CHAPTER 267: CHAPTER 267: A GOD? (PART 1)

The claws twist. His body convulses, then goes limp.

"Marshal!" voices scream from the wall. A dozen soldiers break formation, rushing forward—only to be torn down as the commander wrenches Renlor’s corpse free and hurls it into the mud.

The body hits the ground with a hollow thud. His halberd lands beside him, its runes guttering out like dying stars.

Silence follows for a heartbeat. Then despair ripples through the defenders like poison.

The commander lifts its head to the storming sky and roars, a sound that drowns even the thunder.

"One of your pillars has fallen! Humans crumbles!"

Soldiers flinch, their grips faltering, their formation wavering.

On the wall, a captain grips his blade until his knuckles turn white. His voice cracks as he shouts above the panic.

"Hold the line! Don’t let his death be in vain! Fight, damn you—fight!"

The cries of the captain cut through the chaos, but no matter what he shouts, the hearts of Watervale’s warriors are already breaking.

Men glance toward Renlor’s fallen form and feel their courage bleed away. Shields lower, spears tremble, formations crack. The monsters sense it—hunger igniting in their burning eyes.

And then, as if on cue, the commander who felled Renlor throws back its head and bellows, a guttural roar that shakes the walls. Other monster-commanders answer in unison, their cries stitching together into one dreadful chorus.

The effect is immediate.

Monsters surge like a black tide. Two tier 5 commanders break off, their immense frames barreling across the battlefield to reinforce their kin. Where once the clash was balanced—desperate, but even—now the weight tilts. The monsters strike harder, faster, tearing into wavering lines. Human screams rise in place of war cries.

The walls of Watervale, so long unbroken, shudder beneath the pounding assault.

Above, Kore staggers back, her cloak of borrowed light fraying under the relentless storm of Mhazul’s fury. Cuts mar her arms, blood streaks down her cheek, her breathing ragged. Her spear hand shakes as she steadies herself on a half-shattered platform of ice.

Mhazul doesn’t press. He watches her with a predator’s patience, flames wreathing his massive frame. His voice rolls out heavy as thunder, cruelly calm.

"It looks like this is the end."

Kore forces herself upright, planting her spear to keep from falling. Her hair clings to her face, soaked with sweat and rain. Her chest heaves, but her eyes—though dimmed—do not yield.

She spits blood into the storm, then meets his gaze. "Not... while I still stand."

Mhazul’s smile spreads, slow and merciless. "Stand, then. Break every bone if you must. Struggle until your breath fails." He hefts his twin axes, the chains rattling like funeral bells. "It changes nothing. Watervale falls today."

Kore steadies herself, the weight of his words pressing against her ribs like chains. Her body is trembling, but not from fear—her resolve holds. She tightens her grip on her spear, then suddenly asks, her voice raw but clear through the storm:

"What’s your name?"

Mhazul tilts his head, faintly amused. "Mhazul. General of the Erevaris Kingdom."

Her lips curve in a tired, blood-stained smile. "Do you... believe in gods, Mhazul?"

For the first time, he falters. His brow furrows, though his stance never loosens. "No. If my king becomes a god, then I will believe in him. Nothing else." He narrows his eyes. "Are you done with these questions? You did well with just a borrowed power, but this is where it ends."

Kore breathes heavily, her fingers slipping on her blood-slick spear shaft. "I... did well? No." She shakes her head, forcing her gaze to bore into his. "You held back. The whole fight—you never once used your full strength."

Mhazul does not deny it. His silence is heavier than admission.

Kore exhales shakily. Then, closing her eyes, she kneels on the drifting shard of ice. Her voice softens into a murmur, words rolling like ripples over water.

"O great Lyseris... Eternal Tide, Keeper of the Deep,

I have walked your banks and called your name.

I have fought with strength not my own,

but let me now fight with all of me.

Take my breath, my blood, my body.

Let the rivers of my life spill into your sea.

In return... lend me your tide,

so that Watervale may not drown this day."

The mark etched along her collarbone flares to life, spreading like glowing veins across her body. Azure light seeps from her skin, weaving into streams that circle her form. The air grows heavy with the scent of rain and salt.

Her aura surges, climbing, straining, then breaking past its borrowed shell. Her hair rises, drenched in pale light; her spear becomes a shard of ocean itself, dripping with currents that hiss and twist in the storm.

Kore suddenly screams, a sound so raw it pierces through the storm and battlefield alike. Her body convulses violently as if it’s tearing itself apart. Blue veins of light crawl across her skin, bursting from her collarbone mark. Blood streams from her mouth, nose, and ears, yet the glow only grows brighter.

