"Armor Protection: Absolute Defense!" Ian completed the spell within a millisecond. The giant fist smashed into the suddenly appearing diamond-shaped shield, erupting with a deafening roar. The shield successfully blocked the blow, but the transmitted shockwave sent Ian flying hundreds of feet, crashing through three stone walls before stopping.
"Cough..." Ian spat blood as he stood up from the ruins, feeling at least three of his ribs were broken.
He hurriedly pointed his magic wand at himself.
"Bone Regeneration: Pain Nullification!"
The intense pain subsided temporarily, but his magic power was further depleted. The opponent's attack seemed to make the magic power difficult to recover, accompanied by a negative effect that clung like a maggot to his bones.
"Your magic is interesting, but too... civilized." The Evil God approached nonchalantly, the ground he passed corrupting into a purple-black swamp. With a casual wave of his hand, his five fingers shot out five black lightning bolts.
These lightning bolts could track and curve around, bypassing Ian's hastily erected defense.
"Phase Transfer!" Ian urgently transferred himself temporarily to the Spirit Realm Plane. The black lightning passed through his phased body, corroding the entire temple behind into bubbling slime. Upon rematerializing, Ian was already drenched in cold sweat. This monster was terrifying not only in physical attacks but also in its magically corrosive nature.
"Elemental Torrent: Ultimate Compression!"
Ian decided to take a desperate gamble. The four elements were forcibly compressed into a tennis ball-sized energy ball, undergoing a violent fusion reaction inside. This was a forbidden technique he had developed in Hogwarts' underground laboratory.
He had never used it in actual combat. The energy ball flew out of his hand, warping the space it passed through. The Evil God seemed to perceive the threat, meeting it with sixteen weapons simultaneously, but they vaporized instantly upon contact with the energy ball. Finally, the energy ball successfully hit the Evil God's chest, resulting in a silent implosion.
Did it succeed?
Ian looked nervously.
At the explosion's center, most of the Evil God's body disappeared, and the remaining parts continued to disintegrate. Yet just as Ian slightly exhaled in relief, the dispersing flesh suddenly stopped dissipating.
Instead, it began to reverse-coalesce.
"A good attack."
The remaining head was still speaking, "It almost really hurt me."
Suddenly.
His flesh reassembled in defiance of all physical laws, restoring completely within seconds, becoming even stronger—the newly born body was covered with scales that twinkled like starlight.
Each scale had tiny eyes blinking.
"But energy attacks are useless against me; I am energy itself."
"You attempt to define 'good' with fragile concepts like 'freedom' and 'choice', without realizing that 'unity' and 'eternity' are the ultimate harmony. Your existence, your struggles, precisely prove my path is correct—only total fusion can end this meaningless cycle of pain."
Thousands of voices chanted.
Ian at this sight.
Frowned.
"Avada Plague!"
This was no simple Killing Curse. Ian reconstructed the spell by integrating Hogwarts' ancient Transformation Technique with the essence of Dark Arts. A death beam, not of emerald green but composed of countless spinning, ominously black-glowing Egyptian hieroglyphs, condensed and shot from the tip of his magic wand.
It precisely struck the root of the sweeping tentacle!
"Boom!"
The beam and the tentacle collided, erupting into a dazzling energy turbulence. Yet the beam of "Death Curse", composed of pure magic power, only left a charred mark on the tentacle's resilient, star-core-like external surface! The tentacle merely hesitated briefly before retracting at an even faster speed.
The massive force of the storm lifted Ian and his pedestal completely into the air!
"Triple Guardian - Starlight Barrier!"
"Bang——!!!"
The giant tentacle smashed fiercely onto the Starlight Barrier! The crimson flames were instantly extinguished, the deep blue starlight flickered violently, and the warm yellow light directly dimmed. The entire protective shield emitted a teeth-gritting groan as space warped and shattered under immense pressure, with countless tiny black cracks spreading across the shield's surface! Ian's arms shook violently, his bones seemingly about to fracture, his feet deeply embedded in the throbbing fleshy ground as blood seeped from his seven orifices. This pure, surpassing mortal physical strength had completely shattered his defense.
"Ha...hahaha..." Sixteen twisted faces simultaneously burst into deafening laughter, filled with extreme mockery of human wisdom and magic, "Magic? Legacy? They are mere embellishments before absolute 'existence'! See your 'guardianship', fragile as a sandcastle! Is this your legendary pride?"
Not allowing Ian to catch his breath, the Evil God's attacks followed one after the other!
Countless tiny tentacles, like venomous snakes, shot out from the mountain of flesh, each shimmering with a metallic cold light, their tips like drills, shrieking as they attacked from all directions! Even more gigantic tentacles danced in the air, like titanic pythons whipping the heavens, each strike causing spatial collapse!
In the tempest of tentacles, Ian's figure flickered and jumped, each blink accompanied by severe magic consumption. He continually employed Hogwarts' extreme transformations of magic.
The magnitude immense, the brilliance of magic collided fiercely with the Evil God's filth amidst the distorted sky, each clash sparking localized spatial collapse and energy storms.
Yet, the conclusion was harsh—no matter how exquisite or powerful, Ian's legendary magic was like an ant trying to shake a tree against the evolved, seemingly primal-universal-material-composed body of the Evil God. His attacks caused no effective damage, while every physical strike from the Evil God inflicted bodily injury.
Indeed.
Ian had already, in advance, used the power of paradox to nullify his own potential death, so he didn't need to worry about death occurring. However, this design had already prevented him from allocating more paradox power to affect the opponent—even if he went all out, it probably wouldn't make an impact, as the Eye of the Ra on the opponent's chest granted too high a rank.
Ian's power of paradox became less effective against stronger foes.
"Is this what little dignity life has left?"
Ian knelt on one knee on the undulating fleshy ground, his magic wand slanted and nearly broken at his side. He breathed heavily, each breath stained with a metallic taste, his vision darkening intermittently from the agony and depletion of magic.
He gazed at the horrifying mountain of countless tentacles and tumorous masses beneath the distorted sky, at those sixteen continually opening and closing faces imbued with "divine" wisdom.
What surged within him was not despair but a cold, insightful sorrow into the essence.
"I alone am qualified to define life!"
The Evil God slowly "moved" its massive body, like a living mountain shifting, finally stopping in front of Ian. A tentacle, lined with sharp teeth, slowly descended, nearly touching Ian's forehead. The mouths opened and closed in unison again, the voices carrying an unprecedented, almost "satisfied" calm.
"Ian Kent... I thank you."
The Evil God's words carried an air of sincerity.
"Hehe."
Ian painfully raised his head, his silver hair matted with blood grimly stuck to his face, yet his eyes remained sharp as blades.
"Thank you for your resistance,"
The Evil God's voice echoed like the whispers of the cosmos from all directions, "Every attack of yours, every ounce of magic power, your unyielding will... has become an indispensable piece on my 'perfect' puzzle. You've made me realize that so-called 'defects' are not flaws to be hidden but are a necessary passage to higher forms.
"Yes, you've made me accept this chaos of flesh, this tapestry of pain, this devouring instinct—thus, this current form is the true 'me'!"
"Now..." the Evil God's voice suddenly soared with regal authority, the twisted sky's eyes cast their purple-red light converging entirely on its colossal form.
"I have perfected all 'flaws'. I am evolution, I am perfection, I am… the only true God!" With this proclamation, the Evil God's massive body, composed of countless tentacles and tumorous flesh, its surface's undulating and opening calmed down, spreading a peculiar, suffocating sense of "order."