Ch.279279. The Battle of One Praised as a God (2)

Only numerical increases remained.

As Bahamut began to soar, a massive storm shook the buildings throughout Seoul, and thus the Dragon God and the Dark Lord began ascending toward the sky at Mach speed, trailing flames and black mist.

Before long, they reached the upper atmosphere, and upon arriving at their destination, Bahamut finally threw the Dark Lord he had been holding into the stratosphere.

“Do you think I’ll die just because we’ve ascended to the atmosphere?”

However, the Dark Lord showed no signs of distress as he functioned and survived perfectly fine in the atmosphere.

With a mocking expression, as if asking if this was all Bahamut had planned, Bahamut shook his head, indicating he hadn’t expected his opponent to fall from just this.

“Indeed. Nothing has changed! In fact, you’re the only one who’s suffered a great loss! Dragon God Bahamut.”

“I alone have suffered a loss, you say.”

His once powerful arm was now in tatters from the magic the Dark Lord had used to break free from Bahamut’s grasp.

It seemed the Dark Lord had landed several powerful spells, as that once mighty right hand had nearly half its scales and flesh pulverized, exposing bone—a serious injury by human standards.

Blood began dripping from his arm toward the ground, but as if he had anticipated this, Bahamut used healing magic to recover from what was nearly a fatal wound.

“But conversely, everything prepared on the ground can no longer be used. You can no longer set foot on the earth. I won’t allow it.”

They had ascended a full 80 kilometers above Seoul.

In the stratosphere, where gravity and air were extremely thin, stars were visible below, and beneath the feet of the Dragon God and Dark Lord stretched the blue curve of Earth.

Indeed, all the elements the Cult of Immortality had prepared for the Dark Lord were unusable here.

He couldn’t strengthen himself with the magical energy polluting Seoul, nor could the Death Knight Order interfere with Bahamut or confront him directly with undead golems.

Moreover, having failed to recover the dark magic remaining in Seoul, despite severely injuring Bahamut’s right hand, the Dark Lord had few advantages.

“Then I’ll simply kill you and take control of the Korean Peninsula.”

However, falling for Bahamut’s provocation despite these unfavorable conditions, the Dark Lord began to clash head-on with Bahamut, and thus the battle between two gods commenced.

‘It seems he’s not called a god by mere chance.’

The Dark Lord wasn’t weakened just because he couldn’t use the sacrifices prepared by the Cult of Immortality.

Using nearly infinite magical power, he attempted to annihilate Bahamut, deploying tens of thousands of spells that froze even starlight and enveloped the entire battlefield, trying to surround Bahamut.

Messengers of death emerging from countless magic circles attempted to tear Bahamut’s body to shreds, but…

“This is easier than before!”

Bahamut spread his wings wide, scattering all the death messengers coming toward him, and charged toward the Dark Lord at the center of the magic circles.

In his right hand—half-shattered despite the healing magic—Bahamut now held a sword of enormous size and weight befitting his massive form, and that giant blade was flying toward the Dark Lord.

Seeing the massive blade that would pierce even the protective barrier he had cast, the Dark Lord panicked and began attacking to prevent Bahamut from approaching, but…

“What is that!?”

“Armor!”

Bahamut had retrieved his armor from subspace and put it on, defending against the Dark Lord’s attacks.

Of course, due to that terrifying magical power, even Bahamut’s body protected by mythril was wounded and bleeding, but conversely, thanks to the armor, Bahamut was able to approach right in front of the Dark Lord with only minor injuries.

With that, the blade Bahamut had personally enchanted thrust toward the Dark Lord, but…

“Blink!”

Just as the blade was about to reach his heart, the Dark Lord responded to the formidable strike by using the short-range teleportation magic Blink, successfully creating a small distance between them.

However, Blink couldn’t be used consecutively, and the distance between the Dark Lord and Bahamut was merely 100 meters.

From Bahamut’s perspective, this was a distance he could cover in a single step, and indeed, changing from a thrusting stance to a swinging one, he swung his blade with enough force to cut the Dark Lord’s waist in half.

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

At that moment, the Dark Lord’s body blazed with darkness, and a vast darkness enveloped the entire atmosphere.

A spear of darkness several kilometers long materialized and began striking down at Bahamut.

Bahamut withdrew the sword he had swung to defend against the spear aimed at his brow. The impact from the collision reverberated throughout Bahamut’s entire body.

