Caesar turned to Rybalko, "You said there are many giant snakes on this island?"
"In my memory, yes." Rybalko also seemed a bit puzzled, because they hadn't seen any giant snakes since coming ashore, though they had indeed found some huge shed snake skins.
"If your memory is not wrong, where did those giant snakes go?" Abbas said in a deep voice, "Could they have left Avalon?"
"That kind of snake swarm isn't suited to survive in the Arctic Ocean, and they couldn't possibly grow that large in the outside world," Caesar said. "They must have left temporarily for some reason."
"What could scare those ghost snakes away?" Finger asked. "Leviathan?"
"No, Leviathan can't come ashore, or it would have killed us all long ago," Caesar said. "Then it must be because of the person who is about to come in."
"God?" Abbas asked.
"More likely the devil," Schneider said in a deep voice. "Whatever it is, we will wait for it here and kill it."
"Your friend died here?" Caesar asked Rybalko as he pulled the bolt of his gun.
"Presumably so. He was left behind on the island to cover our retreat," Rybalko said. "A year has passed—how could he have survived?"
Caesar nodded. "What did you run into that time? God? Leviathan?"
"It was a swarm of snakes." Rybalko frowned. He always felt something was wrong. The image of that man firing his AK-47 in burst shots was so clear, but why would they be ambushed by a snake swarm? When did they encounter the snake swarm? They seemed to have come to this valley, and seemed to have met some other people as well... But their memories suffered a fracture right here, as if something had been forcibly gouged out from his mind.
"How did you encounter the snake swarm?" Caesar asked.
"I don't remember. This time for real." Rybalko's brow was tightly knit. He tried to connect those fragments in his memory, but it seemed a most crucial piece was missing, leaving a blank in the middle of the entire memory.
At that moment, the sky suddenly lit up, like the sunrise.
Everyone looked toward the direction of the sunrise and saw bright flames igniting at the meeting point of sea and sky.
For a moment, Caesar didn't know what words to use to describe this magnificent scene. It looked as if the gates of heaven were opening in the distance, with the God-King leading thousands of troops and horses to charge. The flames lighting the sky were the wrath of the emperor, and the towering ocean tides were the charging cavalry. At the dazzling vanguard, a black dot faintly appeared. Though they still couldn't clearly see what it was, everyone had already felt his overwhelming pressure, as if the king of gods had descended to the mortal world.
Rybalko's expression turned very ugly in an instant. The fragments of memory awakened in his mind: the man with burning Golden Pupils wielding an AK-47, the white Grim Reaper approaching the shore by boat, the man surnamed Chu wading through knee-deep water and pushing the boat... And in the very end, they left in a speedboat, and he threw the AK-47 in his hand to that man.
Yet something was wrong again. If he threw the AK-47 to Chu, why was he holding this gun now? If the gun returned to his hands, then where was Chu?
"He is here." Schneider's expression was solemn. They hadn't waited for Leviathan, but they had waited for God.
All the gun muzzles were aimed at the black dot driving from the edge of sea and sky. Under the blinding light and fire, that figure remained distinct. It was a small boat with a coffin placed at the bow, and a white figure standing upon it—if he could truly be called a "person."
A white shroud wrapped him tightly from head to toe, and he seemed to be wearing a white robe. His single golden pupil was as dazzling as the rising sun.
"Who is he?" someone in the crowd asked tremblingly.
"No matter who he is, he is our enemy," Schneider said in a deep voice. He walked to the very edge of the cliff against the divine light and fire, his black mask reflecting the golden radiance.
Abbas's fists had clenched at some point, accompanied by a strange feeling—as if he had been searching for something for many years, and only now that God appeared before him had he found the direction he was meant to pursue. It was a bizarre sensation, like sorrow and anger carved into his bloodline, and a voice seemed to urge him from the bottom of his heart.
That voice said: "Kill him!"
His Golden Pupils had quietly ignited, and electric arcs flowed through his boiling blood. The Thor's fury was now unstoppable.
The little girl wrapped in polar bear skin stared in shock, looking at the unimaginable scene before her eyes. The sky was burning, the sea was burning, and the deity brought a scorching blaze, as if everyone and everything were burning.
