“Foolish.”
Nocteron’s voice was calm, detached, almost pitying.
He raised his arms forward with a soft sigh, as though disappointed rather than threatened.
Fwish! BAM!
Without warning, a column of blazing fire surged up from beneath his feet.
The [Flames of Oblivion] erupted like a geyser of wrath, crackling with deadly force as they engulfed the area beneath both Nocteron and Lich.
The ground scorched, the air warped, and everything within a dozen meters looked like it was about to be reduced to ash.
Alex didn’t expect the attack to kill them, he wasn’t naive, but he wasn’t aiming for a kill.
He only needed a moment, a second of distraction, just one flicker of vulnerability.
But… that moment never came.
Because this, right now, was the shift in the tide.
Until now, it had seemed like they were evenly matched, blow for blow, move for move.
But the illusion of balance shattered like fragile glass, because at this exact point, Nocteron, the most powerful of all the gods, began to take the fight seriously.
And the first thing he did was kneel.
As flames erupted beneath him, he crouched down effortlessly and extended one hand, pressing his palm gently to the incoming fire as though greeting an old friend.
“Necrotic Touch,” he whispered, a small smile flickering on his face.
[Necrotic Touch: Instantly kills your opponent’s skill. No cooldown.]
It was the same ability that had silenced the [Primordial Goddess], the same cursed skill he had used time and time again in the ancient wars long before the [Chosen Games] even began.
And the moment his hand met the flames.
Ding!
[Your skill “Flames of Oblivion” has been killed. You may not use it again until the end of the battle.]
“What?” Alex breathed, startled, “What the hell…?”
He didn’t even get time to react before the rest of his barrage arrived.
Holy blades from [Celestial Judgment] rained down from above, glowing with divine energy.
[All-Element Fox Summons] surged toward the battlefield, their elemental fury unleashed.
Several [Universal Orbs] swirled in from the side, [Orb of Annihilation], [Orb of the Mountain], and more, each one ready to explode with world-ending power.
But Nocteron moved faster than reality itself.
In a blur, he reached out and touched each incoming threat, and with every touch, the skill died.
The summoned foxes vanished with a burst of scattered light.
The divine blades crumbled to ash mid-air.
The orbs didn’t even have time to activate, they simply disappeared, fizzled out like a match in the rain.
Ding!
[Your skills “All-Element Fox Summons”, “Celestial Judgment” and “Universal Orbs” have been killed.]
Alex stared, frozen for a breath.
“Dude…”
In less than five seconds, over half his arsenal was gone.
The only skills he had left were [Bleeding Dragon Claws], a close-range weapon not suited for this moment, and his [Void Blasters].
The skeletal blasters emerged from the ground some distance behind him, far enough from Nocteron’s reach, for now.
“I can’t let him touch them,” Alex thought, stepping back quickly, “Charge!”
The three [Void Blasters] raised their bone-covered heads.
Their massive jaws opened, revealing glowing energy cores that started humming with dangerous light.
Alex’s goal was clear, reach Phase Three.
Once fully charged, they could unleash a beam powerful enough to rival even Nocteron.
But that charge would take ninety seconds.
“You’ve lost your skills,” Nocteron said calmly as he advanced, each step echoing with eerie confidence, “You cannot win. You can barely fight back. Why do you persist?”
Behind Alex, a bright light flared.
Kaelios.
The angel’s wings spread wide as his eyes glowed with raw power.
A massive object slammed into the ground beside him, a towering scale, celestial and golden.
[Scales of Destiny summoned. Cost: 200 DP.]
“Here goes nothing!” Kaelios shouted, lifting into the air as the [Wheel of Destiny] appeared before him, spinning with chaotic force.
If they could pull Nocteron or Lich into the [Garden of Destiny], they had a chance, just a sliver, but a sliver was enough.
“GO, MY UNDEAD!” Alex commanded, “DEFEND KAELIOS AND THE BLASTERS! All of you—except for the [Undead Lord]—GO!”
