'Strange... very strange...'
Ashtel narrowed his eyes as he parried another powerful mana beam coming his way.
A look of doubt appeared on his face.
'Neo and Liam both are 'summoners', they aren't supposed to be fighting head-on in close combat... yet he's doing it...'
'He's not summoning a single summoned beast at all... This is strange...'
Although Ashtel doesn't know about the whole arsenal of Neo and how many summoned beasts he has, he for sure knows that there definitely are a lot.
Now that he possesses 'divinity', his summoned beasts will be significantly more powerful than those in the same realm.
Summoning his most powerful beast will put Neo in a great advantageous position right now, but for some reason he isn't doing it.
A smart person like Neo won't make such a mistake; there are only two possibilities right now.
'Either he has lost the ability to summon permanently or it's just temporary... likely because of the 'flaws'...'
Ashtel pushed Neo to the corner and killed his real body before three hours could pass; thus, Neo was forced to enter Liam's body beforehand, and the forbidden magic circle wasn't completed yet.
He had to stop the ritual midway to deal with Ashtel, who came down to the lower floor before time.
This caused major flaws in the body-seizing process.
'I don't think someone like Neo will permanently lose his ability to summon; he must have some plans to avoid that... He likely can't use them right now because the body is flawed...'
'Once he deals with those flaws, he can start summoning again, I guess...'
Ashtel figured out these few things from the earlier battle and made a plan in his mind to deal with Neo.
'If I keep fighting with this guy, I will be the one who runs out of mana first; he took over 'mana field' and now has 'divinity,' so it's safe to assume that his mana replenishment speed is off the charts!'
'He will not run out of mana any time soon... I need to deal with him before I run out of mana and end up mentally exhausted...'
Using the blessing of the 'world' doesn't cost any mana, but maintaining it puts a burden on the mind; if Ashtel keeps doing it, the stress will accumulate and he will end up mentally exhausted.
Eventually he will lose control, and a single sign of mistake is enough for Neo to do fatal damage to him.
In a battle of peak powerhouses, even a mere millisecond can change everything; just the delay of a millisecond is enough to declare victory and defeat.
And in a battle like Ashtel and Neo's where the attacks can directly influence the space-time fabric and can travel faster than light itself, time seems to lose its meaning.
If you are even a little slow to react, you will be dead the very next moment. That's the kind of battle this is.
...
"This isn't the end of it, Ashtel Rex!!"
[Divinity: Mana Command: Elemental Control!]
[Pure Flame Elemental: Phoenix of the End!]
Neo used divinity to give another command to the mana, and he increased his elemental control by force. He used immense mana to forcefully control the elements of the world!
At this point, Neo is beyond the level of ordinary wizards; he can control the elements of the world by force, so he didn't need to use any magic circles or chants at all.
He could use pinnacle-grade magic by just manipulating the elements to do his bidding.
Using the 'pure flame elemental', he summoned a gigantic phoenix; the flames on the phoenix are said to be the 'True Flames' that can burn anything and everything!
Just by existing, the phoenix can burn the space-time fabric around it and can use the power of 'nothingness' to keep its flames burning forever.
That's why it's called an 'Immortal' existence, as it doesn't die as long as nothing else kills it with overwhelming power.
*KRRAAAAAA!!*
The gigantic phoenix itself seemed bigger than an entire planet; its war cry made the void tremble, and it flew towards Ashtel at an extremely fast speed.
It was so fast that it seemed like it was teleporting!
'This phoenix... It seems more like something created out of a 'World Authority' than just from controlling elementals... It's so powerful...'
'World Authority' are pinnacle-level attacks; they are beyond the power of normal skills and everything else.
In fact, you can consider them as 'equals' to legendary skills in terms of raw power. Legendary skills eventually go beyond the powers of the 'laws' of the 'world' when 'perfected', so they are much stronger, but everyone can't have those skills.
Thus, 'World Authority' is the best option for everyone else who can't awaken a legendary skill.