The one-eyed Grim Reaper stood straight at the bow, gazing coldly at the isolated island ahead, gazing at those who dared to challenge his divine throne. If he possessed human emotions, he should be issuing silent mockery right now.
*Mere ants, how dare you challenge the God-King's throne?*
The small boat slowly came to a halt. The deity slightly raised his head, his single golden pupil illuminating everyone on the mountaintop like the morning sun.
Gunshots rang out the next second. Countless bullets poured down, and the crew members led by Rybalko roared as they pulled the triggers, while Kassel College's agents didn't lag behind and opened fire together.
Yet those bullets failed to strike the deity's body. An invisible wall seemed to stand before God, as if high-speed bullets were forcibly reined in, instantly spinning and melting into molten iron. A barrier formed by the spreading molten iron unfolded around him, resembling a translucent egg.
"What... is that thing?" Under the deity's oppressive might, someone knelt tremblingly, continuously making the sign of the cross on their chest. The members of Kassel College were also shocked; Caesar felt an indescribable sense of oppression... familiar yet scorching hot.
He had faced the Dragon King Norton and the Dragon King Constantine; the oppression God brought him far exceeded even Norton's, and that barrier melting the bullets was identical to Constantine's back then!
"Blood Rage" silently activated, and the Golden Pupils of Caesar and Abbas bloomed like golden lotuses.
Bullets were already ineffective against the deity's barrier; next, they could only rely on their bloodline to challenge the throne of God.
First-degree Blood Rage, second-degree Blood Rage!
Kamaitachi, evolution, Blood-Sucking Sickles!
Spiritual Word, Indra, release!
Two standout figures of the Secret Party's younger generation leaped down from the cliff. Dictator and the Persian saber slashed through the divine light and flame, with the blood-thirsty wind-demon and surging lightning lunging at the deity first. The eggshell made of molten iron was forcibly torn open. The deity stood there empty-handed, his single golden eye cold and ruthless.
"Careful!"
The slashed molten iron suddenly contracted, nearly enclosing Caesar and Abbas within it. Once wrapped in this high temperature capable of melting steel, the natural end would be turning into roasted suckling pigs.
Spiritual Word: Domain of Dustless Space, release!
The brief vacuum formed by the Domain of Dustless Space bought Caesar and Abbas a split second of time. The two passed through the molten iron and rolled to either sides on the shoreline. The very next moment after they hurriedly landed, the Domain of Dustless Space was forcibly squeezed, and the molten iron splashed black fireworks in the air.
Paci staggered as he landed in the back, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. In that very instant, it wasn't that the "Domain of Dustless Space" was forcibly breached by the molten iron, but rather that his bloodline was forcibly crushed, and the "Domain of Dustless Space" was forcibly erased!
Is this the true Dragon King? Paci flipped back his drooping bangs, his unquenchable Golden Pupils blazing like fire at this moment. Scales and bony protrusions grew on his arms; his bloodline no longer restrained itself, and beneath his wildly dancing golden hair, heterochromatic pupils were revealed, his pale yet wicked face resembling an escaped demon.
Caesar and Abbas crouched on the shore to the side, green scales already growing on their bodies. After Blood Rage, dragon blood boiled within them, and their perception and strength were all enhanced to an unprecedented degree. The suppressed killing desires in their bloodline were being triggered, and their battle stances were executed like instinct.
After second-degree Blood Rage, they were infinitely close to Dragons, with the power of demons flowing through their blood vessels. Both had pushed "Blood Rage" to its second tier right from the start, because the moment they charged toward the deity, they already knew this was an entity surpassing the King of Bronze and Fire and the King of Earth and Mountain. If they didn't go all out from the very beginning, they would never have another chance the next moment.
Only by releasing the power of the demon could one kill the demon; only by using the might of the deity were they qualified to challenge the throne of God.
"Damn it, we're carrying three monsters with us!" Finger yelled on the mountaintop. Everyone witnessing this was stunned, and the crew members were speechless; all of this far exceeded their comprehension.
Is that... a dragon?
People who can turn into this... are they gods or demons?
And that quiet, standing figure in white... what kind of existence could that be?
"The path to godhood, once again."
To everyone's surprise, instead of continuing his attack immediately, the deity slightly raised his head as if gazing wistfully at the sky, and then uttered a sentiment.
