Moon World Girlfriend Comes Knocking

A beast-like chill had seeped into those once clear, crystalline eyes.

"!~＃￥＃@%￥"

The Lahmu beside him cheered, delighted by their mother's awakening. They seemed not to have noticed that the ever-expanding Sea of Life had already begun to slowly recede.

"Mother...?" Lan Ze called out tentatively.

Tiamat merely gave him a cold glance before raising her right hand.

The cheering Lahmu burst like dream bubbles, popping at the slightest touch amid their joyous cries.

The next moment, the Lahmu vanished from sight one after another, like a line of falling dominoes.

When all the Lahmu had scattered through the air as pitch-black particles, Tiamat's gaze returned to Lan Ze. Her cold eyes stared directly at him.

To be honest, meeting eyes like those—eyes like a beast's—could easily inspire fear. It was an instinctive terror ingrained in humanity.

Yet Lan Ze quietly looked back at her. After their brief exchange of gazes, Tiamat let out a soft "Aaa."

At that moment, Lan Ze finally relaxed.

Although Tiamat had not fully returned to normal, her reason was clearly in control now.

"Welcome back, Mother," Lan Ze said softly.

Tiamat said nothing. After staring at Lan Ze for a long while, the chill in her eyes finally began to melt away.

Then she slowly brought her lips to his, pressing the boy down onto the flower-covered ground. Her two soft mounds deformed slightly under the pressure as she greedily claimed his kiss, as though she never wanted to let go again.

Just then, an unrestrained, cold laugh suddenly rang out from high above. "What's wrong? Two gods and several Heroic Spirits, and this is all you can manage?"

The King of Magecraft—or rather, Goetia, the First Beast wearing the King of Magecraft's skin—floated in midair. Before him stood several goddesses locked in fierce battle with him, along with Gilgamesh, who had just been revived by the Goddess of the Underworld.

Goetia raised his right hand and looked at them with icy eyes, smiling indifferently. "I had intended to wait for your arrival in the temple, but now... I'll play with you first."

"Now witness Solomon's true power!"

As his words fell, dim golden spheres of light glimmered in his hands.

The faces of those opposite Goetia turned exceptionally grim as they stared solemnly at the man responsible for leading the situation into such a disastrous state.

It was not only Goetia's magecraft that was troublesome. The several Demon God Pillars emerging from the ground at that moment also placed immense pressure on them.

Merlin had just entered the Sea of Life to help Lan Ze. And in helping Lan Ze earlier, all of them had expended varying amounts of magical energy. Gilgamesh had suffered the worst; he had already died once and returned from the Underworld.

Ishtar rode atop Ma'anna, her eyes fixed on Goetia as she panted heavily.

Goetia swung a dim golden sphere in his hand toward Ishtar. This Goddess of Heaven had been continuously providing fire support from the skies, making her rather troublesome for Goetia.

If he dealt with her first, the others would naturally be no problem.

Enduring the pain, Ishtar urged Ma'anna to retreat. However, Goetia bared his teeth in a cold smile.

"Trying to run?"

"I already told you. This time, I'll let every last one of you witness the King of Magecraft's true power!"

He raised both hands, and two more dim golden spheres appeared in his palms. The two spheres floated in midair, slowly converging.

Goetia lifted his hands and violently hurled the spheres.

He intended to completely annihilate Ishtar with this strike!

The dim golden spheres came roaring forth with a terrifying presence. Thunderclouds churned through the heavens. Compared to Tiamat, perhaps he was the real boss!

Ishtar's expression darkened as she looked at the sky, where even space itself seemed distorted. There was nowhere left to retreat. Goetia had set up a Magic Barrier around the area beforehand; even if she forcibly broke through it, she would certainly be struck by this Noble Phantasm.

Just as the spheres were about to fall, the gloomy sky seemed to be forcibly torn open by an enormous rift. As sunlight streamed down, a colossal claw that covered nearly half of Uruk slammed down from above. Before everyone's disbelieving eyes, it smashed Goetia's spheres—and his body—straight into the ground!

