The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 454

As Shin Hayul’s magic completed, a rain of lightning began to fall.

Chijijijik! Chijijik! Kwaaaang!

The End God frowned, casually deflecting the rain of lightning.

‘A dragon, is it?’

A dragon appeared amidst the downpour of lightning.

Golden scales and pure white horns.

Contrasting those two colors, the color of its eyes was a deep crimson.

If the mythical lightning dragon were to be recreated, it would look exactly like that.

Kuoohhhhh-!

The lightning dragon roared, weaving through the rain of lightning.

Its voice was filled with rage.

Its already red eyes became even more crimson.

It was furious because of the intruder who had trespassed into its territory without permission.

“……A mere beast. How dare it look down on me?”

The End God frowned, seemingly displeased with the lightning dragon’s gaze.

How dare a mere beast not understand its place.

“If you’re a beast, then act like one, and crawl on the ground.”

The End God unleashed his divine power.

His target was the lightning dragon.

He intended to convert his divine power into physical force and tear the lightning dragon’s body to shreds.

The divine power moved faster than sound and struck the lightning dragon’s body.

Now, all that was left was to convert the divine power into physical force, and the lightning dragon’s entire body would be torn to pieces like a rag.

“Vanish. You insignificant thing.”

Just as the End God was about to convert his divine power into physical force.

Kugugung-!

Another lightning bolt struck down.

A much weaker lightning bolt than the countless ones falling around them.

‘That lightning bolt is…’

The sound itself was weaker than ordinary lightning, and the power it exuded was much weaker.

Just looking at the surface, it was a magic not worth paying attention to.

However, that was only on the surface.

Looking deeper, things were a bit different.

‘Divine power?’

That lightning bolt was made of divine power.

It seemed like they had made all sorts of attempts to hide the divine power, but they couldn’t fool the End God’s eyes.

That lightning bolt was different from the others.

It was a divine technique, not magic.

He had to avoid being directly hit by that lightning bolt.

“Useless actions…”

The End God gave up controlling the divine power he had unleashed on the lightning dragon and began to construct a new divine technique to block the falling lightning bolts.

“I’ll give you credit for the audacity to challenge me head-on with divine power.”

The End God’s divine technique was completed in an instant.

A shield with a unique shape rose above the End God’s head.

The shield had an appearance that seemed to be shaped like lightning.

At that moment, the lightning bolt struck the shield.

A tremendous light was emitted.

“…Its power is more insignificant than I thought.”

The amount of light itself was certainly enormous.

It was an enormous amount of light that gave the illusion that dozens, hundreds of lightning bolts were flashing at once.

However, the only thing that was enormous was the amount of light.

Like an empty cart making a lot of noise, it was only bright, but its power was insignificant.

“Is your goal to steal my eyesight?”

It seemed that this divine technique was prepared to steal his eyesight.

“Pathetic.”

The End God twisted one corner of his mouth, facing the light directly.

“Do you really think that mere light can damage my eyes?”

If the opponent were an ordinary human, it would have been a strategy that would have worked well enough.

However, the opponent was not like an ordinary human.

A god.

Moreover, the highest-ranking god who had single-handedly annihilated the divine realm.

This little bit of light could not damage the End God’s eyesight at all.

“Try a little harder. Half of the Human God.”

The End God twisted his mouth as he looked at Shin Hayul, who was visible beyond the light.

“Cain Benetzech held out for six days alone. You must endure longer than that.”

A mere human, who had not even inherited the power of the Human God.

He had blocked the End God for a full six days with the power he had built up alone.

This was a great achievement that could not be described in words.

It was a feat that even the arrogant End God could acknowledge.

“Do not do anything that seems to diminish Cain Benetzech’s achievements any further.”

That man was diminishing that achievement.

He didn’t like that at all.

Seeing the value of someone he had acknowledged being forcibly diminished by others was more unpleasant than he had imagined.

“At least three days. That’s the time you have to hold out against me. I will not tolerate you falling before that.”

The Black Magic King had bet everything he had to buy time because he believed in that man.

Therefore, that man had to hold out longer than the Black Magic King.

