Guznader sat on the throne, exuding a kind of chilling extreme calmness. In this protracted galaxy war, the price he paid was too painful. With the death of countless fanatical believers, his Divine Power, which was once enough to shake the galaxy, also suffered a cliff-like plunge.
If it weren't for the fact that he still firmly controlled Sagittarius Plane and another subsidiary plane he conquered, after losing such a large number of believers, his realm would have irreversibly fallen back to Eighth Tier.
'The path of belief in gods has too many restrictions.'
Guznader was reviewing it coldly in his heart. He had actually seen through this fatal flaw a long time ago, so he frantically searched for Ancient Magekind's inheritance at all costs, even risking being surrounded and suppressed by the gods, in an attempt to embark on the Transcendence road of "Ancient Gods".
As long as he can successfully transfer to Ancient Gods, he can completely get rid of the shackles of "faith" while perfectly retaining his [Death Authority] and the supreme Godhood. Of course, the only drawback of this path is that the promotion is extremely slow. What's more, once Ancient Gods is deeply bound to the will of a certain plane, it becomes difficult to leave the home galaxy.
'But as long as I can get that Godhead Spark, all these problems will be solved!' Guznader's Blink's eye sockets bursting with extremely greedy light. 'If my deduction is not wrong, that treasure is definitely hidden in the hands of the Arcane Empire!'
In the past period of time, he had long heard that Arcane Empire had established a special department that could forcibly reverse the undead under his command back to their original living form.
He knows better than anyone else that in order to achieve this miracle of reversing life and death, the caster must have unfathomable control over [Death Authority]! And for a young Empire who has only been around for less than a hundred years, the only explanation for their ability to master this supreme Authority is that they hold the legendary [Death Godhead Spark] in their hands!
The intelligence he obtained from the ruins of Magekind also clearly hinted that the Godhead Spark was left in the current Milky Way Galaxy. This is the fundamental reason why he frantically launched this galaxy invasion regardless of the cost!
But he never dreamed that on the way to conquer a mere small galaxy, he would actually kick Arcane Empire, a hopelessly hard iron plate.
Suddenly, Guznader seemed to sense something, and he suddenly raised his huge white skull. Through the heavy Void, he clearly saw the terrifying Floating City that covered the sky and the sun outside his last line of defense.
'He's finally here.'
Facing Extremis who was approaching the city, Guznader didn't even feel a single wave of emotion in his heart. 'Arcane Emperor, if you really think that victory is already within your grasp, then I guarantee that you will soon experience what true despair is.'
Without the slightest hesitation or flinching, Guznader suddenly stood up from the throne, took a step forward, directly passed through the layers of space barriers, and appeared majestically at the outermost edge of the territorial shield.
The next second, Ian's noble and cold figure like a god slowly gathered in front of him.
"It seems that until this last moment, you still have no intention of giving up resistance." Ian looked at the undead monarch opposite Soulfire who was beating extremely smoothly and said calmly.
"Because in this game, the winner who laughs at the end has not yet been truly announced." Guznader's hoarse voice echoed in Void.
"Oh? Really?" Ian's pupils shrank slightly, and the magic power in his body instantly entered the highest level of combat alert.
When facing Extremis, who was so defeated, not only did the opponent not show any begging for mercy, panic or hysterical negative emotions, but he seemed so confident. This situation can only mean two things: either Guznader is a madman who controls his emotions to the point of abnormality; or... he still holds an unknown trump card in his hand that can overturn the entire chessboard in an instant!
In this case, Ian also completely dispelled those boring thoughts of trying to attack his mind or persuade him to surrender before the war.
"Let's go directly to Mirror Viri to resolve this grudge. Unless you are so crazy that you want to personally turn your last remaining wealth into dust in the universe." Ian suggested coldly.
"Please do as you wish."
'You even gave up the advantage of playing at home without hesitation? It seems that the trump card he hid is not in the defense system of these planets at all.'
Ian was deducing quickly in his heart. He originally suspected that Guznader had buried some ancient formation in these core territories to share the same fate, but the other party agreed very simply, immediately overturning this assumption.
'There is a more troublesome possibility. That is that the trump card in his hand has a very high law priority and can even ignore the absolute barriers of physical space and penetrate directly into Mirror Dimension!'
At the moment when these thoughts flashed through his mind like lightning, Ian decisively activated Space Law. Amidst a violent spatial distortion, the two figures were forcibly pulled into a world of reflection that was completely isolated from reality.
