Clear Skies Across the Land (Continued)

Erica instinctively reached for the sword that was beside her.

Without any hindrance, she easily gripped the weapon she carried, and several triggered spells were immediately activated. She dodged backward, choosing to remain on the defensive rather than attack.

However, the witch on the seat remained motionless.

"Looks like I guessed right. Ah... very good, very good. It seems there's still hope, it seems there's still a chance." A smile crept onto the witch's lips. Twisted, strange, yet seemingly genuine.

The sword was drawn—a flash of light exploded with a whooshing sound. However, Erica's all-out strike hit nothing more than an illusion.

The witch's form and the seat beneath her silently appeared on the surface of the floor tile where the knight had launched his attack. Their positions had reversed, but their stances remained unchanged.

"Young people are just impatient. I've kept this secret for fifty years, and you can't even wait five seconds."

Erica noticed that the witch's shadow was wriggling, like an insect, like a soft body, like it was about to extend thousands of tentacles.

"You..." The knight lowered his body again, his eyebrows raised, like a lioness about to pounce on her prey. "...What is that thing!"

The air became still, like thick glue.

"What am I? I should be human, at least until I recall the secret and speak it aloud. I should still be an ordinary human being." The witch chuckled and stood up.

She was so tall, perhaps three meters, perhaps five meters, perhaps ten meters. Her figure was indistinct.

A chill ran through Erica's body and mind in an instant, the warm smell of blood trickling into her nose, and her vision turned crimson from the blood seeping from her eyes. She gritted her teeth, struggling to suppress the sudden surge of fear and rage deep within her.

We must kill her! We need to get out of here quickly!

We have to kill her now! We must get as far away as possible immediately!

Something terrible will happen if we don't kill her! It'll be too late to escape now!

Two completely different thoughts collided and squeezed each other in her mind. Just before madness was about to take root in her heart, a precious pearl that she kept close to her body restored her clarity before she lost control.

She was breathing heavily. The witch seemed to be smiling with satisfaction.

"It's good that you can bear this secret." Luculazia Zola's voice seemed to hold a thousand layers.

"Fifty years ago, I saw Ichiro swallowed by the stars. Fifty years ago, I saw the fate and death of the world... The gods themselves are in danger, and the God Slayer are useless. Unless a variable beyond fate arrives, everything will come to an end the moment the secret is revealed—but even if I kept the secret for the world by using Prometheus's Deception, now is the end."

Her limbs multiplied, her asymmetrical skeleton and flesh proliferating relentlessly. Fine wounds appeared on her delicate face, from which countless eyes peeked out, completely obliterating her human form.

Then, a stone slab fell from her body, landed on the ground, and shattered into dust.

That was Prometheus's Secret Manual, capable of deceiving the gods and seizing power; it was practically a cheat code.

Now, it and its deception no longer exist.

The witch trembled and twisted, swaying like seaweed. Like dancing light and shadow. From within her, a thousand lips opened and closed, speaking volumes.

"Escape back if you can, knight. The place where you stand will be protected by the workshop—escape back and tell your master. Tell her that there are heroes and Lord of Fiends in this world. Tell her that the source of the heroes and the sealed Lord of Fiends died fifty years ago, before the world. Tell her that the world breathed its last this year."

Tell her, Xing—

Her last words caught in her throat. The next moment, her form suddenly expanded amidst the shimmering starlight. An endless Tide of Flesh erupted outwards from the witch's remains!

The witch is dead, and her death is accompanied by the arrival of destruction!

Destroy.

Miss Surtr unleashed a torrent of flames, releasing a destructive tide that emanated from her. The combined attack of the Seven Great Sages was repelled with a single blow, and in that brief lull in the fighting, she sensed a shift in the tide.

Change.

It's like peeling off a layer of plastic wrap covering a cold dish; the mountains are still mountains, the water is still water, the clouds are still clouds, and the sea is still the sea. It seems as if everything is exactly the same as it was a second ago, yet everything is completely different from what it was a second ago.

Something has changed. A barrier that was concealing or deceiving the world is being removed.

She looked up, raised her sword, and the sharpness of Laevateinn clashed with the weight of the Ruyi Jingu Bang in mid-air.

Neither victorious nor defeated. The reaction force pushed her back, avoiding the frost of the Flood Dragon and the wing strike of the roc. She did manage to cut the bull demon's twin swords in half with her Laevateinn, but she was forced to dodge again under the direct attack of the Banana Leaf Fan.

The storm was stirred up by the waving of the Banana Leaf Fan, and the seawater was blown away by the wind, revealing a seabed dozens of miles wide.

—A Unwilling God should not be so powerful. One is one thing, but how can there be seven in a row?

—I remember that in the original work, Sun Wukong possessed the power he obtained from the Last King, Rama. It was a powerful technique called the Great Covenant Method. It was said that using it would increase a god's power dozens or even hundreds of times. However, according to the established rules, unless Sun Wukong became the new the Last King, he simply couldn't fully utilize the Great Covenant Method.

—Could it be...?

With a thought in mind, the girl steadied herself in mid-air. She precisely blocked the Ruyi Jingu Bang that was hurtling down on her.

Amidst the clash of weapons, the girl shouted a question.

"Is Rama already dead!?"

"Ah, you know. That idiot is long dead. And thanks to him, I was able to break free of my bonds."

As they exchanged words, Surtr seemed to sense something. The golden Macaque King leaped from her shadow, his club swung down but stopped beneath the massive shield of fire she had erected. She plummeted towards the seabed, where a volcano, erupting suddenly at her will, spewed forth a massive wave of flames to protect her. The Lion Camel King, who had unleashed his Hōten Shōchi, was slightly delayed by the erupting volcano, while even more fire surged forth from the depths of the Ley Line!

However, the next moment, the Flood Dragon's frost froze the volcano and the flames in the Ley Line!

Taking on seven opponents alone is indeed quite challenging. But only somewhat challenging.

The glacier shattered instantly, Great Sage Who Drives Gods's powerful punch sent shards of ice flying everywhere like a torrential rain. She hid in the shadows of the ice crystals, closing in, and delivered an uppercut that sent the King Yu Rong staggering backward. Taking a deep breath, she knew the intense battle was forcing her to reach a higher level.

The peak of the human immortal realm, flesh and blood derived... still a little short.

The girl slightly evaded, avoiding another direct strike from the Ruyi Jingu Bang. The sword and cudgel clashed repeatedly in mid-air, triggering a series of small-scale energy explosions.

Fighting.

Sparks flew from the Ruyi Jingu Bang, and some patterns and runes were sliced away by Laevateinn's sharp blade. An opening was immediately revealed, and a knee strike followed. The Handsome Monkey King's sent flying, his form tearing through the waves.

The girl's pursuit was accompanied by a second round of questioning.

"The Last King died in the seal? That happened fifty years ago?"

The sword pressed down, but the Ruyi Jingu Bang transformed into a sturdy shield to block. Even the cracks in the staff were of no use, for the Ruyi Jingu Bang instantly returned to its original form.

"Ha, if you want to know, then defeat me, defeat my Seven Brothers. If you can't, then die under my cudgel. That would be my great mercy!"

The Handsome Monkey King roared, but he was still forced into the water—and then millions of tons of seawater were frozen by the Flood Dragon's breath. The King Yu Rong rode the waves and smashed the iceberg into powder with a single punch.

The stone monkey escaped its predicament, protected by the Ruyi Jingu Bang. But the instant it broke free, the Bull Demon King and the Lion Camel King arrived together. Their fists sealed the heavens and earth, their legs locked time and space.

Then, the fire of Laevateinn tore open a rift.