“…Three days, you say.”

At that moment, the light began to fade.

Shin Hayul’s divine technique was losing its power and weakening.

“Well, I don’t know if I can hold out for three days.”

The End God’s eyes narrowed sharply.

‘He doesn’t even have the spirit to hold out for three days.’

It was absurd.

Did the Black Magic King bet everything for such a useless man?

‘Cain Benetzech. It seems you have terrible judgment when it comes to people.’

Just as the End God was looking at the Black Magic King’s corpse and clicking his tongue, it happened.

“Whether you can hold out against me for three days.”

Shin Hayul said with a provocative smile.

“Hooh…”

A strange light flashed in the End God’s eyes for a moment.

“That I will fall before then?”

Shin Hayul smiled, full of affirmation.

“…Such absurd nonsense is so ridiculous that I don’t even get angry.”

The End God chuckled.

He had a very pleasant expression.

“You’re going to defeat me… Your ambition isn’t bad.”

The man the Black Magic King had trusted and entrusted everything to was not a piece of trash without even the will to fight.

Perhaps it was because he knew that fact that he felt strangely good.

“However, just having ambition is a bit troublesome.”

The End God unleashed his divine power in all directions.

At that moment, the relentless thunderstorms all stopped moving at once.

“If you’re going to assert that you can defeat me, at least show me the possibility.”

As if pausing a video.

Everything in this world stopped moving.

“If you can’t show me that possibility now…”

In the stopped world.

The End God walked alone in the air.

“I will kill you right now and make you as if you never existed.”

To protect the value of the man the End God acknowledged, the Black Magic King.

He would first make this man as if he never existed.

The End God’s face was serious.

“So at least, try to move now.”

Step, step.

The End God, who had been walking, was now standing right in front of Shin Hayul.

“Cain Benetzech. That man moved freely in this world. Without any restrictions.”

Shin Hayul was frozen like a statue.

The End God made eye contact with Shin Hayul at the same height.

He waited for Shin Hayul to move. He waited for a full 10 seconds.

“…Is he just a dog bone full of empty words after all?”

After about 15 seconds had passed.

The End God clicked his tongue with a look of utter displeasure.

This man was indeed trash.

“I don’t even want to see your face. Disappear.”

Then, to incinerate the trash, he converted his divine power into flames.

Whirr, whirr!

Just as the divine technique of flames was about to engulf Shin Hayul’s entire body.

“End God.”

“… !”

Shin Hayul’s voice was heard.

“Don’t you think you’ve forgotten something?”

His mouth was moving freely.

“You…”

It wasn’t just his mouth.

His eyes, nose, neck, both hands, and both feet.

His entire body was moving freely, as if he had never been frozen like a statue.

“You were pretending not to be able to move.”

The End God frowned.

“You only choose to do the most despicable things.”

It seemed like he had pretended not to be able to move in order to exploit an opening.

How pathetic.

His only strategy was to wait for an opening.

“Enough with the impressions, would you answer my question?”

Shin Hayul said, looking at the flames that filled the surroundings.

“I asked if you had forgotten something.”

Then, he slowly moved his hand and caressed the flames.

If other gods had seen this sight, they would have widened their eyes and shouted that he was crazy.

If Umbra had seen this sight, he would have shouted at the top of his lungs asking if he was planning to commit suicide.

That’s how dangerous Shin Hayul’s actions were right now.

“You…”

The End God frowned.

He stared intently at Shin Hayul with an expression that asked what he had just done.

“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s a flame that feels very different from Ignis. I was curious, so I touched it without permission.”

Shin Hayul was playing with the End God’s flames.

As if it were his own divine technique, he was placing the flames on his palm, turning them around, and playing with them.

“…”

The End God stared at Shin Hayul in silence.

What did you do?

The End God’s eyes were asking that.

“Ah, are you curious about how I touched your divine technique?”

Shin Hayul threw the flames away and dusted off his hands.

“I didn’t do anything special. Just…”

Shin Hayul’s expression, which had been smiling, instantly reversed.

He glared at the End God with an expression like a ferocious beast.

