How was it possible that this monster wasn’t wounded by that attack? True, they had seen the monster’s terrifying power time and time again and were even somewhat afraid of it.
But the attack they had just launched was a combined attack from the most powerful beings on the entire continent. Beings recognized as the leaders of the continent.
That attack should have been able to wound even a Half Step-Divine.
So why? Why was this monster completely unharmed?
But suddenly, the Holy Emperor’s gaze fixed on Daniel’s right hand.
A thin line. So thin that if someone’s eyesight was weak, they wouldn’t notice it at all.
A faint scratch had been made on Daniel’s skin. His hand was slightly blackened and wounded. And for a brief moment, no one spoke.
Even Ragnar did not take his gaze off that line, because they all knew what it meant.
That attack had actually reached him, but even though it had reached him, it had only managed to cause this much damage?
Did that even make sense? An attack that could destroy an entire continent had only left a superficial scratch on this monster’s hand?
"But this at least means we can hurt him," the Divine Prophet tried to give everyone hope.
And her words truly rekindled hope in them, because as long as they could inflict even a small wound on him, it meant they could possibly even defeat him.
But the hope that had formed in their hearts lasted only a few seconds. The faint line slowly faded, and Daniel’s skin returned to its original state.
As if there had never been any injury.
Daniel’s gaze lingered on his own hand for a moment, then he indifferently lowered it.
As if nothing special had happened. This simple behavior was more painful than any mockery or humiliation.
Seraphina quietly closed her eyes. She was the first to accept the truth.
"Skills aren’t enough." Her voice was calm, but its weight made all eyes turn to her.
The Lady of a Thousand Laws reached under her white robe and pulled out something that even Ragnar stared at for a few moments.
An old, worn silver necklace. But the moment it appeared, thousands of ancient runes emerged from the depths of space.
The necklace gave off a faint glow.
"Crown of Silent Origins."
For the first time in centuries, it was activated. The next moment, the laws around the dimensional layers they were within began to change.
Seraphina’s runes multiplied one after another.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Tens of thousands.
Hundreds of thousands.
The entire sky above them turned into a sea of silver symbols, and even space began to tremble under their pressure.
But this was only the beginning.
"She’s right. If we don’t use everything we have, we will die! And our death means the fall of the continent." Sel’nora stepped forward.
The Queen of the Elves placed her hand on her chest, and a white branch emerged from within the light. A branch that carried the scent of the world’s primordial nature.
Her green eyes gleamed.
[Seed of the First World Tree.]
The next moment, all the forests of the continent reacted. Ancient trees thousands of kilometers away began to tremble.
Massive roots crawled out from the heart of reality, and the spirit of nature awakened again, but this time very differently from before. A colossal being formed behind Sel’nora.
A figure made of forests, of seas, of mountains. As if nature itself had been summoned to battle.
The Holy Emperor also broke his silence. A metal heart of golden light appeared before him.
[The Divine Heart.]
The next moment, the sound of prayers was heard.
Not one voice, not a hundred thousand voices, but billions of prayers. The voices of generations who had died, saints who had been forgotten, believers who had turned to ash.
This heart contained the power of billions of believers throughout this world’s history. This was the power meant to be used against the monster that had destroyed two continents.
But it seemed he had no choice but to use it today.
All those voices gathered within the Holy Emperor, and a golden light formed behind him.
A figure more massive than mountains. A faceless, luminous figure that seemed to be the embodiment of the gods. The pressure of the Emperor’s presence suddenly multiplied several times over.
But the most significant change belonged to Ragnar. He quietly struck his sword on the ground, and a sound like the world breaking echoed through the dimensional layers.
Then he raised his other hand, and a red orb appeared.
The Core. The last remains of a Dragon Emperor. A being that had once ruled the skies. He had hunted this Dragon Emperor after it had turned into a beast of corruption and taken its core as a trophy.
[Core of the Dragon Emperor.]
