Chapter 472: Creation Magic (1)

“Aaaarghhh...!!!”

Yula’s scream echoed across the battlefield. Her shoulder twisted and disintegrated into nothingness, a void consuming the very space where her flesh had once been.

“No... What kind of magic is this?” The Third God stared in disbelief at Karyl, clutching his staff tightly.

“Narh Di Maug had once dreamed of claiming the Divine Throne,” Karyl began, his voice steady as he watched Yula stagger. “Within his lair, he conducted endless experiments—Chimeras, synthetic beings, and even Rael Stallen, an artificial human. He did all of that for the sake of one thing—creation.”

Karyl took slow, deliberate steps toward Yula, her disarrayed figure the focus of his gaze.

“Creation...” Karyl went on. “He believed it to be the ultimate manifestation of a god’s essence. To him, it was the only true testament of divinity.”

Indeed, the Platinum Dragon’s lair had been littered with remnants of his failed experiments—elves, humans, and countless other hybrids that had borne silent witness to his ambitions.

“Still, Narh Di Maug was no god. He was merely a dragon, a creature of limited means. Bereft of Divine Power, he sought to replicate it, replacing the void with a fusion of mana and elemental power. He aimed to breach the domain of creation.”

It had been a reckless gamble. Even with Rasis, who possessed light akin to Yula’s, the act of creating something from nothing was the epitome of uncertainty.

“His failures were evident,” Karyl said, gesturing broadly. “The piles of corpses in his lair spoke volumes. And yet, his quest for divinity didn’t end with himself. He sought salvation through his creations, believing they might unlock the secrets to Divine Power.”

Karyl’s expression darkened.

“That’s why his lair became a charnel house, a mass grave filled with the corpses of humans, elves, and dwarves alike. His desperation led to a grotesque spectacle.”

Yula’s breathing grew unsteady as she listened to Karyl’s account of the Platinum Dragon’s experiments.

“He didn’t fail simply because I killed him. His downfall was inevitable. He lacked the most critical component, something not even a thousand years of experimentation would’ve revealed.”

Wooooooosh...

Karyl raised his palm, recalling the formless energy that had assailed Yula before. The energy swirled, forming an emerald-hued spiral that glowed with an unearthly light.

“The Dimensional Spiral, a fragment of divinity itself. Narh Di Maug never understood that this is the true source of Divine Power, not just an extension of it.”

Unlike before, Yula’s wound wasn’t healing. Her divine regeneration, which had instantly restored her severed hand before, now failed her—a clear testament of the Spiral’s supremacy.

“You’re not healing because you’re just a parasite, leeching off borrowed power,” Karyl said, nodding as if confirming his own conclusion.

“Lies!” Yula’s voice was filled with venom, her face contorted with rage.

“Dragons couldn’t wield Divine Power,” Karyl went on, his tone unwavering. “But there was one exception—Rael Stallen, one of Narh Di Maug’s creations. Unlike the priests of your church who merely invoked divine blessings, Rael was different. Half-elf, half-Nephilim, she didn’t borrow Divine Power. She

embodied

it.”

Crack...!

Karyl’s other hand began to darken, a shadowy aura swirling into a dense vortex. The ominous energy reeked of malice—the power of Duaat, the Spirit King of Darkness.

“Light and darkness, divinity and Tarak, blessings and dark magic. All of them, two sides of the same coin. And yet, no being could ever wield them simultaneously, except for Rael.”

Yula’s expression froze.

“You may have been worshipped as the Goddess of Light for generations, Yula, but the lie ends here,” Karyl growled. “You were never

just

light. You embody both light and darkness. Tarak’s very existence proves the dark side of divinity.”

He fixed her with a piercing, condemning gaze. “Tarak exists because gods exist.”

Of course, the Tarak unleashed by the Tower of Pharel were a threat to humanity, but in truth, the Calamities were creations of the gods, deliberately summoned into this world.

“Rael was the only one who could cast divine blessings and also invoke Tarak. She was Narh Di Maug’s only successful experiment, and yet he killed her with his own claws. What a pity.”

“...What?”

Yula’s bafflement betrayed her ignorance of Rael’s existence. Watching the goddess’s confusion, Karyl couldn’t help but recall the harrowing moment when Rael burst like a balloon beneath Narh Di Maug’s claws.

Perhaps that turn of events had been inevitable; perhaps it had been a critical blunder in the heat of the moment, as the Platinum Dragon clearly hadn’t anticipated Rael using the power of Tarak.

What surprised me

most was how decisively Narh Di Maug killed her. If his intention was to hide his experiments from Yula, why would he obliterate his one successful experiment so casually?

