| YEAR 2046 |

| The Ent Plains |

| PLANET TELEFLAT |

| RUSUS-AFEL STAR SYSTEM |

"Where is your God now?" Dagon's voice boomed across the sprawling landscape and rebounded from the treeless hills that peeked from the horizon.

A drag trail extended from him to a quarter-mile away, where Griffin lay spread-eagled on the moist soil.

Dagon's slash against Griffin's armor had been so powerful that the impact had flung the man on his back, skidding into the distance. If not for the Aegis device, Griffin would have ended up as a bloody stain on the ground.

Aegis was in battle mode. A form-fitting armor covered Griffin from head to toe, in sunlight gold. It was made of pure adamantine, a self-replicating metal not found in the mines of any planet in the star system. The recesses of the armor were etched with equation lines glowing electric green. It was said Aegis could withstand the impact of a falling meteor. Adamantine was unbreakable, and it nullified most physical attacks.

Dagon made a gargantuan leap and scaled the distance between them in a couple of seconds. He landed with a crash a dozen yards from Griffin. Gravel and sand fired at the latter like shrapnel as the ground shattered and rippled.

The villain rose from his crouch and approached Griffin, his Gehenian armor cling-clanging as he walked.

"I can feel it," Dagon said. "Your mana is low, and your heart is about to burst. Give up resistance and hand me over the key!"

He was right about Griffin's heart about to give way. It was palpitating like a trapped animal. Operating multiple equations on Aegis at the same time was taking a biting toll on his body. He was a hundred and thirty years old, after all.

Griffin rushed to his feet and looked at the top right corner of his HUD (Heads-Up Display).

[ Level 200: Human ]

[ MP: 3511/100000 ]

[ HP: 10609/200000 ]

Things looked bad. But he had a plan, and for it to work, he needed to distract Dagon and bide time.

[ Loading Equations: 1/3 ]

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"The key? There is no key! Go back to your wretched planet!" The armored hero fired back.

Dagon buried his sword in the ground and regarded his seemingly weak opponent with reptilian eyes. He was seven feet tall and clad in black dragon-scale armor.

'He's looking down on me,' Griffin surmised. 'What a proud prick! How did it come to this?'

The two were sparring on the equator of Teleflat, the terminal planet of the Rusus-Afel star system.

The dry earth on which they stood was intermittently cracked and broken. It had seen seventeen long years of summer. However, the very previous day, a drizzle had arrived, enough to moisten the topsoil.

Teleflat had anomalous weather, unlike any other planet. A few months later, the weak monsoon showers would turn into torrential rains around the rock. It would pour incessantly for years, giving way to a deluge. The torrid oceans would rise, and the seas fill to the brim. The planet would become a sphere of blue. Then, light would break through the clouds one day, and a sun-kissed sky would greet the flooded land, bringing insolation for another seventeen years. Thus, the cycle would begin anew.

Dagon was livid. He was a Prince, and the mortal before him was not being cooperative. "The key to the God Formula, scholar! Your unholy machines. The powers they harness do not belong to a pathetic mortal like you!"

Once word got out that Griffin had invented Aegis, a technology that allowed ordinary humans to login to devices and access magical arts and mana, a realm that otherwise belonged to other races until then, the governments of all six habitable planets reached out to him to join them.

Aegis not only enabled magic but also boosted existing abilities exponentially, which would shift the interplanetary locus of power depending on who monopolized it.

The offers of lavish gifts, political power, and top government positions poured in. Griffin rejected them all, as he perceived their intentions as malicious. Every planet wanted to subjugate the others.

Then came the threats.

The ruling Covenant government of his planet of birth, Galatea, attempted to intimidate him into submission. Hounded by officials, the mafia, and terrorists alike, who wanted a taste of god-like power, the scholar fled from his home.

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Griffin went into exile in space with the help of his remaining supporters. After a year of travel, he reached Teleflat and prepared to start an artificial settlement.

Under the protracted cover of adverse weather at Teleflat, Griffin had planned to hide from bounty hunters and raiders. He would have lived in a floating settlement throughout the seventeen years of turbulent weather. Unfortunately, his pursuers had arrived before Teleflat's maelstroms could cloak him from detection.

A confidante of Griffin's had leaked his location to the villains under threat of a painful death. The old man had fought back most of them.

Only one remained.

"I have destroyed all my research, Dagon! Return to Gehenna in peace!"