Hundreds of undead surged forward.
The skeletons moved first, rattling frames armed with rusted blades, charging recklessly at Nocteron.
Predictably, they were slaughtered within moments.
His movements were fluid, casual, like a conductor weaving through a violent orchestra.
But then came the real threat, the [Undead Reapers].
Shrouded in shadows, their towering figures wielded midnight-black scythes, their faces hidden beneath cracked bone masks.
They attacked without hesitation.
[Undead Slash], their blades curved in deadly arcs, but Nocteron danced around them, never letting a single swing land.
Then…
Boom!
The sky darkened as a [Shadow Orb] was fired.
Shadows twisted together into a coiled sphere, which launched forward and then exploded mid-flight, unleashing a shrieking vortex of slicing darkness.
Nocteron was caught in the blast.
He was torn apart. Dead.
But then, he stood up again.
More attacks, more orbs, more slashes.
Each time, he fell, and each time, he got back up, over and over, his body was torn asunder only to regenerate moments later.
Lich, too, was being overwhelmed, brought to the brink multiple times.
But they just wouldn’t die.
Still, the undead kept coming, blade after blade, orb after orb, a storm of death that refused to end.
[Necrotic Touch is ineffective on “Undead Summoning.”]
For once, Nocteron’s cursed skill was useless.
And yet, even with that advantage, they were running out of time.
Thirty seconds passed.
And every single undead lay shattered, shredded into bone and dust, except for the [Undead Lord], who remained at Alex’s side, his blade resting quietly on his shoulder.
“Change of plan,” Alex muttered as he looked at his blasters.
Their cores now glowed brighter, they had reached the first phase.
“FIRE!”
One of the three skeletal blasters raised its head fully and unleashed a devastating blue beam.
Fwish! BAM!
The blast carved a trench through the battlefield and slammed straight into Nocteron.
He didn’t even flinch, he stood there, accepting the full force of it.
His body disintegrated violently. But only for a moment.
Then, just like that, he returned, and got killed once more, repeating that cycle many times.
But the cost was steep, even for him.
His [Life Drain] had to consume hundreds, maybe thousands of lives to bring him back as his body was getting disintegrated instantly.
“This is insane…” Alex whispered, sweat dripping from his brow, “Kaelios, hurry!”
“I’m trying!” Kaelios shouted, the [Wheel of Destiny] spinning slower and slower.
Then, it stopped.
A strange symbol flashed across it, difficult to read at first, until the system processed it into words.
Ding!
[Pass the trial selected at random to complete the ritual.]
[The God of Destiny or His Chosen must kill one of their opponents.]
Kaelios’s face went pale.
“Oh no… SHIT.”
Alex didn’t need to ask.
He read the same message, and the implication hit hard.
They had to kill either Lich or Nocteron. Impossible.
Their chances had already been slim. Now, they were practically zero.
And as if to underline their hopelessness, Nocteron rushed toward the Scales of Destiny.
He placed his hand gently on the golden artifact.
“NECROTIC TOUCH,” he declared.
And the entire construct, the scale of destiny and the wheel, crumbled into golden dust.
Their one hope, gone.
And then, to finish them off for good, Lich moved.
“Here goes!” Lich bellowed, raising his scepter.
CLANG!
He struck the ground, and a new figure began to rise beside him, another [Undead Lord], but unlike Alex’s.
This one was darker, more corrupted, its aura thick with ancient power.
Then, Lich raised his staff to the sky and shouted,
“GRIM REAPER! GET RID OF THE CHOSEN ONE!”
The heavens answered.
From above, a massive reaper stirred, cloaked in darkness, wielding a scythe larger than a warship.
It nodded once, cold and silent.
And then, it swung.
The scythe came down from the heavens like the judgment of death itself.
Alex’s pupils widened.
Despite all his preparation, all his calm, all his strength, this moment chilled him.
The tides had turned. The battlefield had shifted.
And somewhere deep in his soul, he felt it. They might not win this.