Aslan felt the power coursing through his body.
Along with it, a connection originating from an inconceivably distant place.
The sensation soon became strength, then omnipotence, and further transformed into light.
The emerald-green burning mana and divine power flowed along the fibers of his muscles.
Thus, Aslan was glowing not red but blue.
What had happened?
Aslan could understand.
All this power originated from the colony ship beyond the vast universe.
An AI, after evolving for a time that could make one’s mind reel, had attained godhood.
This was the power emanating from the Divine Fusion Reactor, which granted the AI the ability to truly dominate and reconstruct the world.
A force potent enough to not just warp but fundamentally alter the world surged through his entire being.
One disadvantage of Dragon King transformation—its short maintenance time of merely 20 minutes—was explosively extended.
This power would not cease as long as Aslan did not die or the predator remained alive.
With insights gained from omniscience filling his mind, Aslan looked up to see the last Captain.
The mechanical deity who had grasped Aslan’s wrist let go and pulled him to his feet.
The same power flowed through his body too.
Only then did Aslan comprehend the situation.
He was told to prove something.
What needed proving was obvious since Aslan was literally facing his own failure.
To demonstrate that he wouldn’t fail, that he was far superior to these failed transcenders.
And furthermore, to prove that he was truly the one destined to save this world.
It wasn’t a difficult task.
Aslan pulled the hand holding his and stood up, then turned his head.
Two steel-covered faces gazed toward the horizon in tandem.
Beyond the horizon, the embodiment of Death loomed.
The Supreme Divinity, unable to control its rage, sprouted dozens of arms, each clutching different weapons.
Behind it, the Abyss writhed, spewing black shadows across the world.
The enemy was undoubtedly powerful.
But even with such formidable foes, there was still a chance of victory.
Aslan briefly glimpsed his future self, and the Last Captain nodded.
Now, Aslan possessed the power of an Evil Deity.
A power surpassing even that of a true Dragon King resided within his body.
It wasn’t eternal power, but Aslan didn’t hesitate to wield what he had at the moment.
No conversation was necessary.
Number 13 was a mage honed over time unknown to Aslan, and the Captain was the last human who had shot down all evil deities.
Aslan had only one task ahead.
To move forward and cut.
As he lowered his body, the dragon scales began to ripple, and something protruded from his feet.
[Propulsion Unit Installed]
A brief feminine voice sounded as Aslan’s body shot forward.
His vision stretched and elongated while passing through death and destruction, and Aslan gripped his sword.
Running alongside was the Last Captain, whose legs had transformed into reverse-jointed forms propelling his body forward.
In response, the Supreme Divinity simultaneously grabbed and fired dozens of bows.
Each arrow carried destruction itself, crafted by transcendence.
Even now, clad in the dragon king’s scales, these were lethal attacks.
Yet Aslan didn’t slow down; instead, he extended his right arm.
[Command Confirmed]
A mechanical feminine voice sounded, and something tore through space in the direction of his outstretched arm.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-gak!
Though pierced through by countless arrows and nearly torn apart, the Supreme Divinity noticed immediately.
That nearly half of the arrows it had fired were rebounding.
What emerged was a kind of drone.
A defensive-purpose drone equipped with sturdy armor and spatial distortion technology.
Realizing this instantly, the Supreme Divinity roared.
“―!”
The roar itself was a destructive shockwave that obliterated the defense drones into smithereens.
Amid the scattering metal shards and components, both Aslans approached simultaneously.
Roaring again, the Supreme Divinity unleashed a violent shockwave that sought to tear them apart.
Both Aslans moved in unison.
They deployed gravity fields to drastically increase their weight and lifted their legs high.
‘Call Thunder.’
‘Call Thunder.’
Kung, Kwarrrrrrrrrr!
Dust rose with the thunder, and the ground surged upward, creating a deep crater.
Naturally, the size and quantity of the surging rocks were significant, and the advancing shockwave dissipated as it shattered the rocks.
Flying stone fragments. The closing distance between Aslan and the Captain. The Supreme Divinity shouted and swung its greatsword.
A fast and powerful sword strike barely visible even to enhanced eyes.
Anticipating it through foresight, Aslan extended his sword.
The atmosphere trembled with power that stopped just shy of divine energy.
The intersecting blades locked together. As the distance closed, the Supreme Divinity moved.
