"AAGHHH!"

Damian pushed the buried spear from the side, then pushed against the gravity with as much strength as he could. The black spear tore through the scales, stretching a bloody line across the beast form of Sea Snake.

The red dissolved into the blue as the body of the Sea Snake entered the ocean. The tail of the beast reacted with unnatural speed to the pain inflicted, throwing Damian far above the sea.

He managed to stop before hitting the ocean again. If in the air Thaddeus was fast, the water seemed to charge his beastly body with even more furious energy. Diving in and out in seconds Sea Snake opened his mouth and released a lightning-fast stream of blue flames.

Dark blue, almost liquid flames.

'It's the same as Hellfire. Fragments of his soul, or perhaps that is the divinity of a divine beast they keep blabbering about.'

The only other creatures Damian had seen using it were Sulthar and the revived chaos dragon. Both had ties to a god.

Damian zoomed left and right in the air, dodging the stream of flames as best as he could. He may have drawn the first blood, but this was far from over.

**

Near the Sealed Dungeon. Landbreaker.

"What is he doing!?" Sam said. Confusion clear on his face.

Both Landbreaker and Vidalia had the same expressions as well. The man who could launch dozens of spells at once without uttering a single word was not using even a single one.

"Maybe.. saving his mana. Till it's fatal, he won't use it." Landbreaker played along.

"No, it's not that," Vidalia said.

Each time her eyes had to catch up to the two figures moving lightning fast in the air. Landbreaker knew Damian could match him, but knowing and seeing it with his own eyes made it that much real.

She continued, "He is not using any support spells or quick escape spells."

"What is up with him!?" Sam took a step forward. "This is not the time to play around."

'He is.. putting up a show.' Landbreaker thought, but did not voice it. ' It isn't just a fight anymore, but a statement to the gods.'

Look, even your strongest can't match one-fourth of my strength. Aren't you curious? Don't you want to know why that is?

A dangerous game, the boy was playing. But it would indeed work if he managed to do the impossible. The three gods would want to seek out the answer. So they could become the best of their rank as well.

Other than the man currently fighting for his life, there was no one in this world he could share secrets with any longer.

'If he is gone, there will be no hope left for this world.'

He would fight. Landbreaker knew it if nothing else. Fight as he might, even after becoming a true god, he was but one person against three abominations of nature. An eternity of fighting and imprisonment. His will only be the strength of fist, no matter how high a rank he may climb.

Runebreaker was needed. These old bastards had seen everything. Nothing he could think of would be new to them. Except for the man whose fate could not be seen.

Landbreaker knew where the answers lay. The dungeons.

That had a lifetime of stories about gods, both true and false. They must study all of them and learn their spell knowledge as fast as possible. Only Runebreaker and his ability to literally break any spell in a matter of minutes to reshape it into something of his own could free this world. Or there was no saving from the clutches of ghosts of the forgotten past.

**

The Duel Above the Sea. Damian.

Damian flew higher; the glimmering blue-scaled Sea Snake was right behind him. Water was too dangerous; every time Damian fell into the sea, it felt like he was being crushed from all sides. Maybe a skill or something else that gave the Sea Snake command over the ocean water.

The pressure wasn't great for an individual like him, but it made his movements slow.

Using the veil of clouds as a momentary cover, Damian made a quick reversal of direction. Putting all the weight behind his spear, in a trail of blazing black fiery aura, he shot straight towards the following Sea Snake. Like a dark meteor falling from the sky, the gravity only enhanced his potential for destruction.

'Could have increased the weight of my spear here.'

It wasn't a big enough surprise for the blue aura-covered Sea Snake to stop. The aura covered his entire monstrous body. Damian, even with an enhancement spell, could not match even one-third of that.

The spear, covered in a black aura, clashed with the meter-thick blue aura-covered head of the snake.

Damian's sharp spear broke through layers of solid blue aura, but by the time it reached the flesh—the attack had lost most of its power. The giant scales were no joke at all.

'A giant replica spell would have done more damage.'

Thaddeus transformed in a split second, the abominable trident heading towards Damian's heart. No time to match the strength. Damian channeled his mana towards his right leg. A dark wormhole opened just a little; still, he dived in, keeping his spear in a defensive position to redirect the trident.

There was no delay in the activation of the spell at all. That was the difference between spells activated by intent or runic tool and enhancement spells etched on his body.

The second job Damian had gained as a second-ranker was more than what met the eye. Five spells he could place on his body. Three of which Damian had already placed on himself after creating the runic platform he had seen in that trial. Aura for strength, wormhole for quick escape, and a healing spell to heal his body.

All normal spells took a few seconds to activate as the runic circle formed in the air. But these three were always active. Mana veins kept them almost active. The second the flow was increased even a little, they came into effect at once. It only worked for living beings; Jacob's body could not complete the requirements of the platform spell.

Damian did not go too far from Thaddeus, saving as much mana as possible while creating a good enough distance.

But the wormhole being opened was sensed and seen by all present, including Thaddeus. Before Damian fully came out of the wormhole, Thaddeau turned his head and unleashed another stream of his blue divine flames. This time in human form.

No time for even a wormhole this time.

He stopped. Eyes piercing the wall of cyan, staring right at Thaddeus. His mouth opened slightly, and the dark flames came charging to face the blue.

The black and blue collided meters away from Damian. Sea Snake's attack had come fast and big. Damian's dark flames were pushed back slightly, but it held. The two streams of molten fire disappear into each other. Damian could sense the sharp movement of the mana around them.

'It's changing the natural balance. Charging the particles of mana with more than normal energy.'

What would the limit of that be? Permanent alteration of the very air itself?

Damian's Hellfire was diminishing with every passing second. Sea Snake's attack, even though it started earlier than his, would last long after Hellfire ended.

He did not wait for it to end. Damian rushed forward, using the last of his Hellfire to carve a path through the azure flame. His spear forward, dark aura covering his body, Damian cut through the fire.

The surroundings were heavily charged with mana, hard to pinpoint even for a transcedent. But Damian knew exactly where Sea Snake was. The man had the same idea as him. He was prepared to cross hands again when suddenly Damian felt his speed getting slower.

Something had wrapped around his body while flying without showing any mana reactions. Damian's vision was blocked with the flames still he used the wormhole enhancement with what fleeting bits of empty sky he could see. But when he came out of the wormhole, even more weight was laden atop him.

Damian finally had a clear look.

They were.. snakes? Twenty-meter-long snakes made of water, more than two hundred at that. No mana threads were guiding them; they were moving on their own.

'A skill?'

Damian had not seen Sea Snake use any spell at all. A necessary caution before a spell stealer.

The snakes were just piling up weight on him; it didn't seem like there was any special effect. Damian couldn't move even a finger. Even using a wormhole to cut them didn't work.

'How are these watery bastards so powerful without any muscle at all?'

"It's useless," Sea Snake came before him.

"Each of my Rahas contains the soul of a Legendary beast."

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