Chapter 1917: Too Strong To Defeat? Seal It!

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"How about it? Do you like this?" Noah asked, his face twisted with clear stress. "Do you want more?!"

Elayne’s sharp eyes gleamed brightly as her giant body exploded into countless black pieces of corrupt wood. A small fragment flew into the skies, carrying her true spirit core, and reformed into her humanoid shape.

"There you are."

Noah instantly activated Lifeblood Exceed Level 5. He reached her in a flash and smashed her head into the pavement below, creating an immense explosion of blood flames and shadow void that distorted and shattered space while consuming her body.

"Perish!"

However, Elayne was glowing.

She spread her arms and hugged Noah tightly, refusing to let go.

"What sort of life have you gone through to possess such a tormented soul?"

"...!!!"

Noah felt something touch his very soul and heart.

Fear surged through him. He tried to push her away, but he couldn’t. His hands simply phased through her ethereal body.

"What?!"

In that moment, Elayne’s compassion and Gaia’s ruthlessness merged in perfect harmony.

"Light Spirit Call + Healing Celestial Light + Exorcizing Light Swords."

Noah realized too late that Elayne’s plan had been to transform her physical body into spirits.

She had completely discarded her wooden form and turned her new physical body into hardened Light Spirits.

And it wasn’t just hundreds.

It was billions.

"Exorcizing Heavenly Purifying Light!"

"A-AH...! AAAAHHHHHHH!"

Noah screamed as the blinding holy light burned his entire body. He squirmed in agony and despair while his very soul was pierced. Elayne’s Divine Will attempted to communicate with it, to understand what truly made him who he was and why he sought the Holy Grail so desperately.

"GET OUT."

However, Noah refused to let her in. His darkness ran too deep, too eldritch. Her eyes widened as she glimpsed what lay deep within his soul and what his soul truly was.

A giant. A beast. An aberration. A fragment of something far greater.

Perhaps a descendant, or maybe a remnant.

She didn’t know, but this entity could threaten the entire world.

And yet, Noah’s body served as the vessel for such a fragment, which acted as his soul.

An utterly bizarre lifeform that went far beyond what any vampire could ever be or achieve.

"What are you?!" Elayne asked.

"Now you see what I am?" he replied. "I am the Son of the most Malevolent. My Bloodline is forever cursed, and my entire family now suffers from that curse because I foolishly believed I could have a better life..."

"...! Wait, I can help you. If it’s a curse, you don’t have to fight! You don’t have to kill!" Elayne cried, desperately trying to break through his defenses.

But...

"No... it’s too late."

"...!"

TRUUUM! 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Aaaaaggghhh!"

Elayne had acted foolishly. By entering Noah’s soul, she had thought she had captured him.

It was the reverse. Her soul was now being slowly devoured by his. The darkness and crimson emptiness within him seeped deep into hers like deadly, bloodthirsty roots of malevolence.

"AAAAAGGGHHH!"

She clenched her teeth and used her light to purify the endless darkness, but she could only delay the inevitable.

More and more darkness tried to devour and corrupt her. Elayne desperately attempted to escape, but it was impossible. Noah held her tightly within his grasp.

"It’s futile. You’ve walked straight into the tiger’s cave. Prepare to die, Goddess of Life. You will be one of many. I shall devour as many gods as necessary to achieve my goal... I will save my beloved... and my children...!"

"Nnnggh! Noah... you leave me no choice!"

Even though Elayne’s human side might have acted out of foolish emotion, her divine side, influenced by Gaia, had prepared for this very possibility.

Thus...

FLAAASH!

"Egalmah — Temple of the Great Mother."

From outside, Ninsun reached Noah, who had been paralyzed while Elayne invaded his soul. In that moment, his entire body warped as his malevolence was cleansed, leaving him in agony.

"Nnnnggh?! W-What is...! What is this?!"

His power, born from madness, was being destroyed and momentarily negated by Ninsun’s ability, the same one she had used against Foreigner.

However, it could only last so long.

Thus, Elayne—no, Gaia—enacted her plan B.

"Demon-Sealing Chains of Heavenly Celestial Light!"

Elayne had already prepared one of her powerful Fusion Spells. Even without her Magic Circle, she had been rebuilding it from the knowledge stored within her Spirit Core.

This allowed her to use such spells, further boosted by her Spirit Treasure as a Heroic Spirit, greatly enhancing their power and abilities.

The spell she had specifically designed to seal demons was amplified a thousandfold.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

"T-This is...! W-What is this?! What...! Aaaaaggh!"

Noah screamed as holy chains wrapped around his inner being, sealing him from within while Ninsun sealed him from without.

"Y-YOU...! I WON’T... GO DOWN!"

But Noah was simply too strong. He began breaking free from both sealing spells through sheer physical power, slowly tapping into Lifeblood Exceed Level 6.

However...

"You forgot about someone, didn’t you?!"

Olivia’s voice echoed from above him. Dozens of copies of Shamsh Uruk descended upon Noah and impaled him. The bright divinity of the Mesopotamian God of the Sun burned his physical body.

"NNNGGHH?! Y-YOUUUUU!"

They had tried to kill him, but it was impossible. Sealing him was the only option left.

But where? What could possibly contain such a monstrously powerful being?

"Noah, the Blood God Emperor of the Dark Realm of Abyss...! I seal you... within my Soul!!!"

FLAAASH!

"NNGHH! T-THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!"

Noah screamed as his entire body and soul twisted and warped into a small form. He was drawn into Elayne’s vast spiritual realm and pushed to its deepest point, wrapped in billions of holy chains.

Gaia’s hand emerged above Noah’s sealed form, which now resembled a red cube with an eye and a mouth, and placed a "lid" on top.

"YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS! I WILL ONE DAY FREE MYSELF, AND I WILL K—"

Before he could finish, his voice and presence vanished completely.

Elayne fell from the skies and crashed near the still-standing building that housed her daughter.

The barrier set by the magicians of the Amaterasu Clan had protected it, if only barely.

"I-I did it... Ninsun... Olivia?"

As she looked up, Olivia and Ninsun descended. They immediately began healing her damaged Spirit Core and her deeply cracked Divine Soul, which was still infested with Noah’s curse.

"Hang in there, Elayne!" Olivia said. "Ninsun, use all my Mana. Please heal her well!"

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