other respects.
She was a born strategist, a natural leader, with intellect and comprehension far above that of an ordinary person.
Brief interaction with someone was enough for her to begin to fully understand their personality, nature, motivations and weaknesses.
She had a strange ability to see which path would be most advantageous, considering countless variables at once, and then exploit them to the fullest in her favor.
Most of this plan had been proposed by her.
Of course, no plan is perfect. All are subject to failure; there were things that simply no one could foresee.
Who could have imagined that the Technique God would ask for help just as the plan was getting started?
He was far too important to be ignored.
Especially when the most likely culprit for his situation was Hitogami.
When I attacked Orsted — and even while we were fighting — I was slowly and imperceptibly steering the confrontation toward the Red Dragon Mountain Range, where the Technique God's abode was located.
I couldn't ignore Orsted.
But I also couldn't simply set aside the Technique God's request for help.
Naturally, in the process, I was already dealing with more than enough problems just by facing Orsted head-on.
That guy was an absolute monster.
Truly worthy of the title of the strongest being in the world.
I was already very strong before, but after beginning to learn the techniques from the Future Guide, my strength had skyrocketed.
New spells, new approaches to magic, new directions to refine my swordsmanship — so many possibilities that I couldn't afford to explore them fully at that moment.
I didn't dare say I could defeat Orsted.
But against the Fighter God, I was confident of victory.
One of the main reasons for that was the Sköllvindr Armor.
When I returned from the Demon Continent with the last missing material, Godbard, Rufus, Brightstone and I immediately gathered to forge what would become the strongest armor in the world.
And it was a resounding success.
The moment I donned it, I could clearly feel every aspect of my strength being reinforced and unified.
My magical casting became faster and more natural, my power increased, and even my combat techniques seemed to refine themselves, becoming more precise and lethal.
The power I felt was extraordinary.
Exactly as described in the designs.
And yet, during the fight against Orsted, I could sense that he was holding back.
Although he had drawn the Godsword from the start, at no point did he attack with the real intention of killing me.
That only confirmed that Orsted never planned to truly kill me.
That fact was central to my plan.
From the beginning, I had three clear objectives in this fight against the Dragon God.
The first was to gain experience.
I would probably fight Orsted again in the future. Therefore, I needed to understand how he fought.
Also, facing someone of his level was simply an irreplaceable combat experience that no isolated training could compare to.
The second objective was to exhaust his mana.
Even if I had a reasonable notion of what Orsted's actions would be in the near future, I couldn't fully trust it. I had already changed events too much.
The butterfly effect had completely distorted Oldgar's timeline.
To constrain him as much as possible, the best path was to make him spend mana.
Orsted's mana regeneration was very slow due to the Loop technique. If I could get him to consume a considerable amount during that fight, the Dragon God would be severely limited in his future actions.
The third objective was to test my own capability.
I knew my abilities. I could test them in the Blue Dragon Mountain Range, under controlled conditions.
But using them against a real enemy was the only true way to become familiar with my own power.
Of course, I also didn't plan to kill Orsted. Doing so would reset the Dragon God's Loop.
But he didn't know that.
And that meant I could fight without holding back.
Meanwhile, I remained in constant contact with Aisha and the others via the Sköllvindr communicator. The moment I lost that battle, it would be the signal for everyone to retreat immediately.
Until then, however, I would do everything in my power to wound Orsted.
Thanks to the ability of my Demon Eyes and the Prediction of the Beast God Style, I could see his movements clearly.
Doomsday burned intensely, wreathed in shimmering purple flames.
We exchanged hundreds of blows in a matter of minutes.
The sound of blade against blade blended with sonic explosions, the mountains and valleys below us cracking and collapsing repeatedly. It was then that I saw an opening.
Without hesitation, I used the Howling Magic at the same time I advanced using the Purple Flame Light technique.
It was a technique that consisted of attacking with the Longsword of Light while channeling an Emperor-level Magic, the Purple Beam Flame, directly into the sword's blade.
One of the combinations taught in the Future Guide — and one of the most powerful instant attacks in my arsenal.
My movement was so violent that it broke the mountain behind me.
As I advanced, I still maintained control of the storm of lightning above us, deliberately complicating Orsted's actions.
While he fought, he had to deal with the various lightning strikes that fell upon him incessantly.
The concentration required to sustain so many techniques at once was only possible because I was wearing the Sköllvindr Armor.
I attacked aiming directly at the opening on his left flank. In a battle where both moved far above the speed of sound, a single mistake could mean a fatal wound.
But before I could land it…
I felt something change.
Orsted was different.
Until then, his expression had been cold and analytical. But at that moment, his eyes carried a visible murderous intent. My instincts fired violently upon perceiving it.
