I watched in amazement, and with more than a little jealousy, as the God of Beggars began to transform.
His body rose from the ground, his remaining arms crossed over his chest while his legs folded beneath him, knees drawn close to his abdomen, almost touching the small open wound that still allowed some of his divinity to seep out.
A green shimmer enveloped him.
The wave of force released from his body was strong enough that Aurelion had no choice but to shield Aria with his own. He pulled her beneath him and wrapped his wings around her completely. The pressure opened small cuts and scrapes across his skin, but each wound healed almost as quickly as it appeared.
The transformation lasted only a moment. The violent wind and green shimmer vanished as suddenly as they had appeared, and the God of Beggars descended to the ground.
His appearance had changed.
He was smaller now, probably no taller than Aurelion, but two additional arms had grown from his body. With the limb Aurelion had severed still missing, three remained. Golden rings encircled his elbows and shoulders, while worms and insects crawled beneath and across his rotting skin.
His eyes, nothing but pure green light, were fixed on Aurelion.
The God of Beggars extended his three hands. Green light flared around each palm before three streams of divinity merged into a single ray and surged forward.
Aurelion threw Aria aside, moving her out of the attack’s path, before planting his feet firmly against the ground.
[Warning: Aurelion used the skill Aegis.]
Gold and crimson light enveloped him, the barrier forming barely in time to intercept the incoming wave.
Green divinity crashed against it, flowing around Aurelion and continuing past him like a tide breaking around a stone. The power swept into the forest behind him, rotting, burning, and erasing trees, bushes, and every small creature unfortunate enough to believe the undergrowth offered protection from the battle.
The wave soon ended.
The God of Beggars showed neither surprise nor disappointment when he saw that Aurelion had survived almost entirely unscathed.
“This is nothing compared to that attack,” Aurelion said, remembering how easily Aegis had failed against the angel of the Netherworld deity.
The God of Beggars’ palms began glowing again, but this time Aurelion no longer needed to endure the attack to protect Aria. He flapped his wings and shot to the side, forcing the deity to adjust his aim.
Aurelion landed to the right and immediately launched himself away again.
Then again.
He moved in a zigzag, choosing to close the distance gradually rather than risk charging the god directly.
He had crossed half the distance when a groan escaped him.
His body was boiling.
Literally.
Blisters began appearing across his skin, while his feathers lost their vibrant color and slowly withered.
That bastard must have some kind of passive barrier around him.
Aurelion began healing the moment the damage appeared, but not quickly enough to remain unharmed. The closer he moved, the more violently his body deteriorated.
When only twenty steps remained between them, he made one final leap and shot forward, his glaive already prepared to swing.
The God of Beggars did not attempt to receive the strike. His body dissolved into green haze just as it had before.
“Now!” Aurelion shouted, his voice strained by pain and pressure.
Not far from her, Aria had already flared her mana.
“I’m trying,” she muttered.
A crimson diagram flickered before her. The mana that had previously surrounded her like a veil of mist was now being drawn entirely into the circle of runes, like red smoke pulled into a vortex.
One rune appeared beneath the God of Beggars.
Then another began to form beside it, its faint crimson shape flickering weakly.
It flickered again.
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Then vanished, taking the first rune with it.
“I cannot…”
Aria collapsed to her knees and vomited yellow bile. She clawed against the dirt, raising her eyes toward Aurelion, tears already gathered in them.
“I am but a mortal,” she whispered.
This was my chance.
I knew inviting the system’s restrictions upon myself now would be as good as losing to Noah. By then, I was certain that if I had brought Tekla or Amon onto the battlefield, the God of Beggars would have immediately made them his primary target, forcing Aurelion to abandon the attack and protect them.
Only because Aria appeared unimportant had he chosen to eliminate my angel first.
But he was wrong.
Wrong and ignorant.
Aria’s spell was what could decide this fight. The only thing holding her back was her lack of mana, and that was something I could fix.
A ray of crimson light shot down from the sky.
The God of Beggars flinched. He abandoned his mistlike form just as Aurelion’s glaive passed through the space where his torso would have been, turning tangible again the moment the blade moved beyond him. He counterattacked immediately, driving his foot into Aurelion’s side.
