Chapter "386"
The Mage’s Armor was not only the greatest safeguard for a mage’s life — it was also the most mature, most perfect, and most widely used vessel.
It transformed Aether, bore mana, and accepted all magic and all knowledge without rejection. It was the cornerstone that supported every mage’s existence and upheld the very civilization of mages.
Adam had heard such praises countless times before. But now, upon beholding His Eminence’s Mage’s Armor, those words once again welled up in his heart.
The entire Mage’s Armor itself was a massive spell formation. It encompassed all starships and every constantly shifting minor array, harmonizing disparate structures and schools of knowledge, and unifying their energies into a single force of unimaginable power.
A True Spirit Mage truly did possess the ability to command the rules of the void and to craft rules of their own. Within the domain of His Eminence’s Mage’s Armor, all things unfolded in forms most favorable to mages.
It felt as though they stood beneath the very source of the Mage World. A strengthened version of the World-Breathing Spell was silently active. Every mage could sense inexhaustible mana flooding around them, eliminating forever the concern of sustaining their power in battle.
Less than an hour before the appointed time, the great radiance of teleportation flared once more. The Fourth Tower of Body-Refinement, True Spirit Archmage Kratos, crossed the void. His body was even larger than His Eminence Prometheus. For Adam, whose power was already at the Super Dimensional level, merely gazing upon Kratos’s true body made his eyes sting and his body ache.
The sheer mass of Kratos’s being was unimaginable. Adam could clearly see the void collapsing around him; energies and even time itself twisted in strange ways near his form.
Perhaps with one casual punch, he could shatter an entire world.
Following close behind the arrival of the two True Spirits was the mysterious True Spirit Archmage Laura. Unlike the towering, colossal bodies formed by the modern magical system, Laura’s true form was no taller than an ordinary mage, her appearance plain. And yet, no one who looked upon her could deny she was beautiful.Her beauty transcended outward form and reached directly into the souls of all living beings. The energies surrounding her were strange and unfathomable. The concepts of life and death were blurred; creation and destruction played out billions of times each second around her, woven into a terrifying, breathtaking elegance.
The two True Spirits understood that their mere presence interfered with the laws of passage, and so they yielded, merging into His Eminence Prometheus’s Mage’s Armor. Instantly, all the distortions their existence had caused within the void vanished.
At that moment, silver runes appeared upon the Mage’s Armor. Though Randolph
, head of the Second Tower, had not arrived in person, he and his fellow True Spirit Archmagi exerted their power across the distance. They completely sealed this stretch of void, isolating it from all else. This ensured that any shockwaves from the battle would not spread outward. Should the capture succeed, they would imprison the creature; should it fail, they would erase this region from the void itself.Time ticked away, bringing the Great Catastrophe ever closer. Adam and the other mages without clearance for the fight were withdrawn from the warzone, watching intently through the starship portholes at the transformations within the Primordial World.
“Heads up — from here, leave it to me.”
In the Celestial Realm, Laura’s avatar waved off the five Super Dimensional mages under her command.
In her hand rested the viral core, a shifting, multicolored cluster. To call it a “virus” was no longer accurate. All of Adam and the others’ initial designs had been overturned by her, leaving only the final goal unchanged. Now, the “virus” resembled more of a supplement, invigorating primal energy and granting the energy-devouring cells a short but dazzling vitality.
After Timothy and the other Super Dimensional s detonated their martial cores to withdraw from the plane, Laura blew gently upon the glowing mass in her palm. Her own body dissolved into pure information, merging into the swirling colors. In an instant, she fused with the dense primal energy.
The primal energy roared and shook. The materials of the Celestial Realm shattered in an instant, then collapsed together, releasing unstable surges. At the very brink of the Great Catastrophe, the energies tore through the barrier between the Celestial Realm and the Divine Realm.
The flood of energy rushed into the body of the Third-Era Remnant Creature, which sat silently cross-legged in the Divine Realm.
The fleet resounded with shrieking alarms.
“Crystalline wall defense falling to minimum levels!”
“Void energy influx detected. Primal energy of the Primordial World flowing toward the Divine Realm. Estimated absorption by the remnant creature: three days in external time.”
“Data comparison complete. Optimal assault time: thirty-six hours.”
In places unseen by lesser mages, the True Spirits conversed. Prometheus asked Laura:
“When do you deem the right time?”
Laura’s entire form was veiled in a membrane of chaos, her eyes flashing with divine light as she remotely manipulated the virus. She replied:
“The virus mutates in chains of infection. Once the number of cells it infects reaches a critical threshold, the devouring cells will rebel. When the mutation erupts, Meyer—”
“Yes?”
“You will unleash Genesis upon it.”
“Understood.”
“After Genesis, it will be exposed to the void. Randolph, Prometheus — make sure its aura does not leak out. The younger ones won’t survive the backlash.”
“Understood.”
“Kratos, release your full strength. The rest of you, act as you see fit. I will find my moment to enter its body.”
Soon, the Primordial Divine Realm ruptured. A colossal humanoid being’s agonized roar echoed directly into the souls of all present mages.
They watched its body collapse uncontrollably. Vast clusters of its own cells broke away, mutating into unspeakable abominations — and then turned back to bite their origin.
In the distant void, a world-shattering radiance descended as though distance did not exist. Earth, water, wind, and fire replayed in an instant. All energies within range burned to nothingness, the plane reverted to chaos, and from chaos a world was reborn.
Genesis descended.
His Eminence Prometheus’s Mage’s Armor solidified into substance. Randolph’s gravitational might became chains, layer upon layer binding and locking the region in place.
Kratos crossed infinite distance in a single step. At his fist blazed the purest, wildest force. That fist smashed toward the divine creature.
Perhaps in all its life, the creature had never faced a crisis like this. Its body rebelled faster than it could comprehend. Detached devouring cells turned upon their master, while those that remained fought desperately for control. The primal energy that once obeyed without question now resisted with ferocity.
It could not understand why, upon awakening, the world had turned into such a nightmare.
It even felt as though it had returned to its weakest days before it had gained its great inheritance, reliving a terrible dream.
Until a colossal fist struck it down.