CHAPTER 259: GOLD MAN!?

Mirabella felt her instinct scream at her to dodge the attack. The power of this attack made her nerves wrack.

Just as she could feel the terrifying power of the attack prickling her hair—

Her body emitted a bright golden light, and the attack landed without mercy.

Bang!

The entire place was engulfed in a storm of dust.

"Hmm?" Zarek looked at this with a calm expression on his face. His pupils flickered ever so slightly as he murmured, "I didn’t expect you to survive."

He chuckled. Even in the darkness of the cave, he was shining in a golden light. His pupils caught the sight of a shattered glass, and he could look at his features—and Zarek was stunned on the spot.

His skin seemed to be made of gold, his golden hair even more gold. Not only that, even his eye socket was made of gold.

In one word, he could be called: Gold Man.

Zarek truly felt like this as he looked at his own reflection in the shattered glass.

While he was observing himself curiously, a gust of wind blew and swept away the dust, revealing the figure of a broken Mirabella.

Her head was disfigured and countless bloody gnashes on her body; her clothes were almost completely torn apart.

She was once a beauty, even though her personality was ugly. But now, fitting her personality was her ugly appearance, as she looked like a monster, an ugly monster in every right.

Looking at her state, Zarek muttered, "You look beautiful," and gave her a thumbs up.

"You..." Mirabella made an ugly expression. On her disfigured head, it looked even more ugly, so ugly that even words couldn’t begin to describe her ugliness.

To this, Zarek simply chuckled with a casual shrug. He didn’t make a move; he felt like there was infinite energy coursing through his veins. A feeling of invincibility rose in his heart.

Although he couldn’t wait to test it out, he was very careful of this woman, Melissa. You can’t underestimate her even if you wanted to underestimate her, her calculated mind was simply unpredictable, and she might have an ace holed up her sleeve.

Just then, he felt something that caused him to squint his eyes.

"Hmm?"

The ground started to shake, almost like an earthquake. An overwhelming flow of divine energy surged through the place.

In his wide eyes, Zarek looked as cracks appeared all over Mirabella’s skin, just like his own before.

"You have successfully enraged me. Congratulations." Mirabella’s voice was extremely cold as she stared right at him while her body self-destructed right there and then.

The destruction seemed to be very small, while her skin was rapidly shedding away like a snake’s skin.

"I won’t allow you," Zarek replied with a chuckle while pushing with his palms casually.

Even though it was casual, a burst of air tore through the air, attacking Mirabella, who shone with an even brighter golden light.

Mirabella’s eyes widened in despair as she witnessed the incoming strike, the sheer force behind Zarek’s casual palm was nothing short of terrifying.

At the very last second, Zarek caught sight of her swiftly uncorking an opaque flask, its contents hidden from view.

...Then, impact.

Her body shattered instantly beneath the overwhelming force of his blow.

Dust and debris clouded the air, masking everything from view. Zarek narrowed his eyes, scanning the aftermath.

"Is she dead?" he murmured, his tone tinged with curiosity.

He couldn’t sense her presence anymore. It left him... uncertain.

Had Mirabella really died just like that?

Honestly, if that was all it took, it would be incredibly disappointing.

He wanted to test his strength.

The divine energy surging through him was nothing short of overwhelming: chaotic, relentless, and so dense it threatened to tear his body apart even now.

But even as his flesh strained and cracked, he was adapting. Evolving.

Fortunately, one of his skills thrived on this very energy, the more divine energy he had, the greater his raw power became.

Zarek was eager to see just how far it could go.

Even a casual flick of his hand now caused devastating shockwaves. What if he actually got serious?

As the dust began to settle, his excited grin slowly faded. The battlefield was empty. Nothing but rubble.

He exhaled through his nose, disappointed.

"...Tch." He shook his head and turned away, already losing interest as he prepared to leave.

Just then, a loud rumble echoed, making Zarek instantly turn back. "Hmm, what is it?"