A dull sound followed, and Aurelion was sent flying.
Still in the air, my angel twisted and flapped his wings, surging back toward the fight. The blisters and boils covering his body were no longer healing quickly enough, and the damage would only worsen unless he stopped to recover.
He could not afford to do that here.
He needed to end the battle quickly, and just like me, he knew where the key to victory lay.
While Aurelion kept the God of Beggars occupied, Aria received my blessing.
She straightened, the corners of her mouth curling slightly as her eyes gleamed with tears and renewed resolve. Two diagrams flared before her, larger, faster, and far more complex than those she had created before.
“This is it,” she thought. “This is true power…”
[Warning: Aurelion used the skill Glaivebound.]
Aurelion’s speed increased dramatically while he was still in the air. His movements became faster and more fluid, his glaive shifting with him as though the weapon had become part of his body.
He reached the God of Beggars just as the final runes of Aria’s spell finished forming beneath the deity’s feet.
The god attempted to dissolve into green haze once more, but his body refused to obey. His face twisted as his glowing eyes darted toward Aria.
She no longer looked confident. Fear had spread across her face, and the diagrams flickered before her trembling hands. She sustained the spell for now, but it wouldn’t last long.
Still, the brief opening she created was enough.
Aurelion roared and swung his glaive.
Realizing he could no longer escape through his mistlike form, the God of Beggars stepped toward him instead. He moved inside the arc of the attack, coming so close that there was no longer enough room for Aurelion to complete the swing.
His elbow struck my angel’s face, followed by a knee driven into his stomach. Then two hands seized Aurelion while a green vortex formed in the palm of the third.
“You annoying insect,” the deity spat, saliva spraying from his mouth.
He paused to fully enjoy the moment. And that pettiness cost him an opening.
“Did you forget about me?”
Avenor stepped out of the shadow cast by Aurelion’s glaive.
The sword I had created for him swept in from the side and buried itself in the God of Beggars’ side, cutting the dark robe and his pale, wormcovered skin.
Yet, the wound was shallow.
Far too shallow.
Avenor tried to pull the blade free and attack again, but the God of Beggars hurled Aurelion away, throwing him far enough to buy himself a few moments. Then he turned toward Avenor, who, despite his confident entrance, was in terrible condition.
Even if the deity’s passive field did not burn him, Avenor had yet to recover from being smashed into the tree. Without his new skill, he would likely have died from that alone.
The God of Beggars drove the vortex of divinity into Avenor’s abdomen and sent him flying.
If not for Hollow Core, the attack would have killed him instantly. Yet because the deity had relied on divinity rather than physical strength, believing the power itself would be enough, the blow carried less force than it otherwise might have.
Even so, Avenor was launched high and far across the battlefield.
The God of Beggars paid him no further attention. He turned toward the place where he had thrown Aurelion, one hand reaching for the sword still lodged in his side.
His eyes widened.
There was no blade in his body.
More alarmingly, there was no Aurelion where my angel should have landed. Only Avenor’s sword lay in his place.
[Warning: Aurelion used the title Lord’s Emissary.]
“By the will of my Liege!”
Aurelion’s voice came from behind the God of Beggars.
A horrific wet sound followed, accompanied by the snap of breaking bone, as the tip of the glaive burst through the deity’s chest.
Aurelion twisted the weapon, widening the hole until the edge pointed downward, then dragged it through the God of Beggars’ body with the same sickening cracks.
“Not like this…” the God of Beggars muttered.
He tried to flare his divinity once more, but the power no longer obeyed him. Whatever energy he managed to gather escaped through the gaping wound in his chest.
I didn’t see anything else.
The Window darkened as my entire realm trembled. The stars shook, and the projection of the divine guardian swayed as though it were about to collapse.
Then the notifications flooded in.
[Warning: Reaper failed to consume a god’s soul.][Warning: You’ve gained 120,753 Divinity Points!][Warning: You’ve accomplished the impossible!]…
But the notifications were not what drew my attention.
A new star had formed within my realm.
Or rather, a sphere.
It was perfectly round and pure white, almost like a snowball, though far more translucent. A faint green energy surrounded it as it glowed against the darkness of my dominion.
The God of Beggars?