As soon as he landed, Guznader didn't even say a word of nonsense, he just took action!
[Divine Tier spell: Death Requiem]!
The Undead Lord slowly raised his bone hand as pale as paper. In an instant, a terrifying magic sound that could tear apart the soul and violated all acoustic conventions exploded directly within Mirror Dimension!
This kind of attack that directly affects concepts and laws is extremely vicious. Any creature that hears this sound will have its body forcibly deprived of millions of years of life in an instant, or it will immediately contract an incurable terminal disease, and die suddenly in extreme pain!
Faced with this almost unsolvable Law of Causality divine punishment, Ian did not flinch and pointed his wand forward:
[Arcane Spell: Death Siphon]!
A dazzling ball of pure white arcane brilliance instantly burst out with Ian as the center, like a greedy Black Hole, swallowing up all the death sound waves like gangrene on the bones in an extremely domineering manner!
Immediately afterwards, this white light began to run the underlying laws crazily, trying to forcibly reverse and convert the death energy that represented the end into pure life energy that could nourish the body, and store it in the body as a combat readiness blood pack.
However, as soon as the transformation array was started, Ian's brows wrinkled slightly.
The efficiency of this transformation... is simply appallingly low!
'Is it because he has absolute [Death Authority] suppression at the level of law, and I haven't fully analyzed this law yet?'
Ian was secretly surprised in his heart. On the other hand, Guznader actually never expected that this tentative attack would cause any substantial harm to Arcane Emperor.
His real tactical intention was just to delay the casting time for even a thousandth of a second!
Taking advantage of this fleeting gap, Guznader's huge body seemed to teleport and directly bullied him in front of Ian, forcibly dragging this peak duel into the close-quarters combat he was best at!
He knows the details of the Arcane Empire very well. A Arcanist like Ian who stands at the top must also use extremely abnormal genetic technology or Alchemy. Body Enhancement has reached an incredible level. But no matter how strong his body is, it can't cover up a fatal hardware shortcoming - Ian's body level is only Eighth Tier!
The reason why Ian is able to erupt with terrifying combat power comparable to that of a god is entirely because the Tenth Tier Floating City behind him is continuously providing him with a huge magic output that is comparable to divine power!
Once out of the absolute protection of that layer of magic, entering the melee stage of bayonet fighting, the body of Eighth Tier is the only Achilles heel of this emperor!
And Guznader, as a god who has truly stepped into God Domain, has reached the pinnacle of absolute perfection in terms of the strength of his soul, the high-dimensional suppression of spell casting, and the body of a god born after countless times of tempering by Divine Flame!
"Shua--!"
The huge sickle of Bleach drew a dark shadow that tore apart the dimensions in Void. At a terrifying speed that could not be explained by physical logic, it directly cut Ian's body in half!
However, there was no joy in Guznader's eyes that could see through cause and effect. Because he was keenly aware that what was cut off was just an afterimage that did not leave even a trace of magic power fluctuation!
'How can this speed... be so fast?!'
At the moment when Guznader was shocked, a terrifying heat wave that seemed to be able to completely burn the entire Mirror Dimension struck from behind him like a tsunami!
[Arcane Spell: Sacred Tribulation Flame]!
Facing the overwhelming flames that exuded dazzling golden light, Guznader suppressed the fear in his heart, turned around suddenly, and calmly raised his skeletal hand. The vast Law of Death rushed forward like a black sky, trying to forcibly extinguish the flames with the ultimate death energy.
However, an unbelievable scene happened for this undead monarch!
This seemingly ordinary ball of golden calamity flames not only did not extinguish the moment it came into contact with Law of Death, but instead seemed to be doused with gasoline. In an extremely crazy and domineering manner, it began to swallow and burn the death energy belonging to the god level!
'This... this is definitely the underlying fluctuation of [Flame Authority]! How is this possible?!' Under Guznader's wide black robe, the indestructible body of a god trembled uncontrollably due to extreme shock.
'No! Calm down! This is not the real Authority! Its legal status is too weak!' Guznader roared desperately in his heart, forcing himself to regain his senses. 'This kind of paradoxical rhythm of laws...'
After an extremely short and crazy deduction, Guznader's empty eye sockets burst out with two groups of incredible ghost fire. "What the hell is...Dragon Tongue Magic?! And it is the most core and the most unforgettable [High Dragon Language]!"
