This was a space generated by the twisting of one man's will.
The man, wielding the steel spear that had once nailed the strongest of dragons to the highest mountain, his muscles bulging like solid rock, stood in opposition to the young man who had proposed this battle.
"Before we begin, do you not have something to say, Lord Artosh?" the young man, whose frame was rather small and slender compared to the three-and-a-half-meter-tall giant, greeted him with a smile. The man before him could warp space with the slightest exertion of his power.
"What is there to say?"
The God of War fixed his gaze upon the enemy from another world, his eyes holding the sediment of countless flashing blades. Even without revealing his killing intent, his icy glare was enough to create the terrifying illusion that time and space had frozen solid.
Hate me. Rage against me. Rebel against me. Stake your fragile life, exhaust all your wisdom, and foolishly challenge me.
—The being who would trample all of that underfoot with overwhelming power, that was Artosh.
That was the God of War.
"Is this the battlefield you have chosen?"
Artosh casually extended a hand. Divine power, enough to joyfully shatter a continent, formed a massive vortex. It unleashed a force beyond human comprehension, tearing at the very fabric of the space.
According to the God of War's normal power output, even a space sealed by a Spirit Corrosion technique should have been ground to dust. Yet, the light and shadow around the vortex merely twisted irregularly. The space did not shatter like glass; it held firm.
"Surprisingly durable."
That was his evaluation.
This was, without a doubt, the highest form of praise.
Artosh was the supreme powerhouse of the No Game No Life world. If he so wished, he could leap into space, string together dozens of asteroids, and hurl them as a weapon.
In his ultimate form, he could even pin the One True God, Tet, to the ground and beat him!
"This is my Mind-scape World, after all. If it shattered so easily, that would be rather embarrassing for me," the young man standing before Artosh said with a shrug.
Eternal Destruction, Third Rank • Creation (Briah):
The rank at which the Holy Relic's form changes, and the user gains the Holy Relic's "certain-kill" technique, or "trump card." It is the materialization of one's own desire, fanaticism, and obsession, creating an "Otherworld" with fundamentally different rules.
Li Zihan's Mind-scape was surprisingly simple. At first glance, it was just a sealed, extremely durable pocket of empty space.
This was because the Creation Authority born from his desire was "Locking Possibility"—forcing the world to develop towards a conclusion he desired. An Otherworld evolved from such an esoteric wish had few distinct features; the environment within was merely a copy of the outside world.
"Next, I will suppress my strength and fight you."
"Do not die."
Artosh, having agreed to this exchange, once again turned his chilling golden pupils toward the young man who had already restored his own divine body. The frigid killing intent caused the surrounding temperature to plummet below zero.
This was no mere figure of speech, but a statement of fact!
Layers of frost formed on the ground, and the glacial aura they emitted felt potent enough to freeze the very soul of any living thing.
He smiled, a smile filled with the violent urge to trample, ravage, and destroy all who resisted him.
The flames that had once burned the End Dragon to ashes now blazed upon his spear. In the firelight, the giant god's face was savage and ferocious.
The spear howled forward with endless brutality, seeking to pulverize all of creation and grind it into dust.
BOOM—!!!
The aftershock of the impact unleashed a torrent of roiling thunder, sweeping across the entire continent copied from the outside world. A colossal roar echoed throughout the pocket dimension.
In response, Li Zihan silently drew the divine sword that was serving as his substitute for the Star Grail.
As if the world itself were collapsing, a terrifying sword qi stirred the atmosphere. The horrific shockwave formed a supremely violent storm, which in an instant swept down from the clouds and across heaven and earth.
Beyond any words to describe, cracks in space intersected, split, and spread. Space, which should have been intangible, now looked like glass struck by a heavy hammer. A crisscrossing web of fissures mercilessly revealed the world's most fragile aspect.
As the master of the Torn Star Blade, Li Zihan had no fear of Artosh—unless Artosh grew stronger as the battle escalated!
Like a furious tide swallowing a great river, that terrifying power shattered the God of War's spear in an instant and surged forth!
