It was almost time. We stepped into a dark room, similar to the last one but significantly larger to accommodate more participants.
Given the much longer waiting period this time, the room was furnished with a small table, several chairs, and a luminous screen displaying live feeds from various arenas.
It was approximately two-thirty, with about thirty minutes remaining until the match began. This interval was typically used for contestants to adjust their state of mind.
I meticulously considered my positioning once I entered the arena. Ultimately, I decided to take a rear position, much like most Phantasm Gods, given my lack of formidable combat prowess.
As I pondered, the massive clock in the center of the arena ticked forward, its hands now pointing to two-fifty.
Once again, a flash of holy light enveloped me. I was beyond words.
After a moment of blinding white, I found myself standing in the arena. Xilinka and Mifeier were before me, while Lavishly Karafar stood beside me.
“Our opponents consist of a Guardian God, three War Gods, and a Mage God, a team focused on extreme burst damage,” Xilinka stated calmly from the front of our formation. “For us, dealing with them shouldn’t be difficult. I can prevent them from coalescing their burst, leaving the rest to you.”
Mifeier, meanwhile, gazed nervously at the multitude of spectators in the stands. Lavishly Karafar, utterly unfazed, simply fixed her eyes on the countdown timer.
“Click—!” The timer’s second hand struck twelve. The shimmering light wall before us vanished instantly, and both teams moved simultaneously.
“Pong—!” Xilinka launched forward like a cannonball—no, at a speed far exceeding any projectile.
The opposing team, seemingly anticipating her move, raised massive shields shimmering with golden light, blocking her advance. Three War Gods then used the glowing barriers to engage her in a skirmish.
Behind me, Mifeier had simply fallen asleep! ‘I remember she tends to fall asleep when she gets nervous!’
Lavishly Karafar, further back, immediately began her incantation, seemingly preparing to unleash ‘Annihilation’.
Having just finished applying a series of buffs I had prepared, my mood was complicated. I finally understood why our team’s record was so dismal.
Mifeier would fall asleep under pressure, while Lavishly Karafar offered Xilinka no support, leaving her to fight five opponents alone, all while preparing her seemingly powerful ‘Annihilation’.
At the front, Xilinka bent low, twisting her body with fierce precision. Her longsword spun with her movement, sweeping away a wide area of light shields and incoming attacks.
I knew I had to do something. There was no way I could assist Xilinka at the front, so I rushed to Mifeier’s side, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t wake her.
The spectators in the stands shook their heads, a collective sigh of regret. It was truly a pity that the Moe God, whom everyone had held in such high regard, had joined such a hopeless team.
Many wished they had acted sooner to recruit her themselves.
Seeing my efforts were futile, I abandoned that approach. Observing that Xilinka was still managing comfortably for the moment, I retrieved my ‘Moe God’s Grimoire’.
I quickly flipped through the pages. “Is there… any divine art that can quickly awaken someone…?”
I turned the pages with incredible speed; as a deity, it was impossible for me to overlook anything.
“Snap—!” I swiftly closed the book. I had just spotted two divine arts: ‘Awaken Spirit’ and ‘Dispel’.
‘Awaken Spirit’ was designed to rouse a deity from a state of fatigue, while ‘Dispel’ was a powerful grand divine art capable of removing nearly all negative effects from a person, making it incredibly practical.
“Divine Art: Awaken Spirit.” Rings of white light emanated from my hand, spreading outwards.
When they touched Mifeier, they merely rippled slightly before dissipating, seemingly ineffective.
Then ‘Dispel’ it was. However, ‘Dispel’ was a grand divine art, requiring a vast number of divine words to cast.
Observing that Xilinka still showed no signs of fatigue, I began combining the necessary components.
This divine art was a massive spell, demanding an outrageously high number of characters—over seventeen hundred divine words, to be precise.
It was also incredibly obscure. To maximize its spatial utility, I had placed some of the lesser-known divine words at the periphery, making its activation even more cumbersome.
A series of beautiful melodies drifted forth. Though they sounded like celestial music, my extreme tension left me with no inclination to appreciate them.
One of the War Gods engaging Xilinka immediately broke away, sprinting towards me. Although he didn’t know what divine art I was casting, he understood that such a grand divine art was more than just playing music; it could very well determine the outcome of the battle.
Seeing the situation unfold, my lips curved into a smirk. This was precisely the outcome I had hoped for.
I had intentionally raised the volume of my incantation, not truly expecting ‘Dispel’ to wake Mifeier; after all, while it could remove negative effects, who could say for sure if it worked on sleep?
If I presented such a significant threat, the opponent would undoubtedly send at least one person to eliminate me. This, in turn, would greatly alleviate the pressure on Xilinka.
He was closing in. My casting motion for ‘Dispel’ abruptly changed, and I instantly unleashed ‘Thousand Jins’.