Her eyes roll back—then turn completely white.

The air around her warps, trembling under the weight of her power. Her aura surges upward, growing wilder, heavier, almost touching the threshold of a quasi–Tier 7. The atmosphere bends with it; waves of mana crash outward like tidal surges, shaking the heavens themselves.

The soldiers on the wall stagger, some collapsing to their knees under the crushing weight. Even the monsters below pause mid-swing, their snarls turning uneasy.

And Mhazul?

He smiles.

His crimson eyes burn hotter, and his chains rattle as his chest heaves with exhilaration. He doesn’t retreat, doesn’t flinch—his blood is boiling, every fiber of him screaming for battle.

"This... this is it," he growls, his grin splitting wider. "Since the day this invasion began, I haven’t had a single fight worth remembering. But you... ha! You make my blood sing!"

Kore’s body jerks, no longer moving with will but with instinct alone. She lunges.

Her spear whistles through the storm, a tidal wave condensed into a single strike. Mhazul brings his twin axes up, chains coiling as he crosses them to block.

The clash is apocalyptic.

A deafening boom shatters the air. The impact throws Mhazul like a meteor across the battlefield. He crashes through the mountainside in the distance, the stone exploding apart in a thunderous landslide.

For a moment, silence. Then from the cloud of dust and falling rock—laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

Mhazul’s roar of joy echoes like a war drum, shaking both heaven and earth. He steps from the ruin, battered but unbroken, fire blazing from his form.

"This is it! This is what I’ve been waiting for!"

He spreads his arms wide, and the ground cracks beneath him. His aura flares outward, no longer restrained.

Six Tier 6 buffs ignite across his body in a blinding blaze. Chains blaze with infernal heat, his axes glow like molten suns, and the very sky darkens under the pressure. His killing intent surges, drowning the battlefield like an ocean of flame and steel.

The weight of his aura slams down over everything.

On the walls, soldiers collapse to the ground, clutching their chests, their lungs crushed by the sheer force. Monsters and humans alike freeze mid-motion, their bodies trembling against the suffocating oppression. Even the commanders among the enemy horde snarl and falter, their bloodlust swallowed by the sheer dominance of Mhazul’s presence.

He looks across the distance at Kore, his grin sharp and feral.

"Come then, human. Whatever you’ve become—show me!!"

Kore does not answer with words.

Her head tilts back and she lets out a sound no longer human—a primal scream, like a beast tearing its throat apart. Her spear shudders in her hands as if alive, the ocean itself roaring through the weapon.

She launches forward.

The storm splits in her wake, clouds shearing apart as though the sky itself is being stabbed. Her spear thrusts, glowing with tidal light, the pressure of the strike enough to tear the air into ribbons.

Mhazul meets her charge, his grin savage. His twin axes blaze like suns, their chains coiling around his arms like serpents. He swings.

The collision is cataclysm.

The moment their weapons meet, the air detonates. Shockwaves rip across the battlefield, tearing trees from the earth, flattening fortifications, and splitting the land into jagged ravines. The walls of Watervale groan under the pressure, whole sections of stone cracking and collapsing as the sheer force ripples outward. Soldiers are thrown like leaves in a hurricane; monsters are shredded where they stand, their bodies bursting apart from the backlash.

And still, neither Kore nor Mhazul yield.

Mhazul bellows, his crimson aura igniting into flame.

"Tier 6—Infernal Cataclysm!"

His axes blaze, vomiting waves of molten fire that spiral outward. The ground liquefies into rivers of lava as his skill manifests, the battlefield itself burning into a volcanic wasteland.

Kore roars back, thrusting her spear into the heart of the inferno.

"Tier 6—Ocean’s Judgment!"

Her weapon explodes with a torrent of endless water, an entire sea crashing down in a single breath. Walls of tide and storm burst forth, swallowing flame, tearing apart earth and sky alike.

Fire and water collide.

The two forces consume each other in a storm of chaos, steam screaming skyward as molten rivers meet unending tide. The heavens roar, the earth quakes, and Watervale itself trembles as if the world cannot contain their fury.

Through the boiling mist, their silhouettes clash again. Kore thrusts, her body jerking with unnatural force, her spear carving whirlpools into the air. Mhazul’s chains snap forward, axes spinning like meteors, cutting through ocean and storm alike.

Each strike bends the battlefield closer to annihilation.