“Astral Shattering!”

The moment the Grand Iudex shouted these two words, Master Parntheos felt an intense dread of death like he had not felt since no knows when.

‘Does he truly intend to kill me? Do they really want to go to war with Profound Architect Sanctuary!’ The old man incredulously thought, for that one threat was one of the biggest crutches he had when coming here.

He very well knew of his reputation as a madman and he had come here with the full mind to try and cleverly exploit that.

After all, whatever he did here could simply be written off as one of his usual eccentricities, letting him act with far less restraint than the other two, who had to far more seriously think about the big picture.

It was an angle that Master Parntheos had decided to target to try and make up for his deficiency in artifacts.

But unfortunately, even before he could show off his might, he had been given a thorough thrashing like he had rarely received.

Then, somewhere along the fight, it became more about his own pride than avenging his grandson.

And now that he had pushed his eccentricities too far by trying to use the power of natural laws, thinking the other side would not dare to match him fearing escalation, a far deadlier counterattack had been launched against him, proving his hedge to be wrong.

And it was a fierce attack that threatened to off him before he could access his full power, becoming a true threat.

In trying to accomplish that, as soon as the Grand Iudex cast his incantation, several light blue dimensional tears opened up right around Master Parntheos, which then soon engulfed him in a sphere of around 5 meters dia.

And then…. Master Parntheos was instantly assaulted by an intense mana storm from all sides the likes of which he did not think even some Level 8s might be able to produce.

The spell that the Grand Iudex had used was really a Level 8 spell that he had cast by over-channeling his mana and severely damaging his third eye, as well as taking aid of that sword scabbard he had revealed, which was his own personal Level 7 artifact.

And the spell was a purely offensive spell, one that tore a small part of space, such as the one around the enemy, and then simply set the very fabric of space and time there on fire, destroying it and anyone inside it into oblivion, transforming them into pure light and heat energy.

And the best thing about this spell was that all of this energy was extremely concentrated, so not only was there very little collateral and waste, but also all of the spell’s energy was focused and directed towards the target, making surviving this attack a horrendous challenge.

A challenge that Master Parntheos was being made to face right now, as he felt the very laws of the universe being decimated there, the result of which was the formation of tremendous amounts of swirling, chaotic primal mana, one whose mere touch would be enough to literally destroy many nations in the lower planes.

The condition inside that ball was unimaginable to anyone who had not experienced it firsthand, as just calling it hell would be doing it a disservice.

The primal mana produced so much light and heat that it seemed to wish to bake Master Parntheos to death, as the very space around him collapsed into itself, squeezing itself into nothing and trying to take him with it.

And that was if he could withstand not being torn to shred by the mind boggling strength of the rapid mana currents being generated, as they struck, wanting to rip his flesh from his bones and flay his skin from the body, turning him into an unrecognizable bloody spat, to be devoured by the whirlpool and then be evaporated into nothing.

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“What is this!” Facing this intense attack, Master Parntheos roared with all his might, as his recently healed eyes bulged, and his staff shone blue, for he unleashed the full might of all the gems he had.

Master Parntheos had already used up his only Verdant Vicissitudes of the Vestal use, so using the green emerald he cast the far inferior False Life, which gave him a certain level of vitality for some time, but at the cost that if this additional false vitality was not fully used up by the time its casting time was up, the same amount of additional vitality would be extracted from the caster, thus many times even killing him.

But fortunately for Master Parntheos, that was not a problem for him under the current circumstances.

Then following this, using the yellow topaz, Master Parntheos cast “Armor of the Artificer” which was a manifestation of one of the laws he had grasped, letting him produce a sturdy golden armor covering his entire body to try and withstand the fierce tsunami of raw mana assaulting him.

And though this armor at any other time would have appeared like a bulwark of the gods, appearing to be capable of shouldering the entire world on its back, right now, it seemed to be as flimsy as paper, visibly swaying and buckling under the unimaginable conditions along as many parts cracked and buckled.

So to try and maintain it, Master Parntheos used his blue sapphire to summon Surge Spelling, which temporarily hyper energized his sea of consciousness, and dilated his mana channels, letting him send mana magnitudes more in volume than normally possible, all for a price to be paid later of course.

With these three spells, Master Parntheos was finally able to stave off his imminent obliteration, albeit only temporarily, for the mana storm showed no signs of abetting while his mana reserves, vast and fathomless as they were, were also being drained at an unimaginable rate.

Master Parntheos was certainly going to break before the opposing spell did as was his favorite artifact.

For as versatile and great the Three Rabbit in a Hat was, it was not indestructible.

Rhegnight’s spell had already damaged it prior and now, after casting those three consecutive spells, it was being pushed to its breaking point.

There were already many cracks and fissures that had started to show along its sturdy bronze body and if Master Parntheos were to push it just one more time without giving it time to rest, it was certainly going to shatter.

But as much as Master Parntheos would have loved to save his beloved artifact, he could not, not if he wished to save his own life.

For he knew that he could not survive this disastrous mana storm by simply passively resisting, but instead had to attack.

Thus raising his staff one last time, Master Parntheos utilized the last gem he had, the ruby, unleashing the spell - “Flameburst Lava Strike!”

And instantly, the priceless artifact shattered into a thousand pieces and then was instantly ground to dust by the raging typhoon, but not before giving birth to a scorching, incandescent blog of magma with temperatures rivaling that of a core of a star.

This fiery and perfervid mass then naturally wanted to expand and ‘burst’ as was in its name.

But how could the furious storm around allow that, for it pressed down on the intense inferno like a giant clamp, wishing to strangle it to death.

Thus for a while, the situation inside the spell turned to represent the inwards of a star, with one force wishing to expand out but being forced down and compressed by the other.

In this way, Master Parntheos had once again managed to fight fire with fire.

But unlike the previous event, this time he was unable to cancel the two forces, for the intense stalemate between the two only lasted a while, and as valiant as an effort that ‘Bursting Magma’ made, it was ultimately no match for the calamitous tempest of mana around it, its fate being to be eventually swallowed up by the ravenous collapse of the space.

And with that deterrent gone, Master Parntheos was made to once again face the full brunt of the malevolent mana squall, and it having destroyed one spell, swooped down on the next, the ‘impregnable’ armor with all its might.

The golden shield, as strong as it was, was unable to withstand the attack for long and finally tore itself apart like crumpling paper.

And with his greatest attack neutralized and his greatest armor torn, Master Parntheos’s false vitality was eaten away with a casual strike of the mana whirlpools, and then the man was made to face the music all on his own, with his bare body.

“Aghhhhhagghhhh!” The old man’s screams were agonizing like no other.