Initially, Karyl had dismissed the incident as a sudden, irrational outburst. But upon deeper reflection, he arrived at a different conclusion.

Narh Di Maug killed Rael because she was no longer necessary. Using her as a foundation, the Platinum Dragon had already uncovered how to wield both the power of light and the darkness of Tarak.

However, his plan had failed. Even with all his foresight and meticulous preparation, the Platinum Dragon had failed to account for one crucial variable.

He never imagined I would kill him.

It wasn’t just Narh Di Maug—none of the dragons had seen it coming. After all, who could have imagined that the last three dragons on the continent, deemed invincible by nearly everyone, would fall to humans? Who would have imagined that Narh Di Maug—the apex predator of this world, the mightiest of all dragons—would meet his end at Karyl’s hands?

Ultimately, his grand ambitions met a hollow end. The very man Narh Di Maug had sent back in time to fulfill his plans had become the one to destroy them.

“But thanks to his failure, I learned something new,” Karyl went on, locking eyes with Yula.

“Rael, a hybrid of elf and Nephilim, could wield both light and darkness. Both races are considered blessed by the gods, yet they are fundamentally different. One belongs to the earth, the other to the sky. One trudges through the mud, while the soars through the clouds,” he explained with a sinister smirk.

“A simple difference, you might say. But you, Yula, favored only those who bore wings like yours. That’s why you let Elvenheim fall. And it’s the same with humanity. The priests of your church may wield the power of light, but you still offered them up as sacrifices in the Exordiar. Why?”

Wooooom! Boom!

As Karyl slammed his palms together, the ground quaked slightly.

“Because only the earthbound races can wield darkness. That, Yula, is what you could never tolerate. As the self-proclaimed Goddess of Light, you saw Tarak as nothing more than filth, something to be eradicated."

Between his hands, the Dimensional Spiral and the essence of Tarak began to intertwine.

“...?!?”

Every god present was struck dumb, utterly horrified.

“Stop! Stop right now!”

A vortex of terrifying energy roared between Karyl’s palms, threatening to spiral out of control.

“What are you doing?!”

“Combining opposing forces? Do you wish to destroy everything?! Stop this madness at once!”

“Do you realize the dimensional collapse this could cause?!”

The gods retreated in haste, their faces pale with dread. Only Yula stood her ground, her expression hardening.

“So that’s your plan? Destroying my world entirely?”

“Destroy it? That’s what you’ve been doing all along.”

“How dare you!”

Yula’s eyes blazed, and the ground quaked under her rage.

“ENOUGH!”

The absolute power wielded by a god relied heavily on one thing: worship, born from awe, fear, or reverence. Above all else, it was fear that kept mortals and even lesser beings under a god’s control.

Yula let out a piercing roar, her divine presence suffocating. Soldiers across the battlefield froze in terror, trembling violently. Even the four other gods who had bestowed blessings on Karyl seemed to falter under the crushing pressure.

Kzzzzt! Kzzzzt!

Karyl gritted his teeth as a jolt of electrifying fear surged through him, his fists clenching and unclenching on their own. Even a seasoned warrior like him couldn’t fully withstand the primal fear invoked by a true deity.

On the surface, the Fear unleashed by dragons resembled what Yula had just unleashed. Yet Karyl slowly lifted his head and met her gaze—steady and unflinching. The chill coursing through him was undeniable, yet not nearly enough to make him falter.

“Not much of a threat,” he said casually, tilting his head as though Yula’s oppressive aura was more annoying than anything else.

“You... You insolent...!”

Yula was taken aback—perhaps even startled—by Karyl’s composure.

Clap!

Karyl brought his palms together once more. Though the clap itself was eerily silent, its echo rippled across the battlefield, unmistakably heard by every soldier present.

“...”

Even the gods, who had retreated to a safe distance, instinctively braced themselves as if expecting an apocalyptic explosion.

But there was no such thing—just eerie silence.

“Wh-What’s going on?”

“Nothing...?”

The gods, bewildered, exchanged glances. They had braced for destruction, but nothing came.

“Narh Di Maug sought to reinvent creation, a domain of the gods, as a concept within magic,” Karyl began, his voice cutting through the stillness. “But do you know why he truly failed? It wasn’t that his methods were flawed. Rather, he failed because he relied on others to achieve his goal.”

Yula’s face contorted with what seemed like humiliation, as though offended that no attack had been launched against her.

“Creation Magic? Such a grandiose name for your petty human ambitions! Like that Platinum Dragon, you’re nothing but a pitiful creature driven by greed!”