It seemed that it was still empty, but Zarek could distinctively sense something, something that he was familiar with...

"Divine Energy?" he murmured.

Then Zarek squinted his eyes. It was very faint, but as a man who was brimming with it, he could distinctively sense it.

His pupils trailed the divine energy and landed on the ground. "It’s there?" he quipped with puzzlement.

The ground ruptured with jagged fissures, and the cave crumbled. Zarek was engulfed in an instant.

"Heh." Zarek sneered, unshaken.

He drew his fist back, charging it with brutal momentum and without hesitation, drove it upward with savage force.

Stone, soil — everything in the path of his fist was obliterated.

The sheer force of the blow carved a tunnel straight through the earth, piercing the surface in an instant. But it didn’t stop there, the impact roared upward, tearing through the divine temple’s ceilings, parting the clouds above, and finally slamming into a strange barrier that led to outer space.

Zarek tilted his head, eyes glinting with amusement.

"Well now... this is interesting."

That had been nothing more than a light punch. A casual punch.

But it had caused this much devastation.

He stared into the hole above, the corners of his lips twitching with curiosity.

If this is what I can do without trying...

Then just how much power could I unleash if I went all out?

Just thinking about it made him exhilarated as he pushed himself off the ground and shot through the air, in an instant reaching the surface in just a mere blink of an eye.

Then Zarek looked around him:

"Hmm, I sensed that the divine energy seemed to have gone, so where is it?"

He could hear the desperate panic outside—there were thousands of followers, and naturally, they were worried about the sound inside.

Luckily, or unluckily, there was no one around him.

"Mirabella, Mirabella, where are you?"

Zarek smirked as he started to follow that faint trail of divine energy he had felt before.

Just then, he froze in place, not because of any external force, but something had shifted within his mental space.

"What’s happening?" he frowned as his vision warped and he appeared inside his consciousness.

The moment his vision changed, he was stunned. On one side lay a chained woman, and on the other, a familiar face he recognized...

"Alice?"

"Yeah, bastard," Alice spat with a scowl. Her form was completely transformed, she now looked like a spirit forged entirely of gold.

A flicker of doubt immediately crept into Zarek’s heart.

He was certain he had fully devoured the Divine Energy, so how could Alice still exist within his consciousness?

Wasn’t she made of nothing but divine energy?

"Hey! Don’t ignore me," Alice snapped, throwing a small tantrum as she floated closer to him. "I became like this because of you. You devoured the divine energy and by doing that, you assimilated with me as well."

Zarek’s eyes narrowed in curiosity, fixed on her ethereal form. "But... I didn’t sense you when I absorbed the divine energy. How’s that possible?"

Alice’s expression darkened. "You did devour the divine energy. I am the divine energy. And honestly? I’d love nothing more than to kill you for it. But it looks like my mother might get the chance before I do."

"Really?" Zarek murmured, a faint edge of amusement in his voice.

Chains shot from the void, trying to trap her, but Alice was able to effortlessly phase through it all.

Grey, hidden in the darkness of his consciousness, was about to make a move again, but he stopped when he heard the words of Alice.

"Stop, you fool. If you kill me, then every Divine Energy you devoured will be gone with me as well."

Zarek narrowed his eyes, a little unwilling in his heart. He wanted nothing more than to absolutely erase her from existence, but now she was basically immortalized here in his Divine Space.

There was absolutely no way that he would allow her to do so, but for now, he didn’t have a solution for it.

Because he could sense it too. Maybe it was because she was the extension of the Divine Energy or something else. If he managed to kill her here, then the divine energy inside his body would disappear.

"I will deal with you after I take care of Mirabella."

Zarek’s voice chilled Alice as he returned back to the real world.

Left alone, Alice was a little confused about what to do. The events of her being killed by Zarek were absolutely unexpected, and she could do very little about it, which only frustrated her endlessly.

"I... I am not willing to die..."

Although she was a person born from Divine Energy, how could she be willing to die?

Her mind was rapidly contemplating a solution, but...