It was a late warning.
It was already too late to stop my attack.
Before I could react, the gravity of the entire region inverted.
My body was ripped from the ground without any resistance. I floated, completely vulnerable, still stunned by the magnitude and speed of that Gravity Magic.
Up until that moment, Orsted had barely used any magic during the battle.
I knew he was conserving mana.
But suddenly, he launched a spell on an absurd scale.
Even the storm in the skies was dispelled instantly.
Before I could react, Orsted brandished the Godsword.
I reacted by pure reflex.
I conjured a Barrier at the last instant and still managed to block part of the blow with Doomsday. Even so, it was useless. The impact was devastating.
The white and green divine light of the Godsword completely consumed my vision.
I felt the Sköllvindr Armor collapse.
My torso was shattered.
A colossal explosion occurred at the point of impact, distorting the space around it. For a brief moment — just a moment — my mind went completely blank.
In the next instant, I came back to myself.
My body was regenerated almost instantly by my Regeneration Magic.
The feeling of flesh, bones and nerves being rebuilt was strange, but there was no time to reflect on it.
Gravity had already returned to normal, but I didn't believe he would stop his attack that way. Lightning ran through my body, propelling me out of my location in an explosive displacement.
A large part of the Red Dragon Mountain Range had been obliterated by Orsted's strike. Entire mountains had been split, reduced to debris and fragments.
As I expected, he didn't stop there.
In the next instant, a sword-light pierced the space where I had been only a hundredth of a second before, tearing the air with a cutting sound that echoed for miles.
If I had hesitated, even for an instant, I would have been struck full on.
Orsted stared at me with a ferocity I had not seen in him until then.
He advanced in pursuit, with no intention of letting me recover.
The pressure he exerted on the surrounding space made the air tremble as we moved at high speed, far beyond what any ordinary being could follow.
I knew immediately that he had reached his limit.
I never expected Orsted to wait until his mana was completely drained to react.
It was obvious that upon realizing the accumulated wear, he would decide to defeat me with absolute force before that happened.
But speed had always been my strongest point, so he couldn't catch me.
I brandished my sword, and a tsunami of purple flames surged forward toward the Dragon God like a wall of destruction.
The flames swept everything in their path, fusing the ground and leaving only an incandescent trail behind.
At that moment, I activated one of my trump cards.
My muscles began to burn under the influence of the Sköllvindr Armor. The pain was excruciating.
It was as if my organs and bones were being incinerated from within.
I felt my body being forced beyond its own limits, kept whole only by the magic.
True to form, Orsted cut the tsunami of flames with a single blow while still advancing in pursuit, wielding the Godsword. The flames split in half, dissipated by the divine blade.
Then, he noticed that I hadn't moved, that I was no longer fleeing.
I smiled behind the armor, feeling it constantly reconstruct itself as it consumed the flames of Doomsday. I raised the sword. Blue and purple flames gushed from it incessantly, enveloping my figure.
The black armor began to change as it absorbed the flames as if it were the source of a black hole.
It became incandescent in a matter of moments, taking on an intense orange hue, then white and blinding.
The temperature around me rose absurdly, reaching unprecedented levels since the creation of the World of Six Faces.
The very air around me began to distort, space was rippling due to the searing heat that surrounded me.
Orsted finally felt that something was wrong.
Without hesitation, he moved to decapitate me before I could activate whatever was forming.
But it was too late.
I activated a God-level Magic — a spell that could only be performed by someone who possessed both the Blade of Final Judgment, Doomsday, and the Sun-Devouring Armor, Sköllvindr.
I made a point of saying the name of the Magic.
"Sun Devourer."
The moment the sentence was completed, a sun was born.
Sköllvindr exploded in light and energy, as if it had surpassed a nuclear fusion point.
The world was flooded by an absolute, white and golden brightness, so intense that it seemed to erase colors, shadows and even space itself.
For a single moment, I smiled as I saw the Dragon God Orsted take on an expression of genuine astonishment.
And then, he was consumed.
---
The newly born sun expanded violently, devouring everything around it. A colossal explosion swept the Red Dragon Mountain Range, breaching its limits, rising to the skies and illuminating the vast heavens of the Asura Kingdom as if it were a second dawn.
Mountains disappeared.
The ground was razed and vitrified.
The shockwave spread for dozens of kilometers, crushing the range and leaving behind only a gigantic, smoking crater where once stood one of the most imposing regions of the world.
A large portion of the Red Dragon Mountain Range ceased to exist.
The sky remained illuminated for long moments, as if the world had a second sun for a few seconds.
And even before the Region could adapt to its new form, two figures collided again in the center of the crater, relentlessly reshaping the terrain once more.
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