Great Melee

The fight had unfolded in an incredibly short span of time, swift as a hare taking flight and a falcon diving.

Shamu had just driven back the Withered Star God when a mass of crimson flame energy flew at him from behind.

He narrowly dodged it. The closer Yōshiki's star drew, the more energy it fired from its surface.

Yōshiki had completely abandoned Shimei and was relentlessly launching dense attacks at Shamu.

As long as Shamu was prepared, attacks like Yōshiki's could not hit him at all.

Yet Yōshiki continued to draw closer.

The Withered Star God's skin began to shift.

Shamu glanced over from the corner of his eye. It looked somewhat like white cartilage.

Its body was covered in joint-like patterns, giving off a dull, nauseating impression.

The Withered Star God's voice echoed in overlapping layers:

"You've improved so quickly. Not only has your energy increased by so much, even your Reflexes have improved this much."

"But you probably won't be able to leave this place."

As the Withered Star God finished speaking, a vast number of bones erupted from its body and shot toward Shamu.

Shamu swung his longsword, blocking them again and again. Even those he could not block were stopped by the War God Armor on his body.

The Withered Star God's back bulged. He reached behind himself and pulled, wrenching out his own spine.

He even tore out his pelvic joints along with it.

Kimimaro usually created fresh bones in his hands and shaped them into spiraling spikes, which was at least visually acceptable.

But the sight of the Withered Star God pulling out his own bones was rather grotesque.

After he pulled out the bones, they began transforming in midair. The spine itself remained largely unchanged.

However, the pelvic joints turned into curved, hook-like scythe blades.

A scythe made entirely of bone appeared.

Those who used bizarre weapons were either showboats or exceptionally skilled.

And the Withered Star God, who had lived for who knew how many tens of thousands of years, clearly belonged to the latter category.

With a sweep of his arm, the Withered Star God sent the bone scythe in his hand spinning rapidly around him like a windmill, displaying both its flexibility and lethality.

Clearly, the Withered Star God was finally getting serious.

The instant he entered a combat stance, a wild aura erupted from within him.

His icy, murderous gaze made the Withered Star God look like a Death God.

Facing such a powerful enemy, Shamu showed no fear. He swung his longsword and tangled with the Withered Star God in battle.

For a time, blade light and scythe shadows crisscrossed. The two exchanged blows without yielding an inch, and the battle was exceptionally fierce.

And the Withered Star God was not Shamu's only enemy. There was also Yōshiki and the Hikari he controlled.

While fighting the Withered Star God, Shamu also had to guard against the crimson flame attacks fired from the star.

And Hikari's harassment.

As a Star God of the energy-shaping type, Shamu surpassed the Withered Star God by several levels when it came to energy arrangement.

As a result, Shamu's defense was unbelievably high. Whenever he was attacked, his own losses were minimal.

Many times, he deliberately chose to be struck by Yōshiki's attacks at the same time as the Withered Star God.

Each time, the Withered Star God's body would be charred black, only for bones to regenerate across it once more.

But when such attacks struck Shamu, his War God Armor blocked them completely.

That created a disparity in attrition.

But Shamu's danger did not lie there. Kūmu was not far from them.

Kūmu's twin pupils continuously radiated ocular power. The reason he had not joined the battlefield was that he was using a spacetime divine art to stabilize space.

Once space was stabilized, all kinds of divine arts that manipulated space would become extremely troublesome for Shamu.

However, the Space Disruption Shamu had exchanged all his ocular power for could not be cleared in a short time.

It would take at least half a year.

Ordinary people might find that to be a long time, but for Star Gods who fought wars of attrition lasting thousands or tens of thousands of years, it was extremely brief.

By now, Shamu's combat strength was also rising rapidly as he continuously adapted to the new rules.

The so-called energy-shaping rules were the shaping and construction of energy forms.

In the past, the Ama-no-Murakumo Style condensed around his blade could attack no more than three times, because spatial energy was too powerful for the weapon to bear.

Now, the Susanoo shell created as an energy-shaping Star God was incomparably tough.

The weapon was the same. The Ama-no-Murakumo Style had changed from a skill into an added attribute.

Every slash Shamu made carried the properties of tearing apart space and devouring it.

It forced the Withered Star God back.

The Withered Star God's bone scythe was made from his own bones. As a Star God geared more toward combat, his bones could withstand spatial tearing.

But being able to withstand it did not mean they could keep withstanding it forever.

If the Withered Star God did not expend a large amount of energy repairing his weapon, after five clashes at most, his bone scythe would break here.

Making a new one would cost even more.

Just as Shamu, while enduring Yōshiki's attacks and Hikari's harassment, was beating the Withered Star God back step by step—

Things changed. Just as Shamu slashed at the Withered Star God once more, a figure suddenly crashed into his blade.

It was Shimei!

Intent Reflection!

The moment he realized it was Shimei, Shamu's body jolted violently, and a huge wound appeared across his chest.

It was as if Shamu had slashed himself.

He abruptly retreated, widening the distance between himself and Shimei.

But the Withered Star God reacted quickly. Instead, he pinned Shamu down and launched a frenzied assault.

From time to time, Shimei inserted himself into Shamu's attack paths. And while Shimei's omnipotence could not alter Shamu's consciousness,

it could always draw Shamu's attention toward him.

That caused Shamu to injure himself every time.

And so, aside from the Kūmu Star God—

Shamu, Withered Star God, Shimei, Hikari, and Yōshiki began a massive melee.

Although Shamu was everyone's target, none of the others were allies.

Their attacks directly swept the others into them as well.

Shimei was the most irritating among them. Both Shamu and the Withered Star God did their best to treat him as background scenery.

But Shimei kept using mental manipulation. It was impossible not to notice him.

And so Intent Reflection succeeded.

Yōshiki, meanwhile, was barely affected. He was like a magma turret.

He merely had to keep firing crimson energy waves in their direction.

Because the star had drawn close, there was no longer any distinction between day and night.

The several Star Gods continued to grapple with one another, beginning a prolonged war of attrition.

As the star gradually approached, Shinobi Star not only lost all life, but even all organic matter.

Everything had burned into charcoal.

In truth, the temperature on Shinobi Star was not yet that high. But the powerful tidal forces caused by the approaching star

made Shinobi Star's surface disintegrate in midair every moment.

The ground continually split apart, breaking into pieces and being torn away.

Shinobi Star was like an onion, its layers beginning to peel away one after another.

Although Yōshiki's might was terrifying, Shamu could clearly sense that something was wrong.

Shamu had, after all, received a higher education. If stars were this worthless, they would have been conquered back in his era.

Something was missing from the outer edge of this star, so as he fought the others, he waited for the sun to draw ever closer.