The Monarch's Second Phase
The world was dyed pure white.
The Eiffel Tower’s iron frame melted away.
Every spell Rene Davis had cast was swallowed whole by the light.
Polar Night
Did you finish him?
This goddess really has learned nothing but bad habits from Jiyoung.
“If you say things like that…”
Thump. Thump!
The moment my sixth sense screamed a warning, I was already gone from that spot.
Blink activated.
Spatial distortion detected. Destination coordinates altered.
A violet pillar slammed into the ground where I had been standing.
Goosebumps crawled across my skin.
Overwhelming output.
It had erased even the maximized repulsive force of Solar Explosion and Avalanche.
Rene’s magic had interfered with my spatial movement. The coordinates had shifted just enough that I couldn’t completely dodge the attack.
The aftershock of the violet beam battered my entire body, but I canceled it out with Explosive Demonic Energy.
“If the goddess hadn’t said anything, this would’ve ended easily.”
Heh heh. Think the other way around. If not for this one’s warning, you would not have been able to avoid it.
“Yeah, yeah.”
I brushed it off half-heartedly.
As the acrid smoke cleared, the Eiffel Tower—exposed to the light of annihilation—came into view.
Roughly a quarter of its iron frame had melted.
It was a miracle the middle section hadn’t snapped in half.
The two persistent arms that had been tormenting me were gone without a trace.
“I didn’t expect anyone besides myself to be capable of using Fusion Qigong.”
Rene Davis, perched atop the structure, looked completely unharmed.
“You used the Eiffel Tower itself as a shield right before the explosion.”
“Indeed. I simply imitated your method.”
I’d been caught.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t an explosion created through Fusion Qigong, but the maximized repulsive force of Eclipse. Still, I didn’t bother correcting him.
Just as I had exploited the brief opening created while linking two instant-cast spells, Rene had seized the tiny window right before the repulsive force peaked and shielded his entire body with the Eiffel Tower.
Since Solar Explosion was technically a skill born from Fusion Qigong, I didn’t deny it.
“What a shame. You’ve missed the only chance you had to defeat me.”
“Only? Seems like you’re under a misconception.”
Shrink activated.
Spatial distortion detected. Nullified by Shrink’s effect.
I ignored the entangling energy with the power of Shrink and closed the distance to the Eiffel Tower monster.
Hoh. You widened the gap earlier, yet now you approach again?
“That thing has its own patterns, you know.”
Patterns?
“It doesn’t move while it’s regenerating.”
After exchanging blows several times, I was certain.
The Eiffel Tower monster couldn’t freely switch between offense and defense.
Like flipping a switch, it couldn’t recover while attacking.
Conversely, when repairing its damaged body, it couldn’t move at all.
The time required to switch between offense and defense was roughly one second.
That was more than enough.
“You truly discerned that much. However, it changes nothing.”
Inferno & Lightning Shower
Fusion Qigong
Lightning Inferno
Red lightning filled my entire field of vision.
By infusing flames into lightning in every direction, I amplified the total mana output.
A fusion spell that used ‘heat’ as a medium to exponentially increase the destructive power of both attributes came crashing down.
Chilling.
I locked eyes on the approaching lightning and activated the blessing of Bael, the fictional constellation created by the Qliphoth.
All-Encompassing Erosion.
A powerful blessing that could erode anything—tangible or intangible—within sight.
Using Truth Eyes, I read the structure of the mana, and All-Encompassing Erosion slipped into the gaps.
Still not enough.
The original source of All-Encompassing Erosion.
The Blessing of Greed that Baal had bestowed upon me dyed Rene’s mana with my own color.
“I’ll return it to you.”
The red lightning that had been shooting straight forward drew a massive arc and bent back the other way.
For the first time, the smile on Rene Davis’s lips vanished.
Clink!
The crystal embedded in his necklace shattered and fell to the ground.
The sealed spell Absolute Shield protected Rene Davis.
What a pity.
“I expected as much.”
I already knew the capabilities of the necklace he wore.
Archangel’s Blessing.
It was the artifact that had saved Rene Davis’s life before my regression.
Back then, when I thought I had cut off his breath on the European front, this thing activated and let him escape.
Even with all my strength, breaking the barrier manifested by that artifact would be difficult.
“If I managed to force out the Archangel’s Blessing with just this much, that’s still a win.”
Besides, my target from the beginning hadn’t been Rene Davis himself.
I sprinted toward the regenerating Eiffel Tower monster.
God’s Wrath activated.
Uraz Berserk activated.
…….
My physical abilities multiplied several times over.
With repeated buffs stacking on top of one another, power surged through me so violently it felt like my body might burst.
Buffs that far surpassed my current level.
If they had been support spells it might have been different, but using skills that forcibly awakened latent potential in succession made every single cell in my body scream.
A hard-earned opportunity. I could afford to push myself a little.
Internal energy concentrated in my wrists.
Using a body more thoroughly tempered than any weapon forged by dwarves, I generated Gang Qi.
Taotie Horn activated.
The Gang Qi spinning in my palm scattered in every direction.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
The instant the iron frame touched the violently spinning axe-gang, it collapsed with a deafening roar.
The dark mana sustaining the Eiffel Tower.
The reinforced iron frame.
Both were rendered powerless before my Gang Qi.
The destructive force was so overwhelming that its regeneration speed couldn’t keep up.
“You dare think you can neutralize me with such petty sorcery?!”
Magic bullets aimed at my back, but I deflected them with the power of Polar Night.
If I could just destroy the Eiffel Tower, Rene Davis would be no match for me.
I continued unleashing forms in succession, destroying the regenerating body of the Eiffel Tower monster.
The time it took for the Eiffel Tower to switch between offense and defense was roughly one second.
That was more than enough.