As the saying goes, ‘A unique skill, mastered, can conquer all.’
A brick—no, a book—slammed into him. Its speed was so immense that a sonic boom echoed through the air.
To use a book in such a manner was truly unprecedented.
The blue-haired youth before me was a deity, after all. Having learned of my peculiar fighting style last time, he was undoubtedly prepared.
He used ‘Refraction,’ a simple displacement-type divine art that allowed for a slight lateral shift. While seemingly minor, it could be surprisingly effective in actual combat.
Unlike ‘Flash,’ a divine art only accessible to Phantasm Gods with specific attributes or linguistic systems, ‘Refraction’ could be learned by all deities, thus its application methods were highly developed.
He watched as the book slipped from my grasp, having missed its target. His previously tense expression gradually relaxed.
‘No matter how formidable, a Phantasm God is still just that,’ he likely thought. ‘To gain an advantage over a War God, especially one prepared, is ultimately a fool’s dream.’
He raised the short sword in his hand and thrust it fiercely forward. Incidentally, this arena was protected by a God-King-tier divine artifact, the ‘Wheel of Immortality’.
No creature within this zone could truly die; upon ‘death,’ they would simply be transported outside the magic array, perfectly alive and ready to fight again.
Back on the main battlefield, Xilinka found herself under significantly less pressure due to one less opponent. However, the only truly bothersome aspect was their persistent evasion.
With those massive golden shields obstructing her vision, she couldn’t effectively strike her other adversaries. If this continued, her divine power, which amounted to less than a million, would surely be depleted.
Before me, the blue-haired youth, wielding a gleaming golden short sword, brought his blade down with a vicious thrust.
He had activated ‘Edge,’ a very common yet practical basic divine art that enhanced a weapon’s penetration ability.
The anticipated sensation of flesh being pierced never came. Instead, his dagger struck something unusually hard.
He focused his gaze, only to see… a book?!
It was the very book I had been holding earlier. ‘Don’t mistake me for a fool; though I might not always appear so, I am quite intelligent!’
In battle royales, I rarely placed outside the top twenty. In strategy games, I was frequently reported for suspicious play. ‘I’m a tactical player, you see.’
First, that previous maneuver was quite simple. For a Phantasm God to possess such formidable close-combat abilities was highly unusual.
I believed that, subconsciously, many would assume I was using some obscure divine art, without considering my inherent capabilities. Cognitive bias is a terrifying thing; such ingrained thinking doesn’t change instantly.
So, I obligingly swung a brick—no, a book—at him. His dodge was entirely within my expectations.
As for the book slipping from my hand? That was, of course, intentional. With my grip strength, could it truly have fallen accidentally?
Once my book seemingly ‘slipped,’ my opponent subconsciously believed I had lost my primary weapon, prompting him to confidently launch his attack.
This created an opening and led him to make a fatal mistake.
“Divine Art: Substitution”—a very rare divine art that allowed me to swap my body with a pre-prepared object.
Thus, our positions were now: my book, with him staring at it, and me looking at his back. ‘No weapon?’
‘He must have forgotten that my divine symbol is a staff, I suppose.’
Wielding a staff taller than myself, I swung it in a full arc, bringing it down heavily onto his back. The motion was swift and decisive.
Naturally, I hadn’t forgotten to imbue the staff with ‘Thousand Jins’.
“Clang—!” Dust billowed up from the ground, sending shattered stones scattering everywhere. ‘Hehe, another successful ambush.’
It was safe to say this strike was far more potent than the last. A book, after all, was merely a one-handed weapon, nowhere near as powerful as this formidable staff.
The debris flying across the ground served as clear evidence.
As the dust settled, there was no one left on the ground. ‘Uh… it seems I might have instantly eliminated my opponent with that one hit.’
The stands fell into a stunned silence once more. The shock this time was many times greater than before.
Last time, it was a Mage God, tricked by a less-than-honorable feigned death. This time, it was a War God, fully prepared and giving their all, yet the outcome was even more devastating than the last.
Moreover, there weren’t many War Gods capable of instantly defeating another War God with a single blow.
A chorus of gulps rippled through the stands. They had initially believed this Phantasm God, with her adorable appearance, would fight gently like a Life Goddess.
But this fighting style…
Having eliminated one opponent, I didn’t pause. Instead, I began casting a new round of buffs.
In a chaotic melee like this, with my limited combat experience, my only true contribution was to provide support.
Rings of light materialized around Xilinka, enhancing her strength, recovery speed, agility, and resistances. Aura after aura enveloped her as if divine power were limitless.
And indeed, when it came to divine power, I truly had no shortage.
Xilinka’s offensive became increasingly smooth, while her opponents found themselves struggling to cope. At this critical juncture, Lavishly Karafar’s divine art was finally ready.