Boom!

A massive crater instantly formed in the ground, followed by dozens of Noble Phantasms pouring down from the sky at once.

Then a soft "Aaa" rang out in midair, followed by a voice filled with fury.

"Now let me show you what the power of a group beatdown really looks like!"

"Lan Ze?!" Ishtar abruptly raised her bright eyes and saw the boy riding the Heavenly Ark high in the sky, along with Tiamat, who silently stared at Goetia with an expressionless face.

The Heavenly Ark dissolved into particles of light and slowly scattered away. As Tiamat gradually descended, tangible flames burned in the woman's usually gentle eyes for the first time.

The Tide of Chaos gently held her aloft as she slowly approached Goetia. Her clear, crystalline eyes carried a chilling coldness that made one's heart tremble.

Though she said nothing, the woman's gaze made it clear that this Creation Mother Goddess had, for the first time in her existence, been provoked into such astonishing rage.

This time... it was time to settle the score properly.

"Mother?!"

Ishtar cried out in delight, her beautiful eyes shimmering with tearful light.

That guy Lan Ze had actually succeeded. He had really brought Tiamat back from the Sea of Life...

At this moment, the ever-arrogant Goddess of Heaven was so excited that she nearly jumped off Ma'anna. If the situation had not remained so perilous, she would likely have rushed over to give Lan Ze a huge hug.

At the same time, the Heroic Spirits in the distance fixed their eyes on the woman whose body was covered in blue-black scales.

Not only did those scales fail to make Tiamat ugly, they instead added a harsh, murderous air she usually lacked.

But that was not the important part.

The crucial question was... how had an awakened Beast managed to suppress her own Spirit Origin?

"He actually succeeded?" Siduri's beautiful eyes filled with incredulous shock as she stared intently at Tiamat.

"Hmph. As expected, he did not disappoint this king." Gilgamesh merely snorted. Of everyone present, he was the calmest, quietly watching Tiamat as though he had seen through everything.

"King, do you know how he did it?" Siduri could not help asking.

Gilgamesh raised a brow and said flatly, "Think for yourself in all things. Do not come asking this king about everything!"

His body was still injured from the battle with Goetia just now.

Gilgamesh had indeed died once earlier. However, he had not entered the Underworld after dying. Rather, Ereshkigal had pulled him into the Underworld just before his death, allowing him to stand upon this land again with her help.

That was one of the few advantages of the Age of Gods. Since the Underworld lay beneath the earth, it could be reached easily, and naturally one could be revived there... But this was an exceptional measure. Ereshkigal could not make such exceptions for everyone. With the great battle imminent, she could only do all she could to help those on the surface.

Siduri fell into thought, her eyes remaining on Tiamat.

Then, from the enormous crater Tiamat had forcibly created, a cold voice mixed with disbelief suddenly rang out.

"What a surprise."

Goetia slammed one hand against the edge of the crater and slowly floated up from within.

"An awakened Beast can actually suppress her reason—and even suppress her own Spirit Origin."

Goetia stared coldly at Tiamat. As he slowly descended to the ground, the surrounding Demon God Pillars danced with wild delight. The black pillars suddenly opened crimson beast eyes, looking especially horrifying.

There truly was surprise in Goetia's eyes. Even as the First Beast, he found it unbelievable to see Tiamat suppressing her own Spirit Origin.

...She had even brought the Sea of Life under control.

That was almost impossible to accomplish, yet she had somehow done it...

And the reason for all of it likely lay with this person.

Goetia's gaze fell upon Lan Ze, and then he suddenly smiled.

"Though I do not know what exactly happened between you two, but—"

"What can a Creation Mother Goddess with her Spirit Origin suppressed to such an extent possibly use to fight me?!"

The next moment, Goetia suddenly accelerated, shooting forward from midair. The Demon God Pillars behind him danced as they swarmed Tiamat together. At the same time, the magical energy throughout the entire space instantly became incomparably chaotic.