The deity's deep voice wasn't deafening, but it lingered in the entire valley for a long time. Although the language spoken by that voice was unknown, everyone present could understand it, as if the words were being told to them by the wind.
"Only with the power of a god does one have the qualification to challenge a god," Paci replied. "Then, may I ask who you are?"
"Mortals have no qualification to ask for the name of a deity," God said indifferently. "Even if you are no longer human now, it is still not enough."
"Not enough?" Paci said calmly. "Don't you even want to know our purpose for coming here?"
"Gods never care about mortals."
Paci grinned, his heterochromatic pupils enchanting and wicked. "What if the mortals have come to kill you?"
"Such confidence from humans, a weak race," God said. "Yet what ability do you have to sustain your confidence?"
"That would be our fearless hearts of death," Paci said. "The path to godhood, is it? We came here precisely to slay gods!"
Having said this, Paci's entire body suddenly suspended in mid-air. The Spiritual Word: Domain of Dustless Space erupted aggressively, instantly forming a vacuum barrier around the deity and generating peerless pressure to forcibly crush the deity's body.
Caesar and Abbas surged forward simultaneously. While Paci was conversing with the deity, they hadn't been idle, instead slowly adjusting their stances while waiting for the right moment. Both knew that to challenge an existence like God, they needed to seize every fleeting opportunity. Therefore, Paci continuously baited the deity into communication while Caesar and Abbas bided their time for a full-strength strike.
Yet until this moment, the deity still stood unmoved in place. Paci's fully erupted Domain of Dustless Space was enough to crush gold and stone, yet the deity stood motionless as if nothing were wrong!
Roaring lightning smashed toward the deity's back. Through the gaps in the lightning, Kamaitachi shuttled, and Dictator slashed at the deity's flank from an extremely tricky angle.
This was a nearly flawless surprise attack—had the target of the surprise attack not been a god.
Time seemed to suddenly freeze at this moment. The deity's figure turned illusory for a fraction of a second, and the three attackers were sent flying backward.
"What happened?" Finger screamed.
"Didn't see clearly." Schneider slowly shook his head.
No one saw the deity's movement, but the deity had knocked the three attackers flying in an instant. The only explanation was that his speed was simply too fast—fast enough to compensate for any flaws in timing.
Or perhaps he never made mistakes with timing in the first place, because all timing was under his control.
"You are still far too far away," God said. "No matter how mortals attain godhood, they will never be true gods."
"Such confidence," Caesar wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and stood up once more. "Do you know someone named Herzog? He was the newly born White King, and he died—died at human hands."
"Humans who merely stole the power of gods, never even understanding the world of gods, are ultimately just ants," God said. "Having never flown, how can you presumptuously discuss the height of the sky?"
"Such confidence," Caesar said, Blood-Sucking Sickles dancing wildly in the air as they silently lunged toward the deity.
Yet an imperial barrier seemed to block the front of the deity, and all the Kamaitachi turned to flying ash before that barrier, without even a single moment of struggle.
As it turned out, even with second-degree Blood Rage, it still failed to close the distance between him and God.
Caesar slightly lowered his body, preparing to launch another charge.
So what if he knew he would surely die? He could die for his pride, but he would not flee to live in ignominy.
"Young Master, leave it to me," Paci said softly.
"Get lost!" Caesar said impatiently. "You're blocking my path."
"Young Master, you still hold the weapon that decides the outcome; you just need an opportunity," Paci said in a very low voice. Caesar froze slightly, only then remembering that his Desert Eagle still loaded that single bullet.
That bullet of "Scorching Blood"!
If that bullet could be fired into the deity's body, backed by the power of the King of Bronze and Fire, even a god couldn't endure it, right?
"Then leave it to us." Abbas held his curved saber and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Paci, electric arcs flowing along the blade.
"Are you still holding up?" Abbas looked at Paci.
"I haven't unleashed my true power yet," Paci said, his Golden Pupils growing ever brighter.
"What a coincidence, neither have I," Abbas said, blinding white lightning masking his Golden Pupils.
"Blood Rage" activated once more. Their leg joints reversed, gray-blue exoskeleton covered their faces, bone spurs protruded, and muscles bulged. Their upper garments were torn apart, and cyan scales reflected the light of lightning and fire.
Caesar paused for a moment, gripping the Desert Eagle tightly in his hand.