Flexing knees, wrists, and waist, it pressed down forcefully.
Before the blow landed, the Captain charged in from the side.
Bang!
The left hand transformed into a shotgun and erupted in flames.
Countless pellets pushed back the Supreme Divinity’s head, prompting it to draw out a long blade like a tail and swing it around its waist.
Screaming loudly,
The sand and soil scattered on the ground flew up violently.
Blocking the attack aimed at the Captain, this time Aslan stepped in.
Holding the sword firmly, he dropped low and thrust the tip into the ground to block.
The grating metallic sound echoed as the blade was deflected.
Aslan muttered.
‘Call Thunder.’
Kwarrrrrrrrrr, lightning wrapped around the rising sword blade.
Absorbing the recoil, Aslan struck upward at an invisible speed.
At that moment, the Supreme Divinity’s arm fell off.
“――!”
Making a grinding sound, it delivered a roundhouse kick. Twisting his body, Aslan countered with a leg sweep, resulting in two kicks meeting.
Ku-ung!
Thus, at a distance where the sword tips couldn’t reach, the two Aslans displayed synchronized strikes as if rehearsed.
Punches met punches, roundhouse kicks met roundhouse kicks.
When a backhand strike came, it was blocked by another backhand and returned. Avoiding it by stepping back, a knee strike was delivered.
Kung! Even amidst the resonating impact, knee strikes were exchanged, culminating in palm strikes against each other.
In the end, the cosmic body of the Supreme Divinity was eroded.
Despite having similar hardness to the arm that was effortlessly torn off earlier during the stab, the side struck by Aslan suffered damage.
Though the hardness was clearly the same, the defense differed.
The change brought about by the metallic muscles inside, combined with the evolution of the dragon king’s muscles and mana circuits, resulted in drastically improved durability and defense.
After pushing away from the collision point of the palm strikes, Aslan extended his left hand.
In it was a large-caliber pistol.
Though never used before, Aslan instinctively extended his arm straight, aligning the muzzle with the Supreme Divinity.
Then he pulled the trigger.
Bangbangbangbang!
Close-range burst fire pushed the Supreme Divinity back.
Seeing the retreating Supreme Divinity, the Captain leaped immediately.
Leaping high, he maximized the deployment of the gravity field.
Then, with a sound like extinguishing fire, he descended.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaang!
“―!”
The Supreme Divinity’s face contorted in pain.
Spitting out indescribable black liquid, it hit the ground and managed to rise using a landing technique.
The moment the Captain landed, the Supreme Divinity had already drawn out dozens of arms, each wielding a different weapon.
Ranged combat was disadvantageous.
Therefore, they drew the fight into close quarters. The Supreme Divinity rushed forward to close the distance, and Aslan and the Captain communicated via the Predator.
Coordination occurred faster than lightspeed. Without exchanging a single word, the two men lunged toward another version of themselves in the future.
Communication faster than lightspeed, akin to exchanging pure consciousness, allowed them to harmonize differences and launch a coordinated attack.
The slash of the sword wielded by the rushing Supreme Divinity.
The Captain blocked the instantaneous 40 slashes with a glowing blue energy-like substance emitted in an instant, and Aslan’s purity slipped through the gap to cut.
Enraged by this, the Supreme Divinity swung its sword.
Dozens of sword paths. All critical and embodying the pinnacle of skill.
So, it couldn’t be blocked. Instead, Aslan borrowed the Predator’s armament.
Bang!
A wormhole of unknown principle opened, intercepting all dozens of sword traces with some kind of metal.
The moment it intercepted, the metal shattered, but in that gap, the Captain converted his left hand into a railgun the size of a fist and fired.
Kuuuuuung!
Piercing through the head. Though the head-pierced Supreme Divinity didn’t fall, it staggered momentarily.
Taking advantage of the staggering figure, Aslan and the Captain immediately struck.
Kicking, turning to slice, shooting with guns, burning and cooking with plasma while cutting.
As the enraged Supreme Divinity launched a fierce assault, though seemingly on the defensive, they quickly turned the tables.
The Supreme Divinity faintly realized with its remaining sanity that it seemed as if there were two of it and indeed understood that to be the case.
Just by joining hands with the lowest-ranked evil deity, there existed two beings capable of incinerating all evil deities and conquering the universe.
It was impossible to oppose them by any reasonable measure.
