Atticus's Odyssey: Reincarnated Into A Playground-Chapter 1173: Maw
'The longer this goes on… the worse it becomes.'
Ozeroth grimaced, blocking a vicious strike aimed to cleave him clean in two.
With the Armor of Ruin activated, every strike he landed only made the King stronger.
Each attack was devoured, converted into raw power that fueled the King's next blow, making him fiercer, faster, and more relentless with every passing second.
But just like when they'd battled in the Spirit World… Ozeroth had found a weakness.
'I have to go for the head.'
It was the only part of the King's body left uncovered by the Armor of Ruin. And Ozeroth had every intention of exploiting that.
As their weapons were about to collide again, Ozeroth's form suddenly dispersed, bursting into smoke mid-swing.
The Spirit King's eyes sharpened.
"This again?"
He spun fast, but then his gaze locked onto a sight that made his eyes narrow dangerously.
All around him… were Ozeroths.
Each one identical. Same form. Same aura.
Same hammer, hurtling down towards his exposed head.
'I can't identify the real one…'
His frown deepened. His voice rang out:
"Flesh of Many."
From his body, multiple arms erupted, each one holding a spiritual sword of its own.
His stance shifted mid air, blades dancing in tandem as he tore through the skies, reaching for every incoming hammer.
But what happened next… made the Spirit King raise an eyebrow for the first time.
Each of the Ozeroths burst into smoke, engulfing him in a thick, swirling haze.
"Tricks!"
He roared, and a violent blast erupted from him, clearing the fog in a flash of spiritual wave.
'Where is he?'
The Spirit King's eyes darted sharply around the battlefield, scanning for his foe. But Ozeroth was nowhere to be found.
Then, the realization struck him like a spear.
'A distraction…'
His gaze snapped upward, and there he was.
Ozeroth.
Descending fast with his hammer raised. And his target… the King's head.
The Spirit King's expression darkened.
"You think too much of yourself."
The spiritual energy around him churned violently, then erupted outward in a storm of force, catching Ozeroth mid-descent and hurling him across the battlefield like a missile.
Ozeroth twisted mid-air, grinding to a stop, then straightened.
His eyes locked forward, narrowing at the sight forming before him.
The spiritual energy around the King surged and spiraled.
It morphed, twisted and then… formed.
A massive construct emerged, taking shape in the sky above.
A behemoth so tall… it seemed to scrape the heavens themselves.
Ozeroth's wide eyes locked onto the figure inside the head of the towering construct, the Spirit King, standing like a god within a god.
He clenched his fists.
A surge of spiritual energy erupted from his body, exploding outward, morphing rapidly, expanding until it too formed a titan, standing across from the Spirit King's behemoth.
There was no hesitation.
Both giants raised their arms.
And then, then clashed.
A thunderous shockwave ripped through the skies as their titanic forms collided, shaking the very world beneath.
Despite their monstrous size, they moved with frightening speed, each step leaving behind spiraling currents of air that tore through the landscape.
Their every clash fractured the ground for kilometers, with surges of dust ripping through the earth, enveloping mountains, rivers, and forests in chaos.
Within the chaos, the Spirit King's voice thundered:
"Ozeroth. You'd go this far for people you barely know?"
"Aerithis would be gone without me. You've stepped into the world of gods now, who do you think has protected Aerithis for centuries?"
Ozeroth paused and he clenched his fists tighter, the veins on his arms glowing with power. His voice came cold.
"You live in your delusions."
He lifted his gaze and met the King's.
"You're the farthest thing from a hero. You claim to protect your people, but you'd sacrifice half of them in a heartbeat if it meant gaining more power."
"Wake up and see yourself for what you truly are… a villain."
Since the battle began, the Spirit King's expression had barely shifted. But now, it twisted.
Those words had struck a nerve. His gaze turned ice cold.
"Enough of these games."
He raised his arms high, and his voice rang out like a decree:
"Reality Maw."
A wave of black surged outward from the King, swallowing the purple in an instant.
It devoured his construct, draining it dry, erasing it like it had never existed. But it didn't stop there.
The darkness kept moving, rushing toward Ozeroth's construct at an unimaginable speed.
Ozeroth's eyes widened to their extremes.
He instantly released his hold over the titan, its form collapsing into shimmering fragments, just before he shot backward, his body a blur as he narrowly avoided the creeping blackness that reached for him like a plague.
He reappeared in the distance, suspended in the air, his sharp gaze locked onto the destruction below. freewёbnoνel.com
The Spirit King hovered calmly within the center of the expanding abyss, surrounded by nothing but darkness.
The Void Maw.
The Devourer's Echo.
The Reality Maw.
These were some of the Spirit King's main abilities.
The Void Maw, a devouring void that could consume anything: attacks, weapons, beams of energy, even space itself.
The Devourer's Echo, a broken ability that allowed him to clone and return any devoured attack launched at him.
They were devastating in their own right. But of them all, Reality Maw was the worst.
It was a localized field of annihilation that devoured everything within its radius, energy, mana, matter, everything.
And if Ozeroth had been caught in that field… even he wasn't sure he'd survive.
But it wasn't the destruction that made his heart pound. It was what he saw next.
His gaze trembled.
'He's gaining more strength.'
Only a few seconds had passed since the battle had begun, and yet, Ozeroth could feel it. The Spirit King's power was growing. Intensifying.
'How?'
His eyes darted across the battlefield, until they landed on something.
Zoey.
She was encased in a dome, unmoving. As his mind spiraled, the realization struck and the pieces fell into place. How the spirit King had come to Eldoralth in the first place.
Ozeroth's heart sank.
He came to only one conclusion:
The longer the Spirit King remains on Eldoralth, the more of his power he will awaken and the stronger he will become.
Which meant, if Ozeroth had planned to hold out and wait for Atticus and he arrived too late…
The Spirit King may have already gained so much strength that it would dwarf anything their combined forces could handle.