While chaining martial techniques, I also deployed the Seon Magic I had prepared in advance.
A net of lightning disrupted the monster’s mana flow.
An earth dragon surging from below bit at its feet and shook its balance.
Rene Davis unleashed spells created through Fusion Qigong, but I defended with Polar Night and Explosive Demonic Energy.
And finally—
Yellow Dragon Fang activated.
Overdrive activated.
The Gang Qi surging from my arm stretched nearly ten meters long.
Normally, at my current realm, four to five meters was the limit.
However, by converting Jean Durke’s unique ability into a skill, I forcibly drew out nearly double the usual output.
My dantian emptied at an alarming rate.
Damn it. I won’t be able to maintain this for long.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The tyrannical blade-gang tore apart the regenerating Eiffel Tower monster.
With a single swing, its length shrank drastically.
Overdrive could only be used for one attack.
A single form had consumed nearly half of my internal energy.
Blink activated.
I used Blink again the moment its cooldown ended.
The instant the one-second mark arrived, I abandoned my position.
『……!』
The Eiffel Tower monster had been reduced to rags.
It had lost four-fifths of its body.
The remaining portion barely maintained its shape and had lost most of its combat capability.
If I had pushed just a little harder, I could have completely destroyed it.
But Rene Davis’s momentum was too threatening, so I retreated.
If the Eiffel Tower monster charged without regard for anything, I would be caught in a pincer attack from front and back.
That would be rather troublesome.
“To think you would reduce France’s proud symbol to such a state!”
“Not using honorifics anymore?”
“There is no reason to show respect to someone who lacks reverence for beauty!”
Rene pointed at me, his face twisted with towering rage.
Heh heh.
Twisting that smug, polished face of his really does feel refreshing.
You truly are mischievous.
“He’s my enemy. This is part of the psychological warfare too.”
I shrugged.
The momentum I had seized with All-Encompassing Erosion.
I had wanted to savor the sight of Rene Davis’s distorted face… but he had already swallowed his fury.
“I didn’t want to resort to this method, but it seems I have no choice.”
Hey now.
You really don’t have to use that kind of move.
“This is all your own doing. Be crushed beneath the calamity you have summoned upon yourself.”
Rene touched the Eiffel Tower.
The structure on the verge of collapse shook off all its broken parts and began reassembling itself.
Like human bones and muscle, the Eiffel Tower repeatedly disassembled and reassembled.
The Eiffel Tower that enveloped Rene Davis transformed into the figure of a fully armored knight.
“So there was a second phase after all.”
I let out a short sigh.
* * *
A steel giant thirty meters tall.
Compared to the original Eiffel Tower, it had shrunk to roughly one-tenth the size.
Yet the Eiffel Tower now synchronized with Rene radiated an even more intense aura than before.
“What trick did you use?”
『Hahaha! I have become one with France’s pride.』
“You could’ve done that from the start.”
『Foolish. Only because you reduced the Eiffel Tower’s size was I finally able to synchronize with it using my own power.』
“So you couldn’t handle too much mana at once.”
How kind of him.
Rene, convinced of his victory, had willingly spilled the secret of his power.
Thanks to that, I now understood the principle behind his synchronization with the Eiffel Tower.
Do you have a plan?
“No. I’ll just beat him down with raw power.”
The sapling of Gaag-Shebla I had encountered in the DMZ.
That old man had summoned an Eldritch Dragon and fused with it.
The Eiffel Tower was the very incarnation of the Qliphoth Tree.
Because it was a colossal power without its own will, Rene could synchronize and merge with it using his own body.
However, is that fellow not specialized in magic? Even if he possesses great strength, if he cannot wield it properly—
“Did you forget his class is Almighty?”
Almighty.
A class that required learning a wide variety of skills before advancement.
The reason he had focused on magic until now was simply because he had left close-quarters combat to the Eiffel Tower monster.
『Exactly as you say, my summon.』
Rene, now a steel giant, charged straight at me.
The amount of mana had clearly decreased.
Yet his aura was sharper and more domineering than before.
It was completely different from when the Eiffel Tower had wielded power as a mindless monster.
Soul Body & Emergency Escape
Fusion Qigong
Shape Chaser
Rene’s form stretched out.
The distance between us closed in an instant.
Evading was impossible.
It was an unavoidable technique that branded the target’s soul and forcibly teleported the user beside them.
It was one of Rene Davis’s pursuit skills that I had experienced multiple times before my regression.
Instead of dodging, I prepared a counterattack.
Although Overdrive prevented me from using martial techniques, my ability to manipulate internal energy had only dropped by ninety percent. The rest of my power was unaffected by the penalty.
A tightly clenched fist.
The moment I unleashed a strike reinforced with monstrous strength, Rene raised his shield.
Iron Wall & Shield Break
Fusion Qigong
Iron Maiden
The Explosive Demonic Energy within my fist reversed and attacked my own body.
It increased his defense while reflecting the opponent’s power.
I didn’t resist the reflected force and immediately withdrew my fist.
The metal reflection gauntlet tore apart, and droplets of blood scattered through the air.
After exchanging only a single blow, I was sent flying dozens of meters backward.
Overwhelming output and bizarre skill manipulation.
My entire body throbbed.
『Now, are you ready to repent?』
“How stupid.”
Still floating in the air, I raised my middle finger.
“This is my escape route.”
Due to the aftereffects of Overdrive, I couldn’t use martial techniques.
I needed to buy time, and he was willingly increasing the distance. How convenient?
“Goddess.”
I have been waiting.
At Nyx’s gesture, darkness surged wildly.
You’re not the only one with a second phase.
“Let’s have some real fun.”
“Heh heh. I shall teach you what true beauty is.”
Nyx responded to my words and spread the power of Polar Night wide.