BOOM!

Enraged, Yula charged at Karyl, her divine form brimming with murderous intent.

“Do not compare me to that wretched creature,” Karyl shot back, steadying his stance. “I don’t need anyone’s hand-me-down magic to kill you. I’ll kill you with my own strength, with my own hands.”

“Die!”

Her sword arced downward, driving into Karyl’s shoulder. His clavicle shattered with a sickening crack, jagged bone tearing through flesh and jutting out grotesquely.

“You don’t need it anymore,” Yula sneered as she dragged her blade downward, aiming to sever his left arm completely.

“...”

But her sword wouldn’t budge. It was as if the blade was trapped in Karyl’s flesh, his muscles clamping around it like a vice. Yula tried to wrench it free, but it stayed firmly lodged.

As Karyl stared her down, the air grew cold, heavy with tension.

“Aaaaagh!”

Overcome by a sense of foreboding, Yula instinctively pushed her sword upward, desperate to dislodge it from Karyl’s shoulder.

Shhhhlick!

Crimson splattered in a wide arc, trailing her blade.

“Karyl...!!” Miliana cried from afar, watching the whole ordeal with her Infinity Circle. The sight of Karyl losing his arm drove her to the brink of recklessness. She stomped the ground, poised to charge forward.

“Wait.”

But Toska firmly blocked her path.

“There’s something else you must do.”

Miliana trembled with frustration, her heel digging into the dirt as she forced herself to stop. Despite her fiery loyalty to Karyl, she couldn’t disregard Toska’s solemn command.

“Sure, you can have it,” Karyl said to Yula, seemingly unfazed by the loss of his arm. His tone was steady, almost taunting, as though sacrificing his limb was merely a calculated trade.

“In exchange, I shall have your head.”

Woooooom...!

A small object materialized in his other hand, radiating a brilliant, otherworldly light.

“Creation depends on the creator. What I seek to create isn’t something grand, like forging a dimension or breathing life into beings meant to challenge the gods, as the Platinum Dragon once did.”

Karyl smirked bitterly.

“As a mere human, the extent of my creation is only this.”

With that, a small dagger materialized in his hand—none other than Agnel, the fabled blade of the northern tribes. However, that dagger had long since been shattered, making its sudden appearance impossible.

Yula quickly caught on—the weapon was a construct of magic. The realization that Karyl’s so-called creation amounted to a simple dagger almost infuriated her.

“...?!”

But then—

Thud!

Without hesitation, Karyl plunged the dagger straight into Yula’s neck. Astonishingly, the blade pierced through her divine shield without resistance.

“Ghhk—! This... This can’t be...!”

Yula’s eyes widened as she stared at the dagger embedded in her neck. A radiant white aura enveloped the blade, but within it, an ominous darkness pulsed—a stark contrast to the purity surrounding it.

“This is impossible! A human wielding both Divine Power and Tarak? It makes no sense!”

“Why? Does it terrify you that even the power you abandoned is now wielded by me? Or is it the realization that combining such opposing forces—a feat you thought only the gods could manage—is now within my reach?”

Karyl pierced her with his glare. “Blending opposing forces isn’t new to me. It’s the foundation of my existence.”

Indeed, he was the first Grand Master to harmonize two seemingly irreconcilable domains: swordsmanship and magic.

Shlkk!

Yula yanked the dagger from her neck, staggering back in disbelief.

“No...! This can’t be! Merging Divine Power with Tarak... Not even gods would attempt something so absurd!”

“What’s so special about it?” Kary retorted. “Humans have always fused opposites. We’ve used swords as conduits for formulas and magic as tools to manifest intent. You yourself deemed the combination of these forces a divine blessing. We’ve always worked with opposing powers.”

“Silence! You dare compare your crude human arts with Divine Power and Tarak? Controlling Tarak requires immense divine energy. You’d have to burn through every last drop of your Dimension Spiral’s power! Not even a divine avatar like you could endure the strain!”

Karyl chuckled softly at her frantic words.

“Did I ever say I used my own Divine Power to create this?”

“...What?”

“Look around you. Thanks to you guys’ bickering, now I’m surrounded by the perfect offerings—beings who wielded both divine power and Tarak.”

“Y-You don’t mean...”

All color drained from Yula’s face as her eyes fell on the lifeless bodies of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Gods strewn across the battlefield.

Shing!

Karyl raised Agnel, its edge gleaming ominously.

“I warned you,” he murmured, his voice like ice. “The only ones crawling through the mud will be

your

kind.”