Its power can't go beyond the 'laws' of the world, but it's still extremely powerful despite being below the 'laws' of the world.
The phoenix that Neo fired at Ashtel was forcefully created out of flame elementals, yet it had the power comparable to a 'world authority'.
It seemed as if someone with 'fire' -related world authority had created it.
This is the horror of a perfect 'Divinity' that was created from merging 'Mana Field'!
Just a normal elemental attack from Neo right now is as strong as using a 'world authority'!
And this wasn't even the end of it!
[Ice elementals: Frozen Void Serpent!]
[Earth elementals: Planet spear fish!]
[Thunder elementals: Cosmic thunder bird!]
Using ice elementals, Neo created a gigantic serpent made out of condensed ice elementals; that ice was so powerful that the serpent literally froze the void itself as it moved in space.
Using earth elementals, Neo created a gigantic fish with a spear on its head; it had the power
of earth elementals, so it was extremely tough and strong!
Using thunder elementals, Neo created a bird made out of pure condensed thunder
elementals; just by moving its thunder, it could cause cracks in the void!
Each and every attack from Neo was as strong as using a 'world authority'!
With this divinity, he could use every single type of element to aid him in battle! Moreover, there's no end to his mana capacity!
He can replenish mana at a speed that's so fast that he will never run out of mana! In simple terms, he has nearly infinite mana now!
If not for the blessing of the world, Ashtel couldn't have even been able to move freely in front of Neo and would have been just a weak chicken waiting to be slaughtered.
[World Authority: Shockwave]
[Cosmic Law: Broken Vessel: Wind Sage's temperance!]
Ashtel didn't care how many types of elements Neo was using and how strong they all were;
he could beat several SS-rankers, and their world authorities fired at him together. There's no need to panic even if Neo fires dozens of world-authority-level attacks at him all
at once.
"You are not the only one who can use elemental prowess..."
Using the 'cosmic law' martial art, Ashtel treated the 'nothingness' as a vessel of his own
power and created wind elementals to cover and boost his punch.
He then punched with all his might, and a gigantic vortex made out of condensed wind
elementals burst out from his punch!
*BOOM!*
The void itself started to twist and turn due to the sheer power of those wind elementals, and
all of the attacks fired by Neo just collided with the twisting void and shattered before
dissipating into nothingness!
"This isn't enough to deal with me! Try a bit harder!"
'I said that, but that attack consumed a ton of my mana. Right now, Neo has control over all
the mana in the surrounding area, so I can't even replenish it...'
'Even if I try to use mana potions, Neo will not let it happen... I need to think out a plan or I will fall into a more disadvantageous position...'
Ashtel isn't the type of person to make complicated plans and seriously abide by them.
He prefers rushing into battle head-on, and with his immense strength, he never actually needed to plan out things in a complicated manner.
Neo is one of the very few people who has forced Ashtel into a corner, and now he needs a plan
to deal with this situation.
This in itself is an insane feat; if not for Neo to achieve divinity, he could have never forced Ashtel to this point even with dozens of SS-rankers on his side.
No matter how many SS-rankers work together to fight him, it's useless if they can't even do
enough output to do some decent damage to him.
This is the reason for Ashtel's confidence.
While dodging and canceling the next few attacks, Ashtel suddenly noticed something that
could work in his favor.
From the corner of his eyes, he noticed one of the cracks in the void and saw a strange phenomenon that shouldn't have existed in the outside world but was present in this spire of
Ascension.
'A cosmic mana shock? Hoh... this can work in my favour...'
[Fool Art: Dark Matter: Rain of Anti-matter!]
Ashtel waved his hand, and hundreds of thousands of wormholes opened in the void around him, and gigantic spears made out of 'Anti-matter' flew out from the wormholes!
If it were any other SS ranker, just being touched by these spears made out of 'Anti-matter'
would mean instant death for them, as they are also enhanced with Ashtel's mana and
technique.
But for Neo, they weren't anything special, and he could easily deflect and destroy them using 'Earth elementals' and using them as 'Matter' to cancel out 'Anti-matter'.