FUSING

Leonel took a breath only to find that he didn't have the lungs to breathe with. Aches and pain wracked his body, as though despite the fact he hadn't taken many injuries during his battle with Evergreen, his body was still reminding him that he was way out of his league.

He took another breath and hacked up blood, but the coldness in his eyes didn't fade. He never lost his focus for even a moment and he had already taken out several lumps of Celestial Terra meat.

The two Gods, Zoltene and another that Leonel didn't recognize, surged forward. This second God was none other than Solaraan, but whatever his name was didn't matter much to Leonel. It made no difference at all.

No matter who stood before him, he would cut them down. That was the promise he had made to himself.

It didn't matter how much his body broke down. It didn't matter what the odds were. It didn't matter that they were existences that had ruled over lands and even time itself for countless years.

None of it mattered.

The halos around Leonel's wrists trembled and his Spear Force surged.

These very same Gods who so many feared were doing their best to ensure that he couldn't heal himself. They were going out of their way to stop him.

They had felt what fear was, but they hadn't let it settle in yet. They still dared to raise their blades, they still dared to attack him, they still dared to insult the dignity of a King.

[Life Steal].

BANG!

Leonel's Spear Force broke into the Middle Creation State and his aura thrummed. Scarlet Star Force thrummed in his kidneys and rampaged throughout his body, fusing with the Universal Force within him to create something new.

Universal Force had always been something that couldn't be incorporated into the body, but when it came to fusing with Forces, it did so with absolute ease. There wasn't a Force in existence that it wasn't compatible with, and now that it was in Leonel's body, it was being forced to follow the path of Leonel's Forces as well.

Creation and Destruction. Destruction and Creation. A cycle of the two that seemed to mean the same thing, and yet represented something entirely different. © 2024.

One Innate Node was Creation to such an extreme that it became Destruction.

The other Innate Node was Destruction to such an extreme that it became Creation.

When they worked together, they formed a cycle of yin and yang that made Evergreen's lotuses look like nothing more than child's play.

Leonel copied Evergreen's methods into the Life Tablet, used it to analyze them, and then replicated that very same thing with his body.

In an instant, he had created a new Spear Dance that dazzled the world.

He took a step forward as the hole in his chest was quickly patched together. His spear danced through the air, ethereal and hard to grasp. Sometimes it would multiply into thousands, and at other times, it would suddenly fuse into one, erupting with a level of menace and Destruction that couldn't be matched.

Every Force it came across was easily sliced into two. But what made it worse was that these very Forces would wrap around the blade, infusing themselves into Leonel's strike and strengthening it further.

The cycle of Creation and Destruction ground down even the presence of Gods' Idols, forcing them into submission and stripping them of their essence.

Then, they became Leonel's own strength.

Eight enormous palms descended from the skies, each one seemingly being associated with a new and different Race.

Leonel had seen these before. The toddler that was very much not a toddler had a similar ability. It was what revealed to him the Races that were in cahoots with the Nomads.

However, compared to that little kid's palms, these were on an entirely different level.

There was a blue hand with rough skin and dragon claws that looked like it could come from no other Race than the Pluto. When it descended, Leonel felt as though time was distorting and it was difficult to get a grasp on exactly what was happening around him.

There was a hand that reflected the Stars and galaxies. When it descended, space was frozen and a formerly short distance felt like it was light years away.

There was a hand that carried the essence of shadows, hidden and discreet, impossible to track and even more difficult to spot.

The last hand was completely and utterly normal. It could have come from a Nomad, or a Human, or a Cloud Race member. It looked so completely and utterly normal, and yet it also seemed to carry the most mysteries.

When these two sets of four palms appeared, Leonel didn't seem to have anywhere to escape to. There was only death awaiting him.

But then his Spear Dance descended.

The lotuses of Evergreen seemed to have been co-opted, beginning to follow a law that was much higher than their own. Who cared about the cycle of nature when the cycle of creation was right before them all?

The lotuses rotated out of instinct and shredded the attacks of Zoltene and Solaraan apart.

Leonel gasped for breath, but he had already taken another step forward. Blood dripped from him in waves, and the only part of him that didn't seem injured were those eyes.

Deep and unfathomable, unwavering and unmoved in their conviction.

He moved against the Gods with the confidence of a man who stood above the world.

His Mana Core tree rippled behind him, reflecting with his halo, and the Life Tablet shone with a bright light.

BOOM!

Leonel's spear descended and the world seemed to fall into a whirlwind of chaos. There was nowhere to escape to.

It was like even with all these Gods here, Leonel alone controlled life and death.

SHUUUU!

The eight palms in the skies hurriedly overlaid one another, and it was at that moment that down below, Evergreen's split head finished fusing.