When the magical energy was compressed to its limit, it produced a violent explosion. He truly deserved the title of King of Magecraft. Even while merely borrowing that person's shell, he still displayed extraordinarily advanced magecraft.

Yet Tiamat simply stood where she was and parted her lips slightly.

"--Aaaaa--"

The instant her song rang out, the explosions caused by the surrounding magical energy seemed to flow backward, quietly returning to calm. The Demon God Pillars that had been about to attack Tiamat circled around her, looking as though they wanted to advance but did not dare.

They danced around Tiamat. The sight somewhat resembled a video Lan Ze had once seen: on a rainy day, two men awkwardly dancing while a girl beside them shouted, "Stop fighting already!"

Goetia's gaze turned even colder. He raised his hand, and one layer of the halo in the sky peeled away before detonating completely above the ground.

This was a Noble Phantasm release no weaker than Excalibur. Every layer peeled from that enormous halo in the sky was equivalent to an Excalibur.

From the very beginning, Goetia had known that several Demon God Pillars alone could not restrain Tiamat. As for the magical explosions that followed, they had merely been a test.

They were both Beasts. Even though neither side had revealed their Beast forms, they were still more powerful than most Heroic Spirits and even Grand Servants.

Even if he could not defeat Tiamat, he still had the halo.

If he wished, he could even blast that enormous halo down upon the ground all at once!

But there was a problem with that—

Tiamat possessed immortality.

Even if he poured such vast heat onto the ground, even if every other living creature were wiped out, she would not die.

Therefore, his target had never been Tiamat. It was Lan Ze!

All the problems ultimately centered on that sole variable. Eliminating him was the best choice!

But just then, as the beam of light no weaker than Excalibur peeled away from the halo and came hurtling down, an equally dazzling radiance lit up from the ground.

What Lan Ze released was the true Excalibur. The beam collided with the halo in midair.

And whenever Goetia attempted to trigger turbulent magical explosions beside Lan Ze, Tiamat effortlessly neutralized them with her song.

Lan Ze was now practically invincible.

"What is the point of this?" Goetia stood on the ground and sneered. "I cannot do anything to you now, but can you really do anything to me?!"

He slowly spread his arms. "Besides, even if I cannot deal with you, do you think I cannot deal with the others?!"

As more bands of light peeled away from the sky, Goetia suddenly heard the sound of chains beside him.

Golden chains shot forth from every direction, binding Goetia in an instant.

The man slightly turned his head to look at the golden chains around his body, then merely shook his head and smiled. "The Chains of Heaven?"

"Even the true Chains of Heaven cannot affect me. What can a mere counterfeit use to restrain me!"

"Aaaaa."

Tiamat's song rang out. Even the dark clouds beneath the heavens seemed to collapse at one corner beneath her voice. With every note she sang, the turbulent magical energy around them hindered Goetia's movements, while the Demon God Pillars no longer dared to attack them and tried to flee in fear.

Goetia was right. With Tiamat suppressing her Spirit Origin to this extent, it would indeed be difficult for her to defeat him.

But she did not need to defeat Goetia. She only needed to restrain him... No, she merely needed to stand here, and most of Goetia's magecraft would become unusable.

"Do you really think this broken chain alone can restrict my movements?!" Goetia struggled fiercely to break free of the Chains of Heaven, but even one without divinity could not easily escape them.

He suddenly looked up at Lan Ze, only to see the boy slowly raise the sacred sword.

"The Star Sacred Sword?" Goetia's gaze abruptly froze.

After a brief stare, he suddenly burst into wild laughter.

"Useless, useless! An unsealed sacred sword is equally useless against me! What does it matter if I stand here and take this attack head-on?!"

Lan Ze ignored him. As the sacred sword's light slowly gathered, he looked at the sneering Goetia and suddenly smiled as well.

"Look behind you!"

As Lan Ze's voice fell, the Chains of Heaven tightened even further.