The darkness shrank as the man's roars became more desperate, like a black hole was sucking the darkness of the night, revealing the starry night sky.
Johan frowned, then yelled to the white-haired man by his side, "Use the seal."
His body emitted a bright light in the surroundings, as the flame rose from his muscles and limbs.
The man covered with black slime was directly hit by the eternal flames of darkness, not even being able to sense the perfect ambush. There was no time to either dodge or dispel such an attack.
"Ahhh, ahhh" the painful wails of the man affected no one in particular. Just making the two men look even more satisfied with their work.
The dark red flames of Melodis trembled on Johan's body. A devious smile took over his face.
'I try to stay humble, but even I can't ignore the obvious.' Johan raised his arms high, as if waiting for the audience's applause.
Just as he 'died' in the inn.
His body appeared just by the street, completely unharmed.
The body that died was just the perfect clone he used, but the more interesting part was he could also change his real body's location.
Similar to teleportation, and when he teleported the clone replaced him promptly.
Basically, when he used perfect clone, his energy replicated to the atomic level, the replicated energy replaced the place of the real energy, then the original energy became a variable that was not 'real' as the copy replaced it perfectly, so could just fly to the surrounding area as long as not disputedit.
He could never defeat the man who just attacked him in a one-on-one fight anyway, no matter what, so why even bother.
'They are one in just different bodies, he split a small part of his power to attack the weaker me, baiting Kirin out beforehand with his aura, then setting up a simple yet effective trap for Sebastian.' Johan thought, shaking his head, but then, his whole body flinched.
A massive pressure fell on all four of them, their knees getting weak, their eyes watery, their tongues dry. Even Melodis seemed to be shivering—not from fear, but pressure.
Johan's blue eyes turned towards the massive black tree, a silent frown appearing as he turned to look at the green-haired man.
'This… I used the spirit pact to connect with Melodis, and ambushed him.' He turned his head towards the status window showing his depleting mana: 30/200
'Then why is this still happening? He shouldn't be able to control it… he should be dying…' Johan thought feeling dread.
Sebastian instantly used gravity magic to fly Kirin over to her side, sweat appearing on his forehead.
"Master… do you know… what's happening?" Sebastian's voice trembled while asking, his body was completely depleted.
The green-haired man did not simply just kidnap Sebastian, but he was actually fighting with stolen powers of Sebastian with the God tree's buff. Using his body as a kind of fuel source.
And Johan suspected that… the green haired man was not a normal attacker, but… God tree itself. There was no other possible explanation on how this guy could use gravity magic so easily, split his energy, create traps with his energy.
Gravity was one of the rarest affinities, and one of the most difficult to master, simply 'stealing' wouldn't suffice. And that split energy that chased Johan… it was like the vomit of the green haired man, and to vomit something, you need to know yourself, if you don't know where your throat and mouth is, can you even puke?'
Johan's breathing grew ragged, turning towards Sebastian panting hard.
Sebastian clenched his hands, preparing a seal for the man roaring in pain on the ground. The man's body regenerated back as fast as it was burned, creating an endless pain loop.
His eyes, blood red, still dazed but filled with extreme hatred, stared deeply towards the black-haired man. He will definitely kill him, with his own hands, leaving him alive just for a while longer so Kirin could play with his intestines, and other organs.
In a one-on-one fight, according to the green haired man's knowledge, Kirin should've been able to elementalise into fire using the spirit bond with her great spirit.
'But for some reason she didn't, and now… this, this healer is the one standing with the great spirit's power?' He clenched his jaw at the increasing pain.
'My instincts are overloaded with pain, I can't use black hole right now… I need more power… so I could send information to my Leor…' His desperate gaze turned towards the massive black tree, oozing with the purest form of Aether.
'Melodis! Do you know anything about it?' Johan made a mental connection with something deep inside his body, frowning as the spirit pact used his precious mana.
This was the most important part of the spirit pact — it allowed its wielder to talk with these ancient beings with infinite knowledge. Later on, the real Leor also had it, but he got it in a more flashy way—
He just imagined a reality where he had this ability… and thought that he was trying to awaken this ability—he had it at the next second.
Johan's whole body shuddered remembering the monster he would have to face.
"Yeah, it's a cool tree I guess, I burned it a few times to kill everyone in the world instantly, it's pretty fun."
He shrugged, "This is just him having an episode, if I was at my peak power, I could've easily blinked it out of existence!" a voice that sounded more like a parrot spoke, nothing like how Johan imagined a deity to speak like.
"I am not a parrot you bastard, I will burn away your genitals!!" Melodis screamed in Johan's ears, making him quieten his thoughts.
'So he can read my thoughts… I should be careful,' a thought slipped Johan's mind, instantly making him bite his lips, making Melodis only more curious about Johan.
Melodis had never heard of a human who could talk with a creature like him directly, and not get turned into a monstrous beast from the corruption from his holy aura.
Johan suppressed the thought to strangle the arrogant parrot, replying using his ultimate card.
"Kirin is in danger! Do you know how to stop this… episode?" Johan asked, his tone urgent but deliberate.
He remembered how, in the game, Melodis had annihilated billions—just to spite the people who killed the girl he was obsessed with—Kirin. As expected, the moment her name came up, Melodis's expression shifted. He was listening now.
It's not like Johan didn't know how to deal with the God tree, he had in a way defeated it multiple times, from different choices too; like how in one Selene teleported the God tree to another dimension, which still connected to this world, saving the world peacefully.
In another, Leor befriended the God tree, getting a massive power boost, but it was also because he used his overpowered ability to make it more likely for the God tree to accept his friendship, as Schrödinger's Cat was not just limited to altering just the physical action, but mental too, like if Johan had this right now, he could just abuse his system, Gambler's Gambit.
Or in another choice, in which Radhaan used an attack that instantly wiped out the God tree, but he didn't actually destroy it—he compressed it using a high-level light magic seal and turned it into a small bracelet-like artifact.
Destroying it was not sustainable as hou a tree has it's roots that cemented it, the earth of "the less I know the better" was a tree tied down by the roots of the God tree, so when Radhaan destroyed it, he didn't touch the roots that cemented the world, and made sure the connection of the God tree and roots didn't die, so a simple solution.
None of these were possible anyway, so Johan didn't even try thinking about the topic, since he didn't want to reveal his deepest secrets to a sadistic, psychopathic parrot.
"That green-haired guy is a vessel possessed by the bitch tree, like a mug filling water, the mug has no control. The God tree can already use more than 4% of its power fromthe talented body of the original owner."
Melodis frowned with a smile, " Once it gets to 60-something percent, you can try to kill it in one attack, then seal it and use the essence left as the stabiliser for the world, seal him till then." Melodis said in a serious tone.
He continued, "It's actually more convenient this way, we don't even have to aim properly to not damage the roots, just killing this body will suffice when it is possesed enough." Melodis sighed, he also knew for a fact that someone like Johan couldn't really kill the god tree.
Johan's eyes widened, his stomach twisting as he looked at the man who just silently cryied from the pain, not screaming even as the flames of eternal darkness just got hotter the longer they existed.