Not only that, but despite being beyond the atmosphere, the sound and shock of the collision seemed to reach the ground, shaking all cities across the Korean Peninsula, with Seoul’s building windows—being closest in distance—shattering completely.

“An opening!”

But having successfully defended, the initiative was now in Bahamut’s hands.

He thrust his blade toward the Dark Lord who had exposed a weakness after using such powerful magic, and the Dark Lord was split in half under Bahamut’s blade, but only momentarily.

In an instant, the Dark Lord’s body scattered into black mist and bone fragments, and immediately began reconstructing itself.

True to his undead nature, as if to show he couldn’t be defeated so easily, he immediately launched a counterattack.

“Now. Disappear!”

A massive magic circle appeared right behind the Dark Lord and began bombarding Bahamut.

Bahamut quickly folded his wings and assumed a defensive posture against the orbital bombardment, but the attack struck him directly, completely shattering the armor that had been protecting him and even tearing off one of the Dragon God’s wings.

And somehow, their fierce battle had taken them from the stratosphere to a realm where countless stars and the cosmos were visible right before their eyes.

Despite the thousands of degrees of heat burning both the Dragon God and the Dark Lord, the gazes of the two beings were fixed solely on their mortal enemies.

“Ha… ha… ha…”

“Huff.”

After giving their all in the clash, both the Dark Lord and the Dragon God began to run out of strength.

The Dark Lord’s once nearly infinite magical power was starting to become finite after the magic he had just used, while the Dragon God still had magical power remaining, but the thousands of small wounds covering his body were burning his flesh with the help of the thousands of degrees of heat.

These environmental factors began to gradually erode Bahamut’s stamina, and if he used magic to attempt recovery, he wouldn’t be able to prepare an attack to defeat the Dark Lord.

Both could instinctively feel that the next strike would be the final one, and so they glared at each other, catching their breath, neither making the first move.

‘It’s a battle of who runs out of patience first.’

Unlike the fierce battle they had shown in the stratosphere, here in the thermosphere, both were engaging in small feints rather than moving violently or launching attacks, trying to induce action from their opponent.

If the Dark Lord summoned minor undead to attempt to debuff Bahamut, Bahamut would call down thunder or fire hundreds of small magic bullets to shatter the opponent’s summons and force the Dark Lord to defend, but the Dark Lord skillfully avoided Bahamut’s feints with just his movements.

Bahamut also showed that he wasn’t affected by the undead summoned by the Dark Lord, skillfully dispelling debuffs when they were applied, indicating that both understood that neither would survive if they allowed a proper strike.

However, the one whose patience reached its limit was…

“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. DAMN IT! The day I become the god of a new era… How dare you push me this far? Don’t make me laugh!”

It was the Dark Lord.

Consistent with his overconfidence and boasting to Bahamut, this static and quiet battle didn’t suit his taste, wasn’t the way he wanted to fight, and his rough pride and arrogance couldn’t tolerate it.

The enraged Dark Lord unleashed all his power, and at that moment, he transformed from the human mage form that still had some skin left to a form that no longer retained any human shape.

The Dark Lord shed the shell of his body and transformed into something close to the Grim Reaper with a scythe often seen in media.

The form of a black skeleton, the pitch-black cloak was so massive it completely dominated Bahamut’s vision, and countless undead spirits within the cloak floated like clusters of stars, wailing.

“I knew you’d make the first move.”

“Bahamut, I’ll turn you into cosmic garbage now! Thanatos Flare!”

The moment the Dark Lord shouted his ultimate technique, a sphere began forming at the tip of his index finger.

As time passed, the sphere took the shape of a massive circular orb, and when its enormity reached a level that could swallow even Bahamut’s giant body, the Dark Lord swung his hand wide, launching the attack at Bahamut.

Naturally, Bahamut tried to move to avoid the sphere, but at that moment…

‘This madman!?’

He was horrified to realize that the orb’s final destination was northern Seoul.

While the Seoul Allied Forces, who were his enemies from his perspective, were there, weren’t the Cult of Immortality members who served the Dark Lord also deployed throughout Seoul?

Bahamut couldn’t hide his disappointment at this behavior—trying to kill even the loyal cult members who had pledged their allegiance to the very end just to take him down—and he deployed hundreds and thousands of spells to somehow defend against the opponent’s attack.

“Useless. Useless. Useless. USELESS! Ahahahahahaha!”

