Support me and be 30 chapters ahead of webnovel:
patreon.com/Draco_
For every 5 Patreon memberships I receive, I'll release 15 chapters all at once. Your support means a lot to me.
*****
"Open!"
A door manifested before George. With a single stride, he stepped out from the confines of the White Tower and the Corpse Cathedral. Neither spatial nor temporal constraints could impose even the slightest hindrance upon his movement.
"Grafting!"
Every attack directed at him—lightning, mental assaults, threads of fate, and the scorching radiance of the sun—was instantaneously grafted onto the attackers themselves: Amon and Grisha.
"How is this possible?"
Seeing George dismantle their restraints so effortlessly and reflect every attack, Amon and Grisha were momentarily stunned. They had anticipated George's methods; they were intimately familiar with the capabilities of the Door and Fool pathways. However, it was fundamentally impossible for those powers to achieve such an overwhelming effect.
With George's status as a dual-pathway True God, he should, at best, have been able to quickly break through Amon's temporal and spatial attacks. But the seal of Grisha's White Tower and Corpse Cathedral should have taken a significant amount of time to breach. After all, George had surely exhausted a vast amount of spirituality helping Roselle maintain his barrier.
During that window of time, he should have been suppressed by the continuous onslaught from Grisha and Amon, eventually becoming too heavily wounded to resist.
Yet, George had shattered the seals and grafted the attacks as if it were child's play. It felt as though George wasn't merely a dual-pathway entity, but a true Great Old One. Only the level of a Great Old One could exert such terrifying potency using the authorities of the Door and Fool pathways.
Recovering from their shock, they scrambled to intercept their own reflected attacks, but George struck again.
"Blind Stupidity!"
In an instant, not only Amon but even Grisha—who functioned as a half-Great Old One—was caught in the effect. Their expressions turned blank and vacant. Consequently, the two were engulfed by their own full-power strikes. Since they had attacked with the intent to deal a lethal blow, they now reaped the consequences of their own ruthlessness, falling into a state of heavy injury.
---
Just as Amon and Grisha began to struggle out of their stupor from the impact, George followed up with another blow, plunging them back into a state of idiocy.
Slap!
George struck Amon's forehead with his palm, forcibly extracting all the Uniquenesses and Beyonder characteristics from his body. However, as he reached out to extract the characteristics from Grisha, a Blasphemy Slate suddenly flew out to intercept him.
The Chaos Sea surged from the slate, attempting to pull George into its depths.
"Sefirah Castle!"
George raised his hand, and a castle shrouded in grayish-white fog manifested, crashing down upon the Chaos Sea and suppressing it instantly. While Sefirah Castle and the Chaos Sea were of the same rank, the difference in strength between George and Grisha was like heaven and earth. Supported by George's power, Sefirah Castle firmly quelled the Chaos Sea.
Bereft of the Chaos Sea's protection, Grisha was likewise struck by George's palm, his Uniquenesses and Beyonder characteristics forced out of his form.
The commotion caused by the attacks of the Eternal Blazing Sun and the God of Steam and Machinery had likely attracted the gaze of every True God and entity above that level—including the Outer Deities peering from outside Earth. Therefore, George had strictly limited himself to the authorities of the Door and Fool pathways, refraining from using any external power. He controlled his output to barely touch the level of a Great Old One, ensuring he didn't appear too terrifying.
Reaching out, George grabbed Amon's Uniqueness and characteristics. Along with the Worm of Time characteristics he had previously obtained, he swallowed them whole and began the fusion. He did not, however, touch the Hanged Man Uniqueness and characteristics extracted from Grisha.
His reason for leaving them was simple: he wanted to use them as bait to see if he could lure out a few more True Gods. Without a direct conflict, it would be awkward for him to just go around snatching people's Uniquenesses, after all.
---
By fusing the Uniqueness and characteristics of the Error pathway, George now possessed Sefirah Castle and the authorities of the Fool, Door, and Error pathways. This meant that the consciousness of the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings would once again awaken.
Furthermore, this awakening was equivalent to the Celestial Worthy's full consciousness reviving directly, without any buffer or weakening.
"Boy, you are indeed greedy. In that case, I shall take over your body!"
The Celestial Worthy's consciousness condensed instantly and invaded George's mental world, intending to shatter and devour George's ego to occupy the vessel. To any ordinary person, their consciousness would be crushed within a minute, causing them to vanish from the world forever. Even a special existence like Amon would likely have required years of perilous struggle, aided by Grisha, to barely suppress it.
But to George, whose strength already doubled that of the Original Creator, the Celestial Worthy's consciousness was nothing more than a nuisance.
Bam!
In George's mental world, a gargantuan palm descended from the heavens. Like the Buddha's palm suppressing the Monkey King, it crushed the Celestial Worthy's dream of resurrection with a single strike, completely shattering the ancient consciousness.
Of course, to keep the "fishing" operation going and hide his true strength, he did not wake up immediately to reclaim Grisha's loot. Instead, he continued to feign a desperate struggle for control over his body.
---
On the other side, because the barrier remained unbroken, Roselle finally succeeded in his return, becoming a Sequence 0 Black Emperor.
Seeing this, the God of Steam and Machinery did not cease his assault; instead, his attacks grew even more ferocious. Meanwhile, the Eternal Blazing Sun hesitated for a moment, abandoning the siege of Roselle. He redirected his divine power toward the unclaimed Visionary and Hanged Man characteristics.
Those were two pathways neighboring his own. If he could obtain them, he could become a triple-pathway True God. If he could further seize the first Blasphemy Slate and control the Chaos Sea, he could ascend directly to the rank of a Great Old One. Then, even when the apocalypse arrived, he would have nothing to fear.
Simultaneously, two other streaks of divine power shot in from the distance—one in the form of lightning, the other appearing like a book.
These were the Lord of Storms and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom. Like the Eternal Blazing Sun, they were part of the Omni-pathways. They too could absorb the Hanged Man and Visionary pathways to ascend. With George currently "struggling" against the Celestial Worthy after defeating Grisha, this was their golden opportunity.
As for offending George, they no longer cared. It was uncertain if George could even survive the Celestial Worthy. If he did, as long as they became Great Old Ones, they wouldn't need to fear him. Besides, with the apocalypse looming, they gambled that George wouldn't dare risk a mutual destruction.
Suddenly, a curtain of darkness descended from the sky, shielding Grisha's characteristics.
The Evernight Goddess had made her move. She didn't fully understand how things had escalated to this point, but as George's ally—and having witnessed his overwhelming power—she chose to assist. She would protect his spoils of war until he "woke up." Moreover, she was looking to draw out the ever-cautious God of Combat.
"You should worry about yourself first!"
A gruff voice boomed through the air as the God of Combat struck. He intended to seize the moment while the Evernight Goddess was occupied with the Eternal Blazing Sun, the God of Knowledge, and the Lord of Storms to take her down in one fell swoop.
(End of Chapter)