Chapter 576: Art is an Explosion!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The colossal ice fists relentlessly battered the incoming crimson sphere. Under the apocalyptic barrage, the sphere's forward momentum visibly slowed once again.
Thousands of tons of shattered ice danced through the air, completely filling the sky. Sunlight reflected off the microscopic ice crystals, transforming the battlefield into a blinding, glittering spectacle.
But neither mage paid attention to the beautiful scenery. Their entire focus was locked entirely on their respective spells.
Despite the overwhelming kinetic bombardment, the massive crimson sphere continued its agonizingly slow, relentless march toward the Ice Buddha.
August analyzed the distance. If he detonated the sphere from this range, the blast radius wouldn't be large enough to completely overwhelm Noah's defenses.
August stepped forward, floating through the air until he was directly behind his spell. He placed both hands on the back of the massive sphere and violently poured a fresh surge of Ethernano directly into the core.
Empowered by the Magic King's direct infusion, the sphere accelerated, aggressively tearing through the hailstorm of ice fists.
"HAAAA!"
Noah roared, pushing his magic circuits to their absolute limit. The Ice Buddha's thousands of arms blurred, increasing their striking frequency to a terrifying degree.
The two mages locked into a brutal, apocalyptic stalemate.
The deafening roar of their clashing magic drowned out all other sound. The resulting shockwaves completely cleared the sky of clouds for miles, leaving nothing but bright sunlight beating down on the churning, chaotic ocean.
However, despite Noah's absolute best efforts, August's raw magical output was simply superior.
Even under the relentless bombardment, the crimson sphere continued to inch closer.
Noah realized that he couldn't stop the sphere's advance. He was going to lose this exchange.
But having anticipated this outcome, he wasn't disappointed. This was the Magic King, after all. But if he was going to lose, he was going to make sure he went out with a bang.
While maintaining the barrage of ice fists to slow the sphere, Noah began silently siphoning a massive portion of his Ethernano directly into the Ice Buddha's core.
He was essentially pouring his entire magical reserve into the construct, rapidly draining his own stamina. A profound, bone-deep wave of exhaustion washed over him. For Noah, whose stamina was practically infinite, this level of exhaustion was a completely novel experience.
On the other side, August was also feeling the strain. While his magical reserves were greater than Noah's, maintaining an apocalyptic spell of this magnitude while constantly overriding Noah's kinetic bombardment was incredibly taxing for an eighty-eight-year-old man.
Noticing Noah's subtle shift in magical flow, August narrowed his eyes. Noah was clearly preparing a final, desperate countermeasure.
August immediately siphoned a portion of his own magic to reinforce his personal defensive shields.
When the crimson sphere was roughly three hundred meters away from the Ice Buddha—functionally point-blank given the sheer size of the constructs—August made his move.
"HAA!"
August roared, pouring the last dregs of his active offensive magic into the sphere and violently shoving his hands forward.
The crimson sphere exponentially accelerated, violently smashing through the dense wall of ice fists as it rocketed directly toward the Ice Buddha's chest.
August had timed his surge perfectly, aiming to overwhelm Noah right as the young man was in the middle of his final preparations.
"Incredible," Noah muttered, genuinely impressed by August's flawless combat timing.
Because Noah was currently rewriting the Ice Buddha's internal runic matrix, he couldn't interrupt the process to defend himself. If he stopped, the spell would collapse.
His only option was to violently accelerate the casting process by burning significantly more Ethernano, leaving him with very little magic to defend himself from the ensuing blast.
"Whatever. It's the end of the fight anyway!" Noah grinned wildly.
He poured everything he had left into the Ice Buddha's core. The sudden, violent drain caused his face to go deathly pale. His legs gave out, and he dropped to one knee atop the colossal ice head.
"Got it!" Noah cheered, his expression completely ignoring his physical exhaustion.
The crimson sphere was now less than two hundred meters away.
"INCOMING!" Noah roared to August, forcing himself back to his feet.
He rapidly cast a sequence of low-level enhancement spells on himself—strength, speed, and weight-reduction—keeping only a microscopic sliver of Ethernano for basic defense.
Then, he aggressively leapt backward, rocketing away from the Ice Buddha.
"Art is an explosion!" Noah yelled as he flew backward.
He formed a sword seal with his right hand and violently triggered the complex runic matrix he had just finished weaving into the Ice Buddha's core.
Instantly, a blindingly bright light ignited within the Buddha's chest. The light rapidly spread outward, transforming the entire two-thousand-meter construct into a glowing, incandescent bomb.
Without Noah actively fueling the ice fists, their striking speed plummeted. The crimson sphere easily plowed through the remaining resistance and slammed directly into the Ice Buddha's glowing chest.
"You lunatic," August muttered, shaking his head with a fond, exasperated sigh.
Because August was actively pushing the sphere, he was dangerously close to the impact zone. He instantly threw his hands up, completely abandoning his offensive spell, and rapidly backpedaled.
He dumped the entirety of his remaining Ethernano into his personal defensive shields, maximizing his speed enchantments to clear the blast radius.
He knew exactly how powerful Noah's explosive arrays were. Combining an overloaded Holder-Type bomb the size of a mountain with his own highly-compressed crimson sphere would result in a catastrophic detonation.
August immediately began rewriting the dimensional lock he had cast over the battlefield, needing to escape via teleportation.