“My divine power is of a higher caliber than yours. That’s why I was able to touch it.”

There is no up or down in mana.

As long as they are born of mana, everyone is equal.

However, it is not the same with divine power.

Just as gods were treated and discriminated against according to the divine power they possessed.

There is a clear hierarchical relationship in divine power.

“Your divine power is below mine. The innate caliber is different.”

The End God’s divine power was below Shin Hayul’s divine power.

That was why Shin Hayul was able to play with the End God’s divine technique.

“Nonsense…”

The End God scoffed.

The End God was the highest-ranking god who was born with the most enormous and purest divine power in the history of the divine realm.

He could not be inferior to anyone in terms of divine power.

All of those words were nonsense.

“Do you think it’s nonsense?”

Shin Hayul chuckled and stretched out his left hand.

At that moment, the frozen lightning dragon began to move again.

“Ignis.”

The lightning dragon reacted to the name Ignis.

It moved as if swimming through the sky and flew towards Shin Hayul.

“That’s the third question now. Don’t you think you’ve forgotten something?”

Looking at the approaching lightning dragon, Shin Hayul repeated the question he had asked earlier.

“Lightning dragon…”

The End God frowned.

Looking at the lightning dragon, he remembered something he had forgotten.

“It seems you remember.”

The lightning dragon took its place behind Shin Hayul.

Then, as if acting cute, it brought its face to Shin Hayul’s face and was absorbed into Shin Hayul’s body.

“A moment ago. You unleashed your divine power on the lightning dragon.”

“…”

Just before Shin Hayul was about to drop a lightning bolt with the maximum amount of light.

The End God was preparing a divine technique to deal with the lightning dragon.

After infusing the lightning dragon with divine power, he was going to convert it into physical force and tear it to shreds.

“And you prioritized blocking my Ignis and left the divine power you had infused into the lightning dragon as it was.”

However, he could not put it into action.

He was wary of the divine power contained in Shin Hayul’s lightning bolt and tried to deal with that first.

“What do you think happened to that divine power?”

Shin Hayul focused energy on his left hand.

Not Shin Hayul’s original mana, nor the divine power he had received from Ray, but a third divine power.

“You. Don’t tell me you…”

“Yes.”

The End God’s divine power.

“I absorbed it.”

Shin Hayul had made the End God’s divine power his own.

He had refined the divine power that the lightning dragon had absorbed and converted it so that he could use it as well.

“…Nonsense. It’s impossible to steal divine power.”

It was possible to transfer divine power.

However, it was impossible to forcibly absorb or steal it.

“Originally, it’s impossible to forcibly steal divine power. To steal divine power, you have to completely annihilate the target and release the divine power’s attribution.”

To steal divine power, you had to kill the target.

Killing the target and absorbing the divine power that had lost its owner was the only way to steal it.

And currently, the End God was alive and well.

There was no way that stealing divine power was possible.

…That’s what the End God thought.

But it wasn’t.

“If you hadn’t absorbed the Veil, I wouldn’t have even thought about absorbing it.”

“…What?”

There is always an exception to everything.

That was the relationship between the End God and Shin Hayul.

“The power of Veil Stoll that you absorbed and the power of Ray Bell Bytenner that I inherited are originally from the same source.”

Ray and Veil were originally one being called the Human God.

Therefore, it was no exaggeration to say that the divine power was attributed to both of them.

“I just reabsorbed what was originally my power.”

Shin Hayul could steal divine power from the End God.

Because the End God had absorbed the Veil.

Because the Veil’s divine power had been completely absorbed by the End God.

Shin Hayul could steal the End God’s divine power without any restrictions.

“Like this.”

Shin Hayul stretched out both hands towards the flames that were surging around him.

At that moment, the flames began to be absorbed into Shin Hayul.

“… !”

The End God widened his eyes and retrieved the divine power he had unleashed.

However, he could not retrieve the power that had already been absorbed.

The divine power that the End God retrieved was only half of it.

Half of the divine power was absorbed into Shin Hayul.

“From the moment you took over Veil’s body in such a half-hearted state. The match was already decided.”

“…”

The End God frowned as if he was displeased.