The core entered the sword. At that moment, the entire space around Ragnar exploded. The dimensional layers began to tremble, as if spacetime might collapse at any moment.
Even the council members stepped back a few paces. He was the only human who had turned the heart of a Dragon Emperor into part of his own power.
Even ancient dragons were like children before a Dragon Emperor.
"I really didn’t want to use this here. This means that if I face that other monster later, I won’t have this core anymore." Ragnar sighed.
He had mainly saved this core for that monster that had destroyed two continents. But it seemed fate had other plans for him.
Then his gaze fell on the Divine Prophet, who from the beginning had still not directly intervened in the battle and had mostly been a spectator.
In fact, no one had ever seen the Divine Prophet fight directly with their own eyes. They knew this woman was powerful, but exactly how powerful? And why wasn’t she fighting now?
On the other hand, amidst all this preparation, Kyroth had remained silent. The old man’s eyes never left Daniel. The magical equations around him were constantly changing.
Billions of calculations, billions of possibilities, billions of answers.
And suddenly, they all reached one conclusion. A conclusion that should not exist.
A quiet smile settled on the old man’s face.
"I understand..." No one understood what he meant, exactly as usual.
But Kyroth was no longer looking at the battle. He was looking at the truth. A massive spell formed around him, the greatest masterpiece of his life.
[Absolute Genesis Formula.]
All the magic in the continent’s history gathered in his hands at that moment. The goal was not destruction.
The goal was understanding. He was an old man obsessed with knowing everything. And among everything, he always wanted to see the peak! He wanted to see the greatest unknown!
And he felt that perhaps now was the best opportunity. Perhaps by doing this, he could bring an incredible advantage to the Holy Council... or simply cause the destruction of them all...
The spell activated, and for a brief moment, it succeeded. Kyroth’s eyes saw something.
Something behind Daniel. Something beyond the tree, beyond the fruit, beyond this world. Endless whiteness. And in the midst of that endless whiteness that represented eternity, suddenly a pair of cold, inhuman, emotionless dark-golden eyes stared back at him.
Those eyes were transcendent, beyond any known or unknown. Beyond this world and beyond all of them. Beyond anything that existed in the mortal world.
The smile faded from the old man’s face. His hands trembled. His eyes widened.
"This..." His voice broke.
"Impossible..."
For the first time, Daniel fixed his gaze on him, just looked. He had just felt that this old man had tried to look into the depths of his being.
But judging by his reaction, it seemed he hadn’t seen anything interesting.
But at that moment, blood flowed from Kyroth’s eyes. The runes engraved on his body broke one after another.
His soul began to collapse.
"Kyroth!" Seraphina suddenly realized something and shouted for the first time.
"Sever the connection!"
"Damn it, you shouldn’t have used that spell, you foolish old man!"
Everyone looked at Kyroth in confusion. They didn’t understand what was happening. That was natural; only three people knew what that spell truly was.
Kyroth himself, the Divine Prophet, and Seraphina, who had helped create it.
But it was too late, far too late. The old man laughed quietly. Not from madness, but from satisfaction. The satisfaction of a scholar who had found the answer to his final question.
"Now I understand..." Light emanated from his body, and his skin turned into sparkling particles.
"Now I understand why there is no future... We are not facing a monster. We are facing something beyond this world."
His body quietly faded away, then his bones, then his soul. In the end, nothing remained. Only his legendary staff fell to the ground.
The oldest mage in the world was dead. Not in battle, not by an attack, but in his attempt to understand the truth. A truth that a mortal should not know.
No one spoke. Again, they were all in shock. They had lost one of their own.
For the first time, true fear had taken shape in the heart of the Holy Council.
And amidst that heavy silence, Daniel suddenly raised his head slightly.
"I didn’t expect that old man to be such an insane madman," he muttered aloud.
"Anyway, my time to return to that tree is approaching. So, ladies and gentlemen, how about we finish this quickly?"