Noah was doing the exact same thing on the other side.
As the two mages reached roughly five hundred meters of clearance, the crimson sphere fully merged with the glowing Ice Buddha.
The entire world fell completely silent.
The hairs on the back of Noah and August's necks stood on end as a terrifying, apocalyptic sense of impending doom washed over them.
Working with frantic speed, both mages simultaneously shattered their respective spatial locks.
The moment the dimensional fabric normalized, both mages instantly cast Spatial Magic and vanished.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The two colossal spells violently detonated simultaneously.
A catastrophic, spherical explosion erupted in the center of the ocean. Half of the massive sphere burned with deep crimson light, while the other half shone with blinding, divine gold.
The two conflicting energies violently clashed, fusing together to form an even larger, unimaginably terrifying explosion. The blast sphere expanded to over thirty kilometers in diameter.
It looked exactly like a second sun had violently ignited on the surface of the ocean. The blinding light was visible for hundreds of miles.
The apocalyptic shockwave violently crushed the ocean beneath it, instantly vaporizing millions of tons of seawater. The sound of the explosion was completely deafening.
Colossal, hundred-meter-high tsunamis erupted from the blast zone, roaring outward in every direction at terrifying speeds.
The apocalyptic sun lingered for over ten seconds before finally dissipating, revealing a colossal, miles-deep crater in the ocean. Surrounding seawater violently rushed into the depression, creating a massive, terrifyingly beautiful temporary waterfall.
Fifty kilometers away, Noah, August, and Mavis instantly materialized in the air.
"I assumed you had a final trump card prepared, but I must admit... the sheer scale of that detonation exceeded my calculations," August sighed, shaking his head.
The moment August had broken the spatial lock, he had teleported directly to Mavis, grabbing her and teleporting her further away to ensure she wouldn't be caught in the blast radius. He was slightly annoyed that Noah had risked an explosion of that magnitude so close to his mother.
"Haha, sorry. I got a little carried away," Noah rubbed the back of his head apologetically. "But you didn't need to worry. The First Master's guild mark is enchanted with an Absolute Defense array. Even if the shockwave hit her, she wouldn't have been scratched. I wouldn't risk her safety."
"I am perfectly safe, August. Please don't be upset with him," Mavis smiled, patting August's arm to calm him down.
"I understand," August nodded, his annoyance instantly evaporating under her touch.
Having just reunited with her, August was fiercely protective of her safety. While he had been confident he could protect her himself, knowing she had an automated defensive array tied directly to her soul gave him immense peace of mind. He silently resolved to research additional defensive enchantments to layer over her later.
"Haaa... that felt amazing," Noah sighed happily.
He cast a quick spell to freeze the ocean beneath them and immediately collapsed onto his back, sprawling out on the ice. He was completely drained.
For the first time in years, his Ethernano reserves were functionally empty, and his muscles ached with profound physical exhaustion. It was an incredibly refreshing feeling.
As he lay on the ice, his monstrous passive regeneration kicked in, rapidly rebuilding his magical core and soothing his aching muscles.
Lying there, Noah analyzed the fight.
He had definitively lost the direct clash of magical output. August was simply superior in raw power and efficiency.
However, if this had been a true deathmatch, Noah knew he would have eventually won.
If he had utilized the exact same hit-and-run tactics he used against Acnologia, dragging the fight out into a multi-day war of attrition, August's elderly body would have eventually given out. Noah's limitless stamina and physical superiority would have allowed him to outlast the Magic King.
But Noah hadn't wanted to win via attrition. He had wanted a pure, unadulterated clash of magical might.
This was the perfect time for this duel. Currently, Noah was just a fraction weaker than August, allowing him to fight with absolutely zero restraint and exhaust himself completely. If he had waited another year, his continuous growth would have surpassed August, and the duel wouldn't have felt challenging.
By fighting now, Noah had gained an immeasurable amount of combat data and forced his magical circuits to expand under immense pressure.
"That was indeed an exceptional battle. However... we have a rather significant problem to handle," August noted, floating down to the ice beside Noah.
August was also feeling the strain. His muscles ached, he had sustained minor bruises, and a significant portion of his massive Ethernano reserve was depleted. It was a novel, thrilling sensation.
But as he looked out over the ocean, watching the colossal tsunamis roaring toward the horizon, his administrative mindset took over.
An explosion of that magnitude was undoubtedly detected by the Imperial Capital's long-range magical radar. Furthermore, those tsunamis would eventually crash into the western coastline of the Alvarez Empire, causing significant localized flooding.
The Imperial Guard would immediately dispatch scouting fleets to investigate the epicenter. They needed to clean up the residual magical signatures and vanish before the scouts arrived.
"Right. We should probably get out of here," Noah agreed, sitting up.
He reached into his spatial pocket and pulled out a vial filled with a glowing green liquid, tossing it to August.
"This is my custom recovery potion. It'll instantly restore your stamina and magic, and heal those bruises."
August caught the vial, uncorked it, and drank it down without hesitation.
Almost instantly, a profound, soothing warmth flooded his exhausted muscles. His depleted Ethernano reserves rapidly refilled, and the minor aches in his joints completely vanished.
"Fascinating," August murmured, staring at the empty vial in genuine amazement. "The regenerative efficacy of this alchemical compound far surpasses anything currently produced by the Empire's apothecaries."
~~~
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