This extremely absurd conclusion makes Guznader feel Shocker even more than when Ian directly took out Flame Authority! In this universe, although Dragonkind once put a Some low-level Dragon Language spell-casting skills have been taught to other races, but those High Dragon Language Runes that directly point to the origin of the avenue and can resonate with the laws have always been the most absolute core secrets of Dragonkind, and it is impossible for outsiders to get involved!
"Good taste, but this is not an original product. It's just a fake that I fiddled with in my spare time." Ian's voice sounded from all directions at the same time, with a hint of arrogance.
In the past few months, Ian has dissected Thunder Dragon Language Runes, which he extorted from Albion, inside and out. After thoroughly understanding its underlying compilation logic, he applied inferences and created his own [Flame Rune] and several other basic elements of Law Runes!
Unfortunately, since he has not yet truly mastered Law of Thunder Authority, the runes he personally "copycatted" still have some flaws in the integrity of the rules. But this does not hinder Ian has successfully laid the most solid basic framework for these rules and texts. He has already left all the remaining dirty work to the group of top lunatics in the Empire Royal Mage Corps to slowly deduce and improve it.
Ian firmly believes that as long as Arcane Empire is given enough time, they will definitely be able to produce countless kinds of [Words of Truth] based on the evolution of various Authority!
In the future known as the "Legendary Arcanist era", as long as the willpower of the Empire citizens reaches the standard, they can even directly exchange these ultimate words that resonate with the laws of the universe for practice in the Library of the Empire, just like borrowing ordinary books!
After confirming that Arcane Emperor had mastered abnormal magic that was comparable to the core inheritance of Pure-blood Dragonkind, Guznader instantly raised the danger level of Ian to the highest level that could threaten his own life.
Without any reservation, three figures who looked exactly like Guznader, but exuded three completely different and elusive auras of terror, appeared in front of him without any warning!
'Clone? No, the aura is completely different.'
Ian's silver eyes narrowed slightly. Empire's information library clearly records a unique skill of Guznader - he can create a perfect clone with the same strength as his original self.
However, according to the battle data collected before, this level of clones takes an extremely long time and massive resources to breed. In the previous wars, the Empire military had already turned all the clones that Guznader had saved so hard into dust.
The current Ian is in an extremely terrifying law accumulation period. Not only is he about to completely analyze the soul, Law of Thunder, and the law of water, but among all the law systems, the one he is closest to the Truth gate... is actually [Law of Death]!
After all, the Herpo's Scepter, which represents Bleach Authority, has been studied in and out of the laboratory for several years. If it weren't for this damn galaxy war that involved so much of his energy, he would have completely understood it, and even directly involved Death Authority.
Therefore, relying on his extremely profound knowledge of death magic, Ian saw through the essential core of Guznader's spell at a glance the moment he saw those three figures!
This is not a clone at all! This is Guznader using the heaven-defying Divine Power to directly forcibly separate the three absolute conceptual stages of his life - youth, middle age, and old age - from the timeline, and materialize them into three extremely terrifying entity law projections!
The three projections representing the passage of time simultaneously raised the bone staffs in their hands and began to chant an extremely obscure distant Ancient Gods language. In Ian's keen sense of cause and effect, he discovered to his horror that Void An extremely strange line of cause and effect appeared in without any warning. One end was tightly connected to the three projections, and the other end directly ignored all spatial distances and magic shields, and was firmly tied to the origin of his own soul!
Immediately afterwards, Guznader himself let out a cruel smile, raised the Divine Tier sickle that was filled with endless death energy in his hand, and slashed it hard at the invisible line of cause and effect...!
"Buzz!"
At this critical moment, Ian's abnormal sense of danger sounded the alarm in his mind like crazy! He didn't even have time to think, and almost relied on muscle memory to instantly trigger an extremely vicious life-saving trump card:
[Forbidden Arcana: Substitute Scarecrow]!
This is an extremely domineering compound magic that perfectly combines the most profound law of death and the unpreventable law of curse.
At the moment when Guznader's sickle cut off the thread of cause and effect, Ian's body was safe and sound. Instead, it was a stand-in doll he carried with him in another dimension that suddenly exploded into thousands of pieces without any warning!
"It seems that my deduction is correct at all." Looking at the unscathed Ian, Guznader not only did not feel depressed, but let out a creepy laugh, "To have such a perverted and unfathomable understanding of death magic... you bastard, you have definitely got that [Death Godhead Spark]!"