Enlightenment · Nine

"Let's use the simplest and most authoritative method in the world to decide in whose hands I and the Dark Souls I guard should fall!"

30/75

(Unfortunately, I couldn't find a nice picture of a silly goose in a wedding dress...)

Chapter 220 Enlightenment, Part 9

"You cannot defeat me."

Miss Surtr raised a finger, blocking the holy white spear that was thrusting rapidly toward her face as its form shifted. The tip of her finger was instantly obscured by a rift in time and space, and from her fingertip to her hand bones, she experienced the vicissitudes of time in an instant.

Time was accelerated locally, many times over. For a moving object, time discontinuities in different regions meant incomparably sharp blades. The ultimate result was that the living structure was instantly reduced to fragmented dust.

An interesting trick, but it's useless.

The torn flesh was restored in an instant, and the lost mass was made up in a flash. What followed was a change in size and shape and a violent expansion.

Flesh and blood transformed into lava.

The entire temple liquefied in an instant, and the unfolding Muspelheim brought the Land of Fire to the edge of this world.

Even the sharpest gun, no matter how indestructible, is useless against a mountain that keeps growing.

So, how should one hunt in the mountains?

Surtr's face emerged from the spreading lava, and from those manifested lips, he exhaled a breath of fire—the first thing to do when dealing with food is to blow away the heat. And if the heat wave is the breath itself, then the area it targets will melt in an instant!

Melting, the entire ring of destruction crumbled in the scorching wind. Skyscrapers turned to lava, Filianore, fled like a meteor. Countless arms of flame extended from the lava, capturing the last glimmer of light on the edge of this world where nothing could shield them anymore.

You cannot escape me.

The air was thick with the smell of Sulfur, and the power of the Word Spirit was disrupting the already unstable physical laws of this world's edge. The melting city transformed into a boiling, scorching sea, and the sea's boundaries stretched in every direction, both underground and in the sky.

The Oolacile Township, the Oolacile Township, is located at the edge of the world.

So, what are the boundaries of the world?

Is it a very far-off city? Is it a very remote land? No, it's not that simple. The boundary of the world is the end of time and space, and the Oolacile Township is forever situated at the point in time when the end is about to arrive.

At the edge of time, all things are desolate, and all material structures can only appear in the form of fine yellow sand.

Now, all the yellow sand has turned into boiling fire centered on Oolacile Township and is spreading outwards.

The flames surged forward, relentlessly pursuing her, scorching the earth and ravaging the sky. No matter which direction the holy white meteor fled, it followed relentlessly. And even if the edges of this world had no physical boundaries, this game of chase would eventually come to an end.

"You can try to resist."

The meteor stopped, and lightning, gathered by the summoning of Dark Souls, crashed down on the ground like a torrential rain—it wasn't a thunderstorm as ordinary people could imagine, but rather more like a natural Catastrophe symbolizing the end of all things. In the continuous, exploding lightning, hundreds or even thousands of hectares of land, mountains, and even lava were torn into shreds.

However, in the next moment, even more flames and lava formed in the sky. The Twilight -colored fire even spread along the trajectory of the lightning pillars towards the Thunderclouds in the heavens!

"But that would be in vain."

For every kilometer of lava torn apart by the lightning, ten kilometers of ground were engulfed in flames. And seconds after the endless lightning struck, large swathes of lava on the ground struck by the lightning transformed into crystalline surfaces.

Nebula M78 756365104

Light is being reflected. Being captured. The impenetrable shield built from distorted spacetime that surrounds the holy white meteor is being torn into pieces in the shimmering light reflected by the crystals.

Nebula M78 756365104

Photons can attract gravitons, and thus light can be manipulated.

If the manipulation of light is disrupted, then the art of controlling time with light will also be diminished.

"You could call it unreasonable."

Words transformed into tangible vibrations. Microscopic particles, radiation, and the wave aspect of wave-particle duality were given special emphasis, while the Traveler's application of vibrations, learned from the God Slayer worldview, became an absolute interference with light magic at this moment—the meteor's protection shattered, and from billions of tons of lava on the Earth's surface, the face of the Flame-haired Girl suddenly emerged!

Surtr, her lips slightly parted.

The open mouth revealed a vast, bottomless rift valley and a fiery red abyss.

She tilted her head back, her head at that moment resembling a towering mountain. And the Holy White Meteor, powerless to escape, was swallowed whole by her into this body, which was as large as the earth itself.

"But that is the boundary between the mundane and the extraordinary."

As the mouth closed, the cracked mountain also closed up.

Countless rays of light seeped from the depths of the earth, each ray instantly sealed and locked away by the crystals that formed upon its emergence. Perhaps each ray of light possessed the power to annihilate an army in an instant, but under the pressure of this endless, utterly unreasonable force, only imprisonment awaited it.

And so the earth fell silent.

"And so, you fell into my hands."

Word Spirit is an interesting ability; the stronger one's power and the higher their status, the more weight their words carry, and the less of a price they pay. In many other worlds, powerful spellcasters have developed Word Spirit into special arts such as dragon roars, decrees, and grand prophecies for their own convenience. Regardless of the type, their application is bound to the operating principles of the world.

After all, status needs to be acknowledged. Only an individual recognized by the world can wield the Word Spirit. This is why Miss Surtr rarely uses Word Spirit in ordinary times—they have no effect in the dream world, and there's no need for them in Terra. She has plenty of ways to deal with various unexpected or emergency situations, but without a doubt, those methods are often inferior to Word Spirit in terms of speed of effectiveness.

There's no way around it; talking is always faster than doing.

But this time is different—having mastered the primordial runes, constructed the Heart of the World, and regained her full power and physique, Miss Surtr has undoubtedly reached the pinnacle of knowledge, authority, and power. The world has acknowledged her, or rather, she has acknowledged her, which means that she can face beings of lower levels than usual with more ease.

She is not a god.

And she is the goddess.

Therefore, the gods are under her.

And precisely because of this, even the most powerful deity of the time, as long as they haven't crossed that boundary beyond the mortal realm, will be utterly crushed when facing her, no matter how hard they try.

—Just as I expected. The seven-fold chain of Word Spirit became the appropriate chain.

Deep within the boiling lava mountains, Surtr's form materialized. She looked up, her limbs bound by fiery chains of runes, and saw Filianore dangling in the air—the spacetime-shaking power of the Light was utterly suppressed by the omnipresent Twilight Flame. Even with the Dark Souls providing support within her, this most powerful deity of the age could not break free or escape her gaze.

"Filianore," Miss Surtr said softly. "Fighting me is pointless, and the outcome is as you see it—now, you are powerless to resist."

She saw Filianore struggle again, still unwilling to give up—the chains were strong, the triple crushing force of her personal knowledge made these chains, formed from the Word Spirit, no weaker than the Chains of Heaven used against gods next door, when applied to Filianore. And the Goddess's struggle ultimately only served to reveal her vulnerability.

"I thought..." Filianore sighed helplessly. "...this battle would be more formal."