One could imagine that this single blow, which threatened to destroy even its user's own Mind-scape, could have slain any other God-Spirit.
Yet, enveloped by this terrifying shockwave, Artosh wrapped his eighteen wings around himself. He stood as unmovable as a stubborn rock in a raging torrent. When the shockwave dissipated, he slowly unfurled his massive wings.
His powerful, robust body was revealed, completely unscathed.
Having blocked a world-shattering strike—one that had been amplified countless times by the Herrscher of the Void's authority—with nothing but his wings, he looked at the distant figure and offered his praise.
"You are stronger than Hartyley."
The Dragonia were a race born from a shattered Divine Core, appearing as enormous quadrupedal dragons. They were not particularly concerned with their own lives because they were multi-dimensional beings. They could see the future and the past, existing on multiple timelines. They could even evade injuries in the "present" by shifting time or draw upon the power of their "past" and "future" selves.
One could say that despite being ranked fourth, the Dragonia were far more powerful than the second-ranked Phantasma and the third-ranked Elves, who served as a source of energy.
And the "End Dragon," Hartyley, was the king of the Dragonia. Fifteen thousand years ago, he and Artosh were known as the two strongest beings in the world.
"Being compared to that unlucky bastard really doesn't make me happy," the young man sighed, well aware that the End Dragon had been nailed to the highest mountain by Artosh.
"Continue to show me your power!"
Artosh's face split into a vicious, savage grin as his anticipation for the battle grew. He gripped his spear, now wreathed in roaring flames, and crossed the space in a single step.
"But that won't stop us from having a great battle right here!!!"
The roaring God of War swung his spear. His voice fell upon the ears like a hammer striking an anvil, carrying a majestic weight that descended from the heavens.
A power born from beyond common sense blazed forth, a vortex of energy that transcended the planet's order. A mere sliver of its aftershock could whip up a Category 18 typhoon on the surface and raise a tsunami a thousand fathoms high.
"Senior Artosh, you must remember this isn't our duel. It's just a small skirmish," the young man, whose aura was only a step below Artosh's, laughed. His own smile was filled with an unrighteous ferocity, his eyes like swords about to be unsheathed, their edges ready to tear the heavens.
"HRAAAGH—!!!"
A steel spear, carrying a killing intent like a raging tide, thrust toward the enemy before him.
It was met by the suppressed power of the Divine Sword of Salvation.
Under its master's power, the Divine Sword shot forth with a speed in no way inferior to the spear in the God of War's hands. The two top-tier weapons, both wreathed in flame, clashed at a velocity that even their fellow God-Spirits could not perceive. Each collision made the surrounding space scream in agony.
When the two divine weapons finally connected, there was a sound like cracking glass. The entire space began to tremble violently, and a large hole was torn open where they met.
A fissure, like a crack leading to a lightless abyss, spread outwards from the hole's edge. It seemed that in a few more moments, the entire space manifested by this Bounded Field would shatter completely.
But Artosh did not stop. Instead, he pressed his assault even harder.
"You really don't pull your punches, do you, Artosh?"
In response, the young man unhesitatingly raised his weapon. A celestial body, radiating a brilliant light, manifested in the sky of this sealed space, a place on the other side of the world.
With a diameter of fifty or sixty meters, it was barely the size of the smallest asteroids. If it were merely a rock, it might not even leave a trace after falling through the atmosphere.
But this was clearly no mere inorganic meteorite. It was a supernatural creation, imbued with terrifying divine power.
The white star created by the Divine Sword of Salvation suddenly erupted. In an instant, hundreds, thousands of bolts of lightning shot out in all directions, an infinite volley of thunder meant to annihilate demon kings.
It descended upon the land like a torrential downpour, carrying a momentum that could tear through paper, threatening to reduce all creation to nothingness.
The "star" floating in the sky shamelessly displayed its raging, ferocious aspect.
Faced with this, even Artosh's expression hardened.
He could feel his own power rising as the star ascended.
In that moment, the "mass" of the God of War began to increase. The energy coiling around him kicked up a storm that swept through the small world. The information of his very existence was expanding, as if creating something from nothing.