But all magic that reached the sphere was absorbed and vanished, and the sphere began tearing through Bahamut who was blocking its path, flying on a deadly trajectory to destroy Seoul.

[Yuna, Seol-hwa, and Alicia, get ready.]

Finally realizing he couldn’t defend with ordinary magic, Bahamut decided to use his last resort.

A trump card that hadn’t been revealed once during this entire journey.

Since the opponent had shown his trump card first, Bahamut had no reason to hold back, and so he strengthened the connection with the contractors bound to him. At that moment, Bahamut’s body began to burn, revealing various colors of magical energy.

And gradually, blue particles began gathering at the Dragon God’s mouth, and that light was so intense it brilliantly illuminated the entire sky of Seoul, which was surrounded by black mist, like the sun.

The gathering light and the massive magical power and will flowing in from somewhere.

Bahamut fired the dragon’s breath gathered in his mouth toward the sphere that was trying to destroy Seoul.

“What!?”

At that moment, the unstoppable circular sphere could no longer advance.

Rather, it began to be pushed back, and the sphere reversed course toward the Dark Lord, pushed back by the massive galactic stream of light emanating from the Dragon God’s mouth.

The magical power shooting from his mouth continued to grow, and as if there was no limit, it gradually began pushing back toward the Dark Lord.

If the Dark Lord simply avoided the returning attack, he would only lose magical power without suffering much damage, but unable to tolerate the sight of himself being pushed back, the Dark Lord didn’t flee but raised both arms, pouring more magical power into the circular sphere, forcing the orb that was heading toward him to stop.

“I won’t lose!”

Both gods were pouring magical power into the sphere to push it toward their opponent.

Though they possessed magical power that seemed infinite to humanity, ultimately the two gods were merely living beings who happened to be worshipped as gods, and naturally, they had their limits.

That’s why the Dark Lord had tried to claim Seoul’s land and sky as his domain before fighting, and despite that failure, he confidently engaged in battle believing he couldn’t lose… but now his once nearly infinite magical power was gradually reaching its limit.

‘Am I… losing? Does that creature have no limit?’

But Bahamut seemed to have no such limit, as his breath continued to push back the circular sphere.

Now the flow of battle was favoring Bahamut, and he gathered more strength to use his final breath, using the magical power he continued to receive.

The dragon’s breath that had flowed like the Milky Way gradually transformed into a violent storm, and even beyond that, it was recreating the strike that had once destroyed Ulsan.

“This… this thing…!”

Finally, the circular sphere reached the Dark Lord, and he tried somehow to change the situation by receiving the sphere with both arms, attempting to redirect its trajectory elsewhere.

If he had avoided it earlier, he could have recognized what card Bahamut had used and formulated a countermeasure, but that small pride had determined the outcome of this battle.

Despite his attempts to change its trajectory, the circular sphere could no longer maintain its form due to the collision of enormous forces, and finally, it caused a massive explosion, engulfing not only the Dark Lord right in front of it but also Bahamut who was a bit further away.

The explosion was so intense that a massive flash of light remained visible in the sky over the Korean Peninsula for quite some time, and those watching realized that the battle had finally ended.

Had the Dragon God won, or had the Dark Lord?

Both factions watched in silence, waiting to see the outcome of the battle, and two beings began falling toward Seoul Station like meteors in the sky over Seoul.

“Ugh…!”

“Lord Dragon God!?”

Dragon God Bahamut was the first to crash into Seoul, revealing himself with a body covered in wounds, and the Seoul Allied Forces were visibly shaken at the sight of the Dragon God collapsed on Seoul’s ground, coughing blood.

‘We won. We won. The Cult of Immortality has won!’

Conversely, the Cult of Immortality anticipated victory, waiting for their god who was descending after Bahamut, but unfortunately, their god failed to meet their expectations.

While Dragon God Bahamut had maintained his original form despite his body being torn to shreds, the Dark Lord, who had been caught in the center of the explosion, couldn’t even maintain his body, showing his pitiful form to the Seoul Allied Forces with only a single skull remaining.

This miserable sight revealed to both factions who the winner of this battle was, and the first to reach the truth were…

“Lord Bahamut has won!”

“May the Dragon God’s blessing be upon us!”

It was the Seoul Allied Forces, who cheered and rejoiced at the fact that Bahamut had won.

And matching their cheers, Bahamut slowly rose to his feet, signaling that victory already belonged to the Seoul Allied Forces.