The Supreme Divinity wrestled with internal conflict and searched for a way to turn the situation around.
The Abyss?
Number 13 was literally blocking it with an endless outpouring of magic.
Her infinite mana was sufficient to repel the Abyss.
Additionally, the Supreme Divinity wasn’t operating at full capacity due to the battle.
If it could hold out for dozens of hours, the Abyss would recover and consume Number 13, but there was no way to buy that much time.
Prioritizing the main threat.
If that were to happen, the Supreme Divinity would die first.
Thus, the conflict ceased.
The Supreme Divinity roared.
Not as a means of attack, but a genuine roar of anger.
A roar of shame at discarding its human form.
For the human form was impractical.
He maintained his appearance out of attachment to form.
Being the veteran of combat and the embodiment of victory, he knew he had to discard his form to win.
Ka-ang!
Coincidentally, Aslan’s purity slashed the Supreme Divinity’s neck.
But the head didn’t fall.
It felt as if striking something thin and soft with a dull knife.
Instead, it crumbled at the point where it should have been severed.
Its form began to collapse.
It expanded.
In the blink of an eye, it filled the space with its presence.
A form of death made of black mist.
An incomprehensible, unknown swirling mass of black, resembling both a vortex and foam.
As the Supreme Divinity transformed thus, the foresight reacted.
And faster than the reaction, hundreds of sword strikes shredded the space itself and surged forth.
“Defend!”
[Command Confirmed]
[Auxiliary Space Opened]
The surging sword strikes. As Aslan extended his hand and called out, the wormhole he had used several times before opened in front of him.
Attempting to block the sword marks with it, it proved insufficient.
The wormhole closed as soon as it opened, collapsing under the influx of transcendental energy.
Hundreds of sword strikes approached, threatening to shred Aslan’s entire body. Time was running out rapidly.
Aslan’s foresight warned amidst the chaos.
Whether this attack was blocked or avoided, it would destroy Geladridion.
Geladridion was too fragile to withstand the battle between evil deities.
If he wished to ensure the survival of himself and Number 13 in this state, another method was required.
And before he could delve deeply into contemplation, the Predator’s voice reached him.
[Recommendation: Evacuate to auxiliary space]
[Changing the battlefield may suppress the destruction rate of ‘Indigenous Planet: Geladridion’]
There was no time for deliberation. Aslan immediately clenched his purity tightly.
Right below, the wavering shadow disappeared.
‘Flip Shadow.’
Ka-ka-ang!
Swinging the purity twice, he swept away part of the overlapping hundreds of sword marks.
Many still remained. However, before reaching Aslan, the very space itself rippled and twisted.
The sword strikes missed Aslan and receded.
Immediately afterward, everything within the radius fell into auxiliary space.
Into a void tinged with an enigmatic gray hue.
As space itself split and fractured, gray fragments flew upward, yet Geladridion remained undestroyed.
The Supreme Divinity stiffened momentarily in an attempt to assess the situation.
Aslan had to use the brief period effectively.
[Recommendation: Deploy decisive weapon ‘Deus Ex Machina’]
Aslan responded with willpower, and the Predator complied.
Zzu-zzu-zzu-zzu!
The sky suddenly split open, and a massive figure descended from within.
The Supreme Divinity dodged the shockwave and attacked while increasing the distance, and the fallen entity bowed its head for a moment before—
[Decisive Weapon Activated]
With the mechanical female voice, the Captain, who had vanished without a trace, controlled the decisive weapon from within.
It was a colossal humanoid machine.
Something commonly referred to as a robot.
Responding to the Captain’s will, it moved. Blades sprouted from its arms and deflected the incoming attacks as if trying to fill the infinitely expanding space.
The reverberating roar.
Aslan leapt toward the rear of the opened decisive weapon in the meantime.
The giant humanoid weapon, resembling a giant donning armor.
Upon Aslan’s boarding, it emitted light from its eyes and dyed the sword in its right hand pure white.
[Weapon Conversion: Purity]
And with the manifested white light generated by the pilot Aslan’s will, it deflected the Supreme Divinity’s attack.
The clanging of metal resounded sharply.
Within that sound, as space opened through the Captain’s actions and hundreds of gunports aimed at the Supreme Divinity—
[i][All cannons, simultaneous firing.][/i]
Following the Captain’s voice, the Supreme Divinity’s body was engulfed in flames.