This was a terrifying sign.
The source of the God of War's power was related to battle. Unless his enemy was supremely fearsome, or the scale of the war escalated dramatically, his strength would not increase.
But now, he was getting stronger.
Does that mean... that thing is even stronger than I am?
The God of War, who would only experience a sudden power-up when facing a being stronger than himself, felt the corners of his mouth curl into a slight smile.
It seemed he had underestimated this fellow.
He might not just be stronger than the End Dragon; he might even be stronger than himself.
If his own Divine Core wasn't the very concept of "Battle," he would surely be crushed, just as he had crushed his enemies in the past.
But what a pity for him. I am the God of War.
Let me grind him to dust.
"Do not die, nameless god."
The God of War, having almost forgotten this was just a test, lowered his steel spear and issued a warning to his foe. Then, he indifferently raised his hand.
Before a power that could destroy all of creation, all things in heaven and earth, everything would return to dust.
The laws of the universe cried out in anguish. Not just this small world, but the order of the planet beyond it began to twist, centering on Artosh's hand—
Power manifests, the law is proclaimed, and the strongest is thus defined.
This was the Divine Strike.
The wave of power, distorting the stability of spacetime and potent enough to shatter continents, instantly smashed the crumbling dimension. The space, along with the sky, was torn into several pieces, like a priceless painting ripped to shreds.
The Divine Strike collided with the platinum star in the sky.
The divine power came crashing down like a great mountain, pressing upon the entire space. The dimension let out a creaking, mournful sound, and a second later, it exploded like shattered glass.
The conclusion of this duel was catastrophic. The power of two monsters from different worlds was unleashed, releasing a destructive force that killed countless spirits. The entire continent began to be blanketed by a blizzard of black ash.
The energy leakage from each impact tore apart the blood-red sky and split the solid earth, forcibly creating geological features that should not exist in nature.
But even after unleashing such a terrifying attack, Artosh had not lost his ability to fight.
The moment the Divine Sword of Salvation appeared, he had been strengthened.
Now stronger than ever before, he paid no mind to this crumbling world or the devastation outside, and once again viciously swung his spear.
Tch—
So this guy really is the type to get stronger as his enemy's power increases?
How disgusting.
The young man, who had no intention of fighting Artosh to the death, brandished his divine sword.
But—
Although their power levels were comparable, the God of War's combat experience was clearly superior.
Under his relentless assault, the spear, like a furious dragon, grazed the young man's body again and again, leaving behind wounds both deep and shallow that were difficult to heal.
It was obvious that Artosh held the upper hand in this battle.
This was to be expected.
Artosh was the master of war, the strongest warrior of this world.
When his Divine Core was pushed to its absolute limit, he was far stronger than all the other gods combined. He could even rely on his combat sense alone to slay the One True God, who theoretically also possessed the power of a god of war.
Even if Li Zihan hadn't activated the true might of the Divine Sword of Salvation, which would have granted the god who grew stronger with escalating conflict an even greater boost, Artosh was still terrifyingly powerful.
Artosh, thoroughly enjoying the fight, laughed. Unlike his earlier savage ferocity, his aura now soared with heroic spirit.
I can't let this continue.
Artosh has completely lost himself in the battle.
In the young man's eyes, the reflection of a stone tablet divided into ten sections appeared. The section corresponding to the Warrior began to glow with a holy light.
When one possesses detailed knowledge of a god, this incarnation is the perfect weapon, capable of cleaving their divinity and sealing them away.
But a single Authority would obviously not be effective against the God of War.
It would be difficult to strike down a Divine Core that exists in a higher dimension, let alone slice off a piece of it and take it away.
So, let's add a little something extra.
The young man's arm, at some unknown point, had turned to silver.
Following this, hundreds of platinum-gold spheres materialized around him, like monstrous beasts about to hatch.
The young man, now surrounded by orbs of pure white-gold, made his declaration to the strongest god.
"I am the strongest, and the one who holds victory in my hand."
Author's note:
ps: 2-in-1 chapter