Li-jun… is dead?
As if witnessing the impossible, the girl who had been thrown to safety stood frozen, staring blankly at the temple that had been razed to the ground.
The god who had slain Kingu in a matter of moments, who had imprisoned the Demonic Beast Goddess as if she were a mere toy to be dealt with later, who had severed the Authority of the Second Beast and allowed her to return to her identity as the Mother of Compassion… had died, just like that?
"Th-this has to be a joke, right?"
The girl, who didn't particularly like Li Zihan but certainly never wished for his death, found her voice trembling.
That powerful man, who seemed so flippant and carefree but always managed to resolve every crisis with ease… was he really gone?
"Li-jun was so strong…"
"But I am stronger."
The words, spoken with utter calm, left Goetia's lips.
There was no excessive contempt, yet they carried a profound arrogance that anyone could feel.
"The concepts of 'strong' and 'weak' are born from comparison."
"Compared to me, that ant who audaciously tried to steal a part of me is weak."
The Beast, who had always placed himself on a higher plane and thus viewed all of creation with an air of pity, spoke slowly, a faint smile on his face as he addressed the girl who now clutched a longbow.
Then, his gaze lingered for a moment on the bow in Mash's arms.
"Of course, if he had been holding Vijaya, he probably would have lasted a little longer."
Vijaya, the Triumphant Bow.
One of Karna's trump cards in the myths.
Simply holding it was enough to render the wielder immune to harm from a myriad of weapons, including even divine instruments. It was a super-weapon so potent that even Krishna—a being far superior to both Karna and Arjuna—would have been struck with fear upon seeing it.
Finally understanding the true name of the weapon that had been thrust into her arms, the girl's lips turned pale.
That man, a natural-born philanderer, a scumbag who would unhesitatingly turn her words, spoken in a fit of pique, into reality… had he given his ultimate defense to her in his final moments?
Had she… gotten her Master's lover killed?
"Don't put on such a self-reproachful, on-the-verge-of-tears expression."
A voice, tinged with exasperation, suddenly echoed.
The sound made the guilt-ridden girl freeze, and she instinctively turned toward its source.
As if returning from the void itself, the young man who should have been completely vaporized by the power of Goetia's third Noble Phantasm appeared once more.
As if offering an explanation, he turned his head and spoke to the tearful girl.
"Morning, noon, and dusk. Only after that does the curtain fall."
"With the power I have from the sun, I'm not so easy to kill."
After gifting his solar divinity to Ereshkigal, Li Zihan could no longer be considered a sun god. However, as he originated as a God-Slayer, he wasn't the type to become useless and lose access to his Authorities just because his divinity was gone.
Even if the sun sets three times, Li Zihan still possessed an Authority he had usurped from the Heretical God Lugh in the world of Campione!
Its effect was similar to an un-nerfed version of Heracles's Twelve Labors, granting Li Zihan three distinct and separate lives. Furthermore, with each life he lost, all of his personal stats would increase by twenty percent.
He looked at the man whose hands were now adorned with a complete set of ten rings, and then, he extended his own hand.
In an instant, a divinely beautiful spear and a sword that could hardly be described by the word "sword" materialized in his grasp.
They were the Sword of Rupture, Ea, which he had inherited from Gilgamesh, and the God-Slaying Spear, Vasavi Shakti, which he had obtained from Karna.
The former could simulate the deified Authority of the great god Ea—a power that mirrored the force of the planet itself, which was believed to have rotated and fractured the primordial Earth's surface of molten seas and gases, thereby stabilizing it.
The latter, when its full power was unleashed at the cost of everything, was described as potent enough to utterly annihilate any "single" existence in the world, capable of even felling the first stage of the Velber—one of the power ceilings of the Type-Moon world.
It was safe to say that both the spear and the sword were weapons that stood at the very pinnacle of the Type-Moon world. If both were to be unleashed at their maximum synchronized output, even the god-kings of the major pantheons would most likely be killed instantly.
"Is that all the destructive potential you can muster?"
Yet the collective of Demon Gods known as Goetia merely watched with intrigued eyes as the young man simultaneously wielded two weapons, each capable of killing a normal god-king.
Goetia possessed an immortality that was, within the Type-Moon world, practically invincible.
Just as the Beast of Regression, Tiamat, his "mother," could never perish so long as her "children" existed, he was indestructible as long as Solomon's remains endured.
No matter how many times he was killed, he would simply revive within the Grand Temple of Time, a reality built upon the foundation of Solomon's corpse.
Therefore, it mattered not whether his enemy held a God-Slaying Spear or a world-cleaving sword; neither could truly harm him. Even if his opponent brandished Kalki's world-judging flame sword, Zeus's thunderbolts that judged all creation, or Shiva's light of destruction, he would not show any greater surprise.
Because even if those powers could kill him, it would only mean a quick trip back to the Grand Temple of Time.
No matter how strong an attack is, if it cannot truly harm its target, it is meaningless.
"You clearly had the ability to flee this place without my knowledge, yet you chose to remain and raise your weapons against me?"
"Your courage is commendable."
The Demon God, who held no interest in humanity as a whole, nor even in gods or primates, fixed his gaze upon the spear and sword-wielding youth, and his voice turned desolate and cold.
Like a biting wind sweeping over a forgotten, sacred mountain, a frigid aura descended, making Mash feel as if time had instantly fast-forwarded to the dead of winter.
This was the shameless ant who had intended to dominate a part of him through the method of demonic summoning.
"Well, the plan to instantly seize control of over half the Demon God Pillars and split you in two has failed, after all."
Imperceptibly, the young man glanced at the rings on a certain someone's hands before speaking casually to the man who was the collective of the seventy-two Demon God Pillars.
"When strategy has lost its effectiveness, the only option left is to face the enemy head-on, isn't it?"
Clap. Clap.
The Demon God, his eyes growing ever colder, began to applaud.
"To make me self-destruct through division?"
"A fantastical idea, yet one with surprising feasibility."
"The city of Troy fell because of a wooden horse. The invincible must be broken from within, must they not?"
The young man smiled faintly, then let out a soft sigh.
He had not been given the chance to breach Troy from within.
"Since you know that I am invincible, do you still intend to stand as my enemy?" Goetia asked, a rare hint of curiosity directed at this audacious foe.
Then, a rather laughable answer reached his ears.
"Can't be helped. Who told me to go and sleep with the little lasses from Chaldea?"
The faintly smiling young man began to draw magical energy from his connection with Tiamat, adjusting his own state.
"This isn't for the sake of the Human Order. It's just for the girls. I should at least try to fight to the end for their home, shouldn't I?"