Griffin was not entirely lying. He had indeed disposed of most of his chronicles and literature. All he intended to leave behind was some rudimentary knowledge. It was to ensure that humanity had a chance against the other races and worlds. However, Griffin was being untruthful about the key.

The old man was in possession of Aegis, the progenitor of all God Formula devices. Nevertheless, it was not something material to give away to Dagon, or anybody else, for that matter. Aegis was bound to his genes and his soul.

His nemesis, however, did not seem convinced. Prince Dagon had not traveled over three hundred million miles in space to be dismissed as a child.

"Do you take me for a fool, human? How do you make your armor and your attacks, then? My Zweihander should have cleaved you in two, were it not for that shiny shell you are hiding under! You, a miserable human who can learn none of the magical arts, are wielding power equal to the gods. How do you explain that?"

Griffin went silent. An explanation would reveal critical information. Dagon needed to know as little as possible for his grand plan to work.

A chilly breeze blew from the north. Clouds approached from the same direction, heralding an oncoming storm.

"You have no reply to that? Imbecile! You shame your miserable race! A weakling like you should perish early, like the rest of your kind!"

Dagon's words were bitter, but they made sense. Griffin had lived for a hundred and thirty years already. Most humans did not live past ninety.

Aegis kept Griffin protected from disease and slowed his aging. It had taken him decades to announce the results of his God Formula research to the star system.

"Even with your unholy gadgets, you are still pathetic—a worm wriggling in the mud. Show me the legendary attacks that I have heard so much about!"

If it were any other adversary, Griffin would have been fine. He had single-handedly fought with his frail body against the mightiest of warriors. The Aegis armor gave him near-immunity to physical damage.

Dagon, however, was a problem. He was a rakshasa—a race born and bred on Gehenna, the innermost planet of the star system.

Gehenna had the harshest environment among all the habitable planets, with temperatures exceeding a hundred degrees Celsius on average. On the other hand, the atmosphere had twice the oxygen levels required for humans to survive. The rakshasa race had developed over millennia of forced evolution, adapting to the hostile weather and habitat.

Dagon was the crown prince of Gehenna. He was a black rakshasa, a fully evolved pure-blood of their race, with powers, vitality, and long life made him and his kin appear like immortals.

Once fully evolved, black rakshasas lived for over a thousand years. Disease and aging were rendered ineffective as long as they had a supply of dark mana erupting from the mantle of Gehenna.

However, Dagon was a youngling, only three hundred twenty years old, equivalent to the teenage years among humans.

"Answer this question, scholar, and depending on what you say, I will decide whether to give you a slow or quick death!" Dagon posed.

"Knock yourself out, Prince!"

"What is it you wish to achieve with the God Formula?"

The two suns, Rusus and Afel, were both setting in opposite directions, and the sky was red, as if spewing blood. Griffin had the answer in very elaborate terms. But he doubted Dagon had the patience for a philosophical discussion.

"I seek peace between the worlds, Prince. That is all."

"Peace between the worlds, huh? What a ridiculous idea! How would a puny human like you understand interplanetary politics?"

"Is that all the offense you have, O mighty rakshasa? Racial slur?"

Dagon raised an arm as if chopping wood and brought it down with force. The air before him seemed to split vertically as a wall of energy shot out towards Griffin. The ground furrowed and rifted as the surge advanced.

Griffin went into a stance, crossing his lower arms in an X in front of him. Aegis would do the rest.

[ Adamantine Shield ] [ Activated! ]

The energy wall collided with Griffin and dissipated. His feet skidded back a few inches with the impact.

[ Attack Nullification ] [ 99.1% ]

Griffin lowered his smoking arms and eyed his adversary.

Dagon's standard attacks were not an issue. What the old man feared was the infernal sword he wielded.

The Zweihander. It had been responsible for the depletion of most of his mana and defense.

"How long will you keep this up, scholar?" Dagon thundered. "Your answer did not impress me. Regardless, I shall give you a quick and merciful death." He pulled the legendary sword out of the ground.

"Damn it!" Griffin cursed under his breath. Aegis was not likely to survive another hit from the Zweihander.

He checked his HUD.

[ MP: 3473/100000 ]

[ HP: 10201/200000 ]

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Griffin needed a little more time for the equations to finish loading. There was not enough mana left to generate an attack that would slow down a monster like Dagon.

Only one recourse was left.

Escape.

It was not practically possible to outrun Dagon. Griffin had to take another route.

[ Initiating Avian Mode… ]